Withdrew his hand, and clos'd the pompous page1. On whom three hundred gold-capt youths await, But murder first, and mince them all to bits; When Dulness, smiling-"Thus revive the Wits! As erst Medea (cruel, so to save!) A new Edition of old son3 gave; Let standard-authors, thus, like trophies born, 115 120 125 130 So by each Bard an Alderman shall sit, A heavy Lord shall hang at ev'ry Wit, And while on Fame's triumphal Car they ride, Some Slave of mine be pinion'd to their side." Now crowds on crowds around the Goddess press, 135 Each eager to present their first Address. Dunce scorning Dunce beholds the next advance, 140 145 And holds his breeches close with both his hands. the Cambridge Shakspere (Preface, p. xxxiv.) as better indeed than Pope's, inasmuch as many of Theobald's restorations and some probable emendations were introduced, but showing no trace of collation of the earlier Folios or any of the Quartos.] 1 Ver. 114. "What! no respect, he cry'd, for SHAKESPEAR'S page?" 2 Thus revive, &c.] The Goddess applauds the practice of tacking the obscure names of Persons not eminent in any branch of learning, to those of the most distinguished Writers; either by printing Editions of their works with impertinent alterations of their Text, as in the former instances; or by setting up Monuments disgraced with their own vile names and inscriptions, as in the latter. P. and Warburton. 3 old son] Of whom Ovid (very applicable to these restored authors), 'Eson miratur, Then thus. Since Man from beast by Words is known, 150 155 To ask, to guess, to know, as they commence, We hang one jingling padlock on the mind: "Oh" (cry'd the Goddess) "for some pedant Reign! 1 like the Samian letter,] The letter Y, used by Pythagoras as an emblem of the different roads of Virtue and Vice. 'Et tibi quæ Samios diduxit litera ramos.' Pers. [Sat. III. v. 56]. P. and Warburton. 2 Plac'd at the door, &c.] This circumstance of the Genius Loci (with that of the Index-hand before) seems to be an allusion to the Table of Cebes, where the Genius of human Nature points out the road to be pursued by those entering into life. P. and Warburton. 3 to stand too wide.] A pleasant allusion to the description of the door of Wisdom in the Table of Cebes. Warburton. in yonder House or Hall.] Westminsterhall and the House of Commons. P. 5 [Sir William Wyndham, a leading member of the opposition against Walpole, died in 1740.] 6 [Cf. Imit. of Hor. Bk. 11. Ep. ii. v. 154.] 7 [Cf. Imit. of Hor. Bk. 1. Ep. vi.] 8 [Cf. Epil. to Satires, Dial. II. v. 84.] 160 165 170 175 180 9 that Master-piece of Man.] Viz. an Epigram. The famous Dr South declared a perfect Epigram to be as difficult a performance as an Epic Poem. And the Critics say, "an Epic Poem is the greatest work human nature is capable of." P. and Warburton. 10 Some gentle JAMES, &c.] Wilson tells us that this King, James the First, took upon himself to teach the Latin tongue to Car, earl of Somerset; and that Gondomar the Spanish ambassador would speak false Latin to him, on purpose to give him the pleasure of correcting it, whereby he wrought himself into his good graces. This great Prince was the first who assumed the title of Sacred Majesty. Warburton. [Part om.] That which my Priests, and mine alone, maintain, 185 192 [Tho' Christ-church long kept prudishly away 1.] Each staunch Polemic, stubborn as a rock, 195 Each fierce Logician, still expelling Locke 5, Came whip and spur, and dash'd thro' thin and thick On German Crouzaz, and Dutch Burgersdyck. As many quit the streams that murm'ring fall [The theory of the divine right of the sovereign and its absolute independence of the law, was first fully developed in Cowell's Interpreter (1607); and carried out to its logical consequences in Filmer's Patriarca, which has been termed by Gneist the standard of this theory of government under Charles I.] 2 [Prompt at the call,-Aristotle's friends] The Author, with great propriety, hath made these, who were so prompt at the call of Dulness, to become preachers of the Divine Right of Kings, to be the friends of Aristotle; for this philosopher, in his politics, hath laid it down as a principle, that some men were, by nature, made to serve, and others to command. Warburton. 3A hundred head of Aristotle's friends.] The Philosophy of Aristotle hath suffered a long disgrace in this learned University: being first expelled by the Cartesian, which, in its turn, gave place to the Newtonian. But it had all this while some faithful followers in secret, who never bowed the knee to Baal, nor acknowledged any strange God in Philosophy. These, on this new appearance of the Goddess, come out like Confessors, and made an open profession of the ancient faith, in the ipse dixit of their Master. SCRIBLERUS. [Dr Law speaks of the old scholastic method which clung to 'the dull, crabbed system of Aristotle's logic' as still prevailing in our public forms of education a short time before this satire was written (1723). See Mullinger's Essay on Cambridge in the Seventeenth Century.] [Tho' Christ-church] This line is doubtless spurious, and foisted in by the impertinence of the Editor; and accordingly we have put it be tween Hooks. For I affirm this College came as early as any other, by its proper Deputies; nor 200 205 did any College pay homage to Dulness in its whole body. BENTLEY.' P. and Warburton. 5 still expelling Locke,] In the year 1703 there was a meeting of the heads of the University of Oxford to censure Mr Locke's Essay on Human Understanding, and to forbid the reading it. See his Letters in the last Edit. P. [But he was never expelled, only deprived of his studentship at Christ-Church; and this on the ground of political suspicions, before he had written his great Essay.] 6 [The hostility of Pope to Crouzaz is readily accounted for by the attack made by the latter on the Essay on Man. But Pope committed a gross mistake in introducing his adversary among Locke's Aristotelian opponents, as C. had formed his philosophy in the school of Locke. Dugald Stewart, quoted by Roscoe.] 7 the streams] The river Cam, running by the walls of these Colleges, which are particularly famous for their skill in Disputation. P. and Warburton. 8 sleeps in Port.] Viz. "now retired into harbour, after the tempests that had long agitated his society." So SCRIBLERUS. But the learned Scipio Maffei understands it of a certain wine. called Port, from Oporto a city of Portugal, of which this Professor invited him to drink abundantly. SCIP. MAFF. De Compotationibus Academicis. P. and Warburton. [Bentley's quarrel with his College virtually came to an end with the death of the Visitor, bp. Greene, whose right to decide the dispute between the Master and Society he had originally challenged. This event happened in 1738; the quarrel with the University had ended in 1725 by the restoration of all Bentley's rights and degrees by royal mandamus.] 2 Walker with rev'rence took, and laid aside. 9 Let Freind affect to speak as Terence spoke, Be sure I give them Fragments, not a Meal; John Walker, Vice-Master of Trin. Coll. Cambridge, while Bentley was Master. Carruthers. [He laboured faithfully for Bentley, both in literary and personal matters. Thuillier (Corr. of Bentley 11. p. 549) calls him 'dignum tanto Magistro discipulum.'] 2 Aristarchus] A famous Commentator, and Corrector of Homer, whose name has been frequently used to signify a complete Critic. The compliment paid by our Author to this eminent Professor, in applying to him so great a Name, was the reason that he hath omitted to comment on this part which contains his own praises. We shall therefore supply that loss to our best ability. SCRIBL. P. and Warburton. 3[Bentley's editions of Horace and of Paradise Lost, published in 1711 and 1731 respectively.] 4 Critics like me] Alluding to two famous Editions of Horace and Milton; whose richest veins of Poetry he hath prodigally reduced to the poorest and most beggarly prose. SCRIBL. 5 Author of something yet more great than Letter;] Alluding to those Grammarians, such as Palamedes and Simonides, who invented single letters. But Aristarchus, who had found out a double one, was therefore worthy of double honour. SCRIBL. 6 While tow'ring o'er your Alphabet, like Saul, Stands our Digamma,] Alludes to the boasted restoration of the Eolic Digamma, in his long projected Edition of Homer. P. [Bentley 210 215 220 225 230 never lived to finish this crowning work of his life.] 7 of Me or Te,] It was a serious dispute, about which the learned were much divided, and some treatises written: Had it been about Meum or Tuum, it could not be more contested, than whether at the end of the first Ode of Horace, to read, Me doctarum hederæ præmia frontium, or, Te doctarum hedera-. SCRIBL. 8 Or give up Cicero to C or K.] Grammatical disputes about the manner of pronouncing Cicero's name in Greek. Warburton. [Rather, of course, in Latin.] 9 Freind, Alsop] Dr Robert Freind, master of Westminster-school, and canon of Christchurch-Dr Anthony Alsop, a happy imitator of the Horatian style. P. and Warburton. 10 [Author of the Astronomicon-a writer of the Augustan age.] 11 [Author of the Polyhistor, a compilation from Pliny's Natural History.] 12 [The famous lexicographer, of whose work Küster (infra, v. 237) brought out the Cambridge editions.] 13 Suidas, Gellius, Stobæus] The first a Dictionary-writer, a collector of impertinent facts and barbarous words; the second a minute Critic; the third an author, who gave his Common-place book to the public, where we happen to find much Mince-meat of old books. P. and Warburton. The critic Eye, that microscope of Wit, Sees hairs and pores, examines bit by bit: How parts relate to parts, or they to whole, 235 The body's harmony, the beaming soul, Are things which Kuster, Burman, Wasse1 shall see, 'Ah, think not, Mistress! more true Dulness lies 240 In Folly's Cap, than Wisdom's grave disguise. 'What tho' we let some better sort of fool Plague with Dispute, or persecute with Rhyme. Or wed to what he must divorce, a Muse: [A. Gellius' Noctes Attica is little but a scrapbook from other authors, and Stobæus' famous work was Ecloga, or selections from about 500 authors.] 1 Burmann, Küster and Wasse were men of real and useful erudition. Warton. [Burmann is Peter Burmann, who died at Utrecht in 1741, the most illustrious of a family of scholars. [Note 1. p. 411.] Ludolf Küster, of Amsterdam, the editor of Aristophanes and a correspondent of Bentley's, died in 1716.-Joseph Wasse, fellow of Queens' College Cambridge, was co-editor with Jebb, of the Bibliotheca Litteraria (1722); and also edited Sallust.] 2 Barrow, Atterbury] Isaac Barrow, Master of Trinity, Francis Atterbury, Dean of Christchurch, both great Geniuses and eloquent Preachers; one more conversant in the sublime Geometry; the other in classical Learning; but who equally made it their care to advance the polite Arts in their several Societies. P. and Warburton. [Dr Isaac Barrow, the illustrious author of the treatise On the Supremacy of the Pope, 245 250 255 260 265 master of Trinity, Cambridge, with which college 4 Canon here, if spoken of Artillery, is in the plural number; if of the Canons of the House, in the singular, and meant only of one; in which case I suspect the Pole to be a false reading, and that it should be the Poll, or Head of that Canon. It may be objected, that this is a mere Paronomasia or Pun. But what of that? Is any figure of speech more apposite to our gentle Goddess, or more frequently used by her and her Children, especially of the University? Scriblerus. Pope and Warburton. [Part om.] [Some Canon of Christ-Church is evidently alluded to.] 5 These two verses are verbatim from an epigram of Dr Evans, of St John's College, Oxford; given to my father twenty years before the Dunciad was written. Warton. |
