Alexander Pope

The Dunciad is a landmark literary satire by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times. The first version (the "three book" Dunciad) was published in 1728. The second version, in which Pope confirmed his authorship of the work, appeared in the Dunciad Variorum in 1735. The New Dunciad, in four books and with a different hero, appeared in 1743. 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. 1881 Young Persons Cyclopedia of Persons and Places This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... 1881 Young Persons Cyclopedia of Persons and Places This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... 1867 edition of the satirical magazine Punch, a British satirical magazine, ground-breaking on popular literature satire. ... Alexander Pope, an English poet best known for his Essay on Criticism and Rape of the Lock Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) is generally regarded as the greatest English poet of the early eighteenth century, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. ... Events Astronomical aberration discovered by the astronomer James Bradley Swedish academy of sciences founded at Uppsala The founding of the University of Havana (Universidad de la Habana), Cubas most well-established university. ... Events April 16 - The London premiere of Alcina by George Frideric Handel, his first the first Italian opera for the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. ... // Events February 14 - Henry Pelham becomes British Prime Minister February 21 - - The premiere in London of George Frideric Handels oratorio, Samson. ... Dulness is the goddess who presides over Alexander Popes The Dunciad. ...

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. Certainly Pope had written characters of the various "Dunces" prior to 1728. In his Essay on Criticism, Pope characterizes some witless critics. 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. Lewis Theobald (1688 - 1744), British textual editor and author, was a landmark figure both in the history of Shakespearean editing and in literary satire. ... An Essay on Criticism was the first major poem written by the British writer Alexander Pope. ... John Dryden John Dryden (August 9, 1631 – May 12, 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known as the Age of Dryden. ...

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. 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. Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Irish priest, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, and poet, famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapiers Letters, The Battle of the Books, and A Tale of a Tub. ... John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 - 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist. ... For other people named John Arbuthnot, see John Arbuthnot (disambiguation) Dr. John Arbuthnot, often known simply as Dr. Arbuthnot, (baptised April 29, 1667 – February 27, 1735), was a Scottish physician, satirist and polymath in London. ... Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer (5 December 1661 – 21 May 1724), was an English statesman of the Stuart and early Georgian periods. ... Thomas Parnell (1679-1718) was a poet, born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College. ...

For the mock-heroic structure of the Dunciad itself, however, the idea seems to have come most clearly from John Dryden's MacFlecknoe. MacFlecknoe is a poem celebrating the apotheosis of Thomas Shadwell, 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 favorite of the goddess Dulness. John Dryden John Dryden (August 9, 1631 – May 12, 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known as the Age of Dryden. ... MacFlecknoe is a verse mock-heroic satire written by John Dryden. ... Apotheosis means glorification, usually to a divine level, coming from the Greek word apotheoun, to deify. ... Thomas Shadwell Thomas Shadwell (c. ...

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. 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). The Aeneid (IPA English pronunciation: ; in Latin Aeneis, pronounced — the title is Greek in form: genitive case Aeneidos): is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BC (between 29 and 19 BC) that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy where he... Parody of Back to the Future In contemporary usage, a parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ... Colley Cibber, actor, playwright, Poet Laureate, first British actor-manager, and head Dunce of Alexander Popes Dunciad. ...

The three-book Dunciad A and the Dunciad Variorum

Frontispiece and front page to The Dunciad Variorum (1729).

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). 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. 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. The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... George Duckett (February 19, 1684 - October 6, 1732) was a British Member of Parliament, attorney, and literary combatant of Alexander Popes. ... Thomas Burnet Thomas Burnet (1635? - 1715), theologian and writer on cosmogony, was born at Croft near Darlington, and educated at Cambridge, and became Master of Charterhouse and Clerk of the Closet to William III. His literary fame rests on his Telluris Theoria Sacra, or Sacred Theory of the Earth, published... Sir Richard Blackmore (c. ... Edmund Curll (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. The Variorum was substantially the same text as the 1729 edition, but it now had a lengthy prolegomenon. 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. Events July 30 - Baltimore, Maryland is founded. ... Professor John Cleland is a consultant researcher from Hull who specialises in cardiology. ...

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. 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." Parody of Back to the Future In contemporary usage, a parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ... Homer (Greek: , HómÄ“ros) was a legendary early Greek poet and aoidos (singer) traditionally credited with the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey. ... A sculpture of Virgil, probably from the 1st century AD.  It should be possible to replace this fair use image with a freely licensed one. ...

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. 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." For Her Majesty the Queens private secretary see Edward Young (Royal Household). ... James Thomson (September 11, 1700 – August 27, 1748) was a Scottish poet. ... Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Irish priest, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, and poet, famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapiers Letters, The Battle of the Books, and A Tale of a Tub. ...

"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. 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 puns (which Pope regarded as low humor), 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. Events George Friderich Handel becomes a British subject. ... Events February 8 - Catherine I became empress of Russia February 20 - The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans takes place in New Hampshire colony. ... It has been suggested that dajare be merged into this article or section. ...

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. 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. Bathos is Greek for depth. ... John Rich (1682 - 1761) was an important theater manager in 18th century London. ...

Overview of the three book Dunciad

A satirical print against Pope from Pope Alexander (1729). The print was also sold separately. It shows Pope as a monkey, because the satirist calls him "A--- P--E," and he sits atop a stack of Pope's works and wears a papal tiara (referring to Pope's Roman Catholicism). The Latin at the top means "Know thyself," and the verse at the bottom is Pope's own satire on Thersites from Essay on Criticism. This was only one of many attacks on Pope after the Dunciad Variorum.

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. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1088x1759, 1868 KB)Satirical print depicting A--- P--E, for Alexander Pope, depicted as a pope, with papal tiara and atop a stack of Popes works. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1088x1759, 1868 KB)Satirical print depicting A--- P--E, for Alexander Pope, depicted as a pope, with papal tiara and atop a stack of Popes works. ... Events July 30 - Baltimore, Maryland is founded. ... The Papal Tiara, also known as the Triple Tiara, or in Latin as the Triregnum, and in Italian as the Triregno, is the three-tiered jewelled papal crown, supposedly of Byzantine and Persian origin, that is a symbol of the Roman Catholic papacy. ... In Greek mythology, Thersites, son of Agrius, was a rank-and-file soldier of the Greek army during the Trojan War. ... Alexander Pope An Essay on Criticism was the first major poem written by the British writer Alexander Pope. ...

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, who had come to the throne earlier in the year. Furthermore, although the King of Dunces, Theobald, writes for the radical Tory Mist's Journal, Pope consistently hammers at radical protestant authors and controversialists. 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. 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 mid 19th centuries. ... George II King of Great Britain and Ireland George II (George Augustus) (10 November 1683–25 October 1760) was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) and Archtreasurer and Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death. ... The term Tory (from Irish Gaelic tóraighe, an outlaw or guerrilla fighter, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms — literally meaning pursued man) applied to the Tory Party, the ancestor of the modern UK Conservative Party. ... Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (1660 [?] â€“ April 1731) was an English writer, journalist and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. ...

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. 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. For other persons named Samuel Johnson, see Samuel Johnson (disambiguation). ...

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 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. Events January 14 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne February 20 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London June 23 - Treaty of Constantinople signed. ... Fleet Street in 2005 Fleet Street is a famous street in London, England, named after the River Fleet. ... The Pass Room at Bridewell from Ackermanns Microcosm of London (1808–1811), drawn by Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin. ... Ludgate was the westernmost gate in London Wall. ... The City of London is a geographically-small City within Greater London, England. ...

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 Elkannah 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). 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. 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, Daniel Defoe (for writing political journalism), Ambrose Philips, Nahum Tate, and Sir Richard Blackmore 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. Bartholomew Fair is a play in five acts by Ben Jonson. ... The Revolution of 1688, commonly known as the Glorious Revolution, was the overthrow of James II of England in 1688 by a union of Parliamentarians and the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau (William of Orange). ... ... Aristotle (Greek: AristotélÄ“s) (384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ... Events January 14 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne February 20 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London June 23 - Treaty of Constantinople signed. ... Thomas Heywood (died approx. ... Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (1660 [?] â€“ April 1731) was an English writer, journalist and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. ... Ambrose Philips (c. ... Nahum Tate (1652 – July 30, 1715) was an Anglo-Irish poet and lyricist. ...

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). 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. 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 Vatican Library (Latin: Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana) is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. ... Nathaniel Mist (? - September 30, 1737) was an 18th century British printer and journalist whose Mists Weekly Journal was the central, most visible, and most explicit opposition newspaper. ...

"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." (I. 235-40)

The book ends with a hail of praise, calling Theobald now the new King Log (from Aesop's fable). Although we cannot verify much about Plautus’ early life, we have certain ideas. ... John Fletcher (1579-1625) was a Jacobean playwright. ... William Congreve (January 24, 1670 – January 19, 1729) was an English playwright and poet. ... Corneille is the name or pseudonym of several artists: Pierre Corneille (1606-1684), French dramatist Thomas Corneille (1625-1709), French dramatist Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo (born 1922), Dutch painter Corneille Nyungura, German-born Québécois rhythm and blues singer Corneille is a French word for raven. ... Colley Cibber, actor, playwright, Poet Laureate, first British actor-manager, and head Dunce of Alexander Popes Dunciad. ... Charles Johnson may refer to one of several individuals, including: Charles R. Johnson, contemporary African_American author Charles Johnson, 18th century Democratic_Republican politician from North Carolina Charles Elliott Johnson, contemporary Democratic politician from North Carolina Charles Johnson, Major League Baseball player Charles B. Johnson, chairman of Franklin Resources, Inc. ... John Ozell (? - October 15, 1743) was an English translator and accountant who became an adversary to Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. ... Aesop, as depicted in the Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel. ...

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. 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 term dissenter (from the Latin dissentire, to disagree), labels one who dissents or disagrees in matters of opinion, belief, etc. ... Look up Strand in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the capital of England and 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. 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:
James Moore Smythe (1702 - 1734) was an English playwright, fop, and wastrel who was born James Moore. ... Barnaby Bernard Lintot (December 1, 1675 - February 3, 1736), English publisher, was born at Southwater, Sussex, and started business as a publisher in London about 1698. ...

"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 . . .

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." (II 59-70)

The race seemingly having been decided by progress through bed-pan slops, Curll prays to Jove, who consults the goddess Cloacina. 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). In Roman mythology, Jupiter (sometimes shortened to Jove) held the same role as Zeus in the Greek pantheon. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... John Tutchin (Born 1660? 1664? Lymington - September 23, 1707) was a radical Whig controversialist and gadfly English journalist whose The Observator and earlier political activism earned him multiple trips before the bar. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... The Royal College of St. ...

The next contest Dulness proposes is for the phantom poetess, Eliza (Eliza Haywood), a Mrs. ...

". . . 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. For this, Chetham is awarded a kettle, while Curll gets the phantom lady's works and company. Sexually-transmitted infections (STIs), also known as sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs), are diseases that are commonly transmitted between partners through some form of sexual activity, most commonly vaginal intercourse, oral sex, or anal sex. ...

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. 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. Finally, a young man with no artistic ability sends his sister to the lord and wins the prize. A Sedan chair, revived at the Turkish Village of the Worlds Columbian Exposition, 1893 A Sedan chair is an enclosed windowed chair with an upholstered interior suitable for a single occupant, which was carried by two porters, one in front, one behind, using wooden rails that passed through metal... John Oldmixon (1673 - July 9, 1742) was an English historian. ... Stuart may be: a surname a male first name An alternative spelling is Stewart. ...

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. 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). 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. Jonathan Smedley (1671 - 1729) was an Anglo-Irish religious opportunist and satirical victim who engaged in an open and hostile polemic with Jonathan Swift and all of the forces of the Tory party. ... Leonard Welsted (baptised June 3, 1688 - August 1747) was an English poet and dunce in Alexander Popes writings (both in The Dunciad and in Peri Bathos). ... // Events January 4 — The Netherlands, Britain & France sign Triple Alliance February 26-March 6 What is now the northeastern United States was paralyzed by a series of blizzards that buried the region. ... Hades, Greek god of the underworld, enthroned, with his bird-headed staff, on a red-figure Apulian vase made in the 4th century BC. For other uses, see Hades (disambiguation). ... In Greek mythology, Styx (Στυξ) is the name of a river which formed the boundary between Earth and the Underworld, Hades. ... In Classical Greek, Lethe (LEE-thee) literally means forgetfulness or concealment. The Greek word for truth is a-lethe-ia, meaning un-forgetfulness or un-concealment. In Greek mythology, Lethe is one of the several rivers of Hades. ...

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 sophomores from Cambridge University 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 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. John Henley (August 3, 1692 - October 13, 1759), English clergyman, commonly known as Orator Henley, and one of the first entertainers and a precursor to the talk show hosts of today. ... The University of Cambridge, located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world, with a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ... Temple Bar can refer to: Temple Bar in London, England. ... An early eighteenth-century engraved print of Susanna Centlivre Susanna Centlivre (born Susanna Freeman, also known professionally as Susanna Carroll) (baptised November 1669 - December 1, 1723), was an English poet and actor and one of the premiere dramatists of the eighteenth century. ... Homer (Greek: , Hómēros) was a legendary early Greek poet and aoidos (singer) traditionally credited with the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey. ... Broadway Tower, England The folly at Wimpole Hall, England High Service Water Tower (1895), Lawrence, Massachusetts. ...

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. (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.) 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. 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). Reincarnation, literally to be made flesh again, as a doctrine or mystical belief, holds the notion that some essential part of a living being (or in some variations, only human beings) can survive death in some form, with its integrity partly or wholly retained, to be reborn in a new... Bavius and Maevius were two stupid and malevolent critics in the age of Augustus Caesar who belittled and attacked the talents of superior writers. ... The Oricoli bust of Zeus, King of the Gods, in the collection of the Vatican Museum. ... In Judaism, the Messiah (מָשִׁיחַ Standard Hebrew Arabic: Al-Masih, المسيح), Tiberian Hebrew , Aramaic ) initially meant any person who was anointed by a prophet of God. ... Boeotia or Beotia (//, (Greek Βοιωτια; see also list of traditional Greek place names) was the central area of ancient Greece. ... Holland is a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands. ... A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, the conditioning of mind and body in favor of the spirit. ...

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). 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. Then he turns to follow the light of the sun/learning to Europe and says, Baptism in early Christian art. ... This article is about Jesus of Nazareth. ... In various religions, most notably Trinitarian Christianity, the Holy Spirit (in Hebrew רוח הקודש Ruah haqodesh; also called the Holy Ghost) is the third consubstantial Person of the Holy Trinity. ... Translatio studii is the movement of learning. ... The Great Wall in the winter Great Wall of China shown in a map from 1805 The Great Wall of China (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: ; literally The long wall of 10,000 Li (里)¹) is a Chinese fortification built from the 5th century BC until the beginning of the 17th... Umar ibn al-Khattab, al-Farooq (in Arabic, عمر بن الخطاب) (c. ...

"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. Christianity in the medieval period is also an enemy of learning and reason in Settle's view: In Greek mythology, according to tradition, the Hyperboreans were a mythical people who lived far to the north of Thrace. ... The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century and created a state in North Africa, centered on the city of Carthage. ... NYC goth band The Naked and the Dead (1985). ... The Alans, Alani, Alauni or Halani were an Iranian nomadic group among the Sarmatian people, warlike nomadic pastoralists of varied backgrounds, who spoke an Iranian language and to a large extent shared a common culture. ... The Huns were a confederation of Central Asian equestrian nomads or semi-nomads. ... This article deals with the continental Ostrogoths. ... The Visigoths, originally Tervingi, or Vesi (the noble ones), one of the two main branches of the Goths (of which the Ostrogothi were the other), were one of the loosely-termed Germanic peoples that disturbed the late Roman Empire. ... Islam (Arabic:  ) is a monotheistic religion based upon the teachings of Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure. ... Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on Jesus of Nazareth and his life, death, resurrection, and teachings as presented in the New Testament. ...

"See Christians, Jews, one heavy sabbath keep;

And all the Western World believe and sleep." (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 who watches over shepherds and their flocks. ... Moses with the Tablets, 1659, by Rembrandt Moses or Mosheh (Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה Standard Tiberian ; Arabic: موسى, ; Geez: ሙሴ Musse) was an early Biblical Hebrew religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, and historian. ...

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). He names two sons of contemporary dunces who were already showing signs of stupidity: Theophilus Cibber (III 134) and the son of Bishop Burnet. Grub Street is the former name of the present day Milton Street, London, EC2. ... Mount Parnassus is a mountain of barren limestone in central Greece that towers above Delphi, north of the Gulf of Corinth, and offers scenic views of the surrounding olive groves and countryside. ... Theophilus Cibber in the role of Ancient Pistol. ... Gilbert Burnet (September 18, 1643-March 17, 1715) was a Scottish divine 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)

William Hogarth made this engraving entitled "A Just View of the English Stage" in 1727. It shows the managers of the Drury Lane theater (including Colley Cibber (center)) concocting an absurd farce with every possible stage effect, simply to get the better of John Rich. The toilet paper in the privy is labelled "Hamlet" and "Way of Ye World."

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: Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1593x1607, 2222 KB)A Just View of the English Stage by William Hogarth. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1593x1607, 2222 KB)A Just View of the English Stage by William Hogarth. ... William Hogarth (November 10, 1697 – October 26, 1764) was a major English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited as a pioneer in western sequential art. ... Events 1727 to 1800 - Lt. ... The present-day Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, sketched when it was new, in 1813. ... Colley Cibber, actor, playwright, Poet Laureate, first British actor-manager, and head Dunce of Alexander Popes Dunciad. ... John Rich (1682 - 1761) was an important theater manager in 18th century London. ...

"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. 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: Henry Carey (c. ... John Rich (1682 - 1761) was an important theater manager in 18th century London. ...

"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." (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. 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". This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... The Book of Job (איוב) is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. ... Barton Booth (1681- May 10, 1733) was one of the most famous dramatic actors of the first part of the 18th century. ... Laurence Eusden (1688 - 1730) was an English poet. ...

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. 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. Settle sees in these things great prospects for the coming age of darkness. Christopher Wren. ... This article is about the British House of Lords. ... John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 - 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist. ... Homer (Greek: , Hómēros) was a legendary early Greek poet and aoidos (singer) traditionally credited with the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey. ...

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 (he who forms, shapes, molds) is the principal Greek god of dreams. ...

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. 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. 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. 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. A sculpture of Virgil, probably from the 1st century AD.  It should be possible to replace this fair use image with a freely licensed one. ... Christology is that part of Christian theology which studies and attempts to define Jesus the Christ. ... Thomas Shadwell Thomas Shadwell (c. ... In general spectacle refers to an event that is memorable for the appearance it creates. ...

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. // Events April 10 - Austrian army attack troops of Frederick the Great at Mollwitz August 10 - Raja of Travancore defeats Dutch East India Company naval expedition at Battle of Colachel December 19 - Vitus Bering dies in his expedition east of Siberia December 25 - Anders Celsius develops his own thermometer scale Celsius... // Events February 14 - Henry Pelham becomes British Prime Minister February 21 - - The premiere in London of George Frideric Handels oratorio, Samson. ... William Warburton (December 24, 1698 – June 7, 1779), was an English critic and churchman, Bishop of Gloucester from 1759. ...

Colley Cibber: King of Dunces

Colley Cibber's Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber, Comedian appeared in 1740. 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. 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). Secondly, the Apology was inarguably a work of personal vanity that the age in general found offensive. Moreover, Pope, in the guise of Ricardus Aristarchus, explains in detail why Colley Cibber is the perfect hero for a mock heroic parody. Events May 31 - Friedrich II comes to power in Prussia upon the death of his father, Friedrich Wilhelm I. October 20 - Maria Theresia of Austria inherits the Habsburg hereditary dominions (Austria, Bohemia, Hungary and present-day Belgium). ... A brothel, also known as a bordello or whorehouse, is an establishment specifically dedicated to prostitution. ... Theophilus Cibber in the role of Ancient Pistol. ... Colley Cibber, actor, playwright, Poet Laureate, first British actor-manager, and head Dunce of Alexander Popes Dunciad. ...

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. 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. 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. Platonic love in its modern popular sense is an affectionate relationship into which the sexual element does not enter, especially in cases where one might easily assume otherwise. ... Magnanimity is the generosity of the victor to the defeated. ...

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. The word Bible refers to the canonical collections of sacred writings of Judaism and Christianity. ...

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. Look up Bedlam in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In various religions, most notably Trinitarian Christianity, the Holy Spirit (in Hebrew רוח הקודש Ruah haqodesh; also called the Holy Ghost) is the third consubstantial Person of the Holy Trinity. ... Genesis (Greek: Γένεσις, having the meanings of birth, creation, cause, beginning, source and origin) is the first book of the Torah (five books of Moses) and hence the first book of the Tanakh, part of the Hebrew Bible; it is also the first book of the Christian Old Testament. ...

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. 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. 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. Commonplace books (or commonplaces) emerged in the 15th century with the availability of cheap paper for writing, mainly in England. ... The Right Honourable Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745), usually known as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. ... Caroline of Ansbach (later Queen Caroline; Wilhelmina Charlotte Caroline; 1 March 1683 – 20 November 1737) was the Queen Consort of George II // Margravine Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach was born on 1 March 1683, at Ansbach in Germany, the daughter of Johann Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach and his second wife...

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. 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: A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was any person seeking purity of worship and doctrine, especially the parties that rejected the Laudian reform of the Church of England. ...

"'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 odure 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. 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, Richard Bentley (January 27, 1662 – July 14, 1742) was an English theologian, Classics scholar and critic. ... Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer (5 December 1661 – 21 May 1724), was an English statesman of the Stuart and early Georgian periods. ...

"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." (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. . . 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." William Shakespeare, the man who of all Modern, and perhaps Ancient Poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul (John Dryden, 1668), our myriad-minded Shakespeare (S. T. Coleridge, 1817), up for grabs (Terry Hawkes, 1992). ... Benjamin Jonson (circa June 11, 1572 – August 6, 1637) was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. ... George Whitefield was a minister in the Church of England and one of the leaders of the Methodist movement. ... John Wesley (June 17, 1703–March 2, 1791) was an 18th-century Anglican clergyman and Christian theologian who was an early leader in the Methodist movement. ...

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: Jonathan Smedley (1671 - 1729) was an Anglo-Irish religious opportunist and satirical victim who engaged in an open and hostile polemic with Jonathan Swift and all of the forces of the Tory party. ...

"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.

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./ 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. 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. John Potter (c. ... Events February 19 - England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster. ... // Events January 31 - The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Dock Hospital April 9 - The Scottish Jacobite Lord Lovat was beheaded by axe on Tower Hill, London, for high treason; he was the last man to be executed in this way in Britain May 14 - First battle of Cape... Benjamin Hoadly (1676- 1761), British bishop of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester, famous for initiating the Bangorian Controversy. ...

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. Saint Mary and Saint Mary the Virgin both redirect here. ...

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. For these accomplishments, Settle blesses Cibber and mourns his own failure in Dulness's service. For Cibber, Look up Apocalypse in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Second Coming or Last Coming refers to the Christian and Islamic belief in the coming or return of Jesus Christ to fulfill Messianic prophecy, such as the resurrection of the dead, last judgment and full establishment of the Kingdom of God (also called the Reign of God), including the...

"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. Settle wishes for the day to come soon when Eton and Westminster are in permanent holiday. As with the earlier version of the poem, the book ends with Cibber excitedly waking from his dream. Inigo Jones, by Sir Anthony van Dyck Inigo Jones (July 15, 1573–June 21, 1652) is regarded as the first significant English architect. ... The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor, commonly known as Eton College or just Eton, is an internationally renowned public school (privately funded and independent) for male students, founded in 1440 by Henry VI. It is located in Eton, Berkshire, near Windsor in England, situated north... Westminster is a district within the City of Westminster in London. ...

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 Greek αλλος, allos, other, and αγορευειν, agoreuein, to speak in public) is a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than (and in addition to) the literal. ...

It opens with a second, nihilistic invocation: Nihilism is a philosophical position, often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche. ...

"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." (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. For other uses, see Sirius (disambiguation). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... The 3 letter word/formula nox can mean: Nyx, a goddess of Night (nox is Latin for night). ...

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. The Muses are bound in ten-fold chains and guarded by Flattery and Envy. Only mathematics is free, because it is too insane to be bound. 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). 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.) Sophism (gr. ... The ermine (Mustela erminea) is a dark brown weasel, with a distinctive black-tipped tail. ... Two bishops assist at the Exhumation of Saint Hubert, who was a bishop too, at the église Saint-Pierre in Liège. ... MuSE is an acronym that stands for Multiple Streaming Engine. ... Euclid, Greek mathematician, 3rd century BC, known today as the father of geometry; shown here in a detail of The School of Athens by Raphael. ... Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (22 September 1694 - 24 March 1773) was a British statesman and man of letters. ... The Licensing Act or Theatrical Licensing Act of 1737 was a landmark act of censorship of the British stage. ... Events 12 February — The San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is inaugurated. ...

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 then speaks to Dulness of the Muses: The Teatro alla Scala in Milan. ...

"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. George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German Baroque composer who was a leading composer of concerti grossi, operas and oratorios. ...

An illustration of Othello striking Desdemona from Thomas Hanmer's ornate 1743 edition of William Shakespeare. The text was based on Pope's edition.

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). 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). 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. 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). 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). Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1083x1525, 1904 KB)Othello strikes Desdemona in a woodcut from Thomas Hanmers 1743 edition of William Shakespeare. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1083x1525, 1904 KB)Othello strikes Desdemona in a woodcut from Thomas Hanmers 1743 edition of William Shakespeare. ... // Events February 14 - Henry Pelham becomes British Prime Minister February 21 - - The premiere in London of George Frideric Handels oratorio, Samson. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Phoebus is the Latin form of Greek Phoibos Shining-one, a by-name used in classical mythology for the god Apollo. ... Baal (; Hebrew: בעל) is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning master or lord that is used for various gods, spirits and demons particularly of the Levant, cognate to Assyrian bêlu. ... Sir Thomas Hanmer (September 24, 1677 - May 7, 1746) was the forth baronet of Hanmer, Flintshire and Speaker of the House of Commons from 1714 to 1715, discharged the duties of the office with conspicuous impartiality. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... For other persons named John Milton, see John Milton (disambiguation). ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Arthur Johnston (1587-1641) was a Scottish physician and poet. ... Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots 2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I... Lycian Apollo, early Imperial Roman copy of a fourth century Greek original (Louvre Museum) In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo (Ancient Greek , Apóllōn; or , Apellōn), the ideal of the kouros, was the archer-god of medicine and healing, light, truth, archery and also a bringer of death... Oxford University Press (OUP) is a highly-respected publishing house and a department of the University of Oxford in England. ... William Warburton (December 24, 1698 – June 7, 1779), was an English critic and churchman, Bishop of Gloucester from 1759. ... // Events April 10 - Austrian army attack troops of Frederick the Great at Mollwitz August 10 - Raja of Travancore defeats Dutch East India Company naval expedition at Battle of Colachel December 19 - Vitus Bering dies in his expedition east of Siberia December 25 - Anders Celsius develops his own thermometer scale Celsius...

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. 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. Richard Busby (1606 - 1695) was an English clergyman, and headmaster of Westminster School. ... The Royal College of St. ... James VI and I (James Stuart) (June 19, 1566 – March 27, 1625) was King of Scots, King of England, and King of Ireland and was the first to style himself King of Great Britain. ...

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). (John Locke 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 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 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). 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" (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. Christ Church is the name of various churches and cathedrals, usually Protestant, named after Jesus Christ himself. ... ................ John Locke (August 29, 1632 – October 28, 1704) was an influential English philosopher. ... Events February 2 - Earthquake in Aquila, Italy February 4 - In Japan, the 47 samurai commit seppuku (ritual suicide) February 14 - Earthquake in Norcia, Italy April 21 - Company of Quenching of Fire (ie. ... Richard Bentley (January 27, 1662 – July 14, 1742) was an English theologian, Classics scholar and critic. ... The Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, or Friends, is a religious community founded in England in the 17th century. ... Horace, as imagined by Anton von Werner Quintus Horatius Flaccus, (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. ... For other persons named John Milton, see John Milton (disambiguation). ... Isaac Barrow (October 1630 - May 4, 1677) was an English divine, scholar and mathematician who is generally given minor credit for his role in the development of modern calculus; in particular, for his work regarding the tangent; for example, Barrow is given credit for being the first to calculate the... Francis Atterbury (March 6, 1663 - February 22, 1732), was an English man of letters, politician and bishop. ...

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). 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" (323-4), 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 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." The interior of the Pantheon in the 18th century, painted by Giovanni Paolo Panini In the 18th century, the Grand Tour was a kind of education for wealthy British noblemen, wherein the primary educational value was exposure to the cultured artifacts of antiquity and the Renaissance as well as the... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Paris Eiffel tower as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... Nickname: The Eternal City Motto: SPQR: Senatus PopulusQue Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Mayor Walter Veltroni Area    - City 1,285 km²  (580 sq mi... Nun in cloister, 1930; photograph by Doris Ulmann A nun is a woman who has taken special vows committing her to a religious life. ... States currently utilizing parliamentary systems are denoted in red and orange—the former being constitutional monarchies where authority is vested in a parliament, and the latter being parliamentary republics whose parliaments are effectively supreme over a separate head of state. ...

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. Annius of Viterbo (c. ...

Themes of the Greater Dunciad

Literary significance and reception

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.