Book II.
The Dunciad.
83
With arms expanded Bernard rows his state,
And left-legg'd Jacob seems to emulate.
Full in the middle way there stood a lake,
Which Curl's Corinna[R 1] chanc'd that morn to make: 70
(Such was her wont, at early dawn to drop
Her evening cates before his neighbour's shop,)
Here fortun'd Curl to slide;[I 1] loud shout the band,
And Bernard! Bernard![I 2] rings thro' all the Strand.
Obscene with filth the miscreant lies bewray'd,[R 2] 75
Fal'n in the plash his wickedness had laid:
Remarks
- ↑ Ver. 70. Curl's Corinna] This name, it seems, was taken by one Mrs. T———, who procured some private letters of Mr. Pope's, while almost a boy, to Mr. Cromwell, and sold them without the consent of either of those Gentlemen to Curl, who printed them in 12mo, 1727. He discovered her to be the publisher, in his Key, p. 11. We only take this opportunity of mentioning the manner in which those letters got abroad, which the author was ashamed of as very trivial things, full not only of levities, but of wrong judgments of men and books, and only excusable from the youth and inexperience of the writer.
- ↑ Ver. 75. Obscene with filth, &c.] Though this incident may seem too low and base for the dignity of an Epic poem, the learned very well know it to be but a copy of Homer and Virgil; the very words ὂνθος and fimus are used by them, though our poet (in compliance to modern nicety) has remarkably enriched and coloured his language, as well as raised the versification, in this Episode, and in the fol-
Imitations
