The Cap and Switch be sacred to his Grace;
With Staff and Pumps the Marquis lead the Race;
From Stage to Stage the licens'd Earl may run,
Pair'd with his Fellow-Charioteer the Sun;
The learned Baron Butterflies design,

Or draw to silk Arachne's subtile line1;

590

The Judge to dance his brother Sergeant call2;
The Senator at Cricket urge the Ball;
The Bishop stow (Pontific Luxury!)

An hundred Souls of Turkeys in a pie;
The sturdy Squire to Gallic masters stoop,
And drown his Lands and Manors in a Soupe.
Others import yet nobler arts from France,

595

Teach Kings to fiddle 3, and make Senates dance.
Perhaps more high some daring son may soar,
Proud to my list to add one Monarch more!
And nobly conscious, Princes are but things
Born for First Ministers, as Slaves for Kings,
Tyrant supreme! shall three Estates command,

6c0

And MAKE ONE MIGHTY DUNCIAD OF THE LAND!"
More she had spoke, but yawn'd-All Nature nods:

60%

What Mortal can resist the Yawn of Gods 4?
Churches and Chapels instantly it reach'd;

(St James's first, for leaden G▬▬ preach'd) 5

Then catch'd the Schools; the Hall scarce kept awake;

The Convocation gap'd, but could not speak:

610

Lost was the Nation's Sense, nor could be found,
While the long solemn Unison went round:

Wide, and more wide, it spread o'er all the realm;
Ev'n Palinurus nodded at the Helm 6:

615

The Vapour mild o'er each Committee crept;
Unfinish'd Treaties in each Office slept;
And Chiefless Armies doz'd out the Campaign;
And Navies yawn'd for Orders on the Main".

was in 1720 relegated en masse to Pontoise, fr having resisted the last desperate financia measures of Law, the author of the Mississipp scheme, and then director of the Bank of France

What Mortal can resist the Yawn of Gods! This verse is truly Homerical; as is the coclusion of the Action, where the great Mother composes all, in the same manner as Minerva at the period of the Odyssey. P. [Part om.]

5 Dr Gilbert Archbishop of York, who had attacked Dr King of Oxford whom Pope much respected. Warton. [Bowles was informed that this prelate was a most eloquent preacher.] 6 Young's Sat. VII. v. 215:

'What felt thy Walpole, pilot of the realm? Our Palinurus slept not at the helm.-' Wakefield.

7 These verses were written many years ag and may be found in the State Poems of tha time. P. and Warburton. V. 616 is from a poem by Halifax. Wakefield.

O Muse! relate (for you can tell alone,
Wits have short Memories1, and Dunces none),
Relate, who first, who last resign'd to rest;

620

Whose Heads she partly, whose completely, blest;
What Charms could Faction, what Ambition lull,
The Venal quiet, and entrance the Dull;

'Till drown'd was Sense, and Shame, and Right, and Wrong

626

O sing, and hush the Nations with thy Song!

She comes! she comes! the sable Throne behold 2

630

Of Night primæval and of Chaos old!
Before her, Fancy's gilded clouds decay,
And all its varying Rain-bows die away.
Wit shoots in vain its momentary fires,
The meteor drops, and in a flash expires.
As one by one, at dread Medea's strain 3,
The sick'ning stars fade off th' ethereal plain;
As Argus' eyes by Hermes' wand opprest,
Clos'd one by one to everlasting rest;
Thus at her felt approach, and secret might,
Art after Art goes out, and all is Night.
See skulking Truth to her old cavern fled,
Mountains of Casuistry heap'd o'er her head!
Philosophy, that lean'd on Heav'n before 5,
Shrinks to her second cause, and is no more.
Physic of Metaphysic begs defence,

635

640

645

And Metaphysic calls for aid on Sense!
See Mystery to Mathematics fly!

In vain! they gaze, turn giddy, rave, and die.

Religion blushing veils her sacred fires,

And unawares Morality expires.

650

For public Flame, nor private, dares to shine;

Nor human Spark is left, nor Glimpse divine!

Lo! thy dread Empire, CHAOS! is restor'd;
Light dies before thy uncreating word;
Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall,
And universal Darkness buries All.

1 Wits have short Memories,] This seems to be the reason why the Poets, whenever they give us a Catalogue, constantly call for help on the Muses, who, as the Daughters of Memory, are obliged not to forget any thing. So Homer, Iliad 11. vv. 788 ff. And Virgil, Æn. vii. [vv. 645-6.] SCRIBL. P.

2 She comes! she comes! &c.] Here the Muse, like Jove's Eagle, after a sudden stoop at ignoble game, soareth again to the skies. As Prophecy hath ever been one of the chief provinces of Poesy, our Poet here foretels from what we feel, what we are to fear; and, in the style of other prophets, hath used the future tense for the preterite: since what he says shall be, is already

655

to be seen, in the writings of some even of our most adored authors, in Divinity, Philosophy, Physics, Metaphysics, &c. who are too good indeed to be named in such company. P.

3 [Cf. Ov. Met. VII. v. 209.]

4 Truth to her old Cavern fled,] Alluding to the saying of Democritus, That Truth lay at the bottom of a deep well, from whence he had drawn her: Though Butler says, He first put her in, before he drew her out. Warburton.

5 Ver 643, in the former Edd. stood thus, Philosophy, that reach'd the Heav'ns before, Shrinks to her hidden cause, and is no more. And this was intended as a censure of the Newtonian philosophy. Warburton.

BOOK. I.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 140. in the former Edd.

The page ad 'Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma.' Virg. Geor. II. [v. 82.]

Ver. 1. Say, great Patricians ! since your- mires new beauties not it's own.] selves inspire These wondrous works]

'Dii cœptis (nam vos mutastis et illas).' Ovid, Met. 1. [v. 2.] Ver. 6. Alluding o a verse of Mr Dryden, not in MacFleckno (as is said ignorantly in the Key to the Dunciad, p. 1), but in his verses to Mr Congreve,

'And Tom the second reigns like Tom the first.' [Epistle XII. v. 48.] Ver. 41, 42. Hence hymning Tyburn's

Hence, &c.]

'Genus unde Latinum, Albanique patres, atque altæ monia Romæ.' Virg. Æn. 1. [vv. 6, 7.] Ver. 45. In clouded Majesty]

'the Moon

Rising in clouded Majesty'
Milton [Par. Lost], Book iv. [vv. 606, 7.]
Ver. 48. that knows no fears of hisses,
blows, or want, or loss of ears:]

Ver. 166. With whom my Muse began, with whom shall end.]

'A te principium, tibi desinet.'

Virg. Ecl. vIII. [v. 11.]

Ἐκ Διὸς ἀρχώμεσθα, καὶ εἰς Δία λήγετε, Μοῦσαι.
Theoc. [Id. XVII. V. 1.]

'Prima dicte mihi, summa dicende Camœna.'
Hor. [Lib. 1. Epist. 1. v. 1.]
Had Heav'n decreed, &c.]

Ver. 195.

'Me si cœlicolæ voluissent ducere vitam, Has mihi servassent sedes.'

Virg. Æn. 11. [vv. 641, 2.] Ver. 197, 198. Could Troy be sav'd-This grey-goose weapon]

'Si Pergama dextra

Defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent.'
Virg. ibid. [vv. 291, 2.]
Ver. 202. This Box my Thunder, this right

'Quem neque pauperies, neque mors, neque hand my God.] vincula terrent.'

Hor. [Lib. 11. Sat. vII. v. 84.] Ver. 55. Here she beholds the Chaos dark and deep, Where nameless Somethings, &c.] That is to say, unformed things, which are either made into Poems or Plays, as the Booksellers or the Players bid most. These lines allude to the following in Garth's Dispensary, Cant. VI. 'Within the chambers of the globe they spy The beds where sleeping vegetables lie, 'Till the glad summons of a genial ray Unbinds the glebe, and calls them out to day.' Ver. 64. And ductile Dulness, &c.] A parody on a verse in Garth, Cant. I.

'How ductile matter new meanders takes.' Ver. 79. The cloud-compelling Queen] From Homer's Epithet of Jupiter, vepeλnyepéta Zeús. Var. He rolled his eyes that witness'd huge dismay.

'round he throws his [baleful] eyes, That witness'd huge affliction and dismay.' Milt. [Par. Lost], Bk. 1. [vv. 56, 7.] The progress of a bad poet in his thoughts, being (like the progress of the Devil in Milton) through a Chaos, might probably suggest this imi

tation.

'Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro.'
Virgil, of the Gods of Mezentius.
[Æn. x. v. 773-1

Var. And visit Alehouse,] Waller [to the
King] on his Navy,
'Those tow'rs of Oak o'er fertile plains might go,
And visit mountains where they once did grow.
Ver. 229. Unstain'd, untouch'd, &c.]

'Felix Priamëia virgo!
Jussa mori: quæ sortitus non pertulit ullos,
Nec victoris heri tetigit captiva cubile!
Nos, patria incensa, diversa per æquora vectæ, &c.'
Virg. Æn. 111. [v. 320 ff]

Ver. 245. And thrice he lifted high the Birth day brand,] Ovid, of Althea on a like occasion, burning her offspring :

'Tum conata quater flammis imponere torrem, Cœpta quater tenuit.'

[Metam. VIII. vv. 462, 3-] Ver. 250. Now flames the Cid, &c.] 'Jam Deïphobi dedit ampla ruinam, Vulcano superante domus; jam proximus ardet Ucalegon.'En. 11. [vv. 310-2.) Ver. 263. Great in her charms! as when on Shrieves and May'rs She looks and breathes herself into their airs.]

Virg. Æn. v. [vv. 357, 8.]
A shapeless shade, &c.]
'Effugit imago

Par levibus ventis, volucrique simillima somno.'
Virg. Æn. vi. [vv. 701, 2.]

1 [After a diligent search I am disposed to doubt this. Perhaps the allusion is to Iliad XXIII.

v. 479.]