upon it as any malice meant to me, but profit to himself. For he considers that my face is more known than most in the nation; and therefore a lick at the laureate will be a sure bait ad captandum vulgus, to catch little readers." -Life of Colley Cibber, chap. ii. Now if it be certain, that the works of our poet have owed their success to this ingenious expedient, we hence derive an unanswerable argument, that this fourth Dunciad, as well as the former three, hath had the author's last hand, and was by him intended for the press; or else to what purpose hath he crowned it, as we see, by this finishing stroke, the profitable lick at the laureate?-BENTLEY. [It was very unlike Colley Cibber to be asleep anywhere, or to have no action in a piece of which he was hero. At eighty years of age he was the same brisk airy character that he was in his youth, and his gallant attentions to Mrs. Woffington, when long past threescore and ten, were the talk of the town.] ACT FOR LICENSING DRAMATIC PERFORMANCES. This noble person, in Ver. 43. Nor couldst thou Chesterfield a tear refuse.] the year 1737, when the Act aforesaid was brought into the House of Lords, opposed it in an excellent speech (says Mr. Cibber) "with a lively spirit, and uncommon eloquence." This speech had the honour to be answered by the said Mr. Cibber, with a lively spirit also, and in a manner very uncommon, in the 8th chapter of his Life and Manners. And here, gentle reader, would I gladly insert the other speech, whereby thou mightest judge between them but I must defer it on account of some differences not yet adjusted between the noble author and myself, concerning the true reading of certain passages.-SCRIBLERUS. have a dependence of Our author's anxiety to curiously evinced by the The laureate does not "While this law was in [The speech of Lord Chesterfield against the licensing bill brought in by Walpole, in 1737, was much admired. "This bill," he said, " is not only an encroachment on liberty, but it is likewise an encroachment on property. Wit, my lords, is a sort of property-the property of those who have it, and too often the only property they have to depend on. It is, indeed, but a precarious dependence. We, my Lords, thank God, another kind." This sarcasm is worthy of Pope. have a lick at the laureate" on all occasions, is allusion to Chesterfield and Cibber in this note. mention the name of Chesterfield. His words are, debate, a lively spirit and uncommon eloquence was employed against it." And he then proceeds to show that the licentiousness of the stage called for some restraint. Lord Hervey, in his memoirs, states that "besides the general liberty that was taken at this time with religion, as well as government, in the theatrical representations, Sir Robert Walpole had got into his hands two plays in manuscript, which were the most barefaced and scurrilous abuse on the persons and characters of the King and Queen, and Lord the whole court, and made these insults on their Majesties a plea for having recourse to Parliament to put a stop to their being acted, saying he had tried all other methods, and found every other would be ineffectual." Hervey also speaks in terms of high commendation of Lord Chesterfield's eloquent and witty speech, though approving, like Cibber, of the bill for regulating the stage.] JUSTICE PAGE. Ver. 30. And dies when Dulness gives her Page the word.] There was a judge of this name, always ready to hang any man, of which he was suffered to give a hundred miserable examples during a long life, even to his dotage. Though the candid Scriblerus imagined Page here to mean no more than a page or mute, and to allude to the custom of strangling state criminals in Turkey by mutes or pages. A practice more decent than that of our Page, who, before he hanged any person, loaded him with reproachful language.— SCRIBLERUS. He [Sir Francis Page was called "the Hanging Judge." He tried Savage for the alleged murder of Dr. Sinclair, in a tavern brawl, and pressed so hard for a conviction, that the jury found the poor poet guilty, and Page had the happiness of sentencing him to death. Savage, however, obtained a reprieve from the Queen, who afterwards generously allowed him £50 per annum, in return for which Savage, as the "Volunteer Laureate," honoured her Majesty with a birth-day ode. Page obtained his legal preferment by writing political pamphlets, though he is said to have been very illiterate. commenced one of his charges to the grand jury of Middlesex with this statement:-"I dare venture to affirm, gentlemen, on my own knowledge, that England never was so happy, both at home and abroad, as it now is.” Horace Walpole mentions, that when Crowle, the punning lawyer, was once on a circuit with Page, a person asked him if the Judge was not just behind? He replied, "I don't know, but I am sure he never was just before." In 1718 this unworthy and odious lawyer was made a Baron of the Exchequer; in 1726, Justice of the Common Pleas; and in 1727, one of the Judges of the Court of King's Bench. He died in 1741, aged 80.] THE OPERA. Ver. 45. When, lo! a harlot form soft sliding by.1 54. Joy to great Chaos! let division reign!2 55. Chromatic tortures soon shall drive them thence.3 61. Another Phœbus.4 1 The attitude given to this phantom represents the nature and genius of the Italian opera: its affected airs, its effeminate sounds, and the practice of patching up these operas with favourite songs, incoherently put together. These things were supported by the subscriptions of the nobility. This circumstance, that opera should prepare for the opening of the grand sessions, was prophesied of in Book III. ver. 304. Already Opera prepares the way, The sure forerunner of her gentle sway." 2 Alluding to the false taste of playing tricks in music with numberless divisions, to the neglect of that harmony which conforms to the sense and applies to the passions. Mr. Handel had introduced a great number of hands and more variety of instruments into the orchestra, and employed even drums and cannon to make a fuller chorus; which proved so much too manly for the fine gentlemen of his age, that he was obliged to remove his music into Ireland. After which they were reduced, for want of composers, to practise the patch-work above mentioned. 3 That species of the ancient music called the chromatic was a variation and embellishment, in odd irregularities, of the diatonic kind. They say it was invented about the time of Alexander, and that the Spartans forbad the use of it, as languid and effeminate. 4 "Tuus jam regnat Apollo."-VIRGIL. Not the ancient Phoebus, the god of harmony, but a modern Phoebus of French extraction, married to the Princess Galimathia, one of the handmaids of Dulness, and an assistant to Opera. Of whom see Bonhours, and other critics of that nation.-SCRIBLERUS. [Colley Cibber has noticed the introduction of the Italian opera into England, "in a lame hobbling translation into our own language, with false quantities, and metre out of measure to its original notes." The first Italian performer that made any figure here was Valentini, who sung in Italian while every other character sung and recited to him in English! (Cibber). An Italian songstress, Signora de l'Epine, was also in England, and a warm rivalry kept up between her and an Englishwoman, Mrs. Tofts. We were afterwards visited by Nicolini, 1708; Handel, 1710; Cuzzone, 1723; Farinelli, 1734. The sublime productions of Handel may be said to have naturalized the opera in this country, and now it bids fair to drive out the old national drama from our theatres.] VERBAL LEARNING. Ver. 175. Oh (cried the goddess) for some pedant reign, 181. For sure if Dulness sees a grateful day, 'Tis in the shade of arbitrary sway.1 The matter under debate is how to confine men to words for life. The instructors of youth show how well they do their parts; but complain that when men come into the world they are apt to forget their learning, and turn themselves to useful knowledge. This was an evil that wanted to be redressed. And this the goddess assures them will need a more extensive tyranny than that of grammar schools. She therefore points out to them the remedy, in her wishes for arbitrary power; whose interest it being to keep men from the study of things, will encourage the propagation of words and sounds; and to make all sure, she wishes for another pedant monarch. The sooner to obtain so great a blessing, she is willing even for once to violate the fundamental principle of her politics, in having her sons taught at least one thing; but that sufficient, the doctrine of divine right. Nothing can be juster than the observation here insinuated, that no branch of learning thrives well under arbitrary government but verbal. The reasons are evident. It is unsafe under such governments to cultivate the study of things of importance. Besides, when men have lost their public virtue, they naturally delight in trifles, if their private morals secure them from being vicious. Hence so great a cloud of scholiasts and grammarians so soon overspread the learning of Greece and Rome, when once those famous communities had lost their liberties. Another reason is the encouragement which arbitrary governments give to the study of words, in order to busy and amuse active geniuses, who might otherwise prove troublesome and inquisitive. So when Cardinal Richelieu had destroyed the poor remains of his country's liberties, and made the supreme court of parliament merely ministerial, he instituted the French Academy. What was said upon that occasion, by a brave magistrate, when the letters-patent of its erection came to be verified in the parliament of Paris, deserves to be remembered: he told the assembly, that this adventure put him in mind after what manner an emperor of Rome once treated his senate; who when he had deprived them of the cognizance of public matters, sent a message to them in form for their opinion about the best sauce for a turbot. Wilson tells us that this king, James the First, took upon himself to teach the Latin tongue to Car, Earl of Somerset; and that Gondomar the Spanish ambassador would speak false Latin to him, on purpose to give him the pleasure of correcting it, whereby he wrought himself into his good graces. This great prince was the first who assumed the title of Sacred Majesty, which his loyal clergy transferred from God to him. "The principles of passive obedience and non-resistance (says the author of the Dissertation on Parties, letter 8), which before his time had skulked perhaps in some old homily, were talked, written, and preached into vogue in that glorious reign." 1 And grateful it is in Dulness to make this confession. I will not say she alludes to that celebrated verse of Claudian : "nunquam Libertas gratior exstat Quam sub Rege pio." But this I will say, that the words liberty and monarchy have been frequently confounded and mistaken one for the other by the gravest authors. I should therefore conjecture, that the genuine reading of the fore-cited verse was thus, "nunquam Libertas gratior exstat Quam sub Lege pia." and that Rege was the reading only of Dulness herself; and therefore she might allude to it.-SCRIBLERUS. I judge quite otherwise of this passage: the genuine reading is Libertas, and Rege: So Claudian gave it. But the error lies in the first verse: it should be exit, not exstat, and then the meaning will be, that Liberty was never lost or went away with so good a grace, as under a good king: it being without doubt a tenfold shame to lose it under a bad one. This farther leads me to animadvert upon a most grievous piece of nonsense to be found in all the editions of the Author of the Dunciad himself. A most capital one it is, and owing to the confusion above-mentioned by Scriblerus, of the two words liberty and monarchy.-Essay on Crit. 66 Nature, like Monarchy, is but restrain'd By the same laws herself at first ordain'd." Who sees not, it should be, Nature like Liberty? Correct it therefore repugnantibus omnibus (even though the author himself should oppugn), in all the impressions which have been, or shall be, made of his works.-BENTL. OXFORD UNIVERSITY. Ver. 192. Aristotle's friends.] The philosophy of Aristotle had suffered a long disgrace in this learned university: being first expelled by the Cartesian, which, in its turn, gave place to the Newtonian. But it had all this while some faithful followers in secret, who never bowed the knee to Baal, nor acknowledged any strange god in philosophy. These, on this new appearance of the goddess, come out like confessors, and make an open profession of the ancient faith in the ipse dixit of their master. Thus far Scriblerus. But the learned Mr. Colley Cibber takes the matter quite otherwise; and that this various fortune of Aristotle relates not to his natural, but his moral philosophy. For speaking of that university in his time, he says, "They seemed to have as implicit a reverence for Shakspeare and Jonson, as formerly for the ethics of Aristotle." See his Life, p. 385. One would think this learned professor had mistaken ethics for physics; unless he might imagine the morals too were grown into disuse, from the relaxation they admitted of during the time he mentions, viz. while he and the players were at Oxford. It appears by this the goddess has been careful of keeping up a succession, according to the rule, Semper enim refice: ac ne post amissa requiras, It is remarkable with what dignity the poet here describes the friends of this ancient philosopher. Horace does not observe the same decorum with regard to those of another sect, when he says, Cum ridere voles Epicuri de grege porcum. But the word drove, armentum, here understood, is a word of honour, as the most noble Festus the grammarian assures us, Armentum id |