Which, as more pond'rous, made its aim more true, 175 Or quite unravel all the reasoning thread, 180 185 Some demon stole my pen (forgive the offence) And once betray'd me into common sense: Else all my prose and verse were much the same; This, prose on stilts; that, poetry fall'n lame. 190 Did on the stage my fops appear confined? My life gave ampler lessons to mankind. Yet sure, had Heaven decreed to save the state,32 195 This imagery and illustration are inimitable. Pope had used the same simile before, in his corrections of some of Wycherley's pieces. I need not say, that the "byass" is a small piece of lead in a bowl, which prevents its swerving at first, but which, when the force of the direction is spent, makes the bowl" obliquely waddle to the mark."-Bowles.] 31 [To the edition of 1735, Pope added the following note:-" The thought of these four verses is found in a poem of our author's of a very early date, (namely, writ at fourteen years old, and soon after printed, entitled, "To the Author of a Poem called Successio,") where they stand thus: "The heaviest Muse the swiftest course has gone, As clocks run fastest when most lead is on. So, forced from engines lead itself can fly, And pond'rous slugs move nimbly through the sky!" We have not met with any publication of the poem on Settle before that in Lintot's Miscellany, 1712.] 82 "Me si cœlicolæ voluissent ducere vitam, Has mihi servâssent sedes."-Virg. Æneid, ii. Could Troy be saved by any single hand, This grey-goose weapon must have made her stand.33 What can I now? my Fletcher cast aside, Take up the Bible, once my better guide 234 200 Or tread the path by venturous heroes trod, This box my thunder, this right-hand my god ?35 Or chair'd at White's amidst the doctors sit, 205 210 Or rob Rome's ancient geese of all their glories, To serve his cause, O queen! is serving thine. And see thy very gazetteers give o'er, 215 Ev'n Ralph repents, and Henley writes no more.36 What then remains? Ourself. Still, still remain This brazen brightness, to the 'squire so dear; This polished hardness, that reflects the peer : 220 This arch absurd, that wit and fool delights; This mess, toss'd up of Hockley-hole and White's ; Where dukes and butchers join to wreathe my crown, Defendi possent, etiam hâc defensâ fuissent."-Virg. ibid. 34 [When Theobald was hero of the poem, these lines stood thus: But what can I, my Flaccus, cast aside? Take up the Attorney's (once my better) guide." Cibber being intended for the Church, the Bible was subsequently brought in.] 35 "Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro." Virgil of the Gods of Mezentius. 86 [Ralph and Henley reappear in the future stages of the poem, and some account of them will be found in the notes.] O born in sin, and forth in folly brought !37 225 230 37 In the former edition, 66 Adieu, my children! better thus expire Unstall'd, unsold; thus glorious mount in fire, Or wafting ginger, round the streets to run, With that he lifted thrice the sparkling brand, "O born in sin," &c. This is a tender, passionate apostrophe to his own works, which he is going to sacrifice, agreeable to the nature of man in great affliction; and reflecting, like a parent, on the many miserable fates to which they would otherwise be subject. 38 "Fælix Priamëia virgo! Jussa mori: quæ fortitus non pertulit ullos, Nec victoris heri tetigit captiva cubile! Nos, patria incensa, diversa per æquora vectæ," &c. Virg. Eneid, iii. 39 It was a practice so to give the "Daily Gazetteer" and ministerial pamphlets (in which this B. was a writer), and to send them post-free to all the towns in the kingdom. [Bland was the Provost of Eton.] 40 "Edward Ward, a very voluminous poet in Hudibrastic verse, but best known by the London Spy, in prose. He has of late years kept a public house in the City (but in a genteel way), and with his wit, humour, and good liquor (ale), afforded his guests a pleasurable entertainment, especially those of the high-church party."-Jacob, Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 225. Great numbers of his works were yearly sold into the Plantations. Ward, in a book called Apollo's Maggot, declared this account to be a great falsity, protesting that his public house was not in the City, but in Moorfields. [Mr. Bowles quotes Ward's reply:-" The only excuse made in the Preface to the Dunciad, for the scurrilous liberties taken by the author of that murderous * Waller on the Navy: "Those towers of oak o'er fertile plains may go, Not sulphur tipp'd, emblaze an alehouse fire; SHADWELL. 235 Or peaceably forgot, at once be blest 240 poem, is, that no man living is attacked, who had not before printed and published against this particular gentleman, meaning the author. This apology, at first sight, may seem to the friendly reader no less than reasonable; but, in short, his unguarded assertion, though expressed in positive terms, without the least exception, happens to fall under the misfortune of being utterly false; for the author of the following poem (against Pope, under the name of Durgen), in answer to his general charge, does solemnly protest, that he never, till now, wrote a line that could give to the little gentleman the least provocation."] Tate-Shadwell, two of his predecessors in the Laurel. With that, a tear (portentous sign of grace!) 42 Roused by the light, old Dulness heaved the head, Then snatch'd a sheet of Thulè from her bed; 245 250 255 42 In the former edition : "Now flames old Memnon, now Rodrigo burns, In one quick flash see Proserpine expire, And last, his own cold Eschylus took fire. Then gush'd the tears, as from the Trojan's eyes, Memnon, a hero in the Persian Princess, very apt to take fire, as appears by these lines, with which he begins the play : "By heaven it fires my frozen blood with rage, And makes it scald my aged trunk." Rodrigo, the chief personage of the Perfidious Brother (a play written between Tibbald and a watchmaker). The Rape of Proserpine, one of the farces of this author, in which Ceres, setting fire to a corn-field, endangered the burning of the play-house. He had been (to use an expression of our poet) about Eschylus for ten years, and had received subscriptions for the same, but then went about other books. The character of this tragic poet is fire and boldness in a high degree, but our author supposes it very much cooled by the translation; upon sight of a specimen of which was made this epigram: "Alas! poor Eschylus! unlucky dog! Whom once a lobster kill'd, and now a log!" But this is a grievous error, for Eschylus was not slain by the fall of a lobster on his head, but of a tortoise, teste. Val. Max. 1. ix. cap. 12.Scriblerus. 43 [The names in the text are those of plays by Cibber; those in the note refer to works by Theobald.] |