consider that the exercises of his authors could with
justice be no higher than tickling, chattering, braying,
or diving, it was no easy matter to invent such games
as were proportioned to the meaner degree of
booksellers. In Homer and Virgil, Ajax and Nisus, the
persons drawn in this plight are heroes, whereas here
they are such with whom it had been great
impropriety to have joined any but vile ideas ....
Nevertheless I have often heard our author own that
this part of the poem was (as frequently happens)
what cost him most trouble and pleased him least, but
that he hoped ‘twas excusable since levelled at such as
understand no delicate satire’ (1729).
62 caitiff vaticide base murderer of poets.
66 the Pope’s arms the Bible is Curll’s sign, the cross
keys, as in the papal crown, Lintot’s.
68 ambrosia the solid food of the gods.
76 ichor the blood of the gods.
77 Cloacina the purifier, the Roman goddess of the
common shores.
100 Evans, Young, and Swift wits not dunces.
from Book the FourthLines 1–30, 71–90, 119–26, 135–60, 189–92, 203–14, 229–
44, 398–438, 565–70, 577–84 and 605–end.
9 the dog-star See the ‘Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot’, line 3.
13 the seed of Chaos Dullness.
14 extinguish light the reverse of the action of God in
‘Let there be light’. Dullness undoes creation.
15 venal mercenary.
16 Saturnian days of lead and gold In mythology the god
Saturn is associated with the golden age of peace,
innocence, and virtue. That age gave way to the
silver, then to the bronze, and finally to the iron. Here
a further degeneration is envisaged to a fifth age of
lead (Saturn in alchemy is the technical term for lead)
which will bring an ironic reversion to an age of