Page:The Dunciad - Alexander Pope (1743).djvu/174

And look'd, and saw a sable Sorc'rer rise,^{[R 1]}
Swift to whose hand a winged volume flies:
235 All sudden, Gorgons hiss, and Dragons glare,
And ten-horn'd fiends and Giants rush to war.
Hell rises, Heav'n descends, and dance on Earth:^{[R 2]}
Gods, imps, and monsters, music, rage, and mirth,
A fire, a jigg, a battle, and a ball,
240 'Till one wide conflagration swallows all.
 Thence a new world to Nature's laws unknown,
Breaks out refulgent, with a heav'n its own:
Another Cynthia her new journey runs,
And other planets^{[I 1]} circle other suns.
245 The forests dance, the rivers upward rise,
Whales sport in woods, and dolphins in the skies;^{[I 2]}

Remarks

he had a part, clapped him on the shoulder, and cried, "If he does not make a good actor, I'll be d—d— And (says Mr. Cibber) I make it a question, whether Alexander himself, or Charles the twelfth of Sweden, when at the head of their first victorious armies, could feel a greater transport in their bosoms than I did in mine."

1. Ver. 233. a sable Sorc'rer] Dr. Faustus, the subject of a sett of Farces, which lasted in vogue two or three seasons, in which both Playhouses strove to outdo each other for some years. All the extravagancies in the sixteen lines following were introduced on the Stage, and frequented by persons of the first quality in England, to the twentieth and thirtieth time.
2. Ver. 237. Hell rises, Heav'n descends, and dance on Earth:] This monstrous absurdity was actually represented in Tibbald's Rape of Proserpine.

Imitations

1. Ver. 244. And other planets]
   ———solemque suum, sua sidera norunt———Virg. Æn. vi.
2. Ver. 246. Whales sport in wood, and dolphins in the skies;]
   Delphinum sylvis appingit, fiuctibus aprum.Hor.