68
The Dunciad.
Book I.
Rowz'd by the light, old Dulness heav'd the head;
Then snatch'd a sheet of Thulè[R. 1] from her bed,
Sudden she flies, and whelms it o'er the pyre;
260 Down sink the flames, and with a hiss expire.
Her ample presence fills up all the place;
A veil of fogs dilates her awful face:
Great in her charms! as when on Shrieves and May'rs
She looks, and breathes herself into their airs.[I. 1]
265 She bids him wait her to her sacred Dome:[R. 2]
Well pleas'd he enter'd, and confess'd his home.
So Spirits ending their terrestrial race,
Ascend, and recognize their Native Place.
Then snatch'd a sheet of Thulè[R. 1] from her bed,
Sudden she flies, and whelms it o'er the pyre;
260 Down sink the flames, and with a hiss expire.
Her ample presence fills up all the place;
A veil of fogs dilates her awful face:
Great in her charms! as when on Shrieves and May'rs
She looks, and breathes herself into their airs.[I. 1]
265 She bids him wait her to her sacred Dome:[R. 2]
Well pleas'd he enter'd, and confess'd his home.
So Spirits ending their terrestrial race,
Ascend, and recognize their Native Place.
Remarks
- ↑ Ver. 258. Thulè] An unfinished poem of that name, of which one sheet was printed many years ago, by Amb. Philips, a northern author. It is an usual method of putting out a fire, to cast wet sheets upon it. Some critics have been of opinion that this sheet was of the nature of the Asbestos, which cannot be consumed by fire: But I rather think it an allegorical allusion to the coldness and heaviness of the writing.
- ↑ Ver. 265. sacred Dome:] Where he no sooner enters, but he reconnoitres the place of his original; as Plato says the spirits shall, at their entrance into the celestial regions.
How is it possible the word fœta can agree with a horse? And indeed can it be conceived that the chaste and virgin Goddess Pallas would employ herself in forming and fashioning the Male of that species? But this shall be proved to a demonstration in our Virgil restored.
Scribl.
Imitations
