I sing. Say you, her instruments, the Great! Call'd to this work by Dulness, Jove, and Fate; REMARKS. person injured. Let this serve with the candid reader in justification of the Poet, and, on occasion, of the Editor. This Poem was written in the year 1726. In the next year an imperfect edition was published at DubJin, and re-printed 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 II. 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 VARIATIONS. v. 1. The mighty Mother, &c In the first edition it was thus: Books and the man I sing, the first who brings Say, great Patricians! since yourselves inspire IMITATIONS. Say, great Patricians! since yourselves inspire These wond'rous works---- --Dii coeptis (nam vos mutastis et illas.) Ovid. Met, 1, You by whose care, in vain decry'd and curst, In eldest time, ere mortals writ or read, REMARKS. 10 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 reigns like Dunce the First. IMITATIONS. Bently v. 6 Alluding to a verse of Mr. Dryden, not in Mac Fleckno, (as is said ignorantly in the Key to the Dunciad, p. 1.) but in his verses to Mr. Congieve, "And Tom the second reigns like Tom the + Laborious, heavy, busy, bold, and blind, Still her old empire to restore she tries, O Thou! whatever title please thine ear, 15 Mourn not, my Swift! at ought our realm acquires. 20 25 Close to those walls, where Folly holds her throne, And laughs to think Monroe would take her down, REMARKS. v. 31. by his fam'd father's band.] Mr. Caius-Gabriel Cibber, father of the Poet-laureate. The two statutes of the lunatics over the gates of Bedlam-hospital were done by him, and (as the son justly says of them) are no ill monuments of his fame as an artist. VARIATIONS. After ver. 22. in the MSS. Or in the graver gown instruct mankind, But this was to be understood, as the Poet says, ironice, like the 23d verse. 7. 19. Close to those walls, &c. In the former edit. thus: Where wave the tatter'd ensigns of Rag-fair, A yawning ruin hangs and nods in air; Keen hollow, winds howl thro' the bleak recess, The cave of Poverty and Poetry. Where o'er the gates, by his fam'd father's hand, 31 Great Cibber's brazen, brainless brothers stand, One cell there is, conceal'd from vulgar eye, The cave of Poverty and Poetry: Keen hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recess, 35 Emblem of music caus'd by emptiness: Hence bards, like Proteus long in vain ty'd down, VARIATIONS. v. 41. In the former edit. Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lay, 41 45 v. 42. Alludes to the annual songs composed to music on St. Cecilia's feast. IMITATIONS. v. 41, 42. Hence hymning Tyburn's---Hence, &c.] "Genus unde Latinum, Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae." v. 45. In clouded Majesty.] --"The Moon "Rising in clouded majesty."---- Milton, B. IV. v. 48. ----that knows no fears Of bisses, blows, or want, or loss of ears.] "Quem neque pauperies, neque mors, neque vincula torrent." 'Calm Temperance, whose blessings those partake Who hunger, and who thirst for scribbling sake: Prudence, whose glass presents th' approaching jail; Poetic Justice, with her lifted scale, Where, in nice balance, truth with gold she weighs, Here she beholds the Chaos dark and deep, Here one poor word an hundred clenches makes, IMITATIONS. v. 55. Here she beholds the Chaos dark and deep, Where nameless Something, &c.] 50 55 60 65 That is to say, 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, canto vi. "Within the chambers of the globe they spy Unbinds the glebe, and calls them out to day." v. 64. And ductile Dullness, &c.] A parody on a verse in Garth, canto i. 44 How ductile matter new meanders takes." |