THE DUNCIAD.

BOOK THE SECOND.

ARGUMENT.

The King being proclaimed, the solemnity is graced with public Games, and sports of various kinds; not instituted by the Hero, as by Æneas in Virgil, but for greater honour by the Goddess in person (in like manner as the games Pythia, Isthmia, &r. were anciently said to be ordained by the Gods, and as Thetis herself appearing, according to Homer, Odyss. xxiv. proposed the prizes in honour of her son Achilles). Hither flock the Poets and Critics, attended, as is but just, with their Patrons and Booksellers. The Goddess is first pleased, for her disport, to propose games to the Booksellers, and setteth up the Phantom of a Poet, which they contend to overtake. The Races described, with their divers accidents. Next, the game for a Poetess. Then follow the Exercises for the Poets, of tickling, vociferating, diving: The first holds forth the arts and practices of Dedicators, the second of Disputants and fustian Poets, the third of profound, dark, and dirty Party-writers. Lastly, for the Critics, the Goddess proposes (with great propriety) an Exercise, not of their parts, but their patience, in hearing the works of two voluminous Authors, one in verse, and the other in prose, deliberately read without sleeping: The various effects of which, with the several degrees and manners of their operation, are here set forth; till the whole number, not of Critics only, but of spectators, actors, and all present, fall asleep; which naturally and necessarily ends the games.

BOOK II.

Henley's gilt tub1, or Fleckno's Irish throne 2,
Or that where on her Curls the Public pours 3,
All-bounteous, fragrant Grains and Golden show'rs,

Henley's gilt tub,] The pulpit of a Dissenter is usually called a Tub; but that of Mr Orator Henley was covered with velvet, and adorned with gold. He had also a fair altar, and over it this extraordinary inscription, The Primitive Eucharist. See the history of this person, Book III. [v. 199]. P.

2 Or Fleckno's Irish throne,] Richard Fleckno was an Irish priest, but had laid aside (as himself expressed it) the mechanic part of priesthood. He printed some plays, poems, letters, and travels. I doubt not our Author took occasion to mention him in respect to the poem of Mr Dryden, to which this bears some resemblance, though of a character more different from it than that of the Æneid from the Iliad, or the Lutrin of Boileau from the Défait de Bouts rimées of Sara

zin. P. [It is not known whether Flecknoe had actually died about the time (1682) when Dryden wrote his famous satire, or whether the latter with careless malice gave unenviable notoriety to a harmless living writer, who had to the best of his ability honoured Dryden himself. As to the relations between the Dunciad and Dryden's Satire see Introduction to Dunciad, p. 349.]

It may be just worth mentioning, that the Eminence, from whence the ancient Sophists entertained their auditors, was called by the pompous name of a throne;—ἐπὶ θρόνον τινὸς ὑψηλοῦ μάλα σοφιστικῶς καὶ σοβαρῶς. Themistius, Orat. 1. P.

3 Or that where on her Curls the Public pours,] Edmund Curl stood in the pillory at Charingcross, in March 1727-8. "This (saith Edmund

Great Cibber sate: The proud Parnassian sneer,
The conscious simper, and the jealous leer,
Mix on his look: All eyes direct their rays

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On him, and crowds turn Coxcombs as they gaze:
His Peers shine round him with reflected grace,
New edge their dulness, and new bronze their face.
So from the Sun's broad beam in shallow urns

Heav'n's twinkling Sparks draw light, and point their horns.
Not with more glee, by hands pontific crown'd,
With scarlet hats wide-waving circled round,
Rome in her Capitol saw Querno sit1,
Thron'd on seven hills, the Antichrist of wit.

And now the Queen, to glad her sons, proclaims,
By herald Hawkers, high heroic Games.
They summon all her Race: an endless band
Pours forth, and leaves unpeopled half the land.
A motley mixture! in long wigs, in bags,
In silks, in crapes 2, in Garters, and in Rags,
From drawing-rooms, from colleges, from garrets,
On horse, on foot, in hacks, and gilded chariots:
All who true Dunces in her cause appear'd,
And all who knew those Dunces to reward.

Amid that area wide they took their stand,
Where the tall may-pole once o'er-look'd the Strand.
But now (so ANNE and Piety ordain)

A Church collects the saints of Drury-lane 3.

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With Authors, Stationers obey'd the call,
(The field of glory is a field for all).
Glory, and gain, th' industrious tribe provoke;
And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke.

Curl) is a false assertion-I had indeed the corporal punishment of what the Gentlemen of the long robe are pleased jocosely to call mounting the Rostrum for one hour; but that scene of action was not in the month of March, but in February." And of the History of his being tost in a Blanket, he saith, "Here, Scriblerus! thou leeseth in what thou assertest concerning the blanket; it was not a blanket, but a rug.' Much in the same manner Mr Cibber remonstrated, that his Brothers, at Bedlam, mentioned Book 1. were not Brazen, but Blocks; yet our Author let it pass unaltered, as a trifle that no way altered the relationship. Scriblerus.

Rome in her Capitol saw Querno sit,] Camillo Querno was of Apulia, who, hearing the great Encouragement which Leo X. gave to poets, travelled to Rome with a harp in his hand, and sung to it twenty thousand verses of a poem called Alexias. He was introduced as a Buffoon to Leo, and promoted to the honour of the Laurel; a jest which the Court of Rome and the Pope himself entered into so far, as to cause him to ride on an elephant to the Capitol, and to hold a solemn festival on his coronation; at which it is recorded the Poet himself was so transported as

to weep for joy. He was ever after a constant frequenter of the Pope's table, drank abundantly, and poured forth verses without number. PAULUS Jovius. Some idea of his poetry is given by Fam. Strada, in his Prolusions. P.

2 [The material of an ordinary clergyman's gown. Cf. Moral Essays, Ep. 1. v. 137.

3 ['In front of the spot now occupied by St Mary-le-Strand, commonlycalled the New Church, anciently stood a cross, at which, says Stowe, “ir the year 1294, and other times, the justices itinerant sat without London." In the place of this cross was set up a May-pole, which having been taken down in 1713, a new one was erected opposite Somerset House. This second May-pole had two gilt balls and a vane on the summit, and was decorated on holidays with flags and garlands. It was removed in 1718, probably being thought in the way of the new church which was then being erected. Sir Isaac Newton begged it of the parish, and afterwards sent it to the Rector of Wanstead, who set it up in Wanstead Park to support the then largest telescope in Europe.' Leigh Hunt's Town.]

4 [Stationers, i.e. booksellers.]

A Poet's form she plac'd before their eyes,
And bade the nimblest racer seize the prize;
No meagre, muse-rid mope, adust and thin,
In a dun night-gown of his own loose skin;
But such a bulk as no twelve bards could raise,
Twelve starv'ling bards of these degen'rate days.
All as a partridge plump, full-fed, and fair,
She form'd this image of well-body'd air;
With pert flat eyes she window'd well its head:
A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead;
And empty words she gave, and sounding strain,
But senseless, lifeless! idol void and vain!
Never was dash'd out, at one lucky hit,
A fool, so just a copy of a wit;

So like, that critics said, and courtiers swore,
A Wit it was, and call'd the phantom Moore1.
All gaze with ardour: some a poet's name,
Others a sword-knot and lac'd suit inflame.
But lofty Lintot 2 in the circle rose:
"This prize is mine; who tempt it are my foes;
"With me began this genius, and shall end."
He spoke and who with Lintot shall contend?

Fear held them mute. Alone, untaught to fear,
Stood dauntless Curl3; "Behold that rival here!
"The race by vigour, not by vaunts is won;
"So take the hindmost, Hell," (he said) "and run.'
Swift as a bard the bailiff leaves behind,
He left huge Lintot, and out-stripp'd the wind.
As when a dab-chick waddles thro' the copse

On feet and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops:

So lab'ring on, with shoulders, hands, and head,
Wide as a wind-mill all his figure spread,
With arms expanded Bernard rows his state,
And left-legg'd Jacob seems to emulate.
Full in the middle way there stood a lake,

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[Pope has a note too long for insertion on the sins of this hated personage, James Moore Smythe, the son of Arthur Moore. James was an admirer of Teresa Blount, and intimate with her family, as well as an occasional associate of Pope's literary circle. He was the author of a comedy called the Rival Modes, in which he was accused by Pope of having plagiarised the lines addressed by the latter to Martha Blount on her birth-day. See note ad loc.]

2 But lofty Lintot] We enter here upon the episode of the Booksellers: Persons, whose names being more known and famous in the learned world than those of the Authors in this poem, do therefore need less explanation. The action of Mr Bernard Lintot here imitates that of Dares in Virgil, rising just in this manner to lay hold on a Bull. This eminent Bookseller printed the Rival Modes before-mentioned. P. [Young, in Spence's

Anecdotes, calls Lintot 'a great sputtering fellow.']

3 Stood dauntless Curl;] We come now to a character of much respect, that of Mr Edmund Curl. As a plain repetition of great actions is the best praise of them, we shall only say of this eminent man, that he carried the Trade many lengths beyond what it ever before had arrived at; and that he was the envy and admiration of all his profession. He possessed himself of a command over all authors whatever; he caused them to write what he pleased; they could not call their very Names their own. He was not only famous among these; he was taken notice of by the State, the Church, and the Law, and received particular marks of distinction from each. P. [Part om.]

4 [A dab-chick is a small water-fowl which is constantly dabbling under the water.]

Which Curl's Corinna1 chanc'd that morn to make:
(Such was her wont, at early dawn to drop
Her evening cates before his neighbour's shop,)
Here fortun'd Curl to slide; loud shout the band,

And "Bernard! Bernard!" rings thro' all the Strand.
Obscene with filth the miscreant lies bewray'd,
Fall'n in the plash his wickedness had laid:
Then first (if Poets aught of truth declare)
The caitiff Vaticide conceiv'd a pray'r.

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"Hear, Jove! whose name my bards and I adore,
As much at least as any God's, or more;
And him and his if more devotion warms,
Down with the Bible, up with the Pope's Arms 2."

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A place there is, betwixt earth, air, and seas
Where, from Ambrosia, Jove retires for ease.
There in his seat two spacious vents appear,
On this he sits, to that he leans his ear,
And hears the various vows of fond mankind;
Some beg an eastern, some a western wind:
All vain petitions, mounting to the sky,
With reams abundant this abode supply;
Amus'd he reads, and then returns the bills

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Sign'd with that Ichor which from Gods distils 4.
In office here fair Cloacina 5 stands,

And ministers to Jove with purest hands.

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Forth from the heap she pick'd her Vot'ry's pray'r,
And plac'd it next him, a distinction rare!
Oft had the Goddess heard her servants call,
From her black grottos near the Temple-wall,
List'ning delighted to the jest unclean
Of link-boys vile, and watermen obscene;
Where as he fish'd her nether realms for Wit,
She oft had favour'd him, and favours yet.
Renew'd by ordure's sympathetic force,
As oil'd with magic juices for the course,
Vig'rous he rises; from th' effluvia strong

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1 Curl's Corinna] This name, it seems, was taken by one Mrs T- who procured some private letters of Mr Pope, while almost a boy, to Mr Cromwell, and sold them without the consent of either of those Gentlemen to Curl, who printed them in 12m0, 1727. We only take this opportunity of mentioning the manner in which those letters got abroad, which the author was ashamed of as very trivial things, full not only of levities, but of wrong judgments of men and books, and only excusable from the youth and inexperience of the writer. P. Mrs Elizabeth Thomas was first styled Corinna by Dryden, to whom she sent a copy of verses. She died, in want, in 1730. Carruthers. [On the subject of this unwarranted publication' see Introductory Memoir, p. xxxiii.]

2 Down with the Bible, up with the Pope's

Arms.] The Bible, Curl's sign; the Cross-key's,
Lintot's. P.

3 See Lucian's Icaro-Menippus, where this fiction is more extended. P.

Ver. 92. Alludes to Homer, Iliad v. [v.

339].
ῥέε δ' ἄμβροτον αἷμα Θέοιο,
Ιχώρ οἷος πέρ τε ῥέει μακάρεσσι Θεοῖσιν.
A stream of nect rous humour issuing flow'd,
Sanguine, such as celestial sprits may bleed.
Milton [Par. Lost, Bk. vI. v. 332),

5 Cloacina] The Roman Goddess of the common-sewers. P.

6 Where as he fish'd &c.] See the preface to Swift's and Pope's Miscellanies. P.

7 As oild with magic juices] Alluding to the opinion that there are ointments used by witches to enable them to fly in the air, &c. P.

Imbibes new life, and scours and stinks along;
Re-passes Lintot, vindicates the race,

Nor heeds the brown dishonours of his face.

And now the victor stretch'd his eager hand,
Where the tall Nothing stood, or seem'd to stand;
A shapeless shade, it melted from his sight,
Like forms in clouds, or visions of the night.
To seize his papers, Curl, was next thy care;
His papers light fly diverse, tost in air;
Songs, sonnets, epigrams the winds uplift,

And whisk 'em back to Evans, Young, and Swift1.

Th' embroider'd suit at least he deem'd his prey;
That suit an unpaid tailor snatch'd away.
No rag, no scrap, of all the beau, or wit,
That once so flutter'd, and that once so writ.

Heav'n rings with laughter. Of the laughter vain,
Dulness, good Queen, repeats the jest again.
Three wicked imps of her own Grubstreet choir,
She deck'd like Congreve, Addison, and Prior3;
Mears, Warner, Wilkins run: delusive thought!
Breval, Bond, Besaleel, the varlets caught.
Curl stretches after Gay, but Gay is gone :
He grasps an empty Joseph5 for a John;
So Proteus, hunted in a nobler shape,
Became, when seiz'd, a puppy, or an ape.

To him the Goddess: "Son! thy grief lay down,
And turn this whole illusion on the town":
As the sage dame, experienc'd in her trade,
By names of Toasts retails each batter'd jade;
(Whence hapless Monsieur much complains at Paris
Of wrongs from Duchesses and Lady Maries7;)

1 Evans, Young, and Swift.] Some of those persons, whose writings, epigrams, or jests he had owned. See Note on v. 50. Dr Evans, of St John's College, Oxford, author of the Apparition, a Satire on Tindal. Warton.

2

an unpaid tailor] This line has been loudly complained of in Mist, June 8, Dedic. to Sawney, and others, as a most inhuman satire on the poverty of Poets: But it is thought our Author would be acquitted by a jury of Tailors. To me this instance seems unluckily chosen; if it be a satire on any body, it must be on a bad paymaster, since the person to whom they have here applied it was a man of fortune. Not but poets may well be jealous of so great a prerogative as non-payment; which Mr Dennis so far asserts, as boldly to pronounce, that "if Homer himself was not in debt, it was because nobody would trust him." P.

3 Like Congreve, Addison, and Prior;] These authors being such whose names will reach posterity, we shall not give any account of them, but proceed to those of whom it is necessary.— Besaleel Morris was author of some satires on the translators of Homer, with many other things

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printed in news-papers.-"Bond writ a satire

against Mr P.-Capt. Breval was author of "the Confederates, an ingenious dramatic per"formance, to expose Mr P., Mr Gay, Dr Arb. "and some ladies of quality," says Curl. P.

Mears, Warner, Wilkins] Booksellers, and Printers of much anonymous stuff. P. [As to Breval, see v. 237; Bond's and Besaleel Morris's works seem according to Carruthers to have disappeared.]

5 Joseph Gay, a fictitious name put by Curl before several pamphlets, which made them pass with many for Mr Gay's. P. The antiquity of the word Joseph, which likewise signifies a loose upper-coat, gives much pleasantry to the idea. Warburton. [Wakefield also points out the allusion to Iliad III. 376, and to the story of Ixion embracing a cloud instead of Juno.]

6 And turn this whole illusion on the town:] It was a common practice of this bookseller to publish vile pieces of obscure hands under the names of eminent authors. P.

7 [See note to Epilogue to Satires, Dial. I. v. 112.]