Page:The Dunciad - Alexander Pope (1743).djvu/124

In ev'ry loom our labours shall be seen, 155
And the fresh vomit run for ever green!^{[I 1]}
See in the circle next, Eliza plac'd,^{[R 1][R 2]}
Two babes of love close clinging to her waist;^{[I 2]}
Fair as before her works she stands confess'd,
In flow'rs and pearls by bounteous Kirkall^{[R 3]} dress'd. 160

Remarks

by the scholars of Westminster, is well known. Of his purging and vomiting, see a full and true Account of a horrid Revenge on the body of Edm. Curl, &c. in Swift and Pope's Miscell.

1. Ver. 157. See in the circle next, Eliza plac'd,) In this game is exposed, in the most contemptuous manner, the profligate licentiousness of those shameless scriblers (for the most part of that Sex, which ought least to be capable of such malice or impudence) who in libellous Memoirs and Novels, reveal the faults or misfortunes of both sexes, to the ruin of public fame, or disturbance of private happiness. Our good poet (by the whole cast of his work being obliged not to take off the Irony) where he could not shew his indignation, hath shewn his contempt, as much as possible; having here drawn as vile a picture as could be represented in the colours of Epic poesy. Scribl.
2. Ibid. Eliza Haywood; this woman was authoress of those most scandalous books called the court of Carimania, and the New Utopia. For the two babes of love, see Curl, Key, p. 22. But whatever reflection he is pleased to throw upon this Lady, surely it was what from him she little deserved, who had celebrated Curl's undertakings for Reformation of manners, and declared herself "to be so perfectly acquainted with the sweetness of his disposition, and that tenderness with which he considered the errors of his fellow creatures; that, though she should find the little inadvertencies of her own life recorded in his papers, she was certain it would be done in such a manner as she could not but approve." Mrs. Haywood, Hist. of Clar. printed in the Female Dunciad, p. 18.
3. Ver. 160. Kirkall, the name of an Engraver. Some of this Lady's works were printed in four volumes in 12^mo, with her picture thus dressed up before them.

Imitations

1. Ver. 156. And the frost vomit run for ever green!] A parody on these of a late noble author:
   His bleeding arm had furnish'd all their rooms,
   And run for ever purple in the looms.
2. Ver. 156. Two babes of love close clinging to her waist;]
   Cressa genus, Pholoë, geminique sub ubere nati.Virg. Æn, v.