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He buoys up instant, and returns to light:
He bears no token of the sabler streams,
And mounts far off among the Swans of Thames.

True to the bottom see Concanena creep,
A cold, long-winded native of the deep;
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 lako.

Next plung'd a feeble, but a desp'rate pack,
With each a sickly brother at his back:
Sons of a Day?! just buoyant on the flood,
Then number'd with the puppies in the mud.
Ask ye their names? I could as soon disclose
The names of these blind puppies as of those.
Fast by, like Niobe 8 (her children gone)
Sits Mother Osborne, stupefy'd to stone!
And Monumental brass this record bears,
“ These are,-ah no! these were, the Gazetteers !”

Not so bold Arnall 6; with a weight of skull,
Furious he dives, precipitately dull.
Whirlpools and storms his circling arm invest,
With all the might of gravitation blest.
No crab more active in the dirty dance,

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and spirit, who was secretly dipt in some papers of Warton. this kind, on whom our Poet bestows a panegyric ? With each a sickly brother at his back: instead of a satire, as deserving to be better Sons of a Day! &c.] These were daily papers, employed than in party quarrels, and personal a number of which, to lessen the expense, were invectives. P. Supposed to be Aaron Hill; printed one on the back of another. P. but Pope denied it. Warton. (Hill, however, 3 Like Niobe) See the story in Ovid, Met. VII. called Pope to account by a poetical rejoinder; where the miserable petrefaction of this old Lady though, as Bowles remarks, the compliment in is pathetically described. P. the above lines infinitely exceeds the abuse. Cf. • Osborne) A name assumed by the eldest Intr. Memoir, p. xxxvi. Hill wrote no less than and gravest of these writers, who at last, being seventeen dramatic pieces, and was, besides, ashamed of his Pupils, gave his paper over, and according to Dibdin, “the projector of nut oil, in his age remained silent. P. of masts of ships from Scotch firs, of cultivating 5 Arnall] William Arnall, bred an AtGeorgia, and of potash!')

torney, was a perfect Genius in this sort of work. i Concanen] MATTHEW CONCANEN, an Irish. He began under twenty with furious Partyman, bred to the law. He was author of several papers; then succeeded Concanen in the British dull and dead scurrilities in the British and Journal. At the first publication of the Dunciad, London Journals, and in a paper called the he prevailed on the Author not to give him his Speculatist. In a pamphlet, called a Supple- due place in it, by a letter professing his detesment to the Profund, he dealt very unfairly tation of such practices as his predecessor's. But with our Poet, not only frequently imputing to since, by the most unexampled insolence, and him Mr Broome's verses (for which he might personal abuse of several great men, the Poet's indeed seem in some degree accountable, having particular friends, he most amply deserved a corrected what that gentleman did) but those nitch in the Temple of Infamy: He writ for of the duke of Buckingham and others: To this hire, and valued himself upon it; not indeed rare piece somebody humorously caused him to without cause, it appearing by the aforesaid take for his motto, De profundis clamavi.' He Report, that he received "for Free Britons, was since a hired scribbler in the Daily Courant, and other writings, in the space of four years, no where he poured forth much Billingsgate against less than ten thousand nine hundred and ninety the lord Bolingbroke, and others; after which seven pounds, six shillings, and eight pence, out this man was surprisingly promoted to administer of the Treasury.". But frequently, thro' his fury Justice and Law in Jamaica. P. [Part om.] or folly, he exceeded all the bounds of his comThis is the scribbler to whom Warburton wrote mission, and obliged his honourable Patron to his famous Letter, published by Dr Akenside. disavow his scurrilities. P. [Part om.)

Downward to climb, and backward to advance.
He brings up half the bottom on his head,
And loudly claims the Journals and the Lead.

The plunging Prelate!, and his pond'rous Grace,
With holy envy gave one Layman place.
When lo! a burst of thunder shook the flood;
Slow rose a form, in majesty of Mud;
Shaking the horrors of his sable brows,
And each ferocious feature grim with ooze.
Greater he looks, and more than mortal stares;
Then thus the wonders of the deep declares.

First he relates, how sinking to the chin,
Smit with his mien the Mud-nymphs suck'd him in:
How young Lutetia”, softer than the down,
Nigrina black, and Merdamante brown,
Vied for his love in jetty bow'rs below,
As Hylas fair 3 was ravished long ago.
Then sung, how shown him by the Nut-brown maids
A branch of Styx 4 here rises from the Shades,
That tinctur'd as it runs with Lethe's streams,
And wafting Vapours from the Land of dreams,
(As under seas Alpheus' secret sluice
Bears Pisa's off'rings to his Arethuse)
Pours into Thames: and hence the mingled wave
Intoxicates the pert, and lulls the grave:
. Here brisker vapours o'er the TEMPLE creep,
There, all from Paul's to Aldgate drink and sleep.

Thence to the banks where rev'rend Bards repose,
They led him soft; each rev’rend Bard arose;
And Milbourn 5 chief, deputed by the rest,
Gave him the cassock, surcingle, and vest.
“Receive” (he said) “these robes which once were mine,
“ Dulness is sacred in a sound divine.”

He ceas'd, and spread the robe; the crowd confess
The rev'rend Flamen in his lengthen'd dress,
Around him wide a sable Army stand,

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365

370

375

66

A low-born, cell-bred, selfish, servile band,
Prompt or to guard or stab, to saint or damn,
Heav'n's Swiss, who fight for any God, or Man?

Thro' Lud's fam'd gates?, along the well-known Fleet,
Rolls the black troop, and overshades the street;
'Till show'rs of Sermons, Characters, Essays,
In circling fleeces whiten all the ways:
So clouds, replenish'd from some bog below,
Mount in dark volumes, and descend in snow.
Here stopt the Goddess; and in pomp proclaims
A gentler exercise to close the games.

“Ye Critics! in whose heads, as equal scales,
“I weigh what author's heaviness prevails;
" Which most conduce to sooth the soul in slumbers,
• My H-ley's 3 periods, or my Blackmore's numbers;
“Attend the trial we propose to make:
“ If there be man, who o'er such works can wake,
“Sleep's all-subduing charms who dares defy,
“ And boasts Ulysses' ear with Argus' eye * ;
“To him we grant our amplest pow'rs to sit

Judge of all present, past, and future wit; “To cavil, censure, dictate, right or wrong; “ Full and eternal privilege of tongue."

Three College Sophs 5, and three pert Templars came,
The same their talents, and their tastes the same;
Each prompt to query, answer, and debate,
And smit with love of Poesy and Prate,
The pond'rous books two gentle readers bring;
The heroes sit, the vulgar form a ring.
The clam'rous crowd is hush'd with mugs of Mumo,
'Till all, 'tun'd equal, send a gen'ral hum.
Then mount the Clerks, and in one lazy tone
Thro' the long, heavy, painful page drawl on;
Soft creeping, words words, the sense compose;
At ev'ry line they stretch, they yawn, they doze.
As to soft gales top-heavy pines bow low
Their heads, and lift them as they cease to blow:
Thus oft they rear, and oft the head decline,
As breathe, or pause, by fits, the airs divine;
And now to this side, now to that they nod,
As verse, or prose, infuse the drowsy God.

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385

390

395

Thrice Budgel aim'd to speak, but thrice supprest
By potent Arthur, knock'd his chin and breast.
Toland and Tindal, prompt at priests to jeer,
Yet silent bow'd to Christ's No kingdom here...
Who sate the nearest, by the words o'ercome,
Slept first; the distant nodded to the hum.
Then down are rolld the books; stretch'd o'er 'em lies
Each gentle clerk, and mutt'ring seals his eyes,
As what a Dutchman plumps into the lakes,
One circle first, and then a second makes ;
What Dulness dropt among her sons imprest
Like motion, from one circle to the rest;
So from the mid-most the nutation spreads
Round and more round, o'er all the sea of heads.
At last Centlivres felt her voice to fail ;
Motteux 6 himself unfinish'd left his tale;
Boyer the State, and Law the Stage gave o'er?;
Morgan 8 and Mandevil could prate no more;

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6

8

! Thrice Budgel aim'd to speak,] Famous which occasioned a long, vehement, and learnei for his speeches un many occasions about the debate, known as the Bangorian Controversy, South Sea scheme, &c. "He is a very ingeni- of which see Hoadley was at that time bishop. ous gentleman, and hath written some excellent Wakefield. Epilogues to Plays, and one small piece on Love, 5 Centlivre) Mrs Susanna Centlivre, wife to which is very pretty.” Jacob, Lives of Poets. Mr Centlivre, Yeoman of the Mouth to his MaBut this gentleman since made himself much jesty. She writ many Plays, and a Song (says more eminent, and personally well known to the Mr Jacob) before she was seven years old. She greatest Statesmen of all parties, as well as to also writ a Ballad against Mr Pope's Homer all the Courts of Law in this nation. P. Budgell before he began it. P. (Some of her plays still was a relation of Addison whom he accompanied keep the stage.] as clerk to Ireland. He afterwards rose to be 6 Peter Anthony Motteux, the excellent transUnder Secretary of State. After Addison's death lator of Don Quixote, and author of a number he was involved in losses by the South Sea of forgotten dramatic pieces. Dryden addressed Bubble; a stain fell on his character in conse- a complimentary Epistle to him. He died in quence of Tindal's bequest in his favour being 1718. "Carruthers. set aside, and he committed suicide in 1737. 7 Boyer the State, and Law the Stage game Carruthers. [Cf. Epis to Arbuthnot, v. 378, o'er,] A. Boyer, a voluminous compiler of An9; and notes.]

nals, Political Collections, &c.-William Law, ? (Blackmore.]

A. M. wrote with great zeal against the Stage: 3 Ver. 399;

in the first Edition it was: Mr Dennis answered with as great: Their books ‘Collins and Tindal, prompt at priests to jeer.' were printed in 1726. The same Mr Law is

Warburton. author of a book, intitled, An Appeal to all that Toland and Tindal,] Two persons, not so doubt of or disbelieve the truth of the gospel; happy as to be obscure, who writ against the in which he has detailed a system of the rankest Religion of their Country. Toland, the author Spinozism, for the most exalted Theology; and of the Atheist's Liturgy, called Pantheisticon, amongst other things as rare, has informed us was a spy, in pay to lord Oxford. Tindal was of this, that Sir Isaac Newton stole the principles author of the Rights of the Christian Church, of his philosophy from one Jacob Bækmesi, a and Christianity as old as the Creation. P. German cobbler.' P. (Part om.] [John Toland's most famous work 8 A man of some learning, and uncommou Christianity not mysterious was published in acuteness, with a strong disposition to Satire, 1696; Matthew Tindal's Christianity as old as which very often degenerated into scurrility. His the Creation, rather later. Anthony Collins, who most celebrated work is the Moral Philosopket, probably lost his place in the text for the sake of first published in the year 1737. Bowles. the alliteration, brought out his Discourse of free 9 (Bernard de Mandeville was born in Het Thinking in 1713.)

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Norton”, from Daniel and Ostroea sprung,
Bless'd with his father's front, and mother's tongue,
Hung silent down his never-blushing head;
And all was hush'd, as Folly's self lay dead.

Thus the soft gifts of Sleep conclude the day,
And stretch'd on bulks, as usual, Poets lay.
Why should I sing, what bards the nightly Muse
Did slumb'ring visit, and convey to stews;
Who prouder march'd, with magistrates in state,
To some fam'd round-house, ever open gate !
How Henley lay inspir'd beside a sink,
And to mere mortals seem'd a Priest in drink :
While others, timely, to the neighb'ring Fleet ?
(Haunt of the Muses) made their safe retreat.

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THE DUNCIAD.

BOOK THE THIRD.

ARGUMENT.

After the other persons are disposed in their proper places of rest, the Goddess transports the King to her Temple, and there lays him to slumber with his head on her lap; a position of marvellous virtue, which causes all the visions of wild enthusiasts, projectors, politicians, inamoratos, castle-builders, chemists, and poets. He is immediately carried on the wings of Fancy, and led by a mad Poetical Sibyl to the Elysian shade; where, on the banks of Lethe, the souls of the dull are dipped by Bavius, before their entrance into this world. There he is met by the ghost of Settle, and by him made acquainted with the wonders of the place, and with those which he himself is destined to perform. He takes him to Mount of Vision, from whence he shews him the past triumphs of the Empire of Dulness, then the present, and lastly the future: how small a part of the world was ever conquered by Science, how soon those conquests were stopped, and those very nations again reduced to her dominion. Then distinguishing the Island of Great-Britain, shews by what aids, by what persons, and by what degrees it shall be brought to her Empire. Some of