From thy Baotia tho' Her Pow'r retires, Grieve not at ought our fifter realms acquire : 25 Here pleas'd behold her mighty wings out-fpread, To hatch a new Saturnian age of Lead. Where wave the tatter'd enfigns of Rag-Fair, REMARKS. VERSE 23. From thy Baotia] Baotia of old lay under the Raillery of the neighbouring Wits, as Ireland does now; tho' each of thofe nations produced one of the greatest Wits, and greatest Generals, of their age. VERSE 26. A new Saturnian Age of Lead.] The ancient Golden Age is by Poets ftiled Saturnian; but in the Chymical language, Saturn is Lead. VERSE 27. Where wave the tatter'd Enfigns of Rag-fair.] Rag-fair is a place near the Tower of London, where old cloaths and frippery are fold. VERSE 28. 31. &e. Ayawning ruin hangs and nods in air ̧· The Cave of Poverty and Poetry. Hear upon this place the forecited Critick on the Dunciad. "Thefe lines (faith he) have no Conftruction, or are Nonfenfe. The two fhivering Sifters must be the fifter Caves of Poverty and Poetry, or the Bed and Cave of Poverty and Poetry must be the fame, (queftionless) and the two Sifters the Lord knows who? the Conftruction of Grammatical Heads! Virgil writeth thurs: En, 1. Fronte fub adverfa scopulis pendentibus antrum ; Nympharum domus. May we not fay in like manner, "The Nymphs muft be the Waters es and the Stones, or the Waters and the Stones must be the houses of "the Nymphs? Infulfe! The fecond line, Intus aquai, &c. is in a parenthefis (as are the two lines of our Author, Keen hollow Winds, &c.) and it is the Antrum, and the yawning Ruin, in the line before that parenthefis, which are the Domus, and the Cave.. Let me again, I beseech thee Reader, prefent thee with another Conjectural Emendation on Virgil's Scopulis pendentibus: He is here de fcribing a place, whither the weary Mariners of Aneas repaired to drefs their Dinner. Feffi-frugefq; receptas Et torrere parant flammis: What has Scopulis pendentibus here to do? Indeed the aqua dul ces and fedilia are fomething; fweet Waters to drink, and Seats to reft on. The other is furely an error of the Copyifts. Reftore it, withour the leaft for Populis prandentibus. But for the a thousand more, expect our Edition of Virgil; a Specipon who solfes in the Appendix. SCRIBLERUS, i This, the Great Mother dearer held than all 40 Hence the foft fing-fong on Cecilia's day, REMARK S. VERSE 33. The Great Mother.] Magna Mater, here applyed to Dulness. The Quidnunc's was a name given to the ancient Members of certain political Clubs, who were conftantly enquiring, Quid nunc? what news? VERSE 38. Curl's chafte prefs, and Lintot's rubric poft.] Two Bookfellers, of whom fee Book 2. The former was fined by the Court of King's-Bench for publishing obfcene books. VERSE 39. Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lay] It is an ancient English custom for the Malefactors to fing a Pfalm at their Execution at Tyburn, and no lefs cuftomary to print Elegies on their deaths, at the fame time, or before. VERSE 40 and 42. Allude to the annual Songs compofed to Mufick on St. Cecilia's Feaft, and thofe made by the Poet-Laureat for the time being to be fung at Court, on every New-Years-Day, the words of which are happily drown'd in the voices and Inftruments. VERSE 41, Is a juft Satyr on the Flatteries and Falihoods admit ted to be infcribed on the walls of Churches in Epitaphs. I muft not here omit a Reflection, which will occur perpetually through this Poem, and cannot but greatly endear the Author to every attentive Obferver of it: I mean that Candour and Humanity" which every where appears in him, to thofe unhappy Objects of the Ridicule of all mankind, the bad Poets. He here impures all fcan dalous rhimes, fcurrilous weekly papers, lying news, bafe flatteries, wretched elegies, fongs, and verfes (even from thofe fung at Gourt, to ballads in the ftreets) not fo much to Malice or Servility as to Dulness; and not fo much to Dulocfs, as to Neceflity; And thus ac the very commencement of his Satyr, makes an Apology for all that are to be fatyrized. IMITATIONS. VERSE 33. This the Great Mother, &c. An, 1. "Twas here in clouded majefty she shone; Four guardian Virtues, round, fupport her Throne; 45 Fierce champion Fortitude, that knows no fears Of hiffes, blows, or want, or loss of ears: Calm Temperance, whose bleffings those partake Who hunger, and who thirft, for fcribling fake: Prudence, whofe glass presents th' approaching jayl: 50 Poetic Juftice, with her lifted fcale; Where in nice balance, truth with gold she weighs, Here the beholds the Chaos dark and deep, REMARKS. VERSE 48. Who hunger, and who thirk.]" This is an infamous Burlesque on a Text in Seripture, which thews the Author's delight is Prophanefs," (faid Curl upon this place.) But 'tis very familiar with Shakespeare to allude to Pallages of Scripture. Out of a great number I'll felect a few, in which he both alludes to, and quotes the very Texts from holy Writ. In All's well that ends well, I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, I have not much Skill in Grafs. Ibid. They are for the flowry Way that leads to the broad Gate, and the great Fire. Mat. 7. 13. Much ado about nothing: All, all, and moreover God saw him when he was hid in the Garden, Gen. 3. 8. (in a very jocofe Scene.) In Love's Labour loft, he talks of Sampfon's carrying the Gates on his Back; in the Merry Wives of Windfor of Goliah and the Weavers Beam; and in Henry 4, Falstaff's Soldiers are compared to Lazarus and the Prodigal Son, &c. The first part of this Note is Mr. Curl's: The eft is Mr. Theobald's. Shakespear Reftor'd Appendix. p. 144. IMITATIONS. VERSE 43. In clouded Majefty fhe shone.] Milton, lib. 4. — The Moon Rifing in clouded Majefty. VERSE 46. That knows no fears Of hisses, blows, or want, or lofs of ears.] Quem neq; pauperies, neq; mors, neq; vincula terrent. VERSES3. Here he beholds the Chaos dark and deep, where name. lefs fomethings. &c.] That is to fay, unformed things, which are either made into Poems or Plays, as the Bookfellers or the Players bid moft. Thefe lines allude to the following in Garth's Dispensary Cant, 6. Within the chambers of the Globe they fry Unbinds the Globe, and calls them out to daga 55 'Till genial Jacob, or a warm Third-day Call forth each mass, a poem or a play. How Hints, like spawn, fcarce quick in embryo lie, Here one poor Word a hundred clenches makes How Time himself stands ftill at her command, 70 Realms shift their place, and Ocean turns to land. REMARKS. VERSE 61. Here one poor Word a hundred clenches makes.] It may not be amifs to give an inftance or two of thefe Operations of Dulness out of the Authors celebrated in the Poem. A great Critick former ly held thefe Clenches in fuch abhorrence, that he declared, "He that would Pun, would pick a Pocket." Yet Mr. Dennis's works afford us notable Examples in this kind. "Alexander Pope hath fent abroad into the world as many Bulls as his Namefake Pope "Alexander.' Let us take the initial and final letters of his "Surname, viz. A. PE, and they give you the Idea of an Ape Pope comes from the Latin word Popa, which fignifies a "little Wart; or from Poppyfma, because he was continually popping out fquibs of wit, or rather Po-pyfmate, or Po-pifms, DENNIS. Daily-Journal June 11, 1728. VERSE 68. How Farce and Epic. How Time himself, &c.1 Allude to the Tranfgreffions of the Unities, in the Plays of fuch Poers. For the Miracles wrought upon Time and Place, and the mixture of Tragedy, Comedy, Farce and Epic, See Pluto and Proferpine, Po nelope, &c, as yet extant. IMITATIONS. VERSE 62. And ductile dulnefs.] A Parody on another in Garth) Cant. J. How dactile matter new maanders takes, Here gay Description Ægypt glads with showers; All these and more, the cloud-compelling Queen And with her own fools colours gilds them all. 'Twas on the day, when Thorold, rich and grave, Like Cimon triumph'd, both on land and wave: $5 (Pomps without guilt, of bloodlefs fwords and maces, Glad chains, warm furs, broad banners, and broad faces) EMARKS. VERSE 1. Egypt glads with Showers.] In the lower Ægypt Rain is of no ufe, the overflowing of the Nyle being fufficient to im pregnate the foil. Thefe fix veríes reprefent the inconfiftencies in the defcription of Poets, who heap together all glittering and gawdy Images, tho' incompatible in one feafon, or in one fcene.See the Guardian N° 40. printed in the Appendix, Parag. 7. See also Fulden's whole Works (if to be found.) VERSE 83. Twas on the Day when Thorold rich and grave.] Sir George Thorold Lord Mayor of London in the Year 17:0. The Proceffion of a Lord Mayor is made partly by land, and partly by water.— Cimon the famous Athenian General obtained a victory by fea, and another by land, on the fame day, over the Perfians and Barbar ans. VERSE 86. Glad Chains.] The Ignorance of these Moderns! This was altered in one Edition to Gold Chains, fhewing more regard to the metal of which the chains of Aldermen are made, than to the beauty of the Latinifm and Grecifm, nay of figurative speech itself. Lepas fegetes, glad, for making glad, &c. IMITATIONS. SCR. VERSE 49. The Cloud-compelling Queen.] From Homer's Epithet of popiter, νεφεληγερετα Ζέυς. |