| He is not afhamed (God ferbid he ever fhoulding there represented as faft afleep; fo misbeseembe ashamed!) of this character ; who deemeth, that ing the eye of empire, which, like that of Provinot reafon but rifibility diftinguisheth the human dence, fhould never doze nor flumber. "Hah! fpecies from the brutal. "As nature (faith this "(faith he), faft afleep, it feems! that's a little profound philofopher) diftinguisheth our species "too ftrong. Pert and dull at least you might from the mute creation by our rifibility, her "have allowed me, but as feldom afleep as any defign MUST have been by that faculty as evi- "fool ()." However, the injured hero may "dently to raise our HAPPINESS, as by our Os comfort himself with this reflection, that though Sublime (OUR ERECTED FACES) to lift the dignity it be a sleep, yet it is not the fleep of death, but of OUR FORM above them (i)." All this confi- of immortality. Here he will (m) live at least, dered, how complete a hero must he be, as well as though not awake; and in no worfe condition how happy a man, whofe rifibility lieth, not than many an enchanted warrior before him. barely in his muscles, as in the common fort, but The famous Durandante, for instance, was, like (as himself informeth us) in his very spirits? and him, caft into a long flumber by Merlin the British whofe fublime is not fimply an erect face, but a bard and necromancer; and his example for fubbrazen head; ás fhould feem by his preferring it mitting to it with a good grace, might be of use to one of iron, said to belong to the late king of to our hero. For that disastrous knight being forely Sweden? preffed or driven to make his answer by feve.al perfons of quality, only replied with a figh, Patience, and fhuffle the cards (~). But now, as nothing in this world, no not the moft facred and perfect things, either of religion or government, can efcape the fting of envy, nethinks I already hear thefe carpers objecting to the clearness of our hero's title. But whatever perfonal qualities a hero may have, the examples of Achilles and Æneas fhow us, that all thofe are of fmall avail, without the constant afliftance of the Gods: for the fubversion and erection of empires have never been adjudged the work of man. How greatly foever then we may teem of his high talents, we can hardly conceive his perfonal frowefs alone fufficient to reftore the It would never (say they) have been esteemed decayed empire of Dulnefs. So weighty an at- fufficient to make an hero for the Iliad or Æneis, chievement must require the particular favour and that Achilles was brave enough to overturn one protection of the GREAT; who being the natural | empire, or Æneas pious enough to raise another, patrons and fupporters of letters, as the ancient had they not been goddess-born, and princes bred. Gods were of Troy, muft first be drawn off and What then did this author mean, by erecting a engaged in another intereft, before the total fub- player inftead of one of his patrons (a perfon, verfion of them can be accomplished. To fur-"never a hero even on the ftage," to this digmount, therefore, this laft and greateft difficulty,nity of colleague in the empire of duiness, and atwe have, in this excellent man, a profeiled favour-chiever of a work that neither old Omar, Attila, ite and intimado of the great. And look, of what force ancient piety was to draw the gods into the party of Eneas, that, and much stronger is modern incenfe, to engage the great in the party of dulnefs. Thus have we effayed to pourtray or fhadow out, this noble imp of fame. But now the impatient reader will be apt to fay, If so many and va rious graces go to the making up a hero, what mortal fhall fuffice to bear his character? Ill hath he read, who feeth not, in every trace of this picture, that individual. ALL-ACCOMPLISHED PERSON, in whom these rare virtues and lucky circumftances have agreed to meet and concentre with the frongeft luftre and fullest harmony. The good Scriblerus indeed, nay the world itfelf, might be impofed on, in the late fpurious editions, by I can't tell what fham hero or phantom: but it was not fo easy to impofe on HIM whom this egregious error most of all concerned. For no fooner had the fourth book laid open the high and | fwelling feene, but he recognized his own heroic acts and when he canie to the words, "Soft on her lap her laureat fon reclines," (though laureat imply no more than one crowned with laurel, as befitteth any affociate or confort in empire), he loudly refenteth this dignity to violated majefty. Indeed, not without caufe, he be nor John of Leyden, could entirely bring to pass. To all this we have, as we conceive, a fufficient anfwer from the Roman hiftorian, "Fabrum effe fuæ quemque fortuna:" that every man is the fmith of his own fortune. The politic Florentine, Nicholas Machiavel, goeth still further, and affirmeth that a man needeth but to believe himself a hero to be one of the worthieft. " Let him (faith "he) but fancy himself capable of the highest "things, and he will of courfe be able to atchieve "them." From this principle it follows, that nothing can exceed our hero's prowefs; as nothing ever equalled the greatness of his conceptions Hear how he constantly paragons himself; at one time to Alexander the Great, and Charles the XII. of Sweden for the excess and delicacy of his ambition; to Henry the IV. of France, for honeft policy; to the first Brutus, for love of liberty; and to Sir Robert Walpole, for good government while in power: at another time, to the godlike Socrates for his diversions and amusements: to Horace, Montaigne, and Sir William Temple, for an elegant vanity that maketh them for ever read and admired; to two Lord Chancellors, for law, from whom, when confederate against him at the bar, he carried away the prize of clo (1) Letter, p. 53. (m) Letter, p. 1. quence; and, to fay all in a word, to the right" furely much leis can any one, till then, be proreverend the Lord Bishop of London himself, in |“nounced a hero: this fpecies of men being far the art of writing pastoral letters. "more fubject than others to the caprices of forNor did his actions fall fhort of the fublimity of" tune and humour." But to this alfo we have his conceit. In his early youth he met the revo- an answer, that will (we hope be deemed decilution face to face in Nottingham; at a time five. It cometh from himfelf; who, to cut this when his betters contented themselves with fol-matter short, hath folemnly protefted that he will lowing her. It was here he got acquainted with never change or amend. old battle-array, of whom he hath made fo ho- With regard to his vanity, he declareth that nourable mention in one of his immortal odes. nothing fhall ever part them. "Nature (faith But he fhone in courts as well as in camps: he was he) "hath amply fupplied me in vanity; a pleacalled up when the nation fell in labour of this" fure which neither the pertnefs of wit, nor the revolution; and was a goffip at her christening, "gravity of wisdom, will ever perfuade me to with the bishop and the ladies. part with." Our poet had charitably endea As to his birth, it is true he pretendeth no re-voured to administer à cure to it: but he telleth lation either to Heathen god or goddess; but, what us plainly," My fuperiors perhaps may be mendis as good, he was defcended from a maker of" ed by him; but for my part I own myself inboth (p). And that he did not pafs himself on the corrigible. I look upon my follies as the best world for a hero, as well by birth as education," part of my fortune." And with good reason; was his own fault: for his lineage he bringeth we fee to what they have brought him! into his life as an anecdote, and is fenfible he had it in his power to be thought nobody's fon at all; and what is that but coming into the world a hero? ་་ Secondly, as to buffoonry, "Is it (faith he) a "time of day for me to leave off these fooleries, "and fet up a new character? I can no more put off my follies than my fkin; I have often But be it, (the punctilious laws of epic poefy "tried, but they stick too close to me: nor fo requiring) that a hero of more than mortal" am I fure my friends are difpleased with them, birth must needs be had: even for this we have a "for in this light I afford them frequent matter remedy. We can eafily derive our hero's pedi-" of mirth, &c." Having then fo publicly degree from a goddess of no fmall power and autho-clared himself incorrigible, he is become dead in ority amongst men; and legitimate and inftal him law (I mean the law Epopœian) and devolveth after the right claffical and authentic fashion: upon the poetas his property; who may take him, for, like as the ancient fages found a fon of and deal with him as if he had been dead as long Mars in a mighty warrior; a son of Neptune as an old Egyptian hero; that is to say, embowel in a skilful feamen; a fon of Phoebus in a har-and embalm him for pofterity. monious poet; fo have we here, if need be, a fon Nothing therefore (we conceive) remaineth to of Fortune in an artful gamester. And who fitter | than the offspring of Chance, to affift in reftoring the empire of Night and Chaos? There is in truth another objection of greater weight, namely, "That this hero ftill exifteth, "and hath not yet finished his earthly courfe. "For if Solon faid well, hinder his own prophecy of himself from taking immediate effect. A rare felicity! and what few prophets have had the fatisfaction to fee, alive!Nor can we conclude better than with that extraordinary one of his, which is conceived in these oraculous words, My dulnefs will find somebody to do it right. "Tandem Phœbus adeft, morsusque inferre pa ❝rantem "Congelat, et patulos, ut erunt, induat hia “tus." (a) (*) Ovid, of the ferpent biting at Orpheus's bead, THE DUNCIAD. DRU. BY AUTHORITY. By virtue of the Authority in Us vefted by the Act for subjecting Poets to the power of a Licenser, we have revised this Piece; where finding the flyle and appellation of KING to have been given to a certain Pretender, Pseudo-Poet, or Phantom, of the name of TIBBALD; and apprehending the same may be deemcd in fome fort a Reflection on Majesty, or at least an infult on that Legal Authority which has bestowed on another perfon the Crown of Poefy: We bave ordered the faid Pretender, Pseudo-Poet, or Phantom, utterly to vanish and evaporate out of this work: And do declare the faid Throne of Poefy from benceforth to be abdicated and vacant, unless duly and lawfully fupplied by the Laureate bimfelf. And it is hereby enacted, that no other perfon do presume to fill the fame. BOOK I. TO DR. JONATHAN SWIFT. THE ARGUMENT. THE propofition, the invocation, and the infcription. Then the original of the great empire of dulness, and cause of the continuance thereof. The college of the goddess in the city, with her private academy for poets in particu lar; the governors of it, and the four cardinal virtues. Then the poem haftes into the midst of things, presenting her, on the evening of a Lord Mayor's day, revolving the long fucceffion of her fons, and the glories paft and to come. She fixes her eyes on Bays to be the inftrument of that great event which is the fubject of the poem. He is defcribed penfive among his books, giving up the caufe, and apprehending the period of her empire; After debating VARIATION. In the first editions Tibbald was the hero of the poem, which will account for most of the fubLequent variations. OC. Ch. whether to betake himself to the church, or to THE mighty mother, and her fon, who brings VARIATION. Ver. 1. The mighty mother, &c.] In the first edition it was thus, Books and the man I fing, the first who brings I fing. Say you, her inftruments the great! Call'd to this work by Dulness, Jove, and Fate; You by whofe care, in vain decry'd and curft, Still Dunce the fecond reigns like Dunce the first; REMARKS. The Dunciad, fic MS. It may well be difputed whether this be a right reading; Ought it not rather to be fpelled Dunceiad, as the etymology evidently demands? Dunce with an e, therefore Danceiad with an e. That accurate and punctual man of letters, the reftorer of Shakespeare,conftantly obferves the prefervation of this very letter e, in fpelling the name of his beloved author, and not like his common careless editors, with the omiffion of one, nay fometimes of two ee's (as Shakspear), which is utterly unpardonable. " Nor "is the neglect of a single letter fo trivial as to "fome it may appear; the alteration whereof in "a learned language is an atchievement that "brings honour to the critic who advances it; "and Dr. Bentley will be remembered to pofte"rity for his performances of this fort, as long as "the world thall have any esteem for the remains ❤of Menander and Philemon." THEOBALD This is furely a flip in the learned author of the foregoing note; there having been fince produced by an accurate antiquary, and autograph of Shakefpeare, whereby it appears that he spelled his own name without the first e. And upon this authority it was, that thofe most critical curators of his monument in Westminster Abbey erased the former wrong reading, and restored the new spelling on a new piece of old Egyptian granite. Not for this only do they deserve our thanks, but for exhibiting on the fame monument the first specimen of an edition of an author in marble; where (as may be feen on comparing the tomb with the book) in the fpace of five lines, two words and a whole verfe are changed, and it is to he hoped will there and, and outlast whatever hath been hitherto done in paper; as for the future, our learned fifter univerfity (the other eye of England) is taking care to perpetuate a total new Shakespeare at the BENTL. Clarendon prefs. It is to be noted, that this great critic alfo has omitted one circumftance; which is, that the infcription with the name of Shakespeare was intended to be placed on the marble fcroll to which he points with his hand; inftead of which it is now placed behind his back, and that fpecimen of an edition is put on the fcroll, which indeed Shakepeare hath great reafon to point at. ANON. Though I have as juft a value for the letter E, as any grammarian living, and the fame affection for the name of this poem as any critic for that of his author; yet cannot it induce me to agree with thofe who would add yet another e to it, and call it the Dunceiade; which being a French and fo reign termination, is no way proper to a word en REMARKS. in this cafe is right, and two ee's wrong. Yet upon the whole I fhall follow the manufcript, and print it without any e at all; moved thereto by authority (at all times, with critics, equal, if not fuperior to reafon). In which method of procceding, I can never enough praise my good friend, the exact of Mr. Thomas Hearne; who, if any word occur, which to him and all mankind is evidently wrong, yet keeps he it in the text with due reverence, and only remarks in the margin, fic MS. In like manner we fhall not amend this error in the title itself, but only note it obiter, to evince to the learned that it was not our fault, nor any effect of our ignorance or inattention. SCRIBL This poem was written in the year 1726. In the next year an imperfect edition was published at Dublin, and reprinted at London in twelves; another at Dublin, and another at London in octavo: and three others in twelves the fame year. But there was no perfect edition before that of London in quarto; which was attended with notes. We are willing to acquaint pofterity, that this poem was prefented to King George II. and his Queen by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole, on the 12th of March, 1728-9. SCHOL. VET. "who brings "The Smithfield mufes to the ear of kings." And it is notorious who was the perfon on whom this prince conferred the honour of the laurel. It appears as plainly from the apostrophe to the great in the third verse, that Tibbald could not be the perfon, who was never an author in fashion, or careffed by the great; whereas this single cha racteristic is fufficient to point out the true hero who, above all other poets of his time, was the peculiar delight and chofen companion of the nobility of Eugland; and wrote, as he himself tells us, certain of his works at the earneft defire of perfons of quality. Laftly, the fixth verfe affords full proof: this poet being the only one who was universally Say, how the goddess bade Britannia fleep, REMARKS.. 10 Still her old empire to restore she tries, For, born a goddess, Dulness never dies. 20 Oh thou whatever title please thine ear, Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver! Whether thou choose Cervantes' serious air, Or laugh and shake in Rabelais' easy chair, Or praise the court, or magnify mankind. Or thy griev'd country's copper chains unbind; From thy Baotia though her power retires, Mourn not, my Swift, at aught our realm acquires, Here pleas'd behold her mighty wings out-spread To hatch a new Saturnian age of Lead. Close to thofe walls where Folly holds her throne, his poetical, theatrical, political, and moral capaci-And laughs to think Monroe would take her ties, that it could justly be said of him, Still Dunce the fecond reigns like Dunce the "first." BENTL. Ver. 1. The mighty mother and her fon, &c.] The reader ought here to be cautioned, that the mother, and not the fon, is the principal agent of this poem; the latter of them is only chofen as her colleague (as was anciently the cuftom in Rome be-fore fome great expedition), the main action of the poem being by no means the coronation of the laureate, which is performed in the very first book, but the restoration of the empire of Dulness in Britain, which is not accomplished till the laft. Ver. 2. The Smithfield mufes.] Smithfield is the place where Bartholomew fair was kept, whole shows, machines, and dramatical entertain. ments, formerly agreeable only to the taste 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 pleatures of the court and town, This happened in the reigns of King George I. and II. See Book iii. Ver. 4. By Dulnefs, Jove, and Fate: i. e. by their judgments, their interefts, and their inclinations. Ver. 15. Laborious, heavy, bufy, bold, &c.] I wonder the learned Scriblerus has omitted to advertife the reader, at the opening of this poem, that Dulness here is not to be taken contractedly for mere ftupidity, but in the enlarged fenfe of the word, for all flowness of apprehenfion, fhortne's of fight, or imperfect sense 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 topsy-turvy the understanding, and inducing an anarchy or confufed flate 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 chooses too mean a fubject, and imagined he employs himfelf like Domitian, in killing flies; whereas those who have the true key will find he sports with a nobler quarry, and embraces a larger compaís; or (as one faith, on a like occafion) "Will fee his work, like Jacob's ladder rife, Its foot in dirt, its head amidst the skies." down, 30 Where o'er the gates, by his fam'd father's hand, Great Cibber's brazen, brainless brothers stand; VARIATION. Ver. 29-39. Close to those walls, &c.] In the former edition thus: Where wave the tatter'd enfigns of Rag-fair, &c. Var. Where wave the tatter'd enfigns of Rag-fair. where old clothes and frippery are sold. Rag-fair is a place near the Tower of London, REMARKS. 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' cafy chair.] The imagery is exquifite; and the equique in the laft 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 against the currency of Wood's Copper coin in Ireland, which, upon the great dif content of the people, his Majefty was graciously pleafed 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 some thought oppofite, or interfering with each other. Dr. Swift of courfe was in the intereft of the lat ter, our author of the former. Ver. 31. By his fam'd father's hand.] Mr. Caius |
