164
The Dunciad.
Book IV.
95 Patrons, who sneak from living worth to dead,
With-hold the pension, and set up the head;
Or vest dull Flatt'ry in the sacred Gown;
Or give from fool to fool the Laurel crown.
And (last and worst) with all the cant of wit,
100 Without the soul, the Muse's Hypocrit.[R 1]
There march'd the bard and blockhead, side by side,
Who rhym'd for hire, and patroniz'd for pride.
Narcissus, prais'd with all a Parson's pow'r,
Look'd a white lilly sunk beneath a show'r
105 There mov'd Montalto with superior air;
His stretch'd-out arm display'd a Volume fair;
Courtiers and Patriots in two ranks divide,
Thro' both he pass'd, and bow'd from side to side:
But as in graceful act, with awful eye
110 Compos'd he stood, bold Benson[R 2] thrust him by:
On two unequal crutches propt he came,
Milton's on this, on that one Johnston's name.
With-hold the pension, and set up the head;
Or vest dull Flatt'ry in the sacred Gown;
Or give from fool to fool the Laurel crown.
And (last and worst) with all the cant of wit,
100 Without the soul, the Muse's Hypocrit.[R 1]
There march'd the bard and blockhead, side by side,
Who rhym'd for hire, and patroniz'd for pride.
Narcissus, prais'd with all a Parson's pow'r,
Look'd a white lilly sunk beneath a show'r
105 There mov'd Montalto with superior air;
His stretch'd-out arm display'd a Volume fair;
Courtiers and Patriots in two ranks divide,
Thro' both he pass'd, and bow'd from side to side:
But as in graceful act, with awful eye
110 Compos'd he stood, bold Benson[R 2] thrust him by:
On two unequal crutches propt he came,
Milton's on this, on that one Johnston's name.
Remarks
- ↑ Ver. 99, 100. And (last and worst) with all the cant of wit,
Without the soul, the Muse's Hypocrit.] In this division are reckoned up 1. The Idolizers of Dulness in the Great–2. Ill Judges,–3. Ill Writers,–4. Ill Patrons. But the last and worst, as he justly calls him, is the Muse's Hypocrite, who is as it were the Epitome of them all. He who thinks the only end of poetry is to amuse, and the only business of the poet to be witty; and consequently who cultivates only such trifling talents in himself, and encourages only such in others. - ↑ Ver. 110. bold Benson] This man endeavoured to raise himself to Fame by erecting monuments, striking coins, setting up heads, and procuring translations, of Milton; and afterwards by a great passion for Arthur Johnston, a Scotch physician's Version of the Psalms, of which he printed many fine Editions. See more of him, Book 3. ver. 325.
