Book IV.
The Dunciad.
199
Others the Syren Sisters warble round,
And empty heads console with empty sound.
No more, alas! the voice of Fame they hear,
The balm of Dulness[R 1] trickling in their ear.
545 Great C**, H** ,P**, R**, K*,
Why all your Toils? your Sons have learn'd to sing.
How quick Ambition hastes to ridicule!
The Sire is made a Peer, the Son a Fool.
On some, a Priest succinct in amice white
550 Attends; all flesh is nothing in his fight!
Beeves, at his touch, at once to jelly turn,
And the huge Boar is shrunk into an Urn:
The board with specious miracles he loads,[R 2]
Turns Hares to Larks, and Pigeons into Toads.
And empty heads console with empty sound.
No more, alas! the voice of Fame they hear,
The balm of Dulness[R 1] trickling in their ear.
545 Great C**, H** ,P**, R**, K*,
Why all your Toils? your Sons have learn'd to sing.
How quick Ambition hastes to ridicule!
The Sire is made a Peer, the Son a Fool.
On some, a Priest succinct in amice white
550 Attends; all flesh is nothing in his fight!
Beeves, at his touch, at once to jelly turn,
And the huge Boar is shrunk into an Urn:
The board with specious miracles he loads,[R 2]
Turns Hares to Larks, and Pigeons into Toads.
Remarks.
- ↑ Ver. 544. The balm of Dulness] The true Balm of Dulness, called by the Greek Physicians , is a Sovereign remedy, and has its name from the Goddess herself. Its ancient Dispensators were her Poets; but it is now got into as many hands as Goddard's Drops or Daffy's Elixir. It is prepared by the Clergy, as appears from several places of this poem; And by ver, 534, 535, it seems as if the Nobility had it made up in their own houses. This, which Opera is here said to administer, is but a spurious sort. See my Dissertation on the Silphium of the Antients. Bent.
- ↑ Ver. 553. The board with specious Miracles he loads, &c.] Scriblerus seems at a loss in this place. Speciosa miracula (says he) according to Horace, were the monstrous Fables of the Cyclops, Læstrygons, Scylla, &c. What relation have these to the transformation of Hares into Larks, or of Pigeons into Toads? I shall tell thee. The Læstrygons spitted Men upon Spears, as we do Larks upon Skewers: and the fair Pigeon turn'd to a Toad is similar to the fair Virgin Scylla ending in a filthy beast. But here is the difficulty, why Pigeons in so shocking a shape should be brought to a Table. Hares indeed might be cut into Larks at a second dressing, out of frugality: Yet that seems no probable motive, when we consider the extravagance before men-
