25

From thy Boeotia tho' her Pow'r retires,'
Mourn not, my SWIFT! at ought our Realm acquires.
Here pleas'd behold her mighty wings outspread
To hatch a new Saturnian age of Lead.

T

ત્

Close to those walls where Folly holds her throne, And laughs to think Monroe would take her down,! ཨཐཱ མི,,,

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 29. Close to those walls, &c.] In the former Ed. thus,

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

A yawning ruin hangs and nods in air;

Keen, hollow winds howl through the bleak recess, .196
Emblem of music caus'd by Emptiness;

Here in one bed two shiv'ring Sisters lie,
The Cave of Poverty and Poetry.

J

Var. Where wave the tatter'd ensigns of Rag-fair,] Rag-fair is a place near the Tower of London, where old clothes and frippery are sold. W.

REMARKS,

Had Swift ever seen these poems which bear so near a resem blance to his Liliput and Brobdignac? Lord Orford observed to me, that he thought Swift had been guilty of a useless repetit tion of the same satire in these two Voyages, by only changing great into small. And he also was of opinion, that Cervantes had continued his work to too great a length. After his hero had attacked a Windmill for a Giant, and had mistaken a mean Inn for a magnificent Castle, all that followed was, only the selfsame idea varied, and new-modelled. I pretend not to determine on the justness of this criticism; because I am unwilling to hint any thing that can in the smallest degree depreciate this original writer, Cervantes. But it is with difficulty I can bring myself to doubt of the justness of any of Lord Orford's critical opinions: ،:11 2011 st chout; 2619 siryak

Ver. 23. Or praise the Court, or magnify Mankind, Ironice, alluding to Gulliver's representations 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 discontent of the People, his Majesty was graciously pleased to recall. W. gracious tentareat

107

Where o'er the gates, by his fam'd father's hand, 31
Great Cibber's brazen, brainless brothers stand;
One Cell there is, conceal'd from vulgar eye,
The Cave of Poverty and Poetry.

Keen, hollow winds howl through the bleak recess
Emblem of Music caus'd by Emptiness.
36
Hence Bards, like Proteus long in vain tied down,
Escape in Monsters, and amaze the town.

REMARKS.

Ver. 31. by his fam'd father's hand,] Mr. Caius-Gabriel Cibber, father of the Poet Laureat. The two statues of the Lunatics over the gates of Bedlam-hospital were done by him, and (as the son justly says of them) are no ill monuments of his fame as an Artist. W.

Ver. 34. Poverty and Poetry.] I cannot here omit a remark that will greatly endear our Author to every one, who shall attentively observe that Humanity and Candour, which every where appears in him towards those unhappy objects of the ridicule of all mankind, the bad Poets. He here imputes all scandalous rhymes, scurrilous weekly papers, base flatteries, wretched elegies, songs, and verses (even from those sung at Court, to ballads in the streets), not so much to malice or servility as to Dulness; and not so much to Dulness as to Necessity. And thus, at the very commencement of his Satire, makes an apology for all that are to be satirized.

W.

Ver. 37. Hence Bards, like Proteus long in vain tied down,
Escape in Monsters, and amaze the town.]

Ovid has given as a very orderly account of these escapes ;

66

Sunt, quibus in plures jus est transire figuras :

Ut tibi, complexi terram maris incola, PROTEU;
Nunc violentus Aper; nunc, quem tetigisse timerent,
Anguis eras; modo te faciebant cornua Taurum :
Sæpe Lapis poteras."

Met. viii.

Neither Palæphatus, Phurnutus, nor Heraclides, gives us any steady light into the mythology of this mysterious fable. If I be not deceived in a part of learning which has so long exercised my pen, by Proteus must certainly be meant a hackneyed Town

Hence Miscellanies spring, the weekly boast

Of Curl's chaste press, and Lintot's rubric post: 40

REMARKS.

scribbler; and by his transformations, the various disguises such a one assumes, to elude the pursuit of his natural enemy, the Bailiff. And in this light, doubtless, Horace understood the fable where, speaking of Proteus, he says,

"Quum RAPIES in JUS malis ridentem alienis,
Fiet aper," &c.

Proteus is represented as one bred of the mud and slime of
Egypt, the original soil of Arts and Letters; and what, I pray
you, is a Town scribbler, but a creature made up of the excre-
ments of luxurious Science? By the change then into a Boar, is
meant his character of a furious and dirty Party-writer; the
Snake signifies a Libeller; and the Horns of the Bull, the Dilemmas
of a Polemical Answerer. These are the three great Parts he as-
sumes; and when he has completed his circle, he sinks back
again (as the last change into a Stone denotes) into his natural
state of immoveable Stupidity. Hence it is, that the Poet,
where speaking at large of all these various Metamorphoses in
the second Book, describes MOTHER OSBORNE, the great An-
titype of our Proteus, in ver. 312, after all her changes, as at
last quite stupified to Stone. If I may expect thanks of the
learned world for this discovery, I would by no means deprive
that excellent Critic of his share, who discovered before me, that
in the character of Proteus was designed, Sophistam, Magum,
Politicum, præsertin rebus omnibus sese accommodantem. Which
in English is, A political Writer, a Libeller, and a Disputer,
writing indifferently for or against every Party in the state, every
Sect in Religion, and every Character in private life.
See my
Fables of Ovid explained. Abbe Banier. *

A very close resemblance to the following lines of Dr. Young, in his first epistle on the Authors of the Age, addressed to Mr.

Pope.

"How justly Proteus' transmigration fit

The monstrous changes of a modern wit!
Now, such a gentle stream of eloquence.
As seldom rises to the verge of sense;
Now, by mad rage transform'd into a flame,
Which yet fit engines well applied can tame;
Now, on immodest trash the swine obscene
Invites the town to sup at Drury Lane;

Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiae linės,

Hence Journals, Medleys, Merc'ries, MAGAZINES:

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 41. In the former Ed.

Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac Lay,

Hence the soft sing-song on Cecilia's Day.

Ver. 42. Alludes to the annual Songs composed to Music on St. Cecilia's Feast. W.

REMARKS.

"A dreadful Lion, now, he roars at Pow'r,
Which sends him to his brothers at the Tow'r;
He's, now, a Serpent, and his double tongue

Salutes, nay licks, the feet of those he stung."

Ver. 40. Curl's chaste press, and Lintot's rubric post:] Two booksellers, of whom see Book ii. The former was fined by the Court of King's Bench for publishing obscene Books; the latter usually adorned his shop with titles in red letters. W.

Ver. 41. Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines,] It is an ancient English custom, for the Malefactors to sing a Psalm at their execution at Tyburn; and no less customary to print Elegies on their deaths, at the same time, or before. W.

Ver. 42. MAGAZINES:] The common names of those monstrous collections in prose and verse; where Dulness assumes all the various shapes of Folly to draw in and cajole the Rabble. The eruption of every miserable Scribbler; the dirty scum of every stagnant Newspaper; the rags of worn-out Nonsense and Scandal, picked up from every Dunghil; under the title of Essays, Reflections, Queries, Songs, Epigrams, Riddles, &c. equally the disgrace of Wit, Morality, and Common Sense. P. *

It is but justice to add, that the Gentleman's Magazine, the first of its kind, does by no means deserve this severe sarcasm; but has been a means of preserving many useful and fugitive pieces on many interesting subjects.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 41, 42. Hence hymning Tyburn's-Hence, &c. M

“Genus unde Latinum,

Albanique patres, atque alta monia Romæ."/

Virg. Æneid. i.

45

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, support her throne
Fierce champion Fortitude, that knows no fears!
Of hisses, blows, or want, or loss of ears:
Calm Temperance, whose blessings those partake
Who hunger and who thirst for scribbling sake: 50

REMARKS.

Ver. 43. Sepulchral Lies,] Is a just satire on the Flatteries and Falsehoods admitted to be inscribed on the walls of Churches, in Epitaphs; which occasioned the following Epigram:

"FRIEND! in your Epitaphs, I'm griev'd,

So

very much is said:

One half will never be believ'd,

The other never read."

W.

The Epigram here inserted, alludes to the too long, and sometimes fulsome, Epitaphs, written by Dr. FRIEND, in pure Latinity indeed, but full of Antitheses.

Ver. 44. New-year Odes,] Made by the Poet Laureat for the time being, to be sung at court on every New-year's-day, the words of which are happily drowned in the voices and instruments. W.

Ver. 50. Who hunger and who thirst, &c.] "This is an allusion to a text in Scripture, which shews, in Mr. Pope, a delight in profaneness," said Curl upon this place. But it is very familiar with Shakspeare to allude to passages of Scripture. Out of a great number I will select a few, in which he not only alludes to, but quotes, the very Text from holy Writ. In All's well

Of hisses, blows, or want, or loss of ears:]

"Quem neque pauperies, neque mors, neque vincula terrent."