The Dunciad Book III
Notes
4 Cimmerian In the Odyssey, XI, 14 , Homer imagines the Cimmerians to have dwelt in a gloomy land:
There in a lonely land, and gloomy cells,
The dusky nation of Cimmeria dwells;
The sun ne'er views the uncomfortable seats,
When radiant he advances, or retreats:
Unhappy race! whom endless night invades,
Clouds the dull air, and wraps them round in shades.
Pope’s edition of the Odyssey, XI, 15-20
16 Bavius A bad Roman poet
26 W–d John Ward, MP, was pilloried in 1727 for forgery. [P]
29 Settle Elkanah Settle. See Book I
43 thrid to thread (one’s way)
67 note Ho-am-ti Huangdi (Huang Ti in the Wade-Giles romanization), emperor . In 1729, Pope changed the name in the note to Chi Ho-am-ti, Shi Huangdi (Shih Huang Ti), first emperor. The First Emperor, now more often called Qin Shi Huang (Ch’in shih huang), First Qin Emperor, suppressed Confucianism, burned the classics, and had many scholars buried alive.
73 note Medicina Animæ The Physick of the Soul [P, in the Dunciad Variorum] The story that Umar ordered the destruction of the library at Alexandria is now regarded as false.
77 Hyperborean of the far north
79 Mœotis In antiquity, the name for the sea of Azov and the marshes at the mouth of the river Don, noted for being cold and frozen much of the time.
83 Alaric King of the Visigoths, sacked Rome in 410.
84 Genseric King of the Vandals and Alans
85 Latium region in central Italy
96 Bacon Roger Bacon was vulgarly supposed to have made a brazen head that could speak. [TE]
98 * * * 1728f has Apelles. There was a Greek painter Apelles; there was also a gnostic heresiarch named Apelles.
117 Berecynthia one of the names of Cybele, {MORE}
128 C—r “He refers to he shameless Theophilus Cibber” [EC]
132 Durfey Tom Durfey, A writer of popular songs and plays.
132 * * * In the Dunciad variorum, the asterisks were replaced by Ward, ie. Ned Ward, a popular writer, but Ned Ward was older than Theophilus Cibber. TE suggests Thomas Cooke.
133 Gill-house “It is doubtful whether the word ‘gill-house’ should be understood as meaning a house where gill – as distinguished from ale – was sold, gill being beer impreganted with fround ivy; or whether it signifies an inferior kind of ale-house where beer was sold by the gill,” [EC] The OED takes it as the latter, but the only citation is to this line of Dunciad, TE seems to take it as the former, citing Johnson’s Dictionary for gill meaning a kind of beer, also called gill ale or gill beer.. Gill ale takes its name from gill, a shortened version of gill-over-the-ground, a popular name for ground ivy.
137 B— Sir Thomas Burnet, in 1715 attacked Pope in a periodical called The Grumbler. [TE]
138 D— George Duckett coallaborated with his friend Tom Burnet in two pamphelts called Homerides which attacked Pope and his Homer. He probably wrote two numbers of Pasquin which annoyed Pope. [TE]
152 Castalia a nymph who was transformed by Apollo into a fountain. Vistiors to the oracle at Delphi washed their hair in the Castalian Spring. Drinking Castalia’s waters or listening to their quit sound was said to provide poetic inspiration. [Wikipedia]
153 T— Elizabeth Thomas [TE] The identification is purely speculative, as TE discusses. Curll’s Key and the anonymous 1728 Key say Trotter, for Mrs. Catherine Trotter, a writer of tragedies. However, she is not known to have offended Pope and indeed was an admirer of his. [TE]
154 H—ck Philip Horneck, writer of several attacks on Pope.
154 M— Joseph Mitchell, a minor poet.
155 W—n Thomas Woolston, a freethinker and a prolific writer of controversial pamphlets. [TE]
156 J—b Giles Jacob, compiler of law dictionaries.
166 K—, Br—, W— White Kennet, Bishop of Peterborough; The identification of the other two is difficult. In the 1728 marginalia the second name is shown as Br—d and the third W—n. In the 1736 marginalia the names are Kennet, Br—d, and W—t (my transcription) or W—y, (Mack’s transcription.) SEE EC and TE NOTES, Checked DNB for Br—d.
174 W—s, B—r, M—n The names were suggested by Curll. Presumably Isaac Watts, the hymnwriter and author of a text on Logic, Henry Baker, a naturalist and poet, and Luke Milbourne, a poet and divine who had attacked Dryden.
180 H— Thomas Hearne, an antiqurian.
185 *seer The first editions lack a note. In the Third Edition, a note was introduced, I have used the form it took it the Dunciad Variorum:
211 R—ch Mr. John Rich, Master of the Theatere in Lincolns-Inn-fields, was the first that excell’d this way. [P]
216 B—th Barton Booth, actor. “Booth and Cibber, two fo the managers of the Theatre in Drury-Lane.” [P]
238 Ridpath is as dear as Mist George Ridpath, author for several years of the Flying-Post, a Whig-paper; Nathaniel Mist, publisher of the Weekly Journal, a Tory-paper. [P]
251 * * and * * In the Dunciad Variorum the blanks were filled in with “Magistrates and Peers.” Concanen had suggested “George and Caroline” and Curll suggested “Kings and Princesses.” The reading “Peers and Potentates” comes from the 1736 marginalia.
258 Faustus is thy friend: Pluto with Cato &c Names of miserable farces of Tibbald and others, which it was their custom to get acted at the end of best Tragedies, to spoil the idgestion of the audience. [P] Addison’s Cato; Congreve’s The Mourning Bride.
265 Semele asked the god Zeus to appear to her undisguised and she perished from the lightening when he fulfilled her request.
270 Saturnian The reign of Caesar Augustus was called a return to the mythical GoldenAge and termed poetically Saturnian. Pope pointed out in a note to the Duciad Variorum, I, 26, Saturn was associated with lead by alchemists, so Pope is here referring to an Age of Lead.
271 E—n Laurence Eusden. Poet=Laureate [P]
273 B— William Benson succeeded Christopher Wren as Surveyor-General but was removed in 1719 for an erroneous report that the chamber where the House of Lords met was in danger of falling down. [adapted from P]
274 A—e P—s Ambrose Philips, a [astoral poet whom Pope considered insipid and childish.
275 Dormitory A dormitory at Westminster school. The architect was Pope’s friend Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington. “The shell being finished according to his Lordship’s design, the ...Dean and Chapter employ’d a common builder to do the inside, which is perform’d accordingly,” [P]
276 Savoy refers to Savy House in the Strand, described by Strype in the 1720 edition of A Survey of London as “at this present a very ruinous building.” [TE]
277 Isis The part of the tiver Thames that flows through Oxford.
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