Let others aim: 'Tis yours to shake the foul
With thunder rumbling from the muftard-bowl,
205 With horns and trumpets now to madness fwell,
Now fink in forrows with a tolling bell!
Such happy arts attention can command,
When fancy.flags, and fenfe is at a stand.
Improve we thefe. Three Cat-calis be the bribe
Of him, whofe chattering fhames the Monkey tribe:
And his this Drum, whofe hoarse heroic bals
Drowns the loud clarion of the braying Als

Ver. 207. Welfted.] Leonard Welfted, authorof the Triumvirate, or a Letter in verfe from Palemon to Celia at Bath, which was meant for a fatire on Mr. P. and fome of his friends about the year 1718. [He writ other things which we cannot remember. Smedley, in his Metamorphofis of Scriblerus, mentions, one, the Hymn of a Gentleman to his Creator: And there was another in praife either of a Cellar or a Garret. L. W. characterized in the Пp Balag, or the Art of Sinking, as a Didapper and after as an Eel, is faid to be this perfon, by Dennis, Daily Journal of May 11, 1728. He was alfo characterised waster another animal, a Mole, | ver, 126.

But far o'er all fonorous Blackmore's ftrain;
Walls, fteeples, fkies, bray back to him again. 260
In Tottenham fields, the Brethren; with amaze,
Prick all their ears up, and forget to graze !
Long Chancery-lane retentive rolls the found,
And courts to courts return it round and round;
Thames wafts it thence to Rufus' roaring hall,
And Hungerford re-echoes bawl for bawl.
All hail him victor in both gifts of fong,
Who fings fo loudly, and who fings so long.

REMARKS.

(fays he) have their Hints without those motions 265" of fury and pride of foul, because they want fire "enough to agitate their fpirits; and thefe we cal cold writers. Others who have a great deal of "fire, but have not excellent organs, feel the fore

mentioned motions, without the extraordinary "hints; and thefe we call fuftian writers. But he "declares that Sir Richard had neither the Hints "nor the Motions." Remarks on Prince Arthur, octavo, 1696, Preface.

This gentleman in his firft works abufed the cha racter of Mr. Dryden; and in his left, of Mr. Pope, accusing him in very high and sober terms of profanenefs and immorality (Effay on Polite Writing, vol. ii. p. 276.) on a mere report from Edm. Curll, that he was author of a Travestie on the firft Pfalm. Mr. Dennis took up the fame report, but with the addition of what Sir Richard had neglected, an Argument to prove it; which being very curious, we thall here tranfcribe. "lefqued the Pfalms of

Ver. 258. Webfter--and Whitefield] [The one the writer of a News-paper called the Weekly Mifcellany, the other a Field-preacher. This! thought the only means of advancing Religion was by the New-birth of spiritual madnefs: That by the old death of fire and faggot: and therefore they agreed in this, though in no other earthly thing, to abufe all the fober Clergy. From the fmall fuccefs of these two extraordinary perfons, we may learn Low little hurtfal Bigotry and Enthufiafmare, while the Civil Magiftrate prudently forbears to lend his power to the one, in order to the employing it against "It was he who bur the other.] David. It is apparent Ver. 263. Long Chancery-lane] The place where to me that Pfalm was burlefqued by a Popish the offices of Chancery are kept. The long detention" rhymefter. Let rhyming perfons who have been of Clients in that Court, and the difficulty of get-brought up Proteftants be otherwife what they ting out, is humourously allegorized in these lines. " will, let them be rakes, let them be fcoundrels, Ver. 268. Who fings fo loudly, and who fings" let them be Atheists, yet education has made an fo long. A juft character of Sir Richard Black-invincible impreffion on them in behalf of the more, knight, who (as Mr. Dryden expreffeth it)

"Writ to the rumbling of his coach's wheels;"

and whofe indefatigable Mufe produced no less than
fix Epic poems: Prince and King Arthur, twenty
books; Eliza, ten; Alfred, twelve; the Redeemer,
fix; befides Job, in folio; the whole Book of
Palms; the Creation, feven books; Nature of
Man, three books; and many more. It is in this
fenfe he is ftyled afterwards the everlafting Black-
more. Notwithstanding all which, Mr. Gildon feems
allured, "that this admirable author did not think
"himself upon the fame foot with Homer,"
Comp. Art. of Poetry, vol. i. p. 108.

But how different is the judgment of the author of Characters of the Times? p. 25. who fays, "Sir Richard Blackmore is unfortunate in happen

facred writings. But a Popish rhymester has been brought up with a contempt for thofe facred "writings; now thew me another Popish rhymester " but he.' This manner of argumentation is ufual with Mr. Dennis; he has employed the fame against Sir Richard himself, in a like charge of Impiety and Irreligion. "All Mr. Blackmore's celestial

Machines, as they cannot be defended fo much as by common received opinion, fo are they di "rectly contrary to the doctrine of the church of England; for the visible defcent of an Angel must be a miracle. Now it is the doctrine of the Church of England that miracles had ceased a "long time before Prince Arthur came into the "world. Now if the doctrine of the Church of

England be true, as we are obliged to believe, then are all the celestial machines in Prince Arthur unfufferable, as wanting not only humans but divine probability. But if the machines are fufferable, that is, if they have fo much as divine probability, then it follows of neceffity that the doctrine of the Church is falfe. So I leave it to every impartial Clergyman, to confider, &c." Preface to the Remarks on Prince Arthur.

ing to mistake his proper talents; and that he has "not for many years been fo much as named, or even "thought of among writers." Even Mr. Dennis differs greatly from his friend Mr. Gildon "Blackmore's Action (faith he) has neither unity," nor integrity, nor morality, nor univerfality; and confequently he can have no Fable, and no "Heroic Poem: His Narration is neither probable, delightful, nor wonderful; his characters have none of the neceffary qualifications; the things * contained in his narration are neither in their own nature delightful, nor numerous enough, nor rightly difpofed, nor furprising, nor pathetic."Nay he proceeds fo far as to fay Sir Richard has no Genius, first laying down, that "Genius is caufed *by a furious joy and pride of foul, on the conception of an extraordinary Hint. Many men

་་

Ver. 270. (As morning prayer and flagellation: end)] It is between eleven and twelve in the morning, after church fervice, that the criminals are whipt in Bridewell.-This is to mark punctually the time of the day: Homer does it by the circumftance of the Judges rifing from court, or of the labourers dinner: our author by one very proper both to the Perfons and the Scene of his poem, which we may remember commenced on the evening of the Lord-mayor's day: The first book paffed in that night; the next morning the games begin in the

Strand, thence along Fleet-freet (places inhabited by
Book fellers) then they proceed by Bridewell toward
Fleet-ditch, and laftly through Ludgate to the City
and the Temple of the Goddess.

Ver. 280. the Weekly Journals] Papers of news and scandal intermixed, on different fides and parties, and frequently shifting from one fide to the other, called the London Journal, British Journal, Daily Journal, &c. the concealed writers of which for Tome time were Oldmixon, Roome, Arnall, Concanen, and others; perfons never feen by our au

thor.

Ver. 283. In naked majefty Oldmixon ftands,] Mr. JOHN OLDMIXON, next to Mr. Dennis, the most ancient Critic of our Nation; an unjust cenfurer of Mr. Addison in his profe Effay on Criticifm, whom also in his imitation of Bouhours (called the Arts of Logic and Rhetoric) he mifreprefents in plain matter of fact; for in p. 45. he cites the Spectator as abufing Dr Swift by name, where there is not the leaft hint of it; and in p. 304. is fo injurions as zo fuggeft that Mr. Addison himself writ that Tatler, No. 43. which fays of his own Simile, that "It is ❝s as great as ever entered into the mind of man." "In Poetry he was not fo happy as laborious, and therefore characterised by the Tatler, No. 62. "by the name of Omicron the Unborn Poet." Curll, Key, p. 13. "He writ Dramatic works, and a volume of Poetry confifting of heroic Epiftles, &c. fome whereof were very well done," faid that great Judge, Mr. Jacob, in his Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 303.

Then fighing thus, " And am I now three-feare?
"Ah, why, ye Gods! fhould two and two make
four?"
285
He faid, and clinb'd a ftranded lighter's height,
Shot to the black abyfs, and plung'd downright.
The Senior's judgment all the crowd admire,
Who, but to fink the deeper, rofe the higher. 200

Next Smedley div'd; flow circles dimpled o'er
The quaking mud, that clos'd and op'd no more.
All look, all figh, and call on Smedley loft;
Smedley in vain refounds through all the coaft.

Then ** effay'd, fcarce vanish'd out of fight,
He buoys up inftant, and returns to light:
He bears no tokens of the fabler ftreams,
And mounts far off among the Swans of Thames.
True to the bottom, fee Concanen creep,
A cold, long-winded, native of the deep :
If perfeverance gun the Diver's prize,
Not everlasting Blackmore this denies:

REMARKS.

300

for hire, and received his reward in a fmall place, which he enjoyed to his death.

Ver. 291 Next Smedley div'd;] In the furreptitious editions, this whole Epifode was applied to an initial letter E-, by whom if they meant the Laureate, nothing was more abfurd, no part agrees ing with his character. The allegory evidently de mands a perfon dipped in fcandal, and deeply im merfed in dirty work; whereas Mr. Euíden's wr ings rarely offended but by their length and multitude, and accordingly are taxed of nothing else in book i. ver. 102. But the perfon here mentioned, an Irishman, was author and publisher of many furrilous Pieces, a weekly Whiteball Journal, in the year 1722, in the name of Sir James Baker; and particularly whole volumes of Billingsgate agains Dr. Swift and Mr. Pope, called Gulliveriana and Alexandriana, printed in octavo, 1728.

Ver. 295. Then effay'd;] A gentleman of genius and fpirit, who was fecretly dipt in fome papers of this kind, on whom our poet bestows a panegyric instead of a satire, as deserving to be better employed than in party-quarrels, and perioral invectives.

Ver. 299. Concanen] MATTHEW CONCANIS an Irishman, bred to the law. Smedley (one of his brethren in enmity to Swift) in his Metamorphofis of Scriblerus, p. 7. accuses him of " having boafted of In his Effay on Criticism, and the Arts of Logic" what he had not written, but others had sevised and Rhetoric, he frequently reflects on our Author. "and done for him." He was author of feveral But the top of his character was a Perverter of dull and dead fcurrilities in the British and Londen Hiftory, in that fcandalous one of the Stuarts in Journals, and in a paper called the Speculatift. folio, and his Critical Hiftory of England,, two vo- In a pamphlet, called a Supplement to the Profound, Jumes octavo. Being employed by Bishop Kennethe dealt very unfairly with our Poet, not only frtin publishing the hiftorians in his collection, he falfi- quently imputing to him Mr. Broome's verfes (far hed Daniel's Chronicle in numberless places. Yet which he might indeed feem in fome degree account. this very man, in the preface to the first of these able, having corrected what that gentleman did) books, advanced a particular fact to charge three but thofe of the Duke of Buckingham, and others: eminent perfons of falfifying the Lord Clarendon's To this rare piece fomebody humourously caused him Hiftory; which fact has been difproved by Dr. At- to take for his motto, "De profundis clamavi.” terbury, late Bishop of Rochefter, then the only He was fince a hired Scribbler in the Daily Couranty furvivor of them; and the particular part he pre-where he poured forth much Billingsgate againt tended to be falfified, produced fince, after almoft the Lord Bolingbroke, and others; after which this ainety years, in that noble author's original manu- man was furprisingly promoted to administer Justice cript. He was all his life a virulent Party-wtrter /qad Law in Jamaica.

Not fo bold Arnall; with a weight of skull, 315
Furious he dives, precipitately dull.
Whirlpools and ftorms his circling arm inveft,
With all the might of gravitation bleft.
No crab more active in the dirty dance,
Downward to climb, and backward to advance, 320
He brings up half the bottom on his head,
310 And loudly claims the Journals and the Lead.

No noife, no ftir, no motion canst thou make,
Th' unconscious ftream fleeps o'er thee like a lake.
Next plung'd a feeble, but a defperate pack, 305
With each a fickly brother at his back:
Sons of a Day ! just buoyant on the flood,
Then number'd with the puppies in the mud.
Afk ye their names? I could as foon difclofe
The names of thefe blind puppies as of those.
Faft by, like Niobe (her children gone)
Sits Mother Ofborne, ftupify'd to ftone !
And Monumental Brass this record bears,
"Thefe are--ah no! these were the Gazetteers !"

REMARKS.

Ver. 306, 907. With each a fickly brother at his back:-Sons of a day, &c.] These were daily Papers, a number of which, to leffen the expence, were printed one on the back of another.

Ver. 312. Ofborne] A name affumed by the eldeft and graveft of thefe writers, who, at laft, being afhamed of his Pupils, gave his paper over, and in age remained filent.

Ver. 314. Gazetteers] We ought not to fuppofe that a modern Critic here taxeth the Poet with an Anachronism, affirming these Gazetteers not to have lived within the time of his poem, and challenging us to produce any fuch paper of that date. But we may with equal affurance affert these Gazetteers not to have lived fince, and challenge all the learned world to produce one fuch paper at this day. Surely therefore, where point is fo obfcure, our author ought Bot to be cenfured too rafhly.

The plunging Prelate, and his ponderous Grace,
With holy envy gave one Layman place.
When lo! a burst of thunder hook the flood, 325
Slow rofe a form, in majefty of Mud 5
Shaking the horrors of his fable brows,
And each ferocious feature grim with ooze,
Greater he looks, and more than mortal itares;
Then thus the wonders of the deep declares:
First he relates, how finking to the chin,
Smit with his mien, the Mud-nympha fuck'd him
in:

REMARKS.

330

not even fo much credit done to his Perfonal character by all they have written, as by one short occafional compliment of our Author:

"Seen him I have; but in his happier hour
"Of social Pleasure, ill exchang'd for Power!'
"Seen him, uncumber'd by the Venal Tribe,
"Smile without Art, and win without a Bribe.".

Ver. 315. Arnall.] WILLIAM ARNALL, bred an Attorney, was a perfect genius in this fort of SCRIBL. work. He began under twenty with furious PartyNotwithstanding this affected ignorance of the papers; then fucceeded Concanen in, the Briti good Scriblerus, the Daily Gazetteer was a title Journal. At the first publication of the Dunciad, given very properly to certain papers, each of which he prevailed on the author not to give him his due lafted but a day. Into this, as a common fink, place in it, by a letter profeffing his deteftation of was received all the trash, which had been before fuch practices as his Predeceffor's. But fince, by dispersed in several Journals, and circulated at the the most unexampled infolence, and personal abufe public expence of the nation. The authors were of feveral great men, the Poet's particular friends, the fame obfcure men though fometimes relieved he most amply deferved a niche in the Temple of by occafional effays from Statefmen, Courtiers, Bi-Infamy: Witnefs a paper, called the Free Briton, hops, Deans, and Doctors. The meaner fort were a Dedication intituled, To the Genuine Blunderer, rewarded with Money; others with Places or Be-1732, and many others. He writ for hire, and nefices, from aan hundred to a thousand a-year. It valued himself upon it; not indeed without caule, appears from the Report of the Saeret Committee it appearing by the aforesaid REPORT, that he refor inquiring into the Conduct of R. Earl of O. ceived for Free Britons, and other writings, in "That no less than fifty thousand seventy-feven" the space of four years, no less than ten thousand "pounds eighteen fhillings, were paid to Authors "and Printers of Newfpapers, fuch as Free Bri"tons, Daily Courants, Corn Cutter's Journals, "Gazetteers, and other political papers, between «Feb. 10, 1731, and Feb. 10, 1741." Which fhews the Benevolence of one Minifter, to have expended, for the current dullness of ten years in Brirain, double the fum which gained Louis XIV. fo much honour, in annual Penfions to Learned men all over Europe. In which, and in a much longer time, not a Penfion at a Court, nor Preferment in the Church or Univerfities, of any Confideration, was bestowed on any man diftinguished for his Learning feparately from Party-merit, or Pamphlet writing.

I is worth a reflection, that of all the Panegyries bestowed by these writers on this great Minifter, not one is at this day extant or remembered,

nine hundred and ninety-feven pounds fix fhillings and eight pence, out of the Treasury."But frequently, through his fury or folly, he exceeded all the bounds of his commiflion, and obliged his honourable Patron to difavew his fcurrilities.

Ver. 323. The plunging Prelate, &c.] It having been invidiously infinuated that by this Title was meant a truly great Prelate, as refpectable for his defence of the prefent balance of power in the civil conftitution, as for his oppofition to the Scheme of no power at all, in the religious; I owe fo much to the memory of my deceafed friend as to declare, that when, a little before his death, I informed him of this infinuation, he called it vile and malicious, as any candid Man, he faid, might understand, by his having paid a willing compliment to this very prelate in another part of the Poem,

Here ftopt the Goddess; and in pomp proclaime 365
A gentler exercife to close the games.

Ye Critics! in whofe heads, as equa! scales, "I weigh what author's heaviness prevails: Which moft conduce to footh the soul in slumbers, "My Henley's periods, or my Blackmore's numbers,

Then fung, how, fhown him by the Nut-brown" maids,

371

Attend the trial we propofe to make: If there be man, who o'er fuch works can wake, "Sleep's all-fubduing charms who dares defy, And boafts Ulyffes' ear with Argus' eye; "To him we grant our amplest powers, to fit 375 "Judge of all prefent, paft, and future wit; To cavil, cenfure, dictate, right or wrong, Full and eternal privilege of tongue."

A branch of Styx here rifes from the Shades ;
That, tinctur'd as it runs with Lethe's ftreams,
And wafting Vapours from the land of dreams 340"
(As under feas Alpheus' fecret fluice
Bears Pifa's offering to his Arethufe)
Pours into Thames: and hence the mingled way
Intoxicates the pert, and lulls the grave:
Here brifker vapours o'er the TEMPLE creep,
There, all from Paul's to Aldgate drink and fleep.
Thence to the banks where reverend bards repofe,
They led him foft; each reverend bard arofe;
And Milbourne chief, deputed by the rest,
Gave him the caflock, furcingle, and vest.
"Receive (he faid) these robes which once were

mine,

"Dulnefs is facred in a found Divine."

345"

350

Three College Sophs and three pert Templars

came,

The fame their talents, and their tastes the fame; 380
Each prompt to query, anfwer, and debate,
And fmit with love of Poefy and Prate.
The ponderous books two gentle readers bring!
The heroes fit, the vulgar form a ring.

He ceas'd, and fpread the robe; the crowd con- The clamorous crowd is hash'd with mugs of Man,

tefs

355

The reverend Flamen in his lengthen'd drefs.
Around him wide a fable Army ftand,
A low-born cell-bred, felfifh, fervile band,
Prompt or to guard or ftab, to faint or damn,
Heaven's Swifs, who fight for any God, or Man.
Thro' Lud's fam'd gates, along the well-known
Fleet,

Rolls the black troop, and overshades the street, 360
Till showers of Sermons, Characters, Essays,
In circling fleeces whiten all the ways!
So clouds, replenish'd from some bog below,
Mount in dark volumes, and defcend in fnow.

REMARKS.

Ver. 349. And Milbourn] Luke Milbourne, a Clergyman, the fairest of Critics; who, when he wrote against Mr. Dryden's Virgil, did him juftice in printing at the fame time his own tranflations of

390

Till all, tun'd equal, fend a general hum. 385
Then mount the Clerks, and in one lasy tone
Through the long heavy, painful page drawl on;
Soft creeping, words on words, the fenfe compofe,
At every line they ftretch, they yawn, they doze.
As to foft gales top-heavy pines bow low
Their heads, and lift them as they ceafe to blow j
Thus oft they rear, and oft the head decline,
As breathe, or paufe, by fits, the airs divine.
And now to this fide, now to that they nod, 395
As verfe, or profe, infuse the drowsy God.
Thrice Budgel aim'd to fpeak, but, thrice fuppref
By potent Arthur, knock'd his chin and breast.
Toland and Tindal, prompt at priests to jeer,
Yet filent bow'd to "Chrift's No kingdom here." 400

REMARKS.

mous for his fpeeches on many occafions about the Ver. 397. Thrice Budgel aim'd to fpeak,] Fa him, which were intolerable. His manner of writ-South Sea fcheme, &c. ing has a great refemblance with that of the Gentle"He is a very ingenious men of the Dunciad against our author, as will" Epilogues to plays, and one small piece on Love, "gentleman, and hath written fome excellent be seen in the Parallel of Mr. Dryden and him. Append.

which is very pretty." Jacob, Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 289. But this gentleman fince made himself much more eminent, and perfonally well known to the greatest Statefmen of all parties, as well as to all the Courts of Law in this nation.

Ver. 355. Around him wide, &c.] It is to be hoped that the fatire in thefe lines will be understood in the confined fenfe in which the Author meant it, of fuch only of the Clergy, who, though folemnly engaged in the fervice of Religion, dedicate them-fo happy as to be obfcure, who writ against the ReVer. 399. Toland and Tindal,] Two perfons not felves for venal and corrupt ends to that of Minifters ligion of their Country. Toland, the author of the er Factions; and though educated under an entire Atheist's liturgy, called Pantheifticon, was a spyy ignorance of the world, afpire to interfere in the in pay of Lord Oxford. Tindal was the author of government of it, and confequently to difturb and the Rights of the Chriftian Church, and Chrifdiforder it; in which they fall fhort of their Pre- tianity as old as the Creation. He alfo wrote an deceffors only by being invefted with much lefs of abufive pamphlet against Earl S, which was that power and authority, which they employed in- fuppreffed while yet in MS. by an eminent perfer., differently (as is hinted in the lines above) either in then out of the miniftry, to whom he shewed it, fupporting arbitrary power, or in exciting rebellion; expecting his approbation: This Doctor afterwards in canonizing the vices of Tyrants, or in blacken-published the fame piece, mutatis mutandis, againit ing the virtues of Patriots; in corrupting religion that very perfon. by fuperftition, or betraying it by libertinifm, as eiwher was thought beft to ferve the ends of policy, er fatter the follies of the Great.

faid by Curll, Key to Dunc. to allude to a fermon Ver. 400. Chrift's No kingdom, &c.] This is ef a reverend Biog.