132 (return)
[ And that offend great nature's God, Which nature's self inspires.—See Boswell's 'Johnson.']

133 (return)
[ This gentleman was of Scotland, and bred at the university of Utrecht, with the Earl of Mar. He served in Spain under Earl Rivers. After the peace, he was made one of the Commissioners of the Customs in Scotland, and then of Taxes in England, in which having shewn himself for twenty years diligent, punctual, and incorruptible, though without any other assistance of fortune, he was suddenly displaced by the minister in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and died two months after, in 1741.—P.]

134 (return)
[ Giles Jacob's Lives of Poets, vol. ii. in his Life.]

135 (return)
[ Dennis's Reflections on the Essay on Criticism.]

136 (return)
[ Dunciad Dissected, p. 4.]

137 (return)
[ Guardian, No. 40.]

138 (return)
[ Jacob's Lives, &c. vol. ii.]

139 (return)
[ Dunciad Dissected, p. 4.]

140 (return)
[ Farmer P—- and his Son.]

141 (return)
[ Dunciad Dissected.]

142 (return)
[ Characters of the Times, p. 45.]

143 (return)
[ Female Dunciad, p. ult.]

144 (return)
[ Dunciad Dissected.]

145 (return)
[ Roome, Paraphrase on the 4th of Genesis, printed 1729.]

146 (return)
[ Character of Mr Pope and his Writings, in a Letter to a Friend, printed for S. Popping, 1716, p. 10. Curll, in his Key to the Dunciad (first edition, said to be printed for A. Dodd), in the 10th page, declared Gildon to be author of that libel; though in the subsequent editions of his Key he left out this assertion, and affirmed (in the Curlliad, p. 4 and 8) that it was written by Dennis only.]

147 (return)
[ Reflections, Critical and Satirical, on a Rhapsody called An Essay on Criticism. Printed for Bernard Lintot, 8vo.]

148 (return)
[ Essay on Criticism in prose, 8vo, 1728, by the author of the Critical History of England.]

149 (return)
[ Preface to his Poems, p.18, 53.]

150 (return)
[ Spectator, No. 253.]

151 (return)
[ Letter to B. B. at the end of the Remarks on Pope's Homer, 1717.]

152 (return)
[ Printed 1728, p. 12.]

153 (return)
[ Alma, canto 2.]

154 (return)
[ In his Essays, vol. i., printed for E. Curll.]

155 (return)
[ Censor, vol. ii. n. 33.]

156 (return)
[ Vide preface to Mr Tickel's translation of the first book of the Iliad, 4to. Also vide Life.]

157 (return)
[ Daily Journal, March 18, 1728.]

158 (return)
[ Ibid, April 3, 1728.]

159 (return)
[ Verses to Mr Pope on his translation of Homer.]

160 (return)
[ Poem prefixed to his works.]

162 (return)
[ Universal Passion, Satire i.]

163 (return)
[ In his Poems, and at the end of the Odyssey.]

164 (return)
[ The names of two weekly papers.]

165 (return)
[ Theobald, Letter in Mist's Journal, June 22, 1728.]

166 (return)
[ Smedley, Preface to Gulliveriana, p. 14, 16.]

167 (return)
[ Gulliveriana, p. 332.]

168 (return)
[ Anno 1723.]

169 (return)
[ Anno 1729.]

170 (return)
[ Preface to Remarks on the Rape of the Lock, p. 12, and in the last page of that treatise.]

171 (return)
[ Pages 6, 7 of the Preface, by Concanen, to a book entitled, A Collection of all the Letters, Essays, Verses, and Advertisements occasioned by Pope and Swift's Miscellanies. Printed for A. Moore, 8vo, 1712.]

172 (return)
[ Key to the Dunciad, third edition, p. 18.]

173 (return)
[ A list of persons, &c., at the end of the forementioned Collection of all the Letters, Essays, &c.]

174 (return)
[ Introduction to his Shakspeare Restored, in 4to, p. 3.]

175 (return)
[ Commentary on the Duke of Buckingham's Essay, 8vo, 1721, p. 97, 98.]

176 (return)
[ In his prose Essay on Criticism.]

177 (return)
[ Printed by J. Roberts, 1742, p. 11.]

178 (return)
[ Battle of Poets, folio, p. 15.]

179 (return)
[ Printed under the title of the Progress of Dulness, duodecimo, 1728.]

180 (return)
[ Cibber's Letter to Mr Pope, p. 9, 12.]

181 (return)
[ In a letter under his hand, dated March 12, 1733.]

182 (return)
[ Dennis's Preface to his Reflections on the Essay on Criticism.]

183 (return)
[ Preface to his Remarks on Homer.]

184 (return)
[ Remarks on Homer, p. 8, 9.]

185 (return)
[ Ibid, p. 8.]

186 (return)
[ Character of Mr Pope, p. 7.]

187 (return)
[ Ibid, p. G.]

188 (return)
[ Gulliver, p. 886.]

189 (return)
[ Cibber's Letter to Mr. Pope, p. 19.]

190 (return)
[ Burnet Homerides, p. 1 of his Translation of the Iliad.]

191 (return)
[ The London and Mist's Journals, on his undertaking of the Odyssey.]

192 (return)
[ Vide Bossu, Du Poeme Epique, ch. viii.]

193 (return)
[ Bossu, chap. vii.]

194 (return)
[ Book i. ver. 32, &c.]

195 (return)
[ Ver. 45 to 54.]

196 (return)
[ Ver. 57 to 77.]

197 (return)
[ Ver. 80.]

198 (return)
[ Ibid, chap, vii., viii.]

199 (return)
[ Bossu, chap. viii. Vide Aristot. Poetic, chap. ix.]

200 (return)
[ Cibber's Letter to Mr Pope, pp. 9, 12, 41.]

201 (return)
[ See his Essays.]

202 (return)
[ Si nil Heros Poëtique doit être un honnête homme. Bossu, du Poême Epique, lib. v. ch. 5.]

203 (return)
[ Dedication to the Life of C. C.]

204 (return)
[ Life, p. 2, 8vo edition.]

205 (return)
[ Life, ibid.]

206 (return)
[ Life, p. 23, 8vo.]

207 (return)
[ Alluding to these lines in the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot:

208 (return)
[ Letter to Mr Pope, p. 46.]

209 (return)
[ P. 31.]

210 (return)
[ Life, p. 23, 24.]

211 (return)
[ Letter, p. 8.]

212 (return)
[ Letter, p. 53.]

213 (return)
[ Letter, p. 1.]

214 (return)
[ Don Quixote, Part ii. book ii. ch. 22.]

215 (return)
[ See Life, p. 148.]

216 (return)
[ Life, p. 149.]

217 (return)
[ p. 424.]

218 (return)
[ p. 366.]

219 (return)
[ p. 457.]

220 (return)
[ p. 18.]

221 (return)
[ p. 425.]

222 (return)
[ pp. 436, 437.]

223 (return)
[ p. 52.]

224 (return)
[ p. 47.]

225 (return)
[ p. 57.]

226 (return)
[ pp. 58, 59.]

227 (return)
[ A statuary.]

228 (return)
[ Life, p. 6.]

229 (return)
[ p. 424.]

230 (return)
[ p. 19.]

231 (return)
[ Life, p. 17.]

232 (return)
[ Ibid. p. 243, 8vo edition.]

233 (return)
[ Ovid, of the serpent biting at Orpheus's head.]

234 (return)
[ 'The Dunciad:' sic MS. It may well be disputed whether this be a right reading. Ought it not rather to be spelled Dunceiad, as the etymology evidently demands? Dunce with an e, therefore Dunceiad with an e? That accurate and punctual man of letters, the restorer of Shakespeare, constantly observes the preservation of this very letter e, in spelling the name of his beloved author, and not like his common careless editors, with the omission of one, nay, sometimes of two e's (as Shakspear), which is utterly unpardonable. 'Nor is the neglect of a single letter so trivial as to some it may appear; the alteration whereof in a learned language is an achievement that brings honour to the critic who advances it; and Dr Bentley will be remembered to posterity for his performances of this sort, as long as the world shall have any esteem for the remains of Menander and Philemon.'—Theobald.

This is surely a slip in the learned author of the foregoing note, there having been since produced by an accurate antiquary, an autograph of Shakspeare himself, whereby it appears that he spelled his own name without the first e. And upon this authority it was, that those most critical curators of his monument in Westminster Abbey erased the former wrong reading, and restored the true spelling on a new piece of old Egyptian granite. Nor for this only do they deserve our thanks, but for exhibiting on the same monument the first specimen of an edition of an author in marble; where (as may be seen on comparing the tomb with the book), in the space of five lines, two words and a whole verse are changed, and it is to be hoped will there stand, and outlast 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 Shakspeare, at the Clarendon press.—Bentl.

It is to be noted, that this great critic also has omitted one circumstance: which is, that the inscription with the name of Shakspeare was intended to be placed on the marble scroll to which he points with his hand; instead 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 same 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 case is right, and two e's wrong. Yet, upon the whole, I shall follow the manuscript, and print it without any e at all; moved thereto by authority (at all times, with critics, equal, if not superior to reason). In which method of proceeding, I can never enough praise 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 sic MS. In like manner we shall not amend this error in the title itself, but only note it obiter, to evince to the learned that it was not our fault, nor any effect of our ignorance or inattention.—Scriblerus.

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 same year. But there was no perfect edition before that of London in quarto; which was attended with notes. We are willing to acquaint posterity, that this poem was presented to King George the Second and his queen by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole, on the 12th of March 1728-9.—Schol. Vet.

It was expressly confessed in the preface to the first edition, that this poem was not published by the author himself. It was printed originally in a foreign country. And what foreign country? Why, one notorious for blunders; where finding blanks only instead of proper names, these blunderers filled them up at their pleasure.

The very hero of the poem hath been mistaken to this hour; so that we are obliged to open our notes with a discovery who he really was. We learn from the former editor, that this piece was presented by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole to King George II. Now the author directly tells us, his hero is the man

And it is notorious who was the person on whom this prince conferred the honour of the laurel.

It appears as plainly from the apostrophe to the great in the third verse, that Tibbald could not be the person, who was never an author in fashion, or caressed by the great; whereas this single characteristic is sufficient to point out the true hero, who, above all other poets of his time, was the peculiar delight and chosen companion of the nobility of England, and wrote, as he himself tells us, certain of his works at the earnest desire of persons of quality.

Lastly, the sixth verse affords full proof; this poet being the only one who was universally known to have had a son so exactly like him, in his poetical, theatrical, political, and moral capacities, that it could justly be said of him,

'Still Dunce the second reign'd like Dunce the first.'—Bentl.]

235 (return)
[ '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 Sawney, a poem, p. 5, hath been so 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 though this poem hath had, yet knoweth he how to receive it with more modesty.

We remit this ignorant to the first lines of the Aeneid, assuring him that Virgil there speaketh not of himself but of Aeneas:

I cite the whole three verses, that I may by the way offer a conjectural emendation, purely my own, upon each: First, oris should be read aris, it being, as we see, Aen. ii. 513, from the altar of Jupiter Hercaeus that Aeneas fled as soon as he saw Priam slain. In the second line I would flatu for fato, since it is most clear it was by winds that he arrived at the shore of Italy. Jactatus, in the third, is surely as improperly applied to terris, as proper to alto. To say a man is tossed on land, is much at one with saying, he walks at sea. Risum teneatis, amici? Correct it, as I doubt not it ought to be, vexatus.—Scriblerus.]

236 (return)
[ 'The Smithfield Muses.' Smithfield was the place where Bartholomew Fair was kept, whose shows, machines, and dramatical entertainments, formerly agreeable only to the taste of the rabble, were, by the hero of this poem and others of equal genius, brought to the theatres of Covent Garden, Lincolns-Inn-Fields, and the Haymarket, to be the reigning pleasures of the court and town. This happened in the reigns of King George I. and II. See Book iii.]

237 (return)
[ 'By Dulness, Jove, and Fate:' i.e., by their judgments, their interests, and their inclinations.—W.]

238 (return)
[ 'Say how the goddess,' &c. The poet ventureth to sing the action of the goddess; but the passion she impresseth on her illustrious votaries, he thinketh can be only told by themselves.—Scribl. W.]

239 (return)
[ 'Daughter of Chaos,' &c. The beauty of this whole allegory being purely of the poetical kind, we think it not our proper business, as a scholiast, to meddle with it, but leave it (as we shall in general all such) to the reader, remarking only that Chaos (according to Hesiod's [Footnote Greek: Theogonia]), was the progenitor of all the gods.—Scriblerus.]

240 (return)
[ 'Laborious, heavy, busy, 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 sense of the word, for all slowness of apprehension, shortness of sight, or imperfect sense of things. It includes (as we see by the poet's own words) labour, industry, and some degree of activity and boldness—a ruling principle not inert, but turning topsy-turvy the understanding, and inducing an anarchy or confused 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 design of the poet. Hence it is, that some have complained he chooses too mean a subject, and imagined he employs himself like Domitian, in killing flies; whereas those who have the true key will find he sports with nobler quarry, and embraces a larger compass; or (as one saith, on a like occasion)—

241 (return)
[ 'Still her old empire to restore.' This restoration makes the completion of the poem. Vide Book iv.—P.]

242 (return)
[ 'Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver!' the several names and characters he assumed in his ludicrous, his splenetic, or his party-writings; which take in all his works.—P.]

243 (return)
[ 'Or praise the court, or magnify mankind:' ironicè, alluding to Gulliver's representations of both. The next line relates to the papers of the Drapier against the currency of Wood's copper coin in Ireland, which, upon the great discontent of the people, his Majesty was graciously pleased to recall.]

244 (return)
[ 'By his famed father's hand:' Mr Caius-Gabriel Cibber, father of the poet laureate. The two statues of the lunatics over the gates of Bedlam Hospital were done by him, and (as the son justly says of them) are no ill monuments of his fame as an artist.]

245 (return)
[ 'Bag-fair' is a place near the Tower of London, where old clothes and frippery are sold—P.]

246 (return)
[ 'A yawning ruin hangs and nods in air:'—Here in one bed two shivering sisters lie, The cave of Poverty and Poetry.]

247 (return)
[ 'Curll's chaste press, and Lintot's rubric post:' two booksellers, of whom, see Book ii. The former was fined by the Court of King's Bench for publishing obscene books; the latter usually adorned his shop with titles in red letters.—P.]

248 (return)
[ 'Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines:' it is an ancient English custom for the malefactors to sing a psalm at their execution at Tyburn, and no less customary to print elegies on their deaths, at the same time, or before.—P.]

249 (return)
[ 'Sepulchral lies:' is a just satire on the flatteries and falsehoods admitted to be inscribed on the walls of churches, in epitaphs, which occasioned the following epigram:—