The Dunciad (pronounced /ˈdʌnsiˌæd/) is a landmark literary satire by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times. Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and Performing arts In satire human Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744 is generally regarded as the greatest English Poet of the eighteenth century best known for his Satirical The first version (the "three book" Dunciad) was published in 1728. Year 1728 ( MDCCXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a The second version, in which Pope confirmed his authorship of the work, appeared in the Dunciad Variorum in 1735. Year 1735 ( MDCCXXXV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a The New Dunciad, in four books and with a different hero, appeared in 1743. Year 1743 ( MDCCXLIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a The poem celebrates the goddess Dulness and the progress of her chosen agents as they bring decay, imbecility, and tastelessness to the kingdom of Great Britain. Dulness is the Goddess who presides over Alexander Pope 's The Dunciad. See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands
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Origins
Pope told Joseph Spence (in Spence's Anecdotes) that he had been working on a general satire of Dulness, with characters of contemporary scribblers, for some time and that it was the publication of Shakespeare Restored by Lewis Theobald that spurred him to complete the poem and publish it in 1728. Lewis Theobald (baptised April 2, 1688 &ndash September 18, 1744) British textual editor and author was a landmark figure both Certainly Pope had written characters of the various "Dunces" prior to 1728. In his Essay on Criticism, Pope characterizes some witless critics. An Essay on Criticism was the first major poem written by the English writer Alexander Pope (1688-1744 In his various Moral Epistles, Pope likewise draws characters of contemporary authors of poor taste. However, the general structure owes its origins to, on the one hand, the communal project of the Scribblerians and, on the other, the mock-heroic MacFlecknoe by John Dryden. Mac Flecknoe is a verse Mock-heroic Satire written by John Dryden. John Dryden (– was an influential English poet Literary critic, Translator and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England
The Scribblerian club comprised Jonathan Swift, John Gay, John Arbuthnot, Robert Harley, and Thomas Parnell most consistently, and the group met during the spring and summer of 1714. Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 John Gay ( 30 June, 1685 - 4 December, 1732) was an English Poet and Dramatist. John Arbuthnot, often known simply as Dr Arbuthnot, ( baptised 29 April, 1667 &ndash 27 February, 1735) was a physician Robert Harley 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer ( 5 December 1661 &ndash 21 May 1724) was an English statesman of the Stuart This article is about the poet Thomas Parnell (scientist started the Pitch drop experiment in 1927 Thomas Parnell ( 11 One group project was to write a satire of contemporary abuses in learning of all sorts, where the authors would combine to write the biography of the group's fictional founder, Martin Scriblerus. The resulting The Memoirs of Martin Scriblerus contained a number of parodies of the most lavish mistakes in scholarship.
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, whom Dryden nominates as the dullest poet of the age. Thomas Shadwell (c 1642 &ndash 19 November 1692) was an English Playwright and miscellaneous Writer who was appointed Shadwell is the spiritual son of Flecknoe, an obscure Irish poet of low fame, and he takes his place as the favorite 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 parody. For the group of nine Ancient Egyptian deities see Ennead. The Aeneid (əˈniːɪd in A parody (ˈpɛɹədiː US, [ˈpaɹədiː] UK) in contemporary usage is a work created to mock comment on or poke fun at an original work its subject 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 '32) and Colley Cibber (1742). Colley Cibber (ˈkɒli ˈsɪbɚ (11 June 1671 &ndash 12 November 1757 was a British actor-manager playwright and Poet Laureate.
The three-book Dunciad A and the Dunciad Variorum
Pope first published The Dunciad in 1728 in three books, with Lewis Theobald 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). Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world 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, and Richard Blackmore. George Duckett ( February 19, 1684 &ndash October 6, 1732) was a British Member of Parliament (MP Attorney Thomas Burnet (c 1635? - September 27 1715) theologian and writer on Cosmogony, was born at Croft near Darlington, and educated Sir Richard Blackmore, ( 22 January 1654 &ndash 9 October 1729) English Poet and Physician, is remembered primarily All of these, however, were less vicious than the attack launched by Edmund Curll, 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. Edmund Curll ( c 1675 - December 11, 1747) was an English Bookseller and Publisher.
In 1729, Pope published an acknowledged edition of the poem, and the Dunciad Variorum appeared in 1732. Year 1729 ( MDCCXXIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common 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 The prefatory material has Pope speaking in his own defense, 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, but it was probably written by Pope himself. John Cleland ( baptised 24 September 1709 &ndash 23 January 1789) was an English Novelist most famous and infamous
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 apologizes for using parody of the Classics (for his poem imitates both Homer and Virgil) by pointing out that the ancients also used parody to belittle unworthy poets. A parody (ˈpɛɹədiː US, [ˈpaɹədiː] UK) in contemporary usage is a work created to mock comment on or poke fun at an original work its subject Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Publius Vergilius Maro ( October 15, 70 BCE &ndash September 21, 19 BCE later called Virgilius, and known in English as Virgil or 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 characterizations 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, James Thomson, and Jonathan Swift are brought together to praise Pope specifically for being temperate and timely in his charges. Edward Young ( June, 1681(As stated in Rev J Mitford's Biography of Young - April 5, 1765) was an English Poet, best remembered James Thomson ( 11 September, 1700 &ndash 27 August, 1748) was a Scottish Poet and playwright known for his masterpiece Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 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 and long term cause for choosing Lewis Theobald as the King of Dunces for the first version of the Dunciad. The proximate 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. Year 1726 ( MDCCXXVI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Pope had published his own version of Shakespeare in 1725, and he had made a number of errors in it. Year 1725 ( MDCCXXV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a He had "smoothed" some of Shakespeare's lines, had chosen readings that eliminated puns (which Pope regarded as low humor), and had, indeed, missed several good readings and preserved some bad ones. A pun (or paronomasia) is a Phrase that deliberately exploits confusion between similar-sounding Words for humorous or Rhetorical 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 Bathos, in Miscellanies, Volume the Third (which was actually the first volume), but Pope's attack there shows that Theobald was already a figure of fun. Bathos is from the Greek βάθος, meaning depth. As used in English it originally referred to a particular type of bad Poetry, 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, plagiarized 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. John Rich (1692 - 1761 was an important director and theatre manager in 18th century London.
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 Whigs (with the Tories) are often described as one of two political parties in England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to 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, who had come to the throne earlier in the year. George II (George Augustus 10 November 1683 &ndash 25 October 1760 was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg ( Furthermore, although the King of Dunces, Theobald, writes for the radical Tory Mist's Journal, Pope consistently hammers at radical Protestant authors and controversialists. In the political tradition of some English-speaking countries, the term Tory has referred to a variety of political parties and Creeds since it was Daniel Defoe is mentioned almost as frequently as anyone in the poem, and the booksellers picked out for abuse both specialized in partisan Whig publications. Daniel Defoe (1659/1661 — April 24, 1731 was an English Writer, Journalist, and Pamphleteer, who gained enduring fame for
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 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. Samuel Johnson (often referred to as Dr Johnson) (18 September 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 (a patron) chinks his purse, and takes his seat of state. . . And (among the poets) instant, fancy feels th' imputed sense" (II 189-91). 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. Year 1724 ( MDCCXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a She chooses Lewis Theobald as his successor. In honor 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 (where booksellers were), down by Bridewell Prison to the Fleet ditch, then to Ludgate at the end of Book II; in Book III, Dulness goes through Ludgate to the City of London to her temple. Fleet Street is a street in London, England named after the River Fleet. Bridewell Palace, London, originally a residence of Henry VIII, later became a poorhouse and prison Ludgate was the westernmost gate in London Wall. The name survives in Ludgate Hill, an eastward continuation of Fleet Street, and Ludgate Circus For London as a whole see the main article London. The City of London is a geographically
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" (Smithfield being the site of Bartholomew Fair entertainments, and the man in question was Elkanah Settle, who had written for Bartholomew Fair after the Glorious Revolution; Pope makes him the one who brought pantomime, farce, and monster shows to the royal theaters). Bartholomew Fair is a Comedy in five acts by Ben Jonson, the last written of his four great comedies Elkanah Settle ( January 1, 1648 &ndash February 12, 1724) was an English Poet and Playwright. The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England (VII of Scotland in 1688 by a union 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," and thus claims credit for the routine violation of the Unities of Aristotle in poetry. The classical unities or three unities are rules for Drama derived from a passage in Aristotle 's Poetics. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. 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. Year 1724 ( MDCCXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a 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, Daniel Defoe (for writing political journalism), Ambrose Philips, Nahum Tate, and Sir Richard Blackmore as her darlings. Thomas Heywood (early 1570s&mdash 16 August[[ 641]] was a prominent English playwright actor and miscellaneous author whose peak period of activity falls between Daniel Defoe (1659/1661 — April 24, 1731 was an English Writer, Journalist, and Pamphleteer, who gained enduring fame for Ambrose Philips, (1674 &ndash 18 June 1749) was an English Poet. Nahum Tate (1652&ndash July 30, 1715) was an Irish Poet, Hymnist, and Lyricist, who became England's Poet laureate in 1692 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" (a Vatican Library for Northern European authors, and especially notable for vainglorious and contentious writing and criticism). The Vatican Library ( Latin: Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana) is the Library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. 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 and his Mist's Journal. Nathaniel Mist (? - September 30, 1737) was an 18th century British printer and Journalist whose Mist's Weekly 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,
- "How, with less reading than makes felons 'scape,
- Less human genius than God gives an ape,
- Small thanks to France and none to Rome or Greece,
- A past, vamp'd, future, old, reviv'd, new piece,
- 'Twixt Plautus, Fletcher, Congreve, and Corneille,
- Can make a Cibber, Johnson, or Ozell. Titus Maccius Plautus (c 254–184 BCE commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman Playwright. John Fletcher (1579 &ndash 1625 was a Jacobean Playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was William Congreve ( 24 January 1670 &ndash 19 January 1729) was an English Playwright and Poet. Colley Cibber (ˈkɒli ˈsɪbɚ (11 June 1671 &ndash 12 November 1757 was a British actor-manager playwright and Poet Laureate. Charles Johnson, Charlie Johnson and Charley Johnson is a name shared by the following individuals Public officials Charles Johnson John Ozell (? - October 15, 1743) was an English Translator and Accountant who became an adversary to Jonathan Swift and " (I. 235-40)
The book ends with a hail of praise, calling Theobald now the new King Log (from Aesop's fable). Aesop (also spelled Æsop, from the Greek Αἴσωπος — Aisōpos) (620-560 BC) known only for the genre of Fables
A Book II
Book II centers on the highly scatological "heroic games. " Theobald sits on throne of Dulness, which is a velvetine tub ("tub" being the common term for the pulpit of Dissenters), and Dulness declares the opening of heroic games to celebrate his coronation. The term dissenter (from the Latin dissentire, “to disagree” labels one who dissents or disagrees in matters of opinion belief etc Therefore, all her sons come before her on the Strand in London, leaving half the kingdom depopulated, for she summons both dull writers, their booksellers, and all who are stupid enough to patronize dull writers. The Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom.
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,
- "No meagre, muse-rid mope, adust and thin,
- In a dun night-gown of his own loose skin," (II. 33-4)
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, who had plagiarized 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. James Moore Smythe ( 1702 - 1734) was an English playwright, Fop, and wastrel who was born James Moore The booksellers immediately set out running to be the first to grab Moore, with Bernard Lintot setting forth with a roar (Lintot had been James Moore Smythe's publisher), only to be challenged by Edmund Curll:
- "As when a dab-chick waddles thro' the copse,
- On feet and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops;
- So lab'ring on, with shoulders, hands, and head,
- Wide as a windmill all his figure spread . Barnaby Bernard Lintot ("Lintott" before 1724 usually referred to as "Bernard" and very rarely as "Barnaby" ( December 1, 1675 - . .
- Full in the middle way there stood a lake,
- Which Curl's Corinna chanc'd that morn to make,
- (Such was her wont, at early down to drop
- Her evening cates before his neighbour's shop,)
- Here fortun'd Curl to slide; loud shout the band,
- And Bernard! Bernard! rings thro' all the Strand. Elizabeth Thomas (1675 &ndash 1731 poet was born in London the only child of Elizabeth Osborne (died 1719 aged 16 and lawyer Emmanuel Thomas (d " (II 59-70)
The race seemingly having been decided by progress through bed-pan slops, Curll prays to Jove, who consults the goddess Cloacina. In Roman mythology, Jupiter was the king of the gods and the god of Sky and Thunder. In Roman mythology, Cloacina (derived from the Latin word "cloaca" meaning "sewer" or "drain" was the goddess who presided over the 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 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 (for having printed an unauthorized edition of the sermons of the school's master, thereby robbing the school's own printer). John Tutchin (Born 1660 ? 1664 ? - September 23, 1707) was a radical Whig controversialist and gadfly English Journalist England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The Royal College of St Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain 's leading boys' Independent schools with
The next contest Dulness proposes is for the phantom poetess, Eliza (Eliza Haywood). Eliza Haywood (1693 - February 25, 1756) (born Elizabeth Fowler was an English Writer, Actress and Publisher. She is compared to their Hera. In the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hera (ˈhɪərə or /ˈhɛrə/ Greek) or Here ( in Ionic and Homer Where Hera was "cow-eyed" in Iliad, and "of the herders," Haywood inverts these to become a
- ". . . Juno of majestic size,
- With cow-like-udders, and with ox-like eyes" (II 155-6).
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) all the while. A sexually transmitted disease ( STD) or venereal disease ( VD) is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between Humans 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 with six porters, takes his seat. The litter is a class of Wheelless Vehicles a type of Human-powered transport, for the transport of persons 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 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 and got him an office from the Whig ministry), only to have the lord clench his money tighter. John Oldmixon (1673 &ndash July 9, 1742) was an English Historian. The House of Stuart or Stewart was a Royal house of the Kingdom of Scotland, later also of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of 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:
- "'Twas chatt'ring, grinning, mouthing, jabb'ring all,
- And Noise, and Norton, Brangling, and Breval,
- Dennis and Dissonance; and captious Art,
- And Snip-snap short, and Interruption smart.
- 'Hold (cry'd the Queen) A Catcall each shall win,
- Equal your merits! equal is your din!" (II. 229-234)
The critics are then invited to all bray at the same time. In this, Richard Blackmore wins easily:
- "All hail him victor in both gifts of Song,
- Who sings so loudly, and who sings so long. " (II. 255-6)
(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 267-8). The Fleet Ditch was the sewer outlet for the city at the time, 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 267-8), 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, Daily Journal, inter al. 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 criticized Jonathan Swift for gain) dives in and vanishes. Jonathan Smedley ( 1671 - 1729) was an Anglo-Irish religious opportunist and satirical victim who engaged in an open and hostile polemic with Jonathan Others attempt the task, but none succeed like Leonard Welsted (who had satirized Pope, Gay, and Arbuthnot's play Three Hours after Marriage 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 296-7). Leonard Welsted ( baptised June 3, 1688 - August 1747 was an English Poet and "dunce" in Alexander Pope 's writings Year 1717 ( MDCCXVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a He wins the Journals, but Smedly reappears, saying that he had gone all the way down to Hades, 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. Hades (from Greek, Hadēs, originally, Haidēs or, Aidēs, probably from Indo-European *n̥-wid- 'unseen' refers both to the ancient In Classical Greek, Lethe (λήθη Classical Greek, Modern Greek:) literally means "forgetfulness" or "concealment"
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. John Henley ( August 3, 1692 – October 13, 1759) English Clergyman, commonly known as 'Orator Henley' and one of the first The one who can will be the chief judge of Dulness. Three sophomores from Cambridge University and three lawyers from Temple Bar attempt the task, but they all fall asleep. The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University) located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the Temple Bar is the barrier (real or imaginary marking the westernmost extent of the City of London on the road to Westminster, where Fleet Street (extending The entire company slowly falls asleep, with the last being Susanna Centlivre (who had attacked Pope's translation of Homer before its publication) and "Norton Defoe" (another false identity created by a political author who claimed to be the "true son" of Daniel Defoe). Susanna Centlivre (born Susanna Freeman, also known professionally as Susanna Carroll; baptised November 1667 - December 1 Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Finally, Folly herself is killed by the dullness of the works being read aloud. In Architecture, a folly is a Building constructed strictly as a decoration having none of the usual purposes of housing or sheltering associated with a conventional 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 dips each soul in Lethe to make it dull before sending it to a new body. Bavius and Maevius were two notoriously malevolent critics in the age of Augustus Caesar who belittled and attacked the talents of superior writers according to (In classical mythology, 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. Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and Heroes the nature of the world and the origins and significance ) Elkannah Settle hails Theobald as the great promised one, the messiah 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. This article is about the concept of a Messiah in religion notably in the Christian Islamic and Jewish traditions Theobald had formerly been a Boeotian, several Dutchmen, several monks, all before being himself: "All nonsense thus, of old or modern date, / Shall in thee centre, from thee circulate" (III 51-2). Boeotia, Beotia, or Bœotia ( Greek: Βοιωτία - English biːˈoʊʃiə formerly Cadmeis was a region of Ancient Greece, north of the The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands MONK is a Monte Carlo software package for simulating nuclear processes particularly for the purpose of determining the neutron multiplication factor or k-effective
Settle gives Theobald full knowledge of Dulness. This is his baptism: 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 Christianity, baptism ( Greek, "immersing" "performing Ablutions " is the ritual act with the use of water by which one is admitted Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) In mainstream Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is one of the three entities of the Holy Trinity which make up the single substance Settle shows Theobald the past triumphs of Dulness in its battles with reason and science. He surveys the translatio stultitia: the Great Wall of China and the emperor burning all learned books, Egypt and Omar I burning the books in the Ptlomaean library. Translatio studii is the geographic movement of learning In the Renaissance and later historians saw the metaphorical light of learning as moving much as the light The Great Wall of China ( or ( is a series of stone and earthen Fortifications in China, built rebuilt and maintained between the 6th century BC and the 16th Umar (a=عمر بن الخطاب|t=`Umar ibn al-Khattāb c 581-83 CE &ndash 7 November, 644) also known as Umar the Great or Omar the Great Then he turns to follow the light of the sun/learning to Europe and says,
- "How little, mark! that portion of the ball,
- Where, faint at best, the beams of Science fall.
- Soon as they dawn, from Hyperborean skies,
- Embody'd dark, what clouds of Vandals rise!" (III 75-8)
Goths, Alans, Huns, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Islam are all seen as destroyers of learning. In Greek mythology, according to tradition the Hyperboreans were a mythical people who lived far to the north of Thrace. The Goths ( Gothic: Gothic usvg|14px|u]]Gothic asvg|14px|a]]Gothic s The Alans or Alani (occasionally but more rarely termed Alauni or Halani) were an Iranian nomadic group among the Sarmatian people The Huns were an early confederation of Central Asian equestrian nomads or semi-nomads with a Turkic core of aristocracy The Ostrogoths (Ostrogothi or Austrogothi were a branch of the Goths, an East Germanic tribe that played a major role in the political events of the late The Visigoths (Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, or Wisi were one of two main branches of the Goths, an East For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. Christianity in the medieval period is also an enemy of learning and reason in Settle's view:
- "See Christians, Jews, one heavy sabbath keep;
- And all the Western World believe and sleep. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings " (III 91-2)
Pope lambasts the medieval popes for destroying statuary and books that depicted Classical gods and goddesses and for vandalizing others, for making statues of Pan into Moses. Pan ( Greek, Genitive) is the Greek god of shepherds and flocks of mountain wilds hunting and rustic music paein means to pasture Moses ( Latin: Moyses,; Greek: grc Mωυσής in both the Septuagint and the New Testament; Arabic: ar موسىٰ
Settle then surveys the future. He says that Grub Street will be Dulness's Mount Parnassus, where the goddess will "Behold a hundred sons, and each a dunce" (III 130). Until the early 1800s Grub Street was the name of a street in London 's impoverished Moorfields district Mythology Mount Parnassus is named after Parnassos the son of the Nymph Kleodora and the man Kleopompus. He names two sons of contemporary dunces who were already showing signs of stupidity: Theophilus Cibber (III 134) and the son of Bishop Burnet. Theophilus Cibber ( November 26, 1703 - 1758 was an English Actor, Playwright, author and son of the actor-manager Colley Cibber Gilbert Burnet ( September 18, 1643 – March 17, 1715) was a Scottish theologian and Historian, and Bishop of Salisbury
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:
- "A Lumberhouse of Books in every head,
- For ever reading, never to be read. " (III 189-90)
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!" 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:
- "Gods, imps, and monsters, music, rage, and mirth,
- A fire, a jig, a battle, and a ball,
- Till one wide Conflagration swallows all. " (III 233-6)
Even though Pope was on good terms with some of the men involved (e. g. Henry Carey, who provided music for the Drury Lane version), the two companies are fighting to see who can make the least sense. Henry Carey (c August 26, 1687 &ndash October 5, 1743) was an English poet dramatist and song-writer This competition of vulgarity is lead by two theaters, and each has its champion of decadence. At Lincoln's Inn Fields is the "Angel of Dulness," John Rich:
- "Immortal Rich! how calm he sits at ease
- Mid snows of paper, and fierce hail of pease;
- And proud his mistress' orders to perform,
- Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm. John Rich (1692 - 1761 was an important director and theatre manager in 18th century London. " (III 257-260)
Rich's ability to ride in a stage whirlwind (in parody of God in the Book of Job) is matched by Colley Cibber and Barton Booth, patentees of the Drury Lane theater, who mount the stage in purple dragons and have an aerial battle. God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. The Book of Job ( איוב) is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. Barton Booth (1681 &ndash 10 May 1733 was one of the most famous dramatic Actors of the first part of the 18th century 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 prophesizes that Theobald will live in an age that will see Laurence Eusden the Poet Laureate and Colley Cibber the "Lord Chancellor of plays". Laurence Eusden ( 1688 - September 27, 1730) was an English Poet who became Poet Laureate in 1718
Settle then reveals some current triumphs of dullness over good sense. He mentions William Benson as the proper judge of architecture,
- "While Wren with sorrow to the grave descends,
- Gay dies un-pension'd with a hundred Friends.
- Hibernian Politicks, O Swift, thy doom,
- And Pope's translating three whole years with Broome. " (III 325-328)
William Benson was a fool who had taken the place of Sir Christopher Wren and told the House of Lords that the house was unsound and falling down. Sir Christopher Wren ( 20 October 1632 &ndash 25 February 1723) was a 17th century English Designer, Astronomer The House of Lords is the second house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords" 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. John Gay ( 30 June, 1685 - 4 December, 1732) was an English Poet and Dramatist. Jonathan Swift had been "exiled" to Ireland, where he had become involved in Irish politics. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world Pope himself had spent three years translating Homer. Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems 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:
- "Lo! the great Anarch's ancient reign restor'd,
- Light dies before her uncreating word. " (III 339-40)
Settle invokes the second coming of stupidity, urging,
- "Thy hand great Dulness! lets the curtain fall,
- And universal Darkness covers all. " (III 355-6)
At the very conclusion, Theobald cannot take any more joy, and he wakes. The vision goes back through the ivory gate of Morpheus. Morpheus ( Greek: Μορφέας Μορφεύς, "he who forms shapes moulds" from the Greek morphe) is the Greek
Themes of the The Dunciad A
The Three Book Dunciad has an extensive inversion of Virgil's Aeneid, but it also structures itself heavily around a Christological theme. Publius Vergilius Maro ( October 15, 70 BCE &ndash September 21, 19 BCE later called Virgilius, and known in English as Virgil or Christology (from Christ and Greek grc -λογία -logia) is a field of study within Christian theology which is concerned with 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 could ever have been in Dryden's poem. Thomas Shadwell (c 1642 &ndash 19 November 1692) was an English Playwright and miscellaneous Writer who was appointed 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 and freak shows, but Dulness is only one force. In general spectacle refers to an event that is memorable for the appearance it creates 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. Year 1741 ( MDCCXLI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year 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. Year 1743 ( MDCCXLIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a 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. William Warburton ( December 24, 1698 &ndash June 7, 1779) was an English Critic and churchman Bishop of Gloucester 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
Colley Cibber's Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber, Comedian appeared in 1740. Year 1740 ( MDCCXL) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap There may have been a personal insult given in the autobiography, in that Cibber tells an anecdote of going with Pope and friends to a brothel. For the 2008 film of this name see The Brothel. For the television series of this name see Cathouse The Series. Since Pope was only about 4' tall, with a hunch back, due to a childhood tubercular infection of the spine, Cibber regarded taking Pope to a prostitute as a joke, and he congratulates himself on saving English poetry by pulling Pope off of an unsafe woman. Whether this betrayal of trust and scandalous anecdote is true or not, Pope's explanation of the change of hero is more than sufficient without recourse to such biographical details. First, Cibber, and his son, Theophilus, had been satirized in the three book Dunciad (see above). Theophilus Cibber ( November 26, 1703 - 1758 was an English Actor, Playwright, author and son of the actor-manager Colley Cibber Secondly, the Apology was inarguably a work of personal vanity that the age in general found offensive. Colley Cibber (ˈkɒli ˈsɪbɚ (11 June 1671 &ndash 12 November 1757 was a British actor-manager playwright and Poet Laureate. Moreover, Pope, in the guise of Ricardus Aristarchus, explains in detail why Colley Cibber is 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 Bathos 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 all 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 Gazed at. " 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. Amor Platonicus The term amor platonicus was coined as early as the 15th century by the Florentine scholar Marsilio Ficino 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 that induces admiration in the reader. Magnanimity (derived from the Latin roots magn- great and anima, soul is the virtue of being great of mind and heart 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 theater), the result is "Buffoonry" that induces laughter and disgust. Finally, Pope says that Cibber's offenses 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 honor 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. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin
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, as "o'er the gates [of Bedlam], by his fam'd father's hand/ Great Cibber's brazen, brainless brothers stand" (I 31-2) (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 dwelling upon the face of the waters in the Book of Genesis. In mainstream Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is one of the three entities of the Holy Trinity which make up the single substance
When Dulness chooses her new king, she settles on Bays, who is seen in his study surveying his own works: "Nonsense precipitate, like running Lead,/ That slip'd thro' Cracks and Zig-zags of the Head" (I 123-4) and "Next, o'er his Books his eyes began to roll,/ In pleasing memory of all he stole" (B I 127-8). The base of Cibber's pile of sacrificed books is several commonplace books, which are the basis of all his own productions. Commonplace books (or commonplaces) emerged in the 15th century with the availability of cheap paper for Writing, mainly in England. Although Cibber confesses "Some Daemon stole my pen. . . And once betray'd me into common sense," he prays to Dulness for inspiration, insisting that "Else all my Prose and Verse were much the same;/ This, prose on stilts; that, poetry fall'n lame" (I 187-90). The accidental common sense was The Careless Husband. 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 213-4). The "minister" is Robert Walpole, 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. Robert Walpole 1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC (26 August 1676 &ndash 18 March 1745 known before 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a 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. 229-30), 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 267-8). The Christian Heaven-home of Puritan songs is altered for Cibber to the originating sleep of Dulness. A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of Worship and Doctrine, 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:
- "'O! when shall rise a Monarch all our own,
- And I, a Nursing-mother, rock the throne,
- 'Twixt Prince and People close the Curtain draw,
- . . . And suckle Armies, and dry-nurse the land:
- 'Till Senates nod to Lullabies divine,
- And all be sleep, as at an Ode of thine. '" (Dunciad B I 311-18)
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:
- "Oft had the Goddess heard her servant's call,
- From her black grottos near the Temple wall,
- List'ning delighted to the jest unclean
- Of link-boys vile, and watermen obscene. " (B II 97-100)
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 victor is a chamber pot. Curll here competes with 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 win's Eliza, and Osborne is crowed with the pot.
The "tickling" contest is the same, except that Thomas Bentley, nephew of Richard Bentley the classicist, replaces Richard Blackmore. Richard Bentley ( January 27, 1662 &ndash July 14, 1742) was an English Theologian, classical scholar and This Bentley had written a fawning ode on the son of Robert Harley (a former friend of Pope's with whom he seems estranged). Robert Harley 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer ( 5 December 1661 &ndash 21 May 1724) was an English statesman of the Stuart In the noise battle, Dulness tells her poets,
- "With Shakespear's nature, or with Johnson's art,
- Let others aim: 'Tis yours to shake the soul
- With Thunder rumbling from the mustard bowl. In his own time William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616 was seen as merely one among many talented Playwrights and Poets but ever since the late 17th century Benjamin Jonson ( c 11 June 1572 &ndash 6 August 1637) was an English Renaissance Dramatist " (B II 224-6)
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 257-8). Webster was a radical Protestant religious writer who had demanded the scourging of the church, and Whitfield was George Whitfield, the notable collaborator with John Wesley, whom Pope describes as "a Field-preacher. Early life He was born at the Bell Inn Southgate Street Gloucester, England. John Wesley (ˈwɛslɪ ( – March 2, 1791) was an Anglican cleric and Christian theologian who was the founder of the (Evangelical . . thought the only means of advancing Christianity was by . . . the old death of fire and faggot" who agreed with Webster only "to abuse all the sober Clergy" (note to line 258). 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:
- "Next plung'd a feeble, but a desp'rate pack,
- With each a sickly brother at his back:
- Sons of a Day! just buoyant on the flood,
- Then number'd with the puppies in the mud. Jonathan Smedley ( 1671 - 1729) was an Anglo-Irish religious opportunist and satirical victim who engaged in an open and hostile polemic with Jonathan
- Ask ye their names? I could as soon disclose
- The names of these blind puppies as of those. " (B 305-310)
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, 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 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 to guard or stab, to saint or damn. Year 1747 ( MDCCXLVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a / Heav'n's Swiss, who fight for any God, or Man" (B II 357-8). These trimming religious authors are people like Benjamin Hoadley (who had been an aid to Smedley) and John "Orator" Henley. Benjamin Hoadly ( 14 November 1676 – 17 April 1761) was an English clergyman who was successively Bishop of Bangor 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, where 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 translatio studii and its inverse, the translatio stultitia, 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,
- "Down, down they larum, with impetuous whirl,
- The Pindars, and the Miltons of a Curl. " (B III 163-4)
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,
- ". . . his breeches rent below;
- Imbrown'd with native bronze, lo! Henley stands,
- Tuning his voice, and balancing his hands. " (B III 197-200)
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:
- "All sudden Gorgons hiss, and Dragons glare,
- And ten-horn'd fiends and Giants rush to war.
- Hell rises, Heav'n descends, and dance on Earth;
- Gods, imps, and monsters, music, rage, and mirth,
- A fire, a jigg, a battle, and a ball,
- 'Till one wide conflagration swallows all.
- Thence a new world to Nature's laws unknown,
- Breaks out refulgent, with a heav'n its own. " (B III 235-42)
The theater is providing a mockery of the Apocalypse and the second coming, an inverted, man-made spectacle of the divine. In Christianity, the Second Coming is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven to earth an event that will fulfill aspects of Messianic For these accomplishments, Settle blesses Cibber and mourns his own failure in Dulness's service. For Cibber,
- "Happier thy fortunes! like a rolling stone,
- Thy giddy dulness still shall lumber on,
- Safe in its heaviness, shall never stray,
- But lick up ev'ry blockhead in the way. " (B III 293-6).
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. Iñigo Jones ( July 15, 1573 &ndash June 21, 1652) is regarded as the first significant British architect, and the first to bring Settle wishes for the day to come soon when Eton and Westminster are in permanent holiday. Eton College, or just Eton, is a world-famous British Independent school for boys founded in 1440 by King Henry VI. Westminster is an area of Central London, within the City of Westminster. 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 is substantially different from the first three books, and it is much more allegorical. An allegory (from αλλος allos "other" and el αγορευειν agoreuein "to speak in public" is a figurative mode of representation
It opens with a second, nihilistic invocation:
- "Yet, yet a moment, one dim Ray of Light
- Indulge, dread Chaos, and eternal Night!" (B IV 1-2)
- "Suspend a while your Force inertly strong,
- Then take at once the Poet, and the Song. Nihilism (from the Latin nihil, nothing is a philosophical position that argues that Existence is without objective meaning Purpose " (ibid. 7-8)
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 and Nox (Dulness) rises to "dull and venal a new World to mold" (B IV 15) and begin a Saturnian age of lead. Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky with a visual Apparent magnitude of &minus1 Chaos (derived from the Ancient Greek, Chaos) typically refers to Unpredictability, and is the antithesis of Cosmos.
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. 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. A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight The Muses are bound in tenfold chains and guarded by Flattery and Envy. In Greek mythology, the Muses ( Ancient Greek, hai moũsai: perhaps from the Proto-Indo-European root * men- "think" are Only mathematics is free, because it is too insane to be bound. Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Nor, Pope says, could Chesterfield refrain from weeping upon seeing the sight (for Chesterfield had opposed the Licensing Act of 1737, which is the chaining of the Muses). Philip Dormer Stanhope 4th Earl of Chesterfield PC KG ( 22 September 1694 &ndash 24 March 1773) was a British Year 1737 ( MDCCXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a 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 45-6). 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 is an art form in which Singers and Musicians perform a Dramatic work (called an opera which combines a text (called a Libretto Opera then speaks to Dulness of the Muses:
- "Chromatic tortures soon shall drive them hence,
- Break all their nerves, and fritter all their sense:
- One Trill shall harmonize joy, grief, and rage,
- Wake the dull Church, and lull the ranting Stage;
- To the same notes thy sons shall hum, or snore,
- And all thy yawning daughters cry, encore. " (B IV 55-60)
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. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world
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, bow to Baal;/ Or impious, preach his Word without a call" (B IV 93-4). Phoebus (pronounced /ˈfiːbəs/ or /ˈfibəs/ is the Latin form of Greek Phoibos (Φοῖβος "Shining-one" a byname used in classical Ba'al (pronounced; Hebrew בעל (ordinarily spelled Baal in English is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" 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 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). Sir Thomas Hanmer 4th Baronet ( September 24, 1677 - May 7, 1746) was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1714 to 1715 discharging William Shakespeare ( baptised He is outshone in darkness by one Benson, who is even more absurd, in that he begins putting up monuments of John Milton, striking coins and medals of Milton, and translating Milton's Latin poetry and who had then passed from excessive Milton fanaticism to fanaticism for Arthur Johnston, a Scottish physician and Latin poet. John Milton ( 9 December, 1608 – 8 November, 1674) was an English Poet, Prose Polemicist and Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Arthur Johnston (1587&ndash1641 was a Scottish Physician and Poet, and a son of Aberdeenshire laird Johnston of Johnston and Caskieben and Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Unable to be the most fantastically vain man, Hamner prepares to withdraw his edition, but "Apollo's May'r and Aldermen" (B IV 116) take the page from him. (This was a reference to Oxford University Press, with which Pope had a quarrel based on their denying Bishop Warburton a doctorate in 1741). William Warburton ( December 24, 1698 &ndash June 7, 1779) was an English Critic and churchman Bishop of Gloucester Year 1741 ( MDCCXLI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year 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 appears, "Dripping 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. The Rev Dr Richard Busby ( 27 September 1606 - 1695 was an English clergyman and headmaster of Westminster School. The Royal College of St Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain 's leading boys' Independent schools with 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" (161-2). Dulness agrees and wishes for a pedant king like James I again, who will "stick the Doctor's Chair into the Throne" (177), for only a pedant king would insist on what her priests (and only hers) proclaim: "The RIGHT DIVINE of Kings to govern wrong" (188), for Cambridge and Oxford still uphold the doctrine. James VI and I (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625 was King of Scotland as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James
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" (196). Not to be confused with Christchurch, a city in New Zealand. Christ Church (Ædes Christi the temple or house of Christ and thus sometimes known as (John Locke had been censured by Oxford University in 1703, and his Essay on Human Understanding had been banned. John Locke (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704 was an English Philosopher. Year 1703 ( MDCCIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year ) These professors give way to their greatest figure, Richard Bentley, who appears with his Quaker hat on and refuses to bow to Dulness. Richard Bentley ( January 27, 1662 &ndash July 14, 1742) was an English Theologian, classical scholar and Bentley tells Dulness that he and critics like him are her true champions, for he had "made Horace dull, and humbled Milton's strains" (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" (213-214). Quintus Horatius Flaccus, ( Venosa, December 8, 65 BC - Rome, November 27, 8 BC known in the English-speaking world as Horace John Milton ( 9 December, 1608 – 8 November, 1674) was an English Poet, Prose Polemicist and 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. Isaac Barrow (October 1630 &ndash May 4, 1677) was an English scholar and Mathematician who is generally given credit for his early role Francis Atterbury ( March 6 1663 &ndash February 22 1732) was an English Man of letters, Politician and He says that it is "For thee explain a thing till all men doubt it,/ And write about it, Goddess, and about it" (251-2). 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, where "Europe he saw, and Europe saw him too" (294). The Grand Tour was the traditional travel of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means 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). Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 At the end of his travels, he is "perfectly well bred,/ With nothing but a Solo in his head" (323-4), and he has returned to England with a despoiled nun following him. A Nun is a Woman who has taken special vows committing her to a religious life 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 so that he can avoid arrest. TalkParliament#Screen-size. -->A parliament is a Legislature, especially in those 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. Annio da Viterbo or Annius of Viterbo (c 1432 &ndash 13 November[[ 502]] or Joannes Annius Viterb(iensis, was an Italian Dominican friar He serves Dulness by teaching her servants to vaunt their stupidity with their wealth.
Bibliography
- Pope, Alexander. The Poems of Alexander Pope. John Butt, ed. Yale UP: New Haven, 1963.
- Pope, Alexander. Poetry and Prose of Alexander Pope. Aubrey Williams, ed. Houghton Mifflin: New York, 1969.
- Mack, Maynard. Alexander Pope: A Life W. W. Norton: New York, 1985.
Online texts
- The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2, containing The Dunciad B, from Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works Searching the text for '[234]' will locate the poem.
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