Or that where on her Curls the public pours, REMARK S. Ver. 2. or Fleckno's Irish throne,] Richard Fleckno was an Irish priest, but had laid afide (as himself expreffed it) the mechanic part of priesthood. He printed fome plays, poems, letters, and travels. I doubt not, our author took occafion to mention him in respect to the Poem of Mr Dryden, to which this bears fome refemblance, though of a character more different from it than that of the Eneid from the Iliad, or the Lutrin of Boileau from the Defait de Bouts rimées of Sarazin. It may be just worth mentioning, that the Eminence from whence the ancient Sophifts entertained their auditors, was called by the pompous name of a Throne;—ἐπὶ θρόνω τινὸς ὑψηλε μαλα σοφισικῶς καὶ σοβαρώς. Themiftius, Orat i. 66 VER. 3. Or that where on her Curls the public pours,] Edmund Curl flood in the pillory at Charing-crofs, in March 1727-8. "This (faith Edmund Curl) is a falfe Affertion-I had in"deed the corporal punishment of what the Gentlemen of the long Robe are pleafed jocofely to call mounting the Roftrum "for one hour: but that scene of action was not in the month "of March, but in February." [Curliad, 12mo p. 19.] And of the Hiftory of his being toft in a Blanket, he faith, Here, Scrib"lerus! thou leefeth in what thou affertest concerning the blan"ket; it was not a blanket, but a rug." p. 25. Much in the fame manner Mr Cibber remonstrated, that his Brothers, at Bedlam, mentioned Book i. were not Brazen, but Blocks; yet our author let it pass unaltered, as a trifle that no way altered the relationship. We fhould think (gentle Reader) that we but ill performed our part, if we corrected not as well our own errors now, as formerly thofe of the Printer. Since what moved us to this Work, was folely the love of Truth, not in the leaft any Vain glory, or Defire to contend with Great Authors. And further, our Miftakes, we conceive, will the rather be pardoned, as scarce poffible to be avoided in writing of fuch Perfons and Works as do ever fhun the Light. However, that we may not any way foften or extenuate the fame, we give them thee in the very words of our Antagonists: not defending, but retracting them from our heart, and craving excuse of the Parties offended: For furely in this Work, it hath been above all things our defire, to provoke no Man. SCRIBL. 5 Great Cibber fate: the proud Panaffian fneer, On him, and crouds turn Coxcombs as they gaze. New 10 Heav'ns twinkling Sparks draw light, and point their horns. Not with more glee, by hands Pontific crown'd, With fcarlet hats wide-waving circled round, Rome in her Capitol faw Querno fit, Thron'd on feven hills, the Antichrift of wit. And now the Queen, to glad her fons, proclaims By herald Hawkers high heroic Games. They fummon all her Race: An endless band 15 Pours forth, and leaves unpeopled half the land 20 REMARK S. VER. 15. Rome in her Capitol faw Querno fit,] Camillo Quer no was of Apulia, who hearing the great Encouragement which Leo X. gave to poets, travelled to Rome with a harp in his hand, and fung to it twenty thousand verses of a poem called Alexias. He was introduced as a Buffoon to Leo, and promoted to the honour of the Laurel ; a jest which the court of Rome and the Pope himself entered into fo far, as to caufe him ride on an elephant to the Capitol, and to hold a folemn festival on his coronation; at which it is recorded the Poet himself was fo tranf ported as to weep for joy * He was ever after a conftant frequenter of the Pope's table, drank abundantly, and poured forth verfes without number. PAULUS JOVIUS, Elog. Vir. doct. cap. lxxxii. Some idea of his poetry is given by Fam. Strada, in his Prolufions. A motley mixture! in long wigs, in bags, 25 Amid that area wide they took their stand, A Church collects the faints of Drury-lane. With Authors, Stationers obey'd the call, A Poet's form fhe plac'd before their eyes, 30 35 IMITATIONS. VER. 35. A Poet's form the plac'd before their eyes,] This is what Juno does to deceive Turnus Æn. x. Tum Dea nube cava, tenuem fine viribus umbram In faciem Æneæ (visu mirabile monftrum !) Dardaniis ornat telis, clypeumque jubafque Divini affimilat capitis Dat fine mente fonum -Dat inania verba, The reader will obferve how exactly fome of thele verfes-fuit with their allegorical application here to a plagiary: There seems to me a great propriety in this Epifode, where fuch an one is imaged by a phantom that deludes the grafp of the expecting Bookfeller. But fuch a bulk as no twelve bards could raife, Twelve starv'ling bards of these degen'rate days. 40 So like, that critics faid, and courtiers fwore, A Wit it was, and call'd the phantom More... REMARK S. - 45% VER. 44. 4 brain of feathers and a heart of lead ;] i. c. 50 as the poet, book iv. defcribes the accomplished Sons of Dulness: of whom this is only an Image, or Scarecrow, and so stuff'd out with these correfponding materials. SCRIBL. VER. 47. Never was dash'd out, at one lucky hit,] Our author here feems willing to give fome account of the poffibility of Dulness making a Wit (which could be done no other way than by chance. The fiction is the more reconciled to probability by the known ftory of Apelies, who being at a loss to exprefs the foam of Alexander's horfe, dafh'd his pencil in despair at the picture, and happened to do it by that fortunate (troke. VER. 50. and call'd the phantom More.] CURL, in his key to to the Dunciad, affirmed this to be James-More Smith Efq; and it is probable (confidering what is faid of him in the Testimonies) that fome might fancy our author obliged to represent this gen tleman as a plagiary, or to pass for one himself. His cafe indeed IMITATIONS. VER. 39. But fuch a bulk as no twelve bards could raise,] Qualia nunc hominum producit corpora tellus. Vir. Æn. xii. All gaze with ardour: Some a poet's name, Others a fword-knot and lac'd fuit inflame. 66 REMARK S.. was like that of a man I have heard of, who, as he was fitting in company, perceived his next neighbour had ftolen his handkerchief. "Sir, (faid the thief, finding himself detected) do not expofe me, I did it for mere want; be fo good but to take it "privately out of my pocket again, and fay nothing." The honeft man did fo, but the other cry'd out, "See, gentlemen what "a thief we have among us! look, he is ftealing my handker"chief!" Some time before, he had borrow'd of Dr Arbuthnot a paper called an Hiftorico-phyfical account of the South Sea; and of Mr Pope the Memoirs of a Parish Clark, which for two years he kept and read to the Rev. Dr Young, -F. Billers,Efq; and many others, as his own. Being applied to for them, he pretended they were loft; but there happening to be another copy of the latter, it came out in Swift and Pope's Mifcellanies. Upon this, it seems, he was fo far mistaken as to confefs his proceeding, by an endeavour to hide it; unguardedly printing (in the Daily Journal of April 3. 1728.) "That the contempt which he and "others had for thofe pieces (which only himself had fhewn, and "handed about as his own) occafioned their being loft, and for "that cause only not returned." A fact, of which, as none but he could be conscious, none but he could be the publisher of it. The plagiarisms of this perfon gave occafion to the following Epigram: "More always fimiles whenever he recites; "He fmiles (you think) approving what he writes. "A modeft man may like what's not his own. This young Gentleman's whole misfortune was too inordinate a paffion to be thought a Wit. Here is a very strong inftance at tefted by Mr Savage, fon of the late Earl Rivers; who having fhown fome verfes of his in manufcript to Mr Moore, wherein Mr Pope was called first of the tuneful train, Mr Moore the next morning fent to Mr Savage to défire him to give those verses another turn, to wit, "That Pope might now be the first, becaule Moore had left him unrivall'd in turning his ftile to Comedy." This was during the rehearsal of the Rival Modes, his first and only work; the Town condemn'd it in the action, but he printed it in 1726-7, with this modeft Motto, Hip cafus, artemque repono. |