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fate was not so happy; for being convicted, and set in the pillory, she was (to the lasting shame of all her great friends and votaries) so ill used by the populace, that it put an end to her days.

TENDERNESS TO BAD WRITERS.

Ver. 328. God save King Log!] See Ogilby's Esop's Fables, where, in the story of the Frogs and their King, this excellent hemistich is to be found.

Our author manifests here, and elsewhere, a prodigious tenderness for the bad writers. We see he selects the only good passage, perhaps, in all that ever Ogilby writ: which shows how candid and patient a reader he must have been. What can be more kind and affectionate than these words in the preface to his poems, where he labours to call up all our humanity and forgiveness towards these unlucky men, by the most moderate representation of their case that has ever been given by any author? "Much may be said to extenuate the fault of bad poets. What we call a genius is hard to be distinguished, by a man himself, from a prevalent inclination. And if it be never so great, he can at first discover it no other way than by that strong propensity which renders him the more liable to be mistaken. He has no other method but to make the experiment, by writing, and so appealing to the judgment of others. And if he happens to write ill (which is certainly no sin in itself) he is immediately made the object of ridicule! I wish we had the humanity to reflect, that even the worst authors might endeavour to please us, and in that endeavour, deserve something at our hands. We have no cause to quarrel with them, but for their obstinacy in persisting, and even that may admit of alleviating circumstances. For their particular friends may be either ignorant, or insincere; and the rest of the world too well-bred to shock them with a truth which generally their booksellers are the first that inform them of."

But how much all indulgence is lost upon these people may appear from the just reflection made on their constant conduct, and constant fate, in the following epigram:

"Ye little wits, that gleam'd awhile,

When Pope vouchsafed a ray,
Alas deprived of his kind smile,
How soon ye fade away!

"To compass Phoebus' car about,

Thus empty vapours rise;

Each lends his cloud, to put Him out,
That rear'd him to the skies.

"Alas! those skies are not your sphere;
There He shall ever burn:

Weep, weep, and fall! for earth ye were,
And must to earth return."

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BOOK II.

VERBAL CRITICISM.

Two things there are, upon the supposition of which the very basis of all verbal criticism is founded and supported: the first, that an author could never fail to use the best word on every occasion; the second, that a critic cannot choose but know which that is. This being granted, whenever any word doth not fully content us we take upon us to conclude, first, that the author could never have used it; and, secondly, that he must have used that very one which we conjecture in its stead.

We cannot, therefore, enough admire the learned Scriblerus for his alteration of the text in the two last verses of the preceding book, which in all the former editions stood thus:

"Hoarse thunder to its bottom shook the bog,

And the loud nation croak'd, God save King Log!"

He has, with great judgment, transposed these two epithets, putting hoarse to the nation, and loud to the thunder; and this being evidently the true reading, he vouchsafed not so much as to mention the former; for which assertion of the just right of a critic he merits the acknowledgement of all sound commentators.

RICHARD FLECKNOE, OR MAC FLECKNOE.

Ver. 2. Flecknoe's Irish throne]. Richard Flecknoe was an Irish priest, but had laid aside (as himself expressed it) the mechanic part of priesthood. He printed some plays, poems, letters, and travels. I doubt not our author took occasion to mention him in respect to the poem of Mr. Dryden, to which this bears some resemblance, though of a character more different from it than that of the Eneid from the Iliad, or the Lutrin of Boileau from the Défaite des Bouts Rimés of Sarazin.

It may be just worth mentioning, that the eminence from whence the ancient sophists entertained their auditors was called by the pompous name of a throne :ἐπὶ θρόνον τινὸς ὑψηλοῦ μάλα σοφιστικῶς καὶ σοβαρῶς.-THEMIS TIUS, Orat. i.

[Sir Walter Scott says that Richard Flecknoe, from whom Dryden's satire takes its title, was so distinguished as a wretched poet, that his name had become almost proverbial. "Shadwell is represented as the adopted son of this venerable monarch, who so long

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In prose

and verse was own'd, without dispute, Through all the realms of nonsense, absolute."

The solemn inauguration of Shadwell [Pope's Bavius] as his successor in

this drowsy kingdom, forms the plan of the poem; being the same which Pope afterwards adopted on a broader canvas for his Dunciad.-Scott's Life of Dryden. Flecknoe's works were numerous-as Heroic Portraits, &c., 1660; "Sixty-nine Enigmatical Characters," 1665; "Love's Kingdom: with a Treatise on the Stage," 1674. He died in 1678.]

CAMILLO QUERNO.

Ver. 15. Rome in her Capitol saw Querno sit.] Camillo Querno was of Apulia, who, hearing the great encouragement which Leo X. gave to poets, travelled to Rome with a harp in his hand, and sung to it twenty thousand verses of a poem called Alexius. He was introduced as a buffoon to Leo, and promoted to the honour of the laurel; a jest which the court of Rome and the Pope himself entered into so far, as to cause him to ride on an elephant to the Capitol, and to hold a solemn festival on his coronation, at which it is recorded the poet himself was so transported as to weep for joy. He was ever after a constant frequenter of the Pope's table, drank abundantly, and poured forth verses without number. PAULUS JOVIUS, Elog. Ver. Doct., chap. lxxxii. Some idea of his poetry is given by Fam. Strada, in his Prolusions.

[The good fortune of this Italian Mac Flecknoe did not continue to the end of his life. He returned to Naples after the taking of Rome, and died in an hospital.]

JAMES-MOORE SMYTHE.

Ver. 50. A wit it was, and call'd the phantom More.] Curll, in his Key to the Dunciad, affirmed this to be James-Moore Smythe, Esq., and it is probable (considering what is said of him in the Testimonies) that some might fancy our author obliged to represent this gentleman as a plagiary, or to pass for one himself. His case, indeed, was like that of a man I have heard of, who, as he was sitting in company, perceived his next neighbour had stolen his handkerchief. 'Sir, (said the thief, finding himself detected), do not expose me, I did it for mere want; be so good as to take it privately out of my pocket again, and say nothing." The honest man did so, but the other cried out: 'See, gentlemen, what a thief we have among us! look, he is stealing my handkerchief!"

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The plagarisms of this person gave occasion to the following epigram:

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Moore always smiles whenever he recites:

He smiles (you think), approving what he writes.

And yet in this no vanity is shown;

A modest man may like what's not his own."

His only work was a comedy called the Rival Modes; the town condemned it in the action, but he printed it in 1726-7, with this modest motto,

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It appears from hence, that this is not the name of a real person, but fictitious. More from upos, stultus, uwpía, stultitia, to represent the folly of a plagiary. Thus Erasmus, Admonuit me Mori cognomen tibi, quod tam ad Moriæ vocabulum accedit quam es ipse a re alienus. Dedication of Moriæ Encomium to Sir Tho. More, the farewell of which may be our author's to his plagiary, Vale, More! et moriam tuam graviter defende. Adieu, Moore ! and be sure strongly to defend thy own folly.-SCRIBLERUS.

[Curll states that Lintot gave a hundred guineas for the copyright of "The Rival Modes," published in 1727. James Moore was the son of Arthur Moore, Esq., M.P., of Fetcham, county of Surrey. There was a distinguished financier and political economist, Arthur Moore, one of the lords commissioners of trade, to which he was appointed in 1710. This Arthur Moore was a brother of the Earl of Drogheda. His son, probably the object of Pope's satire, was educated at Worcester College, Oxford, and held, jointly with his brother, the office of Paymaster to the band of Gentlemen Pensioners. Moore took the name of Smythe, as heir to his maternal uncle, a Mr. Smythe, of Gloucester-street, from whom he derived a considerable fortune. He had been early acquainted with the Blount family, at Maple-Durham, and was a favoured correspondent of the young ladies. This gave pungency to Pope's satire, and inveteracy to his hatred. Smythe had twice crossed his path, and stung him both as a lover and a poet. He had stolen both his mistress and his verses! Teresa probably retained her regard for her old correspondent, but Pope was triumphant with Martha. James Moore Smythe died October 18, 1734.]

CURLL AND THE COURT POEMS.

Ver. 58. Dauntless Curll!] We come now to a character of much respect, that of Mr. Edmund Curll. As a plain repetition of great actions is the best praise of them, we shall only say of this eminent man, that he carried the trade many lengths beyond what it ever before had arrived at, and that he was the envy and admiration of all his profession. He possessed himself of a command over all authors whatever; he caused them to write what he pleased; they could not call their very names their own. He was not only famous among these: he was taken notice of by the state, the church, and the law, and received particular marks of distinction from each.

It will be owned that he is here introduced with all possible dignity: he speaks like the intrepid Diomed: he runs like the swift-footed Achilles : if he falls, 'tis like the beloved Nisus; and (what Homer makes to be the chief of all praises) he is favoured of the gods; he says but three words, and his prayer is heard; a goddess conveys it to the seat of Jupiter; though he loses the prize, he gains the victory; the great mother herself comforts him, she inspires him with expedients, she honours him with an immortal present (such as Achilles receives from Thetis, and Æneas from Venus) at once instructive and prophetical: after this he is unrivalled and triumphant.

The tribute our author here pays him is a grateful return for several

unmerited obligations. Many weighty animadversions on the public affairs and many excellent and diverting pieces on private persons, has he given to his name. If ever he owed two verses to any other, he owed Mr. Curll some thousands. He was every day extending his fame, and enlarging his writings : witness innumerable instances; but it shall suffice only to mention the Court Poems, which he meant to publish as the work of the true writer, a lady of quality; but being first threatened, and afterwards punished for it by Mr. Pope, he generously transferred it from her to him, and ever since printed it in his name. The single time that ever he spoke to Curll was on that affair, and to that happy incident he owed all the favours since received from him. So true is the saying of Dr. Sydenham, " that any one shall be, at some time, or other, the better or the worse, for having but seen or spoken to a good or bad man."

[Curll made a characteristic reply to this charge :-"You very well know, sir, that in the year 1717, when the Court Poems (viz. the Basset Table, the Toilet, and the Drawing Room) were published, upon your sending for me to the Swan Tavern, in Fleet Street, in company with Mr. Lintot, and inquiring. into the publication of that pamphlet, I then frankly told you that those pieces were by Mr. Joseph Jacobs, a Dissenting teacher, given to Mr. John Oldmixon, who sent the same to be published by Mr. James Roberts, in Warwick Lane, and that my neighbour, Mr. Pemberton, and myself, had each of us a share with Mr. Oldmixon in the said pamphlet. For this you were pleased to treat me with half-a-pint of canary, antimonially prepared; for the emetic effects of which it has been the opinion of all mankind you deserved the stab. My purgation was soon over, but yours will last (without a timely repentance) till, as the ghost says in Hamlet, with all your imperfections on your head, you are called to your account, and your offences purged by fire." Preface to second vol. of Pope's Correspondence. This ludicrous story of the prepared wine and purgation was exactly what the Scriblerus wits wanted, and Pope turned it to good account in his clever, but coarse satire, the "Account of the Poisoning of Edmund Curll." The Court Poems are now included in the works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.]

CORINNA-MRS. THOMAS.

Ver. 70. Curll's Corinna.] This name, it seems, was taken by one Mrs. T―, who procured some private letters of Mr. Pope's, while almost a boy, to Mr. Cromwell, and sold them without the consent of either of those gentlemen to Curll, who printed them in 12mo, 1727. He discovered her to be the publisher, in his Key, p. 11. We only take this opportunity of mentioning the manner in which those letters got abroad, which the author was ashamed of as very trivial things, full, not only of levities, but of wrong judgments of men and books, and only excusable from the youth and inexperience of the writer.

[Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas was first styled Corinna by Dryden. Curll pub

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