97

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 shows 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, shows by what aids, by what persons, and by what degrees, it shall be brought to her empire: some of the persons he causes to pass in review before his eyes, describing each by his proper figure, character, and qualifications. On a sudden, the scene shifts, and a vast number of miracles and prodigies appear, utterly surprising and unknown to the king himself, till they are explained to be the wonders of his own reign now commencing. On this subject Settle breaks into a congratulation, yet not unmixed with concern, that his own times were but the types of these. He prophesies how first the nation shall be overrun with farces, operas, and shows; how the throne of Dulness shall' be advanced over the theatres, and set up even at Court; then how her sons shall preside in the seats of arts and sciences; giving a glimpse, or Pisgah-sight, of the future fulness of her glory, the accomplishment whereof is the subject of the fourth and last book.

UT in her temple's last recess inclosed,

BUT

On Dulness' lap th' anointed head reposed. Him close she curtains round with vapours blue, And soft besprinkles with Cimmerian dew.

5

Then raptures high the seat of sense o'erflow,
Which only heads refined from reason know.1
Hence, from the straw where Bedlam's prophet nods,
He hears loud oracles, and talks with gods:2

Hence the fool's Paradise, the statesman's scheme,
The air-built castle, and the golden dream,
The maid's romantic wish, the chemists flame,
And poet's vision of eternal fame.

10

1 Hereby is intimated, that the following vision is no more than the chimera of the dreamer's brain, and not a real or intended satire on the present age, doubtless more learned, more enlightened, and more abounding with great geniuses, in divinity, politics, and whatever arts and sciences, than all the preceding. For fear of any such mistake of our poet's honest meaning, he hath again, at the end of the vision, repeated this monition, saying that it all passed through the ivory gate, which (according to the ancients) denoteth falsity.-Scriblerus.

2 "Et varias audit voces, fruiturque deorum
Colloquio."-Virg. Eneid, viii.

["When wondrous shapes of fleeting forms appear,

He talks with gods, and doth strange language hear."-Ogilby.]

And now, on Fancy's easy wing convey'd, The king descending, views th' Elysian shade. A slip-shod sibyl led his steps along,3

In lofty madness meditating song;

Her tresses staring from poetic dreams,

And never wash'd, but in Castalia's streams.

Taylor, their better Charon, lends an oar,

(Once swan of Thames, though now he sings no more) 20 Benlowes, propitious still to blockheads, bows; 4

And Shadwell nods the poppy on his brows.5

Here, in a dusky vale where Lethe rolls,6

Old Bavius sits, to dip poetic souls,7

And blunt the sense, and fit it for a skull
Of solid proof, impenetrably dull:

8 "Conclamet Vates

-furens antro se immisit aperto."-Virgil.

25

25

4 A country gentleman, famous for his own bad poetry, and for patronising bad poets, as may be seen from many dedications of Quarles, and others, to him. Some of these anagramed his name, Benlowes, into Benevolus; to verify which, he spent his whole estate upon them.

5 Shadwell took opium for many years, and died of too large a dose, in the year 1692.

Lethæumque domos placidas qui prænatat amnem, &c.
Hunc circum innumeræ gentes," &c.-Virg. Eneid, vi.

7 Alluding to the story of Thetis dipping Achilles, to render him impenetrable :

"At pater Anchises penitus convalle virenti

Inclusas animas, superumque ad lumen ituras,
Lustrabat."-Virg. Eneid, vi.

"Bavius was an ancient poet, celebrated by Virgil for the like cause as Bayes by our author, though not in so Christian-like a manner; for heathenishly it is declared by Virgil of Bavius, that he ought to be hated and detested for his evil works: Qui Bavium non odit; whereas we have often had occasion to observe our poet's great good nature and mercifulness, through the whole course of this poem."-Scriblerus.

Mr. Dennis warmly contends, that Bavius was no inconsiderable author; nay, that "He and Mævius had (even in Augustus's days) a very formidable party at Rome, who thought them much superior to Virgil and Horace : for (saith he) I cannot believe they would have fixed that eternal brand upon them, if they had not been coxcombs in more than ordinary credit."-Rem. on Pr. Arthur, part ii. c. i. An argument which, if this poem should last, will conduce to the honour of the gentlemen of the Dunciad.

་

Instant, when dipp'd, away they wing their flight,
Where Brown and Mears unbar the gates of light,9
Demand new bodies, and in calf's array,

Rush to the world, impatient for the day.

Millions and millions on these banks he views,
Thick as the stars of night, or morning dews,10
As thick as bees o'er vernal blossoms fly,
As thick as eggs at Ward in pillory.

30

KING CIBBER MEETING SETTLE ON THE BANKS OF LETHE.

Wond'ring he gazed: when lo! a sage appears, By his broad shoulders known, and length of ears,1

11

35

8 Booksellers, printers for anybody. The allegory of the souls of the dull coming forth in the form of books, dressed in calf's leather, and being let abroad in vast numbers by booksellers, is sufficiently intelligible.

9 An hemistich of Milton.

10 "Quam multa in silvis autumni frigore primo

Lapsa cadunt folia, aut ad terram gurgite ab alto
Quam multæ glomerantur aves," &c.-Virg. Eneid, vi.

11 This is a sophistical reading. I think may venture to affirm, all the copyists are mistaken here. I believe I may say the same of the critics:

Known by his band and suit which Settle wore
(His only suit) for twice three years before:
All as the vest, appear'd the wearer's frame,
Old in new state, another yet the same.
Bland and familiar as in life, begun
Thus the great father to the greater son.

"Oh born to see what none can see, awake!

Behold the wonders of the oblivious lake.
Thou, yet unborn, hast touch'd this sacred shore;
The hand of Bavius drench'd thee o'er and o'er.
But blind to former as to future fate,
What mortal knows his pre-existent state?
Who knows how long thy transmigrating soul
Might from Boeotian to Boeotian roll ? 12

How many Dutchmen she vouchsafed to thrid ?
How many stages through old monks she rid?
And all who since, in mild benighted days,
Mix'd the owl's ivy with the poet's bays.13
As man's meanders to the vital spring

Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring;1

Dennis, Oldmixon, Welsted, have passed it in silence. I have also stumbled at it, and wondered how an error so manifest could escape such accurate persons. I dare assert, it proceeded originally from the inadvertency of some transcriber, whose head ran on the pillory, mentioned two lines before; it is therefore amazing that Mr. Curll himself should overlook it! Yet that scholiast takes not the least notice hereof. That the learned Mist also reads it thus, is plain from his ranging this passage among those in which our author was blamed for personal satire on a man's face (whereof doubtless he might take the ear to be a part); so likewise Concanen, Ralph, the Flying Post, and all the herd of commentators.-Tota armenta sequuntur. A very little sagacity (which all these gentlemen therefore wanted) will restore us to the true sense of the poet; thus,

By his broad shoulders known, and length of years."

See how easy a change, of one single letter! That Mr. Settle was old, is most certain; but he was (happily) a stranger to the pillory. This note partly Mr. Theobald's, partly Scribl.

12 Boeotia lay under the ridicule of the wits formerly, as Ireland does now, though it produced one of the greatest poets, and one of the greatest generals of Greece:

Inter victrices hederam tibi serpere lauros."-Virg. Ecl. viii. 14 [This couplet formed part of Pope's boyish Epic, which he burned.]