610 The Convocation gap'd, but could not speak:[R 2]
Lost was the Nation's Sense, nor could be found,
While the long solemn Unison went round:
Wide, and more wide, it spread o'er all the realm;
Ev'n Palinurus nodded at the Helm:
615 The Vapour mild o'er each Committee crept;
Unfinish'd Treaties in each Office slept;
And Chiefless Armies doz'd out the Campaign;
And Navies yawn'd for Orders on the Main.[R 3]
Remarks.
- ↑ Ver. 608. leaden] An Epithet from the Age she had just then restored, according to that sublime custom of the Easterns, in calling new-born Princes after some great and recent Event. Scribl.
- ↑ Ver. 610. The Convocation gap'd, but could not speak:] Implying a great desire so to do, as the learned Scholiast on the place rightly observes. Therefore beware Reader lest thou take this Gape for a Yawn, which is attended with no desire but to go to rest: by no means the disposition of the Convocation; whose melancholy case in short is this: She was, it is reported, infected with the general influence of the Goddess, and while she was yawning at her ease, a wanton Courtier took her at this advantage, and in the very nick clap'd a Gag into her mouth. Well therefore may she b e distinguished by her gaping; and this distressful posture it is our poet would describe, just as she stands at this day, a sad example of the effects of Dulness and Malice unchecked and despised. Bent.
- ↑ Ver. 614, 618.] These Verses were written many years ago, and may be found in the State Poems of that time. So that Scriblerus is mistaken, or whoever else have imagined this Poem of a fresher date.
The Progress of this Yawn is judicious, natural, and worthy to be noted. First it seizeth the Churches and Chapels; then catcheth the Schools, where, tho' the boys be unwilling to sleep, the Masters are not: Next Westminster-hall, much more hard indeed to subdue, and not totally put to silence even by the Goddess: Then the Convocation, which tho' extremely desirous to speak, yet cannot: Even the House of Commons, justly called the Sense of the Nation, is lost (that is to say suspended) during the Yawn (far be it from our Author to suggest it could be lost any longer!) but it spreadeth at large over all the rest of the Kingdom, to such a degree, that Palinurus himself (tho' as incapable of sleeping as Jupiter) yet noddeth for a moment: the effect of which, tho' ever so momentary, could not but cause some Relaxation, for the time, in all public affairs. Scribl.
