Page:The Dunciad - Alexander Pope (1743).djvu/136

^{[R 1]}

To where Fleet-ditch with disemboguing streams
Rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames,
The King of dykes!^{[I 1]} than whom no sluice of mud
With deeper sable blots the silver flood.
"Here strip, my children here at once leap in, 275
"Here prove who best can dash thro' thick and thin,
"And who the most in love of dirt excel,
"Or dark dexterity of groping well.^{[R 2]}

Remarks

is the doctrine of the Church of England that miracles had ceased a long time before Prince Arthur came into world. Now if the doctrine of the church of England be true, as we are obliged to believe, then are all the celestial machines in Prince Arthur unsufferable, as wanting not only human, but divine probability. But if the machines are sufferable, that is if they have so much as divine probability, then it follows of necessity that the doctrine of the Church is false. So I leave it to every impartial Clergyman to consider," &c. Preface to the Remarks on Prince Arthur.

1. Ver. 270. (As morning pray'r, and flagellation end.) It is between eleven and twelve in the morning, after church service, that the criminals are whipt in Bridewell.—This is to mark punctually the time of the day: Homer does it by the circumstance of the Judges rising from court, or of the Labourer's dinner; our author by one very proper both to the Persons and the Scene of his poem, which we may remember commenced in the evening of the Lord-mayor's day: The first book passed in that night; the next morning the games begin in the Strand, thence along Fleet-street (places inhabited by Booksellers) then they proceed by Bridewell toward Fleet-ditch, and lastly thro' Ludgate to the City and the Temple of the Goddess.
2. Ver. 276, 277, 278.–dash thro' thick and thin,–love of dirt—dark dexterity] The three chief qualifications of Party-writers; to stick at nothing, to delight in flinging dirt, and to slander in the dark by guess.

Imitations

1. Ver. 273. The King of dykes! &c.]
   Fluviorum rex Eridanus,
   ———quo non alius, per pinguia culta,
   In mare purpureum violentior influit amnit.Virg