the farce in punishing him with the mark of an indelible brand in his forehead. May we not then be excused, if for the future we consider the Epics of Homer, Virgil, and Milton, together with this our Poem, as a complete Tetralogy; in which, the last worthily holdeth the place or station of the satiric piece?

Proceed we therefore in our subject. It hath been long, and, alas for pity! still remaineth a question, whether the Hero of the greater Epic should be an honest man; or, as the French critics express it, un honnéte homme:* but it never admitted of any doubt, but that the Hero of the little Epic should be his very opposite. Hence, to the advantage of our Dunciad, we may observe, how much juster the Moral of that poem must needs be, where so important a question is previously decided.

But then it is not every knave, nor (let me add) every fool, that is a fit subject for a Dunciad. There must still exist some analogy, if not resemblance of qualities, between the Heroes of the two poems; and this, in order to admit what neoteric critics call the Parody, one of the liveliest graces of the little Epic. Thus it being agreed, that the constituent qualities of the greater Epic Hero, are Wisdom, Bravery, and Love, from whence springeth heroic Virtue; it followeth, that those of the

* Si un Heros Poetique doit être un honnête homme. Bossu du Poëme Epique, liv. v. ch. 5. W.

lesser Epic Hero should be Vanity, Assurance, and Debauchery, from which happy assemblage resulteth heroic Dulness, the never-dying subject of this our poem.

This being settled, come we now to particulars. It is the character of true Wisdom, to seek its chief support and confidence within itself; and to place that support in the resources which proceed from a conscious rectitude of will.-And are the advantages of Vanity, when arising to the heroic standard, at all short of this self-complacence? Nay, are they not, in the opinion of the enamoured owner, far beyond it? "Let the world (will such a one say) impute to me what Folly or weakness they please; but till Wisdom can give me something that will make me more heartily happy, I am content to be GAZED AT."* This, we see, is vanity according to the heroic gage or measure; not that low and ignoble species which pretendeth to virtues we have not; but the laudable ambition of being gazed at for glorying in those vices, which every body knows we have. "The world may ask (says he) why I make my follies public? Why not? I have passed my time very pleasantly with them." In short there is no sort of vanity such a Hero would scruple to exult in, but that which might go near to degrade him from his high station in this our Dunciad, namely, “Whether it

* Dedication to the Life of COLLY CIBBEr. † Life, p. 2. octavo edit.

W.

W.

would not be vanity in him, to take shame to himself for not being a wise man ?”*

Bravery, the second attribute of the true Hero, is Courage, manifesting itself in every limb; while its correspondent virtue in the mock Hero, is, that same Courage all collected into the FACE. And as Power, when drawn together, must needs have more force and spirit than when dispersed, we generally find this kind of courage in so high and heroic a degree, that it insults not only men, but Gods. Mezentius is, without doubt, the bravest character in all the Æneis: but how? His bravery, we know, was a high courage of blasphemy. And can we say less of this brave man's, who having told us that he placed "his summum bonum in those follies, which he was not content barely to possess but would likewise glory in," adds,

If I am misguided, 'TIS NATURE'S FAULT, and I follow HER." Nor can we be mistaken in making this happy quality a species of Courage, when we consider those illustrious marks of it, which made his FACE " more known (as he justly boasteth) than most in the kingdom;" and his language to consist of what we must allow to be the most daring figure of speech, that which is taken from the Name of God.

Gentle Love, the next ingredient in the true Hero's composition, is a mere bird of passage, or (as Shakespeare calls it) Summer-teeming Lust, and evaporates in the heat of Youth; doubtless by * Life, p. 2. octavo edit. W. + Life, p. 23. octavo. W.

that refinement it suffers in passing through those
certain strainers which our poet somewhere speak-
eth of. But when it is let alone to work upon
the Lees, it acquireth strength by Old age; and
becometh a lasting ornament to the little Epic. It
is true, indeed, there is one objection to its fitness
for such an use. For not only the ignorant may
think it common, but it is admitted to be so, even
by him who best knoweth its value.
"Don't you
think (argueth he), to say only a man has his
whore, ought to go for little or nothing? Be-
cause defendit numerus; take the first ten thousand
men you meet, and I believe you would be no
loser if you betted ten to one, that every single
sinner of them, one with another, had been guilty
of the same frailty." But here he seemeth not
to have done justice to himself;§ the man is sure
enough a Hero, who hath his Lady at fourscore.
How doth his modesty herein lessen the merit
of a whole well-spent life: not taking to himself
the commendation (which Horace accounted the
greatest in a theatrical character) of continuing to

*"Lust through some certain strainers well refin'd,
Is gentle love, and charms all womankind.

w.t

+ Alluding to these lines in the Epist. to Dr. Arbuthnot: "And has not COLLY still his Lord and Whore, His Butchers Henley, his Free-Masons Moore? W.†

C. Cibber's Letter to Mr. P. p. 46.

W.

§ Here Aristarchus descends improperly from his gravity into

a strain a little ludicrous.

Warton.

The gravity of Aristarchus is evidently intended to be ludicrous through the whole dissertation.

the very dregs, the same he was from the beginning,

"Servetur ad IMUM

Qualis ab incepto processerat."

But here, in justice both to the poet and the Hero, let us farther remark, that the calling her his whore, implieth she was his own, and not his neighbour's. Truly, a commendable continence! and such as Scipio himself must have applauded. For how much self-denial was exerted not to covet his neighbour's whore? and what disorders must the coveting her have occasioned in that society, where (according to this political calculator) nine in ten of all ages have their concubines !

We have now, as briefly as we could devise, gone through the three constituent qualities of either Hero. But it is not in any, nor in all of these, that Heroism properly or essentially resideth. It is a lucky result rather from the collision of these lively qualities against one another. Thus, as from Wisdom, Bravery, and Love, ariseth Magnanimity the object of Admiration, which is the aim of the greater Epic; so from Vanity, Impudence, and Debauchery, springeth Buffoonery, the source of Ridicule, that "laughing ornament," as the owner well termeth it,* of the little Epic.

He is not ashamed (God forbid he ever should be ashamed!) of this character; who deemeth, that not Reason but Risibility distinguisheth the hu

* Colly Cibber's Letter to Mr. P. p. 31. W.