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Benlowes, propitious still to blockheads, bows; 21
And Shadwell nods, the poppy on his brows.
Here, in a dusky vale where Lethe rolls,
Old Bavius sits to dip poetic souls,

And blunt the sense, and fit it for a skull
Of solid proof, impenetrably dull:

REMARKS.

1 must confess I do want eloquence,
And never scarce did learn my Accidence;
"For having got from possum to posset,

'I there was gravell'd, could no farther get."

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He wrote fourscore books in the reign of James I. and Charles 1. and afterwards (like Edward Ward) kept an alehouse in LongAcre. He died in 1654.

v. 21. Benlowes.] A country gentleman, famous for his own bad poetry, and for patronizing bad poets, as may be seen from many Dedications of Quarles and others to him. Some of these anegram'd his name Benlowes into Benevolus; to verify which he spent his whole estate upon them.

v. 22. And Shadwell nods, the poppy, &c.] Shadwell took opium for many years, and died of too large a doze, in the year 1692.

v. 24. Old Bavius sits.] Bavius was an ancient poet, celebrated by Virgil for the like cause as Bayes by our Author, though not in so Christian-like a manner: for heathenishly it is declared by Virgil of Bavius, that he ought to be hated and detested for his evil-works: Quí bavium non odit ? whereas we have often had occasion to observe our Poet's great good nature and mercifulness through the whole course of this Poem.

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Lethaeumque domos placidas qui praenatat amnem &c.
Hunc circum innumerae gentes,' &c.

Virg. Æn. VL

v. 24. Old Bavius sits to dip poctic souls.] Alluding to the story of Thetis dipping Achilles to render him impenetrable: At pater Anchises penitus convalle virenti

• Inclusas animas, superumque ad lumen ituras,
• Lustrabat.'......Virg. Æn. VI.

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Instant, when dipt, away they wing their flight,
Where Brown and Mears unbar the gates of light,
Demand new bodies, and, in calf's array,
Rush to the world, impatient for the day..
Millions and millions on these banks he views,
Thick as the stars of night, or morning dews,
As thick as bees o'er vernal blossoms fly,
As thick as eggs at Ward in pillory.

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Wond'ring he gaz'd: when, lo; a sage appears, By his broad shoulders known, and length of ears, Known by the band and suit which Settle wore (His only suit) for twice three years before: All as the vest appear'd the wearer's frame, Old in new state, another yet the same. Bland and familiar, as in life, begun

Son:

Thus the great Father to the greater
Oh! born to see what none can see awake!
Behold the wonders of th' oblivious lake!

REMARKS.

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v. 28... Browne and Mears.] Booksellers, printers for any body...The allegory of the souls of the dull coming forth in the form of books dressed in calf's leather, and being let abroad in vast numbers by booksellers, is sufficiently intelligible.

v. 34... Ward in pillory.] John Ward, of Hackney, Esq. member of parliament, being convicted of forgery, was first expelled the House, and then sentenced to the pillory, on the 17th of February, 1727.

IMITATIONS.

*. 28....unbar thy gates of light.

An hemistich of Milton. v. 31, 32. Millions and Millions..Thick as the stars, &c.] 'Quam multa in silvis autumni frigore primo

Lapsa cadunt folia, aut ad terram gurgite ab alto "Quam multae glomerantur aves,' &c. Virg. Æn. VI

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Thou, yet unborn, has touch'd this sacred shore;
The hand of Bavius drench'd thee o'er and o'er.
But blind to former as to future fate,
What mortal knows his pre-existent state?
Who knows how long thy transmigrating soul
Might from Baotian to Baotian roll?
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How many Dutchmen she vouchsaf'd to thrid ?
How many stages through old monks she rid?
And all who since, in wild benighted days,
Mix'd the owl's ivy with the poet's bays.
As man's meanders to the vital spring
Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring;
Or whirligigs, twirl'd round by skilful swain,
Suck the thread in, then yield it out again:
All nonsense thus, of old or modern date,
Shall in thee centre, from thee circulate.
For thus our Queen unfolds to vision true
Thy mental eye, for thou hast much to view:
Old scenes of glory, times long cast behind,
Shall, first recall'd, rush forward to thy mind:
Then stretch thy sight o'er all her rising reign, 65
And let the past and future fire thy brain.

IMITATIONS.

D. 54. Mix'd the owl's ivy with the poet's bays.】

B Sine tempore circum

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"Inter victrices heradem tibi serpere lauros." Virg. Ecl. viii, v. 61, 62. For this our Queen unfolds to vision true

Thy mental eye, for thou hast much to view.]

This has a resemblance to that passage in Milton, Book XI. where the angel

To noble sights from Adam's eye removed
The film; then purg'd with euphrasie and rue
The visual nerve.. For he had much to see.

Ascend this hill, whose cloudy point commands Her boundless empire over seas and lands.

Sce, round the poles where keener spangles shine, Where spices smoke beneath the burning line, 70 (Earth's wide extremes) her sable flag display'd, And all the nations cover'd in her shade!

Far eastward cast thine eye, from whence the Sun And orient Science their bright course begun : One godlike monarch all that pride confounds, 75 He, whose long wall the wand'ring Tartar bounds; Heav'ns! what a pile! whole ages perish there, And one bright blaze turns learning into air. Thence to the South extend thy gladden'd eyes; There rival flames with equal glory rise; 80 From shelves to shelves see greedy Vulcan roll, And lick up all their physic of the soul.

How little, mark! that portion of the ball, Where, faint at best, the beams of Science fall: Soon as they dawn, from hyperborean skies Embody'd dark, what clouds of Vandals rise!

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Far eastward cast thine eye, from whence the Sun
And orient Science at a birth begun,

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But as this was thought to contradict that line of the introduction, In eldest times, e'er mortals writ or read, which supposes the sun and science did not set out together, it was altered to their bright course begun. But this slip, as usual, escaped the gentlemen of the Dunciad.

IMITATIONS."

There is a general allusion in what follows to that whole episode

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Lo! where Mæotis sleeps, and hardly flows
The freezing Tanais through a waste of snows,
The North by myriads pours her mighty sons,
Great nurse of Goths, of Alans, and of Huns! 90
See Alaric's stern port! the martial frame
Of Genseric! and Attila's dread name!
See the bold Ostrogoths on Latium fall;
See the fierce Visigoths on Spain and Gaul!
See where the morning gilds the palmy shore, 95
(The soil that arts and infant letters bore,)
His conqu'ring tribes the Arabian prophet draws,
And, saving Ignorance, enthrones by laws.
See Christians, Jews, one heavy sabbath keep,
And all the Western world believe and sleep. 100
Lo! Rome herself, proud mistress now no more
Of arts, but thund'ring against Heathen lore;
Her gray-hair'd synods damning books unread,
And Bacon trembling for his brazen head.
Padua, with sighs, beholds her Livy burn,
And ev'n th' Antipodes, Vigilius mourn.
See the Cirque falls, th' unpillar'd temple nods,
Streets pav'd with heroes, Tyber choak'd with gods ;
"Till Peter's keys some christened Jove adorn,
And Pan to Moses lends his Pagan horn;
See graceful Venus to a virgin turn'd,
Or Phidias broken, and Apelles burn'd.

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Behold yon' isle, by palmers, pilgrims trod, 113 Men bearded, bald, cowl'd, uncowl'd, shod, unshod, Peel'd, patch'd, and pyebald, linsey-woolseybrothers, Grave mummers! sleeveless some,andshirtless others

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