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And oh! (he cry'd) what street, what lane but knows
Our purgings, pumpings, blanketings, and blows?
In ev'ry loom our labours shall be seen,

And the fresh vomit run for ever green!

See in the circle next Eliza plac'd,

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Two babes of love close clinging to her waist;
Fair as before her works she stands confess'd, ' 159
In flow'rs, and pearls, by bounteous Kirkall dress'd.

REMARKS.

Of his purging and vomiting, see a full and true account of a horrid revenge on the body of Edmund Curl, &c. in Swift and Pope's Miscellanies.

v. 157. See on the circle next Eliza plac'd.] Eliza Haywood: this woman was authoress of those most scandalous books called The Court of Carimania, and The New Utopia. For the two Babes of Love, see Curl, Key, p. 22. But whatever reflection he is pleased to throw upon this Lady, surely it was what from him she little deserved, who had celebrated Curl's undertakings for reformation of manners, and declared herself to be so perfectly acquainted with the sweetness "of his disposition, and that tenderness with which "he considered the errors of his fellow-creatures, that, "though she should find the little inadvertencies of "her own life recorded in his papers, she was certain "it would be done in such a manner as she could not but approve." Mrs. Haywood, Hist. of Car. printed in the Female Dunciad, p. 18.

v. 160. Kirkall. The name of an engraver. Some of this Lady's works were printed in four volumes in Izmo, with her picture thus dressed up before them.

IMITATIONS.

p. 156. And the fresh vomitrun for ever green!] A parody

of these lines of a late noble author:

"His bleeding arm had furnish'd all their rooms, "And run for ever purple in the looms."

v. 158. Two babes of love close clinging to her waist.] "Cressa genus, Pholoe, geminique sub ubere nati.*** Virg. Æn. V.

The Goddess then: "Who best can send on high
The salient spout, far-streaming to the sky,
His be yon Juno of majestic size,

With cow-like udders, and with ox-like eyes,
"This China jordan let the chief o'ercome
* Replenish, not ingloriously at home."

Osborne and Curl accept the glorious strife, (Tho' this his son dissuades, and that his wife.)

REMARKS.

165

v. 167. Osborne, Thomas.] A bookseller in Gray's-Inn, very well qualified by his impudence to act this part; therefore placed here instead of a less-deserving prede cessor. This man published advertisements for a year together, pretending to sell Mr. Pope's subscriptionbooks of Homer's Iliad at half the price: of which books he had none, but cut to the size of them (which was quarto) the commen books in folio, without copperplates, on a worse paper, and never above half the value. Upon this advertisement the Gazetteer harang d thus, July 6, 1759" How melancholy must it be to a writer to be so unhappy as to see his works hawked "for sale in a manner so fatal to his fame! How, with

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honour to yourself, and justice to your subscribers, "can this be done? What an ingratitude to be charged "on the only honest poet that lived in 1738! and than "whom Virtue has not had a shriller trumpeter for "many ages! That you were cnce generally admired

a d esteemed can be denied by none, but that you "and your works are now de pised is verified by this "fact:" which being utterly false, did not indeed much humble the Author, but drew this just chastisement on the bookseller.

IMITATIONS,"

v. 163.-----von Juns

With cow-like udders, and wilk ox-lile eyes.] In allusion to Homer's Bownię wit sa 'i. pno v. 165. This China jordan.

"Tertius Argolica na galea contentus abito." Mij Virg. Æn. VI

One on his manly confidence relies,

One on his vigour and superior size.

First Osbo ne lean d against his letter'd post;
It rose, and labour'd to a curve at most.

So Jove's bright bow display's its wat'ry round
(Sure sign, that no spectator shall be drown'd.)
A second effort brought but new disgrace,
The wild meander wash'd the artist's face;
Thus the small jett, which hasty hands unlock,
Spirts in the gard'ner's eyes who turns the cock.
Not so from shameless Curl; impetuous spread
The s'ream, and smoking flourish'd o'er his head.
So (fai'd like thee for turbulence and horns)
Eridanus his humble fountain scorns

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175

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In the games of Homer, Iliad XXIII. there are set together as prizes, a lady and a kettle, as in this place Mrs. Haywood and a jordan. But there the preference in value is given to the kettle, at which Madame Dacier is justly displeased, Mrs. H. is here treated with distinction, and acknowledged to be the more valuable. of the two.

V. 169. 170. One on bis manly confidence relies,

One on bis vigour.]

Ille---melior motu, tre usque juventa; "Hic membris et mole valens." Virg. Æn. V.

v. 173, 174. So Jove's bribe bow--

Sure sign]

The words of Homer, of the rain-bow, in Iliad XI. -ἂς τε Κρινίνω

Εν νέφει ςήριξ ετέρας εξοπων ἀνθρώπων.

Que le fils de Saturne a fondez dans les nues, pour etre dans tous les ages une signe a touis les mortels.

Dacier:

v. 181, 182. So (fam'd like thee for turbulence and borns) Eridanus.]

Virgil mentions these two qualifications of Eridanus,

G:

IV.

Through half the heav'ns he pours th' exalted urn;
His rapid waters in their passage burn.

Swift as it mounts, all follow with their eyes;
Still happy Impudence obtains the prize.
Thou triumph'st, victor of the high-wrought day,
And the pleas'd dame, soft-smiling, lead'st away.
Osborne, through perfect modesty o'ercome,
Crown'd with the jordan, walks contented home.

But now for authors nobler palms remain ;
Room for my Lord! three jockies in his train;
Six huntsmen with a shout precede his chair:
He grins, and looks broad nonsense with a stare.
His honour's meaning Dulness thus exprest,
"He wins this patron who can tickle best."

He chinks his purse, and takes his seat of state:
With ready quills the Dedicators wait;
Now at his head the dext'rous task commence,
And, instant, Fancy feels th' imputed sense;
Now gentle touches wanton o'er his face,
He struts Adonis, and affects grimace:
Rolli the feather to his ear conveys;

Then his nice taste directs our operas:

REMARKS.

186

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195

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v. 203. Paolo Antonio Rolli, an Italian poet, and writer of many operas in that language, which, partly

IMITATIONS.

"Et gemina auratus taurina cornua vultu, "Eridanus, quo non alius per pinguia culta "In mare purpureum violentior influit amnis." The poets fabled of this river Eridanus, that it flowed thro' the skies. Denham, Cooper's Hill:

"Heav'n her Eridanus no more shall boast, "Whose fame in thine, like lesser currents lost, "Thy nobler stream shall visit Jove's abodes, "To shine among the stars, and bathe the gods "*

Bentley his mouth with classic flatt'ry opes,
And the puff'd orator bursts out in tropes.
But Welsted most the poet's healing balm
Strives to extract from his soft-giving palm.

REMARKS.

205

by the help of his genies, prevailed in England near twenty years. He taught italian to some fine gentlemen, who affected to direct the operas.

v. 205. Bentley his mouth, &c.] Not spoken of the famous Dr. Richard Bentley, but of one Tho. Bentley, a small critic, who aped his uncle in a little Horace. The great one was intended to be dedicated to the Lord Halifax, but (on a change of the ministry) was given to the Earl of Oxford; for which reason the little one was dedicated to his son the Lord Harley.

v. 207.---Welsted.] Leonard Welsted, author of The Triumvirate; or, A Letter in verse from Palaemon to Celia at Bath, which was meant for a satire on Mr. P. and some of his friends, about the year 1718. He writ other things which we cannot remember. Smedley; in his Metamorphosis of Scriblerus, mentions one, the Hymn of a Gentleman to his Creator: and there was another in praise either of a cellar, or a garret. L. W. characterised in the treatise [lí Bábes or, The Art of Sinking, as a didapper, and after as an eel, is said to be this person, by Dennis, Daily Journal of May 11, 1728.

He was also characterised under another animal, a mole, by the author of the ensuing simile, which was handed about at the same time:

"Dear Welsted, mark, in dirty hole,
"That painful animal, a mole:
"Above ground never born to grow,
"What mighty stir it keeps below!
"To make a mole-hill all this strife!
"It digs, pokes, undermines for life.
"How proud a little dirt to spread,
"Conscious of nothing o'er its head!

VARIATIONS.

v. 207. In the first edition:

But Oldmixon the poet's healing balm, &c.

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