180
The Dunciad.
Book IV.
Thou gav'st that Ripeness, which so soon began,
And ceas'd so soon, he ne'er was Boy, nor Man.[R 1]
Thro' School and College, thy kind cloud o'ercast,
290 Safe and unseen the young Æneas past:
Thence bursting glorious,[R 2] all at once let down,
Stunn'd with his giddy Larum half the town.
Intrepid then, o'er seas and lands he flew:
Europe he saw, and Europe saw him too.
295 There all thy gifts and graces we display,
Thou, only thou, directing all our way!
To where the Seine, obsequious as she runs,
Pours at great Bourbon's feet her silken sons;
Or Tyber, now no longer Roman, rolls,
300 Vain of Italian Arts, Italian Souls:
And ceas'd so soon, he ne'er was Boy, nor Man.[R 1]
Thro' School and College, thy kind cloud o'ercast,
290 Safe and unseen the young Æneas past:
Thence bursting glorious,[R 2] all at once let down,
Stunn'd with his giddy Larum half the town.
Intrepid then, o'er seas and lands he flew:
Europe he saw, and Europe saw him too.
295 There all thy gifts and graces we display,
Thou, only thou, directing all our way!
To where the Seine, obsequious as she runs,
Pours at great Bourbon's feet her silken sons;
Or Tyber, now no longer Roman, rolls,
300 Vain of Italian Arts, Italian Souls:
Remarks
- ↑ Ver. 288. he ne'er was Boy, nor Man.] Nature hath bestowed on the human species two states or conditions, Infancy and Manhood. Wit sometimes makes the first disappear, and Folly the latter; but true Dulness annihilates both. For, want of apprehension in Boys, not suffering that conscious ignorance and inexperience which produce the awkward bashfulness of youth, makes them assured; and want of imagination makes them grave. But this gravity and assurance, which is beyond boyhood, being neither wisdom nor knowledge, do never reach to manhood. Scribl.
- ↑ Ver. 290. unseen the young Æneas past: Thence bursting glorious,) See Virg. Æn. 1.Where he enumerates the causes why his mother took this care of him: to wit, 1. that no-body might touch or correct him: 2. might stop or detain him: 3. examine him about the progress he had made, or so much as guess why he came there.At Venus obscuro gradientes aëre sepsit,
Et multo nebulæ circum Dea fudit amictu,
Cernere ne quis eos;—1. neu quis contingere possit;
2. Molirive moram;–aut 3. veniendi poscere causas.
