So "Yet oh! my sons, a father's words attend: may the fates preserve the ears you lend! yours, a Bacon or a Locke to blame, 'Tis A Newton's genius, or a Milton's flame: But oh! with One, immortal One, dispense, 215 That beams on earth, each virtue he inspires, 220 Each art he prompts, each charm he can create, Whate'er he gives, are giv'n for you to hate. Persist, by all divine in Man unaw'd, But learn, ye DUNCES! not to scorn your God." REMARKS. Ver. 212.] Of Toland and Tindal, see Book ii. Thomas Woolston was an impious madman, who wrote in a most insolent style against the Miracles of the Gospel, in the years 1726, &c. P. Ver. 213. Yet oh! my sons, &c.] The caution against blasphemy here given by a departed son of Dulness to his yet existing brethren, is, as the poet rightly insinuates, not out of tenderness to the ears of others, but their own. And so we see, that when that danger is removed, on the open establishment of the Goddess in the fourth book, she encourages her sons, and they beg her assistance to pollute the source of Light itself, with the same virulence they had before done the purest emanations from it. W. Ver. 224. But learn, ye Dunces!] The hardest lesson a Dunce can learn; for, being bred to scorn what he does not understand, that which he understands least he will be apt to scorn most of which, to the disgrace of all government, and (in the poet's opinion) even that of Dulness herself, we have had a late example in a book, intitled, Philosophical Essays concerning human Understanding. W.† IMITATIONS. Ver. 224. Learn, ye Dunces! not to scorn your God.] Virg. Æn. vi. puts this precept into the mouth of a wicked man, as here of a stupid one. "Discite justitiam moniti, et non temnere divos." P. 225 Thus he, for then a ray of reason stole Half thro' the solid darkness of his soul; But soon the cloud return'd-and thus the Sire: "See now, what Dulness and her Sons admire! See what the charms that smite the simple heart, Not touch'd by nature, and not reach'd by art." His never-blushing head he turn'd aside, 231 Not half so pleas'd when Goodman prophesied, REMARKS. Ver. 224. Learn, ye Dunces! not to scorn your God.] This striking passage is perhaps the only one in the whole poem that is not ironical. The offence of those who attempt to destroy the foundations of religion and morality by impugning the Being, Attributes, and Providence of God, being too heinous to be left to the correction of ridicule; and it is therefore here subjected to the most severe and serious reprehension. It may, perhaps, appear improper that such a sentiment should be supposed to proceed from a professed Dunce; but this, it may be observed, gives great additional strength to the passage; as it implies that this great truth is so manifest as irresistibly to impress itself on the mind of every one not wholly deprived of reason. This glimpse, however, was not of long duration, for we find that although A ray of reason stole Half thro' the solid darkness of his soul, Yet soon the cloud returned. Warton thinks that the four lines commencing, ver. 219, " Content, each emanation," &c. are "perhaps the most obscure of any part of our poet's writings," and Mr. Bowles has therefore undertaken to explain them, in a note not so clear as the lines themselves. Ver. 232. Not half so pleas'd when Goodman prophesied] Mr. Cibber tells us, in his Life, p. 149, that Goodman, being at the rehearsal of a Play, in which he had a part, clapped him on the shoulder, and cried, "If he does not make a good actor, I'll be d-d,"-" and," (says Mr. Cibber,) "I make it a question, whether Alexander himself, or Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, when at the head of their first victorious armies, could feel a greater transport in their bosoms than I did in mine." P.t And look'd, and saw a sable sorc'rer rise, Swift to whose hand a winged volume flies: Till one wide conflagration swallows all. 240 Thence a new world, to nature's laws unknown, Breaks out refulgent, with a heav'n its own: Another Cynthia her new journey runs, And other planets circle other suns. The forests dance, the rivers upward rise, 245 Whales sport in woods, and dolphins in the skies; REMARKS. Ver. 233. a sable sorc'rer] Dr. Faustus, the subject of a set of Farces, which lasted in vogue two or three seasons, in which both playhouses strove to outdo each other for some years. All the extravagances in the sixteen lines following were introduced on the stage, and frequented by persons of the first quality in England, to the twentieth and thirtieth time. P. Ver. 237. Hell rises, Heav'n descends, and dance on Earth;] This monstrous absurdity was actually represented in Tibbald's Rape of Proserpine. P. These absurdities were indeed brought on the stage by Tibbald, but not by Cibber; who again and again disclaimed and despised them, as may be seen in various passages of his Apology. It is therefore unjust to charge him with favouring and promoting such spectacles, which for a long time he resisted, and was forced, very unwillingly, to gratify by them the depraved appetite of the public; of which he much and loudly complains. Warton. IMITATIONS. Ver. 244. And other planets] 66 solemque suum, sua sidera nôrunt". Virg. Æneid. vi. P. P. Ver. 246. Whales sport in woods, and dolphins in the skies;] 66 Delphinum sylvis appingit, fluctibus aprum." Hor. And last, to give the whole creation grace, Joy fills his soul, joy innocent of thought; "What pow'r," he cries, "what pow'r these wonders wrought?" 250 "Son, what thou seek'st is in thee! Look, and find 'Mid snows of paper, and fierce hail of peas; REMARKS. Ver. 248. Lo! one vast egg] In another of these Farces, Harlequin is hatched upon the stage, out of a large egg. P. Ver. 261. Immortal Rich!] Mr. John Rich, Master of the Theatre Royal in Covent-Garden, was the first that excelled this Ver. 256. Wings the red lightning, &c.] Like Salmoneus in Æneid. vi. "Dum flammas Jovis, et sonitus imitatur Olympi. nimbos, et non imitabile fulmen, Ære et cornipedum pulsu simulârat equorum." P. Ver. 258. o'er all unclassic ground:] Alludes to Mr. Addison's verse, in the praises of Italy: "Poetic And proud his mistress' orders to perform, Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm. "But lo! to dark encounter in mid air New wizards rise; I see my Cibber there! REMARKS. 265 Ver. 261. Immortal Rich!] To this gentleman's wonder-working exhibitions Fenton thus refers in his Prologue to Southerne's Spartan Dame: "We hop'd that Art and Genius had secur'd you; The Muses blush'd to see their friends exalting "Whilst we were acting (says Cibber somewhere in his Life) the best Plays in the language to empty houses, Rich, with his raree-shows, was drawing the whole town after him." Wakefield. Ver. 265. to dark encounter in mid air] "Mingle the dark encounter in mid air." Milton. Bowles. Ver. 266. New wizards] Yet it is plain from many passages in Cibber's Life, that he despised these fooleries and abuses of the stage; and there are many other passages in his Life strongly written to the same purpose. Neither Booth nor Cibber ever degraded themselves to the appearances mentioned in the two next lines. Warton. Ver. 266. I see my Cibber there!] The history of the foregoing absurdities is verified by himself, in these words, (Life, chap. xv.) "Then sprung forth that succession of monstrous medleys that have so long infested the stage, which arose upon one another alternately at both houses, out-vying each other in expense." He then proceeds to excuse his own part in them, as follows. "If I am asked, why I assented? I have no better excuse for my error than to confess I did it against my conscience, and had not virtue enough IMITATIONS. "Poetic fields encompass me around, And still I seem to tread on classic ground." As ver. 264 is a parody on a noble one of the same author in The Campaign; and ver. 259, 260, on two sublime verses of Dr. Y. P. |