Chapter 23

[23] 'The patriot's cloak:' this is a true story, which happened in the reign of William III. to an unsuspected old patriot, who coming out at the back-door from having been closeted by the king, where he had received a large bag of guineas, the bursting of the bag discovered his business there.--P.

[24] 'Ship off senates:' alludes to several ministers, counsellors, and patriots banished in our times to Siberia, and to that more glorious fate of the Parliament of Paris, banished to Pontoise in the year 1720.--P.

[25] 'Coals:' some misers of great wealth, proprietors of the coal-mines, had entered at this time into an association to keep up coals to an extravagant price, whereby the poor were reduced almost to starve, till one of them, taking the advantage of underselling the rest, defeated the design. One of these misers was worth ten thousand, another seven thousand a-year.--P.

[26] 'Colepepper:' Sir William Colepepper, Bart., a person of an ancient family and ample fortune, without one other quality of a gentleman, who, after ruining himself at the gaming table, passed the rest of his days in sitting there to see the ruin of others; preferring to subsist upon borrowing and begging, rather than to enter into any reputable method of life, and refusing a post in the army which was offered him.--P.

[27] 'Turner:' a miser of the day.

[28] 'Hopkins:' a citizen whose rapacity obtained him the name of Vulture Hopkins.--P.

[29] 'Japhet:' Japhet Crook, alias Sir Peter Stranger, was punished with the loss of those parts, for having forged a conveyance of an estate to himself.--P.

[30] 'Endow a college or a cat:' a famous Duchess of Richmond, in her last will, left considerable legacies and annuities to her cats.--P.

[31] 'Bond:' the director of a charitable corporation.

[32] 'To live on venison:' in the extravagance and luxury of the South-sea year, the price of a haunch of venison was from three to five pounds.--P.

[33] 'General excise:' many people, about the year 1733, had a conceit that such a thing was intended, of which it is not improbable this lady might have some intimation.--P.

[34] 'Wise Peter:' an attorney who made a large fortune.

[35] 'Rome's great Didius:' a Roman lawyer, so rich as to purchase the Empire when it was set to sale upon the death of Pertinax.--P.

[36] 'Blunt:' one of the first projectors of the South-sea scheme.

[37] 'Oxford's better part:' Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford--P.

[38] 'The Man of Ross:' the person here celebrated, who, with a small estate, actually performed all these good works, and whose true name was almost lost (partly by the title of the Man of Ross, given him by way of eminence, and partly by being buried without so much as an inscription) was called Mr John Kyrle. He effected many good works, partly by raising contributions from other benevolent persons. He died in the year 1724, aged 90, and lies interred in the chancel of the church of Ross, in Herefordshire.--P.

[39] 'Go search it there:' the parish register.

[40] 'Eternal buckle takes in Parian stone:' the poet ridicules the wretched taste of carving large periwigs on bustos, of which there are several vile examples in the tombs at Westminster and elsewhere.--P.

[41] 'Great Villiers lies:' this lord, yet more famous for his vices than his misfortunes, after having been possessed of about L.50,000 a-year, and passed through many of the highest posts in the kingdom, died in the year 1687, in a remote inn in Yorkshire, reduced to the utmost misery.--P.

[42] 'Shrewsbury:' the Countess of Shrewsbury, a woman abandoned to gallantries. The earl, her husband, was killed by the Duke of Buckingham in a duel; and it has been said, that during the combat she held the duke's horse in the habit of a page.--P.

[43] 'Cutler:' a notorious miser.

[44] 'Where London's column:' the monument, built in memory of the fire of London, with an inscription, importing that city to have been burnt by the Papists.

[45] 'Topham:' a gentleman famous for a judicious collection of drawings.--P.

[46] 'Hearne:' the antiquarian.

[47] 'Ripley:' this man was a carpenter, employed by a first minister, who raised him to an architect, without any genius in the art; and after some wretched proofs of his insufficiency in public buildings, made him comptroller of the Board of Works.--P.

[48] 'Bubo:' Bubb Doddington, who had just finished a mansion at Eastbury.

[49] 'Dr Clarke:' Dr S. Clarke's busto placed by the Queen in the Hermitage, while the doctor duly frequented the court.--P.

[50] 'Timon's villa:' Cannons, the estate of Lord Chandos. See Life.

[51] 'Verrio or Laguerre:' Verrio (Antonio) painted many ceilings, &c., at Windsor, Hampton Court, &c; and Laguerre at Blenheim Castle, and other places.--P.

[52] 'Who never mentions hell:' this is a fact; a reverend Dean, preaching at court, threatened the sinner with punishment in 'a place which he thought it not decent to name in so polite an assembly.'--P.

[53] 'Sancho's dread doctor:' see 'Don Quixote,' chap, xlvii.--P.

[54] This was originally written in the year 1715, when Mr Addison intended to publish his book of medals; it was sometime before he was Secretary of State; but not published till Mr Tickell's edition of his works; at which time the verses on Mr Craggs, which conclude the poem, were added, viz., in 1720.--P.

[55] 'Vadius:' see his history, and that of his shield, in the 'Memoirs of Scriblerus,' ch. ii.

[56] Alemena, mother of Hercules, is after his death here recounting her misfortunes to Iole, who replies by narrating the transformations of her sister Dryope.

[57] Such sons: Eteocles and Polynices.

[58] The Marchantes Tale. Written at sixteen or seventeen years of age.

[59] The first part of this prologue was written by Pope, the conclusion by Mallet.

[60] Shows a cap with ears.

[61] Flings down the cap, and exit.

[62] 'Basset-Table:' only this of all the Town Eclogues was Mr Pope's, and is here printed from a copy corrected by his own hand. The humour of it consists in this, that the one is in love with the game, and the other with the sharper--W.

[63] 'The Lady Frances Shirley:' a lady whose great merit Mr Pope took a real pleasure in celebrating.

[64] 'Bertrand's:' a famous toy-shop at Bath.

[65] 'Fool or ass:' 'The Dunciad.'--P.

[66] 'Flattery or fib:' the 'Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot.'--P.

[67] 'Arms:' such toys being the usual presents from lovers to their mistresses.--P.

[68] 'Print:' when she delivers Aeneas a suit of heavenly armour.--P.

[69] 'Truth nor lies:' if you have neither the courage to write satire, nor the application to attempt an epic poem. He was then meditating on such a work.--P.

[70] 'Algerian grot:' alluding to Numa's projecting his system of politics in this grot, assisted, as he gave out, by the goddess Aegeria.--P.

[71] 'What-d'ye-call-it:' a comedy by Gay.

[72] 'Turk:' Ulrick, the Turk.

[73] 'Pope:' the author.

[74] 'Bellenden, Lepell, and Griffin:' ladies of the Court of the Princess Caroline.

[75] 'Blunderland:' Ireland.

[76] 'Meadows:' see verses to Mrs Howe.

[77] 'God send the king safe landing:' this ballad was written anno 1717.

[78] 'Philips:' Ambrose Philips.

[79] 'Budgell:' Eustace Budgell.

[80] 'Carey:' Henry Carey.

[81] 'Mrs Pulteney:' the daughter of John Gumley of Isleworth, who acquired his fortune by a glass manufactory.

[82] 'Sandys:' George Sandy's, the old, and as yet unequalled, translator of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

[83] 'Jacob's:' old Jacob Tonson, the publisher of the Metamorphoses.

[84] 'P----:' perhaps Pembroke.

[85] 'Umbra:' intended, it is said, for Ambrose Philips.

[86] 'Only Johnson:' Charles Johnson, a second-rate dramatist.

[87] 'The Man Mountain:' this Ode, and the three following pieces, were produced by Pope on reading 'Gulliver's Travels.'

[88] 'Biddel:' name of a sea captain mentioned in Gulliver's Travels.

[89] 'Pannel:' name of a sea captain mentioned in Gulliver's Travels.

[90] 'B----:' Britain.

[91] 'C----:' Cobham.

[92] 'P----'s: Pulteney's.

[93] 'S----:' Sandys.

[94] 'S----:' Shippen.

[95] 'C----:' Perhaps the Earl of Carlisle.

[96] 'Ch---s W----:' Sir Charles Hanbury Williams.

[97] 'Sir Har-y or Sir P----:' Sir Henry Oxenden or Sir Paul Methuen.

[98] 'G---r, C---m, B---t:' Lords Gower, Cobham, and Bathurst.

[99] 'C---d:' Chesterfield.

[100] 'C---t:' Lord Carteret.

[101] 'P----:' William Pulteney, created in 1742 Earl of Bath.

[102] 'W----:' Walpole.

[103] 'H----:' either Sir Robert's brother Horace, who had just quitted his embassy at the Hague, or his son Horace, who was then on his travels.

[104] 'W----:' W. Winnington.

[105] 'Young:' Sir William Young.

[106] 'Bub:' Dodington.

[107] 'H----:' probably Hare, Bishop of Chicester.

[108] 'F----, H---y:' Fox and Henley.

[109] 'H---n:' Hinton.

[110] 'Ebor:' Blackburn, Archbishop of York, and Hoadley, Bishop of Winchester.

[111] 'O---w:' Onslow, Speaker of the House of Commons, and the Earl of Delawar, Chairman of the Committees of the House of Lords.

[112] 'N----:' Newcastle.

[113] 'D----'s sager:' Dorset; perhaps the last word should be _sneer_.

[114] 'M----'s:' Duke of Marlborough.

[115] 'J----'s:' Jekyll.

[116] 'H---k's:' Hardwick.

[117] 'C----:' probably Sir John Cummins, Lord Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas.

[118] 'B----:' Britain.

[119] 'S---w:' Earl of Scarborough.

[120] 'M-m-t's:' Marchmont.

[121] 'P---th:' Polwarth, son to Lord Marchmont.

[122] 'W---m:' Wyndham.

[123] 'Sl---s:' slaves.

[124] 'Se---s:' senates.

[125] 'Ad....:' administration.

[126] King's.

[127] 'Religion:' an allusion perhaps to Frederick Prince of Wales.

[128] 'First Book of Horace:' attributed to Pope.

[129] The person here meant was Dr Robert Friend, head master of Westminster School.

[130] The Misses Lisle.

[131] There occurred here originally the following lax stanza:--

Can sins of moment claim the rod Of everlasting fires?

[132] And that offend great nature's God, Which nature's self inspires.--See Boswell's 'Johnson.'

[133] This gentleman was of Scotland, and bred at the university of Utrecht, with the Earl of Mar. He served in Spain under Earl Rivers. After the peace, he was made one of the Commissioners of the Customs in Scotland, and then of Taxes in England, in which having shewn himself for twenty years diligent, punctual, and incorruptible, though without any other assistance of fortune, he was suddenly displaced by the minister in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and died two months after, in 1741.--P.

[134] Giles Jacob's Lives of Poets, vol. ii. in his Life.

[135] Dennis's Reflections on the Essay on Criticism.

[136] Dunciad Dissected, p. 4.

[137] Guardian, No. 40.

[138] Jacob's Lives, &c. vol. ii.

[139] Dunciad Dissected, p. 4.

[140] Farmer P--- and his Son.

[141] Dunciad Dissected.

[142] Characters of the Times, p. 45.

[143] Female Dunciad, p. ult.

[144] Dunciad Dissected.

[145] Roome, Paraphrase on the 4th of Genesis, printed 1729.

[146] Character of Mr Pope and his Writings, in a Letter to a Friend, printed for S. Popping, 1716, p. 10. Curll, in his Key to the Dunciad (first edition, said to be printed for A. Dodd), in the 10th page, declared Gildon to be author of that libel; though in the subsequent editions of his Key he left out this assertion, and affirmed (in the Curlliad, p. 4 and 8) that it was written by Dennis only.

[147] Reflections, Critical and Satirical, on a Rhapsody called An Essay on Criticism. Printed for Bernard Lintot, 8vo.

[148] Essay on Criticism in prose, 8vo, 1728, by the author of the Critical History of England.

[149] Preface to his Poems, p.18, 53.

[150] Spectator, No. 253.

[151] Letter to B. B. at the end of the Remarks on Pope's Homer, 1717.

[152] Printed 1728, p. 12.

[153] Alma, canto 2.

[154] In his Essays, vol. i., printed for E. Curll.

[155] Censor, vol. ii. n. 33.

[156] _Vide_ preface to Mr Tickel's translation of the first book of the Iliad, 4to. Also _vide_ Life.

[157] Daily Journal, March 18, 1728.

[158] Ibid, April 3, 1728.

[159] Verses to Mr Pope on his translation of Homer.

[160] Poem prefixed to his works.

[161] In his poems, printed for B. Lintot.

[162] Universal Passion, Satire i.

[163] In his Poems, and at the end of the Odyssey.

[164] The names of two weekly papers.

[165] Theobald, Letter in Mist's Journal, June 22, 1728.

[166] Smedley, Preface to Gulliveriana, p. 14, 16.

[167] Gulliveriana, p. 332.

[168] Anno 1723.

[169] Anno 1729.

[170] Preface to Remarks on the Rape of the Lock, p. 12, and in the last page of that treatise.

[171] Pages 6, 7 of the Preface, by Concanen, to a book entitled, A Collection of all the Letters, Essays, Verses, and Advertisements occasioned by Pope and Swift's Miscellanies. Printed for A. Moore, 8vo, 1712.

[172] Key to the Dunciad, third edition, p. 18.

[173] A list of persons, &c., at the end of the forementioned Collection of all the Letters, Essays, &c.

[174] Introduction to his Shakspeare Restored, in 4to, p. 3.

[175] Commentary on the Duke of Buckingham's Essay, 8vo, 1721, p. 97, 98.

[176] In his prose Essay on Criticism.

[177] Printed by J. Roberts, 1742, p. 11.

[178] Battle of Poets, folio, p. 15.

[179] Printed under the title of the Progress of Dulness, duodecimo, 1728.

[180] Cibber's Letter to Mr Pope, p. 9, 12.

[181] In a letter under his hand, dated March 12, 1733.

[182] Dennis's Preface to his Reflections on the Essay on Criticism.

[183] Preface to his Remarks on Homer.

[184] Remarks on Homer, p. 8, 9.

[185] Ibid, p. 8.

[186] Character of Mr Pope, p. 7.

[187] Ibid, p. G.

[188] Gulliver, p. 886.

[189] Cibber's Letter to Mr. Pope, p. 19.

[190] Burnet Homerides, p. 1 of his Translation of the Iliad.

[191] The London and Mist's Journals, on his undertaking of the Odyssey.

[192] Vide Bossu, Du Poeme Epique, ch. viii.

[193] Bossu, chap. vii.

[194] Book i. ver. 32, &c.

[195] Ver. 45 to 54.

[196] Ver. 57 to 77.

[197] Ver. 80.

[198] Ibid, chap, vii., viii.

[199] Bossu, chap. viii. Vide Aristot. Poetic, chap. ix.

[200] Cibber's Letter to Mr Pope, pp. 9, 12, 41.

[201] See his Essays.

[202] Si nil Heros Poetique doit etre un honnete homme. Bossu, du Poeme Epique, lib. v. ch. 5.

[203] Dedication to the Life of C. C.

[204] Life, p. 2, 8vo edition.

[205] Life, ibid.

[206] Life, p. 23, 8vo.

[207] Alluding to these lines in the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot:

'And has not Colley still his lord and whore, His butchers, Henley, his freemasons, Moore?'

[208] Letter to Mr Pope, p. 46.

[209] P. 31.

[210] Life, p. 23, 24.

[211] Letter, p. 8.

[212] Letter, p. 53.

[213] Letter, p. 1.

[214] Don Quixote, Part ii. book ii. ch. 22.

[215] See Life, p. 148.

[216] Life, p. 149.

[217] p. 424.

[218] p. 366.

[219] p. 457.

[220] p. 18.

[221] p. 425.

[222] pp. 436, 437.

[223] p. 52.

[224] p. 47.

[225] p. 57.

[226] pp. 58, 59.

[227] A statuary.

[228] Life, p. 6.

[229] p. 424.

[230] p. 19.

[231] Life, p. 17.

[232] Ibid. p. 243, 8vo edition.

[233] Ovid, of the serpent biting at Orpheus's head.

[234] 'The Dunciad:' _sic_ MS. It may well be disputed whether this be a right reading. Ought it not rather to be spelled Dunceiad, as the etymology evidently demands? Dunce with an _e_, therefore Dunceiad with an _e_? That accurate and punctual man of letters, the restorer of Shakespeare, constantly observes the preservation of this very letter _e_, in spelling the name of his beloved author, and not like his common careless editors, with the omission of one, nay, sometimes of two _e's_ (as Shakspear), which is utterly unpardonable. 'Nor is the neglect of a single letter so trivial as to some it may appear; the alteration whereof in a learned language is an achievement that brings honour to the critic who advances it; and Dr Bentley will be remembered to posterity for his performances of this sort, as long as the world shall have any esteem for the remains of Menander and Philemon.'--_Theobald_.

This is surely a slip in the learned author of the foregoing note, there having been since produced by an accurate antiquary, an autograph of Shakspeare himself, whereby it appears that he spelled his own name without the first _e_. And upon this authority it was, that those most critical curators of his monument in Westminster Abbey erased the former wrong reading, and restored the true spelling on a new piece of old Egyptian granite. Nor for this only do they deserve our thanks, but for exhibiting on the same monument the first specimen of an edition of an author in marble; where (as may be seen on comparing the tomb with the book), in the space of five lines, two words and a whole verse are changed, and it is to be hoped will there stand, and outlast whatever hath been hitherto done in paper; as for the future, our learned sister University (the other eye of England) is taking care to perpetuate a total new Shakspeare, at the Clarendon press.--_Bentl_.

It is to be noted, that this great critic also has omitted one circumstance: which is, that the inscription with the name of Shakspeare was intended to be placed on the marble scroll to which he points with his hand; instead of which it is now placed behind his back, and that specimen of an edition is put on the scroll, which indeed Shakspeare hath great reason to point at.--_Anon_.

Though I have as just a value for the letter _e_ as any grammarian living, and the same affection for the name of this poem as any critic for that of his author, yet cannot it induce me to agree with those who would add yet another _e_ to it, and call it the Dunceiade; which being a French and foreign termination, is no way proper to a word entirely English and vernacular. One _e_, therefore, in this case is right, and two _e's_ wrong. Yet, upon the whole, I shall follow the manuscript, and print it without any _e_ at all; moved thereto by authority (at all times, with critics, equal, if not superior to reason). In which method of proceeding, I can never enough praise my good friend, the exact Mr Thomas Hearne; who, if any word occur which to him and all mankind is evidently wrong, yet keeps he it in the text with due reverence, and only remarks in the margin _sic_ MS. In like manner we shall not amend this error in the title itself, but only note it _obiter_, to evince to the learned that it was not our fault, nor any effect of our ignorance or inattention.--_Scriblerus_.

This poem was written in the year 1726. In the next year, an imperfect edition was published at Dublin, and reprinted at London in twelves; another at Dublin, and another at London in octavo; and three others in twelves the same year. But there was no perfect edition before that of London in quarto; which was attended with notes. We are willing to acquaint posterity, that this poem was presented to King George the Second and his queen by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole, on the 12th of March 1728-9.--_Schol. Vet_.

It was expressly confessed in the preface to the first edition, that this poem was not published by the author himself. It was printed originally in a foreign country. And what foreign country? Why, one notorious for blunders; where finding blanks only instead of proper names, these blunderers filled them up at their pleasure.

The very hero of the poem hath been mistaken to this hour; so that we are obliged to open our notes with a discovery who he really was. We learn from the former editor, that this piece was presented by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole to King George II. Now the author directly tells us, his hero is the man

'who brings The Smithfield muses to the ear of kings.'

And it is notorious who was the person on whom this prince conferred the honour of the laurel.

It appears as plainly from the apostrophe to the great in the third verse, that Tibbald could not be the person, who was never an author in fashion, or caressed by the great; whereas this single characteristic is sufficient to point out the true hero, who, above all other poets of his time, was the peculiar delight and chosen companion of the nobility of England, and wrote, as he himself tells us, certain of his works at the earnest desire of persons of quality.

Lastly, the sixth verse affords full proof; this poet being the only one who was universally known to have had a son so exactly like him, in his poetical, theatrical, political, and moral capacities, that it could justly be said of him,

'Still Dunce the second reign'd like Dunce the first.'--_Bentl_.

[235] 'Her son who brings,' &c. Wonderful is the stupidity of all the former critics and commentators on this work! It breaks forth at the very first line. The author of the critique prefixed to Sawney, a poem, p. 5, hath been so dull as to explain 'the man who brings,' &c., not of the hero of the piece, but of our poet himself, as if he vaunted that kings were to be his readers--an honour which though this poem hath had, yet knoweth he how to receive it with more modesty.

We remit this ignorant to the first lines of the Aeneid, assuring him that Virgil there speaketh not of himself but of Aeneas:

'Arma virumque cano, Trojae qui primus ab oris Italiam, fato profugus, Lavinaque venit Littora: multum ille et terris jactatus et alto,' &c.

I cite the whole three verses, that I may by the way offer a conjectural emendation, purely my own, upon each: First, _oris_ should be read _aris_, it being, as we see, Aen. ii. 513, from the altar of Jupiter Hercaeus that Aeneas fled as soon as he saw Priam slain. In the second line I would _flatu_ for _fato_, since it is most clear it was by winds that he arrived at the shore of Italy. _Jactatus_, in the third, is surely as improperly applied to _terris_, as proper to _alto_. To say a man is tossed on land, is much at one with saying, he walks at sea. _Risum teneatis, amici_? Correct it, as I doubt not it ought to be, _vexatus_.--_Scriblerus_.

[236] 'The Smithfield Muses.' Smithfield was the place where Bartholomew Fair was kept, whose shows, machines, and dramatical entertainments, formerly agreeable only to the taste of the rabble, were, by the hero of this poem and others of equal genius, brought to the theatres of Covent Garden, Lincolns-Inn-Fields, and the Haymarket, to be the reigning pleasures of the court and town. This happened in the reigns of King George I. and II. See Book iii.

[237] 'By Dulness, Jove, and Fate:' _i.e._, by their judgments, their interests, and their inclinations.--W.

[238] 'Say how the goddess,' &c. The poet ventureth to sing the action of the goddess; but the passion she impresseth on her illustrious votaries, he thinketh can be only told by themselves.--_Scribl. W_.

[239] 'Daughter of Chaos,' &c. The beauty of this whole allegory being purely of the poetical kind, we think it not our proper business, as a scholiast, to meddle with it, but leave it (as we shall in general all such) to the reader, remarking only that Chaos (according to Hesiod's [Greek: Theogonia]), was the progenitor of all the gods.--_Scriblerus_.