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"And see, my son! the hour is on its way, That lifts our Goddess to imperial sway;

This fav'rite isle, long sever'd from her reign, 125 Dove-like, she gathers to her wings again.

Now look thro' fate! behold the scene she draws! What aids, what armies to assert her cause!

See all her

progeny, illustrious sight!

Behold, and count them, as they rise to light. 130 As Berecynthia, while her offspring vie

In homage to the Mother of the sky,

REMARKS.

Ver. 126. Dove-like, she gathers] This is fulfilled in the fourth book. P.†

"Dove-like, sat'st brooding on the vast abyss." Milton.

Bowles.

Ver. 128. What aids, what armies, &c.] i. e. of poets, antiquarians, critics, divines, freethinkers. But, as this revolution is only here set on foot by the first of these classes, the poets, they only are here particularly celebrated, and they only properly fall under the care and review of this colleague of Dulness, the laureat. The others, who finish the great work, are reserved for the fourth book, when the Goddess herself appears in full glory. W.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 127, 129. Now look through Fate !-See all her progeny, &c.] "Nunc age, Dardaniam prolem quæ deinde sequatur

Gloria, qui maneant Italâ de gente nepotes,

Illustres animas, nostrumque in nomen ituras,

Expediam."

Ver. 131. As Berecynthia, &c.]

Virg. Æneid. vi. P.

"Felix prole virûm; qualis Berecynthia mater
Invehitur curru Phrygias turrita per urbes,
Læta deûm partu, centum complexa nepotes,
Omnes cœlicolas, omnes supera alta tenentes."

Virg. Æneid. vi. P.

Surveys around her, in the blest abode,

A hundred sons, and ev'ry son a God:

135

Not with less glory mighty Dulness crown'd,
Shall take thro' Grub-street her triumphant round;
And her Parnassus glancing o'er at once,

Behold a hundred sons, and each a Dunce.

"Mark first that youth who takes the foremost

place,

And thrusts his person full into your face.
With all thy father's virtues blest, be born!
And a new Cibber shall the stage adorn.

140

"A second see, by meeker manners known, And modest as the maid that sips alone; From the strong fate of drams if thou get free, 145 Another Durfey, Ward! shall sing in thee;

REMARKS.

Ver. 138. and each a Dunce.] Never was there a happier parody! Merum sal-heightened by its allusion to one of the most magnificent passages in Virgil, Anchises shewing to Æneas his future progeny.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 139. Mark first that youth, &c.]

"Ille vides, purâ juvenis qui nititur hastâ,

Proxima sorte tenet lucis loca".

Warton.

Virg. Æn. vi. P.

Ver. 141. With all thy father's virtues] A manner of expression used by Virgil, Ecl. viii.

"Nascere! præque diem veniens, age, Lucifer"

As also that of patriis virtutibus, Ecl. iv.

P.

It was very natural to shew to the Hero, before all others, his own son, who had already begun to emulate him in his theatrical, poetical, and even political capacities. By the attitude in which he here presents himself, the reader may be cautioned against ascribing wholly to the father the merit of the epithet Cibberian, which is equally to be understood with an eye to the son. P.t

Thee shall each ale-house, thee each gill-house

mourn,

And answering gin-shops sourer sighs return.

"Jacob, the scourge of grammar, mark with awe, Nor less revere him, blunderbuss of law.

REMARKS.

Ver. 145. From the strong fate of drams if thou get free,
Another Durfey, Ward! shall shine in thee;]

150

He appears to have consulted Dryden's translation of the verses parodied with so much humour:

"Ah! could'st thou break through fate's severe decree,

Wakefield.

A new Marcellus shall arise in thee." Ver. 149. Jacob, the scourge of grammar, mark with awe,] "This gentleman is son of a considerable maltster of Romsey in Southamptonshire, and bred to the law under a very eminent attorney: who, between his more laborious studies, has diverted himself with poetry. He is a great admirer of poets and their works, which has occasioned him to try his genius that way.-He has writ in prose the Lives of the Poets, Essays, and a great many law-books, The Accomplish'd Conveyancer, Modern Justice, &c.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 145. From the strong fate of drams if thou get free,]

si quâ fata aspera rumpas,

66

Tu Marcellus eris!"

Ver. 147. Thee shall each ale-house, &c.]

GILES

Virg. Æneid. vi.

P.

Virg. Æneid. vii.

"Te nemus Anguitiæ, vitreâ te Fucinus undâ,

Te liquidi flevêre lacus."

Virgil again, Ecl. x.

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Ver. 150.]

illum etiam lauri, etiam flevêre myricæ," &c. P.

Scipiadas, cladem Libya!"

"duo fulmina belli

Virg. Æneid. vi. P.

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 149.] In the first Edit. it was,

Woolston, the scourge of scripture, mark with awe!

And mighty Jacob, blunderbuss of law!

w.t

Lo! Popple's brow, tremendous to the town, Horneck's fierce eye, and Roome's funereal frown.

REMARKS.

GILES JACOB of himself, Lives of Poets, vol. i. He very grossly,
and unprovoked, abused in that book, the author's friend, Mr.
Gay.
P.

Ver. 149, 150. Jacob, the scourge of grammar, mark with awe,
Nor less revere him, blunderbuss of law.]

There may seem some error in these verses, Mr. Jacob having proved our author to have a respect for him by this undeniable argument." He had once a regard for my judgment; otherwise he would never have subscribed Two Guineas to me for one small book in octavo." Jacob's Letter to Dennis, printed in Dennis's Remarks on the Dunciad, p. 49. Therefore I should think the appellation of blunderbuss to Mr. Jacob, like that of thunderbolt to Scipio, was meant in his honour.

Mr. Dennis argues the same way. "My writings having made great impression on the minds of all sensible men. Mr. P. repented, and, to give proof of his repentance, subscribed to my two volumes of select works, and afterwards to my two volumes of Letters."Ibid. p. 80. We should hence believe, the name of Mr. Dennis hath also crept into this poem by some mistake. But from hence, gentle reader! thou may'st beware, when thou givest thy money to such authors, not to flatter thyself that thy motives are goodnature or charity. P.†

Ver. 151. Lo! Popple's brow,] Popple was the author of some vile plays and pamphlets. He published abuses on our author in a paper called The Prompter.

P.t

Ver. 152. Horneck and Roome] These two were virulent partywriters, worthily coupled together, and one would think prophetically, since after the publishing of this piece, the former dying, the latter succeeded him in honour and employment. The first was Philip Horneck, author of a Billingsgate Paper, called The High

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 151. Lo! Popple's brow, &c.] In the former Edd.

Haywood, Centlivre, glories of their race!

Lo! Horneck's fierce, and Roome's peculiar face.

w.t

Lo! sneering Goode, half malice and half whim,
A fiend in glee, ridiculously grim.

Each cygnet sweet, of Bath and Tunbridge race, 155
Whose tuneful whistling makes the waters pass,
Each songster, riddler, ev'ry nameless name,
All crowd, who foremost shall be damn'd to fame.

REMARKS.

High German Doctor. Edward Roome was son of an undertaker for funerals in Fleet-street, and wrote some of the papers called Pasquin, where by malicious inuendos he endeavoured to represent our author guilty of malevolent practices with a great man then under the prosecution of Parliament. On this man was made the following Epigram:

"You ask why Roome diverts you with his jokes,

Yet, if he writes, is dull as other folks ;

You wonder at it.-This, Sir, is the case;

The jest is lost unless he prints his face."

P.

Is it surprising, shall I say, or mortifying, to see the pains and patience of our author and his friends who compiled these large notes, in tracing out the lives and works of such paltry and forgotten scribblers! It is like walking through the darkest alleys of the dirtiest part of St. Giles's. To pull out these literary Cacuses, incendia vana vomentes, from their dark dungeons and deep retreats, was a truly Herculean (though not very heroic) labour. These, in truth, were Avia Pieridum loca! Warton.

Ver. 153. Goode,] An ill-natur'd critic, who wrote a satire on our author, called The mock Esop, and many anonymous libels in newspapers for hire.

Ver. 155. Each cygnet sweet,] Young's Universal Passion, S. 6.

P.

Borrowed from two lines of

"Is there a wit who chants the reigning lass,

And sweetly whistles as the waters pass!"

Warton.

Ver. 156. Whose tuneful whistling] There were several successions of these sort of minor poets, at Tunbridge, Bath, &c. singing the praise of the Annuals flourishing for that season; whose names indeed would be nameless, and therefore the poet slurs them over with others, in general. P.t

Ver. 157. ev'ry nameless name,] Personal satire, on objects so

obscure

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