Page:The Dunciad - Alexander Pope (1743).djvu/123

Earless on high, stood unabash'd De Foe,
And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge^{[R 1]} below.
There Ridpath, Roper,^{[R 2]} cudgell'd might ye view,
The very worsted still look'd black and blue.150
Himself among the story'd chiefs he spies,^{[R 3][I 1]}
As from the blanket high in air he flies,
And oh! (he cry'd) what street, what lane but knows,
Our purgings, pumpings, blankettings, and blows?

Remarks

Where mice and rats devour'd poetic bread,
And on heroic verse luxuriously were fed.
'Tis true poor Codrus nothing had to boast,
And yet poor Codrus all that nothing lost.
Dryden. 


But Mr. Concanen, in his dedication of the letters, advertisements, &c. to the author of the Dunciad, assures us that "Juvenal never satyrized the Poverty of Codrus."
John Dunton was a broken bookseller and abusive scribler; he writ Neck or Nothing, a violent satyr on some ministers of state; a libel on the Duke of Devonshire and the Bishop of Peterborough, &c.
1. Ver. 148. And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge] John Tutchin, author of some vile verses, and of a weekly paper called the Observator: He was sentenced to be whipped through several towns in the west of England, upon which he petitioned King James II. to be hanged. When that prince died in exile, he wrote an invective against his memory, occasioned by some humane elegies on his death. He lived to the time of Queen Anne.
2. Ver. 149. There Ridpath, Roper,] Authors of the Flying-post and Post-boy, two scandalous papers on different sides, for which they equally and alternately deserved to be cudgelled, and were so.
3. Ver. 151. Himself among the story'd chiefs he spies,] The history of Curl's being tossed in a blanket, and whipped

Imitations

1. Ver. 151. Himself among the story'd chiefs be spies,]
   Se quoque principitus permixtum agnovit Achivis———
   Constitit, & lacrymans: Quis jam locus, inquit, Achate!
   Quæ regis in terris nostri non plena laboris?Virg. Æn. i.