186
The Dunciad.
Book IV.
375 Speak'st thou of Syrian Princes? Traitor base![R 1]
Mine, Goddess! mine is all the horned race.
True, he had wit, to make their value rise;
From foolish Greeks to steal them, was as wise;
More glorious yet, from barb'rous hands to keep,
380 When Sallee Rovers chac'd him on the deep.
Then taught by Hermes, and divinely bold,
Down his own throat he risqu'd the Grecian gold;
Receiv'd each Demi-God[R 2], with pious care,
Deep in his Entrails—I rever'd them there,
385 I bought them, shrouded in that living shrine,
And, at their second birth, they issue mine.
Witness great Ammon![R 3] by whose horns I swore,
(Reply'd soft Annius) this our paunch before
Mine, Goddess! mine is all the horned race.
True, he had wit, to make their value rise;
From foolish Greeks to steal them, was as wise;
More glorious yet, from barb'rous hands to keep,
380 When Sallee Rovers chac'd him on the deep.
Then taught by Hermes, and divinely bold,
Down his own throat he risqu'd the Grecian gold;
Receiv'd each Demi-God[R 2], with pious care,
Deep in his Entrails—I rever'd them there,
385 I bought them, shrouded in that living shrine,
And, at their second birth, they issue mine.
Witness great Ammon![R 3] by whose horns I swore,
(Reply'd soft Annius) this our paunch before
Remarks
- ↑ Ver. 375. Speak's thou of Syrian Princes? &c.] The strange story following which may be taken for a fiction of the Poet, is justified by a true relation in Spon's Voyages. Vaillant (who wrote the History of the Syrian Kings as it is to be found on medals) coming from the Levant, where he had been collecting various Coins, and being pursued by a Corsaire of Sallee, swallowed down twenty gold medals. A sudden Bourasque freed him from the Rover, and he got to land with them in his belly. On his road to Avignon he met two Physicians, of whom he demanded assistance. One advis'd Purgations, the other Vomits. In this uncertainty he took neither, but pursued his way to Lyons, where he found his ancient friend, the famous Physician and Antiquary Dufour, to whom he related his adventure. Dufour first ask'd him whether the Medals were of the higher Empire? He assur'd him they were. Dufour was ravish'd with the hope of possessing such a treasure, he bargain'd with him on the spot for the most curious of them, and was to recover them at his own expence.
- ↑ Ver. 383. each Demi-God,] They are called Θεῖοι on their Coins.
- ↑ Ver. 387. Witness great Ammon!] Jupiter Ammon is call'd to witness, as the father of Alexander, to whom those
bove mention'd. But he omits to observe that Herodotus tells the same thing of it in his time.
