Still Dunce the second reigns like Dunce the first;
Remarks
And it is notorious who was the person on whom this Prince conferred the honour of the Laurel.
It appears as plainly from the Apostrophe to the Great in the third verse, that Tibbald could not be the person, who was never an Author in fashion, or caressed by the Great; whereas this single characteristic is sufficient to point out the true Hero; who, above all other Poets of his time, was the Peculiar Delight and Chosen Companion of the Nobility of England; and wrote, as he himself tells us, certain of his Works at the earnest Desire of Persons of Quality.
Lastly, The sixth verse affords full proof; this Poet being the only one who was universally known to have had a Son so exactly like him, in his poetical, theatrical, political, and moral Capacities, that it could justly be said of him
Still Dunce the second reign'd like Dunce the first. Bentl.
The Mighty Mother, and her Son, &c.] The Reader ought here to be cautioned, that the Mother, and not the Son, is the principal Agent of this Poem: The latter of them is only chosen as her Collegue (as was anciently the custom in Rome before some great Expedition) the main action of the Poem being by no means the Coronation of the Laureate, which is performed in the very first book, but the Restoration of the Empire of Dulness in Britain, which is not accomplished 'till the last.
Ibid.—her Son who brings, &c.] Wonderful is the stupidity of all the former Critics and Commentators on this work! It breaks forth at the very first line. The author of the Critique prefixed to Sawney, a Poem, p. 5. hath been so dull as to explain the Man who brings, &c. not of the Hero of the piece, but of our Poet himself, as if he vaunted that Kings were to be his readers; an honour which this Poem hath had, yet knoweth he how to receive it with more modesty.
We remit this Ignorant to the first lines of the Æneid, assuring him that Virgil there speaketh not of himself, but of Æneas:
Arma virumque cano, Trojæ qui primus ab oris
Italiam, fato profugus, Lavinaque venit
Littora: multum ille & terris jacatus & alto, &c.
I cite the whole three verses, that I may by the way offer a Conjectural Emendation, purely my own, upon each: First, oris should be read aris, it being, as we see Æn. ii. 513. from the altar of Jupiter Hereæus that Æneas fled as soon as he saw Priam slain. In the second line I would read flatu for fato, since it is most clear it was by Winds that he arrived at the shore of Italy. Jactatus, in the third, is surely as improperly applied to terris, as proper to alto; to say a man is tost on land, is much at one with saying he walks at sea; Risum teneatis, amici? Correct it, as I doubt not it ought to be, vexatus. Scriblerus.
