Book II.
The Dunciad.
99
Remarks
- ↑ Ver. 207. Welsted] Leonard Welsted, author of The Triumvirate, or a Letter in verse from Palaemon to Celia at Bath, which was meant for a satyr on Mr. P. and some of his friends, about the year 1718. He writ other things which we cannot remember. Smedley in his Metamorphosis of Scriblerus, mentions one, the Hymn of a Gentleman to his Creator: And there was another in praise either of a Cellar, or a Garret. L. W. characterized in the treatise Περὶ Βάθους, or the Art of Sinking, as a Didapper, and after as an Eel, is said to be this person, by Dennis, Daily Journal of May 11, 1728. He was also characterized under another animal, a Mole, by the author of the ensuing Simile, which was handed about at the same time:You have him again in book 3. ver. 169.Dear Wested, mark, in dirty hole,
That painful animal, a Mole:
Above ground never born to grow;
What mighty stir it keeps below?
To make a Mole-hill all this strife!
It digs, pokes, undermines for life,
How proud a little dirt to spread;
Conscious of nothing o'er its head!
'Till, lab'ring on for want of eyes,
It blunders into Light—and dies. - ↑ Ver. 213. A youth unknown to Phœbus, &c.] The satyr of this Episode being levelled at the base flatteries of authors to worthless wealth or greatness, concludes here with an excellent lesson to such men: That altho' their pens and praises were as exquisite as they conceit of themselves, yet (even in their own mercenary views) a creature unlettered, who serveth the passions, or pimpeth to the pleasures, of such vain, braggart, puft Nobility, shall with those patrons be much more inward, and of them much higher rewarded. Scribl.
Noble Lords are treated in a most extraordinary language, particularly the Lord Bolingbroke abused for that very Peace which he here makes the single work of the Earl of Oxford, directed by God Almighty.
