Or that, where on her Curlls the Public pours eyes Thron'd on fev'n hills, the Antichrift of Wit. Pours forth, and leaves unpeopled half the land; REMARKS. VERSE 2. Or Fleckno's Irish Throne] Richard Flecknee was an frith Prieft, but had laid afide (as himself expreffed it) the Mechanick part of Priefthood. He printed fome Plays, Poems, Letters and Travels. I doubt not our Author took occafion to mention him in refpect to the Poem of Mr. Dryden, to which this bears fome resemblance tho' of a character more different from it than that of the Eneid from the Iliad, or the Lurin of Boileau from the Defaite des Bouts rimees of Sarazin. VERSE 3. Or that, where on her Curls the Public pours.] Edm Curl ftood in the Pillory at Charing Cross, in March 1727-8. VERSE 11. Rome in her Capitol fam Querno fit.] Camillo Querna was of Apulia, who hearing the great encouragement which Leo the tenth gave to Poets, travelled to Rome with a Harp in his hand, and fung to it twenty thoufand verfes of a Poem called Alexias. He was introduced as a Buffoon to Leo, and promoted to the honour of the Laurel; a jeft, which the Court of Rome and the Pope himself entred into fo far, as to hold a folemn Feftival on his Coronation, as which it is recorded; the Poet himself was fo tranfported, as to weep for joy. He was ever after a conftant frequenter of the Pope's Table, drank abundantly, and poured forth verfes without number. PAULUS JOVIUS, Elog. Vir. dot. ch. 82. Some idea of his Poetry As given us by Fam. Strada in his Prolufions. IMITATIONS. VERSEI. High on a gorgeous seat.] Parad of Milton, lib. High on a throne of royal flate, that far Quifhone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, A, motley mixture !. in long wigs, in bags,. From drawing rooms, from colleges, from garrets, 20 On horse, on foot, in hacks, and gilded chariots,. All who true duncès in her cause appear'd, And all who knew thofe dunces to reward... Amid that Area wide fhe took her ftand, Where the tall May-pole once o'erlook'd the Strand; 25 But now, fo ANNE and Piety ordain,.. A Church collects the faints of Drury-lane.. With Authors, Stationers obey'd the call, The field of glory is a field for all; Glory, and gain, th' industrious tribe provoke ;. 30 And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke: A Poet's form fhe plac'd before their eyes, IMITATIONS. VERSE 31. Poet's Form fbe plac'd before their eyes ] This is wha Funo does to deceive Turnus, Æn. 10. Tum dea nube cava, tenuem fine viribus umbram, In faciem Anea (vifu mirabile monftrum) Dardaniis ornat telis, clypeumque jubasque Divini affimilat capitis Dat fine mente fonum, ·Dat inania verba, The Reader will obferve how exactly fome of these verfes fuit with their allegorical application here to a Plagiary. There seems to me a great propriety in this Epifode, where fuch an one is imag'd by a phantom that deludes the grafp of the expecting Bookfeller. VERSE 35. But fuch a bulk as no twelve bards.] Virg. 12. Vix illud leti bis fex Qualia nunc hominum producit corpora tellus, And empty words fhe gave, and founding ftrain, 45 So like, that criticks said and courtiers swore, REMARK S. VERSE 43. Never was dash'd out, at one lucky bit] Our author here feems willing to give fome account of the poffibility of Dulness making a Wit, (which could be done no other way than by chance. The fiction is the more reconcil'd to probability by the known ftory of Apelles, who being at a lofs to exprefs the form of Alexander's horfe, dam'd his pencil in defpair at the picture, and happen'd to do it by that fortunate ftroke.. VERSE 46. And call'd the phantom, More.] CURL in his Key to the Dunciad, affirm'd this to be James Moore Smyth, Efq; and it is probable (confidering what is faid of him in the Teftimonies) that fone might fancy our author obliged to reprefent this gentleman as a Plagiary, or to pafs for one himself. His cafe indeed was like that of a man I have heard of, who as he was fitting in company, perceived his next neighbour had ftollen his handkerchief. Sir (faid the Thief, finding himself detected) do not expofe me, I did it for mere want: be fo good but to take it privately out of my pocket "again, and fay nothing." The honeft man did fo, but the other ary'd out, "See Gentlemen! what a Thief we have among us! look, he is ftealing my handkerchief. " Some time before, he had borrowed of Dr. Arburthnof a paper cal. led an Hiftorico phyfical account of the South Sea; and of Mr. Pope the Memoirs of a Parish Clark, which for two years he kept, and read to the Rev. Dr. Toung, Billers, Efq, and many others, ashis own. Being apply'd to for them, he pretended they were loft but there happening to be another copy of the Letter, it came out in Swift and Pope's Mifcellanies. Upon this, it feems he was fo far mistaken as to confefs his proceeding by an endeavour to hide it: un-guardedly printing (in the Daily Journal of April 3. 1728.) That the contempt which he and others had for those two pieces (which only himself had fhown, and handed about as his own) occafioned "their being loft, and for that caufe only, not returned." A fact, of which as none but he could be confcious, none but he could be the publisher of it. This young Gentleman's whole misfortune was too inordinate a paffion to be thought a Wit. Here is a very ftrong inftance, attefted by Mr. Savage fon of the late Earl Rivers; who having fhown fome verfes of his in manufcript 10 Mr. Moore, wherein Mr. Pope was call'd firft of the tuneful train, Mr. Moore the next morning fent to Mr. Sa. Sage to defire him to give thofe verfes another turn, to wit," Thar "Pope might now be the firft, becaufe Moore had left him unrival'd in turning his ftyle to Comedy." This was during the rehearsal of the Rival Modes, his firft and only work; the Town condemned it in the action, but he printed it in 1726-7 with this modeft.Morto. Hie cafus, artemque repone. All gaze with ardour: fome, a Poet's name, "This prize is mine; who tempt it, are my foes REMARK S.. The fmaller pieces which we have heard attributed to this author are, An Epigram on the Bridge at Blenheim, by Dr. Evans; Cofmelia, by Mr. Pit, Mr. Jones, &c. The Mock-marriage of a mad Divine, with a Cl- for a Parfon. by Dr. W. The Saw-Pit, a Simile, by a Friend. Certain Phyfical works on Sir James Baker; and fome un own'd Letters, Advertisements and Epigrams against our author in the Daily Journal. Notwithstanding what is here collected of the Perfon imagined by Curl to be meant in this place, we cannot be of that opinion; fince. our Poet had certainly no need of vindicating half a dozen verfes to himfelf which every reader had done for him; fince the name itself is not fpell'd Moore but More; and laftly, fince the learned Seriblerus has fo well prov'd the contrary. VERSE 46. The Phantom, More.] It appears from hence that this is not the name of a real perfon. but fictitious; More from aç®, fultus, uwela, ftultitia, to reprefent the folly of a Plagiary. Thus Erafmus Admonuit me Mori cognomen tibi, quod tam ad Moriæ vocabu lum accedit quam es ipfe a re alienus. Dedication of Moria Encomion to Sir Tho. More, the Farewell of which may be our Author's to his. Plagiary. Vale More! & Moriam tuam gnaviter defende. Adieu More and be fure ftrongly to defend thy own folly. SCRIBLERUS VERSE 49. But lofty Lintot.]. We enter here upon the episode of the Bookfellers: perfons, whofe names being more known and fa mous in the learned world than thofe of the authors in this Poem, do therefore need lefs explanation. The action of Mr. Lintet here imitares that of Dares in Virgil, rising juft in this manner to lay hold on a Bull. This eminent Bookfeller printed the Rival Modes above mentioned. VERSE 54. Stood dauntless Curl, &c.] We come now to a charac ter of much refpect, that of Mr. Edmund Curl. As a plain repetition. of great actions is the beft praife of them, we fhall only fay 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 admirati on of all his profeffion. He poffeft himself of a command over all au thors whatever, he caus'd them to write what he pleas'd; they could not call their very names their own.. He was not only famous among the 55 "The race by vigor, not by vaunts is won ; He left huge Lintot, and out-ftript the wind. As when a dab-chick waddles thro' the copse, 60 On feet and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops; REMARKS. thefe, he was taken notice of by the State, the Church, and the Law, and received particular marks of diftinction from each. It will be own'd that he is here introduc'd with all poffible dignity: he fpeaks like the intrepid Diomed; he runs like the fwift footed Achilles, if he falls, 'tis like the beloved Nifus; and (what Homermakes to be the chief of all praifes) he is favour'd of the Gods: He fays but three words, and his prayer is heard; a Goddefs conveys it to the feat of Jupiter: Tho' he lofes the prize, he gains the Victory,. the great Mother her felf comforts him, the infpires him with expedients, the honours him with an immortal prefent (fuch as Achilles receives from Thetis and Aneas from Venus) at once inftructive and prophetical: After this, he is unrival'd and triumphant. The tribute our author here pays him, is a grateful return for feveral unmerited obligations: Many weighty animadverfions on the Publick affairs, and many excellent and diverting pieces on private Perfons, has he given to his name. If ever he ow'd two verfes to any other, he ow'd Mr. Curl fome thoufands. He was every day extending his fame, and inlarging his writings: witnefs innumerable in-ftances! but it fhall fuffice only to mention the Court-Poems, which he meant to publish as the work of the true writer, a Lady of quality; but being firft threaten'd, and afterwards punish'd, for it by Mr. Pope, he generously transferr'd it from her to him, and has now printed it twelve years in his name. The fingle time that ever he ipoke to C. was on that affair, and to that happy incident he owes all the favours fince received from him. So true is the faying of Dr. Syden→ Wam, that any one thall be, at fome time or other, the better or the worse, for having but seen or spoken to a good, or a bad man.' IMITATIONS VERSE 54, &c.] Something like this is in Homer, Il. 10. ver.. 220. of Diomed. Two different manners of the fame author in his Similies, are alfo imitated in the two following, the firft of the Bailiff, is fhort, unadorn'd, and (as the Critics well know) from fa miliar life; the fecond of the Water-fowl more extended, picturefque, and from rural life. The syth verfe is likewife a literal tranflation, of one in Homer. VERSE 56. So take the hindmoft-Hell. Horace de Art. Occupet extremum scabies; mihi turpe relinqui eft. VERSE 60. On feet, and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops;. O'er bog, o'er fleep, thro' ftrait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, |