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170

The Dunciad.

Book IV.

For sure, if Dulness sees a grateful Day,
'Tis in the shade of Arbitrary Sway.^{[R 1]}
O! if my sons may learn one earthly thing,
Teach but that one, sufficient for a King;
185 That which my Priests, and mine alone, maintain,
Which as it dies, or lives, we fill, or reign:
May you, may Cam, and Isis preach it long!
"The Right Divine of Kings to govern wrong."

Remarks

↑ Ver. 181, 182. if Dulnesses sees a grateful Day, 'Tis in the shade of Arbitrary Sway.] And grateful it is in Dulness to make this confession. I will not say she alludes to that celebrated verse of Claudian,
——— nunquam Libertas gratior extat
Quam sub Rege pio ———

But this I will say, that the words Liberty and Monarchy have been frequently confounded and mistaken one for the other by the gravest authors. I should therefore conjecture, that the genuine reading of the forecited verse was thus,
——— nunquam Libertas gratior exstat
Quam sub Lege pia ———

and that Rege was the reading only of Dulness herself: And therefore she might allude to it. Scribl.
I judge quite otherwise of this passage: The genuine reading is Libertas, and Rege: So Claudian gave it. But the error lies in the first verse: It should be Exit, not Exstat, and then the meaning will be, that Liberty was never lost, or went away with so good a grace, as under a good King: it being without doubt a tenfold shame to lose it under a bad one.
This farther leads me to animadvert upon a most grievous piece of nonsense to be found in all the Editions of the Author of the Dunciad himself. A most capital one it is, and owing to the confusion above mentioned by Scriblerus, of the two words Liberty and Monarchy. Essay on Crit.
Nature, like Monarchy, is but refrain'd
By the same Laws herself at first ordain'd.

Who sees not, it should be, Nature like Liberty? Correct it therefore repugnantibus omnibus (even tho' the Author himself should oppugn) in all the impressions which have been, or shall be, made of his works. Bentl.

[1] Ver. 181, 182. if Dulnesses sees a grateful Day, 'Tis in the shade of Arbitrary Sway.] And grateful it is in Dulness to make this confession. I will not say she alludes to that celebrated verse of Claudian,
——— nunquam Libertas gratior extat
Quam sub Rege pio ———

But this I will say, that the words Liberty and Monarchy have been frequently confounded and mistaken one for the other by the gravest authors. I should therefore conjecture, that the genuine reading of the forecited verse was thus,
——— nunquam Libertas gratior exstat
Quam sub Lege pia ———

and that Rege was the reading only of Dulness herself: And therefore she might allude to it. Scribl.
I judge quite otherwise of this passage: The genuine reading is Libertas, and Rege: So Claudian gave it. But the error lies in the first verse: It should be Exit, not Exstat, and then the meaning will be, that Liberty was never lost, or went away with so good a grace, as under a good King: it being without doubt a tenfold shame to lose it under a bad one.
This farther leads me to animadvert upon a most grievous piece of nonsense to be found in all the Editions of the Author of the Dunciad himself. A most capital one it is, and owing to the confusion above mentioned by Scriblerus, of the two words Liberty and Monarchy. Essay on Crit.
Nature, like Monarchy, is but refrain'd
By the same Laws herself at first ordain'd.

Who sees not, it should be, Nature like Liberty? Correct it therefore repugnantibus omnibus (even tho' the Author himself should oppugn) in all the impressions which have been, or shall be, made of his works. Bentl.

[R 1]