"And who the most in love of dirt excel, Or dark dexterity of groping well. 281 "Who flings moft filth, and wide pollutes around "The stream, be his the weekly Journals bound, "A pig of lead to him who dives the beft; "A peck of coals a-piece fhall glad the reft," In naked majefty Oldmixon stands, And Milo-like furveys his arms and hands; REMARK S. VER. 276, 277, 278.- dafb thro' thick and thin,-love of dirt dark dexterity The three chief qualifications of Party writers: to ftick at nothing, to delight in flinging dirt, and to flander in the dark by guess. VER. 280. the weekly Journals] Papers of news and fcandal intermixed, on different fides and parties, and frequently shifting from one fide to the other, called the London Journal, British Journal, Daily Journal, &c. the concealed writers of which for fome time were Oldmixon, Rcome, Arnall, Concanen, and others; perfons never feen by our author. Ver 282. " A peck of coals apiece] Our indulgent Poet, whenever he has spoken of any dirty or low work, conftantly puts us in mind of the Poverty of the offenders, as the only extenuation of fuch practices. Let any one but remark, when a Thief, a Pick-pocket, an Highwayman, or a Knight of the poft are fpoken of, how much our hate to thofe characters is leffened, if they add a needy Thief, a poor Pick-pocket, an hungry High-wayman, a farving Knight of the poft, &c. VER. 283. In naked Majefly Oldmixon ftands,] Mr. JOHN OLDMIXON, next to Mr. Dennis, the most ancient Critic of our Nation; an unjust cenfurer of Mr. Addison in his prose Essay on Criticifm, whom alfo in his imitation of Bouhours (called the Arts of Logic and Rhetoric) he misrepresents in plain matter of fact; for in p. 45 he cites the Spectator as abufing Dr. Swift by name, where there is not the leaft hint of it; and in p. 304. is fo injurious as to fuggeft that Mr. Addison himself writ that Tatler, Then fighing, thus "And am I now three-fcore? "Ah,why, ye Gods! fhould two and two make four? REMARKS. N° 43. which fays of his own Simile, that ""Tis as great as "ever entred into the mind of man. In Poetry he was not "fo happy as laborious, and therefore characterised by the Tat«ler No 62. by the name of Omicron the Unborn Poet." Curl, Key, p. 13. "He writ Dramatic works, and a volume of "Poetry confifting of heroic Epiftles. &c. fome whereof are 46 very well done," said that great Judge Mr. Jacob, in his Lives of Poets, vol. ii. p. 303. In his Effay on Criticism, and the Arts of Logic and Rhetoric, he frequently reflects on our Author. But the top of his character was a Perverter of History, in that fcandalous one of the Stuarts in folio, and his Critical History of England, two volumes, octavo. Being employed by bishop Kennet, in pub. dishing the Hiftorians in his Collection, he falfified Daniel's Chronicle in numberless places. Yet this very man, in the preface to the first of these books, advanced a particular falt to charge three eminent perfons of falfifying the lord Clarendon's Hiftory; which fact has been disproved by Dr. Atterbury, late bishop of Rochester, then the only furvivor of them; and the particular part he pretended to be falfified, produced fince, after almoft ninety years, in that noble author's original manufcript. He was all his life a virulent Party-writer for hire, and received his reward in a small place, which he enjoyed to his death. Ver. 286. “Ah, why, ye Gods! should two and two make four 2"] Very reasonably doth this ancient Critic complaing Without doubt it was a fault in the Conftitution of things. For the World, as a great writer faith, being given to man for a fubject of difputation, he might think himself mocked with a penu IMITATIONS. VER. 285. Then fighing thus, And am I now threescort? &c.] Fletque Milon senior, cum fpectat inanes Herculeis fimiles, fluidos pendere lacertos. Ovid. He faid, and climb'd a ftranded lighter's height, 287 290 Next Smedley div'd; flow circles dimpled o'er The quaking mud, that clos'd, and op'd no more. All look, all figh, and call on Smedley loft; Smedley in vain refounds thro' all the coaft. REMARK S. rious gift, were any thing made certain. Hence those superior mafters of wisdom, the Sceptics and Academics, reasonably conclude that two and two do not make four. SCRIB. But we need not go fo far, to remark what the Poet principally intended, the abfurdity of complaining of old age, which muft neceffarily happen, as long as we are indulged in our defires of adding one year to another. VER. 291. Next Smedley div'd;} In the furreptious editions, this whole Episode was applied to an initial letter E—, by whom if they meant the Laureate, nothing was more abfurd, no part agreeing with his character. The Allegory evidently demands a perfon dipp'd in scandal, and deeply immersed in dirty work: whereas Mr. Eufden's writings rarely offended but by their length and multitude, and accordingly are taxed of nothing elfe in book i. ver. 102. But the perfon here mentioned, an Irishman, was author and publisher of many fcurrilous Pieces, a weekly Whitehall Journal, in the year 1722. in the name of Sir James Baker; and particularly whole volumes of Billingsgate againft Dr. Swift and Mr Pope, called Gulliveriana and Alexan driana, printed in octavo, 1728. IMITATIONS. VER. 293. And call on Smedley loft; &c.] Hylas, in vain, refounds thro' all the coast. Lord Rofcom. Translat, of Virgil's vith. Ecl. Then * effay'd; scarce vanish'd out of fight, 295 He buoys up inftant, and returns to light: He bears no tokens of the fabler kreams, VARIATIONS. After ver. 298. in the firft Edit. followed these, He fearch'd for coral, but he gather'd weeds. REMARK S. 300 VIR. 295: Then * essay'd,] A Gentleman of genius and spisit, who was fecretly dipt in fome papers of this kind, on whom our poet bestows a panegyric instead of a fatite, as deferving to be better employed than in party-quarrels, and perfonal invectives. VER. 299. Concanen] MATTHEW CONCANEN, an Irishman, bred to the law. Smedley (one of his brethren in enmity to Swift) in his Metamorphofis of Scriblerus, p. 7. accuses him of "having boasted of what he had not written, but others had revised and done for him." He was author of feveral dull and dead fcurrilities in the British and London Journals, and in a paper called the Speculatift. In a pamphlet, called a Supplement to the Profund, he dealt very unfairly with our Poet, not only frequently imputing to him Mr. Broome's verfes (for which he might indeed seem in fome degree accountable, having corrected what that gentleman did) but those of the duke of Buckingham, and others: To this rare piece fomebody humorously caused him to take for his motto, De profundis clamavi. He was fince a hired Scribler in the Daily Courant, where he poured forth much Billingsgate against the lord Bolingbroke, and others; after which this man was furprisingly promoted to adminifter Justice and Law in Jamaica. VOL. V. N If perfeverance gain the Diver's prize, Not everlasting Blackmore this denies : No noife, no ftir, no motion can't thou make, Sons of a Day! juft buoyant on the flood, And Monumental Brass this record bears, REMARK S. VER. 306, 307. With each a fickly brother at bis back: Sons of a day, &c.] These were daily Papers, a number of which, to leffen the expence, were printed one on the back of another. VER. 311. like Niobe] See the ftory in Ovid, Met vii. where the miferable Petrefaction of this old Lady is pathetically defcribed. VER. 512. Ofborne] a name affumed by the eldeft and gravest of these writers, who at laft being afhamed of his Pupils, gave his paper over, and in his age remained filent, VER. 314. Gazetteers] We ought not to fuppofe that a modern Critic bere taxeth the Poet with an Anachronism, affirming these Gazetteers not to have lived within the time of his IMITATIONS. VIR. 302. Not everlasting Blackmore] Nec bonus Eurytion prelato invidit honori, &c, Virg. Æn. hogari, & |