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No meagre, muse-rid mope, adust and thin,
In a dun night-gown of his own loose skin;
But such a bulk as no twelve bards could raise,
Twelve starv❜ling bards of these degen'rate days. 40

REMARKS.

Vir. 39. But such a bulk] Parodies are the chief and constant ornaments of a mock-heroic poem. The many introduced by our author are made with singular pleasantry, happiness, and judgment. The ancients, particularly the Athenians, were fond of parodies; especially such as were made on passages of Homer, with whose works they were so familiarly acquainted. In the fourth book of Athenæus, page 134, of Casaubon's excellent edition, is à parody, consisting of more than one hundred verses, of Matron, whom Eustathius frequently quotes and praises. It is a ridiculous description of a supper. See Fabricius, Bib. Græc. p. 354. B. 1. It is well known how many parodies Aristophanes has given us on Euripides, and other tragedians. Hegemon, says Athenæus, in his ninth book, p. 406, was the first author very famous for parodies; he was called, pann, Lenticula. He was also an excellent actor; and the Athenians were so fond of him, that one day when news was brought of their defeat in Sicily, they would not quit the theatre, but insisted that Hegemon should finish the piece. He was a great favourite of Alcibiades, of whom and Hegemon, Athenæus relates a story worth the reader's perusal; p. 407 of Casaubon's edition. There are some excellent parodies in the Rehearsal, in Bramston's Art of Politics, in the Scribleriad, in the Battle of the Wigs, in the Tale of a Tub, and in the works of Fielding. Warton.

IMITATIONS.

The reader will observe how exactly some of these verses suit with their allegorical application here to a Plagiary. There seems to me a great propriety in this Episode, where such an one is imagined by a phantom that deludes the grasp of the expecting Bookseller.

Ver. 39. But such a bulk as no twelve bards could raise,]
"Vix illud lecti bis sex-

Qualia nunc hominum producit corpora tellus."
VIRG. Eneid. xii.

P.

P.

All as a partridge plump, full-fed, and fair,
She form'd this image of well-bodied air;
With pert flat eyes she window'd well its head;
A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead;

And empty words she gave, and sounding strain, 45
But senseless, lifeless! idol void and vain!
Never was dash'd out, at one lucky hit,

A fool, so just a copy of a wit;

So like, that critics said, and courtiers swore,
A wit it was, and call'd the phantom More.

REMARKS.

Ver. 44. A brain of feathers,] i. e.

"A trifling head and a corrupted heart,"

50

as the Poet, Book iv. describes the accomplished Sons of Dulness; of whom this is only an image, or scarecrow; and so stuffed out with these corresponding materials. SCRIBLERUS.

W.

Ver. 47. Never was dash'd out, at one lucky hit,] Our author here seems willing to give some account of the possibility of Dulness making a wit, which could be done no other way than by chance. The fiction is the more reconciled to probability, by the known story of Apelles, who being at a loss to express the form of Alexander's horse, dashed his pencil in despair at the picture, and happened to do it by that fortunate stroke. P.

Ver. 50. and call'd the phantom More.] CURL, in his Key to the Dunciad, affirmed this to be James-Moore Smith, Esq. and it is probable (considering what is said of him in the Testimonies) that some might fancy our author obliged to represent this gentleman as a plagiary, or to pass for one himself. His case indeed was like that of a man I have heard of, who, as he was sitting in company, perceived his next neighbour had stolen his handkerchief. "Sir, (said the thief, finding himself detected), do not expose me, I did it for mere want; be so good but to take it privately out of my pocket again, and say nothing." The honest man did so, but the other cried out, "See, gentlemen, what a thief we have among us! look, he is stealing my handkerchief!"

Some time before, he had borrowed of Dr. Arbuthnot a paper called an Historico-physical account of the South-Sea; and of Mr.

Pope

All gaze with ardour: some, a poet's name, Others, a sword-knot and lac'd suit inflame.

REMARKS.

Pope, the Memoirs of a Parish Clerk, which for two years he kept, and read to the Rev. Dr. Young, F. Billers, esq. and many others, as his own. Being applied to for them, he pretended they were lost; but there happening to be another copy of the latter, it came out in Swift and Pope's Miscellanies. Upon this, it seems, he was so far mistaken as to confess his proceeding by an endeavour to hide it; unguardedly printing (in the Daily Journal of April 3, 1728,) "That the contempt which he and others had for those pieces" (which only himself had shown and handed about as his own)" occasioned their being lost, and for that cause only not returned." A fact, of which as none but he could be conscious, none but he could be the publisher of it. The plagiarisms of this person gave occasion to the following Epigram:

"More always smiles whenever he recites ;

He smiles (you think) approving what he writes.
And yet in this no vanity is shown;

A modest man may like what's not his own."

This young Gentleman's whole misfortune was too inordinate a passion to be thought a wit. Here is a very strong instance attested by Mr. Savage, son of the late Earl Rivers; who having shewn some verses of his in manuscript to Mr. Moore, wherein Mr. Pope was called first of the tuneful train, Mr. Moore the next morning sent to Mr. Savage to desire him to give those verses another turn, to wit, "That Pope might now be the first, because Moore had left him unrivalled in turning his style to Comedy." This was during the rehearsal of the Rival Modes, his first and only work; the Town condemned it in the action, but he printed it in 1726-7, with this modest motto,

Hic cæstus, artemque repono.

The smaller pieces which we have heard attributed to this author, are, An Epigram on the Bridge at Blenheim, by Dr. Evans; Cosmelia, by Mr. Pitt, Mr. Jones, &c. The Mock-marriage of a mad Divine, with a Cl- for a Parson, by Dr. W. The Saw-pit, a Simile, by a Friend. Certain Physical works of Sir James Baker ;

and

But lofty Lintot in the circle rose:

This prize is mine; who tempt it are my foes; "With me began this genius, and shall end!" He spoke and who with Lintot shall contend?

:

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Fear held them mute. Alone, untaught to fear, Stood dauntless Curl; "Behold that rival here!

REMARKS.

and some unowned Letters, Advertisements, and Epigrams against our author in the Daily Journal.

Notwithstanding what is here collected of the person imagined by Curl to be meant in this place, we cannot be of that opinion; since our Poet had certainly no need of vindicating half a dozen verses to himself, which every reader had done for him; since the name itself is not spelled Moore but More; and lastly, since the learned Scriblerus has so well proved the contrary. P.

Of this note, which is entirely Pope's, from the editions of 1729, Mr. Bowles has attributed the former part to Warburton, and the latter to Warton.

Ver. 50. the phantom More.] It appears from hence, that this is not the name of a real person, but fictitious. More from μῶρος, stultus, pwgía, stultitia, to represent the folly of a plagiary. Thus Erasmus, Admonuit me Mori cognomen tibi, quod tam ad Moriæ vocabulum accedit quam es ipse a re alienus. Dedication of Moriæ Encomium to Sir Tho. More; the farewell of which may be our author's to his plagiary, Vale, More! et moriam tuam gnaviter defende. Adieu, More! and be sure strongly to defend thy own folly. SCRIBLErus.

P.

Ver. 53. But lofty Lintot] We enter here upon the Episode of the Booksellers; persons, whose names being more known and famous in the learned world than those of the authors in this poem, do therefore need less explanation. The action of Mr. Lintot here imitates that of Dares in Virgil, rising just in this manner to lay hold on a Bull. This eminent Bookseller printed the Rival Modes before mentioned. P.

Ver. 58. Stood dauntless Curl;] We come now to a character of much respect, that of Mr. Edmund Curl. As a plain repetition of great actions is the best praise of them, we shall only say of

this

"The race by vigour, not by vaunts, is won; "So take the hindmost, Hell!" He said, and run. 60

REMARKS.

this eminent man, that he carried the Trade many lengths beyond what it ever before had arrived at ; and that he was the envy and admiration of all his profession. He possessed himself of a command over all authors whatever: he caused them to write what he pleased; they could not call their very names their own. He was not only famous among these; he was taken notice of by the State, the Church, and the Law, and received particular marks of distinction from each.

It will be owned that he is here introduced with all possible dignity. He speaks like the intrepid Diomed; he runs like the swift-footed Achilles; if he falls, 'tis like the beloved Nisus; and (what Homer makes to be the chief of all praises) he is favoured of the Gods; he says but three words, and his prayer is heard; a Goddess conveys it to the seat of Jupiter. Though he loses the prize, he gains the victory; the great Mother herself comforts him; she inspires him with expedients; she honours him with an immortal present (such as Achilles receives from Thetis, and Æneas from Venus) at once instructive and prophetical. After this he is unrivalled and triumphant.

The tribute our author here pays him is a grateful return for several unmerited obligations. Many weighty animadversions on the public affairs, and many excellent and diverting pieces on private persons, has he given to his name. If ever he owed two verses to any other, he owed Mr. Curl some thousands. He was every day extending his fame, and enlarging his writings: witness innumerable instances! But it shall suffice only to mention the Court Poems, which he meant to publish as the work of the true writer, a Lady of quality; but being first threatened, and afterwards punished for it by Mr. Pope, he generously tranferred it from her to him, and ever since printed it in his name. The single

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 60. So take the hindmost, Hell!]

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Occupet extremum scabies; mihi turpe relinqui est."

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