Where o'er the gates, by his fam'd father's hand, Great Cibber's brazen, brainless brothers stand; REMARKS. Ver 23. Or praise the Court, or magnify mankind,] Ironicè, alluding to Gulliver's representations of both.-The next line relates to the papers of the Drapier against the currency of Wood's copper coin in Ireland, which, upon the great discontent of the people, his Majesty was graciously pleased to recal. P. Ver. 25. From thy Baotia.] Boeotia of old lay under the raillery of the neighbouring wits, as Ireland does now; though each of those nations produced one of the greatest wits and greatest generals of their age. P. Ver. 26. Mourn not, my Swift.] Ironicè iterum. The politics of England and Ireland were at this time by some thought to be opposite, or interfering with each other. Dr. Swift, of course, was in the interest of the latter, our author of the former. P. Ver. 28. To hatch a new Saturnian age of Lead.] The ancient golden age is by poets styled Saturnian; but in the chymical language, Saturn is Lead. P. Ver. 28. To hatch a new Saturnian age of Lead.] For the old Saturnian age was of gold. So Hall, Book iii. Sat. 1. from Juvenal, vi. 1. in very polished verses for that age: "Time was, and that was term'd the time of gold, When World and Time were young, that now are old And Pride was yet unborn, and yet unbred." d; Our Poet further develops this thought in the Dunciad, iv. 15. "Of dull and venal a new world to mould, And bring Saturnian days of lead and gold." Wakefield. Ver. 31. By his fam'd father's hand,] Mr. Caius Gabriel Cibber, VARIATIONS. Where wave the tatter'd ensigns of Rag-fair, A yawning ruin hangs and nods in air; Keen, hollow winds howl through the bleak recess, Emblem of Music caus'd by Emptiness; father Here in one bed two shiv'ring Sisters lie, The cave of Poverty and Poetry. P.† Var. Where wave the tatter'd ensigns of Rag-fair,] Rag-fair is a place near the Tower of London, where old clothes and frippery are sold. P. One cell there is, conceal'd from vulgar eye, Keen, hollow winds howl thro' the bleak recess, 35 Hence Bards, like Proteus, long in vain tied down, Escape in Monsters, and amaze the town; REMARKS. father of the Poet Laureate. The two statues of the Lunatics over the gates of Bedlam-hospital were done by him, and (as the son justly says of them) are no ill monuments of his fame as an artist. P.† Ver. 34. Poverty and Poetry.] I cannot here omit a remark that will greatly endear our author to every one, who shall attentively observe that humanity and candor, which every where appears in him towards those unhappy objects of the ridicule of all mankind, the bad poets. He here imputes all scandalous rhymes, scurrilous weekly papers, base flatteries, wretched elegies, songs, and verses, (even from those sung at Court, to ballads in the streets,) not so much to malice or servility, as to Dulness; and not so much to Dulness, as to Necessity. And thus, at the very commencement of his Satire, makes an apology for all that are to be satirized. Ver. 37. Hence Bards, like Proteus, long in vain tied down, Ovid has given us a very orderly account of these escapes; Ut tibi, complexi terram maris incola, PROTEU; P.† Met. viii. Neither Palæphatus, Phurnutus, nor Heraclides, give us any steady light into the mythology of this mysterious fable. If I be not deceived in a part of learning which has so long exercised my pen, by Proteus must certainly be meant a hacknied Town scribbler; and by his transformation, the various disguises such a one assumes, to elude the pursuit of his natural enemy, the Bailiff. And in this light, doubtless, Horace understood the fable, where, speaking of Proteus, he says, " Quum Hence Miscellanies spring, the weekly boast Hence, Journals, Medleys, Merc'ries, Magazines; REMARKS. "Quum RAPIES in Jus malis ridentem alienis, Fiet aper," &c. Proteus is represented as one bred of the mud and slime of Egypt, the original soil of Arts and Letters; and what, I pray you, is a Town-scribbler, but a creature made up of the excrements of luxurious Science? By the change then into a Boar, is meant his character of a furious and dirty Party-writer; the Snake signifies a Libeller; and the Horns of the Bull, the Dilemmas of a Polemical Answerer. These are the three great parts he assumes; and when he has completed his circle, he sinks back again (as the last change into a Stone denotes) into his natural state of immoveable stupidity. Hence it is, that the Poet, where speaking at large of all these various Metamorphoses in the second Book, describes MOTHER OSBORNE, the great Antitype of our Proteus, in ver. 312, after all her changes, as at last quite stupified to Stone. If I may expect thanks of the learned world for this discovery, I would by no means deprive that excellent Critic of his share, who discovered before me, that in the character of Proteus was designed Sophistam, Magum, Politicum, præsertim rebus omnibus sese accommodantem. Which in English is, a political Writer, a Libeller, and a Disputer, writing indifferently for or against every party in the state, every sect VARIATIONS. Ver. 41. In the former Edd. Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac Lay, Hence the soft sing-song on Cecilia's Day. Ver. 42. Alludes to the annual Songs composed to music on St. Cecilia's Feast. IMITATIONS. Ver. 41, 42. Hence, hymning Tyburn's-Hence, &c. "Genus unde Latinum, Albanique patres, atque altæ monia Romæ." w.t Sepulchral Lies, our holy walls to grace, And New-year Odes, and all the Grub-street race. REMARKS. sect in religion, and every character in private life. See my Fables of Ovid explained.-ABBE Banier. W. A very close resemblance to the following lines of Dr. Young, in his first epistle on the authors of the age, addressed to Mr. Pope: "How justly Proteus' transmigrations fit The monstrous changes of a modern wit? Now, such a gentle stream of eloquence, As seldom rises to the verge of sense; Now, by mad rage transform'd into a flame, Which yet fit engines, well applied, can tame; Now, on immodest trash the swine obscene Invites the town to sup at Drury-Lane; A dreadful Lion, now, he roars at Pow'r, Which sends him to his brothers at the Tow'r; He's now a Serpent, and his double tongue Salutes, nay licks, the feet of those he stung." Ver. 40. Curl's chaste press, and Lintot's rubric post :] Two booksellers, of whom see Book ii. The former was fined by the Court of King's Bench for publishing obscene books; the latter usually adorned his shop with titles in red letters. Warton. P. Ver. 41. Hence, hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines,] It is an ancient English custom, for the malefactors to sing a psalm at their execution at Tyburn; and no less customary to print Elegies on their deaths, at the same time, or before. P. Ver. 42. Magazines :] The common names of those monstrous collections in prose and verse; where Dulness assumes all the various shapes of Folly to draw in and cajole the rabble. The eruption of every miserable scribbler; the dirty scum of every stagnant newspaper; the rags of worn-out nonsense and scandal, picked up from every dunghill; under the title of Essays, Reflections, Queries, Songs, Epigrams, Riddles, &c. equally the disgrace of wit, morality, and common sense. P. W. It is but justice to add, that the Gentleman's Magazine, the first of its kind, does by no means deserve this severe sarcasm; but has been a means of preserving many useful and fugitive pieces on many interesting subjects. Warton. 45 In clouded Majesty here Dulness shone; Four guardian Virtues, round, support her throne: Fierce champion Fortitude, that knows no fears Of hisses, blows, or want, or loss of ears: Calm Temperance, whose blessings those partake Who hunger and who thirst for scribbling sake: 50 REMARKS. Ver. 43. Sepulchral Lies,] Is a just satire on the flatteries and falsehoods admitted to be inscribed on the walls of Churches, in The Epigram here inserted, alludes to the too long, and sometimes fulsome Epitaphs, written by Dr. FRIEND, in pure Latinity indeed, but full of antitheses. Warton. Ver. 44. New-year Odes,] Made by the Poet Laureate for the time being, to be sung at court on every New-year's day, the words of which are happily drowned in the voices and instruments. P. The New-year Odes of the hero of this work were of a cast distinguished from all that preceded him, and made a conspicuous part of his character as a writer; which doubtless induced our author to mention them here so particularly. P.t Ver. 50. Who hunger and who thirst, &c.] "This is an allusion to a text in Scripture, which shews, in Mr. Pope, a delight in profaneness," said Curl upon this place. But it is very familiar with Shakespear to allude to passages of Scripture. Qut of a great number IMITATIONS. Ver. 45. In clouded Majesty] Ver. 48. "the Moon Rising in clouded Majesty."-- MILTON, book iv. P, that knows no fears Of hisses, blows, or want, or loss of ears:] “Quem neque pauperies, neque mors, neque vincula terrent.” HOR, P, |