76
The Dunciad.
Book II.
Remarks
- ↑ Two things there are, upon the supposition of which the very basis of all Verbal criticism is founded and supported: The first, that an Author could never fail to use the best word on every occasion; the second, that a Critic cannot chuse but know which that is. This being granted, whenever any word doth not fully content us, we take upon us to conclude, first, that the author could never have used it; and, secondly, that he must have used that very one which we conjecture in its stead.
We cannot, therefore, enough admire the learned Scriblerus for his alteration of the text in the two last verses of the preceding book, which in all the former editions stood thus:Hoarse thunder to its bottom shook the bog,
And the loud nation croak'd, God save king Log.He has, with great judgment, transposed these two epithets; putting hoarse to the nation, and loud to the thunder: And this being evidently the true reading, he vouchsafed not so much as to mention the former; for which assertion of the just right of a Critic, he merits the acknowledgment of all sound Commentators. - ↑ Ver. 2. Henley's gilt tub,] The pulpit of a Dissenter is usually called a Tub; but that of Mr. Orator Henley was covered with velvet, and adorned with gold. He had also a fair altar, and over it is this extraordinary inscription, The Primitive Eucharist. See the history of this person, book 3.
- ↑ Ibid. or Fleckno's Irish throne,] Richard Fleckno was an Irish priest, but had laid aside (as himself expressed it) the mechanic part of priesthood. He printed some plays, poems, letters, and travels. I doubt not our author took occasion to mention him in respect to the Poem of Mr. Dryden, to which this bears some resemblance, though of a character more different from it than that of the Æneid from the Iliad, or the Lutrin of Boileau from the Defait de Bouts rimées of Sarazin.
It may be just worth mentioning, that the Eminence from whence the ancient Sophists entertained their auditors, was called by the pompous name of a Throne;—πὶ θξόνον τινὸς υφηλοι μαλα ζοφιςικως κ ζοξαρως Themistius, Orat. i. - ↑ Ver. 3. Or that where on her Curls the Public pours,) Edmund Curl stood in the pillory at Charing-cross, in March 1727-8.
Mr. Curl loudly complained of this note, as an untruth; protesting "that he stood in the pillory, not in March, but
Imitations
- ↑ Ver. I. High on a gorgeous seat] Parody of Milton, book 2.High on a throne of royal state, that far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Show'rs on her Kings Barbaric Pearl and gold
Satan exalted sate,———
