134
The Dunciad.
Book III.
Lo P--p--le's brow, tremendous to the town,
Horneck's fierce eye, and Roome's funereal Frown.[R 1]
Lo sneering Goode,[R 2] half malice and half whim,
A Fiend in glee, ridiculously grim.
155 Each Cygnet sweet of Bath and Tunbridge race,
Whose tuneful whistling makes the waters pass:[R 3]
Each Songster, Riddler, ev’ry nameless name,
All crowd, who foremost shall be damn'd to Fame.
Some strain in rhyme; the Muses, on their racks,
160 Scream like the winding of ten thousand jacks:
Horneck's fierce eye, and Roome's funereal Frown.[R 1]
Lo sneering Goode,[R 2] half malice and half whim,
A Fiend in glee, ridiculously grim.
155 Each Cygnet sweet of Bath and Tunbridge race,
Whose tuneful whistling makes the waters pass:[R 3]
Each Songster, Riddler, ev’ry nameless name,
All crowd, who foremost shall be damn'd to Fame.
Some strain in rhyme; the Muses, on their racks,
160 Scream like the winding of ten thousand jacks:
Remarks
- ↑ Ver. 152. Horneck and Roome] These two were virulent Party-writers, worthily coupled together, and one would think prophetically, since, after the publishing of this piece, the former dying, the latter succeeded him in Honour and Employment. The first was Philip Horneck, Author of a Billingsgate paper call'd The High German Doctor. Edward Roome was son of an Undertaker for Funerals in Fleetstreet, and writ some of the papers call'd Pasquin, where by malicious Innuendos he endeavoured to represent our Author guilty of malevolent practices with a great man then under prosecution of Parliament. P—le was the author of some vile Plays and Pamphlets. He published abuses on our author in a Paper called the Prompter.
- ↑ Ver. 153. Goode,) An ill-natur'd Critic, who writ a Satyr on our Author, call'd The mock Æsop, and many anonymous Libels in News-papers for hire.
- ↑ Ver. 156. Whose tuneful whistling makes the waters pass:] There were several successions of these sort of minor poets, at Tunbridge, Bath, &c. singing the praise of the Annuals flourishing for that season; whose names indeed would be nameless, and therefore the Poet slurs them over with others in general.
printed in Dennis's Remarks on the Dunciad, pag. 49. Therefore I should think the appellation of Blunderbus to Mr. Jacob, like that of Thunderbolt to Scipio, was meant in his honour.
Mr. Dennis argues the same way. "My writings having made great impression on the minds of all sensible men, Mr. P. repented, and to give proof of his Repentance, subscribed to my two volumes of select Works, and afterward to my two Volumes of Letters." Ibid. pag. 80. We should hence believe, the Name of Mr. Dennis hath also crept into this poem by some mistake. But from hence, gentle readers thou may'st beware, when thou givest thy money to such Authors, not to flatter thyself that thy motives are Good-nature or Charity.
