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Calm Temperance, whose blessings those partake Who hunger, and who thirst for scribbling sake: Prudence, whose glass presents th' approaching jail; Poetic Justice, with her lifted scale,

Where, in nice balance, truth with gold she weighs,
And solid pudding against empty praise.

Here she beholds the Chaos dark and deep,
Where nameless Somethings in their causes sleep,
'Till genial Jacob, or a warm third day,
Call forth each mass, a poem or a play:

How hints, like spawn, scarce quick in embryo lie,
How new-born Nonsense first is taught to cry,
Maggots half-form'd in rhyme exactly meet,
And learn to crawl upon poetic feet.

Here one poor word an hundred clenches makes,
And ductile Dulness new meanders takes;
There motley images her fancy strike,
Figures ill-pair'd, and similies unlike.
She sees a mob of Metaphors advance,
Pleas'd with the madness of the mazy dance;

IMITATIONS.

v. 55. Here she beholds the Chaos dark and deep, Where nameless Some bing, &c.]

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That is to say, unformed things, which are either made into poems or plays, as the booksellers or the players bid most. These lines allude to the following in Garth's Dispensary, canto vi.

"Within the chambers of the globe they spy "The beds where sleeping vegetables lie, "Till the glad summons of a genial ray "Unbinds the glebe, and calls them out to day."] v. 64. And ductile Dullness, &c.] A parody on a verse in Garth, canto i.

"How ductile matter new meanders takes."

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How Tragedy and Comedy embrace;
How Farce and Epic get a jumbled race;
How Time himself stands still at her command,
Realms shift their place, and ocean turns to land.
Here gay Description Egypt glads with show'rs,
Or gives to Zembla fruits, to Barca flow'rs;
Glitt'ring with Ice here hoary hills are seen,
There painted vallies of eternal green,
In cold December fragrant chaplets blow,
And heavy harvests nod beneath the snow.

All these, and more, the cloud-compelling Queen Beholds through fogs that magnify the scene. She, tinsel'd o'er in robes of varying hues, With self-applause her wild creation views;

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Sees momentary monsters rise and fall,

And with her own fools-colours gilds them all. 'Twas on the day when *** rich and grave,

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Like Cimon, triumph'd both on land and wave:

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(Pomps without guilt, of bloodless swords and maces, Glad chains, warm furs, broad banners, and broad

faces.)

Now Night descending, the proud scene was o'er,
But liv'd in Settle's numbers one day more.

VARIATIONS.

v. 85. In the former editions:

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'Twas on the day when Thorold, rich and grave. Sir Ge. Thorold, Lord Mayor of London, in the year 1720.

IMITATIONS.

v. 79. ------the loud compelling queen.] From Homer's epithet of Jupiter, penyera Zeus•

Now may'rs and shrieves all hush'd and satiate lay,
Yet eat, in dreams, the custard of the day;
While pensive poets painful vigils keep,
Sleepless themselves to give their readers sleep.
Much to the mindful Queen the feast recalls
What City swans once sung within the walls;
Much she revolves their arts, their ancient praise,
And sure succession down from Heywood's days.
She saw, with joy, the line immortal run,
Each sire imprest, and glaring in his son:
So watchful Bruin forms, with plastic care,
Each growing lump, and brings it to a bear.
She saw old Pryn in restless Daniel shine,
And Eusden eke our Blackmore's endless line;
She saw slow Philips creep like Tate's poor page,
And all the mighty mad in Dennis rage.

REMARKS.

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100

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v. 99. But liv'd in Settle's numbers one day more.] Settle was poet to the City of London. His office was to compose yearly Panegyrics upon the Lord Mayors, and verses to be spoken in the Pageants; but that part of the shows being at length frugally abolished, the employment of City-poet ceased; so that upon Settle's demise there was no successor to that place.

v. 98. John Heywood.] Whose Interludes were printed in the time of Henry VIII.

v. 103. ------old Pryn in restless Daniel.] The first edition had it,

She saw in Norton all his father shine.

a great mistake! for Daniel de Foe had parts, but Norton de Foe was a wretched writer, and never attempted poetry. Much more justly is Daniel himself made successor to W. Pryn, both of whom wrote verses as well as politics; as appears by the poem De Jure Divino, &c.of De Foe, and by these lines in Cowley's Miscellanies, on the other:

In each she marks her image full exprest,

But chief in Bayes's monster-breeding breast;
Bayes, form'd by Nature's Stage and Town to bless,
And act, and be, a coxcomb with success.

REMARKS.

"----One lately did not fear

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"(Without the Muses' leave) to plant verse here. "But it produc'd such base, rough, crabbed, hedge"Rymes, as e'en set the hearer's ears on edge; "Written by William Pryn Esquire, the "Year of our Lord six hundred thirty-three. "Brave Jersy Muse! and he's, for his high style, "Call'd to his day the Homer of the Isle."

And both these authors had a resemblance in their fates as well as their writings, having been alike sentenced to the pillory.

v. 104. And Eusden eke out, &c.] Laurence Eusden, Poet-laureate. Mr. Jacob gives a catalogue of some few only of his works, which are very numerous. Mr. Cooke, in his Battle of Poets, saith of him,

"Eusden, a laurel'd bard, by Fortune rais'd, "By very few was read, by fewer prais'd."

v. 105. Like Tate's peer page.] Nahum Tate was Poetlaureate, a cold writer, of no invention; but sometimes translated tolerably when befriended by Mr. Dryden. In his second part of Absalom and Ahithophe! are above two hundred admirable lines together of that great hand, which strongly shine through the insipidity of the rest. Something parallel may be observed of another author here mentioned.

VARIATIONS.

v. 108. But chief in Bayes's, &c. In the former edition thus:

But chief in Tibbald's monster-breeding breast: Sees gods with dæmons in strange league engage, And earth and heav'n, and hell her battles wage. She ey'd the bard, where spperless he sate, And pin'd, unconscious of his rising fate: Studious he ate with all his books around, Siaking from thought to thought, &c.---

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Dulness with transport eyes the lively Dunce,
Remembring she herself was Pertness once,
Now (Shame to Fortune!) an ill run at play
Blank'd his bold visage, and a thin third day:
Swearing and supperless the hero sate,
Blasphem'd his gods, the dice, and damn'd his fate;
Then gnaw'd his pen, then dasht it on the ground,
Sinking from thought to thought, a vast profound!
Plung'd for his sense, but found no bottom there,
Yet wrote and flounder'd on in mere despair.
Round him much embryo, much abortion lay,
Much future ode, and abdicated play ;

REMARKS.

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v. 109. Bayes, form'd by Nature, &c.] It is hoped the Poet here hath done full justice to his Hero's character, which it were a great mistake to imagine was wholly sunk in stupidity: he is allowed to have supported it with a wonderful mixture of vivacity. This character is heightened according to his own desire, in a letter he wrote to

VARIATIONS.

v. 121. Round him much embryo, &c.] In the former editions thus:

He roll'd his eyes that witness'd huge dismay,
Where yet unpawn'd, much learned lumber lay;
Volumes, whose size the space exactly fill'd,
Or which fond authors were so good to gild,
Or where, by sceptre made for ever known,
The page adimires new beauties not its own.
Here'swells the shelf, &c.

IMITATIONS.

Var. He roll'd his eyes that witness'd huge dismay.] "--round he throws his eyes,

"That witness'd huge affliction and dismay."

M. Book I.

The progress of a bad poet in his thoughts, being (like the progress of the Devil in Milton) through a chaos, might probably suggest this imitation.

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