So lab'ring on, with shoulders, hands, and head, Wide as a windmill all his figure spread, With legs expanded Bernard urg'd the race, And feem'd to emulate great Jacob's pace. 65 Full in the middle way there ftood a lake, Which Curl's Corinna chanc'd that morn to make, (Such was her wont, at early dawn to drop Her evening cates before his neighbour's fhop,) Here fortun'd Curl to flide; loud fhout the band, 70 And Bernard! Bernard! rings thro' all the Strand. Obfcene with filth the Mifcreant lies bewray'd, Fal'n in the plash his wickedness had lay'd'; REMARKS. VERSE 66.1 Curl's Corinna.] This name it feems was taken by one Mrs. T-, who procured fome private Letters of Mr. Pope's, while almoft a boy, to Mr. Cromwell, and fold them without the confent of either of thofe gentlemen to Curl, who printed them in 12° 1727. He has difcover'd her to be the Publisher in his Key, p. 11. But our Poet had no thought of reflecting on her in this paffage, on the contrary, he has been inform'd the is a decent woman and in misfortunes. We only take this opportunity of mentioning the manner in which thofe Letters got abroad, which the author was afham'd of as very trivial things, full not only of levities, but of wrong judgments of men and books, and only excufable from the youth and inexperience of the writer. VERSE 71. Obfcene with filth, &c.] Tho' this incident may feem too low and bafe for the dignity of an Epic Poem, the learned very well know it to be but a copy of Homer and Virgil, the very words O and Fimus are used by them, tho' our Poet (in compliance to modern nicety) has remarkably enrich'd and colour'd his language, as well as rais'd the verfification, in these two Epifodes. Mr. Dryden in Mac-Fleckno has not fcrupled to mention the Morning Toaft at which the fishes bite in the Thames, Piffing Ally, Reliques of the Bum, Whip ftich, Kifs my &c. but our author is more grave, and (as a fine writer fays of Virgil in his Georgics) toffes about his Dung with an air of Majefty. If we confider that the Exercifes of his Authors could with juftice be no higher than Tickling, Chatt'ring, Braying, or Diving, it was no easy matter to invent fuch Games as were proportion'd to the meaner degree of Book fellers. In Hemer and Virgil, Ajax and Nifus, the Perfons drawn in this plight are Herges, whereas here they are fuch, with whom it had been great impropriety to have join'd any but vile ideas; befides the natural connection there is, between Libellers and common Nufances. Nevertheless I have often heard our author own, that this part of his Poem was (as it frequently happens) what coft him most trouble, and pleas'd him 75 Then firft (if Poets aught of truth declare) Hear Jove! whofe name my bards and I adore, A place there is, betwixt earth, air and seas, REMARKS. leaft: but that he hoped 'twas excufable, fince levell'd at such as underftand no delicate fatire: Thus the politeft men are fometimes obliged to fear, when they happen to have to do with Porters and Oyfter-wenches. VERSE 78. Down with the Bible, up with the Pope's Arms.] The Bible, Curl's fign, the Crofs-keys, Lintot's. IMITATIONS. VERSE 69. Here fortun'd Curl to flide. Virg. Æn. s. of Nisus, Labitur infelix, cafis ut forte juvencis Fufus humum viridesq; super madefecerat herbas VERSE 70. And Bernard, Bernard.] Virg. Ecl. 6. -Ut littus, Hyla, Hyla, omne fonaret. VERSE 79. See Lucian's Icaro-Menippus; where this Fiction is more extended. 12. VERSE id. A place there is, betwixt earth, air and seas] Ovid Mer In office here fair Cloacina ftands, 90 And minifters to Jove with pureft hands; 100 Nor heeds the brown difhonours of his face. And now the Victor ftretch'd his eager hand IMITATIONS. VERSE 88. Alludes to Homer, Iliad s. Ρέα δ ̓ ἄμβροτον αἷμα θεοῖο, Ιχως διός πέρ τε ῥέει μακάρεσσι θεοῖσιν. A ftream of nectarous humour issuing flow'd, Milton. VERSE 89. Cloacina.] The Roman Goddefs of the Common-fhores. VERSE 93. Oft as he fish'd, &c.] See the Preface to Swift and Pope's Mifcellanies. VERSE 96. As oil'd with magic juices.] Alluding to the opinion that there are Ointments us'd by Witches to enable them to fly in the air, &c. VERSE 100. Nor heeds the brown difbonours of his face.] Virg. Æn.5、 •faciem oftentabat, & udo Turpia membra fimo VERSE 103. A shapeless shade, &c.] Virg. Æn. 6. -Effugit imago Par levibus ventis, volucrique fimillima fomno. VERSE 106. His papers light, fly diverfe, toft in air.] Virg. 6, of the Sybils leaves, Carmina - turbata volant rapidis Ludibria Ventis. The perfons mentioned in the next line are fome of those, whose Writings, Epigrams or Jefts, he had own'd, Songs, fonnets, epigrams the winds uplift, And whisk 'em back to Evans, Young, and Swift. Th' embroider'd Suit, at leaft, he deem'd his prey; 110 That fuit, an unpaid Taylor fnatch'd away! No rag, no fcrap, of all the beau, or wit, That once fo flutter'd, and that once so writ. Heav'n rings with laughter: Of the laughter vain, Dulness, good Queen, repeats the jeft again. 115 Three wicked imps of her own Grubstreet Choir "She deck'd like Congreve, Addison, and Prior; Mears, Warner, Wilkins run: Delusive thought! Breval, Befaleell, Bond, the Varlets caught. REMARK S. VERSE III An unpaid Taylor.] This line has been loudly complain'd of (in Mift, June 8. Dedic. to Sawney, and others) as a most inhuman fatire on the Poverty of Poets; but it is thought our author would be acquitted by a Jury of Taylors. To me this inftance feems unluckily chofen; if it be a fatire on any body, it must be on a bad PAYMASTER, fince the perfon they have heré apply'd it to was a man of Fortune. Not but Poers may well be jealous of fo great a prerogative as Non-payment: which Mr. Dennis fo far afferts as boldto pronounce, that if Homer himself was not in debt, it was becaufe no body would truft him." (Pref. to Rem. on the Rape of the Lock, P. 15.) VERSE 116. Like Congreve, Addison, and Prior.] Thefe Authors being fuch whofe names will reach pofterity, we shall not give any account of them, but proceed to thofe of whom it is neceffary. Befaleel Morris was author of fome Satyrs on the Tranflators of Homer (Mr. Tickel and our author) with many other things printed in News-papers. Bond writ a Satyr against Mr. P. Capt. Breval was author of The Confederates, an ingenious dramatic perfor mance, to expofe Mr. P. Mr. Gay, Dr. Arb, and some Ladies of quality. CURL, Key, p. 11. VERSE 117. Mears, Warner, Wilkins.] Bookfellers and Printers of much anonymous stuff. VERSE 118. Breval, Befaleel, Bond] I foresee it will be objected from this line, that we were in an error in our affertion on verfe 46. of this Book, that More was a fictitious name, fince thefe perfons are equally reprefented by the Poet as phantoms. So at firft fight it may feem; but be not deceived, Reader! thefe alfo are not real perfons. 'Tis true Curl declares Breval a Captain, author of a Libel call'd The Confederates: But the fame Curl firft laid it was written by Jofeph Gay: Is his fecond affertion to be credited any more than his firft? He likewife affirms Bond to be one who writ a Satire on our Poet; but where is fuch a Satire to be found? where was fuch a Writer ever heard of? As for Befaleel, it carries Forgery in the very name, nor is it, as the others are, a furname. Thou may'ft depend on it no fuch authors ever lived: All phantoms! SCRIBLERUS. Curl stretches after Gay, but Gay is gone, 120 He grafps an empty Jofeph for a John! So Proteus, hunted in a nobler shape, Became when feiz'd, a Puppy, or an Ape. To him the Goodefs. Son! thy grief lay down, And turn this whole illufion on the town. 125 As the fage dame, experienc'd in her trade,. By names of Toafts retails each batter'd jade, (Whence hapless Monfieur much complains at Paris Of wrongs from Ducheffes and Lady Mary's) Be thine, my ftationer! this magic gift; 150 Cook fhall be Prior, and Concanen, Swift; REMARK S. VERSE 120. Jofeph Gay, a fictitious name put by Curl before fe veral pamphlets, which made them pafs with many for Mr. Gay's. VERSE 124. And turn this whole illufion on the town.] It was a common practice of this Bookfeller, to publish vile pieces of obfcure hands, under the names of eminent authors. VERSE 130. Cook shall be Prior.] The man here specify'd was the fon of a Muggletonian, who kept a Publick-house at Braintree in Effex. He writ a thing call'd, The Battle of Poets, of which Philips and Welfted were the heroes, and wherein our author was attack'd in his moral character, in relation to his Homer and Shakespear: He writ moreover a Farce of Penelope, in the prefice of which alfo he was fquinted at: and fome malevolent things in the British, London and Daily Journals. His chief work was a tranflation of Hefiod, to which Theobald writ notes, and half-notes, as hath already been said. VERSE ibid. And Concanen, Swift.] Matthew Concanen, an Irishman, an anonymous flanderer, and publisher of other men's flanders, particularly on Dr. Swift to whom he had obligations, and from whom he had received both in a collection of Poems for his benefit and otherwife, no fmall affiftance; To which Smedly (one of his brethren in enmity to Swift) alludes in his Metam. of Scriblers p. 7. accufing him of having "boafted of what he had not written, but others had "revis'd and done for him." He was also author of feveral fcurrilities in the British and London Fournais, and of a pamphlet call'd Supplement to the Profund, wherein he deals very unfairly with our Poer, not only frequently blaming Mr. Broome's verfes as his, (for which he might indeed feem in fome degree accountable, having corrected what that gentleman did) but thofe of the Duke of Buckingham and others. To this rare piece, fome-body humorously caus'd him te take for his motto, De profundis calmavi, I 3 |