TO DR. JONATHAN SWIFT.

BOOK III.

The Argument.

After the other persons are disposed in their proper places of rest, the Goddess transports the King to her Temple, and there lays him to siun ber with his head on her lap; a position of marvellous virtue,hich causes al the visions of wird enthusiasts, pr jectors, politicians, inamoratos, castle-builders, chemists, and pets. He is immediately carried on the wings of Fancy, and led by a mad poetical sibyl to the Elysian shade; where, on the banks of the Lethe, the souls of the duil are dipped by Bavius, before their entrance into this world. There he is met by the shest of Settle, and by him made acquainted with the wonders of the place, and with those which he himself is destined to perform. He takes him to a Mount of Vision, from whence he shows him the past triumphs of the Empire of Dulness, then the present, and lastly the future: how small a part of the world was ever conquered by Science, how soon those conquests were stopped, and those very nations again reduced to her do minion. Then distinguishing the Island of Great Britain, shews by what aids, by what persons, and by what degrees, it shall be brought to her empire. Some of the persons he causes to pass in review befor his eyes, describing each by his proper fi,ure, character, and qualifications. On a sudden the scene shifts, and a vast number of miracles and prodities appear, utterly surprizing and unknown to the King himself, till they are explained to be the wonders of his own reign now commencing. On this subj & Settle breaks into a congratulation, yet not unmixsd with concern, that his own times were but the types of these. He prophesies how first the nation shall be over run with Farces, Operas, and Shows how the throne of Diness shall be advanced over the Theatres, and set up even at Court; then how her sons shall preside in the seats of Arts and Sciences; giving a glapse, or Pisgah sieht, of the future fulness of her glory, the accomplishment whereof is the subject of the Fourth and last Book.

Pur in her Temple's last recess inclos'd,
On Dulness' lap th' Anointed head repos'd.

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Him close she curtains round with vapours blue,
And soft besprinkles with Cimmerian dew:
Then raptures high the seat of sense o'erflow,
Which only heads refin'd from reason know.
Hence from the straw where Bedlam's prophet nods,
He hears loud oracles, and talks with gods:
Hence the fool's paradise, the statesman's scheme,
The air-built castle, and the golden dream,
The maid's romantic wish, the chemist's flame,
And poet's vision of eternal fame.

And now, on Fancy's easy wing conveyed,

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The king descending, views th' Elysian shade.
A slip-shod Sibyl led his steps along,

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In lofty madness meditating song;
Her tresses staring from poetic dreams,

And never wash'd but in Castalia's streams.
Taylor, their better Charon, lends an oar,

(Once swan of Thames, tho' now he sings no more.)

REMARKS.

v. 19. Taylor. John Taylor the Water-poet, an honest man, who owns he learned not so much as the Accidence: a rare example of modesty in a poet!

"I must confess I do want eloquence,

"And never scarce did learn my Accidence;

IMITATIONS.

v. 7, 8. Hence from the straw where Bedlam's prophet nods, He bears loud oracles, and talks with gods.]

"Et varias audit voces, fruiturque deorum
"Colloquio."
Virg. Æn. VIII.

v. 15. A slip-shod Sibyl, &c.]

Conclamat vates-

-Furens antro se immisit aperto." Virg.

Benlowes, propitious still to blockheads, bows;
And Shadwell nods, the poppy on his brows.
Here, in a dusky vale where Lethe rolls,
Old Bavius sits to dip poetic sculs,

REMARKS.

"For having got from possum to posset,

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"I there was gravell'd, could no farther get." He wrote fourscore books in the reign of James I. and Charles I. and afterwards (like Edward Ward) kept an alehouse in Long-Acre. He died in 1654.

v. 21. Benlowes.] A country gentleman, famous for his own bad poetry, and for patronizing bad poets, as may be seen from many Dedications of Quarles and others to him. Some of these anegram'd his name Benlowes into Benevolus; to verify which he spent his whole estate upon them.

v. 22. And Shadwell nods, the poppy, &c.] Shadwell took opium for many years, and died of too large a doze, in the year 1692.

v. 24. Old Bavius sits.] Bavius was an ancient poet, celebrated by Virgil for the like cause as Bayes by our Author, though not in so Christian-like a manner: for heathenishly it is declared by Virgil of Bavius, that he ought to be hated and detested for his evil-works: Qui bavium non odit? whereas we have often had occasion to observe our Poet's great good nature and mercifulness through the whole course of this Poem.

"Seclusum nemus-----

Scribl.

[nem &c.

Lethaeumque domos placidas qui praenatat am"Hunc circum innumerae gentes," &c. Virg. Æn.VI. v. 24. Old Bavius sits to dip poetic souls.] Alluding to the story of Thetis dipping Achilles to render him impenetrable:

"At pater Anchises penitus convalle virenti "Inclusas animas, superumque ad lumen ituras, "Lustrabat."------Virg. Æn. VI.

And blunt the sense, and fit it for a skull
Of solid proof, impenetrably dull:

Instant, when dipt, away they wing their flight,
Where Brown and Mears unbar the gates of light,
Demand new bodies, and in calf's array
Rush to the world, impatient for the day.
Millions and millions on these banks he views,
Thick as the stars of night, or morning dews,
As thick as bees o'er vernal blossoms fly,
As thick as eggs at Ward in pillory.

Wond'ring he gaz'd: when, lo; a sage appears,
By his broad shoulders known, and length of ears,
Known by the band and suit which Settle wore
(His only suit) for twice three years before:
All as the vest appear'd the wearer's frame,
Old in new state, another yet the same.

REMARKS.

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30

34

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v. 28. ---Browne and Mears.] Booksellers, printers for any body.---The allegory of the souls of the dull coming forth in the form of books dressed in calf's leather, and being let abroad in vast numbers by booksellers, is sufficiently intelligible.

v. 34.---Ward in pillory. John Ward, of Hackney, Esq. member of parliament, being convicted of forgery, was first expelled the House, and then sentenced to the pillory, on the 17th of February, 1727.

IMITATIONS.

v. 28.-----unbar thy gates of light.] An hemistich of Milton.

v. 31,32. Millions and Millions---Thick as the stars, &c.] "Quam multa in silvis autumni frigore primo "Lapsa cadunt folia, aut ad terram gurgite ab alto Quam multae glomerantur aves," &c. Virg. Æn. VI.

Bland and familiar, as in life, begun

Thus the great Father to the greater Son:

Oh! born to see what none can see awake! Behold the wonders of th' oblivious lake!

Thou, yet unborn, has touch'd this sacred shore; 45
The hand of Bavius drench'd thee o'er and o'er.
But blind to former as to future fate,

What mortal knows his pre-existent state?
Who knows how long thy transmigrating soul
Might from Boeotian to Boeotian roll?

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How many Dutchmen she vouchsaf'd to thrid ?

How many stages through old monks she rid?
And all who since, in wild benighted days,
Mix'd the owl's ivy with the poet's bays.

As man's meanders to the vital spring

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Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring;

Or whirligigs, twirl'd round by skilful swain,

Suck the thread in, then yield it out again:

All nonsense thus, of old or modern date,

Shall in thee centre, from thee circulate.
For thus our Queen unfolds to vision true
Thy mental eye, for thou hast much to view:

ба

IMITATIONS.

v. 54. Mix'd the owl's ivy with the poet's bays.] -----Sine tempore circum

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"Inter victrices hederam tibi serpere lauros."

Virg. Ecl. viii. v. 61, 62. For this our Queen unfolds to vision true Thy mental eye, for thou hast much to view.]

This has a resemblance to that passage in Milton, Book XI. where the angel

"To noble sights from Adam's eye removed

"The film; then purg'd with euphrasie and rue

The visual nerve---For be bad much to see.”