On whom three hundred gold-capt youths await,
To lug the pond'rous volume off in state.

120

When Dulness, smiling--" Thus revive the Wits! But murder firft, and mince them all to bits; As erft Medea (cruel, fo to fave!)

A new Edition of old Æfon gave ;

Let ftandard-Authors, thus, like trophies born,
Appear more glorious as more hack'd and torn.
And you, my Critics! in the chequer'd fhade,
Admire new light thro' holes yourselves have made.
Leave not a foot of verfe, a foot of stone,

A Page, a Grave, that they can call their own;

REMARKS.

125

VER. 1197 "Thus revive, etc.] The Goddef's applauds the practice of tacking the obfcure names of Perfons not eminent in any branch of learning, to those of the most distinguished Writers; either by printing Editions of their works with impertinent alterations of their Text, as in the former instances; or by fetting up Monuments difgraced with their own vile names and infcriptions, as in the latter.

VER. 122. old Æfon] Of whom Ovid (very applicable to these restored authors)

Æfon miratur,

Diffimilemque animum fubiit —

VER. 128. A Page, a Grave,] For what lefs than a Grave can be granted to a dead author? or what lefs than a Page can be allowed a living one?

IMITATIONS.

VER. 126. Admire new light, &c.]

The Soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,

Lets in new light, through chinks that time has made: Waller.

130

But fpread, my fons, your glory thin or thick,
On paffive paper, or on folid brick.

So by each Bard an Alderman shall fit,
A heavy Lord fhall hang at every Wit,

REMARKS.

VER. 128. A Page,] Pagina, not Pediffequus. A Page of a Book, not a Servant, Follower, or Attendant: no Poet having had a Page fince the death of Mr. Thomas Durfey.

SCRIBL.

VER 131. So by each Bard an Alderman, &c.] Vide the Tombs of the Poets, Editio Westmonasterienfis.

Ibid.-an Alderman shall fit,] Alluding to the Monument erected for Butler by Alderman Barber.

VER. 132. A beavy Lord fhall hang at ev'ry Wit,] How un natural an Image ! and how ill fupported, faith Ariftarchus. Had it been,

A beavy Wit fhall bang at ev'ry Lord,

fomething might have been said, in an Age so distingushed for well-judging Patrons. For LORD, then, read, LOAD; that is, of Debts here, and of Commentaries hereafter. To this purpose, confpicuous is the cafe of the poor Author of Hudibras, whofe body,' long fince weighed down to the Grave by a load of debts, has lately had a more unmerciful load of Commentaries laid upon his Spirit; wherein the Editor has atchieved more than Virgil himself, when he turned Critic, could boast of, which was only, that he had pick'd gold out of another man's dung; whereas the Editor has pick'd it out of his own. SCRIBL.

Ariftarchus thinks the common reading right: and that the author himself had been struggling: and has but just haken off his Load when he wrote the following Epigram. "My Lord complains, that Pope, stark mad with gardens, "Has lopt three trees the value of three farthings: "But he's my neighbour cries the peer polite, "And if he'll vifit me, I'll wave my right. "What? on Compulfion? and against my Will, "A Lord's acquaintance? Let him file his Bill.

136

And while on Fame's triumphal Car they ride,
Some flave of mine be pinion'd to their fide.
Now crowds on crowds around the Goddefs prefs,
Each eager to present the first Addrefs.
Dunce fcorning Dunce beholds the next advance,
But Fop fhews Fop fuperior complaifance.
When lo! a spectre rose, whose index hand
Held forth the Virtue of the dreadful wand;
His beaver'd brow a birchin garland wears,
Dropping with Infant's Blood, and Mother's tears.
O'er ev'ry vein a fhudd'ring horror runs ;
Eton and Winton shake thro' all their Sons.

VER. 137, 138.

REMARKS.

Dunce fcorning Dunce beholds the next advance,
But Fop fhews Fop fuperior complaisance.]

140

This is not to be afcribed fo much to the different manners of a Court and College, as to the different effects which a pretence to Learning, and a pretence to Wit have on Blockheads. For as Judgment confifts in finding out the differences in things, and Wit in finding out their likenees, fo the Dunce is all discord and diffenfion, and constantly bufied in reproving, examining, confuting, &c. while the Fop flourishes in peace, with Songs and Hymns of praife, Addresses, Characters, Epithalamiums, &c.

VER. 140. the dreadful wand ;] A cane ufually born by Schoolmasters, which drives the poor Souls about like the wand of Mercury.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 142. Dropping with infant's blood, &c.]
First Moloch, borrid King, befmear'd with blood
Of buman Sacrifice, and parents tears.

SCRIBL.

Milt.

All flesh is humbled, Westminster's bold race

145

Shrink, and confefs the Genius of the place:
The pale Boy-Senator yet tingling stands,
And holds his breeches clofe with both his hands.
Then thus. Since Man from beaft by Words is

known,

149 Words are Man's province, Words we teach alone. When Reafon doubtful, like the Samian letter, Points him two ways, the narrower is the better. Plac'd at the door of Learning, youth to guide, We never fuffer it to ftand too wide.

REMARKS.

VER. 148. And holds his breeches] An effect of Fear somewhat like this, is described in the viith Æneid,

Contremuit ncmus――

Et trepide matres preffere ad pectora natos.

nothing being fo natural in any apprehenfion, as to lay clofe hold on whatever is fuppofed to be most in danger. But let it not be imagined the author would infinuate these youthful fenators (tho' fo lately come from school) to be under the undue influence of any Mafter. SCRIBL.

VER. 151. like the Samian letter,] The letter Y used by Pythagoras as an emblem of the different roads of Virtue and Vice.

Et tibi quæ Samios diduxit, litera ramos.

Perf.

VER. 153. Plac'd at the door, &c.] This circumftance of the Genius Loci (with that of the Index-hand before) feems to be an allufion to the Table of Cebes, where the Genius of human nature points out the road to be pursued by those entering into life. Ὁ δὲ γέρων ὁ ἄνω ἔσηκως, ἔχων χάρτην τινὰ ἐν τῇ χειρὶ, καὶ τῇ ἑτέρα ὥσπες δεικνύων τι, ἔτος Δαίμων

καλεῖται, ει

To afk, to guefs, to know, as they commence, 155
As Fancy opens the quick fprings of Senfe,
We ply the Memory, we load the brain,
Bind rebel Wit, and double chain on chain,
Confine the thought, to exercise the breath;
And keep them in the pale of Words till death. 160
Whate'er the talents, or howe'er defigned,
We hang one jingling padlock on the mind:
A Poet the first day, he dips his quill;
And what the laft? a very Poet ftill.
Pity! the charm works only in our wall,
Lɔst, lost too soon in yonder House or Hall.
There truant WYNDHAM ev'ry Muse gave o’er,
There TALBOT funk, and was a Wit no more!
How sweet an Ovid, MURRAY was our boast!
How many Martials were in PULT'NEY loft! 170

REMARKS.

165

VER, 154-to fand too wide] A pleafant Allufion to the defcription of the door of Wifdom in the Table of Cebes, Θύραν τινά μικραν.

VER. 159. to exercise the breath ;] By obliging them to get the claffic poets by heart, which furnishes them with endless matter for Conversation, and Verbal amusement for their wholes lives.

VER. 162. We bang one j'ngling padlock, &c.] For youth being ufed like Pack-horfes and beaten under a heavy load of Words, left they fhould tire, their inftructors contrive to make the Words jingle in rhyme or metre.

VER. 165. in yonder Houfe or Hall.] Westminster-hall and the House of Commons.