Book I.
The Dunciad.
47
Calm Temperance, whose blessings those partake
50 Who hunger, and who thirst[R. 1] for scribling sake:
Prudence, whose glass presents th' approaching jayl:
Poetic Justice, with her lifted scale,
Where, in nice balance, truth with gold she weighs,
And solid pudding against empty praise.
55 Here she beholds the Chaos dark and deep,
Where nameless Somethings[I. 1] in their causes sleep,
'Till genial Jacob, or a warm Third day,
Call forth each mass, a Poem, or a Play:
50 Who hunger, and who thirst[R. 1] for scribling sake:
Prudence, whose glass presents th' approaching jayl:
Poetic Justice, with her lifted scale,
Where, in nice balance, truth with gold she weighs,
And solid pudding against empty praise.
55 Here she beholds the Chaos dark and deep,
Where nameless Somethings[I. 1] in their causes sleep,
'Till genial Jacob, or a warm Third day,
Call forth each mass, a Poem, or a Play:
Remarks
- ↑ V.50. Who hunger, and who thirst, &c.] "This is an allusion to a text in Scripture, which shews, in Mr. Pope, a delight in prophaneness," said Curl upon this place. But it is very familiar with Shakespear to allude to passages of Scripture: Out of a great number I will select a few, in which he not only alludes to, but quotes the very Texts from holy Writ. In All's well that ends well, I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, I have not much skill in grass. Ibid. They are for the flowery way that leads to the bread gate and the great fire. Mat. vii. 13. In Much ado about nothing. All, all, and moreover God saw him when he was hid in the garden. Gen. iii. 8. (in a very jocose scene.) In Love's labour lost, he talks of Sampson's carrying the gates on his back; in the Merry wives of Windsor, of Goliah and the weaver's beam; and in Henry IV, Falstaff's soldiers are compared to Lazarus and the prodigal son.
The first part of this note is Mr. Curl's, the rest is Mr. Theobald's, Appendix to Shakespeare Restored, p. 144
Imitations
- ↑ Ver. 55. Here's she beholds the Chaos dark and deep,
Where nameless Somethings, &c.]
That is to say, unformed things, which are either made into Poems or Plays, as the Booksellers or the Players bid most. These lines allude to the following in Garth's Dispensary, Cant. vi.
Within the chambers of the globe they spy
The beds where sleeping vegetables lie,
'Till the glad summons of a genial ray
Unbinds the glebe, and calls them out to day.
