You by whofe care, in vain decry'd and curst, 5 Still Dunce the fecond reigns like Dunce the first; REMARK S. where (as may be feen on comparing the Tomb with the Book) in the space of five lines, two Words and a whole Verfe are changed, and it is to be hoped will there ftand, and outlaft whatever hath been hitherto done in Paper; as for the future, our Learned Sister University (the other Eye of England) is taking care to perpetuate a Total new Shakespear, at the Clarendon prefs. BENTL. It is to be noted, that this great Critic alfo has omitted one circumstance; which is, that the Infcription with the Name of Shakspeare was intended to be placed on the Marble Scroll to which he points with his hand; inftead of which it is now placed behind his back, and that Specimen of an Edition is put on the Scroll, which indeed Shakspeare hath great reason to point at. ANON. Though I have as just a value for the letter E, as any Grammarian living, and the fame affection for the name of this Poem as any Critic for that of his Author; yet cannot it induce me to agree with those who would add yet another e to it, and call it the Dunceiade; which being a French and foreign termination, is no way proper to a word entirely English, and vernacular. One e therefore in this cafe is right, and two ee's wrong. Yet upon the whole I fhall follow the Manuscript, and print it without any e at all; moved thereto by Authority (at all times, with Critics, equal, if not fuperior to Reason.) In which method of proceeding, I can never enough praife my good friend, the exact Mr. Thomas Hearne; who, if any word occur, which to him and all mankind is evidently wrong, yet keeps he it in the Text with due reverence, and only remarks in the Margin fic MS. In like manner we shall not amend this error in the Title itfelf, but only note it obiter, to evince to the learned that it was not our fault, nor any effect of our ignorance or inattention. SCRIB. IMITATIONS. VER. 6. Alluding to a verfe of Mr. Dryden, not in Mac Fleckno (as is faid ignorantly in the Key to the Dunciad, p. 1.) but in his verses to Mr. Congreve, "And Tom the second reigns like Tom the first," Say, how the Goddess bade Britannia fleep, And pour'd her Spirit o'er the land and deep. REMARK S. This Poem was written in the year 1726. In the next year an imperfect Edition was published at Dublin, and reprinted at London in twelves; another at Dublin, and another at London in octavo; and three others in twelves the fame year. But there was no perfect Edition before that of London in quarto; which was attended with Notes. We are willing to acquaint Pofterity, that this Poem was prefented to King George the fecond and his Queen, by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole, on the 12th of March, 1728-9. SCHOL. VET. It was exprefly confeffed in the Preface to the first edition, that this Poem was not published by the Author himfelf. It was printed originally in a foreign Country. And what foreign Country? Why, one notorious for blunders; where finding blanks only inftead of proper names, these blunderers filled them up at their pleasure. The very Hero of the Poem hath been mistaken to this hour; fo that we are obliged to open our Notes with a difcovery who he really was. We learn from the former Editor, that this Piece was prefented by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole to King George II. Now the author directly tells us, his Hero is the Man 66 -who brings "The Smithfield Muses to the ear of Kings." And it is notorious who was the perfon on whom this Prince conferred the honour of the Laurel. It appears as plainly from the Apostrophe to the Great in the third verfe, that Tibbald could not be the person, who was never an Author in fashion, or careffed by the Great: whereas this fingle characteristic is fufficient to point out the true Hero; who, above all other Poets of his time, was the Peculiar Delight and Chofen Companion of the Nobility of England; and wrote, as he himself tells us, certain of his Works at the earnest Defire of Perfons of Quality. Laftly, The fixth verfe affords full proof; this Poet being the only one who was univerfally known to have had a Son fo exactly like him, in his poetical, theatrical, political, and moral Capacities, that it could juftly be faid of him "Still Dunce the fecond reigns like Dunce the first." BENTE. VER. 1. The Mighty Mother, and her Son, &c.] The Reader ought here to be cautioned, that the Mother, and not In eldest time, ere mortals writ or read, REMARK S. the Son, is the principal Agent in this Poem: The latter of them is only chofen as her Collegue (as was anciently the cuftom in Rome before fome great expedition) the main action of the Poem being by no means the Coronation of the Laureate, which is performed in the very first book, but the Restoration of the Empire of Dulness in Britain, which is not accomplished till the laft. * Ibid.-her Son, who brings, &c.] Wonderful is the stupidity of all the former Critics and Commentators on this work! It breaks forth at the very first line. The author of the Critique prefixed to Sawny, a Poem, p. 5. hath been fo dull as to explain the Man who brings, &c. not of the Hero of the piece, but of our Poet himself, as if he vaunted that Kings were to be his readers; an honour, which tho' this Poem hath had, yet knoweth he how to receive it with more modesty. We remit this Ignorant to the first lines of the Eneid, affuring him that Virgil there fpeaketh not of himself, but of Eneas: Arma virumque cano, Troja qui primus ab oris Littora multum ille et terris jactatus et alto, &c. I cite the whole three verfes, that I may by the way offer a Conjectural Emendation, purely my own, upon each: First, oris fhould be read aris, it being, as we fee, An. ii. 513. from the altar of Jupiter Hercæus that Eneas fied as foon as he faw Priam flain. In the fecond line I would read flatu for fato, fince it is most clear it was by Winds that he arrived at the shore of Italy. Factatus, in the third, is furely as improperly applied to terris, as proper to alto; to say a man is toft on lard, is much at one with faying he walks at fea: Rifum teneatis, amici? Correct it, as I doubt not it ought to be, SCRIBLERUS. vexatus. VER. 2. The Smithfield Mufes.] Smithfield is the place where Bartholomew Fair was kept, whofe fhews, machines, and dramatical entertainments, formerly agreeable only to the taste of the Rabble, were, by the Hero of this poem, Dulness o'er all poffefs'd her ancient right, REMARK S. 15 and others of equal genius, brought to the Theatres of Covent-garden, Lincoln's-inn-fields, and the Hay-market, to be the reigning pleafures of the Court and Town. This happened in the reigns of King George I. and II. See Book iii. VER. 4. By Dulness, Jove, and Fate ;] i. e. By their Judgments, their Interefts, and their Inclinations." VER. 7. Say, how the Goddess, &c.] The Poet ventureth to fing the Action of the Goddess; but the Paffion she impreffeth on her illuftrious Votaries, he thinketh can be only told by themselves. SCRIBL. VER. 12. Daughter of Chaos, &c.] The beauty of the whole Allegory being purely of the poetical kind, we think it not our proper bufinefs, as a Scholiaft, to meddle with it: but leave it (as we fhall in general all fuch) to the reader; remarking only that Chaos (according to Hefiod's Oεoyovíα) was the Progenitor of all the Gods. SCRIBLERUS. VER. 15. Laborious, heavy, bufy, bold, &c.] I wonder the learned Scriblerus has omitted to advertise the reader, at the opening of this Poem, that Dulness here is not to be taken contractedly for mere Stupidity, but in the enlarged fense of the word, for all Slownefs of Apprehenfion, shortnefs of Sight, or imperfect sense of things. It includes (as we fee by the Poet's own words) Labour, Industry, and some degree of Activity and Boldness: a ruling principle not inert, but turning topfy-turvy the Understanding, and inducing an Anarchy or confufed State of Mind. This remark ought to be carried along with the reader throughout the work; and without this caution he will be apt to mistake the importance of many of the characters, as well as of the Defign Still her old Empire to restore she tries, For, born a Goddefs, Dulness never dies. O Thou! whatever title please thine ear, Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver! REMARK S. 20 of the Poet. Hence it is, that fome have complained he chufes too mean a fubject, and imagined he employs himself, like Domitian, in killing flies; whereas thofe who have the true key will find he sports with nobler quarry, and embraces a larger compass; or (as one faith, on a like occafion) "Will fee his Work, like Jacob's ladder, rife, "Its foot in dirt, its head amid the skies." BENTL. VER. 16. She rul'd, in native Anarchy, the mind.] The na tive Anarchy of the mind is that ftate which precedes the time of Reafon's affuming the rule of the paffions. But in that ftate, the uncontrolled violence of the Paffions would foon bring things to confufion, were it not for the intervention of DULNESS, in this abfence of Reafon; who, tho' fhe cannot regulate them like Reason, yet blunts and deadens their vigour; and indeed produces fome of the good effects of it: Hence it is that Dulness has often the appearance of Reafon. This is the only good the ever did; and the candid Poet is careful to tell it in the very introduction of his Poem. It is to be observed indeed, that this is fpoken of the univerfal rule of Dulness in ancient days; but we may form an idea of it from her partial government in latter times. VER. 17. Still her old Empire to restore.] This Restoration makes the completion of the action. Vide Book iv. * VER. 20. Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver!] The feveral Names and Characters he affumed, in his ludicrous, his fplenetic, or his party-writings; which take in all his works. VER. 21. Cervantes' ferious air.] In the Travels of Gul liver, written to decry the Lying vanities of Travellers, just as Don Quixote's adventures were to expose the abfurdities of Books of Chivalry, and with the fame ferious and folemn air.-Rab'lais in the next line alludes to the Tale of a Tub, which is altogether in the manner of the fatirical and more VOL. V. G |