DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48955#0031
Se&. I. FIGURE S. aS
scarce support personification in the lowest degree.
But admitting , that a river gently ssowing may be
imagined a sensible being listening to a sang , I
cannot enter into the conceit of the river s order-
ing his laurels to learn the song : here all resem-
blance to any thing real is quite lost. T his how-
ever is copied literally by one of our greatest
poets ; early indeed, besore maturity of taste or
judgment :
Thames heard the numbers as he ssow’d along ,
And bade his willows learn the moving song.
, Pope's Pajlorals, paji. 4. I. i3.
This author, in. riper years , is guilty of a much
greater deviation from the rule. Dullness may be
imagined a deity or idol , to be worshipped by bad
■writers ; but then some sort os disguise is requisite,
some bastard virtue must be bellowed , to make
Inch worship in some degree excusable. Yet in the
Dunciad, Dullness, without the least disguise, is
made, the objeft of worship. The mind rejefls such
a fifiion as unnatural; for dullness is a defeft, os
which even the dullest mortal is ashamed :
Then he : Great tamer of all human art !
Firfl: in my care , and ever at my heart ;
Dullness ! whose good old cause I yet defend ,
With whom mymuse began, with whom {hall end,
E. er since Sir Fopling’s periwig was praise,
do the last honours of the Butt and Bayes 1
scarce support personification in the lowest degree.
But admitting , that a river gently ssowing may be
imagined a sensible being listening to a sang , I
cannot enter into the conceit of the river s order-
ing his laurels to learn the song : here all resem-
blance to any thing real is quite lost. T his how-
ever is copied literally by one of our greatest
poets ; early indeed, besore maturity of taste or
judgment :
Thames heard the numbers as he ssow’d along ,
And bade his willows learn the moving song.
, Pope's Pajlorals, paji. 4. I. i3.
This author, in. riper years , is guilty of a much
greater deviation from the rule. Dullness may be
imagined a deity or idol , to be worshipped by bad
■writers ; but then some sort os disguise is requisite,
some bastard virtue must be bellowed , to make
Inch worship in some degree excusable. Yet in the
Dunciad, Dullness, without the least disguise, is
made, the objeft of worship. The mind rejefls such
a fifiion as unnatural; for dullness is a defeft, os
which even the dullest mortal is ashamed :
Then he : Great tamer of all human art !
Firfl: in my care , and ever at my heart ;
Dullness ! whose good old cause I yet defend ,
With whom mymuse began, with whom {hall end,
E. er since Sir Fopling’s periwig was praise,
do the last honours of the Butt and Bayes 1