Book IV.
The Dunciad.
203
[R 1]The Bishop stow (Pontific Luxury!)
An hundred Souls of Turkeys in a pye;
595 The sturdy Squire to Gallic masters stoop,
And drown his Lands and Manors in a Soupe.
Others import yet nobler arts from France,
Teach Kings to fiddle,[R 2] and make Senates dance.
Perhaps more high some daring son may soar,
600 Proud to my list to add one Monarch more;
And nobly conscious, Princes are but things
Born for First Ministers, as Slaves for Kings,
Tyrant supreme! shall three Estates command,
And make one Mighty Dunciad of the Land!
605 More she had spoke, but yawn'd— All Nature nods:
What Mortal can resist the Yawn of Gods?[R 3]
Churches and Chapels instantly it reach'd;[R 4]
(St. James's first, for leaden Gilbert preach'd)
An hundred Souls of Turkeys in a pye;
595 The sturdy Squire to Gallic masters stoop,
And drown his Lands and Manors in a Soupe.
Others import yet nobler arts from France,
Teach Kings to fiddle,[R 2] and make Senates dance.
Perhaps more high some daring son may soar,
600 Proud to my list to add one Monarch more;
And nobly conscious, Princes are but things
Born for First Ministers, as Slaves for Kings,
Tyrant supreme! shall three Estates command,
And make one Mighty Dunciad of the Land!
605 More she had spoke, but yawn'd— All Nature nods:
What Mortal can resist the Yawn of Gods?[R 3]
Churches and Chapels instantly it reach'd;[R 4]
(St. James's first, for leaden Gilbert preach'd)
Remarks.
- ↑ Ver. 591. The judge to dance his brother Serjeant call;]. Alluding perhaps to that ancient and solemn Dance intitled A Call of Sergeants.
- ↑ Ver. 598. Teach Kings to fiddle] An ancient amusement of Sovereign Princes, (viz.) Achilles, Alexander, Nero; tho' despised by Themistocles, who was a Republican—Make Senates dance, either after their Prince, or to Pontoise, or Siberia.
- ↑ Ver. 606. What Mortal can resist the Yawn of Gods?] This verse is truly Homerical; as is the conclusion of the Action, where the great Mother composes all, in the same manner as Minerva at the period of the Odyssey.—It may indeed seem a very singular Epitasis of a Poem, to end as this does, with a Great Yawn; but we must consider it as the Yawn of a God, and of powerful effects. It is not out of Nature, most long and grave counsels concluding in this very manner: Nor without Authority, the incomparable Spencer having ended one of the most considerable of his works with a Roar, but then it is the Roar of a Lion, the effects whereof are described as the Catastrophe of his Poem.
- ↑ Ver 607. Churches and Chapels, &c.]
