Book I.
The Dunciad.
71
Perch'd on his crown. "All hail! and hail again,
My son! the promis'd land expects thy reign.
Know, Eusden thirsts no more for sack or praise;
He sleeps among the dull of ancient days;
295 Safe, where no Critics damn, no duns molest,
Where wretched Withers,[R. 1] Ward, and Gildon[R. 2] rest,
And high-born Howard,[R. 3] more majestic fire,
With Fool of Quality compleats the quire.
Thou Cibber! thou, his Laurel shalt support,
300 Folly, my son, has still a Friend at Court.
Lift up your Gates, ye Princes, see him come!
Sound, sound ye Viols, be the Cat-call dumb!
Bring, bring the madding Bay, the drunken Vine;
The creeping, dirty, courtly Ivy join.
305 And thou! his Aid de camp, lead on my sons,
Light-arm'd with Points, Antitheses, and Puns.
My son! the promis'd land expects thy reign.
Know, Eusden thirsts no more for sack or praise;
He sleeps among the dull of ancient days;
295 Safe, where no Critics damn, no duns molest,
Where wretched Withers,[R. 1] Ward, and Gildon[R. 2] rest,
And high-born Howard,[R. 3] more majestic fire,
With Fool of Quality compleats the quire.
Thou Cibber! thou, his Laurel shalt support,
300 Folly, my son, has still a Friend at Court.
Lift up your Gates, ye Princes, see him come!
Sound, sound ye Viols, be the Cat-call dumb!
Bring, bring the madding Bay, the drunken Vine;
The creeping, dirty, courtly Ivy join.
305 And thou! his Aid de camp, lead on my sons,
Light-arm'd with Points, Antitheses, and Puns.
Remarks
- ↑ Ver. 296. Withers,] "George Withers was a great Pretender to Poetical Zeal, and abused the greatest Personages in power, which brought upon him frequent correction. The Marshalsea and Newgate were no strangers to him." Winstanly, Lives of Poets.
- ↑ Ibid. Gildon] Charles Gildon, a writer of criticisms and libels of the last age, bred at St. Omer's with the Jesuits; but renouncing popery, he published Blount's books against the divinity of Christ, the Oracles of Reason, &c. He signalized himself as a critic, having written some very bad plays; abused Mr. P. very scandalously in an anonymous pamphlet of the Life of Mr. Wycherley, printed by Curl: in another, called the New Rehearsal, printed in 1714; in a third, entituled the Complete Art of English Poetry, in two volumes; and others.
- ↑ Ver. 297. Howard,] Hon. Edward Howard, author of the British Princes, and a great number of wonderful pieces,
bird from Switzerland, and not (as some have supposed) the name of an eminent person who was a man of parts, and, as was said of Petronius, Arbiter Elegantiarum'.
