It is difficult to avoid
namedropping in times of
epistolary stress, invok-
ing others to sustain a
matter to be personally
confessed. It revolts us
to observe that habit ad-
opted as a fetish, in-
famous among disciples
of William Buckley. Yet
even low church patriots
were taken into schools,
where the catechism ad-
mitted their memory for
just such times as ours.
Sometimes the ages wink.
Has anyone ever seen a
caricature of such im-
becility as now is giv-
en us every day, by the
most dangerous man on
Earth? Yes, at least in
the last 300 years.
And the hell of it is,
it's easy to remember.
High on a gorgeous seat, that far outshone
Henley's gilt Tub, or Fleckno's Irish Throne,
Or that, where on her Curlls, the Public pours
All-bounteous, fragrant grains, and golden showers;
Great Tibbald sate: The proud Parnassian sneer,
The conscious simper, and the jealous leer,
Mix on his look. All eyes direct their rays
On him, and crowds grow foolish as they gaze,
Not with more glee, by hands Pontific crown'd,
With scarlet hats, wide waving, circled round,
Rome in her Capitol saw Querno sit,
Thron'd on sev'n hills, the Antichrist of Wit.
Under these variations
of acute mental complex-
ity, we do not know, at
any given hour, what pon-
tification to expect of
our exalted idiot. As of
the moment, Nazis were
back in vogue, and the
gentle art of public as-
sembly was being upheld
as their right against
dissidents of violence.
is bound to be revised,
pending its recital anew,
in future moments of in-
vincible rapture in fury.
Our Tibbald has vowed it.
Let's just keep the lan-
guage open, to illuminate
his wondrous manuscript.
Alexander Pope
The Dunciad Variorum
Book the Second
i-xii
1728
John Butt
editor
The Poems of
Alexander Pope
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