work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
4666,"",HDIS,2004-01-05 00:00:00 UTC,"While mad Ophelia we lament,
And Her distraction mourn,
Our grief's misplac'd, Our tears mispent,
Since what for Her condition's meant
More justly fits Our Own.
For if 'tis happiness to be,
From all the turns of Fate,
From dubious joy, and sorrow free;
Ophelia then is blest, and we
Misunderstand Her state.
The Fates may do whate'er they will,
They can't disturb her mind,
Insensible of good, or ill,
Ophelia is Ophelia still,
Be Fortune cross or kind.
Then make with reason no more noise,
Since what should give relief,
The quiet of Our mind destroys,
Or with a full spring-tide of joys,
Or a dead-ebb of grief.
(ll. 1-20, pp. 696-7)",,12264,•I've included twice: Tide and Ebb,"""The quiet of Our mind destroys, / Or with a full spring-tide of joys, / Or a dead-ebb of grief. ""","",2009-09-14 19:36:47 UTC,I've included the entire poem.
4686,"",HDIS,2004-01-05 00:00:00 UTC,"Well! I will never more complain,
Or call the Fates unkind;
Alas! how fond it is, how vain!
But self-conceitedness does reign
In every mortal mind.
(ll. 1-5, p. 714)",,12360,"","""But self-conceitedness does reign / In every mortal mind.""","",2013-07-22 15:13:33 UTC,""
4727,"",HDIS,2003-09-29 00:00:00 UTC,"In eldest time, e'er mortals writ or read,
E'er Pallas issu'd from the Thund'rer's head,
Dulness o'er all possess'd her ancient right,
Daughter of Chaos and eternal Night:
Fate in their dotage this fair Ideot gave,
Gross as her sire, and as her mother grave,
Laborious, heavy, busy, bold, and blind,
She rul'd, in native Anarchy, the mind.
[...]
Remarks.
Ver. 16. She rul'd, in native Anarchy, the mind .]The native Anarchy of the mind is that state which precedes the time of Reason's assuming the rule of the Passions. But in that state, the uncontrolled violence of the Passions would soon bring things to confusion, were it not for the intervention of Dulness in this absence of Reason; who, though she cannot regulate them like Reason, yet blunts and deadens their Vigour, and, indeed, produces some of the good effects of it: Hence it is that Dulness has often the appearance of Reason. This is the only good she ever did; and the Poet takes particular care to tell it in the very introduction of his Poem. It is to be observed indeed, that this is spoken of the universal rule of Dulness in ancient days, but we may form an idea of it from her partial Government in later times. ",2004-06-22,12467,•All these versions of the Dunciad are going to drive me mad!
•VISITED footnote (6/22/2004)
•I've included this entry twice in Government: once in Rule of Dullness and once in Anarchy.,"Dullness ""rul'd, in native Anarchy, the mind""","",2009-09-14 19:37:01 UTC,""
4727,"",HDIS,2003-09-29 00:00:00 UTC,"Remarks.
Ver. 115. supperless the Hero sate ,]
It is amazing how the sense of this hath been mistaken by all the former commentators, who most idly suppose it to imply that the Hero of the poem wanted a supper. In truth a great absurdity! Not that we are ignorant that the Hero of Homer's Odyssey is frequently in that circumstance, and therefore it can no way derogate from the grandeur of Epic Poem to represent such Hero under a calamity, to which the greatest, not only of Critics and Poets, but of Kings and Warriors, have been subject. But much more refined, I will venture to say, is the meaning of our author: It was to give us, obliquely, a curious precept, or, what Bossu calls, a disguised sentence , that ""Temperance is the life of Study."" The language of poesy brings all into action; and to represent a Critic encompassed with books, but without a supper, is a picture which lively expresseth how much the true Critic prefers the diet of the mind to that of the body, one of which he always castigates, and often totally neglects for the greater improvement of the other.
Scribl.
But since the discovery of the true Hero of the poem, may we not add that nothing was so natural, after so great a loss of Money at Dice, or of Reputation by his Play, as that the Poet should have no great stomach to eat a supper? Besides, how well has the Poet consulted his Heroic Character, in adding that he swore all the time?
Bentl. ",,12468,"","""The language of poesy brings all into action; and to represent a Critic encompassed with books, but without a supper, is a picture which lively expresseth how much the true Critic prefers the diet of the mind to that of the body, one of which he always castigates, and often totally neglects for the greater improvement of the other.""","",2009-09-14 19:37:01 UTC,""
4727,Will-o'-the-Wisp (Ignis Fatuus),HDIS (Poetry),2003-09-29 00:00:00 UTC,"Then he: Great Tamer of all human art!
First in my care, and ever at my heart;
Dulness! whose good old cause I yet defend,
With whom my Muse began, with whom shall end;
E'er since Sir Fopling's Periwig was Praise,
To the last honours of the Butt and Bays:
O thou! of Bus'ness the directing soul!
To this our head like byass to the bowl,
Which, as more pond'rous, made its aim more true,
Obliquely wadling to the mark in view:
O! ever gracious to perplex'd mankind,
Still spread a healing mist before the mind ;
And lest we err by Wit's wild dancing light,
Secure us kindly in our native night.
Or, if to Wit a coxcomb make pretence,
Guard the sure barrier between that and Sense;
Or quite unravel all the reas'ning thread,
And hang some curious cobweb in its stead!
As, forc'd from wind-guns, lead itself can fly,
And pond'rous slugs cut swiftly thro the sky;
As clocks to weight their nimble motion owe,
The wheels above urg'd by the load below:
Me Emptiness, and Dulness could inspire,
And were my Elasticity, and Fire.
",2003-10-23,12469,"•I've neglected ""Wit"" which deserves its own entry.
•I've split this into two entries: 'Weather': 'Mist' and 'Optics': 'Light'
• Going back through and putting in Ignis-Fatuus. Combined entries and deleted duplicate.","""Still spread a healing mist before the mind; / And lest we err by Wit's wild dancing light, / Secure us kindly in our native night.""","",2011-05-20 17:06:22 UTC,""
4727,"",HDIS,2003-09-29 00:00:00 UTC,"Remarks.
Ver. 15. A slip-shod Sibyl ] This allegory is extremely just, no conformation of the mind so much subjecting it to real Madness, as that which produces real Dulness. Hence we find the religious (as well as the poetical) Enthusiasts of all ages were ever, in their natural state, most heavy and lumpish; but on the least application of heat, they run like lead, which of all metals falls quickest into fusion. Whereas fire in a Genius is truly Promethean, it hurts not its constituent parts, but only fits it (as it does well-tempered steel) for the necessary impressions of art. But the common people have been taught (I do not know on what foundation) to regard Lunacy as a mark of Wit , just as the Turks and our modern Methodists do of Holiness . But if the cause of Madness assigned by a great Philosopher be true, it will unavoidably fall upon the dunces. He supposes it to be the dwelling over long on one object or idea : Now as this attention is occasioned either by Grief or Study, it will be fixed by Dulness; which hath not quickness enough to comprehend what it seeks, nor force and vigour enough to divert the imagination from the object it laments.
",2003-10-23,12470,•INTEREST. I've included twice: Lead and Steel.,"""Enthusiasts of all ages were ever, in their natural state, most heavy and lumpish; but on the least application of heat, they run like lead, which of all metals falls quickest into fusion. """,Metal,2009-09-14 19:37:01 UTC,Book III
4727,Mind's Eye,HDIS,2003-09-29 00:00:00 UTC,"Oh born to see what none can see awake!
Behold the wonders of th'oblivious Lake.
Thou, yet unborn, hast touch'd this sacred shore;
The hand of Bavius drench'd thee o'er and o'er.
But blind to former as to future fate,
What mortal knows his pre-existent state?
Who knows how long thy transmigrating soul
Might from Boeotian to Boeotian roll?
How many Dutchmen she vouchsaf'd to thrid?
How many stages thro' old Monks she rid?
And all who since, in mild benighted days,
Mix'd the Owl's ivy with the Poet's bays.
As man's Mæanders to the vital spring
Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring;
Or whirligigs, twirl'd round by skilful swain,
Suck the thread in, then yield it out again:
All nonsense thus, of old or modern date,
Shall in thee centre, from thee circulate.
For this our Queen unfolds to vision true
Thy mental eye, for thou hast much to view:
Old scenes of glory, times long cast behind
Shall, first recall'd, rush forward to thy mind:
Then stretch thy sight o'er all her rising reign,
And let the past and future fire thy brain.
[...]
Imitations.
Ver. 61, 62. For this our Queen unfolds to vision true
Thy mental eye, for thou hast much to view :]
This has a resemblance to that passage in Milton, book xi. where the Angel
To nobler sights from Adam's eye remov'd
The film; then purg'd with Euphrasie and Rue
The visual nerve --For he had much to see.
There is a general allusion in what follows to that whole Episode.
",2003-10-23,12471,"","""Thy mental eye, for thou hast much to view: / Old scenes of glory, times long cast behind / Shall, first recall'd, rush forward to thy mind: / Then stretch thy sight o'er all her rising reign, / And let the past and future fire thy brain.""",Eye,2009-09-14 19:37:01 UTC,""
4727,"",HDIS (Poetry),2003-09-29 00:00:00 UTC,"Remarks.
Ver. 199. lo! Henley stands, &c. ]
J. Henley the Orator; he preached on the Sundays upon Theological matters, and on the Wednesdays upon all other sciences. Each auditor paid one shilling. He declaimed some years against the greatest persons, and occasionally did our Author that honour. Welsted, in Oratory Transactions, N. 1. published by Henley himself, gives the following account of him. ""He was born at Melton-Mowbray in Leicestershire. From his own Parish school he went to St. John's College in Cambridge. He began there to be uneasy; for it shock'd him to find he was commanded to believe against his own judgment in points of Religion, Philosophy, &c. for his genius leading him freely to dispute all propositions, and call all points to account, he was impatient under those fetters of the free-born mind. --Being admitted to Priest's orders, he found the examination very short and superficial, and that it was not necessary to conform to the Christian religion , in order either to Deaconship , or Priesthood ."" He came to town, and after having for some years been a writer for Booksellers, he had an ambition to be so for Ministers of state. The only reason he did not rise in the Church, we are told, ""was the envy of others, and a disrelish entertained of him, because he was not qualified to be a compleat Spaniel ."" However he offered the service of his pen to two great men, of opinions and interests directly opposite; by both of whom being rejected, he set up a new Project, and styled himself the Restorer of ancient eloquence . He thought ""it as lawful to take a licence from the King and Parliament at one place, as another; at Hickes's-hall, as at Doctors-commons; so set up his Oratory in Newport-market, Butcher-row. There (says his friend) he had the assurance to form a Plan, which no mortal ever thought of; he had success against all opposition; challenged his adversaries to fair disputations, and none would dispute with him; writ, read, and studied twelve hours a day; composed three dissertations a week on all subjects; undertook to teach in one year what schools and Universities teach in five ; was not terrified by menaces, insults, or satyrs, but still proceeded, matured his bold scheme, and put the Church , and all that , in danger .""
Welsted, Narrative in Orat. Transact. N. 1.
After having stood some Prosecutions, he turned his rhetoric to buffoonry upon all public and private occurrences. All this passed in the same room; where sometimes he broke jests, and sometimes that bread which he called the Primitive Eucharist . --This wonderful person struck Medals, which he dispersed as Tickets to his subscribers: The device, a Star rising to the meridian, with this motto, ad summa; and below, inveniam viam aut faciam. This man had an hundred pounds a year given him for the secret service of a weekly paper of unintelligible nonsense, called the Hyp-Doctor. ",2011-05-26,12472,"","""He began there to be uneasy; for it shock'd him to find he was commanded to believe against his own judgment in points of Religion, Philosophy, &c. for his genius leading him freely to dispute all propositions, and call all points to account, he was impatient under those fetters of the free-born mind.""",Fetters,2011-05-27 13:44:16 UTC,""
4727,"",HDIS,2003-09-29 00:00:00 UTC,"Then thus. Since Man from beast by Words is known,
Words are Man's province, Words we teach alone.
When Reason doubtful, like the Samian letter,
Points him two ways, the narrower is the better.
Plac'd at the door of Learning, youth to guide,
We never suffer it to stand too wide.
To ask, to guess, to know, as they commence,
As Fancy opens the quick springs of Sense,
We ply the Memory, we load the brain,
Bind rebel Wit, and double chain on chain,
Confine the thought, to exercise the breath;
And keep them in the pale of Words till death.
Whate'er the talents, or howe'er design'd,
We hang one jingling padlock on the mind:
A Poet the first day, he dips his quill;
And what the last? a very Poet still.
Pity! the charm works only in our wall,
Lost, lost too soon in yonder House or Hall.
There truant Wyndham ev'ry Muse gave o'er,
There Talbot sunk, and was a Wit no more!
How sweet an Ovid, Murray was our boast!
How many Martials were in Pult'ney lost!
Else sure some Bard, to our eternal praise,
In twice ten thousand rhyming nights and days,
Had reach'd the Work, the All that mortal can;
And South beheld that Master-piece of Man.
[...]
Remarks.
Ver. 151. like the Samian letter ,]
The letter Y, used by Pythagoras as an emblem of the different roads of Vir
Et tibi quae Samios diduxit litera ramos.
Persius.
Remarks.
Ver. 153. Plac'd at the door, &c. ] This circumstance of the Genius Loci (with that of the Index-hand before) seems to be an allusion to the Table of Cebes , where the Genius of human Nature points out the road to be pursued by those entering into life. O dh gerwn o anw esthkwV ecwn carthn tina en) thi ceiri, kai thi eterai wsper deiknuwn ti outoV Daimwn kaleitai, &c.
Remarks.
Ver. 159. to exercise the breath ;] By obliging them to get the classic poets by heart, which furnishes them with endless matter for Conversation, and Verbal amusement for their whole lives.
Remarks.
Ver. 162. We hang one jingling padlock, &c. ] For youth being used like Pack-horses and beaten on under a heavy load of Words, lest they should tire, their instructors contrive to make the Words jingle in rhyme or metre.
Remarks.
Ver. 165. in yonder House or Hall .] Westminster-hall and the House of Commons.
Remarks.
Ver. 174. that Master-piece of Man .] viz. an Epigram . The famous Dr. South declared a perfect Epigram to be as difficult a performance as an Epic Poem. And the Critics say, ""an Epic Poem is the greatest work human nature is capable of.""
",,12473,"•Rich passage. REVISIT.
•Should clean up the GREEK.
•Cross-reference: see Prior's padlock clapped on a wife's mind in ""An English Padlock,"" final stanza (l. 81).","""We hang one jingling padlock on the mind""","",2009-09-14 19:37:01 UTC,""
4727,"",HDIS,2003-09-29 00:00:00 UTC,"What tho' we let some better sort of fool
Thrid ev'ry science, run thro' ev'ry school?
Never by tumbler thro' the hoops was shown
Such skill in passing all, and touching none.
He may indeed (if sober all this time)
Plague with Dispute, or persecute with Rhyme.
We only furnish what he cannot use,
Or wed to what he must divorce, a Muse:
Full in the midst of Euclid dip at once,
And petrify a Genius to a Dunce:
Or set on Metaphysic ground to prance,
Show all his paces, not a step advance.
With the same Cement, ever sure to bind,
We bring to one dead level ev'ry mind.
Then take him to devellop, if you can,
And hew the Block off, and get out the Man.
But wherefore waste I words? I see advance
Whore, Pupil, and lac'd Governor from France.
Walker! our hat--nor more he deign'd to say,
But, stern as Ajax' spectre, strode away.
[...]
Remarks.
Ver. 255 to 271. What tho' we let some better sort of fool, & c. ] Hitherto Aristarchus hath displayed the art of teaching his Pupils words, without things. He shews greater skill in what follows, which is to teach things, without profit. For with the better sort of fool the first expedient is, ver. 254 to 258, to run him so swiftly through the circle of the Sciences that he shall stick at nothing, nor nothing stick with him; and though some little, both of words and things, should by chance be gathered up in his passage, yet he shews, ver. 255 to 260, that it is never more of the one than just to enable him to persecute with Rhyme , or of the other than to plague with Dispute . But, if after all, the Pupil will needs learn a Science, it is then provided by his careful directors, ver. 261, 262, that it shall either be such as he can never enjoy when he comes out into life, or such as he will be obliged to divorce . And to make all sure, ver. 263 to 268, the useless or pernicious Sciences, thus taught, are still applied perversely; the man of Wit petrified in Euclid, or trammelled in Metaphysics; and the man of Judgment married , without his parents consent, to a Muse . Thus far the particular arts of modern Education, used partially, and diversified according to the Subject and the Occasion: But there is one general Method, with the encomium of which the great Aristarchus ends his speech, ver. 266 to 268, and that is Authority, the universal Cement , which fills all the cracks and chasms of lifeless matter, shuts up all the pores of living substance, and brings all human minds to one dead level. For if Nature should chance to struggle through all the entanglements of the foregoing ingenious expedients to bind rebel wit , this claps upon her one sure and entire cover. So that well may Aristarchus defy all human power to get the Man out again from under so impenetrable a crust. The Poet alludes to this Master-piece of the Schools in ver. 501, where he speaks of Vassals to a name .
",,12474,•Metaphor scattered throughout verses and remark,"""With the same Cement [Authority], ever sure to bind, / We bring to one dead level ev'ry mind""","",2009-09-14 19:37:01 UTC,""