Two babes of love close clinging to her waist; 160 165 Osborne 2 and Curl accept the glorious strife, One on his vigour and superior size. 170 First Osborne lean'd against his letter'd post; So Jove's bright bow displays its wat'ry round, Swift as it mounts, all follow with their eyes: He chinks his purse, and takes his seat of state: 175 185 185 190 195 200 Iliad at half the price: Of which books he had Bannister Now gentle touches wanton o'er his face, 205 210 215 As, taught by Venus, Paris learnt the art Secure, thro' her, the noble prize to carry, "Now turn to diff'rent sports," (the Goddess cries) Paolo Antonio Rolli, an Italian Poet, and writer of many Operas in that language, which, partly by the help of his genius, prevailed in England near twenty years. He taught Italian to some fine Gentlemen, who affected to direct the Operas. P. 2 Bentley his mouth &c.] Not spoken of the famous Dr Richard Bentley, but of one Tho. Bentley, a small critic, who aped his uncle in a little Horace. The great one who was intended to be dedicated to the Lord Halifax, but (on a change of the Ministry) was given to the Earl of Oxford; for which reason the little one was dedicated to his son the Lord Harley. P. [Part om.] 3 Welsted] Leonard Welsted, author of the Triumvirate, or a Letter in verse from Palæmon to Cælia at Bath, which was meant for a satire on Mr P. and some of his friends about the year 1718. He writ other things which we cannot remember. You have him again in Book III. 169. P. [Part om.] [He was a hanger-on of the Whigs, and a copious writer.] A youth unknown to Phabus, &c.] The satire of this Episode, being levelled at the base flatteries of authors to worthless wealth or greatness, concludes here with an excellent lesson to 220 225 230 such men: That altho' their pens and praises were as exquisite as they conceit of themselves, yet (even in their own mercenary views) a creature unlettered, who serveth the passions, or pimpeth to the pleasures of such vain, braggart, puft Nobility, shall with those patrons be much more inward, and of them much higher rewarded. SCRIBL. 5 With Thunder rumbling from the mustardbowl.] The old way of making Thunder and Mustard were the same; but since, it is more advantageously performed by troughs of wood with stops in them. Whether Mr Denuis was the inventor of that improvement, I know not; but it is certain, that being once at a Tragedy of a new author, he fell into a great passion at hearing some, and cried, "Sdeath! that is my "Thunder." P. [Dennis' tragedy was Appius and Virginia; and 'his thunder' was used in Macbeth. See note to Essay on Criticism, v. 586.] 7-with a tolling bell;] A mechanical help to the Pathetic, not unuseful to the modern writers of Tragedy. P. 6 Three Cat-calls ] Certain musical instruments used by one sort of Critics to confound the Poets of the Theatre, P. Of him, whose chatt'ring shames the monkey-tribe; 235 'Twas chatt'ring, grinning, mouthing, jabb'ring all, And Noise and Norton, Brangling and Breval, Dennis and Dissonance, and captious Art, And Snip-snap short, and Interruption smart, 240 And Demonstration thin, and Theses thick, And Major, Minor, and Conclusion quick. "Hold!" (cry'd the Queen), "a Cat-call each shall win Equal your merits! equal is your din! But that this well-disputed game may end, 245 Sound forth, my Brayers, and the welkin rend." As, when the long-ear'd milky mothers wait At some sick miser's triple bolted gate, 250 From dreams of millions, and three groats to pay. So swells each wind-pipe; Ass intones to Ass; 255 There, Webster! peal'd thy voice, and Whitfield 3! thine. But far o'er all, sonorous Blackmore's strain; 260 4 Walls, steeples, skies, bray back to him again. Norton,] See ver. 417.-J. Durant Breval, author of a very extraordinary Book of Travels, and some Poems. See before, note on ver. 126. P. [The word 'brangle' (to oscillate; another form of brandle, Fr. branler) was confounded with 'wrangle.'] 2 Sir Gilbert [Heathcote, cf. Moral Essays, Ep. III. v. 101]. 3 Webster and Whitfield!] The one the writer of a News-paper called the Weekly Miscellany, the other a Field-preacher. Warburton. [George Whitfield, the early associate of the Wesleys, was born in 1714 and first attracted general attention by his preaching at Bristol and London in 1736. John Wesley was induced by his example to commence field-preaching. He died in America in 1770.] A Long Chanc'ry-lane] The place where the 265 offices of Chancery are kept. The long detention of Clients in that Court, and the difficulty of getting out, is humorously allegorized in these lines. P. 5 [Westminster Hall; built by William II. A. D. 1097.] 6 Who sings so loudly, and who sings so long.] A just character of Sir Richard Blackmore knight, who (as Mr Dryden expresseth it) Writ to the rumbling of the coach's wheels, and whose indefatigable Muse produced no less than six Epic poems: Prince and King Arthur, twenty books; Eliza, ten; Alfred, twelve; the Redeemer, six; besides Job, in folio; the whole book of Psalms; the Creation, seven books; Nature of Man, three books; and many more. 'Tis in this sense he is styled afterwards the everlasting Blackmore. P. [Part om.] This labour past, by Bridewell all descend1, 270 "Here strip, my children! here at once leap in, 275 "Here prove who best can dash thro' thick and thin, "And who the most in love of dirt excel, "Or dark dexterity 3 of groping well. "Who flings most filth, and wide pollutes around "The stream, be his the Weekly Journals bound; 280 "A pig of lead to him who dives the best; "A peck of coals a-piece shall glad the rest." In naked majesty Oldmixon stands 5, And Milo-like surveys his arms and hands; Then, sighing, thus, "And am I now three-score? 285 66 Ah why, ye Gods, should two and two make four?" He said, and climb'd a stranded lighter's height, 290 Next Smedley div'd"; slow circles dimpled o'er The quaking mud, that clos'd, and op'd no more, All look, all sigh, and call on Smedley lost; Smedley " in vain resounds thro' all the coast. essay'd7; scarce vanish'd out of sight, Then * [The scene is on the site of the modern Bridge Street.] 2 (As morning pray'r and flagellation end)] It is between eleven and twelve in the morning, after church service, that the criminals are whipt in Bridewell. This is to mark punctually the time of the day: Homer does it by the circumstance of the Judges rising from court, or of the Labourer's dinner; our author by one very proper both to the Persons and the Scene of his poem, which we may remember commenced in the evening of the Lord-mayor's day: The first book passed in that night; the next morning the games begin in the Strand, thence along Fleet-street (places inhabited by Booksellers); then they proceed by Bridewell toward Fleetditch, and lastly thro' Ludgate to the City and the Temple of the Goddess. P. 3-dash thro' thick and thin,-love of dirtdark dexterity] The three chief qualifications of Party-writers: to stick at nothing, to delight in flinging dirt, and to slander in the dark by guess. P. The Weekly Journals] Papers of news and scandal intermixed, on different sides and parties, and frequently shifting from one side to the other, called the London Journal, British Journal, Daily Journal, &c. the concealed writers of which for some time were Oldmixon, Roome, Arnall, Concanen, and others; persons never 295 5 In naked majesty Oldmixon stands,] Mr JOHN OLDMIXON, next to Mr Dennis, the most ancient Critic of our nation; and unjust censurer of Mr Addison. In his Essay on Criticism, and the Arts of Logic and Rhetoric, he frequently reflects on our Author. But the top of his character was a Perverter of History, in that scandalous one of the Stuarts, in folio, and his Critical History of England, two volumes, octavo. Being employed by Bishop Kennet, in publishing the Historians in his Collection, he falsified Daniel's Chronicle in numberless places. He was all his life a virulent Party-writer for hire, and received his reward in a small place, which he enjoyed to his death. He is here likened to Milo, in allusion to Ovid [Metam. Bk. xv. v. 229]. P. [Part om.] 6 Next Smedley div'd;] The person here mentioned, an Irishman, was author and publisher of many scurrilous pieces, a weekly Whitehall Journal, in the year 1722, in the name of Sir James Baker; and particularly whole volumes of Billingsgate against Dr Swift and Mr Pope, called Gulliveriana and Alexandriana, printed in octavo, 1728. P. Jonathan Smedley, a staunch Whig, and Dean of Clogher. Carruthers [who quotes his lines 'The Devil's last game' against Swift]. 7 Then essay'd] A gentleman of genius And mounts far off among the Swans of Thames. True to the bottom see Concanen1 creep, A cold, long-winded native of the deep; 300 If perseverance gain the Diver's prize, Not everlasting Blackmore this denies; No noise, no stir, no motion canst thou make, Th' unconscious stream sleeps o'er thee like a lake. Next plung'd a feeble, but a desp'rate pack, 305 With each a sickly brother at his back: and spirit, who was secretly dipt in some papers of this kind, on whom our Poet bestows a panegyric instead of a satire, as deserving to be better employed than in party quarrels, and personal invectives. P. Supposed to be Aaron Hill; but Pope denied it. Warton. [Hill, however, called Pope to account by a poetical rejoinder; though, as Bowles remarks, the compliment in the above lines infinitely exceeds the abuse. Cf. Intr. Memoir, p. xxxvi. Hill wrote no less than seventeen dramatic pieces, and was, besides, according to Dibdin, the projector of nut oil, of masts of ships from Scotch firs, of cultivating Georgia, and of potash!'] 1 Concanen] MATTHEW CONCANEN, an Irishman, bred to the law. He was author of several dull and dead scurrilities in the British and London Journals, and in a paper called the Speculatist. In a pamphlet, called a Supplement to the Profund, he dealt very unfairly with our Poet, not only frequently imputing to him Mr Broome's verses (for which he might indeed seem in some degree accountable, having corrected what that gentleman did) but those of the duke of Buckingham and others: To this rare piece somebody humorously caused him to take for his motto, De profundis clamavi. He was since a hired scribbler in the Daily Courant, where he poured forth much Billingsgate against the lord Bolingbroke, and others; after which this man was surprisingly promoted to administer Justice and Law in Jamaica. P. [Part om.] This is the scribbler to whom Warburton wrote his famous Letter, published by Dr Akenside. Warton. 310 315 2 With each a sickly brother at his back: Sons of a Day! &c.] These were daily papers, a number of which, to lessen the expense, were printed one on the back of another. P. 3 Like Niobe] See the story in Ovid, Met. VII. where the miserable petrefaction of this old Lady is pathetically described. P. 4 Osborne] A name assumed by the eldest and gravest of these writers, who at last, being ashamed of his Pupils, gave his paper over, and in his age remained silent. P. 5 Arnall] WILLIAM ARNALL, bred an Attorney, was a perfect Genius in this sort of work. He began under twenty with furious Partypapers; then succeeded Concanen in the British Journal. At the first publication of the Dunciad, he prevailed on the Author not to give him his due place in it, by a letter professing his detestation of such practices as his predecessor's. But since, by the most unexampled insolence, and personal abuse of several great men, the Poet's particular friends, he most amply deserved a nitch in the Temple of Infamy: He writ for hire, and valued himself upon it; not indeed without cause, it appearing by the aforesaid REPORT, that he received for Free Britons, and other writings, in the space of four years, no less than ten thousand nine hundred and ninety seven pounds, six shillings, and eight pence, out of the Treasury." But frequently, thro' his fury or folly, he exceeded all the bounds of his commission, and obliged his honourable Patron to disavow his scurrilities. P. [Part om.] |