BOOK THE SECOND
To him the goddess: 'Son! thy grief lay down,
And turn this whole illusion on the town:
As the sage dame, experienced in her trade,
By names of toasts retails each batter'd jade;
(Whence hapless Monsieur much complains at Paris
Of wrongs from duchesses and Lady Maries
Be thine, my stationer! this magic gift;
Cook shall be Prior, and Concanen, Swift:
So shall each hostile name become our own,
And we too boast our Garth and Addison.'
With that she gave him (piteous of his case,
Yet smiling at his rueful length of face)
A shaggy tapestry, worthy to be spread
On Codrus' old, or Dunton's modern bed;
Instructive work! whose wry-mouth'd portraiture
Display'd the fates her confessors endure.
Earless on high, stood unabash'd Defoe,
And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge below.
There Ridpath, Roper, cudgell'd might ye view,
The very worsted still look'd black and blue.
Himself among the storied chiefs he spies,
As, from the blanket, high in air he flies,
And oh! (he cried) what street, what lane but knows
Our purgings, pumpings, blanketings, and blows?
In every loom our labours shall be seen,
And the fresh vomit run for ever green!
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And turn this whole illusion on the town:
As the sage dame, experienced in her trade,
By names of toasts retails each batter'd jade;
(Whence hapless Monsieur much complains at Paris
Of wrongs from duchesses and Lady Maries
Be thine, my stationer! this magic gift;
Cook shall be Prior, and Concanen, Swift:
So shall each hostile name become our own,
And we too boast our Garth and Addison.'
With that she gave him (piteous of his case,
Yet smiling at his rueful length of face)
A shaggy tapestry, worthy to be spread
On Codrus' old, or Dunton's modern bed;
Instructive work! whose wry-mouth'd portraiture
Display'd the fates her confessors endure.
Earless on high, stood unabash'd Defoe,
And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge below.
There Ridpath, Roper, cudgell'd might ye view,
The very worsted still look'd black and blue.
Himself among the storied chiefs he spies,
As, from the blanket, high in air he flies,
And oh! (he cried) what street, what lane but knows
Our purgings, pumpings, blanketings, and blows?
In every loom our labours shall be seen,
And the fresh vomit run for ever green!
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VI. The Mixing of Identities
Dulness calls on Curll to fortify himself, they will not be brought down by their critics but will assume their names and turn their criticism against them. Like the mixing of languages after the fall of the Tower of Babel.
John Dunton was a Whig bookseller near the Royal Exchange in London. Published the Athenian Mercury, the first popular periodical in England. In his writings he pictured himself as a classical and spiritual hero whose quest was aligned with the financial success of his trade.
John Tutchin was a Whig propagandist who was threatened to be marched through all the Market towns of Dorset while being flogged. He was able to bribe his way out of the sentencing.
Journalists George Ridpath, who ran the Whig journal The Flying Post, and Abel Roper ran Tory journal The Post Boy are cited here as two extremes suggesting his stance as a moderate.
John Dunton was a Whig bookseller near the Royal Exchange in London. Published the Athenian Mercury, the first popular periodical in England. In his writings he pictured himself as a classical and spiritual hero whose quest was aligned with the financial success of his trade.
John Tutchin was a Whig propagandist who was threatened to be marched through all the Market towns of Dorset while being flogged. He was able to bribe his way out of the sentencing.
Journalists George Ridpath, who ran the Whig journal The Flying Post, and Abel Roper ran Tory journal The Post Boy are cited here as two extremes suggesting his stance as a moderate.
