132
The Dunciad.
Book III.
Surveys around her, in the blest abode,
An hundred sons, and ev'ry son a God:
135 Not with less glory mighty Dulness crown'd,
Shall take thro' Grub-street her triumphant round;
And her Parnassus glancing o'er at once,
Behold an hundred sons, and each a Dunce.
Mark first that Youth who takes the foremost place,[I 1]
140 And thrusts his person full into your face.
With all thy Father's virtues blest, be born![I 2]
And a new Cibber shall the stage adorn.
A second see, by meeker manners known,
And modest as the maid that sips alone;
An hundred sons, and ev'ry son a God:
135 Not with less glory mighty Dulness crown'd,
Shall take thro' Grub-street her triumphant round;
And her Parnassus glancing o'er at once,
Behold an hundred sons, and each a Dunce.
Mark first that Youth who takes the foremost place,[I 1]
140 And thrusts his person full into your face.
With all thy Father's virtues blest, be born![I 2]
And a new Cibber shall the stage adorn.
A second see, by meeker manners known,
And modest as the maid that sips alone;
Remarks
foot by the first of these Classes, the Poets, they only are here particularly celebrated, and they only properly fall under the Care and Review of this Collegue of Dulness, the Laureate. The others, who finish the great work, are reserved for the fourth book, when the Goddess herself appears in full Glory.
Imitations
- ↑ Ver. 139. Mark first that Youth, &c.Ille vides, pura juvenis qui nititur hasta,
Proxima sorte tenet lucis loca ———Virg. Æn. vi. - ↑ Ver. 141. With all thy Father's virtues blest, be born!] A manner of expression used by Virgil, Ecl. viii.Nascere! præque diem venient, age, Lucifer—As also that of patriis virtutibus, Ecl. iv.It was very natural to shew to the Hero, before all others, his own Son, who had already begun to emulate him in his theatrical, poetical, and even political capacities. By the attitude in which he here presents himself, the reader may be cautioned against ascribing wholly to the Father the merit of the epithet Cibberian, which is equally to be understood with an eye to the Son.
