1

Never by tumbler through the hoops was shown
Such skill in passing all, and touching none;'
He may
indeed (if sober all this time)
Plague with Dispute, or persecute with Rhyme.
We only furnish what he cannot use,

Or wed to what he must divorce, a Muse:
Full in the midst of Euclid dip at once,
And petrify a Genius' to a Dunce:
Or set on Metaphysic ground to prance,
Show all his paces, not a step advance.
With the same CEMENT, ever sure to bind,
We bring to one dead level every mind.
Then take him to develop, if you can,

3

261

265

And hew the Block off, and get out the Man. But wherefore waste I words? I see advance 271 Whore, Pupil, and laced Governor from France. Walker! our hat "- nor more he deigned to

say,

But, stern as Ajax' spectre, strode away.*

In flowed at once a gay embroidered race, 275 And tittering pushed the Pedants off the place :3 Some would have spoken, but the voice was drowned

By the French horn, or by the opening hound.

These two verses are verbatim from an epigram of Dr. Evans, of St. John's College, Oxford; given to my father twenty years before the Dunciad was written. Warton.

2 Those who have no Genius, employed in works of imagination; those who have, in abstract sciences.— P. W.

3 A notion of Aristotle, that there was originally in every block of marble a Statue, which would appear on the removal of the superfluous parts.-P. W.

* See Homer, Odyss. xi., where the Ghost of Ajax turns sullenly from Ulysses.-Scriblerus.-Warburton:

5

"Rideat et pulset lasciva decentiùs ætas."

Hor.-P. W.

The first came forwards, with as easy mien,
As if he saw St. James's and the Queen. 280
When thus the attendant Orator' begun,
"Receive, Great Empress! thy accomplished
Son:

Thine from the birth, and sacred from the rod,
A dauntless infant! never scared with God.3
The Sire saw, one by one, his Virtues wake:
The Mother begged the blessing of a Rake. 286
Thou gav'st that Ripeness, which so soon began,
And ceased so soon, he ne'er was Boy, nor
Man,*

Through School and College, thy kind cloud o'ercast,

Safe and unseen the young Æneas passed : 5 290

1

Reflecting on the disrespectful and indecent Behaviour of several forward young persons in the presence, so offensive to all serious men, and to none more than the good Scriblerus.-P. W.

2 The Governor above-said. The Poet gives him no particular name; being unwilling, I presume, to offend or do injustice to any, by celebrating one only with whom this character agrees, in preference to so many who equally deserve it.-Scriblerus.-P. W.

3 66 sine Dis animosus infans."-Hor.-P.

4 Nature hath bestowed on the human species two states or conditions, Infancy and Manhood. Wit sometimes makes the first disappear, and Folly the latter; but true Dulness annihilates both. For want of apprehension in Boys, not suffering that conscious ignorance and inexperience which produce the awkward bashfulness of youth, makes them assured; and want of imagination makes them grave. But this gravity and assurance, which is beyond boyhood, being neither wisdom nor knowledge, do never reach to manhood. Scriblerus.-W.

5 See Virg. Æn. i. :

At Venus obscuro gradientes aëre sepsit,
Et multo nebulæ circum Dea fudit amictu,

Thence bursting glorious, all at once let down,
Stunned with his giddy 'larum half the town.
Intrepid then, o'er seas and lands he flew :
Europe he saw, and Europe saw him too.
There all thy gifts and graces we display, 295
Thou, only thou, directing all our way!
To where the Seine, obsequious as she runs,
Pours at great Bourbon's feet her silken sons;
Or Tiber, now no longer Roman, rolls,
Vain of Italian Arts, Italian Souls:
To happy Convents, bosomed deep in vines,
Where slumber Abbots, purple as their wines:
To Isles of fragrance, lily-silvered vales,'
Diffusing languor in the panting gales:
To lands of singing or of dancing slaves,
Love-whispering woods, and lute-resounding

waves.

2

300

305

But chief her shrine where naked Venus keeps, And Cupids ride the Lion of the Deeps; Where, eased of Fleets, the Adriatic main Wafts the smooth Eunuch and enamoured

swain.

310

Led by my hand, he sauntered Europe round, And gathered every Vice on Christian ground'; Saw every Court, heard every King declare His royal Sense of Operas or the Fair;

Cernere ne quis eos;-1. neu quis contingere possit; 2. Molirive moram;-aut 3. veniendi poscere causas." Where he enumerates the causes why his mother took this care of him-to wit: 1. That nobody might touch or correct him; 2. Might stop or detain him; 3. Examine him about the progress he had made, or so much as guess why he came there.-P. W. 1 Tuberoses.-P. Ŵ.

2 The winged Lion, the Arms of Venice. This Republic, heretofore the most considerable in Europe for her Naval Force and the extent of her Commerce, now illustrious for her Carnivals.-P. W.

315

The Stews and Palace equally explored, Intrigued with glory, and with spirit whored; } Tried all hors-d'œuvres, all liqueurs defined, Judicious drank, and greatly-daring dined; Dropped the dull lumber of the Latin store, Spoiled his own language, and acquired no

more;

1

320

All Classic learning lost on Classic ground;
And last turned Air, the Echo of a Sound!
See now, half-cured, and perfectly well-bred,
With nothing but a Solo in his head;
As much Estate, and Principle, and Wit,
As Jansen, Fleetwood, Cibber, shall think fit;'

3

325

1 It being indeed no small risk to eat through those extraordinary compositions, whose disguised ingredients are generally unknown to the guests, and highly inflammatory and unwholesome.-P. W.

2 Yet less a Body than Echo itself; for Echo reflects Sense or Words at least, this Gentleman, only Airs and Tunes:

Sonus est, qui vivit in illo.”—Ovid, Met. So that this was not a Metamorphosis either in one or the other, but only a Resolution of the Soul into its true Principles; its real Essence being Harmony, according to the doctrine of Orpheus, the Inventor of Opera, who first performed to a select assembly of Beasts.-Scriblerus.- Warburton.

3 With nothing but a Solo? Why, if it be a Solo, how should there be anything else? Palpable tautology! Read boldly an Opera, which is enough of conscience for such a head as has lost all its Latin.Bentley.-P. W.

Three very eminent persons, all Managers of Plays; who, though not Governors by profession, had, each in his way, concerned themselves in the Education of Youth, and regulated their Wits, their Morals, or their Finances, at that period of their age which is the most important, their entrance into the polite world. Of the last of these, and his talents for this end, see Book i. v. 199, &c.-P. W.

Fleetwood was manager of Drury-lane Theatre from

Stolen from a Duel, followed by a Nun,
And, if a Borough choose him not, undone;
See, to my country happy I restore

2

1

331

This glorious Youth, and add one Venus more.
Her too receive (for her my soul adores)
So may the sons of sons of sons of whores
Prop thine, O Empress! like each neighbour
Throne,

And make a long Posterity thy own."

Pleased, she accepts the Hero and the Dame, 335 Wraps in her Veil, and frees from sense of

Shame.

Then looked, and saw a lazy, lolling sort, Unseen at Church, at Senate, or at Court, Of ever-listless Loiterers, that attend

No Cause, no Trust, no Duty, and no Friend. 340 Thee too, my Paridel !3 she marked thee there, Stretched on the rack of a too easy chair,

4

And heard thy everlasting yawn confess
The Pains and Penalties of Idleness.
She pitied! but her Pity only shed

Benigner influence on thy nodding head.

345

1734 to 1745. For Jansen, see Satires of Dr. Donne, ii. 88.

1 Members of Parliament were privileged from arrests for debt.

2 "Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis."

Virg.-P.

3 The Poet seems to speak of this young gentleman with great affection. The name is taken from Spenser, who gives it to a wandering Courtly 'Squire, that travelled about for the same reason for which many young Squires are now fond of travelling, and especially to Paris.-P. W.

4

Sedet, æternumque sedebit,

Infelix Theseus, Phlegyasque miserrimus omnes
Admonet."-Virg.-P.