315 Not fo bold Arnall*; with a weight of skull, 320 The which had been before difperfed in feveral Journals, and circulated at the public expence of the nation. The authors were the fame obscure men : though fometimes relieved by occafional effays from Statesmen, Couriers, Bishops, Doans, and Doctors. The meaner fort were rewarded with money; others with places or benefices, from an hundred to a thousand a year. It appears from the Report of the Secret Committee for enquiring into the conduct of R. earl of O. "That no less than fifty thousand seventy-seven pounds, eighteen Shillings, were paid to Authors and Printers of News papers, fuch as Free "Britons, Daily Courants, Corn Cutter's Journals, Gazetteers, and other "political papers, between Feb. 10, 1731, and Feb. 10, 1741." Which fhews the Benevolence of one Minister to have expended, for the current dulnefs of ten years in Britain, double the fum which gained Louis XIV. fo much honour, in annual Penfions to Learned men all over Europe. In which, and in a much longer time, not a Pension at Court, nor Preferment in the Church or Universities, of any Confideration, was bestowed on any man diftinguished for his Learning feparately from Party-merit, or Pam: phlet-writing. It is worth a reflection, that of all the Panegyrics bestowed by these writers on this great Minifter, not one is at this day extant or remember'd; nor even fo much credit done to his Perfonal character by all they have written, as by one short occasional compliment of our Author : Seen him I have; but in his bappier bour "Of focial Pleasure, ill exchang'd for Pow'r! WILLIAM ARNALL, bred an attorney, was a perfect Genius in this fort of work. He began under twenty with furious Party-papers; then fucceeded Concanen in the British Journal. At the first publication of the Dunciad, he prevailed on the author not to give him his due place in it, by a letter profeffing his deteftation of fuch practices as his Predeceffor's. But fince, by the most unexampled infolence, and perfonal abuse of several great men, the Poet's particular friends, he most amply deferved a niche in the Temple of Infamy: Witnefs a paper, called the Free Briton; a Dedication intituled, To the Genuine Blunderer, 1732, and many others. He The plunging Prelate, and his pond'rous Grace, With holy envy gave one Layman place. When lo! a burft of thunder fhook the flood 325 Greater he looks, and more than mortal ftares : 330 Smit with his mien, the Mud-nymphs fuck'd him in Then fung, how fhown him by the Nut-brown maids A branch of Styx here rifes from the Shades. 335 That writ for hire, and valued himself upon it; not indeed without cause, it appearing by the aforefaid REPORT, that he received "for Free Britons, and other writings, in the space of four years, no less than ten thousand nine "bundred and ninety-feven pou¬ds, fix fhillings, and eight pence, out of the Treafury. But frequently, thro' his fury or folly, he exceeded all the bounds of his commission, and obliged his honourable Patron to disavow his scurrilities. * It having been invidiously infinuated that by this title was meant a truly great Prelate, as respectable for his defence of the present balance of power in the civil constitution, as for his opposition to the Scheme of no power at all, in the religious; I owe fo much to the memory of my deceased friend as to declare, that when, a little before his death, I informed him of this infinuation, he called it vile and malicious, as any candid man, he said, might understand, by his having paid a willing compliment to this very prelate in another part of the poem. Who was ravished by the water-nymphs and drawn into the river. The story is told at large by Valerius Flaccus, lib. iii. Argon. See Virgil, Ecl. vi. † Οἴ τ' ἀμφ' ἐμεριὸν Τιταρήσιον ἔργ ̓ ἐνέμοντο, ὡς ὁ ἐς Πηνειόν προΐει καμλιξξόον ύδωρ. Οὐδ ̓ ἔγε Πηνιώ συμμίσγεται ἀργυροδίνη. Αλλά τέ μου καθὺ πέρθεν ἐπιῤῥέει ηὔτ ̓ ἔλαιον. Ορκς γὰρ δεινὸ Στυγὸς ὕδαλος ἔσιν απορράξε Homer, 'II. ii. Catal. Of the land of Dreams in the fame region, he makes mention, Odyss. xxiv. fte alfo Lucian's true Hiftory. Lethe and the Land of Dreams allegorically reprefent That tinctur'd as it runs with Lethe's ftreams, And wafting vapours from the land of dreams, 340 Pours into Thames: and hence the mingled wave And Milbourn chief, deputed by the reft, Gave him the caflock, furcingle, and veft. 345 350 "Receive (he faid) these robes which once were mine, "Dulness is facred in a found divine." He ceas'd, and fpread the robe; the crowd confefs Around him wide + a fable army ftand, A low-born, cell-bred, felfish, fervile band, 355 Prompt reprefent the Stupefaction or visionary Madness of poets, equally dull and extravagant. Of Alpheus's waters glid ng fecretly under the sea of Pifa, to mix with thofe of Arethufe in Sicily, fee Mofchus, Idyll, viii. Virg. Ecl. x. "Sic tibi, eum fluctus fubter labere Sicanos. "Doris amara fuam non intermifceat undam" And again, Æn. iii. Alpheum fama eft huc, Elidis amnem, "Occultas egiffe vias fubter mare, qui nunc "Ore, Arethufa, tuo Siculis confunditur undis.” * Luke Milbourn, a clergyman, the fairest of Critics; who, when he wrote againft Mr. Dryden's Virgil, did him justice in printing at the fame time his own tranflations of him, which were intolerable. His manner of writing has a great refemblance with that of the gentlemen of the Dunciad against our author, as will be feen in the Parallel of Mr. Dryden and him. Append. fit is to be hoped that the fatire in thefe lines will be understood in the confined fenfe in which the Author meant it, of fuch only of the Clergy, who, tho' folemnly engaged in the fervice of Religion, dedicate themselves for venal and corrupt ends to that of Minifters or Factions; and tho' educated under an entire ignorance of the world, afpire to interfere in the government of it, and confequently to disturb and disorder it ; in which they fall Prompt or to guard or ftab, to faint or damn, Heav'n's Swifs, who fight for any God, or Man. Thro' Lud's fam'd gates *, along the well known Fleet Rolls the black troop, and overfhades the ftreet, 360 365 "Ye Critics! in whofe heads, as equal scales "I weigh what author's heaviness prevails: "Which moft conduce to footh the foul in flumbers, "My H-ley's periods, or my Blackmore's numbers; "Attend the trial we propose to make : "If there be man, who o'er fuch works can wake, 374 375 fall short of their Predeceffors only by being invested with much less of that power and authority, which they employed indifferently (as is hinted at in the lines above) either in supporting arbitrary power, or in exciting rebellion; in canonizing the vices of Tyrants, or in blackening the virtues of Patriots; in corrupting religion by fuperftition, or betraying it by libertinifm, as either was thought best to serve the ends of policy, or flatter the follies of the great. * "King Lud repairing the city, called it after his own name, Lud's "Town; the ftrong gate which he built in the weft part, he likewife, for "his own honour, named Ludgate. In the year 1260, this gate was beau"tified with images of Lud and other kings. Thofe images in the reign of "Edward VI. had their heads fmitten off and were otherwife defaced 66 by unadvised folks. Queen Mary did set new heads upon their old bodies again. The 28th of queen Elizabeth the fame gate was clean taken down, and newly and heautifully builded, with images of Lud and others, as "afore." Stow's Survey of London. + See Hom. Odyss. xii. Ovid, Met. i; Three 232 Three College Sophs, and three pert Templars came, The fame their talents, and their taftes the fame ; 380 Each prompt to query, anfwer, and debate, And finit with love of Poefy and Prate. The pond'rous books too gentle readers bring! The clam'rous crowd is hufh'd with mugs of Mum, 385 'Till all tun'd equal, fend a gen'ral hum. ; Then mount the Clerks, and in one lazy tone Their heads, and lift them as they ceafe to blow: Thus oft they rear, and oft the head decline, As breathe, or paufe, by fits, the airs divine. And now to this fide, 395 now to that they nod, As verfe, or profe, infuse the drowzy God. 400 Who *All thefe lines very well imitate the flow drowzinefs with which they "proceed. It is impoffible to any one, who has a poetical ear, to read "them without perceiving the heavinefs that lags in the verfe, to imitate "the action it defcribes. The fimile of the Pines very juft and well a dapted to the fubject;" fays an enemy, in his Effay on the Dunciad, 66 P. 21. etc. + Famous for his speeches on many occafions about the South Sea scheme, "He is a very ingenious gentleman, and hath written fome excellent "Epilogues to plays, and one small piece on Love, which is very pretty." Jacob, Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 289. But this gentleman fince made himfelf much more eminent, and perfonally well known to the greatest statesmen of all parties, as well as to all the Courts of Law in this nation. Two perfons not fo happy as to be obfcure, who writ against the Religion of their Country. Toland, the Author of the Atheist's liturgy, called Pantheifticon, was a spy, in pay to lord Oxford. Tindal was author of the Rights of the Christian Church, and Christianity as old as the Creation. He also wrote an abusive pamphlet against earl S-, which was fuppreffed, while yet in MS. by an eminent perfor, then out of the ministry, to whom he shewed |