RICHARDUS ARISTARCHUS

OF THE

HERO of the POE M.

F the Nature of DUNCIAD in general, whence de rived, and on what authority founded, as well as of the Art and conduct of this our poem in particular, the learned and laborious Scriblerus hath, according to his manner, and with tolerable share of judgment, differtated. But when he cometh to speak of the Perfon of the Hero fitted for fuch poem, in truth he miferably halts and hallucinates. For, mifled by one Monfieur Boffu, a gallic Critic, he prateth of I cannot tell what phantom of a Hero, only raised up to fupport the fable. A putid conceit! As if Homer and Virgil, like modern Undertakers, who firft build their house, and then feek out for a tenant, had contrived the ftory of a war and a wandering, before they once thought either of Achilles or Æneas. We fhall therefore fet our good brother and the world also right in this particular, by affuring them, that, in the greater Epic, the prime intention of the Mufe is to exalt Heroic virtue, in order to propagate the love of it among the children of men; and confequently that the poet's first thought muft needs be turned upon a real fubject meet for laud and celebration; not one whom he is to make, but one whom he may find, truly illuftrious. This is the primum mobile of his poetic world, whence every thing is to receive life and motion. For, this fubject being found, he is immediately ordained, or rather acknow

ledged, an Hero, and put upon fuch action as befitteth the dignity of his character.

But the Mufe ceaseth not here her eagle-flight. For fometimes, fatiated with the contemplation of these Suns of glory, he turneth downward on her wing; and darts, with Jove's lightning, on the Goofe and Serpent kind. For we may apply to the Mufe in her various moods, what an ancient mafter of wisdom affirmeth of the Gods in general: Si Dii non irafcuntur impiis et injuftis, nec pios utique juftofque diligunt. In rebus enim diverfis, ut in utramque partem moveri neceffe eft, aut in nevtram. Itaque qui bonos diligit, et malos odit; et qui malos non odit, nec bonos diligit. Quia et diligere bonos ex odio malorum venit; et malos odiffe ex bonorum caritate defcendit. Which in our vernacular idiom may be thas interpreted: "If the Gods be not provoked at " evil men, neither are they delighted with the good and juft. For contrary objects muft either excite contrary "affections, or no affections at all. So that he who loveth

good men, muft at the fame time hate the bad; and "he who hateth not bad men, cannot love the good; "because to love good men proceedeth from an averfion "to evil; and to hate evil men, from a tenderness to the

good." From this delicacy of the Muse arose the little Epic, (more lively and choleric than her elder fifter, whose bulk and complexion incline her to the flegmatic.) And for this, fome notorious vehicle of vice and folly was fought out, to make thereof an EXAMPLE. An early inftance of which (nor could it efcape the accurate Scriblerus) the Father of Epic-poem himself, affordeth us. From him

the practice defcended to the greek dramatic Poets, his offspring; who in the composition of their Tetralogy, or fet of four pieces, were wont to make the last a Satiric Tragedy. Happily, one of thefe ancient Dunciads (as we may well term it is come down unto us, amongst the Tragedies of the poet Euripides. And what doth the reader fuppofe may be the fubject thereof? Why in truth, and it is worthy obfervation, the unequal Contest of an old, dull, debauched buffoon Cyclops, with the heaven-directed Favourite of Minerva: who, after having quietly born all

the monster's obfcene and impious ribaldry, endeth the farce in punishing him with the mark of an indelible brand in his forehead. May we not then be excused, if for the future we confider the Epics of Homer, Virgil, and Milton, together with this our poem, as a complete Tetralogy; in which, the laft worthily holdeth the place or station of the fatyric piece?

Proceed we therefore in our fubject. It hath been long, and, alas for pity! ftill remaineth a question, whether the Hero of the greater Epic fhould be an honeft Man; or, as the french Critics exprefs it, un honnête homme a: but it never admitted of any doubt, but that the Hero of the little Epic fhould be his very oppofite. Hence, to the advantage of our Dunciad, we may observe, how much juster the Moral of that poem muft needs be, where fo important a question is previously decided.

But then it is not every Knave,) nor let me add) every Fool, that is a fit fubject for a Dunciad. There must still exist some analogy, if not resemblance of Qualities between the Heroes of the two poems; and this, in order to admit what neoteric Critics call the Parody, one of the livelieft graces of the little-Epic. Thus it being agreed, that the conftituent qualities of the greater-Epic Hero, are Wisdom, Bravery, and Love from whence fpringeth beroic Virtue; it followeth, that thofe of the leffer-Epic Hero fhould be Vanity, Affurance, and Debauchery, from which happy affemblage refulteth heroic Dulness, the never-dying fubject of this our Poem.

This being fettled, come we now to particulars. It is the character of true Wisdom, to feek its chief fupport and confidence within itself; and to place that fupport in the refources which proceed from a confcious rectitude of Will.-And are the advantages of Vanity, when arifing to the heroic ftandard, at all fhort of this felfcomplacence? Nay, are they not in the opinion of the

a Si un Heros Poetique doit etre un honete homme. Boffu, du Poeme Epique, lib. v. ch. 5.

enamoured owner, far beyond it?" Let the world (will "fuch an one fay) impute to me what Folly or weakness "they please; but till Wisdom can give me fomething "that will make me more heartily happy, I am content "to be GAZED AT b." This, we fee, is Vanity according to the heroic gage or measure; not that low and ignoble fpecies which pretendeth to virtue we have not; but the laudable ambition of being gazed at for glorying in thofe vices, which every body knows we have. "The world may ask (fays he) why I make my follies public? Why not? I have paffed my time very pleasantly "with them c." In fhort, there is no fort of Vanity such a Hero would fcruple, but that which might go near to degrade him from his high ftation in this our Dunciad namely, "Whether it would not be Vanity in him, to "take fhame to himself for not being a wife man d ?

;

Bravery, the fecond attribute of the true Hero, is Courage manifefting itself in every limb; while its correfpondent virtue in the mock Hero, is, that fame Courage all collected into the FACE. And as Power, when drawn together, must needs have more force and spirit than when difperfed, we generally find this kind of courage in fo high and heroic a degree, that it infults not only Men, but Gods. Mezentius is, without doubt, the bravest character in all the Æneis: But how? His bravery, we know, was an high courage of blafphemy. And can we fay lefs of this brave man's, who having told us that he placed" his Summum bonum in those follies, which "he was not content barely to poffefs but would like. "wife glory in," adds, “ if I am mifguided, 'TIS NA"TURE'S FAULT, and I follov HER." Nor can we be mistaken in making this happy quality a fpecies of Courage, when we confider thofe illuftrious marks of it, which made his FACE more known (as he juftly boatteth)" than moft in the kingdom;" and his Language to confift of what we muft allow to be the most daring

b Dedication to the Life of C. C.

d Life, ibid.

c Life, p. 2. octavo Edit.

e Life, p. 23. octavo.

Figure of Speech, that which is taken from the Name : of God.

Gentle Love, the next ingredient in the true Hero's compofition, is a mere bird of paffage, or (as Shakespear calls it) fummer-teeming Luft, and evaporates in the heat of Youth; doubtlefs by that refinement it fuffers in paffing through thofe certain ftrainers which our Poet fomewhere fpeaketh of*. But when it is let alone to work upon the Lees, it acquireth ftrength by Old age; and becometh a lafting ornament to the little-Epic. It is true, indeed,

there is one objection to its fitness for such an ufe: For not only the ignorant may think it common, but it is admitted to be fo, even by him who best knoweth its value, "Don't you think (argueth he) to say only a man has "his Whore f, ought to go for little or nothing? Because defendit numerus, take the first ten thousand men you meet, and, I believe, you would be no lofer if you "betted ten to one, that every fingle finner of them, one with another, had been guilty of the fame frailtyg." But here he feemeth not to have done justice to himself: The man is fure enough a Hero, who hath his Lady at fourfcore. How doth his modefty herein leffen the merit of a whole well-fpent Life: not taking to himfelf the commendation (which Horace accounted the greateft in a theatrical character) of continuing to the very dregs, the fame he was from the beginning,

Servetur ad IMUM

Qualis ab incepto procefferat.

But here, in juftice both to the Poet and the Hero let us farther remark, that the calling her his Whore, im-, plieth fhe was his own, and not his neighbour's. Truly

*Luft, thro' some certain firainers well refin'd,

"Is gentle Love, and charms all womankind.

f Alluding to thefe lines in the Epift. to Dr. Arbuthnot,

"And has not Colly till is Lord and Whore,

"His Butchers Henley, bis Free-Mafons Moers §