All who true Dunces in her cause appear'd, 25
And all who knew those Dunces to reward.
Amid that area wide they took their stand,
Where the tall may-pole once o'er-look'd the Strand;
But now (so Anne and Piety ordain)
A Church collects the saints of Drury-lane. 30
With Authors, Stationers obey'd the call,
(The field of glory is a field for all.)
Glory, and gain, th'industrious tribe provoke;
And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke.
A Poet's form she plac'd before their eyes,[I 1] 35
And bade the nimblest racer seize the prize;
Remarks
ment which Leo X. gave to poets, travelled to Rome with a harp in his hand, and sung to it twenty thousand verses of a poem called Alexias. He was introduced as a Buffoon to Leo, and promoted to the honour of the Laurel; a jest which the court of Rome and the Pope himself entered into so far, as to cause him to ride on an elephant to the Capitol, and to hold a solemn festival on his coronation; at which it is recorded the Poet himself was so transported as to weep for joy*. He was ever after a constant frequenter of the Pope's table, drank abundantly, and poured forth verses without number. Paulus Jovius, Elog. Vir. doct. chap. lxxxii. Some idea of his poetry is given by Fam. Strada, in his Prolusions.
* See Life of C. C. chap. vi. p. 149.
Imitations
- ↑ Ver. 35. A Poet's form she plac'd before their eyes,] This is what Juno does to deceive Turnus, Æn. x.Tum Dea nube cava, tenuem sine viribus umbram
In faciem Æneæ (visu mirabile monstrum!)
Dardaniis ornat telis, clypeumque jubasgue
Divini assimilat capitis———
———Dat inania verba,
Dat sine meute sonum———
