Songs, sonnets, epigrams, the winds uplift, 115 And whisk them back to Evans, Young, and Swift. That once so flutter'd, and that once so writ. 120 REMARKS. Ver. 116. Evans, Young, and Swift.] Some of those persons whose writings, epigrams, or jests he had owned. P. Dr. Evans was of St. John's College, Oxford; author of the Apparition, and of an Epistle to Bobart the Botanist, entitled, Vertumnus. He was a man of remarkable wit and vivacity, and many of his repartees were long remembered and repeated at Oxford. The Apparition was a satire on Tindal. Warton. Ver. 118. an unpaid tailor] This line has been loudly complained of in Mist, June 8, Dedic. to Sawney, and others, as a most inhuman satire on the poverty of poets. But it is thought our author will be acquitted by a jury of tailors. To me this instance seems unluckily chosen; if it be a satire on any body, it must be on a bad pay-master, since the person to whom they have here applied it was a man of fortune. Not but poets may well be jealous of so great a prerogative as non-payment; which Mr. Dennis so far asserts, as boldly to pronounce that, "If Homer himself was not in debt, it was because nobody would trust him." Pref. to Rem. on the Rape of the Lock, p. 15. IMITATIONS. Ver. 111. A shapeless shade, &c.] "Effugit imago Par levibus ventis, volucrique simillima somno." P. Virg. Æneid. vi. P. Ver. 114. His papers light, fly diverse, toss'd in air:] "Carmina turbata volent rapidis ludibria ventis." Three wicked imps, of her own Grub-street choir, She deck'd like Congreve, Addison, and Prior; Mears, Warner, Wilkins run: delusive thought! Breval, Bond, Besaleel, the varlets caught. REMARKS. Ver. 124. like Congreve, Addison, and Prior;] These authors being such whose names will reach posterity, we shall not give any account of them, but proceed to those of whom it is necessary. Besaleel Morris was author of some satires on the translators of Homer, with many other things printed in newspapers. "Bond writ a satire against Mr. P—. Capt. Breval was author of The Confederates, an ingenious dramatic performance to expose Mr. P., Mr. Gay, Dr. Arb., and some ladies of quality," says CURL, Key, p. 11. P. This is the passage in which our author has mentioned Prior with rather more honor than in any other part of his works. Prior was mortified that Pope did not commend his Solomon so highly as he wished. Ver. 125. Mears, Warner, Wilkins,] Booksellers, and printers of much anonymous stuff. Warton. P. Ver. 126. Breval, Bond, Besaleel,] I foresee it will be objected from this line, that we were in an error in our assertion on ver. 50 of this book, that More was a fictitious name, since these persons are equally represented by the poet as phantoms. So at first sight it may seem; but be not deceived, reader; these also are not real persons. It is true, Curl declares Breval, a captain, author of a piece called the Confederates; but the same Curl first said it was written by Joseph Gay. Is his second assertion to be credited any more than his first? He likewise affirms Bond to be one who writ a satire on our poet. But where is such a satire to be found? Where was such a writer ever heard of? As for Besaleel, it carries forgery in the very name; nor is it, as the others are, a surname. Thou may'st depend upon it, no such authors ever lived; all phantoms. SCRIBLERUS. P. Ver. 126. Breval,] See an account of him and his works, and the cause of Pope's resentment, in the List of Dramatic Authors, subjoined to Cibber's Life of himself, 4th edition. Wakefield, Curl stretches after Gay, but Gay is gone, 130 To him the Goddess: Son! thy grief lay down, And turn this whole illusion on the town: As the sage dame, experienc'd in her trade, By names of Toasts retails each batter'd jade; (Whence hapless Monsieur much complains at Paris Of wrongs from Duchesses and Lady Maries ;) Be thine, my stationer! this magic gift; Cook shall be Prior, and Concanen, Swift: REMARKS. Ver. 128. Joseph Gay,] A fictitious name put by Curl before several pamphlets, which made them pass with many for Mr. Gay's. P. The ambiguity of the word Joseph, which likewise signifies a loose upper-coat, gives much pleasantry to the idea. w.t Ver. 128. He grasps an empty Joseph for a John;] A pleasant allusion to Ixion, embracing a cloud instead of Juno; or a parody on Homer, Il. iii. 376. Κεινὴ δὲ τρυφάλεια ἅμ ̓ ἔσπετο χειρι παχείης "And left an empty helmet in his hand." Pope. Wakefield. Ver. 132. And turn this whole illusion on the town.] It was a common practice of this bookseller to publish vile pieces of obscure hands, under the names of eminent authors. P. Ver. 138. Cook shall be Prior,] The man here specified writ a thing called The Battle of Poets, in which Philips and Welsted were the Heroes, and Swift and Pope utterly routed. He also published some malevolent things in the British, London, and Daily Journals; and at the same time wrote letters to Mr. Pope, protesting his innocence. His chief work was a translation of Hesiod, to which Theobald writ notes and half notes, which he carefully owned. P.t Ibid. And Concanen, Swift:] In the first edition of this poem there So shall each hostile name become our own, And we too boast our Garth and Addison. REMARKS. 140 there were only asterisks in this place, but the names were since inserted, merely to fill up the verse, and give ease to the ear of the reader. P.t Ver. 140. And we too boast our Garth and Addison.] Nothing is more remarkable than our author's love of praising good writers. He has in this very poem celebrated Mr. Locke, Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Barrow, Dr. Atterbury, Mr. Dryden, Mr. Congreve, Dr. Garth, Mr. Addison; in a word, almost every man of his time that deserved it; even Cibber himself (presuming him to be author of the Careless Husband). It was very difficult to have that pleasure in a poem on this subject, yet he has found means to insert their panegyric, and has made even Dulness, out of her own mouth, pronounce it. It must have been particularly agreeable to him to celebrate Dr. Garth; both as his constant friend, and as he was his predecessor in this kind of satire. The Dispensary attacked the whole body of Apothecaries, a much more useful one undoubtedly than that of the bad Poets; if, in truth, this can be a body, of which no two members ever agreed. It also did, what Mr. Theobald says is unpardonable, drew in parts of private character, and introduced persons independent of his subject. Much more would Boileau have incurred his censure, who left all subjects whatever, on all occasions, to fall upon the bad poets, which, it is to be feared, would have been more immediately his concern. But, certainly, next to commending good writers, the greatest service to learning is to expose the bad, who can only that way be made of any use to it. This truth is very well set forth in these lines addressed to our author: "The craven Rook, and pert Jackdaw, (Tho' neither birds of moral kind) Yet serve, if hang'd, or stuff'd with straw, "Thus dirty knaves, or chatt'ring fools, Strung up by dozens in thy lay, With With that she gave him (piteous of his case, Yet smiling at his rueful length of face,) REMARKS. "With Egypt's art thy pen may strive; One potent drop let this but shed, Becomes a precious mummy dead." P. Ver. 142. rueful length of face,] "The decrepid person or figure of a man are no reflections upon his genius. An honest mind will love and esteem a man of worth, though he be deformed or poor. Yet the author of the Dunciad hath libelled a person for his rueful length of face!" Mist's Journal, June 8. This genius and man of worth, whom an honest mind should love, is Mr. Curl. True it is, he stood in the Pillory, an incident which will lengthen the face of any man, though it were ever so comely, and therefore is no reflection on the natural beauty of Mr. Curl. But as to reflections on any man's face or figure, Mr. Dennis saith excellently; "Natural deformity comes not by our fault; 'tis often occasioned by calamities and diseases, which a man can no more help than a monster can his deformity. There is no one misfortune, and no one disease, but what all the rest of mankind are subject to.—But the deformity of this author is visible, present, lasting, unalterable, and peculiar to himself. 'Tis the mark of God and Nature upon to give us warning that we should hold no society with him, as a creature not of our original, nor of our species: and they who have refused to take this warning which God and Nature have given them, and have, in spite of it, by a senseless presumption, ventured to be familiar with him, have severely suffered, &c. 'Tis certain his original is not from Adam, but from the Devil," &c. DENNIS, Character of Mr. P. octavo, 1716. him, Admirably is it observed by Mr. Dennis against Mr. Law, p. 33. "That Yet smiling at his rueful length of face,] -“Risit pater optimus illi.— Me liceat casum misereri insontis amici— Sic fatus, tergum Gætuli immane leonis," &c. Virg. Æneid. v. P. |