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At last Centlivre felt her voice to fail,

Motteux himself unfinish'd left his tale.

Boyer the state, and Law the stage gave o'er,
Morgan and Mandeville could prate no more;
Norton from Daniel and Ostrcea sprung,

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Bless'd with his father's front and mother's tongue, Hung silent down his never-blushing head,

And all was hush'd, as Folly's self lay dead.

REMARKS.

He also wrote an abusive pamphlet against Earl S---, which was suppresed while yet in MS. by an eminent person, then out of the ministry, to whom he shewed it, expecting his approbation. This Doctor afterwards published the same piece, mutatis mutandis, against that very person.

v. 411. Centlivre.] Mrs. Susanna Centlivre, wife to Mr. Centlivre, Yeoman of the Mouth to his Majesty. She writ many plays, and a song (says Mr. Jacob, vol. I. p. 32.) before she was seven years old. She also writ a ballad against Mr. Pope's Homer, before he began it.

v. 413. Boyer the state, and Law the stage gave o'er.] A Boyer, a voluminous compiler of annals, political collections, &c. William Law, A. M. wrote with great zeal against the stage; Mr. Dennis answered with as great. Their books were printed in 1726.

v. 414. Morgan.] A writer against religion, distinguished no otherwise from the rabble of his tribe than by the pompousness of his title; for having stolen his morality from Tindal, and his philosophy from Spino

VARIATIONS.

v. 413. In the first edition it was,

T--s and T-- the church and state gave o'er,
Talk'd, nor S--- whisper'd more.

Nor

**

IMITATIONS.

v. 418. And all was bush'd, as Folly's self lay dead.] Alludes to Dryden's verse in the Indian Emperor: "All thing's are hush'd, as Nature's self lay dead."

Thus the soft gifts of Sleep conclude the day,
And stretch'd on bulks, as usual, poets lay.
Why should I sing what bards the nightly Muse
Did slumb'ring visit, and convey to stews;
Who prouder march'd, with magistrates in state,
To some fam'd round-house, ever-open gate!
How Henley lay inspir'd beside a sink,
And to mere mortals seem'd a priest in drink :
While others, timely, to the neighb'ring Fleet
(Haunt of the Muses) made their safe retreat?

REMARKS.

420

425

za, he calls himself by the courtesy of England, a Moral Philosopher.

Ibid. Mandeville.] This writer, who prided himself as much in the reputation of an immoral philosopher, was author of a famous book called The Fable of the Bees: written to prove, That moral virtue is the invention of knaves, and Christian virtue the imposition of fools; and that vice is necessary, and alone sufficient to render society flourishing and happy.

v.415. Norton. Norton de Foe, offspring of the fa- ! mous Daniel; Fortes creantur fortibus: one of the Authors of the Flying Post, in which well-bred work Mr. P. had sometime the honour to be abused with his betters, and of many hired scurrilities, and daily papers, to which he never set his name,

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 slumber with his head on her lap; a position of marvellous virtue, «hich causes all the visions of wild enthusiasts, pr jectors, pouticians, inamoratoes, castle-builders, chemists, and poets. He is immediately carried on the wings of Fancy, and led by a mad perical sibyl to the Elysian shade; where, on the banks of the Lethe, the souls of the dull are dipped by Bavius, before their entrance into this world. There he is met by the ghost of Settle, and by him mad 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 shews 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 before his eyes, describing each by his proper figure, character, and qualifications. On a sudden the scene shifts, and a vast number of mira. cles and prodigies 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 unmixed 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 Dulness shall be advanced over the Theatre, and set up even at Court; then how her sons shail preside in the seats of Arts and Sciences; giving a glimpse, or Pisah sight, of the future fuiness of her glory, the accomplishment whereof is the subject of the Fourth and last Book.

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

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,

15

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 họnest 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.

.7,8. Hence from the straw where Bedlam's

's prophet nods, He bears loud oracles, and talks with gods.] "Et varias audit voces, fruiturque deorum "Colloquio."

v. 15. Aslip-shod Sibyl, &c.]

Conclamat vates-----

Virg. Æn. VIII.

Virg.

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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 souls,

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.

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Vidit Aenas in vale reducta

Seclusum nemus------

Scribl.

[nem &c.

Lethaeumque domos placidas. qui praenatat amHunc circum innumerae gentes," &c.Virg. Æn.VI. v. 24. Old Bavius sits to dip poetic souts.] 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,

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