If I diflike it," Furies, death and rage!"

If I approve,

" Commend it to the Stage."

There (thank my stars) my whole commiffion ends, The Play'rs and I are, luckily, no friends."

60

Fir'd that the houfe reject him, "'Sdeath, I'll print it, "And fhame the Fools-Your int'reft, Sir, with

"Lintot."

Lintot, dull rogue! will think your price too much: "Not, Sir, if you revise it, and retouch."

All my demurs but double his attacks;

At last he whispers, "Do; and we go fnacks."
Glad of a quarrel, ftraight I clap the door,
Sir, let me fee your works and you no more.

"Tis fung, when Midas' Ears began to spring, (Midas, a facred perfon and a King,)

65

70

VARIATIONS.

His

VER. 60. in the former Ed.

Cibber and I are, luckily, no friends."

NOTES.

by daring to adopt the fine machinery of his Sylphs in an heroicomical poem called the Affembly. 1726.

VER. 69. 'Tis fung, when Midas'] The abruptnefs with which this story from Perfius is introduced, occafions an obfcurity in the paffage; for there is no connection with the foregoing paragraph. Boileau fays, Sat. ix. v. 221. I have nothing to do with Chapelain's honour, or candour, or civility, or complaifance; but, if you hold him up as a model of good writing, and as the king of authors,

"Ma bile alors s'echauffe, et je brûle d'ecrire ;

Et s'il ne m'eft permis de le dire au papier;
J'irai creufer la terre, et comme ce barbier,
Faire dire aux rofeaux par un nouvel organe,
Midas, le Roi Midas, a des oreilles d'Afne."

There

His very Minister who fpy'd them first,

(Some fay his Queen,) was forc'd to fspeak, or burst. And is not mine, my friend, a forer case,

When ev'ry coxcomb perks them in my face?

A. Good friend, forbear! you deal in dang❜rous

things.

I'd never name Queens, Ministers, or Kings;
Keep close to Ears, and those let affes prick,
'Tis nothing-P. Nothing? if they bite and kick?
Out with it, DUNCIAD! let the secret pass,

That fecret to each fool, that he's an Ass:

75

80

The truth once told (and wherefore should we lie?) The Queen of Midas flept, and so may I.

You

NOTES.

There is much humour in making the prying and watchful eyes of the minister, instead of the barber, first discover the afs's ears; and the word perks has particular force and emphafis. Sir Robert Walpole and Queen Caroline were here pointed at. Boileau wrote his ninth Satire firft in profe; of which there was a copy in the late French King's Library.

VER. 72. Queen] The ftory is told, by fome, of his Barber, but by Chaucer, of his Queen. See wife of Bath's Tale in Dryden's Fables.

P.

VER. 75. Good Friend, forbear!] Dr. Hurd, in the Dialogue on the Age of Queen Elizabeth, has supported the character of Arbuthnot with more spirit and propriety than is done in this Epistle.

VER. 79. Out with it, DUNCIAD!]" Had Mr. Pope," fays Mr. Mafon," fat as easy to the farcasms of the many writers that endeavoured to eclipse his poetical fame, as Mr. Gray appears to have done with refpect to the parodies on his Odes, the world would not have been poffeffed of a Dunciad; but it would have been impreffed with a more amiable idea of its author's temper."

VER. 80. That fecret to each fool, that he's an Afs:] i. e. that his ears (his marks of folly) are visible.

W.

You think this cruel? take it for a rule,
No creature fmarts fo little as a fool.

Let peals of laughter, Codrus! round thee break,
Thou unconcern'd canst hear the mighty crack:
Pit, box, and gall'ry in convulfions hurl'd,
Thou ftand'st unshook amidst a bursting world.
Who fhames a Scribler? break one cobweb thro',
He spins the flight, felf-pleafing thread anew:

NOTES.

84

90

Destroy

VER. 86. The mighty crack:] A parody on Addifon's tranfla

tion of Horace, Ode iii. b. 3.

"Should the whole frame of Nature round him break

In ruin and confufion hurl'd,

She unconcern'd would hear the mighty crack,

And stand secure amidst a falling world."

On which lines he obferves, in the Bathos, "Sometimes a fingle word (as crack) will vulgarize a poetical idea."

VER. 90. He fpins the flight,] Berkley, who had a brilliant fancy, has employed an image of this fort on a more serious fubject in his Alciphron: "To tax or ftrike at a divine doctrine, on account of things foreign and adventitious, the fpeculations and difputes of curious men, is, in my mind, an abfurdity of the fame kind as it would be to cut down a fine tree yielding fruit and shade, because its leaves afforded nourishment to caterpillars, or because fpiders may weave cobwebs among the branches."

The metaphor in our Author is most happily carried on through a variety of corresponding particulars that exactly hit the nature of the two infects in question. It is not pursued too far, nor jaded out, so as to become quaint and affected, as is the cafe of many in Congreve's too witty comedies, particularly in the Way of the World, and in Young's Satires. For instance:

ALLUSION.

VER. 88. "Si fractus illabatur orbis,

"Critics

Impavidum ferient ruinæ.”

HOR. P.

Destroy his fib, or sophistry, in vain,
The creature's at his dirty work again,
Thron'd in the centre of his thin designs,
Proud of a vast extent of flimzy lines!
Whom have I hurt? has Poet yet, or Peer,
Loft the arch'd eye-brow, or Parnaffian fneer?
And has not Colley ftill his lord and whore?
His butchers Henley, his free-mafons Moore?
Does not one table Bavius ftill admit?

Still to one Bishop Philips feem a wit?

95

100

Still Sappho-A. Hold! for God-fake-you'll of

fend.

No Names-be calm-learn prudence of a friend:

I too could write, and I am twice as tall;

But foes like thefe-P. One Flatt'rer's worse than

all.

Of all mad creatures, if the learn'd are right,

It is the flaver kills, and not the bite.

A fool quite angry is quite innocent:

Alas! 'tis ten times worfe when they repent.
One dedicates in high heroic profe,
And ridicules beyond a hundred foes:

NOTES.

"Critics on verfe, as fquibs on triumphs, wait,
Proclaim the glory, and augment the state;
Hot, envious, noify, proud, the fcribbling fry
Burn, hifs, and bounce, wafte paper, ftink, and/die!

105

110

One

The epithets, envious and proud, have nothing to do with squibs. The last line is brilliant and ingenious, but perhaps too much fo.

VER. 98. Free-mafons Moore?] He was of this fociety, and frequently headed their proceffions.

W.

One from all Grubstreet will my fame defend,
And, more abufive, calls himself my friend.
This prints my Letters, that expects a bribe,
And others roar aloud, "Subscribe, fubscribe."
There are, who to my perfon pay their court:
I cough like Horace, and, tho' lean, am fhort; 116
Ammon's great fon one shoulder had too high,
Such Ovid's nofe, and "Sir! you have an Eye."-

Go

VER. III. in the MS.

VARIATIONS.

For fong, for filence fome expect a bribe;

And others roar aloud, "Subfcribe, subscribe."
Time, praife, for money, is the leaft they crave;
Yet each declares the other fool or knave.

NOTES.

VER. 115. There are, who to my perfon] The smallest personal particularities, notwithstanding fome faftidious writers may think them trifling, are interefting in eminent men. Hence is Montaign fo pleasing; hence is Plutarch in his Lives fo interefting as well as inftructive. What Addison fays in jeft, and with his ufual humour, is true in fact: "I have obferved that a reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure till he knows whether the writer of it be a black or fair man, of a mild or choleric difpofition, married or a bachelor." What paffages in Horace are more agreeable than when he tells us he was fat and fleek, " præcanum, folibus aptum, prone to anger, but foon appeafed. And again, how pleasing the detail he gives of his way of life, the descriptions of his mule, his dinner, his fupper, his furniture, his amusements, his walks, his time of bathing and fleeping, from the 105th line to the end of the fixth fatire of the firft book. And Boileau, in his tenth epiftle, has done the fame in giving many amufing particulars of his father, family, and fortunes.

VER. 118. Sir! you have an Eye.] It is remarkable, that, amongst the compliments on his infirmities and deformities, he mentions his eye, which was fine, fharp, and piercing. It was done to intimate, that flattery was as odious to him when there was fome ground for commendation, as when there was none. W.