[247] The fullest account we have of Settle, a busy scribe in his day,
is in Mr. Nichols's "Literary Anecdotes," vol. i. p. 41.
[248] It was the custom when party feeling ran high on the subject of
papacy, towards the close of the reign of Charles the Second,
to get up these solemn mock-processions of the Pope and
Cardinals, accompanied with figures to represent Sir
Edmundbury Godfrey, and other subjects well adapted to heat
popular feelings, and parade them through the streets of
London. The day chosen for this was the anniversary of the
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth (Nov. 17), and when the
procession reached Temple-bar, the figure of the Pope was
tossed from his chair by one dressed as the Devil into a great
bonfire made opposite the statue of Queen Elizabeth, on the
city side of Temple-bar. Two rare tracts describe these
"solemn mock-processions," as they are termed, in 1679 and
1680. Prints were also published depicting the whole
proceedings, and descriptive pamphlets from the pen of Settle,
who arranged these shows.--ED.
[249] Thus altered in the _Dunciad_, book i., ver. 183--
"As clocks to weight their nimble motions owe,
The wheels above urged by the load below."
[250] This original image a late caustic wit (Horne Tooke), who
probably had never read this poem, employed on a certain
occasion. Godwin, who had then distinguished himself by his
genius and by some hardy paradoxes, was pleading for them as
hardily, by showing that they did not originate in him--that
they were to be found in Helvetius, in Rousseau, and in other
modern philosophers. "Ay," retorted the cynical wit; "so you
eat at my table venison and turtle, but from you the same
things come quite changed!" The original, after all, is in
Donne, long afterwards versified by our poet. See Warton's
edition, vol. iv. p. 257. Pope must have been an early reader
of Donne.
[251] Thus altered in the _Dunciad_, book i. ver. 181--
"As, forced from wind-guns, lead itself can fly,
And pond'rous slugs cut swiftly through the sky."
[252] Perhaps, by _Chaerilus_, the juvenile satirist designated
_Flecknoe_, or _Shadwell_, who had received their immortality
of dulness from his master, catholic in poetry and opinions,
Dryden.