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THE DUNCIAD.

BOOK THE THIRD.

BUT in her Temple’s last recess inclos’d, On Dulness lap th’ Anointed head repos’d. Him close she curtain’d round with vapours blue, And soft besprinkled with Cimmerian dew. Then raptures high the seat of sense o’erflow, Which only heads, refin’d from reason, know. Hence, from the straw where Bedlam’s Prophet nods, He hears loud Oracles, and talks with Gods:

REMARKS on BOOK the THIRD.

V. 5, 6, &c.] Hereby is intimated that the following Vision is no more than the chimera of the

Imitations.

V. 8. Hence from the straw where Bedlam’s Prophet nods,
He hears loud Oracles, and talks with Gods. Virg. Aen. 7.

Et varias audit voces, fruiturque deorum Colloquio―――
Hence the Fool’s paradise, the Statesman’s scheme, The air-built Castle, and the golden Dream, The Maid’s romantic wish, the Chymist’s flame, And Poet’s vision of eternal fame. And now, on Fancy’s easy wing convey’d, The King descended to th’ Elyzian Shade. There, in a dusky vale where Lethe rolls, Old Bavius sits, to dip poetic souls,

Remarks.

dreamer’s brain, and not a real or intended satire on the present Age, doubtless more learned, more inlighten’d, and more abounding with great Genius’s in Divinity, Politics, and whatever arts and sciences, than all the preceding. For fear of any such mistake of our Poet’s honest meaning, he hath again at the end of the Vision repeated this monition, saying that it all past thro’ the Ivory gate, which (according to the Ancients) denoteth Falsity. Scriblerus.

V. 16. Old Bavius sits] Bavius was an ancient Poet, celebrated by Virgil for the like cause as Tibbald by our author, tho’ not in so christian-like a manner: For

Imitations.

V. 15. There in a dusky vale, &c.] Virg. Aen. 6.

―――Videt Aeneas in valle reducta Seclusum nemus―――― Lethaeumque domos placidas qui praenatat amnem, &c. Hunc circum innumerae gentes, &c.

V. 16. Old Bavius sits, to dip poetic souls.] Alluding to the story of Thetis dipping Achilles to render him impenetrable.

At pater Anchises penitus convalle virenti Inclusas animas, superumque ad lumen ituras, Lustrabat――― Virg. Aen. 6.