In eldest time, ere mortals writ or read,

Ere Pallas iffu'd from the Thunderer's head,
Dulness o'er all poffefs'd her ancient right,
Daughter of Chaos and eternal Night:
Fate in their dotage, this fair Idiot gave,
Grofs as her fire, and as her mother grave,
Laborious, heavy, bufy, bold, and blind,
She rul'd, in native Anarchy, the mind.

REMARKS.

10

Still

grecable only to the tafte of the Rabble, were by the Hero of this poem, and others of equal genius, brought to the Theatres of Covent-garden, Lincoln's-inn-fields. and the Hay-market, to be the reigning pleasures of the Court and Town. This happened in the reigns of K. George I. and II. See Book iii.

Ver. 4. By Dulnefs, Jove, and Fate :] i. e. by their Judgments, their Interests, and their Inclinations.

Ver. 15. Laborious, heavy, busy, bold, &c.] I wonder the learned Scriblerus has omitted to advertise the Reader, at the opening of this Poem, that Dulnefs here is not to be taken contractedly for mere Stupidity, but in the enlarged Senfe of the word, for all Slowness of Apprehenfion, Shortnefs of Sight, or imperfect Senfe of things. It includes (as we fee by the Poet's own words) Labour, Industry, and fome degrees of Activity and Boldness; a ruling principle not inert, but turning topfy-turvy the Understanding, and inducing an Anarchy or confufed State of Mind. This remark ought to be carried along with the reader throughout the work; and without this caution he will be apt to mistake the importance of many of the Characters, as well as of the Defign of the Poet. Hence it is, that fome have complained he chufes too mean a fubject, and imagined he employs himself like Domitian, in killing flies; whereas those who have the true key will find he sports with nobler

Still her old Empire to restore she tries,
For, born a Goddess, Dulness never dies.

Oh Thou! whatever title please thine ear,
Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver!
Whether thou chufe Cervantes' ferious air,
Or laugh and shake in Rabelais' eafy chair,
Or praise the Court, or magnify Mankind,
Or thy griev'd Country's copper chains unbind;
From thy Boeotia though her Power retires,

20

25

Mourn not, my SWIFT, at aught our Realm acquires.

REMARKS.

Here

nobler quarry, and embraces a larger compass; or, (as one faith, on a like occafion)

"Will fee his Work, like Jacob's ladder rife,

"Its foot in dirt, its head amid the fkies." BEntl. Ver. 17. Still her old Empire to reftore] This restoration makes the Completion of the Poem. Vide Book iv. Ver. 22.-laugh and shake in Rabelais' eafy chair,] The imagery is exquifite; and the equivoque in the last words, gives a peculiar elegance to the whole expreffion. The eafy chair fuits his age: Rabelais' eafy chair marks his character: and he filled and poffeffed it as the right heir and fucceffor of that original genius.

Ver. 23. Or praise the Court, or magnify Mankind,] Ironicè, alluding to Gulliver's reprefentations of both. The next line relates to the papers of the Drapier againft the currency of Wood's Copper coin in Ireland, which, upon the great difcontent of the people, his Majesty was graciously pleased to recal.

Ver. 26. Mourn not, my Swift! at aught our Realm acquires.] Ironicè iterum. The Politics of England and Ireland were at this time by fome thought to be oppofite, or interfering with each other: Dr. Swift of course was in the interest of the latter, our Author of the for

mer.

Here pleas'd behold her mighty wings out-fpread
To hatch a new Saturnian age of Lead.

Close to those walls where Folly holds her throne,
And laughs to think Monroe would take her down, 30
Where o'er the gates, by his fam'd father's hand,
Great Cibber's brazen, brainless brothers ftand
One Cell there is, conceal'd from vulgar eye,
The Cave of Poverty and Poetry.

VARIATION.

Keen,

Ver. 29-39. Clofe to thofe walls, &c.] In the former Édit. thus,

Where wave the tatter'd enfigns of Rag-fair,

A yawning ruin hangs and nods in air;

Keen hollow winds howl through the bleak recefs,
Emblem of Mufic caus'd by Emptiness:

Here in one bed two shivering Sifters lie,
The Cave of Poverty and Poetry.

This, the great Mother dearer held than all
The clubs of Quidnuncs, or her own Guildhall;
Here ftood her opium, here the nurs'd her owls,
And deftin'd here th' imperial feat of fools.

Hence spring each weekly Muse the living boast, &c. Var. Where wave the tatter'd enfigns of Rag-fair.] Rag-fair is a place near the Tower of London, where old cloaths and frippery are fold.

REMARKS.

Ver. 31. By his fam'd father's hand,] Mr. CaiusGabriel Cibber, father of the Poet-Laureate. The two Statues of the Lunatics over the gates of Bedlam-hofpital were done by him, and (as the son justly says of them) are no ill monuments of his fame as an Artist.

Ver. 34. Poverty and Poetry.] I cannot here omit a remark that will greatly endear our Author to every one, who fhall attentively obferve that Humanity and Candor, VOL. III.

G

which

Keen, hollow winds howl through the bleak recefs, 35
Emblem of Mufic caus'd by Emptiness.

Hence Bards, like Proteus long in vain ty’d down,
Escape in Monsters, and amaze the town.
Hence Miscellanies spring, the weekly boast

Of Curll's chafte press, and Lintot's rubric poft :
Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines,

Hence Journals, Medleys, Mercuries, Magazines :

VARIATION.

Ver. 41. in the former edit.

Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac Lay,
Hence the foft fing-fong on Cecilia's Day.

40

Sepul

Ver. 42. Alludes to the annual Songs compofed to Mufic on St, Cecilia's feaft.

REMARKS.

which every where appears in him towards thofe unhappy objects of the ridicule of all mankind, the bad Poets. He here imputes all fcandalous rhymes, fcurrilous weekly papers, bafe flatteries, wretched elegies, fongs, and verfes (even from thofe fung at Court, to ballads in the streets) not fo much to malice or fervility as to Dulness; and not fo much to Dulness as to Neceffity. And thus, at the very commencement of his Satire, makes an Apology for all that are to be satirized.

Ver. 40. Curll's chafte prefs, and Lintot's rubric poft:] Two Bookfellers, of whom fee Book ii. The former was fined by the Court of King's Bench for publishing obfcene Books; the latter ufually adorned his fhop with titles in red letters.

Ver. 41. Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines,] It is an ancient English custom for the Malefactors to fing a Pfalm at their execution at Tyburn; and no lefs cufomary to print Elegies on their deaths, at the fame time, before.

Sepulchral Lies, our holy walls to grace,

And New-year Odes, and all the Grub-street race.
In clouded Majesty here Dulness shone,
Four guardian Virtues, round, fupport her throne:
Fierce champion Fortitude, that knows no fears
Of hiffes, blows, or want, or loss of ears :

45

Calm Temperance, whose bleffings those partake
Who hunger, and who thirst, for scribbling fake: 50
Prudence,

REMARKS.

Ver. 43. Sepulchral Lies.] is a juft fatire on the Flatteries and Falfehoods admitted to be infcribed on the walls of Churches, in Epitaphs; which occafioned the following Epigram :

"Friend! in your Epitaphs, I'm griev'd,
"So very much is faid:

"One half will never be believ'd,

"The other never read."

Ver. 44. New-year Odes.] Made by the Poet Laureate for the time being, to be fung at Court on every New-year's day, the words of which are happily drowned in the voices and inftruments. The New-year Odes of the Hero of this work were of a caft diftinguished from all that preceded him, and made a confpicuous part of his character as a writer, which doubtlefs induced our Author to mention them here fo particularly.

Ver. 45. In clouded Majefty here Dulness fhone ;] See this Cloud removed, or rolled back, or gathered up to her head, book iv. ver. 17, 18. It is worth while to compare this description of the Majesty of Dulness in a ftate of peace and tranquillity, with that more busy scene where the mounts the throne in triumph, and is not fo much fupported by her own Virtues, as by the princely consciousness of having deftroyed all other.