Then dupe to Party; child and man the same; 1 To thee the most rebellious things on earth : 3 510 A Monarch's half, and half a Harlot's slave. Poor W** nipped in Folly's broadest bloom, Who praises now? his Chaplain on his Tomb. Then take them all, oh take them to thy breast! Thy Magus, Goddess! shall perform the rest.” 516 With that a WIZARD OLD his Cup extends; Which whoso tastes, forgets his former friends,* Education described in this book, which confines Youth to the study of Words only in Schools; subjects them to the authority of Systems in the Universities; and deludes them with the names of Party distinctions in the World. All equally concurring to narrow the understanding, and establish slavery and error in Literature, Philosophy, and Politics. The whole finished in modern Free-thinking; the completion of whatever is vain, wrong, and destructive to the happiness of mankind, as it establishes Self-love for the sole Principle of Action.-P. W. 1i.e. This Queen or Goddess of Dulness.-Scriblerus.-Warburton. 2 Carruthers, and after him Courthope, conjecture that the Duke of Kent and Lord Berkeley are meant. Philip Duke of Wharton. See Moral Essays, 179. Homer of the Nepenthe, Odyss. iv.: Αὐτίκ ̓ ἄρ ̓ εἰς οἶνον βάλε φάρμακον, ἔνθεν ἔπινον The cup of Self-love, which causes a total oblivion of the obligations of Friendship or Honour; and of 520 Sire, Ancestors, Himself. One casts his eyes 530 the Service of God or our Country; all sacrificed to Vain-glory, Court-worship, or the yet meaner considerations of Lucre and brutal Pleasures. From ver. 520 to 528.-P. W. So strange as this must seem to a mere English reader, the famous Mons. de la Bruyère declares it to be the character of every good Subject in a Monarchy: "Where (says he) there is no such thing as Love of our Country, the Interest, the Glory, and Service of the Prince, supply its place.”—De la République, chap. x.-P. W. 2 The effect of the Magus's Cup, by which is allegorized a total corruption of heart, are just contrary to that of Circe, which only represents the sudden plunging into pleasures. Hers, therefore, took away the shape, and left the human mind; his takes away the mind, and leaves the human shape.-Warburton. 3 The only comfort people can receive, must be owing in some shape or other to Dulness; which makes some stupid, others impudent, gives selfconceit to some, upon the flatteries of their dependents, presents the false colours of interest to others, and busies or amuses the rest with idle pleasures or sensuality, till they become easy under any infamy. Each of which species is here shadowed under allegorical persons.-P. W. 4.e. She communicates to them of her own virtue, or of her Royal Colleague's. The Cibberian forehead Kind Self-conceit to some her glass applies, Which no one looks in with another's eyes: But as the Flatterer or Dependant paint, Beholds himself a Patriot, Chief, or Saint. 535 On others Interest her gay livery flings, Interest, that waves on Party-coloured wings: Turned to the Sun, she casts a thousand dyes, And, as she turns, the colours fall or rise. Others the Syren Sisters warble round, And empty heads console with empty sound. No more, alas! the voice of Fame they hear, The balm of Dulness trickling in their ear.1 Great C**, H**, P**, R**, K*,2 540 545 being to fit them for self-conceit, self-interest, &c., and the Cimmerian gloom for the pleasures of Opera and the Table.-Scriblerus.-Warburton. The true Balm of Dulness, called by the Greek Physicians Kolacɛía, is a Sovereign remedy against Inanity, and has its poetic name from the Goddess herself. Its ancient Dispensators were her Poets; and for that reason our Author, Book ii. v. 207, calls it the Poet's healing balm: but it is now got into as many hands as Goddard's Drops or Daffy's Elixir. It is prepared by the Clergy, as appears from several places of this poem; and by v. 534, 535, it seems as if the Nobility had it made up in their own houses. This, which Opera is here said to administer, is but a spurious sort. See my Dissertation on the Silphium of the Ancients.-Bentley.-Warburton. 2 In the first editions the line stands : "Great Shades of **, which Walpole fills up thus: ** ** ** "Great Shades of Cowper, Raymond, Harcourt, Croker (quoted by Courthope) says that the line as "Great Cowper, Parker, Raymond, Harcourt, and adds that Harcourt, Cowper, Parker, and King Toils? your Sons have learned Why all your to sing. How quick Ambition hastes to ridicule ! On some, a Priest succinct in amice white 555 were Lord Chancellors, and Raymond Lord Chief Justice. The whole passage refers to the Italian Opera. Scriblerus seems at a loss in this place. Speciosa miracula (says he), according to Horace, were the monstrous fables of the Cyclops, Læstrygons, Scylla, &c. What relation have these to the transformation of hares into larks, or of pigeons into toads? I shall tell thee. The Læstrygons spitted men upon spears, as we do larks upon skewers; and the fair pigeon turned to a toad is similar to the fair virgin Scylla ending in a filthy beast. But here is the difficulty, why pigeons in so shocking a shape should be brought to a table? Hares, indeed, might be cut into larks at a second dressing, out of frugality: yet that seems no probable motive, when we consider the extravagance before mentioned of dissolving whole Oxen and Boars into a small vial of Jelly; nay, it is expressly said, that all Flesh is nothing in his sight. I have searched in Apicius, Pliny, and the Feast of Trimalchio, in vain: I can only resolve it into some mysterious superstitious Rite, as it is said to be done by a Priest, and soon after called a Sacrifice, attended (as all ancient sacrifices were) with Libation and Song.Scriblerus. This good Scholiast, not being acquainted with modern Luxury, was ignorant that these were only the miracles of French Cookery, and that particularly pigeons en crapeau were a common dish.-P. W. French Terms relating to wines, which signify What cannot copious Sacrifice atone? Thy Truffles, Perigord thy Hams, Bayonne! With French Libation, and Italian Strain, Wash Bladen white, and expiate Hays's stain.' KNIGHT lifts the head, for what are crowds undone, 2 561 To three essential Partridges in one? Some, deep Free-Masons, join the silent race, 570 their flavour and poignancy. St. Evremont has a very pathetic letter to a Nobleman in Disgrace, advising him to seek comfort in a good table, and particularly to be attentive to these qualities in his champagne. — P. W. 1 Names of Gamesters. Bladen is a black man. ROBERT KNIGHT, Cashier of the South Sea Company, who fled from England in 1720 (afterwards pardoned in 1742). These lived with the utmost magnificence at Paris, and kept open tables frequented by persons of the first Quality of England, and even by Princes of the blood of France.-P. W. Colonel Martin Bladen was a man of some literature, and translated Cæsar's Commentaries. I never could learn that he had offended Pope.-Warton. 2 Two dissolved into quintessence to make sauce for the third. The honour of this invention belongs to France, yet has it been excelled by our native luxury, a hundred squab Turkeys being not unfrequently deposited in one pie in the bishopric of Durham; to which our Author alludes in verse 593 of this work.-P. (Omitted in Edition of 1751.) |