Intended for Sir ISAAC NEWTON, HEROES and KINGS! your distance keep ;

The DUNCIAD, fic MS. it may well be difputed whether this be a right reading: Ought it not rather to be fpelled Dunceiad, as the Etymology evidently demands? Dunce with an e, therefore Dunceiad with an e. That accurate and punctual Man of Letters, the Reftorer of Shakspeare, conftantly obferves the prefervation of this very Letter e, in fpelling the Name of his beloved Author, and not like his common carelefs Editors, with the omiffion of one,

DUNCI A D: nay fometimes of two ee's (as Shakespear) which

TO

DR. JONATHAN SWIFT.

BOOK THE FIRST.

ARGUMENT.

is utterly unpardonable." Nor is the neglect of a "Single Letter fo trivial as to fome it may appear; "the alteration whereof in a learned language is 66 an atchievement that brings honour to the "Critic who advances it; and Dr. Bentley will be "remembered to pofterity for his performances of "this fort, as long as the world fhall have any ef"teem for the remains of Menander and Phi"lemon."

THEOBALD.

This is furely a flip in the learned author of the fore going note; there having been fince produced by an accurate Antiquary, and Autograph of Shakespeare himself, whereby it appears that he fpelled his own name without the first e. And upon this authority it was, that thofe moft Critical Curators of his Monument in Westminster Abbey erased the former wrong reading, and rettored the new spelling on a new piece of old Ægyptian Granite. Nor for this only do they deferve our thanks, but for exhibiting on the fame Monument the first Specimen of an Edition of an author in Marble; where (as may be feen on comparing the Tomb with the Book) in the space of five lines, two Words and a whole Verfe are changed, and it is to be hoped will there ftand, and outlast whatever hath been hitherto done in Paper; as for the future, our learned Sifter Univerfity (the other Eye of England) is taking care to perpetuate a Total new Shakespeare at the Claren

THE Propofition, the Invocation, and the InfcripThen the Original of the great Empire of Dulness, and cause of the cntiruance thereof. The College of the Goddess in the City, with her private cudemy for Pots in particular; the Gwerners of it, and the four Cardiral Virtues. Then the Porm Lafies into the midst of things, prefeating ker, on the evening of a Lord Mayor's day, revolving the lung fucceffion of her Sons, and the glares faft and to come. She fixes her eyes on Boys is be the Inftrument if that great Event which is the fubject of the Fuém. He is defcribed fecfice among his Locks, giving up the Cafe, and apprehending the Period of her Empire After debating whether to tetake himself to the Chinch, or to Gaming, or to Party-writing, he rates an Altar of proper bocks, and (making first As folemn prayer and declaration) purpojes thereondon prefs. 15 jaer fice all his uniuccessful quritings. As the gile is kindled, the Godceis behold: the flame It is to be noted, that this great Critic alfo has from her jeat, fres and puts it out by cafting upon omitted one circumftance; which is, that the Ina the poem of Thaid. She forthwith reveals her. fcription with the Name of Shakespeare was injef to him, tranfperts in to her, unfolds her Arts, tended to be placed on the Marble Scroll to which and initiates him into her Myfteries; the announcing he points with his hand; instead of which it is now the death of Euder the Poet Laureat, anoints placed behind his back, and that Specimen of an Fim, carries im to court, and proclaims him Suc-Edition is put on the Scroll, which indeed Shakefpeare hath great reafon to point at.

ceffer.

BINTL.

ANON.

In eldest time, ere mortals writ or read,
Ere Pallas iffu'd from the Thunder's head,
Dulnefs o'er all poffefs'd her ancient right,
Daughter of Chaos and eternal Night:
Fate in their dotage this fair Idiot gave,
Grofs as her fire, and as her mother grave,
Laborious, heavy, bufy, bold, and blind,
She rul'd, in native anarchy, the mind.

Still her old Empire to restore fhe tries,
For born a Goddefs, Dulness never dies..

REMARKS.

433

Oh Thou! whatever title pleafe thine ear, 10 Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver! Whether thou chufe Cervantes' ferious air, Or laugh and shake in Rabelais' eafy chair, Or praife the court, or magnify mankind, Or thy griev'd country's copper chains unbind; 15 From thy Bastia though her Power retires, 25 Mourn not, my SWIFT, at aught our Realm ac quires.. Here pleas'd behold her mighty wings out-fpread To hatch a new Saturnian age of Lead.

Though I have as juft a value for the letter E. as any Grammarian living, and the fame affection for the Name of this Poem as any Critic for that of his Author; yet cannot it induce me to agree with thofe who would add yet another e to it, and call it the Dunceiade; which being a French and foreign termination, is no way proper to a word entirely English, and vernacular. One e therefore in this cafe is right, and two ee's wrong. Yet upon the whole fhall follow the Manufcript, and print it without any e at all; moved thereto by Authority (at all times, with Critics, equal, if not fuperior to Reafon.) In which method of proceeding, I can never enough praife my good friend, the exact Mr. Thomas Hearne; who, if any word occur, which to him and all mankind is evidently wrong, yet keeps he it in the Text with due reverence, and only remarks in the Margin, Sic MS. In like manner we shall not amend this error in the Title itfelf, but only note it obiter, to evince to the learned that it was not our fault, nor any effect of our ignorance or inattention. SCRIBL. This Poem was written in the Year 1726. In the next year an imperfect Edition was published at Dublin, and reprinted at London in twelves; another at Dublin, and another at London in oftavo: and three others in twelves the fame year. But there was no perfe& Edition before that of London in quarto; which was attended with Notes. We are willing to acquaint Pofterity, that this Poem was préfented to King George the Second and his Queen by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole, on the 12th of March, 1728-9. SCHOL. VIT

It was exprefsiy confeffed in the Preface to the firit Edition, that this Poem was not published by the Author himself. It was printed originally in a foreign Country. And what foreign Country? Why, one notorious for blunders; where finding blanks only instead of proper names, thefe blunderers filled them up at their pleasure.

The very Hero of the Poem hath been mistaken to this hour; fo that we are obliged to open our Notes with a difcovery who he really was. We learn from the former Editor, that this piece was prefented by the hands of Sir Robert Walpole to King George 11. Now the author directly tells us, his Hero is the Man

66 who brings
"The Smithfield Mufes to the ear of Kings."

And it is notorious who was the perfon on whom
his Prince conferred the honour of the Laurel,
VOL. VL

REMARK.S

It appears as plainly from the Apoftrophe to the Great in the third verfe, that Tibbald could not be the perfon, who was never an Author in fashion or careffed by the Great; whereas this fingle characteristic is fufficient to point out the true Hero: who, above all other Poets of his time, was the Peculiar Delight and Chofen Companion of the Nobility of England; and wrote, as he himself tells us, certain of his works at the carneit defire of Perfons of Quality.

Laftly, the fixth verfe affords full proof; this Poet being the only one who was univerfally known to have had a Son fo exactly like him, in his poetical, theatrical, political, and moral Capacities, that it could justly be faid of him,

"Still Dunce the fecond reigns like Dunce the

firit."

BENTL.

Ver. 1. The mighty Mother and her Son, &c.] The Reader ought here to be cautioned, that the Mother, and not the Son, is the principal Agent of this Poem; the latter of them is only chofen as her Colleague (as was anciently the cuftom in Rome. before fome great expedition,) the main action of the Poem being by no means the Coronation of the Laureate, which is performed in the very firk book, but the Restoration of the Empire of Dulneis in Britain, which is not accomplished unul the lait."

Ver. 2. The Smithfield Mufes.] Smithfield is. the place where Bartholomew Fair was kept, whofe shows, machines, and dramatical entertainments, formerly agreeable only to the taste of the Rabble, were by the Hero of this poem, and others of equal genius, brought to the Theatres of Coventgarden, Lincoln's-inn fields, and the Hay-market, to be the reigning pleafures of the Court and Town. This happened in the reigns of K. George I. and II. See Book iii.

Ver. 4. By Dulnefs, Jove, and Fate:] i. e. by their Judgments, their interefts, and their Inclinations.

Ver. 15. Laborious, heavy, bufy, bold, &c.] I wonder the learned Scriblerus has omitted to advertife the Reader, at the opening of this Poem, that Dulness here is not to be taken contractedly for mere Stupidity, but in the enlarged Senfe of the word, for all Slowness of Apprehenfion, Shortnefs of Sight, or imperfect Senfe of things. It includes (as we fee by the Poet's own words) Labour, Induftry, and fome degrees of Activity and Boldness; a ruling principle not inert, but, turning topfyturvy the Understanding, and inducing an Anarchy, or confufed State of Mind. This remark ought to

<< Will fee his Work, like Jacob's ladder rife, "Its foot in dirt, its head amid the skies." BENTL. Ver. 41. Hence hymning Tyburn's elegiac lines,] Ver. 17. Still her old Empire to reftore.] This It is an ancient English custom for the Malefactors retoration makes the Completion of the Poem.to fing a Pfalm at their execution at Tyburn; and Vide Book iv. no lefs cuftomary to print Elegies on their deaths, at the fame time, or before.