The Dunciad: Book The Second Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A B CCDEFFGGHHHH IIJJ HHKKHHHHLM KKNN OOPPHHQQHHFFRRNNJJFF SSHH TFFUUVVHHRRWWXXYYKKK KFFFFH HHFFKKZZHH HHFFOOA2A2KKHHB2B2HH KKKKFFKKFFKK NC2FFKKD2E2F2F2 G2G2KKHHKKC HHKKFFH2H2I2I2HHHHA2 A2 KKKKZZHHS J2J2HHKKKKHHK2K2KKHH L2L2 HHFFSS NNFFK KKHHHHHHHHSSFF NNFFM2M2KKFF HHKKN2N2O2O2KKP2P2H QQOOKKQ2Q2QQK KKXXFFHHHHR2R2NC2HHK KOOB2B2 KKHHKKQQOOKKK HHF KKFF FFKK KKHH S2S2HHXX T2T2KKHHD2CH OOKKHHKK HHKKHHHH QQG2G2OOHHHHHHU2U2S2 S2 HHKKR2 HHKKV2W2KKHHOOHH HHHHXXZZKKB2 SSKKX2X2SSCE2HHOOR2R 2KKKKFFSSHHHHKKHHOOF FY2Y2KK KKHHKKZ2Z2KK H U F H HH H F H FF

ARGUMENT	A
	-
The king being proclaimed the solemnity is graced with public games and sports of various kinds not instituted by the hero as by Aeneas in Virgil but for greater honour by the goddess in person in like manner as the games Pythia Isthmia c were anciently said to be ordained by the gods and as Thetis herself appearing according to Homer Odyss xxiv proposed the prizes in honour of her son Achilles Hither flock the poets and critics attended as is but just with their patrons and booksellers The goddess is first pleased for her disport to propose games to the booksellers and setteth up the phantom of a poet which they contend to overtake The races described with their divers accidents Next the game for a poetess Then follow the exercises for the poets of tickling vociferating diving The first holds forth the arts and practices of dedicators the second of disputants and fustian poets the third of profound dark and dirty party writers Lastly for the critics the goddess proposes with great propriety an exercise not of their parts but their patience in hearing the works of two voluminous authors one in verse and the other in prose deliberately read without sleeping the various effects of which with the several degrees and manners of their operation are here set forth till the whole number not of critics only but of spectators actors and all present fall fast asleep which naturally and necessarily ends the games	B
	-
High on a gorgeous seat that far out shone	C
Henley's gilt tub or Flecknoe's Irish throne	C
Or that where on her Curlls the public pours	D
All bounteous fragrant grains and golden showers	E
Great Cibber sate the proud Parnassian sneer	F
The conscious simper and the jealous leer	F
Mix on his look all eyes direct their rays	G
On him and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze	G
His peers shine round him with reflected grace	H
New edge their dulness and new bronze their face	H
So from the sun's broad beam in shallow urns	H
Heaven's twinkling sparks draw light and point their horns	H
	-
Not with more glee by hands Pontific crown'd	I
With scarlet hats wide waving circled round	I
Rome in her Capitol saw Querno sit	J
Throned on seven hills the Antichrist of wit	J
	-
And now the queen to glad her sons proclaims	H
By herald hawkers high heroic games	H
They summon all her race an endless band	K
Pours forth and leaves unpeopled half the land	K
A motley mixture in long wigs in bags	H
In silks in crapes in garters and in rags	H
From drawing rooms from colleges from garrets	H
On horse on foot in hacks and gilded chariots	H
All who true dunces in her cause appear'd	L
And all who knew those dunces to reward	M
	-
Amid that area wide they took their stand	K
Where the tall maypole once o'er looked the Strand	K
But now so Anne and piety ordain	N
A church collects the saints of Drury Lane	N
	-
With authors stationers obey'd the call	O
The field of glory is a field for all	O
Glory and gain the industrious tribe provoke	P
And gentle Dulness ever loves a joke	P
A poet's form she placed before their eyes	H
And bade the nimblest racer seize the prize	H
No meagre muse rid mope adust and thin	Q
In a dun night gown of his own loose skin	Q
But such a bulk as no twelve bards could raise	H
Twelve starveling bards of these degenerate days	H
All as a partridge plump full fed and fair	F
She form'd this image of well bodied air	F
With pert flat eyes she window'd well its head	R
A brain of feathers and a heart of lead	R
And empty words she gave and sounding strain	N
But senseless lifeless idol void and vain	N
Never was dash'd out at one lucky hit	J
A fool so just a copy of a wit	J
So like that critics said and courtiers swore	F
A wit it was and call'd the phantom More	F
	-
All gaze with ardour some a poet's name	S
Others a sword knot and laced suit inflame	S
But lofty Lintot in the circle rose	H
'This prize is mine who tempt it are my foes	H
With me began this genius and shall end '	-
He spoke and who with Lintot shall contend	T
Fear held them mute Alone untaught to fear	F
Stood dauntless Curll 'Behold that rival here	F
The race by vigour not by vaunts is won	U
So take the hindmost Hell ' He said and run	U
Swift as a bard the bailiff leaves behind	V
He left huge Lintot and out stripp'd the wind	V
As when a dab chick waddles through the copse	H
On feet and wings and flies and wades and hops	H
So labouring on with shoulders hands and head	R
Wide as a wind mill all his figure spread	R
With arms expanded Bernard rows his state	W
And left legg'd Jacob seems to emulate	W
Full in the middle way there stood a lake	X
Which Curll's Corinna chanced that morn to make	X
Such was her wont at early dawn to drop	Y
Her evening cates before his neighbour's shop	Y
Here fortuned Curll to slide loud shout the band	K
And Bernard Bernard rings through all the Strand	K
Obscene with filth the miscreant lies bewray'd	K
Fallen in the plash his wickedness had laid	K
Then first if poets aught of truth declare	F
The caitiff vaticide conceived a prayer	F
'Hear Jove whose name my bards and I adore	F
As much at least as any god's or more	F
And him and his if more devotion warms	H
Down with the Bible up with the Pope's arms '	-
	-
A place there is betwixt earth air and seas	H
Where from Ambrosia Jove retires for ease	H
There in his seat two spacious vents appear	F
On this he sits to that he leans his ear	F
And hears the various vows of fond mankind	K
Some beg an eastern some a western wind	K
All vain petitions mounting to the sky	Z
With reams abundant this abode supply	Z
Amused he reads and then returns the bills	H
Sign'd with that ichor which from gods distils	H
	-
In office here fair Cloacina stands	H
And ministers to Jove with purest hands	H
Forth from the heap she pick'd her votary's prayer	F
And placed it next him a distinction rare	F
Oft had the goddess heard her servant's call	O
From her black grottos near the Temple wall	O
Listening delighted to the jest unclean	A2
Of link boys vile and watermen obscene	A2
Where as he fish'd her nether realms for wit	K
She oft had favour'd him and favours yet	K
Renew'd by ordure's sympathetic force	H
As oil'd with magic juices for the course	H
Vigorous he rises from the effluvia strong	B2
Imbibes new life and scours and stinks along	B2
Repasses Lintot vindicates the race	H
Nor heeds the brown dishonours of his face	H
	-
And now the victor stretch'd his eager hand	K
Where the tall Nothing stood or seem'd to stand	K
A shapeless shade it melted from his sight	K
Like forms in clouds or visions of the night	K
To seize his papers Curll was next thy care	F
His papers light fly diverse toss'd in air	F
Songs sonnets epigrams the winds uplift	K
And whisk them back to Evans Young and Swift	K
The embroider'd suit at least he deem'd his prey	F
That suit an unpaid tailor snatch'd away	F
No rag no scrap of all the beau or wit	K
That once so flutter'd and that once so writ	K
	-
Heaven rings with laughter of the laughter vain	N
Dulness good queen repeats the jest again	C2
Three wicked imps of her own Grub Street choir	F
She deck'd like Congreve Addison and Prior	F
Mears Warner Wilkins run delusive thought	K
Breval Bond Bezaleel the varlets caught	K
Curll stretches after Gay but Gay is gone	D2
He grasps an empty Joseph for a John	E2
So Proteus hunted in a nobler shape	F2
Became when seized a puppy or an ape	F2
	-
To him the goddess 'Son thy grief lay down	G2
And turn this whole illusion on the town	G2
As the sage dame experienced in her trade	K
By names of toasts retails each batter'd jade	K
Whence hapless Monsieur much complains at Paris	H
Of wrongs from duchesses and Lady Maries	H
Be thine my stationer this magic gift	K
Cook shall be Prior and Concanen Swift	K
So shall each hostile name become our own	C
And we too boast our Garth and Addison '	-
	-
With that she gave him piteous of his case	H
Yet smiling at his rueful length of face	H
A shaggy tapestry worthy to be spread	K
On Codrus' old or Dunton's modern bed	K
Instructive work whose wry mouth'd portraiture	F
Display'd the fates her confessors endure	F
Earless on high stood unabash'd Defoe	H2
And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge below	H2
There Ridpath Roper cudgell'd might ye view	I2
The very worsted still look'd black and blue	I2
Himself among the storied chiefs he spies	H
As from the blanket high in air he flies	H
And oh he cried what street what lane but knows	H
Our purgings pumpings blanketings and blows	H
In every loom our labours shall be seen	A2
And the fresh vomit run for ever green	A2
	-
See in the circle next Eliza placed	K
Two babes of love close clinging to her waist	K
Fair as before her works she stands confess'd	K
In flowers and pearls by bounteous Kirkall dress'd	K
The goddess then 'Who best can send on high	Z
The salient spout far streaming to the sky	Z
His be yon Juno of majestic size	H
With cow like udders and with ox like eyes	H
This China Jordan let the chief o'ercome	S
Replenish not ingloriously at home '	-
	-
Osborne and Curll accept the glorious strife	J2
Though this his son dissuades and that his wife	J2
One on his manly confidence relies	H
One on his vigour and superior size	H
First Osborne lean'd against his letter'd post	K
It rose and labour'd to a curve at most	K
So Jove's bright bow displays its watery round	K
Sure sign that no spectator shall be drown'd	K
A second effort brought but new disgrace	H
The wild meander wash'd the artist's face	H
Thus the small jet which hasty hands unlock	K2
Spurts in the gardener's eyes who turns the cock	K2
Not so from shameless Curll impetuous spread	K
The stream and smoking flourish'd o'er his head	K
So famed like thee for turbulence and horns	H
Eridanus his humble fountain scorns	H
Through half the heavens he pours the exalted urn	L2
His rapid waters in their passage burn	L2
	-
Swift as it mounts all follow with their eyes	H
Still happy impudence obtains the prize	H
Thou triumph'st victor of the high wrought day	F
And the pleased dame soft smiling lead'st away	F
Osborne through perfect modesty o'ercome	S
Crown'd with the Jordan walks contented home	S
	-
But now for authors nobler palms remain	N
Room for my lord three jockeys in his train	N
Six huntsmen with a shout precede his chair	F
He grins and looks broad nonsense with a stare	F
His honour's meaning Dulness thus express'd	K
'He wins this patron who can tickle best '	-
	-
He chinks his purse and takes his seat of state	K
With ready quills the dedicators wait	K
Now at his head the dext'rous task commence	H
And instant fancy feels the imputed sense	H
Now gentle touches wanton o'er his face	H
He struts Adonis and affects grimace	H
Rolli the feather to his ear conveys	H
Then his nice taste directs our operas	H
Bentley his mouth with classic flattery opes	H
And the puff'd orator bursts out in tropes	H
But Welsted most the poet's healing balm	S
Strives to extract from his soft giving palm	S
Unlucky Welsted thy unfeeling master	F
The more thou ticklest gripes his fist the faster	F
	-
While thus each hand promotes the pleasing pain	N
And quick sensations skip from vein to vein	N
A youth unknown to Phoebus in despair	F
Puts his last refuge all in Heaven and prayer	F
What force have pious vows The Queen of Love	M2
Her sister sends her votaress from above	M2
As taught by Venus Paris learn'd the art	K
To touch Achilles' only tender part	K
Secure through her the noble prize to carry	F
He marches off his Grace's secretary	F
	-
'Now turn to different sports the goddess cries	H
And learn my sons the wondrous power of noise	H
To move to raise to ravish every heart	K
With Shakspeare's nature or with Jonson's art	K
Let others aim 'tis yours to shake the soul	N2
With thunder rumbling from the mustard bowl	N2
With horns and trumpets now to madness swell	O2
Now sink in sorrows with a tolling bell	O2
Such happy arts attention can command	K
When fancy flags and sense is at a stand	K
Improve we these Three cat calls be the bribe	P2
Of him whose chattering shames the monkey tribe	P2
And his this drum whose hoarse heroic bass	H
Drowns the loud clarion of the braying ass '	-
	-
Now thousand tongues are heard in one loud din	Q
The monkey mimics rush discordant in	Q
'Twas chattering grinning mouthing jabbering all	O
And noise and Norton brangling and Breval	O
Dennis and dissonance and captious art	K
And snip snap short and interruption smart	K
And demonstration thin and theses thick	Q2
And major minor and conclusion quick	Q2
'Hold' cried the queen 'a cat call each shall win	Q
Equal your merits equal is your din	Q
But that this well disputed game may end	K
Sound forth nay brayers and the welkin rend '	-
	-
As when the long ear'd milky mothers wait	K
At some sick miser's triple bolted gate	K
For their defrauded absent foals they make	X
A moan so loud that all the guild awake	X
Sore sighs Sir Gilbert starting at the bray	F
From dreams of millions and three groats to pay	F
So swells each windpipe ass intones to ass	H
Harmonic twang of leather horn and brass	H
Such as from labouring lungs the enthusiast blows	H
High sound attemper'd to the vocal nose	H
Or such as bellow from the deep divine	R2
There Webster peal'd thy voice and Whitfield thine	R2
But far o'er all sonorous Blackmore's strain	N
Walls steeples skies bray back to him again	C2
In Tottenham fields the brethren with amaze	H
Prick all their ears up and forget to graze	H
'Long Chancery Lane retentive rolls the sound	K
And courts to courts return it round and round	K
Thames wafts it thence to Rufus' roaring hall	O
And Hungerford re echoes bawl for bawl	O
All hail him victor in both gifts of song	B2
Who sings so loudly and who sings so long	B2
	-
This labour past by Bridewell all descend	K
As morning prayer and flagellation end	K
To where Fleet ditch with disemboguing streams	H
Rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames	H
The king of dikes than whom no sluice of mud	K
With deeper sable blots the silver flood	K
'Here strip my children here at once leap in	Q
Here prove who best can dash through thick and thin	Q
And who the most in love of dirt excel	O
Or dark dexterity of groping well	O
Who flings most filth and wide pollutes around	K
The stream be his the weekly journals bound	K
A pig of lead to him who dives the best	K
A peck of coals a piece shall glad the rest '	-
	-
In naked majesty Oldmixon stands	H
And Milo like surveys his arms and hands	H
Then sighing thus 'And am I now threescore	F
Ah why ye gods should two and two make four '	-
He said and climb'd a stranded lighter's height	K
Shot to the black abyss and plunged downright	K
The senior's judgment all the crowd admire	F
Who but to sink the deeper rose the higher	F
	-
Next Smedley dived slow circles dimpled o'er	F
The quaking mud that closed and oped no more	F
All look all sigh and call on Smedley lost	K
'Smedley ' in vain resounds through all the coast	K
	-
Then Hill essay'd scarce vanish'd out of sight	K
He buoys up instant and returns to light	K
He bears no token of the sable streams	H
And mounts far off among the swans of Thames	H
	-
True to the bottom see Concanen creep	S2
A cold long winded native of the deep	S2
If perseverance gain the diver's prize	H
Not everlasting Blackmore this denies	H
No noise no stir no motion can'st thou make	X
The unconscious stream sleeps o'er thee like a lake	X
	-
Next plunged a feeble but a desperate pack	T2
With each a sickly brother at his back	T2
Sons of a day just buoyant on the flood	K
Then number'd with the puppies in the mud	K
Ask ye their names I could as soon disclose	H
The names of these blind puppies as of those	H
Fast by like Niobe her children gone	D2
Sits Mother Osborne stupified to stone	C
And monumental brass this record bears	H
'These are ah no these were the gazetteers '	-
	-
Not so bold Arnall with a weight of skull	O
Furious he dives precipitately dull	O
Whirlpools and storms his circling arm invest	K
With all the might of gravitation bless'd	K
No crab more active in the dirty dance	H
Downward to climb and backward to advance	H
He brings up half the bottom on his head	K
And loudly claims the journals and the lead	K
	-
The plunging Prelate and his ponderous Grace	H
With holy envy gave one layman place	H
When lo a burst of thunder shook the flood	K
Slow rose a form in majesty of mud	K
Shaking the horrors of his sable brows	H
And each ferocious feature grim with ooze	H
Greater he looks and more than mortal stares	H
Then thus the wonders of the deep declares	H
	-
First he relates how sinking to the chin	Q
Smit with his mien the mud nymphs suck'd him in	Q
How young Lutetia softer than the down	G2
Nigrina black and Merdamante brown	G2
Vied for his love in jetty bowers below	O
As Hylas fair was ravish'd long ago	O
Then sung how shown him by the nut brown maids	H
A branch of Styx here rises from the shades	H
That tinctured as it runs with Lethe's streams	H
And wafting vapours from the land of dreams	H
As under seas Alpheus' secret sluice	H
Bears Pisa's offerings to his Arethuse	H
Pours into Thames and hence the mingled wave	U2
Intoxicates the pert and lulls the grave	U2
Here brisker vapours o'er the Temple creep	S2
There all from Paul's to Aldgate drink and sleep	S2
	-
Thence to the banks where reverend bards repose	H
They led him soft each reverend bard arose	H
And Milbourn chief deputed by the rest	K
Gave him the cassock surcingle and vest	K
'Receive he said these robes which once were mine	R2
Dulness is sacred in a sound divine '	-
	-
He ceased and spread the robe the crowd confess	H
The reverend Flamen in his lengthen'd dress	H
Around him wide a sable army stand	K
A low born cell bred selfish servile band	K
Prompt or to guard or stab to saint or damn	V2
Heaven's Swiss who fight for any god or man	W2
Through Lud's famed gates along the well known Fleet	K
Rolls the black troop and overshades the street	K
Till showers of sermons characters essays	H
In circling fleeces whiten all the ways	H
So clouds replenish'd from some bog below	O
Mount in dark volumes and descend in snow	O
Here stopp'd the goddess and in pomp proclaims	H
A gentler exercise to close the games	H
	-
'Ye critics in whose heads as equal scales	H
I weigh what author's heaviness prevails	H
Which most conduce to soothe the soul in slumbers	H
My Henley's periods or my Blackmore's numbers	H
Attend the trial we propose to make	X
If there be man who o'er such works can wake	X
Sleep's all subduing charms who dares defy	Z
And boasts Ulysses' ear with Argus' eye	Z
To him we grant our amplest powers to sit	K
Judge of all present past and future wit	K
To cavil censure dictate right or wrong	B2
Full and eternal privilege of tongue '	-
	-
Three college Sophs and three pert Templars came	S
The same their talents and their tastes the same	S
Each prompt to query answer and debate	K
And smit with love of poesy and prate	K
The ponderous books two gentle readers bring	X2
The heroes sit the vulgar form a ring	X2
The clamorous crowd is hush'd with mugs of mum	S
Till all tuned equal send a general hum	S
Then mount the clerks and in one lazy tone	C
Through the long heavy painful page drawl on	E2
Soft creeping words on words the sense compose	H
At every line they stretch they yawn they doze	H
As to soft gales top heavy pines bow low	O
Their heads and lift them as they cease to blow	O
Thus oft they rear and oft the head decline	R2
As breathe or pause by fits the airs divine	R2
And now to this side now to that they nod	K
As verse or prose infuse the drowsy god	K
Thrice Budgell aim'd to speak but thrice suppress'd	K
By potent Arthur knock'd his chin and breast	K
Toland and Tindal prompt at priests to jeer	F
Yet silent bow'd to Christ's no kingdom here	F
Who sate the nearest by the words o'ercome	S
Slept first the distant nodded to the hum	S
Then down are roll'd the books stretch'd o'er 'em lies	H
Each gentle clerk and muttering seals his eyes	H
As what a Dutchman plumps into the lakes	H
One circle first and then a second makes	H
What Dulness dropp'd among her sons impress'd	K
Like motion from one circle to the rest	K
So from the midmost the nutation spreads	H
Round and more round o'er all the sea of heads	H
At last Centlivre felt her voice to fail	O
Motteux himself unfinished left his tale	O
Boyer the state and Law the stage gave o'er	F
Morgan and Mandeville could prate no more	F
Norton from Daniel and Ostroea sprung	Y2
Bless'd with his father's front and mother's tongue	Y2
Hung silent down his never blushing head	K
And all was hush'd as Polly's self lay dead	K
	-
Thus the soft gifts of sleep conclude the day	K
And stretch'd on bulks as usual poets lay	K
Why should I sing what bards the nightly Muse	H
Did slumbering visit and convey to stews	H
Who prouder march'd with magistrates in state	K
To some famed round house ever open gate	K
How Henley lay inspired beside a sink	Z2
And to mere mortals seem'd a priest in drink	Z2
While others timely to the neighbouring Fleet	K
Haunt of the Muses made their safe retreat	K
	-
	-
VARIATIONS	H
	-
VER in the first edition	U
	-
But Oldmixon the poet's healing balm c	F
	-
After VER in the first edition followed these	H
	-
Far worse unhappy D r succeeds	H
He searched for coral but he gather'd weeds	H
	-
VER In the first edition it was	H
	-
Collins and Tindal prompt at priests to jeer	F
	-
VER In the first edition it was	H
	-
T s and T the Church and State gave o'er	F
Nor talk'd nor S whisper'd more	F

Alexander Pope

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