''The Dunciad'' is a landmark,
mock-heroic
Mock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature. Typically, mock-heroic works either put a fool in the role of the hero or exaggerate the heroic ...
,
narrative poem
Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often using the voices of both a narrator and characters; the entire story is usually written in metered verse. Narrative poems do not need rhyme. The poems that make up this genre may be s ...
by
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...
published in three different versions at different times from 1728 to 1743. The poem celebrates a goddess
Dulness
Dulness is the goddess who presides over Alexander Pope's ''The Dunciad''. She is the central character, introduced at the start of the work.
Dulness is the daughter of Chaos and "eternal Night", and her mission is to convert all the world to st ...
and the progress of her chosen agents as they bring decay, imbecility, and tastelessness to the
Kingdom of Great Britain
The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a Sovereign state, sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of ...
.
Versions
The first version – the "three-book" ''Dunciad'' – was published in 1728 anonymously. The second version, the ''Dunciad Variorum'', was published anonymously in 1729. The ''New Dunciad'', in a new fourth book conceived as a sequel to the previous three, appeared in 1742, and ''The Dunciad in Four Books'', a revised version of the original three books and a slightly revised version of the fourth book with revised commentary was published in 1743 with a new character, Bays, replacing Theobald as the "hero".
Origins
Pope told
Joseph Spence (in ''Spence's Anecdotes'') that he had been working on a general satire of Dulness, with characters of contemporary
Grub Street
Until the early 19th century, Grub Street was a street close to London's impoverished Moorfields district that ran from Fore Street east of St Giles-without-Cripplegate north to Chiswell Street. It was pierced along its length with narrow ent ...
scribblers, for some time and that it was the publication of ''Shakespeare Restored'' by
Lewis Theobald
Lewis Theobald (baptised 2 April 1688 – 18 September 1744), English textual editor and author, was a landmark figure both in the history of Shakespearean editing and in literary satire. He was vital for the establishment of fair texts for Sha ...
that spurred him to complete the poem and publish it in 1728. Theobald's edition of Shakespeare was not, however, as imperfect as ''The Dunciad'' would suggest; it was, in fact, far superior to the edition Pope had himself written in 1725.
Part of Pope's bitter inspiration for the characters in the book come from his soured relationship with the royal court. The Princess of Wales
Caroline of Ansbach, wife of
George II George II or 2 may refer to:
People
* George II of Antioch (seventh century AD)
* George II of Armenia (late ninth century)
* George II of Abkhazia (916–960)
* Patriarch George II of Alexandria (1021–1051)
* George II of Georgia (1072–1089) ...
, had supported Pope in her patronage of the arts. When she and her husband came to the throne in 1727 she had a much busier schedule and thus had less time for Pope who saw this oversight as a personal slight against him. When planning the ''Dunciad'' he based the character Dulness on Queen Caroline, as the fat, lazy and dull wife. Pope's bitterness against Caroline was a typical trait of his brilliant but unstable character. The King of the Dunces as the son of Dulness was based on George II. Pope makes his views on the first two Georgian kings very clear in the ''Dunciad'' when he writes "Still Dunce the second reigns like Dunce the first".
However, Pope's reputation had been impugned, as the full title of Theobald's edition was ''Shakespeare restored, or, A specimen of the many errors, as well committed, as unamended, by Mr. Pope : in his late edition of this poet. Designed not only to correct the said edition, but to restore the true reading of Shakespeare in all the editions ever yet published.'' Although Theobald was certainly Pope's superior in the realm of
historical editing and criticism, ''The Dunciad'' shows Pope exhibiting his superior creative abilities, and it succeeds to the extent that Pope's work is the chief reason Theobald is remembered.
Pope had written characters of the various "Dunces" prior to 1728. In his "
Essay on Criticism
''An Essay on Criticism'' is one of the first major poems written by the English writer Alexander Pope (1688–1744), published in 1711. It is the source of the famous quotations "To err is human; to forgive, divine", "A little learning is a da ...
", Pope describes some critics of a witless nature. In his various ''
Moral Epistles
The ' (Latin for "Moral Letters to Lucilius"), also known as the ''Moral Epistles'' and ''Letters from a Stoic'', is a collection of 124 letters that Seneca the Younger wrote at the end of his life, during his retirement, after he had worked for ...
'', Pope likewise constructs characters of contemporary authors of
poor taste. The general structure owes its origins to the communal project of the
Scriblerians
The Scriblerus Club was an informal association of authors, based in London, that came together in the early 18th century. They were prominent figures in the Augustan Age of English letters. The nucleus of the club included the satirists Jonathan ...
and other similar works such as the
mock-heroic
Mock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature. Typically, mock-heroic works either put a fool in the role of the hero or exaggerate the heroic ...
''
MacFlecknoe
''Mac Flecknoe'' (full title: ''Mac Flecknoe; or, A satyr upon the True-Blue-Protestant Poet, T.S.''Cox, Michael, editor, ''The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature'', Oxford University Press, 2004, ) is a verse mock-heroic satire writte ...
'' by
John Dryden
''
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...
and Pope's own ''
The Rape of the Lock''.
The Scriblerian club most consistently comprised
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...
,
John Gay,
John Arbuthnot,
Robert Harley, and
Thomas Parnell
Thomas Parnell (11 September 1679 – 24 October 1718) was an Anglo-Irish poet and clergyman who was a friend of both Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.
He was born in Dublin, the eldest son of Thomas Parnell (died 1685) of Maryborough, Queen' ...
. The group met during the spring and summer of 1714. One group project was to write a satire of contemporary abuses in learning of all sorts, in which the authors would combine their efforts to write the biography of the group's fictional founder, Martin Scriblerus, through whose writings they would accomplish their satirical aims. The resulting ''The Memoirs of Martin Scriblerus'' contained a number of
parodies
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...
of the most lavish mistakes in
scholarship
A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need.
Scholarsh ...
.
For the mock-heroic structure of the ''Dunciad'' itself, however, the idea seems to have come most clearly from ''MacFlecknoe''. ''MacFlecknoe'' is a poem celebrating the
apotheosis of
Thomas Shadwell
Thomas Shadwell ( – 19 November 1692) was an English poet and playwright who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1689.
Life
Shadwell was born at either Bromehill Farm, Weeting-with-Broomhill or Santon House, Lynford, Norfolk, and educated at Bury ...
, whom Dryden nominates as the dullest poet of the age. Shadwell is the spiritual son of Flecknoe, an obscure Irish poet of low fame, and he takes his place as the favourite of the goddess Dulness.
Pope takes this idea of the personified goddess of Dulness being at war with reason, darkness at war with light, and extends it to a full ''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan_War#Sack_of_Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to ...
''
parody
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...
. His poem celebrates a war, rather than a mere victory, and a process of ignorance, and Pope picks as his champion of all things insipid Lewis Theobald (1728 and 1732) and
Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber (6 November 1671 – 11 December 1757) was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir ''Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber'' (1740) describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling ...
(1742).
Jean-Pierre de Crousaz
Jean-Pierre de Crousaz (13 April 166322 March 1750) was a Swiss theologian and philosopher. He is now remembered more for his letters of commentary than his formal works.
Life
De Crousaz was born in Lausanne, Switzerland. He was a many-sided man ...
, who wrote a biting commentary on Pope's ''Essay on Man'', found that Pope had "reserved a place for him in the ''Dunciad''".
The three-book ''Dunciad A'' and the ''Dunciad Variorum''
Pope first published ''The Dunciad'' in 1728 in three books, with
Lewis Theobald
Lewis Theobald (baptised 2 April 1688 – 18 September 1744), English textual editor and author, was a landmark figure both in the history of Shakespearean editing and in literary satire. He was vital for the establishment of fair texts for Sha ...
as its "hero". The poem was not signed, and he used only initials in the text to refer to the various Dunces in the kingdom of Dulness. However, "Keys" immediately came out to identify the figures mentioned in the text, and an Irish pirate edition was printed that filled in the names (sometimes inaccurately). Additionally, the men attacked by Pope also wrote angry denunciations of the poem, attacking Pope's poetry and person. Pope endured attacks from, among others,
George Duckett,
Thomas Burnet
Thomas Burnet (c. 1635? – 27 September 1715) was an English theologian and writer on cosmogony.
Life
He was born at Croft near Darlington in 1635. After studying at Northallerton Grammar School under Thomas Smelt, he went to Clare Colle ...
, and
Richard Blackmore
Sir Richard Blackmore (22 January 1654 – 9 October 1729), English poet and physician, is remembered primarily as the object of satire and as an epic poet, but he was also a respected medical doctor and theologian.
Earlier years
He was born ...
. All of these, however, were less vicious than the attack launched by
Edmund Curll
Edmund Curll (''c.'' 1675 – 11 December 1747) was an English bookseller and publisher. His name has become synonymous, through the attacks on him by Alexander Pope, with unscrupulous publication and publicity. Curll rose from poverty to wealt ...
, a notoriously unscrupulous publisher, who produced his own pirate copy of the Dunciad with astounding swiftness, and also published "The Popiad" and a number of pamphlets attacking Pope.
In 1729, Pope published an acknowledged edition of the poem, and the ''Dunciad Variorum'' appeared in 1732. The Variorum was substantially the same text as the 1729 edition, but it now had a lengthy
prolegomenon
In an essay, article, or book, an introduction (also known as a prolegomenon) is a beginning section which states the purpose and goals of the following writing. This is generally followed by the body and conclusion.
Common features and techni ...
. The prefatory material has Pope speaking in his own defence, although under a variety of other names; for example, "A Letter to the Publisher Occasioned by the Present Edition of the Dunciad" is signed by William Cleland (d. 1741), one of Pope's friends and father of
John Cleland
John Cleland (c. 1709, baptised – 23 January 1789) was an English novelist best known for his fictional '' Fanny Hill: or, the Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure'', whose eroticism led to his arrest. James Boswell called him "a sly, old malcont ...
, but it was probably written by Pope himself.
In these prefatory materials, Pope points out that the Keys were often wrong about the allusions, and he explains his reluctance at spelling out the names. He says that he wishes to avoid elevating the targets of the satire by mentioning their names (which, of course, did happen, as a number of persons are only remembered for their appearances in the poem), but he similarly did not want innocents to be mistaken for the targets. Pope also apologises for using
parody
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...
of the Classics (for his poem imitates both
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
and
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
) by pointing out that the ancients also used parody to belittle unworthy poets. Pope's preface is followed by advertisements from the bookseller, a section called "Testimonies of Authors Concerning Our Poet and his Works" by "Martinus Scriblerus", and a further section named "Martinus Scriblerus, of the Poem".
Martinus Scriblerus was a corporate identity employed by Pope and the other members of the Scriblerians. Therefore, these two portions of the preface could have been written by any of its members, but they, like the other prefatory materials, were most likely written by Pope himself. The various Dunces had written responses to Pope after the first publication of ''The Dunciad'', and they had not only written against Pope, but had explained why Pope had attacked other writers. In the "Testimonies" section, Martinus Scriblerus culls all the comments the Dunces made ''about each other'' in their replies and sets them side by side, so that each is condemned by another. He also culls their contradictory characterisations of Pope, so that they seem to all damn and praise the same qualities over and over again.
The "Testimonies" also includes commendations from Pope's friends. The words of
Edward Young
Edward Young (c. 3 July 1683 – 5 April 1765) was an English poet, best remembered for ''Night-Thoughts'', a series of philosophical writings in blank verse, reflecting his state of mind following several bereavements. It was one of the mos ...
,
James Thomson and
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...
are brought together to praise Pope specifically for being temperate and timely in his charges. The conclusion asks the reader "to chuse whether thou wilt incline to the Testimonies of Authors avowed" (like Pope's friends) "or of Authors concealed" (like many of the Dunces) – in short, "of those who knew him, or of those who knew him not".
"Tibbald" King of Dunces
Alexander Pope had a proximal, close and long term cause for choosing Lewis Theobald as the King of Dunces for the first version of the ''Dunciad''. The immediate cause was Theobald's publication of ''Shakespeare Restored, or a Specimen of the many Errors as well Committed as Unamended by Mr Pope in his late edition of this poet; designed not only to correct the said Edition, but to restore the true Reading of Shakespeare in all the Editions ever published'' in 1726. Pope had published his own version of Shakespeare in 1725, and he had made a number of errors in it. He had "smoothed" some of Shakespeare's lines, had chosen readings that eliminated
pun
A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...
s (which Pope regarded as low humour), and had, indeed, missed several good readings and preserved some bad ones. In the ''Dunciad Variorum'', Pope complains that he had put out newspaper advertisements when he was working on Shakespeare, asking for anyone with suggestions to come forward, and that Theobald had hidden all of his material. Indeed, when Pope produced a second edition of his Shakespeare in 1728, he incorporated many of Theobald's textual readings.
Pope, however, had already a quarrel with Theobald. The first mention of Theobald in Pope's writings is the 1727 "
Peri Bathous", in ''Miscellanies, The Last Volume'' (which was the third volume), but Pope's attack there shows that Theobald was already a figure of fun. Regardless of the quarrels, though, Theobald was, in a sense, the nearly perfect King of Dunces. The ''Dunciad''s action concerns the gradual sublimation of all arts and letters into Dulness by the action of hireling authors. Theobald, as a man who had attempted the stage and failed, plagiarised a play, attempted translation and failed to such a degree that John Dennis referred to him as a "notorious Ideot", attempted subscription translation and failed to produce, and who had just turned his full attention to political attack writing, was an epitome, for Pope, of all that was wrong with British letters. Additionally, Pope's goddess of Dulness begins the poem already controlling state poetry, odes, and political writing, so Theobald as King of Dunces is the man who can lead her to control the stage as well. Theobald's writings for
John Rich, in particular, are singled out within the ''Dunciad'' as abominations for their mixing of tragedy and comedy and their "low" pantomime and opera; they are not the first to bring the Smithfield muses to the ears of kings, but they ferried them over in bulk.
Overview of the three-book ''Dunciad''
The central premise of the poem is the same as that of ''MacFlecknoe'': the crowning of a new King of Dulness. However, Pope's poem is far more wide-ranging and specific than Dryden's had been. His satire is political and cultural in very specific ways. Rather than merely lambasting "vice" and "corruption", Pope attacks very particular degradations of political discourse and particular degradations of the arts.
The political attack is on the
Whigs, and specifically on the Hanoverian Whigs. The poem opens, in fact, with the goddess Dulness noting that "Still Dunce the second rules like Dunce the first", which is an exceptionally daring reference to
George II George II or 2 may refer to:
People
* George II of Antioch (seventh century AD)
* George II of Armenia (late ninth century)
* George II of Abkhazia (916–960)
* Patriarch George II of Alexandria (1021–1051)
* George II of Georgia (1072–1089) ...
, who had come to the throne earlier in the year. Furthermore, although the King of Dunces, Theobald, writes for the radical
Tory
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
''Mist's Journal'', Pope consistently hammers at radical Protestant authors and controversialists.
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...
is mentioned almost as frequently as anyone in the poem, and the booksellers picked out for abuse both specialised in partisan Whig publications.
The cultural attack is broader than the political one, and it may underlie the whole. Pope attacks, over and over again, those who write for pay. While
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
would say, half a century later, that no man but a blockhead ever wrote but for money, Pope's attack is not on those who get paid, but those who will write on cue for the highest bid. Pope himself was one of the earliest poets to make his living solely by writing, and so it is not the ''professional'' author, but the ''mercenary'' author that Pope derides. He attacks hired pens, the authors who perform poetry or religious writing for the greatest pay alone, who do not believe in what they are doing. As he puts it in book II, "He
patronchinks his purse, and takes his seat of state
mong the poets
Mong may refer to:
People
*A proposed original name for the Hmong people, based on the main group, the Mong community
* Bob Mong (), American journalist and academic administrator
*Henry Mong (), American surgeon and Presbyterian missionary
*Mong ...
... And instant, fancy feels th' imputed sense" (II 189, 192). He objects not to professional writers, but to hackney writers. His dunce booksellers will trick and counterfeit their way to wealth, and his dunce poets will wheedle and flatter anyone for enough money to keep the bills paid.
The plot of the poem is simple. Dulness, the goddess, appears at a Lord Mayor's Day in 1724 and notes that her king,
Elkannah Settle, has died. She chooses Lewis Theobald as his successor. In honour of his coronation, she holds heroic games. He is then transported to the Temple of Dulness, where he has visions of the future. The poem has a consistent setting and time, as well. Book I covers the night after the Lord Mayor's Day, Book II the morning to dusk, and Book III the darkest night. Furthermore, the poem begins at the end of the Lord Mayor's procession, goes in Book II to the Strand, then to
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was na ...
(where booksellers were), down by
Bridewell Prison to the
River Fleet
The River Fleet is the largest of London's subterranean rivers, all of which today contain foul water for treatment. Its headwaters are two streams on Hampstead Heath, each of which was dammed into a series of ponds—the Hampstead Ponds a ...
, then to
Ludgate
Ludgate was the westernmost gate in London Wall. Of Roman origin, it was rebuilt several times and finally demolished in 1760. The name survives in Ludgate Hill, an eastward continuation of Fleet Street, Ludgate Circus and Ludgate Square.
Ety ...
at the end of Book II; in Book III, Dulness goes through Ludgate to the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
to her temple.
The arguments of the three books
''A'' Book I
The poem begins with an epic invocation, "Books and the Man I sing, the first who brings/ The Smithfield Muses to the Ear of Kings" (I 1–2) (Smithfield being the site of
Bartholomew Fair
The Bartholomew Fair was one of London's pre-eminent summer charter fairs. A charter for the fair was granted to Rahere by Henry I to fund the Priory of St Bartholomew; and from 1133 to 1855 it took place each year on 24 August within the preci ...
entertainments, and the man in question was
Elkanah Settle
Elkanah Settle (1 February 1648 – 12 February 1724) was an English poet and playwright.
Biography
He was born at Dunstable, and entered Trinity College, Oxford, in 1666, but left without taking a degree. His first tragedy, '' Cambyses, King ...
, who had written for Bartholomew Fair after the
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
; Pope makes him the one who brought pantomime, farce, and monster shows to the royal theatres). The goddess Dulness notes that her power is so great that "Time himself stands still at her command, / Realms shift their place, and Ocean turns to land" (I 69-70), and thus claims credit for the routine violation of the
Unities
The classical unities, Aristotelian unities, or three unities represent a prescriptive theory of dramatic tragedy that was introduced in Italy in the 16th century and was influential for three centuries. The three unities are:
#''unity of action' ...
of
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
in poetry. On Lord Mayor's Day of 1724, when
Sir George Thorold was Lord Mayor, Dulness announces the death of the current King of Dunces, Elkanah Settle. Settle had been the City Poet, and his job had been to commemorate Lord Mayor's Day pageants. Thanks to his hard work in stultifying the senses of the nation, Dulness claims control of all official verse, and all current poets are her subjects ("While pensive Poets painful vigils keep, / Sleepless themselves to give their readers sleep" I 91–92). She mentions
Thomas Heywood
Thomas Heywood (early 1570s – 16 August 1641) was an English playwright, actor, and author. His main contributions were to late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre. He is best known for his masterpiece '' A Woman Killed with Kindness'', ...
,
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...
(for writing political journalism),
Ambrose Philips
Ambrose Philips (167418 June 1749) was an English poet and politician. He feuded with other poets of his time, resulting in Henry Carey bestowing the nickname " Namby-Pamby" upon him, which came to mean affected, weak, and maudlin speech or ver ...
,
Nahum Tate
Nahum Tate ( ; 1652 – 30 July 1715) was an Irish poet, hymnist and lyricist, who became Poet Laureate in 1692. Tate is best known for ''The History of King Lear'', his 1681 adaptation of Shakespeare's ''King Lear'', and for his libretto for ...
, and Sir
Richard Blackmore
Sir Richard Blackmore (22 January 1654 – 9 October 1729), English poet and physician, is remembered primarily as the object of satire and as an epic poet, but he was also a respected medical doctor and theologian.
Earlier years
He was born ...
as her darlings. However, her triumph is not complete, and she aspires to control dramatic poetry as well as political, religious, and hack poetry. She therefore decides that Theobald will be the new King.
The action shifts to the library of Lewis Theobald, which is "A Gothic Vatican! of Greece and Rome / Well-purg'd, and worthy Withers, Quarles, and Blome" (I 125-126) (a
Vatican Library
The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...
for Northern European authors, and especially notable for vainglorious and contentious writing and criticism). Theobald is despairing of succeeding in writing dull poetry and plays, and he is debating whether to return to being a lawyer (for that had been Theobald's first trade) or to become a political hack. He decides to give up poetry and become an entirely hired pen for
Nathaniel Mist
Nathaniel Mist (died 30 September 1737) was an 18th-century British printer and journalist whose ''Mist's Weekly Journal'' was the central, most visible, and most explicit opposition newspaper to the whig administrations of Robert Walpole. Whe ...
and his ''Mist's Journal''. He therefore collects all the books of bad poetry in his library along with his own works and makes a virgin sacrifice of them (virgin because no one has ever read them) by setting fire to the pile. The goddess Dulness appears to him in a fog and drops a sheet of ''Thule'' (a poem by Ambrose Philips that was supposed to be an epic, but which only appeared as a single sheet) on the fire, extinguishing it with the poem's perpetually wet ink. Dulness tells Theobald that he is the new King of Dunces and points him to the stage. She shows him,
The book ends with a hail of praise, calling Theobald now the new King Log (from
Aesop
Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales cre ...
's fable).
''A'' Book II
Book II centres on the highly scatological "heroic games". Theobald sits on the throne of Dulness, which is a velveteen tub ("tub" being the common term for the pulpit of
Dissenter
A dissenter (from the Latin ''dissentire'', "to disagree") is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc.
Usage in Christianity
Dissent from the Anglican church
In the social and religious history of England and Wales, and ...
s), and Dulness declares the opening of heroic games to celebrate his coronation. Therefore, all her sons come before her on the
Strand
Strand may refer to:
Topography
*The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a:
** Beach
** Shoreline
* Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida
Places Africa
* Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa
* Strand Street ...
in London, leaving half the kingdom depopulated, for she summons both dull writers, their booksellers, ''and'' all who are stupid enough to patronise dull writers.
The first game is for booksellers. (Booksellers at the time purchased manuscripts from authors, and the proceeds from book sales went entirely to the bookseller, with the author getting no more than the advance price.) Dulness therefore decides upon a race for the booksellers. She creates a phantom Poet,
but, instead, a fat, well dressed poet (and therefore a wealthy, noble one who would command sales by his title). The phantom poet is named More, a reference to
James Moore Smythe
James Moore Smythe (; 1702 – 18 October 1734) was an English playwright and fop.
Biography
Smythe was appointed by the King to the Office of, Co-Paymaster of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms. He was born James Moore. He was the son ...
, who had plagiarised both Arbuthnot (''Historico-physical Account of the South-Sea Bubble'') and Pope (''Memoirs of a Parish Clark''), and whose only original play had been the failed ''The Rival Modes''. The booksellers immediately set out running to be the first to grab Moore, with
Bernard Lintot
Barnaby Bernard Lintot ("Lintott" before 1724, usually referred to as "Bernard" and very rarely as "Bernaby") (1 December 16759 February 1736), was an English publisher who started business in London about 1698. Born at Southwater, Sussex, Lintot ...
setting forth with a roar (Lintot had been James Moore Smythe's publisher), only to be challenged by Edmund Curll:
The race seemingly having been decided by progress through bed-pan slops, Curll prays to
Jove
Jupiter ( la, Iūpiter or , from Proto-Italic "day, sky" + "father", thus " sky father" Greek: Δίας or Ζεύς), also known as Jove ( gen. ''Iovis'' ), is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religio ...
, who consults the goddess
Cloacina
Cloacina was a goddess who presided over the Cloaca Maxima ('Greatest Drain'), the main interceptor discharge outfall of the system of sewers in Rome.
Name
The theonym ''Cloācīna'' is a derivative of the noun ''cloāca'' ('sewer, underground ...
. He hears the prayer, passes a pile of feces down, and catapults Curll to the victory. As Curll grabs the phantom Moore, the poems it seemed to have fly back to their real authors, and even the clothes go to the unpaid tailors who had made them (James Moore Smythe had run through an inherited fortune and bankrupted himself by 1727). Dulness urges Curll to repeat the joke, to pretend to the public that his dull poets were really great poets, to print things by false names. (Curll had published numerous works by "Joseph Gay" to trick the public into thinking they were by John Gay.) For his victory, she awards Curll a tapestry showing the fates of famous Dunces. On it, he sees Daniel Defoe with his ears chopped off,
John Tutchin
John Tutchin (c.1660 or 1664 – 23 September 1707) was a radical Whig controversialist and gadfly English journalist (born in Lymington, Hampshire), whose ''The Observator'' and earlier political activism earned him multiple trips before the bar ...
being whipped publicly through western England, two political journalists clubbed to death (on the same day), and himself being wrapped in a blanket and whipped by the schoolboys of
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
(for having printed an unauthorised edition of the sermons of the school's master, thereby robbing the school's own printer).
The next contest Dulness proposes is for the phantom poetess, Eliza (
Eliza Haywood
Eliza Haywood (c. 1693 – 25 February 1756), born Elizabeth Fowler, was an English writer, actress and publisher. An increase in interest and recognition of Haywood's literary works began in the 1980s. Described as "prolific even by the standar ...
). She is compared to their
Hera
In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; grc-gre, Ἥρα, Hḗrā; grc, Ἥρη, Hḗrē, label=none in Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she ...
. Whereas Hera was "cow-eyed" in ''Iliad'', and "of the herders", Haywood inverts these to become a
The booksellers will urinate to see whose urinary stream is the highest. Curll and Chetham compete. Chetham's efforts are insufficient to produce an arc, and he splashes his own face. Curll, on the other hand, produces a stream over his own head, burning (with an implied case of
venereal disease
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are Transmission (medicine), spread by Human sexual activity, sexual activity, especi ...
) all the while. For this, Chetham is awarded a kettle, while Curll gets the phantom lady's works and company.
The next contest is for authors, and it is the game of "tickling": getting money from patrons by flattery. A very wealthy nobleman, attended by jockeys, huntsmen, a large
sedan chair
The litter is a class of wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of people. Smaller litters may take the form of open chairs or beds carried by two or more carriers, some being enclosed for protection from the e ...
with six porters, takes his seat. One poet attempts to flatter his pride. A painter attempts to paint a glowing portrait. An opera author attempts to please his ears.
John Oldmixon
John Oldmixon (1673 – 9 July 1742) was an English historian.
He was a son of John Oldmixon of Oldmixon, Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. He was brought up by the family of Admiral Robert Blake in Bridgwater and later became involved in trad ...
simply asks for the money (Oldmixon had attacked Pope in ''The Catholic Poet'', but Pope claims that his real crime was plagiarism in his ''Critical History of England'', which slandered the
Stuarts
The House of Stuart, originally spelt Stewart, was a royal house of Scotland, England, Ireland and later Great Britain. The family name comes from the office of High Steward of Scotland, which had been held by the family progenitor Walter fi ...
and got him an office from the Whig ministry), only to have the lord clench his money tighter. Finally, a young man with no artistic ability sends his sister to the lord and wins the prize.
Another contest, primarily for critics, comes next. In this, Dulness offers up the prize of a "catcall" and a drum that can drown out the braying of asses to the one who can make the most senseless noise and impress the king of monkeys. They are invited to improve mustard-bowl thunder (as the sound effect of thunder on the stage had been made using a mustard bowl and a shot previously, and John Dennis had invented a new method) and the sound of the bell (used in tragedies to enhance the pitiful action). Pope describes the resulting game thus:
The critics are then invited to all bray at the same time. In this, Richard Blackmore wins easily:
(Blackmore had written six epic poems, a "Prince" and "King" Arthur, in twenty books, an ''Eliza'' in ten books, an ''Alfred'' in twelve books, etc. and had earned the nickname "Everlasting Blackmore". Additionally, Pope disliked his overuse of the verb "bray" for love and battle and so had chosen to have Blackmore's "bray" the most insistent.)
The assembled horde go down by Bridewell (the women's prison) between 11:00 am and 12:00 pm, when the women prisoners are being whipped, and go "To where
Fleet-ditch with disemboguing streams/ Rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames" (II 259-260). At the time, the River Fleet was the city's sewer outlet, where all of the gutters of the city washed into the river. It was silted, muddy, and mixed with river and city waters.
In the ditch, the political hacks are ordered to strip off their clothes and engage in a diving contest. Dulness says, "Who flings most filth, and wide pollutes around / The stream, be his the Weekly Journals, bound" (II 267–268), while a load of lead will go to the deepest diver and a load of coal to the others who participate. "The Weekly Journals" was a collective noun, referring to ''London Journal'', ''Mist's Journal'', ''
British Journal
The ''British Journal'' was an English newspaper published from 22 September 1722 until 13 January 1728. The paper was then published as the ''British Journal or The Censor'' from 20 January 1728 until 23 November 1730, and then as the ''British ...
'', ''Daily Journal'', etc. In this contest, John Dennis climbs up as high as a post and dives in, disappearing forever. Next, "Smedly" (
Jonathan Smedley, a religious opportunist who criticised Jonathan Swift for gain) dives in and vanishes. Others attempt the task, but none succeed like
Leonard Welsted
Leonard Welsted (''baptised'' 3 June 1688 – August 1747) was an English poet and "dunce" in Alexander Pope's writings (both in ''The Dunciad'' and in ''Peri Bathos''). Welsted was an accomplished writer who composed in a relaxed, light heart ...
(who had satirised Pope, Gay, and Arbuthnot's play ''
Three Hours after Marriage
''Three Hours After Marriage'' was a restoration comedy, written in 1717 as a collaboration between John Gay, Alexander Pope and John Arbuthnot, though Gay was the principal author. The play is best described as a satirical farce, and among i ...
'' in 1717), for he goes in swinging his arms like a windmill (to splash all with mud): "No crab more active in the dirty dance, / Downward to climb, and backward to advance" (II 298–299). He wins the ''Journals'', but Smedly reappears, saying that he had gone all the way down to
Hades
Hades (; grc-gre, ᾍδης, Háidēs; ), in the ancient Greek religion and myth, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also ...
, where he had seen that a branch of
Styx flows into the Thames, so that all who drink city water grow dull and forgetful from
Lethe
In Greek mythology, Lethe (; Ancient Greek: ''Lḗthē''; , ), also referred to as Lemosyne, was one of the five rivers of the underworld of Hades. Also known as the ''Ameles potamos'' (river of unmindfulness), the Lethe flowed around the cav ...
.
Smedly becomes Dulness's high priest, and the company move to Ludgate. There, the young critics are asked to weigh the difference between Richard Blackmore and
John "Orator" Henley. The one who can will be the chief judge of Dulness. Three second year students ("college sophs") from
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
and three lawyers from
Temple Bar attempt the task, but they all fall asleep. The entire company slowly falls asleep, with the last being
Susanna Centlivre (who had attacked Pope's translation of
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
before its publication) and "Norton Defoe" (another false identity created by a political author who claimed to be the "true son" of Daniel Defoe). Finally, Folly herself is killed by the dullness of the works being read aloud. The result is, appropriately, that there is no judge for Dulness, for Dulness requires an absence of judgment.
''A'' Book III
Book three is set in the Temple of Dulness in the City. Theobald sleeps with his head on the goddess's lap, with royal blue fogs surrounding him. In his dream, he goes to Hades and visits the shade of Elkannah Settle. There he sees millions of souls waiting for new bodies as their souls
transmigrate.
Bavius Bavius and Maevius (or Mevius) were two poets in the age of Augustus Caesar, whose names became synonymous with bad verse and malicious criticism of superior writers. Both are named together in Virgil's Eclogues (3.90). Maevius is also the object ...
dips each soul in Lethe to make it dull before sending it to a new body. (In classical
mythology
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
, the souls of the dead were put into Lethe to forget their lives before passing on to their final reward, but these are dipped in Lethe before being born.) Elkannah Settle hails Theobald as the great promised one, the
messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...
of Dulness, for Bavius had dipped him over and over again, from lifetime to lifetime, before he was perfected in stupidity and ready to be born as Theobald. Theobald had formerly been a
Boeotia
Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its lar ...
n, several
Dutchmen
The Dutch (Dutch: ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the Netherlands. They share a common history and culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Arub ...
, several monks, all before being himself: "All nonsense thus, of old or modern date, / Shall in thee centre, from thee circulate" (III 51–52).
Settle gives Theobald full knowledge of Dulness. This is his
baptism
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...
: the time when he can claim his divine role and begin his mission (in a parody of Jesus being blessed by the
Holy Spirit
In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as ...
). Settle shows Theobald the past triumphs of Dulness in its battles with reason and science. He surveys the : the
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic grou ...
and the emperor burning all learned books, Egypt and
Omar I
ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate ...
burning the books in the Ptolemean library. Then he turns to follow the light of the sun/learning to Europe and says,
Goths
The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...
,
Alans
The Alans (Latin: ''Alani'') were an ancient and medieval Iranian nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus – generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the Al ...
,
Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
,
Ostrogoths
The Ostrogoths ( la, Ostrogothi, Austrogothi) were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Roman Empire, based upon the larg ...
,
Visigoths
The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is ...
, and
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
are all seen as destroyers of learning. Christianity in the medieval period is also an enemy of learning and reason in Settle's view:
Pope lambasts the medieval popes for destroying statuary and books that depicted Classical gods and goddesses and for vandalising others, for making statues of
Pan into
Moses
Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...
.
Settle then surveys the future. He says that
Grub Street
Until the early 19th century, Grub Street was a street close to London's impoverished Moorfields district that ran from Fore Street east of St Giles-without-Cripplegate north to Chiswell Street. It was pierced along its length with narrow ent ...
will be Dulness's
Mount Parnassus
Mount Parnassus (; el, Παρνασσός, ''Parnassós'') is a mountain range of central Greece that is and historically has been especially valuable to the Greek nation and the earlier Greek city-states for many reasons. In peace, it offers ...
, where the goddess will "Behold a hundred sons, and each a dunce" (III 130). He names two sons of contemporary dunces who were already showing signs of stupidity:
Theophilus Cibber
Theophilus Cibber (25 or 26 November 1703 – October 1758) was an English actor, playwright, author, and son of the actor-manager Colley Cibber.
He began acting at an early age, and followed his father into theatrical management. In 1727, Alex ...
(III 134) and the son of
Bishop Burnet
Gilbert Burnet (18 September 1643 – 17 March 1715) was a Scottish philosopher and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was highly respected as a cleric, a preacher, an academic, ...
.
Settle turns to examine the present state of "duncery", and this section of the third book is the longest. He first looks to literary critics, who are happiest when their authors complain the most. Scholars are described as:
![Hogarth-rehearsal (2)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Hogarth-rehearsal_%282%29.png)
From critics, he turns to the contrastive of triumphant dunces and lost merit. Orator Henley gets special attention here (lines 195 ff.). Henley had set himself up as a professional lecturer. On Sundays, he would discuss theology, and on Wednesdays any other subject, and those who went to hear him would pay a shilling each ("Oh great Restorer of the good old Stage, / Preacher at once, and Zany of thy Age!" III 201–202), while learned bishops and skilled preachers spoke to empty congregations. Next come the theatres: a ''Dr. Faustus'' was the toast of the 1726–1727 season, with both Lincoln's Inn Fields and Drury Lane competing for more and more lavish
stage effects to get the audiences in:
Even though Pope was on good terms with some of the men involved (e.g.
Henry Carey Henry Carey may refer to:
*Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (1526–1596), politician, general, and potential illegitimate son of Henry VIII
*Henry Carey, 1st Earl of Dover (1580–1666), English peer
*Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth (1596–1661), ...
, who provided music for the Drury Lane version), the two companies are fighting to see who can make the least sense. This competition of vulgarity is led by two theatres, and each has its champion of decadence. At Lincoln's Inn Fields is the "Angel of Dulness",
John Rich:
Rich's ability to ride in a stage whirlwind (in parody of God in the
Book of Job
The Book of Job (; hbo, אִיּוֹב, ʾIyyōḇ), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and is the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Scholars ar ...
) is matched by Colley Cibber and
Barton Booth
Barton Booth (168210 May 1733) was one of the most famous dramatic actors of the first part of the 18th century.
Early life
Booth was the son of The Hon and Very Revd Dr Robert Booth, Dean of Bristol, by his first wife and distant cousin An ...
, patentees of the Drury Lane theatre, who mount the stage in purple dragons and have an aerial battle. Dulness is the winner in these contests, for she benefits. Settle urges Theobald to refine these entertainments, to hammer them home and get them all the way to court, so that Dulness can be the true empress of the land. He prophesies that Theobald will live in an age that will see
Laurence Eusden the Poet Laureate and Colley Cibber the "Lord Chancellor of plays".
Settle then reveals some current triumphs of dullness over good sense. He mentions William Benson as the proper judge of architecture:
William Benson was a fool who had taken the place of
Sir Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...
and told the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
that the house was unsound and falling down. It was not.
John Gay never obtained a pension and yet was often remarked as one of the most jovial, intelligent, and compassionate wits of the age. Jonathan Swift had been "exiled" to Ireland, where he had become involved in Irish politics. Pope himself had spent three years translating
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
. Settle sees in these things great prospects for the coming age of darkness.
The poem ends with a vision of the apocalypse of nonsense:
Settle invokes the second coming of stupidity, urging,
At the very conclusion, Theobald cannot take any more joy, and he wakes. The vision goes back through the ivory gate of
Morpheus
Morpheus ('Fashioner', derived from the grc, μορφή meaning 'form, shape') is a god associated with sleep and dreams. In Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' he is the son of Somnus and appears in dreams in human form. From the Middle Ages, the name b ...
.
Themes of ''The Dunciad A''
The Three Book ''Dunciad'' has an extensive inversion of
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
's ''Aeneid'', but it also structures itself heavily around a
Christological
In Christianity, Christology (from the Greek grc, Χριστός, Khristós, label=none and grc, -λογία, -logia, label=none), translated literally from Greek as "the study of Christ", is a branch of theology that concerns Jesus. Di ...
theme. To some degree, this imagery of unholy consecration had been present in Dryden's ''MacFlecknoe'', but Pope's King of Dunces is much more menacing than
Thomas Shadwell
Thomas Shadwell ( – 19 November 1692) was an English poet and playwright who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1689.
Life
Shadwell was born at either Bromehill Farm, Weeting-with-Broomhill or Santon House, Lynford, Norfolk, and educated at Bury ...
could ever have been in Dryden's poem. It is not a case of an unworthy man getting praised that spurs the poem, but rather a force of degradation and decadence that motivates it. Pope is not targeting one man, but rather a social decline that he feels is all but irrevocable. Nevertheless, the poem is still a satire and not a lamentation. The top of society (the kings) may be dulled by
spectacle
In general, spectacle refers to an event that is memorable for the appearance it creates. Derived in Middle English from c. 1340 as "specially prepared or arranged display" it was borrowed from Old French ''spectacle'', itself a reflection of the ...
and freak shows, but Dulness is only one force. She is at war with the men of wit, and she can be opposed. In the Four Book ''Dunciad'' (or ''Dunciad B''), any hope of redemption or reversal is gone, and the poem is even more nihilistic.
The four-book ''Dunciad B'' of 1743
In 1741, Pope wrote a fourth book of the ''Dunciad'' and had it published the next year as a stand-alone text. He also began revising the whole poem to create a new, integrated, and darker version of the text. The four-book ''Dunciad'' appeared in 1743 as a new work. Most of the critical and pseudo-critical apparatus was repeated from the ''Dunciad Variorum'' of 1738, but there was a new "Advertisement to the Reader" by
Bishop Warburton and one new substantial piece: a schematic of anti-heroes, written by Pope in his own voice, entitled ''Hyper-Critics of Ricardus Aristarchus''. The most obvious change from the three-book to the four-book ''Dunciad'' was the change of hero from Lewis Theobald to Colley Cibber.
Colley Cibber: King of Dunces
Pope's choice of new 'hero' for the revised Dunciad, Colley Cibber, the pioneer of sentimental drama and celebrated comic actor, was the outcome of a long public squabble that originated in 1717, when Cibber introduced jokes onstage at the expense of a poorly received farce, ''
Three Hours After Marriage
''Three Hours After Marriage'' was a restoration comedy, written in 1717 as a collaboration between John Gay, Alexander Pope and John Arbuthnot, though Gay was the principal author. The play is best described as a satirical farce, and among i ...
'', written by Pope with John Arbuthnot and John Gay. Pope was in the audience and naturally infuriated, as was Gay, who got into a physical fight with Cibber on a subsequent visit to the theatre. Pope published a pamphlet satirising Cibber, and continued his literary assault until his death, the situation escalating following Cibber's politically motivated appointment to the post of poet laureate in 1730. Cibber's role in the feud is notable for his 'polite' forbearance until, at the age of 71, he finally became exasperated. An anecdote in "A Letter from Mr. Cibber, to Mr. Pope", published in 1742, recounts their trip to a brothel organised by Pope's own patron, who apparently intended to stage a cruel joke at the expense of the poet. Since Pope was only about 4' tall, with a hunchback, due to a childhood tubercular infection of the spine, and the prostitute specially chosen as Pope's 'treat' was the fattest and largest on the premises, the tone of the event is fairly self-apparent. Cibber describes his 'heroic' role in snatching Pope off of the prostitute's body, where he was precariously perched like a tom-tit, while Pope's patron looked on, sniggering, thereby saving English poetry. In the third book of the first version of Dunciad (1728), Pope had referred contemptuously to Cibber's "past, vamp'd, future, old, reviv'd, new" plays, produced with "less human genius than God gives an ape". While Cibber's elevation to laureateship in 1730 had further inflamed Pope against him, there is little speculation involved in suggesting that Cibber's anecdote, with particular reference to Pope's "little-tiny manhood", motivated the revision of hero. Pope's own explanation of the change of hero, given in the guise of Ricardus Aristarchus, provides a detailed justification for why Colley Cibber should be the perfect hero for a mock-heroic parody.
Aristarchus's "hyper-criticism" establishes a science for the mock heroic and follows up some of the ideas set forth by Pope in ''
Peri Bathous'' in the ''Miscellanies, Volume the Third'' (1727). In this piece, the rules of heroic poetry could be inverted for the proper mock-heroic. The epic hero, Pope says, has wisdom, courage, and love. Therefore, the mock-hero should have "Vanity, Impudence, and Debauchery". As a wise man knows without being told, Pope says, so the vain man listens to no opinion but his own, and Pope quotes Cibber as saying, "Let the world ... impute to me what Folly or weakness they please; but till ''Wisdom'' can give me something that will make me more heartily happy, I am content to be ". Courage becomes a hero, Pope says, and nothing is more perversely brave that summoning all one's courage just to the face, and he quotes Cibber's claim in the ''Apology'' that his face was almost the best known in England.
Chivalric love is the mark of a hero, and Pope says that this is something easy for the young to have. A mock-hero could keep his lust going when old, could claim, as Cibber does, "a man has his Whore" at the age of 80. When the three qualities of wisdom, courage, and love are combined in an epic hero, the result is, according to Pope,
magnanimity
Magnanimity (from Latin '' magnanimitās'', from '' magna'' "big" + '' animus'' "soul, spirit") is the virtue of being great of mind and heart. It encompasses, usually, a refusal to be petty, a willingness to face danger, and actions for noble ...
that induces admiration in the reader. On the other hand, when vanity, impudence, and debauchery are combined in the "lesser epic" hero (Pope uses the term "lesser epic" to refer to the satirical epic that would function like a satire play in the Classical theatre), the result is "Buffoonry" that induces laughter and disgust. Finally, Pope says that Cibber's offences are compounded by the outlandishness of his claims. Although he was "a person never a hero even on the Stage", he sets himself out as an admirable and ''imitable'' person who expects applause for his vices.
The argument of the four-book ''Dunciad''
Most of the argument of the ''Dunciad B'' is the same as that of ''Dunciad A'': it begins with the same Lord Mayor's Day, goes to Dulness contemplating her realm, moves to ''Cibber'' (called "Bays", in honour of his being Poet Laureate and thereby having the laurel wreath and butt of sherry) in despair, announces Cibber's choice as new King of Dunces, etc. Other than a change of hero, however, Pope made numerous adaptations and expansions of key passages. Not only are the topical references altered to fit Cibber's career, but Pope consistently changes the nature of the satire subtly by increasing the overarching metaphor of Cibber as "Anti-Christ of Wit", rather than Classical hero of Dulness. Most of the adaptations increase the parody of the Bible at the expense of the parody of Virgil.
''B'' Book I
The invocation changes from "the one who brings" the Smithfield muses to the ears of kings to "The Mighty Mother, and her Son who brings", thus immediately making Cibber the fatherless son of a goddess, and the poem addresses "... how the Goddess bade Britannia sleep, / And pour'd her Spirit o'er the land and deep" (I 7–8). From the invocation, the poem moves to an expanded description of the Cave of Poverty and Poetry, near
Bedlam. Cibber is the co-master of the cave, "Where o'er the gates
f Bedlam by his fam'd father's hand/ Great Cibber's brazen, brainless brothers stand" (I 31–32) (referring to statues constructed by Caius Cibber, Colley Cibber's father), and the cave is now the source of "Journals, Medleys, Merc'ries, Magazines" (I 42). These changes introduce the Biblical and apocalyptical themes that Book IV, in particular, will explore, as Dulness's spirit parodies the
Holy Spirit
In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as ...
dwelling upon the face of the waters in the
Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning") ...
.
When Dulness chooses her new king, she settles on Bays, who is seen in his study surveying his own works:
The base of Cibber's pile of sacrificed books is several
commonplace book
Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such books are simi ...
s, which are the basis of all his own productions. Although Cibber confesses:
The accidental common sense was ''
The Careless Husband
''The Carless Husband'' is a comedy play by the English writer Colley Cibber. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 7 December 1704. The original cast featured Cibber as Lord Foppington, George Powell as Lord Morelove, Robert Wilks as ...
''. When Cibber casts about for new professions, he, unlike Theobald in 1732, decides, "Hold—to the Minister I more incline; / To serve his cause, O Queen! is serving thine" (I 213–214). The "minister" is
Robert Walpole
Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745; known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole) was a British statesman and Whig politician who, as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader ...
, an extremely unpopular Whig leader, and the "queen" is both Dulness and
Queen Caroline of Hanover, who was a Tory enemy for her reconciliation of George II with Walpole. When the new king is about to burn his books in despair, Pope heightens the religious imagery, for Cibber says to his books, "Unstain'd, untouch'd, and yet in maiden sheets;/ While all your smutty sisters walk the streets" (I 229–230), and it is better that they be burned than that they be wrapped in "Oranges, to pelt your sire" (I 236). Again, Dulness extinguishes the pyre with a sheet of the ever-wet ''Thule''.
Cibber goes to Dulness's palace, and Pope says that he feels at home there, and "So Spirits ending their terrestrial race, / Ascend, and recognize their Native Place" (I 267–268). The Christian Heaven-home of
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
songs is altered for Cibber to the originating sleep of Dulness. While in the ''Dunciad A'' the palace had been empty, it is here crowded with ghosts (the same dunces mentioned in 1727, but all having died in the interim). Dulness calls forth her servants to herald the new king, and the book ends with Dulness's prayer, which takes an apocalyptic tone in the new version:
''B'' Book II
Most of Book II of the ''Dunciad B'' is the same as ''Dunciad A.'' The Dunce Games are largely the same, with a few changes in personnel. Cibber watches all, with "A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead" (II 44). The contest of booksellers is generally as it was in 1727, with Curll slipping on bedpan slops. However, when Curll prays to Cloacina, Pope provides more motivation for her hearing his prayer:
Further, Cloacina aids Curll win the race herself, and not by intercession with Jove, and Pope here explains ''how'' she propels him to victory: she makes the ordure nourishment to Curll, and he "Imbibes new life, and scours and stinks along" (''B'' II 106). Again, the phantom poet, More, vanishes. The game for Eliza Heywood's person and poetry is the same as the previous version, except that the promised gift for the runner-up is a
chamber pot
A chamber pot is a portable toilet, meant for nocturnal use in the bedroom. It was common in many cultures before the advent of indoor plumbing and flushing toilets.
Names and etymology
"Chamber" is an older term for bedroom. The chamber pot ...
. Curll here competes with
Thomas Osborne, a bookseller who had claimed to sell Pope's subscription edition of ''Iliad'' at half price, when he had merely pirated it, cut the size of the book to octavo, and printed on low quality paper. Curll wins Eliza, and Osborne is crowned with the pot.
The "tickling" contest is the same, except that
Thomas Bentley
Thomas Bentley (23 February 1884 – 23 December 1966) was a British film director. He directed 68 films between 1912 and 1941. He directed three films in the early DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process, ''The Man in the Street'' (1926), '' ...
, nephew of
Richard Bentley the classicist, replaces Richard Blackmore. This Bentley had written a fawning ode on the son of
Robert Harley (a former friend of Pope's with whom he seems estranged). In the noise battle, Dulness tells her poets,
In the braying contest that follows, there is a noise that seems to come "from the deep Divine; / There Webster! peal'd thy voice, and Whitfield! thine" (''B'' II 257–258). Webster was a radical Protestant religious writer who had demanded the scourging of the church, and Whitfield was
George Whitfield
George Whitefield (; 30 September 1770), also known as George Whitfield, was an Anglican cleric and evangelist who was one of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement.
Born in Gloucester, he matriculated at Pembroke College at t ...
, the notable collaborator with
John Wesley
John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English people, English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The soci ...
, who agreed with Webster only "to abuse all the sober Clergy". Richard Blackmore appears again as the single singer with the loudest "bray".
The progress by Bridewell to Fleet-ditch and the muck-diving games are the same, but, again, with some changes of dunces. Oldmixon, who had appeared in 1727 as one of the ticklers, is here the elderly diver who replaces John Dennis.
Smedley and Concanen are the same, but Pope adds a new section on party political papers:
These "sons of a day" are the daily newspapers that only had lifespans of a single issue. They were frequently printed with two different papers on the same sheet of paper (front and back), and Pope quotes the investigation into Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford (conducted by Walpole's administration) as showing that the Tory ministry of Pope's friends had spent over fifty thousand pounds to support political papers. The dead gazettes are mourned only by "Mother Osborne" (
James Pitt
James Pitt was an 18th-century English journalist and deist.
James Pitt ( fl. 1714 – 1755) was a former schoolmaster who, under the pen name of "Francis Osborne," wrote political propaganda for the Whig government. He also wrote many Christian ...
, who had run the ''London Journal'' under the name of "Father Osborne"; he had been called "Mother Osborne" for his dull, pedantic style). The champion of splattering in ''Dunciad B'' is William Arnal, a party author of the ''
British Journal
The ''British Journal'' was an English newspaper published from 22 September 1722 until 13 January 1728. The paper was then published as the ''British Journal or The Censor'' from 20 January 1728 until 23 November 1730, and then as the ''British ...
'' who had gotten ten thousand pounds as a political hack. In keeping with the insertion of Webster and Whitfield, earlier, Pope takes a new turn and has the winner of the depth dive be the Archbishop of Canterbury,
John Potter (1674–1747), and he is surrounded by an army of minor authors, "Prompt or to guard or stab, to saint or damn, / Heav'n's Swiss, who fight for any God, or Man" (''B'' II 357–358). These trimming religious authors are people like
Benjamin Hoadley (who had been an aid to Smedley) and John "Orator" Henley. Potter describes the vision of Hades and the Styx pouring into the Thames, but it is not merely Lethe that pours in. Lethe and the effluvia of dreams go into the Thames, so the effect is that it "Intoxicates the pert, and lulls the grave" (''B'' II 344). The Archbishop of Canterbury becomes the Archbishop of Dulness.
The book concludes with the contest of reading Blackmore and Henley.
''B'' Book III
Book III is, like Book II, largely the same text as the ''Dunciad Variorum''. In light of the new fourth book and the subtle changes of Book I, however, some passages take on more menace. The opening, in which Cibber rests with his head in Dulness's lap, is here a clear parody of the
Madonna with child. The vision granted Cibber is less Christological, as Cibber is not given a mission in the same way with an infusion of the Unholy Spirit, as Book IV provides a new ending, but the general vision of Hades is the same. Cibber visits the shade of Elkannah Settle and is shown the and its inverse, the , as learning moves ever westward across the world, with the sun, and darkness springs up right behind it.
In the survey of the formless poets waiting to be born (in print), Cibber sees the same faces as Theobald had, but with a few excisions and additions. The implied homosexual couple of critics from the ''Dunciad A'' are cut, but a mass of nameless poets contend, "who foremost shall be dam'd to Fame" (''B'' III 158) (both cursed with fame and damned by the goddess Fama for being an idiot), and altogether,
As in the previous version, these struggling hack writers and political character assassins are contrasted to the glorious dunces who win all the money and fame of the kingdom, while worthy ministers and divines go ignored. Thus, Settle features Orator Henley as a paragon,
As in the three book ''Dunciad'', Settle shows the happy triumph of Dulness on the stage, but the lines are compressed and take on a new parodic context:
The theatre is providing a mockery of the
Apocalypse
Apocalypse () is a literary genre in which a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary. The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys, and they typically feature symbolic imager ...
and the
second coming
The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is a Christian (as well as Islamic and Baha'i) belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The idea is based on messi ...
, an inverted, man-made spectacle of the divine. For these accomplishments, Settle blesses Cibber and mourns his own failure in Dulness's service. For Cibber,
Settle then takes a glance at the loss of learning incipient in the age. In architecture, the fool triumphant is Ripley, who was making a new Admiralty building, while "
Jones' and Boyle's" fail. Settle wishes for the day to come soon when
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
and
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
are in permanent holiday. As with the earlier version of the poem, the book ends with Cibber excitedly waking from his dream.
Book IV
Book IV was entirely new to the ''Dunciad B'' and had been published first as a stand-alone concluding poem. Pope himself referred to the four-book version "the ''Greater Dunciad''", in keeping with the ''Greater Iliad''. It is also "greater" in that its subject is larger. Book IV can function as a separate piece or as the conclusion of the ''Dunciad'': in many ways its structure and tone are substantially different from the first three books, and it is much more
allegorical
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...
.
It opens with a second,
nihilistic
Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning of life, meaning. The term was pop ...
invocation:
The fourth book promises to show the obliteration of sense from England. The
Dog-star shines, the lunatic prophets speak, and the daughter of
Chaos
Chaos or CHAOS may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional elements
* Chaos (''Kinnikuman'')
* Chaos (''Sailor Moon'')
* Chaos (''Sesame Park'')
* Chaos (''Warhammer'')
* Chaos, in ''Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy''
* Cha ...
and
Nox
In atmospheric chemistry, is shorthand for nitric oxide () and nitrogen dioxide (), the nitrogen oxides that are most relevant for air pollution.
These gases contribute to the formation of smog and acid rain, as well as affecting tropo ...
(Dulness) rises to "dull and venal a new World to mold" (''B'' IV 15) and begin a Saturnian age of lead.
Dulness takes her throne, and Pope describes the allegorical tableau of her throne room. Science is chained beneath her foot-stool. Logic is gagged and bound. Wit has been exiled from her kingdom entirely. Rhetoric is stripped on the ground and tied by
sophism
A sophist ( el, σοφιστής, sophistes) was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics, and mathematics. They taught ' ...
. Morality is dressed in a gown that is bound by two cords, of furs (the
ermines of judges) and lawn (the fabric of bishops sleeves), and at a nod from Dulness, her "page" (a notorious hanging judge named Page who had had over one hundred people executed) pulls both cords tight and strangles her. The
Muse
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...
s are bound in tenfold chains and guarded by Flattery and Envy. Only mathematics is free, because it is too insane to be bound. Nor, Pope says, could
Chesterfield
Chesterfield may refer to:
Places Canada
* Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan
* Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom
* Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England
** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...
refrain from weeping upon seeing the sight (for Chesterfield had opposed the
Licensing Act
Licensing Act (with its variations) is a stock short title used in the United Kingdom for legislation relating to licensing.
List
* Licensing Order of 1643, an Act imposing pre-publication censorship and prompting Milton to write ''Areopagitica''. ...
of 1737, which is the chaining of the Muses). Colley Cibber, however, slumbers, his head in Dulness's lap. (In a note, Pope says that it is proper for Cibber to sleep through the whole of Book IV, as he had had no part in the actions of book II, slept through book III, and therefore ought to go on sleeping.)
Into the audience chamber, a "Harlot form" "with mincing step, small voice, and languid eye" comes in (''B'' IV 45–46). This is opera, who wears patchwork clothing (for operas being made up of the patchwork of extant plays and being itself a mixed form of singing and acting). Opera then speaks to Dulness of the Muses:
However, Opera warns Dulness that
Handel is a threat to her. His operas make too much sense, have too strong a plot, and are too masculine in their performance. Accordingly, Dulness banishes Handel to Ireland.
Fame blows her "posterior trumpet", and all the dunces of the land come to Dulness's throne. There are three classes of dunce. First, there are the naturally dull. These are drawn to her as bees are to a queen bee, and they "adhere" to her person. The second are the people who do not wish to be dunces but are, "Whate'er of mungril no one class admits, / A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits" (''B'' IV 89–90). These dunces orbit Dulness. They struggle to break free, and they get some distance from her, but they are too weak to flee. The third class are "false to
Phoebus
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
, bow to
Baal
Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied t ...
; / Or impious, preach his Word without a call" (''B'' IV 93–94). They are men and women who do dull things by supporting dunces, either by giving money to hacks or by suppressing the cause of worthy writers. These people come to Dulness as a comet does: although they are only occasionally near her, they habitually do her bidding. Of this last group, Pope classes
Sir Thomas Hanmer, a "decent knight", who absurdly thinks himself a great
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
editor and uses his own money to publish an exceptionally lavish and ornate edition (with a text that was based on Pope's own edition). He is outshone in darkness by one Benson, who is even more absurd, in that he begins putting up monuments of
John Milton
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...
, striking coins and medals of Milton, and translating Milton's
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
poetry and who had then passed from excessive Milton fanaticism to fanaticism for
Arthur Johnston, a
Scottish physician and Latin poet. Unable to be the most fantastically vain man, Hamner prepares to withdraw his edition, but "
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
's May'r and Aldermen" (''B'' IV 116) take the page from him. (This was a reference to
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, with which Pope had a quarrel based on their denying
Bishop Warburton a doctorate in 1741). Dulness tells her followers to imitate Benson and tack their own names to statues and editions of famous authors, to treat standard authors as trophies (the busts made of them like hunting trophies), and thus "So by each Bard an Alderman shall sit" (''B'' IV 131).
All of the dunces press forward, vying to be the first to speak, but a ghost comes forward who awes them all and makes all to shake in fear.
Doctor Busby, headmaster of
Westminster School
(God Gives the Increase)
, established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560
, type = Public school Independent day and boarding school
, religion = Church of England
, head_label = Hea ...
appears, "Dropping with Infant's blood, and Mother's tears" (''B'' IV 142) from the birch cane that he used to whip boys, and every man in the hall begins to tremble. Busby tells Dulness that he is her true champion, for he turns geniuses to fools, "Whate'er the talents, or howe'er design'd, / We hang one jingling padlock on the mind" (''B'' IV 161–162). Dulness agrees and wishes for a pedant king like
James I James I may refer to:
People
*James I of Aragon (1208–1276)
*James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327)
*James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu
*James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347)
*James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
again, who will "stick the Doctor's Chair into the Throne" (''B'' IV 177), for only a pedant king would insist on what her priests (and only hers) proclaim: "The of Kings to govern wrong" (''B'' IV 188), for Cambridge and Oxford still uphold the doctrine.
As soon as she mentions them, the professors of Cambridge and Oxford (except for
Christ Church college) rush to her, "Each fierce Logician, still expelling Locke" (''B'' IV 196). (
John Locke
John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism ...
had been censured by Oxford University in 1703, and his ''Essay on Human Understanding'' had been banned.) These professors give way to their greatest figure,
Richard Bentley, who appears with his
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
hat on and refuses to bow to Dulness. Bentley tells Dulness that he and critics like him are her true champions, for he had "made
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
dull, and humbled
Milton's strains" (''B'' IV 212) and, no matter what her enemies do, critics will always serve Dulness, for "Turn what they will to Verse, their toil is vain,/ Critics like me shall make it Prose again" (''B'' IV 213–214). Picking fine arguments on letters and single textual variants and correcting authors, he will make all wits useless, and clerics, he says, are the purely dull, though the works of Isaac Barrow and Francis Atterbury might argue otherwise. He says that it is "For thee explain a thing till all men doubt it,/ And write about it, Goddess, and about it" (''B'' IV 251–252). They cement over all wit, throwing stone back onto the figures that authors had chiselled out of marble. As he makes his boast, he sees a whore, a pupil, and a French governor come forward, and the devout Bentley skulks away.
The French governor attempts to speak to Dulness but cannot be heard over the French horn sound that emerges, so the pupil tells his story. The "governor" is an English nobleman who went to school and college without learning anything, then went abroad on the Grand Tour, on which "Europe he saw, and Europe saw him too" (''B'' IV 294). He went to Paris and Rome and "he saunter'd Europe round, / And gather'd ev'ry Vice on Christian ground" (''B'' IV 311–312). At the end of his travels, he is "perfectly well-bred, / With nothing but a Solo in his head" (''B'' IV 323–324), and he has returned to England with a despoiled nun following him. She is pregnant with his child (or the student's) and destined for the life of a prostitute (a kept woman), and the lord is going to run for Parliament of Great Britain, Parliament so that he can avoid arrest. Dulness welcomes the three—the devious student, the brainless lord, and the spoiled nun—and spreads her own cloak about the girl, which "frees from sense of Shame".
After the vacuous traveller, an idle lord appears, yawning with the pain of sitting on an easy chair. He does nothing at all. Immediately after him, Annius speaks. He is the natural predator for idling nobles, for he is a forger of antiquities (named for Annio di Viterbo) who teaches the nobles to value their false Roman coins above their houses and their forged Virgil manuscripts above their own clothing. He serves Dulness by teaching her servants to vaunt their stupidity with their wealth.
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
*
*
''The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2'' containing ''The Dunciad'' B, from Project Gutenberg. Searching the text for 'THE DUNCIAD:[234]' will locate the start of the poem.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunciad, The
British poems
Narrative poems
Mock-heroic English poems
1728 poems
Works by Alexander Pope