World of the Dunciad

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Close to those walls where Folly holds her throne, 
And laughs to think Monroe would take her down, 
Where o’er the gates, by his famed by father’s hand 
Great Cibber’s brazen, brainless brothers stand; 
One cell there is, concealed from vulgar eye, 
The cave of poverty and poetry. 
Keen, hollow winds howl through the bleak recess, 
Emblem of music caused by emptiness. 
Hence bards, like Proteus long in vain tied down, 
Escape in monsters, and amaze the town. 
Hence miscellanies spring, the weekly boast 
Of Curll’s chaste press, and Lintot’s rubric post : 
Hence hymning Tyburn’s elegiac lines, 
Hence Journals, Medleys, Merc’ries, Magazines: 
Sepulchral lies, our holy walls to grace, 
And new Year odes, and all the Grub Street race. 


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II. The Gates of Bedlam

     Pope places the throne of Dullness in Bedlam, formally referred to as Bethlehem Hospital.  The hospital was founded in 1247 but did not begin to treat the insane until the early 15th century.  During Pope's time the hospital was located near the London Wall on the south edge of Moorfields.  
     Conveniently for Pope, it was the King of Dullness, Colley Cibber's father, Caius Cibber who executed the two statues that stand before the sanitorium--Raving Madness and Melancholy Madness.  These two statues, "Great Cibber's brazen, brainless brothers" are naturally suitable emblems for Pope's poem.
Picture
William Hogarth A Rake's Progress
I've used mostly WIlliam Hogarth's famous paintings and engravings to illustrate this site.  Hogarth was a contemporary with Pope and was also a master of satire.  The above illustration is from Hogarth's series of paintings "The Rake's Progress."  This is the final illustration in the series and shows the rake's final degradation in Bedlam.