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So Porteus, hunted in a nobler shape,

Became, when seiz'd, a puppy, or an ape.

130

136

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: So shall each hostile name become our own, And we, too, boast our Garth and Addison. With that she gave him (piteous of his case, Yet smiling at his rueful length of face)

REMARKS.

140

v. 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 wrote notes, and half notes, which he carefully owned.

Ibid.--and Concanen Swift.] In the first edition of this Poem 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.

IMITATIONS.

7. 141, 142.---(piteous of his case,

Yet smiling at his rueful length of face)]

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Risit pater optimus illi.-.

"Me liceat casum inisereri insontis amici----
Sic fatus, tergum Gaetuli immane leonis," &e.

Virg. En. V.

A shaggy tapestry, worthy to be spread

On Codrus' old, or Dunton's modern bed;

Instructive work! whose wry-mouth'd portraiture Display'd the fates her confessors endure.

146

Earless on high stood unbash'd De Foe,

And Tutch in flagrant from the scourge below':'
There Ridpath, Roper, cudgell'd might ye view,
The very worsted still look'd black and blue.
Himself among the story'd chiefs he spies,
As from the blanket, high in air he flies,

150

REMARKS.

v. 144.---Dunton's modern bed. John Dunton was a broken Bookseller, and abusive scribbler; he writ Neck or Nothing, a violent satire on some ministers of state; a libel on the Duke of Devonshire and the Bishop of Peterborough, &c.

v. 148. And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge.] John Tutchin, author of some vile verses, and of a weekly Paper, called The Observator: he was sentenced to be whipped through several towns in the west of England, upon which he petitioned King James II. to be hanged." When that prince died in exile, he wrote an invective against his memory, occasioned by some humane elegies on his death. He lived to the time of Queen Anne.

v. 149. There Ridpath, Reper.] Authors of the Fivingpost, and Post-boy, two scandalous papers on different sides, for which they equally and alternately deserved to be cudgelled and were so.

v. 151. Himself among the story'd chiefs he spics.] The history of Curl's being tossed in a blanket, and whipped by the scholars of Westminster, is well known.

IMITATIONS.

v. 151. Himself among the story'd chiefs he spies.] Se quoque principibus permixtum agnovit Achivis-"Constitit, et lacrymans: Quis jam locus, iniquit, [Achate! "Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris ???

Miij

Virg. Æn. I.

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,

Two babes of love close clinging to her waist;
Fair as before her works she stands confess'd,

In flow'rs, and pearls, by bounteous Kirkall dress'd.

REMARKS.

155

159

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 12mo, with her picture thus dressed up before them.

IMITATIONS.

v. 156. And the fresh vomit run 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.

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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

1

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 predecessor. 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 common books in folio, without copperplates, on a worse paper, and never above half the value. Upon this advertisement the Gazetteer harangued 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 "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 hom Virtue has not had a shriller trumpeter for "many ages! That you were once generally admired "and esteemed can be denied by none, but that you "and your works are now despised is verified by this "fact:" which being utterly false, did not indeed much humble the Author, but drew this just chastisement on the bookseller.

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IMITATIONS.

v. 163.-----yon Juno

With cow-like udders, and with ox-like eyes.] In allusion to Homer's Bownię dót sa 'Hpn. v. 165. This China jordan.

"Tertius Argolica hac galea contentus abito."

Miij Virg. Æn. VI

One on his manly confidence relies,

One on his vigour and superior size.

First Osborne 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 watʼry 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 smalljett, which hasty hands unlock,
Spirts in the gard'ner's eyes who turns the cock.
Not so from shameless Curl; impetuous spread
The stream, and smoking flourish'd o'er his head.
So (fam'd like thee for turbulence and horns)
Eridanus his humble fountain scorns;

IMITATIONS.

170

175

181

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 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.

2. 169. 170, One on his manly confidence relies,
One on bis vigour.]

"Ille---melior motu, ire usque juventa;
"Hic membris et mole valens."

2. 173, 174. So Joue's bright bow--

Sare sign

Virg. Æn. V.

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

2

ν νέφει ςήριξ ετέρας μερόπων 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.J

Virgil mentions these two qualifications of Eridanus, Georg, IV.

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