25 From thy Bœotia tho' her pow'r retires, Close to those walls where Folly holds her throne, And laughs to think Monro would take her down. VARIATIONS. Where Ver. 29. Close to those walls, &c.] In the former editions thus: Where wave the tatter'd ensigns of Rag-fair, A yawning ruin hangs and nods in air; The cave of Poverty and Poetry. Var. Where wave the tatter'd ensigns of Rag-fair,] Rag-fair is a place near the Tower of London, where old cloaths and frippery are fold: Var. A yaruning ruin bangs and nods in air; The cave of Poverty and Poetry.] 1 Hear upon this place the forecited Critic on the Dunciad, "These lines (faith he) have no construction, or are nonsense. "The two shivering fifters must be the fifter-caves of Poverty and Poetry, or the bed and cave of Poverty and Poetry muft be the fame, [queftiontess, if they lie in one bed]; and the two fifters the Lord knows who. O the construction of grammatical heads! Virgil writeth thus, Æn. i. Fronte fub adversa scopulis pendentibus antrum : REMARKS. relates to the papers of the Drapier against the currency of Wood's copper coin in Ireland, which, upon the great difcontent of the people, his Majesty was graciously pleased to recal. Ver. 26. Mourn not, my SWIFT, at aught our realm acquires.] Donice iterum. The politics of England and Ireland were at this time by fome thought to be oppofite, or interfering with each other. Dr. Swift of course was in the interest of the latter, our author of the former, Ver. 28. To batch a nerw Saturnian age of lead.] The ancient golden age is by poets styled Saturnian, as being under the reign of Saturn; but in the chemical language Saturn is lead. She is said here only to be spreading her wings to hatch this age; which is not produced completely till the fourth book, Where o'erthe gates, by his fam'd father's hand, 3r The cave of Poverty and Poetry. Keen, hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recess, 35 Of Curl's chaste press, and Lintot's rubric post: 40 VARIATIONS. May we not say in like manner, "The nymphs must be the "waters and the stones, or the waters and the stones must be "the houses of the nymphs?" Infulfe! The second line Intus aquæ, etc. is a parenthesis (as are two lines of our author, Keen bollow winds, etc.); and it is the antrum, and the yawning ruin, in the line before that parenthesis, which are the domus and the cave. Let me again, I beseech thee, reader, present thee with another " conjectural emendation on Virgil's scopulis pendentibus." *He is here describing a place, whither the weary mariners of Æneas repaired to dress their dinner.-"Feffi-frugesque receptas et torrere parant flammis." What has "scopulis pendentibus" here to do? Indeed the aquæ dulces and fedilia are something; sweet waters to drink, and feats to rest on: The other is furely an errour of the copyists. Restore it, without the least scruple, " populis pranden"tibus." But for this and a thousand more, expect our Virgil Restored, vol. 3. SCRIBL. REMARKS. Ver. 31. By bis fam'd father's band,] Mr. Caius Gabriel Cibber, father of the Poet-laureate. The two statues of the Lunatics over the gates of Bedlam-hofpital were done by him, and (as the son justly says of them) are no ill monuments of his fame as an artist. Ver. 34. Poverty and Poetry.] I cannot here omit a remark that will greatly endear our author to every one, who shall attentively observe that humanity and candour, which every where appears in him towards those unhappy objects of the ridicule of all mankind, the bad poets. He here imputes all scandalous rhymes, scurrilous weekly papers, base flatteries, wretched elegies, songs, and verses, (even from those sung at court, to ballads in the streets), not so much to malice or servility as to Dulness; and not fo much to dulness as to necessity. And thus, at the very commencement of his fatire, he makes an apology for all that are to be fatirised, 1 Hence Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines, In clouded majesty here Dulness shone ; 45 Four guardian Virtues, round, support her throne: VARIATIONS. Ver. 41. in the former edit. Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lay, Hence the foft fing-fong on Cecilia's day. Fierce Ver. 42. Alludes to the annual fongs composed to music on St. Cecilia's feast.. REMARKS Ver 40. Curl's chafte press, and Lintot's rubric post :) Two bookfellers, of whom fee Book II. The former was fined by the court of King's Bench for publishing obscene books; the latter usually adorned his shop with titles in red letters, Ver. 41. Hence bymning Tyburn's elegiac lines,] It is an ancient English custom for the malefactors to sing a pfalm at their execution at Tyburn; and no lefs customary to print elegies on their deaths, at the fame time, or before. Ver. 42. MAGAZINES:] The common name of those upstart collections in prose and verse; where dulness affumes all the various shapes of folly to draw in and cajole the rabble. The eruption of every miferable scribbler; the dirty scum of every stagnant newspaper; the rags of worn-out nonfenfe and scandal, picked up from every dunghill; under the title of "Ellays, Reflections, "Queries, Songs, Epigrams, Riddles, etc." equally the disgrace of human wit, morality, and common sense. P. Ver. 43. Sepulcbral lies,] Is'a just satire on the flatteries andfalfehoods admitted to be inscribed on the walls of churches, in epitaphs: which occafioned the following epigram. Friend! in your epitaphs, I'm griev'd, Ver. 44 New-year odes,] Made by the Poet laureate for the sime bring, to be fung at court on every new-year's day, the words of which are happily drowned in the voices and inftruments. The new-year odes of the hero of this work were of a IMITATIONS. Ver. 41. 42. Hence bys ning Tyburn's-Hence, etc.] "Genus unde Latinum, "Albanique patres, atque altæ menia Romæ. Virg. Æn. 1, Fierce champion Fortitude, that knows no fears Where, in nice balance, truth with gold she weighs, And folid pudding against empty praise. 55 Here she beholds the Chaos dark and deep, Where nameless Somethings in their causes sleep, Till genial Jacob, or a warm Third day, Call forth each mass, a poem or a play : How hints, like spawn, scarce quick in embryo lie, How new-born Nonsense first is taught to cry, REMARKS. 6a cast diftinguished from all that preceded him, and made a conspicuous part of his character as a writer, which doubtless induced our author to mention them here so particularly. Ver. 50. Wba bunger, and who thirst, etc.] " This is an allusion to a text in scripture, which shews, in Mr. Pope, a de"light in profaneness," said Curl upon this place. But it is. very familiar with Shakespear to allude to passages of Scripture. Out of a great number I will select a few, in which he not only alludes to, but quotes the very text 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 flowery way "that leads to the broad-gate and the great fire," Matth. vii. 13.. In much ado about Nothing, "All, all, and moreover God faw " him when he was hid in the garden," Gen. iii. 8. (in a very jocose scene). In Love's labour Loft, he talks of Samson's carrying the gates on his back; in the Merry Wives of Wind for, of Goliath and the Weaver's beam; and in Henry IV. Falstaff's fol-diers are compared to Lazarus and the Prodigal Son. The first part of this note is Mr. CURL's, the rest is Mr. THEOBALD'S, Appendix to Shakespear Restor'd, p. 144. Ver. 57. Genial Jacob] Tonfon. The famous race of book- fellers of that name. IMITATIONS; Ver. 45. In clouded majesty] the moon. Rising in clouded majesty. Ver. 48. Milton, book iv. "that knows no fears ". Of hisses, blows, or want, or loss of ears:]" "Quem neque pauperies, neque mors, neque vincula terrent, Hor." Maggots Maggots half form'd in rhyme exactly meet, Here one poor word an hundred clenches makes, There motly images her fancy strike, Figures ill-pair'd, and fimilies, unlike. 65 70 How Tragedy and Comedy embrace; REMARKS. Ver. 63. Here one poor word an bundred clenobes makes.] It may not be amiss to give an instance or two of these operations of Dulnefs out of the works of her fons, celebrated in the poem. A great eritic formerly hold, these clenches in such abhorrence, that he declared, " he that would pun, would pick a pocket." Yet Mr. Dennis's works afford us notable examples in this kind: "Alex"ander Pope hath sent abroad into the world as many Bulls as his " namefake Pope Alexander. Let us take the initial and final "letters of his name, viz. A. P-E, and they give you the idea of an Ape, Pope comes from the Latin word Popa, which fig. "nifies a little wart; or from poppysma, because he was continual"ly popping out squibs of wit, or rather Popyfmata, or Popifms." DENNIS On Hom. and Daily Journal, June 11. 1728. Ver. 70. &c. How Farce and Epic - How Time bimself, &c.] Allude to the tranfgreffions of the Unities in the plays of fuch poets. For the miracles wrought upon Time and Place, and the mixture of tragedy and comedy, farce and epic, fee Pluto and Proferpine, Penelope, &c. if yet extant.. IMITATIONS. Ver. 55. Here she bebolds the Chaos dark and deep, That is to fay, unformed things, which are either made into. poems or plays, as the booksellers or the players bid most. These lines allude to the following in Garth's Dispensary, cant. vi. "Within the chambers of the globe they spy The beds where fleeping vegetables lie, Here |