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: "These are,-ah no! these were, the Gazetteers!" 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. 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.] Downward to climb, and backward to advance. The plunging Prelate, and his pond'rous Grace, 322 When lo! a burst of thunder shook the flood; 325 Greater he looks, and more than mortal stares; Then thus the wonders of the deep declares. 330 Smit with his mien the Mud-nymphs suck'd him in: How young Lutetia 2, softer than the down, Vied for his love in jetty bow'rs below, As Hylas fair3 was ravished long ago. 335 Then sung, how shown him by the Nut-brown maids 4 A branch of Styx here rises from the Shades, 340 Pours into Thames: and hence the mingled wave Here brisker vapours o'er the TEMPLE creep, 345 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. 350 "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 355 1 Sir Robert Walpole, who was Bishop Sherlock's contemporary at Eton College, used to relate, that when some of the scholars, going to bathe in the Thames, stood shivering on the bank, S. plunged in immediately over head and ears. Warton. [Hence this was understood to refer to S.; but Pope indignantly repudiated the insinuation. The next allusion could only refer to an Archbishop; possibly 'leaden Gilbert' of Iv. 608. These two lines are wanting in the earlier editions.] [A play on the fancied etymology of the Latin name of Paris (Lutetia Parisiorum.)] 3 As Hylas fair] Who was ravished by the water-nymphs and drawn into the river. The story is told at large by Valerius Flaccus, lib. III. Argon. See VIRGIL, Ecl. VI. P. A branch of Styx, &c.] Cf. Homer. II. II. [vv. 751-755]. Of the land of Dreams in the same region, he makes mention, Odyss. XXIV. See also Lucian's True History. Lethe and the Land of Dreams allegorically represent the Stupefaction and visionary Madness of Poets equally dull and extravagant. Of Alpheus's waters gliding secretly under the sea of Pisa, t mix with those of Arethuse in Sicily, see Mes chus, Idyl. viii. Virg. Ecl. x. vv. 3, 4. A again, n. 111. vv. 693-5. P. 5 And Milbourn] Luke Milbourn, a Clergyman, the fairest of Critics; who, when he wrote against Mr Dryden's Virgil, did him justice in printing at the same time his own translations of him, which were intolerable. His manner of writing has a great resemblance with that of the Gentlemen of the Dunciad against our Author P. [Part om.] [Cf. Essay on Criticism, v. 463.] 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 Man1. Thro' Lud's fam'd gates, along the well-known Fleet, Rolls the black troop, and overshades the street; 360 'Till show'rs of Sermons, Characters, Essays, 365 "Ye Critics! in whose heads, as equal scales, "I weigh what author's heaviness prevails; "Which most conduce to sooth the soul in slumbers, "To cavil, censure, dictate, right or wrong; "Full and eternal privilege of tongue." The same their talents, and their tastes the same; 66 If there be man, who o'er such works can wake, 66 Three College Sophs, and three pert Templars came, 370 375 380 The clam'rous crowd is hush'd with mugs of Mum", 385 'Till all, tun'd equal, send a gen'ral hum. Then mount the Clerks, and in one lazy tone 390 395 1 The expression is taken from Dryden's Hind and Panther: "Those Swisses fight for any side for pay.' Warton. [The well-known proverb 'Point d'argent, point de Suisse' contains a similar sarcasm. The French Kings had a Swiss guard from the time of Louis XI. to that of Louis XVI.] 2 [Ludgate, according to popular tradition built by King Lud, (see Faerie Queene, Bk. 11. Canto x. st. 46), probably is the same as Flood (or Fleet) gate. The gate, after being rebuilt several times, was finally removed in 1760.] 3 [Henley's in the early editions; probably the blank was substituted to leave an opportunity for supplying it with the name of Hoadley.] See Hom. Odyss. XII. Ovid, Met. 1. P. 5 [A Sophister is properly a disputant at an exercise of dialectics; the term from its use at the old examinations for the Degree at Cambridge has come to mean those who have been one year or two years in residence at the University Junior and Senior Sophs.)] 6 [Mum was a strong ale, said to derive its name from its inventor, Christian Mumme of Brunswick.] Thrice Budgel aim'd to speak, but thrice supprest 400 As what a Dutchman plumps into the lakes, Each gentle clerk, and mutt'ring seals his eyes, Then down are roll'd the books; stretch'd o'er 'em lies 403 One circle first, and then a second makes; 6 Thrice Budgel aim'd to speak,] Famous for his speeches on many occasions about the South Sea scheme, &c. "He is a very ingenious gentleman, and hath written some excellent Epilogues to Plays, and one small piece on Love, which is very pretty." Jacob, Lives of Poets. But this gentleman since made himself much more eminent, and personally well known to the greatest Statesmen of all parties, as well as to all the Courts of Law in this nation. P. Budgell was a relation of Addison whom he accompanied as clerk to Ireland. He afterwards rose to be Under Secretary of State. After Addison's death he was involved in losses by the South Sea Bubble; a stain fell on his character in consequence of Tindal's bequest in his favour being set aside, and he committed suicide in 1737. Carruthers. [Cf. Epistle to Arbuthnot, vv. 378, 9; and notes.] 2 [Blackmore.] 3 Ver. 399; in the first Edition it was: 'Collins and Tindal, prompt at priests to jeer.' Warburton. Toland and Tindal,] Two persons, not so happy as to be obscure, who writ against the Religion of their Country. Toland, the author of the Atheist's Liturgy, called Pantheisticon, was a spy, in pay to lord Oxford. Tindal was author of the Rights of the Christian Church, and Christianity as old as the Creation. P. [Part om.] [John Toland's most famous work Christianity not mysterious was published in 1696; Matthew Tindal's Christianity as old as the Creation, rather later. Anthony Collins, who probably lost his place in the text for the sake of the alliteration, brought out his Discourse of free Thinking in 1713.] Christ's No kingdom &c.] This is said by Curl, Key to Dunc. to allude to a sermon of a reverend Bishop. P. It alludes to Bishop Hoadley's sermons preached before George I., in 1717, on the Nature of the Kingdom of Christ, 410 which occasioned a long, vehement, and learned debate, known as the Bangorian Controversy, of which see Hoadley was at that time bishop. Wakefield. 5 Centlivre] Mrs Susanna Centlivre, wife to Mr Centlivre, Yeoman of the Mouth to his Majesty. She writ many Plays, and a Song (says Mr Jacob) before she was seven years old. She also writ a Ballad against Mr Pope's Homer before he began it. P. [Some of her plays still keep the stage.] Peter Anthony Motteux, the excellent translator of Don Quixote, and author of a number of forgotten dramatic pieces. Dryden addressed a complimentary Epistle to him. He died in 1718. Carruthers. 7 Boyer the State, and Law the Stage gave d'er,] A. Boyer, a voluminous compiler of ARnals, Political Collections, &c.-William Law, A. M. wrote with great zeal against the Stage: Mr Dennis answered with as great: Their books were printed in 1726. The same Mr Law is author of a book, intitled, An Appeal to all that doubt of or disbelieve the truth of the gospel; in which he has detailed a system of the rankest Spinozism, for the most exalted Theology; and amongst other things as rare, has informed us of this, that Sir Isaac Newton stole the principles of his philosophy from one Jacob Bahmen, a German cobbler. P. 8. A man of some learning, and uncommon acuteness, with a strong disposition to Satire, which very often degenerated into scurrility. His most celebrated work is the Moral Philosopher, first published in the year 1737- Bowles. 9 [Bernard de Mandeville was born in Holland, in 1670, and after residing in England during the latter half of his life, died in 1733The Fable of the Bees, to which he owed his fame, first appeared in 1708 in the form of a short poem, and was afterwards republished with explanatory notes and essays, which drew upon Norton1, from Daniel and Ostroa sprung, 415 420 425 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 a 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 the author the threat of a prosecution. In its enlarged form it bore the second title of Private Vices Public Benefits, which explains the moral or object of the Fable. Though Mandeville only meant to shew that under the system of Providence good is wrought out of evil, he would have done well to leave no doubt as to both the meaning and the limitations of his doctrine.] 1 Norton] Norton De Foe, offspring of the famous Daniel. Fortes creantur fortibus. One of the authors of the Flying Post, in which well-bred work Mr P. has sometime the honour to be abused with his betters; and of many hired scurrilities and daily papers, to which he never set his name. P. [Does Ostræa here signify an oyster-wife?] 2 Fleet] A prison for insolvent Debtors on the bank of the Ditch. P. |