82
The Dunciad.
Book II.
"The race by vigour, not by vaunts is won;
"So take the hindmost, Hell."[I 1]———He said, and run.60
Swift as a bard the bailiff leaves behind,[I 2]
He left huge Lintot, and out-strip'd the wind.
As when a dab-chick waddles thro' the copse
On feet and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops;
So lab'ring on, with shoulders, hands, and head,[I 3]
Wide as a wind-mill all his figures spread,[I 4]65
Imitations
- ↑ Ver. 60. So take the hindmost, Hell.]Occupat extremum scabies; mihi turpe relinqui est. Horat. de Arte.
- ↑ Ver. 61, &c. Something like this is in Homer, Il. x. v. 220. of Diomed. Two different manners of the same author in his similies are also imitated in the two following; the first, of the Bailiff, is short, unadorned, and (as the Critics well know) from familiar life; the second, of the Water-fowl, more extended, picturesque, and from rural life. The 59th verse is likewise a literal translation of one in Homer.
- ↑ Ver. 64, 65. On feet and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops;So lab'ring on, with shoulders, hands, and head,]
———So eagerly the Fiend
O'er bog, o'er steep, thro' streight, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way,
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. Milton, Book 2. - ↑ Ver. 67, 68. With arms expanded, Bernard rows his state,
And left-legg'd Jacob seems to emulate.]Milton, of the motion of the Swan,———rows
His state with oary feet.And Dryden, of another's, —With two left legs—
