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O Muse! relate, (for you can tell alone, Wits have short memories, and dunces none,) 620 Relate who first, who last, resign'd to rest; Whose heads she partly, whose completely blest; What charms could faction, what ambition lull, The venal quiet, and intrance the dull;

Till drown'd was Sense, and Shame, and Right, and Wrong

O sing, and hush the nations with thy song!

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In vain, in vain—the all-composing hour Resistless falls: the Muse obeys the pow'r. She comes! she comes! the sable throne behold Of Night primeval, and of Chaos old! Before her Fancy's gilded clouds decay, And all its varying rainbows die away. Wit shoots in vain its momentary fires, The meteor drops, and in a flash expires. As one by one, at dread Medea's strain, The sick'ning stars fade off the ethereal plain; As Argus's eyes, by Hermes' wand opprest, Clos'd one by one to everlasting rest; Thus at her felt approach, and secret might, Art after Art goes out, and all is night. See sculking Truth to her old cavern fled, Mountains of Casuistry heap'd o'er her head!

IMITATIONS.

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v. 621. Relate who first, who last, resign'd to rest:
Whose heads she partly, whose completely blest.]
Quem telo primum, quem postremum aspera Virgo
Dejicis? aut quot humi, morientia corpora fúndis?' Virg.

Philosophy, that lean'd on Heav'n before,
Shrinks to her second cause, and is no more.
Physic of Metaphysic begs defence,
And Metaphysic calls for aid on Sense !
See Mystery to Mathematics fly!

In vain! they gaze, turn giddy, rave, and die.
Religion, blushing, veils her sacred fires,
And unawares Morality expires..

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Nor public flame, nor private, dares to shine;
Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse Divine!
Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos! is restor❜d;
Light dies before thy uncreating word:
Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall; 655
And universal Darkness buries All.

IMITATIONS.

c. 637. As Argus' eyes, &c.]

Et quamvis sopor est oculorum parte receptus, 'Parte tamen vigilat..

...Vidit Cyllenius omnes

•Succubuisse oculos,' &c.

VARIATIONS.

v. 643,] In the former edit. it stood thus:

Ovid. Met. IL

Philosophy, that reach'd the heav'ns before,
Shrinks to her hidden cause, and is no more.

And this was intended as a censure of the Newtonian philosophy For the Poet had been misled by the prejudices of foreigners, a if that philosophy had recurred to the ocult qualities of Aristotle This was the idea he received of it from a man educated much abroad, who had read every thing, but every thing superficia Had his excellent Friend, Dr. A. been consulted in this matter, it is certain that so unjust a reflection had never discredited s noble a Satire. When 1 hinted to him how he had been imposed upon, he changed the lines with great pleasure, into a comp ment (as they now stand) on that divine genius, and a satire the folly by which he, the Poet himself, had been misled.

END OF THE DUNCIAD,

BY THE AUTHOR, A DECLARATION.

WHEREAS certain Haberdashers of Points and Particles, being instigated by the spirit of Pride, and assum ing to themselves the name of Critics and Restorers, have taken upon them to adulterate the common and current sense of our Glorious Ancestors, Poets of this Realm, by clipping, coining, defacing the images, mixing their own base alloy, or otherwise falsifying the same; which they publish, utter, and vend as genuine; the said Haberdashers having no right thereto, as neither heirs, executors, administrators, assigns, or in any sort related to such Poets, to all or any of them: Now We, having carefully revised this our Dunciad, * beginning with the words, The mighty Mother, and ending with the words buries All, containing the entire sum of One thousand seven hundred and fifty-four verses, declare every word, figure, point, and comma, of this impression to be authentie and do therefore strictly enjoin and forbid any person or persons whatsoever to erase, reverse, put between hooks, or by any other means, directly or indirectly, change or mangle any of them. And we do hereby earnestly exhort all our brethren to follow this our example, which we heartily wish our great Predecessors had heretofore

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*Read thus confidently, instead of "beginning with the words "books and ending with the word flies," as formerly it stood: read also,"containing the entire sum of one thousand seven. "hundred and fifty-four verses," instead of one thousand and twelve lines," such being the initial and final words, and such the true and entire contents of this Poem.

set, as a remedy and prevention of all such abuses. Previded always, that nothing in this Declaration shall be construed to limit the lawful and undoubted right of every subject of this Realm to judge, censure, or condemn, in the whole, or in part, any Poem or Poet whatsoever.

Given under our hand at London, this third day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred thirty and two.

Declarat' cor' me.

JOHN BARBER, Mayor.

Thou art to know, Reader! that the first edition thereof, like that of Milton, was never seen by the Author, (though living and not blind:) the editor himself confessed as much in his preface, and no two poems were ever published in so arbitrary a manner. The editor of this had as boldly suppressed whole passages, yea the entire last book, as the editor of Paradise Lost added and augmented. Milton himself gave but ten books, his editor twelte; this Author gave four books, his editor only three. But we have happily done justice to both; and presume we shall live, in this our last labor, as long as in any of our others.

Bentley.

APPENDIX.

PREFACE,

Prefixed to the five first imperfect editions of the Dunciad, in three books, printed at Dublin and London, in octavo and duodecimo, 1727.

THE PUBLISHER

TO THE READER.

It will be found a true observation, though somewhat surprising, that when any scandal is vented

The publisher.] Who he was is uncertain; but Edward Ward telis us, in his Preface to Durgen, That most judges are of opinion this Preface is not of English extraction, but Hibernian," &c. He means it was written by Dr. Swift, who, whether the publisher or not, may be said, in a sort, to be author of the Po em. For when he, together with Mr. Pope (for reasons specified in the Preface to their Miscellanies) determined to own the most trifling pieces in which they had any hand, and to destroy all that remained in their power, the first sketch of this Poem was snatched from the fire by Dr. Swift, who persuaded his friend to proceed in it, and to him it was therefore inscribed. But the occasion of printing it was as follows:

There was published in those Miscellanies a Treatise of the Bathos, or, art of sinking in Poetry; in which was a chapter, where the species of bad writers were ranged in classes, and initial letters of names prefixed, for the most part, at random. But such was the number of poets eminent in that art, that some one or other took every letter to himself. All fell into so vio1nt a fury, that for half a year, or more, the common newspapers (in most of which they had some property, as being hired writers) were filled with the most abusive falsehoods and scurrilities they could possibly devise; a liberty no ways to be wondered at in those people, and in those papers, that, for many POPE. VOL. IV.

Q

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