THE DUNCIAD.

TO DR. JONATHAN SWIFT.

BOOK III.

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BUT in her temple's last recess inclos'd, On Dulness' lap th' anointed head repos'd. Him close she curtains round with vapours blue, And soft besprinkles with Cimmerian dew: Then raptures high the seat of sense o'erflow, Which only heads refin❜d from reason know. Hence from the straw where Bedlam's prophet nods, He hears loud oracles, and talks with gods: Hence the fool's paradise, the statesman's scheme, The air-built castle, and the golden dream,

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The maid's romantic wish, the chemist's flame,
And poet's vision of eternal fame.

And now, on Fancy's easy wing convey'd,

The king descending, views th' Elysian shade.
A slip-shod sibyl led his steps along,

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In lofty madness meditating song;

Her tresses staring from poetic dreams,
And never wash'd but in Castalia's streams.
Taylor, their better Charon, lends an oar,

(Once swan of Thames, tho' now he sings no more.) Benlowes, propitious still to blockheads, bows;

And Shadwell nods, the poppy on his brows.
Here in a dusky vale where Lethe rolls,
Old Bavius sits to dip poetic souls,

REMARKS.

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v. 19. Taylor.] John Taylor, the water-poet; an honest man, who owns he learned not so much as the accidence; a rare example of modesty in a poet!

"I 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."

He wrote fourscore books in the reign of James I and Charles I, and afterwards, like Edward Ward, kept an alehouse in Long-acre. 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 anagram'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.

And blunt the sense, and fit it for a skull

Of solid proof, impenetrably dull :

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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REMARKS.

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: Qui Bavium non odio? whereas we have often had occasion to observe our poet's great good nature and mercifulness through the whole course of this poem. Scribl.

v. 28.-Brown 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

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

Thus the great father to the greater son:

Oh! born to see what none can see awake!

Behold the wonders of th' oblivious lake!

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Thou, yet unborn, has touch'd this sacred shore; 45
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 Boeotian to Baotian roll?
How many Dutchmen she vouchaf'd to thrid ?
How many stages through old monks she rid?
And all who since, in wild benighted days,
Mixt 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 :

REMARKS.

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first expelled the house, and then sentenced to the pillory,

on the 17th of February, 1727.

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,
And let the past and future fire thy brain.

Ascend this hill, whose cloudy point commands
Her boundless empires over seas and lands.
See, round the poles where keener spangles shine,
Where spices smoke beneath the burning line,
(Earth's wide extremes) her sable flag display'd,
And all the nations cover'd in her shade!

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Far eastward cast thine eye, from whence the sun
And orient science their bright course begun :
One godlike monarch all that pride confounds,
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;
From shelves to shelves see greedy Vulcan roll,
And lick up all their physic of their soul.

How little, mark! that portion of the ball,
Where, faint at best, the beams of science fall;

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