born in 1657. He paid court to Mr Dryden; and having obtained some
correspondence with Mr Wycherly and Mr Congreve, he immediately obliged
the public with their letters. He made himself known to the Government
by many admirable schemes and projects, which the ministry, for reasons
best known to themselves, constantly kept private.--P.
[261] 'Shame to Fortune:' because she usually shows favour to persons of
this character, who have a threefold pretence to it.
[262] 'Poor Fletcher's half-eat scenes:' a great number of them taken
out to patch up his plays.--P.
[263] 'Tibbald:' this Tibbald, or Theobald, published an edition of
Shakspeare, of which he was so proud himself as to say, in one of Mist's
journals, June 8, 'That to expose any errors in it was impracticable.'
And in another, April 27, 'That whatever care might for the future be
taken by any other editor, he would still give above five hundred
emendations, that shall escape them all.'--P.
[264] 'Wish'd he had blotted:' it was a ridiculous praise which the
players gave to Shakspeare, 'that he never blotted a line.' Ben Jonson
honestly wished he had blotted a thousand; and Shakspeare would
certainly have wished the same, if he had lived to see those alterations
in his works, which, not the actors only (and especially the daring hero
of this poem) have made on the stage, but the presumptuous critics of
our days in their editions--P.
[265] 'Ogilby the great:' 'John Ogilby was one who, from a late
initiation into literature, made such a progress as might well style him
the prodigy of his time! sending into the world so many large volumes.
His translations of Homer and Virgil done to the life, and with such
excellent sculptures. And (what added great grace to his works) he
printed them all on special good paper, and in a very good
letter.'--Winstanly, Lives of Poets.--P.
[266] 'There, stamp'd with arms, Newcastle shines complete:' Langbaine
reckons up eight folios of the Duchess of Newcastle's works, which were
usually adorned with gilded covers, and had her coat of arms upon them.
[267] 'Worthy Settle, Banks, and Broome:' the poet has mentioned these
three authors in particular, as they are parallel to our hero in his
three capacities--1. Settle was his brother laureate--only, indeed, upon
half-pay, for the city instead of the court; but equally famous for
unintelligible flights in his poems on public occasions, such as shows,
birth-days, &c.; 2. Banks was his rival in tragedy (though more
successful) in one of his tragedies, the Earl of Essex, which is yet
alive: Anna Boleyn, the Queen of Scots, and Cyrus the Great, are dead
and gone. These he dressed in a sort of beggar's velvet, or a happy
mixture of the thick fustian and thin prosaic; exactly imitated in
Perolla and Isidora, Caesar in Egypt, and the Heroic Daughter; 3. Broome
was a serving-man of Ben Jonson, who once picked up a comedy from his
betters, or from some cast scenes of his master, not entirely
contemptible.--P.
[268] 'Caxton:' a printer in the time of Edward IV., Richard III., and
Henry VII.; Wynkyn de Worde, his successor, in that of Henry VII. and
VIII.--P.
[269] 'Nich. de Lyra:' or Harpsfield, a very voluminous commentator,
whose works, in five vast folios, were printed in 1472.--P.
[270] 'Philemon Holland:' doctor in physic. 'He translated so many
books, that a man would think he had done nothing else; insomuch that he
might be called translator general of his age. The books alone of his
turning into English are sufficient to make a country gentleman a
complete library.'--Winstanly.--P.
[271] 'E'er since Sir Fopling's periwig:' the first visible cause of the
passion of the town for our hero, was a fair flaxen full-bottomed
periwig, which, he tells us, he wore in his first play of the Fool in
Fashion. It attracted, in a particular manner, the friendship of Col.
Brett, who wanted to purchase it.--P.
[272] 'Ridpath--Mist:' George Ridpath, author of a Whig paper, called
the Flying Post; Nathanael Mist, of a famous Tory journal.--P.
[273] 'Rome's ancient geese:' relates to the well-known story of the
geese that saved the Capitol; of which Virgil, Aen. VIII.
'Atque hic auratis volitans argenteus anser
Porticibus, Gallos in limine adesse canebat.'
A passage I have always suspected. Who sees not the antithesis of
_auratis_ and _argenteus_ to be unworthy the Virgilian majesty? And what
absurdity to say a goose sings? _canebat_. Virgil gives a contrary
character of the voice of this silly bird, in Ecl. ix.
... 'argutos interstrepere anser olores.'
Read it, therefore, _adesse strepebat_. And why _auratis porticibus_?
does not the very verse preceding this inform us,
'Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo.'
Is this thatch in one line, and gold in another, consistent? I scruple
not (_repugnantibas omnibus manuscriptis_) to correct it _auritis_.
Horace uses the same epithet in the same sense.--P.
[274] 'Bear and Fiddle:' see 'Butler's Hudibras.'
[275] 'Gratis-given Bland--Sent with a pass.' It was a practice so to
give the Daily Gazetteer and ministerial pamphlets (in which this Bland,
Provost of Eton, was a writer), and to send them post-free to all the
towns in the kingdom.--P.
[276] 'With Ward, to ape-and-monkey climes.' Edward Ward, a very
voluminous poet in Hudibrastic verse, but best known by the London Spy,
in prose. He has of late years kept a public-house in the City (but in a
genteel way), and with his wit, humour, and good liquor (ale) afforded
his guests a pleasurable entertainment, especially those of the
High-Church party. Jacob, Lives of Poets, vol. ii., p. 225. Great number
of his works were yearly sold into the plantations. Ward, in a book
called Apollo's Maggot, declared this account to be a great falsity,
protesting that his public-house was not in the City, but in
Moorfields.--P.
[277] 'Tate, Shadwell:' two of his predecessors in the Laurel.--P.
[278] 'The dear Nonjuror, Moliere's old stubble:' a comedy threshed out
of Moliere's Tartuffe, and so much the translator's favourite, that he
assures us all our author's dislike to it could only arise from
disaffection to the government:
'Qui meprise Cotin, n'estime point son roi,
Et n'a, selon Cotin, ni Dieu, ni foi, ni loi.'--Boil.
He assures us, that 'when he had the honour to kiss his Majesty's hand
upon presenting his dedication of it, he was graciously pleased, out of
his royal bounty, to order him two hundred pounds for it. And this he
doubts not grieved Mr P.'--P.
[279] 'Thulè:' An unfinished poem of that name, of which one sheet was
printed many years ago, by Amb. Philips, a northern author. It is a
usual method of putting out a fire to cast wet sheets upon it. Some
critics have been of opinion that this sheet was of the nature of the
asbestos, which cannot be consumed by fire: but I rather think it an
allegorical allusion to the coldness and heaviness of the writing.--P.
[280] 'Tibbald:' Lewis Tibbald (as pronounced) or Theobald (as written)
was bred an attorney, and son to an attorney (says Mr Jacob) of
Sittenburn, in Kent. He was author of some forgotten plays,
translations, and other pieces. He was concerned in a paper called the
Censor, and a Translation of Ovid. 'There is a notorious idiot, one
hight Whachum, who, from an under-spur-leather to the law, is become an
under-strapper to the play-house, who hath lately burlesqued the
Metamorphoses of Ovid by a vile translation, &c. This fellow is
concerned in an impertinent paper called the Censor.' Dennis, Rem. on
Pope's Hom. pp. 9, 10.--P.
[281] 'Ozell:' 'Mr John Ozell (if we credit Mr Jacob) did go to school
in Leicestershire, where somebody left him something to live on, when he
shall retire from business. He was designed to be sent to Cambridge, in
order for priesthood; but he chose rather to be placed in an office of
accounts in the city, being qualified for the same by his skill in
arithmetic, and writing the necessary hands. He has obliged the world
with many translations of French plays.' Jacob, Lives of Dram. Poets, p.
198.--P. Mr Jacob's character of Mr Ozell seems vastly short of his
merits, and he ought to have further justice done him, having since
fully confuted all sarcasms on his learning and genius, by an
advertisement of September 20, 1729, in a paper called the Weekly
Medley, &c. 'As to my learning, this envious wretch knew, and everybody
knows, that the whole bench of bishops, not long ago, were pleased to
give me a purse of guineas, for discovering the erroneous translations
of the Common Prayer in Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, &c. As for
my genius, let Mr Cleland show better verses in all Pope's works than
Ozell's version of Boileau's Lutrin, which the late Lord Halifax was so
pleased with, that he complimented him with leave to dedicate it to him,
&c. Let him show better and truer poetry in the Rape of the Lock than in
Ozell's Rape of the Bucket (La Secchia Rapita). And Mr Toland and Mr
Gildon publicly declared Ozell's translation of Homer to be, as it was
prior, so likewise superior to Pope's. Surely, surely, every man is free
to deserve well of his country.'--John Ozell. We cannot but subscribe to
such reverend testimonies as those of the bench of bishops, Mr Toland,
and Mr Gildon.--P.
[282] 'A heidegger:' a strange bird from Switzerland, and not (as some
have supposed) the name of an eminent person who was a man of parts,
and, as was said of Petronius, _arbiter elegantiarum_.--P.
[283] 'Gildon:' Charles Gildon, a writer of criticisms and libels of the
last age, bred at St Omer's with the Jesuits; but renouncing Popery, he
published Blount's books against the divinity of Christ, the Oracles of
Reason, &c. He signalised himself as a critic, having written some very
bad plays, abused Mr Pope very scandalously in an anonymous pamphlet of
the Life of Mr Wycherly, printed by Curll; in another, called the New
Rehearsal, printed in 1714; in a third, entitled the Complete Art of
English Poetry, in two volumes, and others.--P.
[284] 'Howard:' Hon. Edward Howard, author of the British Princes, and a
great number of wonderful pieces, celebrated by the late Earls of Dorset
and Rochester, Duke of Buckingham, Mr Waller, &c.--P.
[285] 'Under Archer's wing--Gaming:' when the statute against gaming was
drawn up, it was represented that the king, by ancient custom, plays at
hazard one night in the year; and therefore a clause was inserted, with
an exception as to that particular. Under this pretence, the
groom-porter had a room appropriated to gaming all the summer the court
was at Kensington, which his Majesty, accidentally being acquainted of,
with a just indignation prohibited. It is reported the same practice is
yet continued wherever the court resides, and the hazard table there
open to all the professed gamesters in town.
'Greatest and justest sovereign! know ye this?
Alas! no more, than Thames' calm head can know
Whose meads his arms drown, or whose corn o'erflow.'
DONNE to QUEEN ELIZ.--P.
[286] 'Chapel-royal:' the voices and instruments used in the service of
the chapel-royal being also employed in the performance of the Birth-day
and New-year Odes.--_P_.
[287] 'But pious Needham:' a matron of great and peculiar fame, and very
religious in her way.--P.
[288] 'Back to the Devil:' the Devil Tavern in Fleet Street, where these
odes are usually rehearsed before they are performed at court.--W.
[289] 'Ogilby--God save King Log:' See Ogilby's Aesop's Fables, where,
in the story of the Frogs and their King, this excellent hemistich is to
be found.--P.
[290] Sir George Thorald, Lord Mayor of London in the year 1720.
[291] 'A little Ajax:' in duodecimo, translated from Sophocles by
Tibhald.
[292] 'Henley's gilt tub:' the pulpit of a dissenter is usually called a
tub; but that of Mr Orator Henley was covered with velvet, and adorned
with gold. He had also a fair altar, and over it is this extraordinary
inscription, 'The Primitive Eucharist.' See the history of this person,
book iii.
[293] 'Flecknoe's Irish throne:' Richard Flecknoe was an Irish priest,
but had laid aside (as himself expressed it) the mechanic part of
priesthood. He printed some plays, poems, letters, and travels.--P.
[294] 'Or that whereon her Curlls the public pours:' Edmund Curll stood
in the pillory at Charing Cross, in March 1727-8. 'This,' saith Edmund
Curll, 'is a false assertion. I had, indeed, the corporal punishment of
what the gentlemen of the long robe are pleased jocosely to call
mounting the rostrum for one hour; but that scene of action was not in
the month of March, but in February' (Curliad, 12mo, p. 19). And of the
history of his being tossed in a blanket, he saith--'Here, Scriblerus!
thou leeseth in what thou assertest concerning the blanket--it was not a
blanket, but a rug,' p. 25. Much in the same manner Mr Cibber
remonstrated, that his brothers at Bedlam, mentioned book i., were not
brazen, but blocks; yet our author let it pass unaltered, as a trifle
that no way altered the relationship.--P.
[295] 'Rome in her Capitol saw Querno sit:' Camillo Querno was of
Apulia, who, hearing the great encouragement which Leo X. gave to poets,
travelled to Rome with a harp in his hand, and sung to it twenty
thousand verses of a poem called Alexias. He was introduced as a buffoon
to Leo, and promoted to the honour of the laurel--a jest which the court
of Rome and the pope himself entered into so far as to cause him to ride
on an elephant to the Capitol, and to hold a solemn festival on his
coronation, at which it is recorded the poet himself was so transported
as to weep for joy.[296] He was ever after a constant frequenter of the
pope's table, drank abundantly, and poured forth verses without number.
Paulus Jovius, Elog. Vir. doct. chap. lxxxii. Some idea of his poetry is
given by Fam. Strada, in his Prolusions.--P.
[296] See Life of C.C. chap. vi. p. 149.
[297] 'Never was dash'd out, at one lucky hit:' our author here seems
willing to give some account of the possibility of Dulness making a wit
(which could be done no other way than by chance). The fiction is the
more reconciled to probability, by the known story of Apelles, who being
at a loss to express the foam of Alexander's horse, dashed his pencil in
despair at the picture, and happened to do it by that fortunate
stroke.--P.
[298] 'And call'd the phantom More:' Curll, in his Key to the Dunciad,
affirmed this to be James Moore Smith, Esq., and it is probable
(considering what is said of him in the Testimonies) that some might
fancy our author obliged to represent this gentleman as a plagiary, or
to pass for one himself. His case, indeed, was like that of a man I have
heard of, who, as he was sitting in company, perceived his next
neighbour had stolen his handkerchief. 'Sir,' said the thief, finding
himself detected, 'do not expose me, I did it for mere want; be so good
but to take it privately out of my pocket again, and say nothing.' The
honest man did so, but the other cried out, 'See, gentlemen, what a
thief we have among us! look, he is stealing my handkerchief!'--P.--
Moore was a notorious plagiarist.--It appears from hence, that this is
not the name of a real person, but fictitious. More, from [Greek:
moros], stultus, [Greek: moria], stultitia, to represent the folly of a
plagiary. Thus Erasmus, _Admonuit me Mori cognomen tibi, quod tam ad
Moriae vocabulum accedit quam es ipse a re alienus_. Dedication of
Moriae Encomium to Sir Tho. More; the farewell of which may be our
author's to his plagiary, _Vale, More! et moriam tuam gnaviter defende_.
Adieu, More! and be sure strongly to defend thy own folly! Scribl.--P.
[299] 'But lofty Lintot:' we enter here upon the episode of the
booksellers, persons whose names being more known and famous in the
learned world than those of the authors in this poem, do therefore need
less explanation. The action of Mr Lintot here imitates that of Dares in
Virgil, rising just in this manner to lay hold on a bull. This eminent
bookseller printed the Rival Modes before-mentioned.--P.
[300] 'Stood dauntless Curll:' we come now to a character of much
respect, that of Mr Edmund Curll. As a plain repetition of great actions
is the best praise of them, we shall only say of this eminent man, that
he carried the trade many lengths beyond what it ever before had arrived
at; and that he was the envy and admiration of all his profession. He
possessed himself of a command over all authors whatever; he caused them
to write what he pleased; they could not call their very names their
own. He was not only famous among these; he was taken notice of by the
state, the church, and the law, and received particular marks of
distinction from each. It will be owned that he is here introduced with
all possible dignity: he speaks like the intrepid Diomede; he runs like
the swift-footed Achilles; if he falls, 'tis like the beloved Nisus; and
(what Homer makes to be the chief of all praises) he is favoured of the
gods; he says but three words, and his prayer is heard; a goddess
conveys it to the seat of Jupiter: though he loses the prize, he gains
the victory; the great mother herself comforts him, she inspires him
with expedients, she honours him with an immortal present (such as
Achilles receives from Thetis, and Aeneas from Venus) at once
instructive and prophetical: after this he is unrivalled and triumphant.
The tribute our author here pays him is a grateful return for several
unmerited obligations. Many weighty animadversions on the public
affairs, and many excellent and diverting pieces on private persons, has
he given to his name. If ever he owed two verses to any other, he owed
Mr Curll some thousands. He was every day extending his fame, and
enlarging his writings: witness innumerable instances; but it shall
suffice only to mention the Court Poems, which he meant to publish as
the work of the true writer, a lady of quality; but being first
threatened, and afterwards punished for it by Mr Pope, he generously
transferred it from her to him, and ever since printed it in his name.
The single time that ever he spoke to C. was on that affair, and to that
happy incident he owed all the favours since received from him: so true
is the saying of Dr Sydenham, 'that any one shall be, at some time or
other, the better or the worse for having but seen or spoken to a good
or bad man.'--P.
[301] 'Left-legged Jacob:' Jacob Tonson.
[302] 'Curll's Corinna:' this name, it seems, was taken by one Mrs
T----, who procured some private letters of Mr Pope, while almost a boy,
to Mr Cromwell, and sold them without the consent of either of those
gentleman to Curll, who printed them in 12mo, 1727. He discovered her to
be the publisher, in his Key, p. 11. We only take this opportunity of
mentioning the manner in which those letters got abroad, which the
author was ashamed of as very trivial things, full not only of levities,
but of wrong judgments of men and books, and only excusable from the
youth and inexperience of the writer.--P.--See Life.
[303] 'Down with the Bible, up with the Pope's Arms:' the Bible, Curll's
sign; the Cross-keys, Lintot's.
[304] 'Seas:' see Lucian's Icaro-Menippus, where this fiction is more
extended.--P.
[305] 'Evans, Young, and Swift:' some of those persons whose writings,
epigrams, or jests he had owned.--P.
[306] 'Bezaleel:' Bezaleel Morris was author of some satires on the
translators of Homer, with many other things printed in newspapers.
'Bond wrote a satire against Mr P----. Capt. Breval was author of the
Confederates, an ingenious dramatic performance to expose Mr P., Mr Gay,
Dr Arb., and some ladies of quality,' says Curll, Key, p. 11.--P.
[307] 'Joseph:' Joseph Gay, a fictitious name put by Curll before
several pamphlets, which made them pass with many for Mr Gay's.--P.
[308] 'And turn this whole illusion on the town:' it was a common
practice of this bookseller to publish vile pieces of obscure hands
under the names of eminent authors.--P.
[309] 'Cook shall be Prior:' the man here specified wrote a thing called
the Battle of the 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.--P.
[310] 'Rueful length of face:' 'the decrepit person or figure of a man
are no reflections upon his genius; an honest mind will love and esteem
a man of worth, though he be deformed or poor. Yet the author of the
Dunciad hath libelled a person for his rueful length of face!'--Mist's
Journal, June 8. This genius and man of worth, whom an honest mind
should love, is Mr Curll. True it is he stood in the pillory, an
incident which would lengthen the face of any man though it were ever so
comely, therefore is no reflection on the natural beauty of Mr Curll.
But as to reflections on any man's face or figure Mr Dennis saith
excellently: 'Natural deformity comes not by our fault; 'tis often
occasioned by calamities and diseases, which a man can no more help than
a monster can his deformity. There is no one misfortune and no one
disease but what all the rest of mankind are subject to. But the
deformity of this author is visible, present, lasting, unalterable, and
peculiar to himself. 'Tis the mark of God and nature upon him, to give
us warning that we should hold no society with him, as a creature not of
our original, nor of our species; and they who have refused to take this
warning which God and nature have given them, and have, in spite of it,
by a senseless presumption, ventured to be familiar with him, have
severely suffered, &c. 'Tis certain his original is not from Adam, but
from the Devil,' &c.--Dennis, Character of Mr P., octavo, 1716.
Admirably it is observed by Mr Dennis against Mr Law, p. 33, 'That the
language of Billingsgate can never be the language of charity, nor
consequently of Christianity.'--P.
[311] 'On Codrus' old, or Dunton's modern bed:' of Codrus the poet's
bed, see Juvenal, describing his poverty very copiously, Sat. iii. ver.
103, &c. John Dunton was a broken bookseller, and abusive scribbler. He
wrote Neck or Nothing, a violent satire on some ministers of state; a
libel on the Duke of Devonshire, and the Bishop of Peterborough, &c.--P.
[312] '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.--P.
[313] 'There Ridpath, Roper:' authors of the Flying-post and Post-boy,
two scandalous papers on different sides, for which they equally and
alternately deserved to be cudgelled, and were so.--P.
[314] 'Himself among the storied chiefs he spies:' the history of
Curll's being tossed in a blanket and whipped by the scholars of
Westminster is well known.--P.
[315] 'Eliza:' Eliza Haywood. This woman was authoress of those most
scandalous books called the Court of Carimania, and the New Utopia.--P.
[316] '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.--P.
[317] 'Osborne, Thomas;' a bookseller in Gray's Inn, very well qualified
by his impudence to act this part; and therefore placed here instead of
a less deserving predecessor. This man published advertisements for a
year together, pretending to sell Mr Pope's subscription books 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.--P. This
was the man Johnson knocked down.
[318] 'Rolli:' Paolo Antonio Rolli, an Italian poet, and writer of many
operas in that language, which, partly by the help of his genius,
prevailed in England near twenty years. He taught Italian to some fine
gentlemen, who affected to direct the operas.--P.
[319] 'Bentley:' this applies not to Richard but to Thomas Bentley, his
nephew, and a small imitator of his great uncle.