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Then mount the Clerks, and in one lazy tone
Through the long, heavy, painful page drawl on;
Soft creeping, words on words, the sense compose,
At ev'ry line they stretch, they yawn, they doze. 390
As to soft gales top-heavy pines bow low
Their heads, and lift them as they cease to blow:
Thus oft they rear, and oft the head decline,
As breathe, or pause, by fits, the airs divine.
And now to this side, now to that they nod,
As verse, or prose, infuse the drowsy God.
Thrice Budgel aim'd to speak, but thrice supprest
By potent Arthur, knock'd his chin and breast.
Toland and Tindal, prompt at priests to jeer,
Yet silent bow'd to Christ's No kingdom here. 400

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 399 in the first Edit. it was,

Collins and Tindal, prompt at Priests to jeer.

REMARKS,

395

Ver. 387. in one lazy tone] The powerful effects of hearing two dull authors read, described, from hence to the end of this Book, deserve great applause, for Imagination, Expression, and Elegance; particularly lines 388 to 396.

Ver. 397. Thrice Budgel aim'd to speak,] Famous for his speeches on many occasions about the South Sea scheme, etc. "He is a very ingenious gentleman, and hath written some excellent Epilogues to plays, and one small piece on Love, which is very pretty." Jacob, Lives of Poets, vol. ii, p. 289. But this gentleman since made himself much more eminent, and personally well known to the greatest Statesmen of all parties, as well as to all the Courts of Law in this nation. W.

Ver. 399. Toland and Tindal,] Two persons, not so happy as to be obscure, who writ against the Religion of their Country. Toland, the Author of the Atheist's Liturgy, called Pantheisticon, was a spy in pay to Lord Oxford. Tindal was author of the Rights of the Christian Church, and Christianity as old as the Crea

Who sate the nearest, by the word o'ercome,
Slept first: the distant nodded to the hum.

405

Then down are roll'd the books; stretch'd o'er 'em lies
Each gentle clerk, and mutt'ring seals his eyes.
As what a Dutchman plumps into the lakes,
One circle first, and then a second makes;
What Dulness dropt among her sons imprest
Like motion from one circle to the rest:
So from the mid-most the nutation spreads
Round and more round, o'er all the sea of heads. 410

REMARKS.

tion. He also wrote an abusive pamphlet against Earl S

which was suppressed, while yet in MS. by an eminent person then out of the ministry, to whom he shewed it, expecting his approbation: this Doctor afterward published the same piece, mutatis mutandis, against that very person. W.

Ver. 400. Christ's No kingdom here, etc.] This is said by Curl, Key to Dunc. to allude to a sermon of a reverend Bishop. W.

It certainly did allude to the famous sermon of Bishop Hoadley, whom our Author disliked on account of some letters signed Brittanicus in the London Journal, against Bishop Atterbury; whom also Hoadley had vigorously attacked, for his false and perverse interpretation of that text in St. Paul: "If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable:" and also for a famous sermon on another ill-understood passage of Scripture, Charity shall cover a multitude of sins:" and for his sermon before the Convocation. Atterbury, I believe, was one of the last preachers that ever injudiciously urged the authenticity of the Sybilline verses, as proofs of the coming of our Saviour. Warburton was not of Atterbury's opinion with respect to Churchpower. See his "Alliance.'

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 410. O'er all the sea of heads.]

"A waving sea of heads was round me spread,
And still fresh streams the gazing deluge fed."

Blackm. Job.

At last Centlivre felt her voice to fail,

Motteux himself unfinish'd left his tale,
Boyer the State, and Law the Stage, gave o'er,
Morgan and Mandevil could prate no more;

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 413 in the first Edit. it was,

Ts and T-
Nor*** talked, nor S

— the Church and State gave o'er,

— whisper'd more.

REMARKS.

Ver. 411. Centlivre] Mrs. Susanna Centlivre, wife to Mr. Centlivre, Yeoman of the Mouth to his Majesty. She writ many Plays, and a Song (says Mr. Jacob, vol. i. p. 32.) before she was seven years old. She also writ a Ballad against Mr. Pope's Homer, before he began it. W.

Ver. 413. Boyer the State, and Law the Stage gave o'er,] A. Boyer, a voluminous compiler of Annals, Political Collections, &c.-William Law, A. M. wrote with great zeal against the stage; Mr. Dennis answered with as great: their books were printed in 1726. Mr. Law affirmed, "The Playhouse is the temple of the Devil; the peculiar pleasure of the Devil; where all they who go yield to the Devil; where all the laughter is a laughter among Devils; and all who are there are hearing Music in the very Porch of Hell." To which Mr. Dennis replied, that "There is every jot as much difference between a true Play, and one made by a Poetaster, as between two religious Books, the Bible and the Alcoran." Then he demonstrates, that "All those who had written against the Stage were Jacobites and Nonjurors; and did it always at a time when something was to be done for the Pretender." Mr. Collier published his Short View when France declared for the Chevalier; and his Dissuasive, just at the great storm, when the devastation which that hurricane wrought, had amazed and astonished the minds of men, and made them obnoxious to melancholy and desponding thoughts. Mr. Law took the opportunity to attack the Stage upon the great preparations he heard were making abroad, and which the Jacobites flattered themselves were designed in their favour. And as for Mr. Bedford's Serious Remonstrance, though I know nothing of the time of publishing, yet I dare to lay odds it was either upon the Duke

Norton, from Daniel and Ostroa sprung,

415

Bless'd with his father's front, and mother's tongue,

Hung silent down his never-blushing head;

And all was hush'd, as Folly's self lay dead.

REMARKS.

d'Aumont's being at Somerset-house, or upon the late Rebellion. Dennis, Stage defended against Mr. Law, p. ult. W.

How Boyer, who was indeed a dull but useful writer, offended our author, I have never heard. But indeed most of the Scribblers here proscribed, were of a rank much inferior to the writers whom Boileau thought proper to attack; particularly Quinault, whom he so unjustly and impotently censured. It was said of Boileau, that though he made Vice odious, he never made Virtue amiable. Law was a melancholy Enthusiast, who disguised and misrepresented true Religion by dressing it up in dark gloomy colours.

Ver. 414. Morgan] A writer against Religion, distinguished no otherwise from the rabble of his tribe, than by the pompousness of his Title, of a Moral Philosopher.

*

Ibid. Mandevil] Author of a famous book called the Fable of the Bees; written to prove, that Moral Virtue is the invention of knaves, and Christian Virtue the imposition of fools; and that Vice is necessary, and alone sufficient to render Society flourishing and happy.

Ver. 418. And all was hush'd,] Alluding to the first Line of Dryden's Description of Night in the Indian Emperor. A Description which Rhymer produces as a Specimen of the Superiority of English Poetry, to that of other nations: after quoting the Descriptions of Apollonius, Virgil, Ariosto, Tasso, Marino, Chapelain, and Le Moyne; as if, by one description, such a question could be determined! Rhymer introduces this criticism in the preface to his translation of Rapin's Reflections on Aristotle's Poetics; and Rhymer, at that time, gave the Law to all writers, and was appealed to as a supreme judge of all works of Taste and Genius. How well he was qualified for this character, will appear by observing, that after making remarks on what he calls our three Epic Poets, Spenser, Davenant, and Cowley, he mentions not one syllable of Milton. But Milton was not relished and comprehended either by Rapin or Rhymer.

Thus the soft gifts of Sleep conclude the day, And stretch'd on bulks, as usual, Poets lay. Why should I sing, what bards the nightly Muse Did slumb❜ring visit, and convey to stews; Who prouder march'd, with magistrates in state, To some fam'd round-house, ever open gate! How Henley lay inspir'd beside a sink,

And to mere mortals seem'd a Priest in drink: While others, timely, to the neighb'ring Fleet (Haunt of the Muses) made their safe retreat.

420

425

REMARKS.

Ver. 426. And to mere mortals seem'd a Priest in drink:] This line presents us with an excellent moral, that we are never to pass judgment merely by appearance; a lesson to all men, who may happen to see a reverend person in the like situation, not to determine too rashly: since not only the Poets frequently describe a Bard inspired in this posture,

"(On Cam's fair bank, where Chaucer lay inspir'd,"

and the like), but an eminent Casuist tells us, that "if a Priest be seen in any indecent action, we ought to account it a deception of sight, or illusion of the Devil, who sometimes takes upon him the shape of holy men on purpose to cause scandal." Scribl.

Ver. 427. Fleet] A prison for insolvent Debtors on the bank of the Ditch. W.

Ver. 428. Haunt of the Muses] A most happy stroke of sly satire, unexpected stolen in.

END OF THE SECOND BOOK.

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