Page:The Dunciad - Alexander Pope (1743).djvu/188

^{[R 1]}

 She mounts the Throne: her head a Cloud conceal'd,
In broad Effulgence all below reveal'd,^{[R 2]}
('Tis thus aspiring Dulness ever shines)
20 Soft on her lap her Laureat son reclines.^{[R 3][R 4]}
 Beneath her foot-stool, Science groans in Chains,
And Wit dreads Exile, Penalties and Pains.

Remarks

the Poet alluding to, in the Production of a new moral World, makes it partake of its original Principles.

1. Ver. 16. Lead and Gold.] i.e. dull and venal.
2. Ver. 18. all below reveal'd,] Vet. Adag. The higher you climb, the more you show your A——— Verified in no instance more than in Dulness aspiring. Emblematized also by an Ape climbing and exposing his posteriors. Scribl.
3. Ver. 20. her Laureat son reclines.] With great judgment it is imagined by the Poet, that such a Collegue as Dulness had elected, should sleep on the Throne, and have very little share in the Action of the Poem. Accordingly he hath done little or nothing from the day of his Anointing; having past through the second book without taking part in any thing that was transacted about him, and thro' the third in profound Sleep. Nor ought this, well considered, to seem strange in our days, when so many King-consorts have done the like. Scribl.
   This verse our excellent Laureate took so to heart, that he appealed to all mankind, "if he was not as seldom asleep as any fool?" But it is hoped the Poet hath not injured him, but rather verified his Prophecy (p. 243. of his own Life, 8vo., ch, ix.) where he says "the Reader will be as much pleased to find me a Dunce in my Old age, as he was to prove me a brisk blockhead in my Youth." Wherever there was any room for Briskness, or Alacrity of any sort, even in sinking, he hath had it allowed him; but here, where there is nothing for him to do but to take his natural rest, he must permit his Historian to be silent. It is from their actions only that Princes have their character, and Poets from their works: And if in those he be as much a sleep as any fool, the Poet must leave him and them to sleep to all eternity. Bent.
4. Ibid. her Laureat] "When I find my Name in the satyrical works of this Poet, I never look upon it as any malice meant to me, but Profit to himself. For he considers that my Face is more known than most in the nation; and therefore a Lick at the Laureate will be a sure bait ad captandum vulgus, to catch little readers." Life of Colley Cibber, chap. ii.
   Now if it be certain, that the works of our Poet have owed their success to this ingenious expedient, we hence derive an unanswerable Argument, that this Fourth Dunciad, as well as the former three, hath had the Author's last hand, and was by him intended for the Press: Or else to what purpose hath he crowned it, as we see, by this finishing stroke, the profitable Lick at the Laureate? Bent.