 | |  |
1730
The Censoriad: a poem. Written originally by Martin Gulliver. The second edition. London printed, and Dublin re-printed, and sold by James Hoey and George Faulkner. 1730.
pp. 5-17. h.c.
Mock-heroic.
"The Commentator's Proeme Unto the Courteous Reader," in Spenserian prose. A libel referring to a fracas in Trinity College, Dublin, the details of which are obscure. (At this period there were many student riots.)
He boldly stagger'd to a Scholar's Room;
Thrice knock'd with pond'rous Feet and Mutton Fists,
And thrice the bolted Door his Rage resists:
At length he tries the Prowess of his Pate,
And open flies the barricado'd Gate;
For what is Oak or Iron, but a Sham,
Against the Force of such a batt'ring Ram?
The Censor enters — and about he flings
The injur'd Glasses, and the Chamber rings.
See Locke and Clarke in Floods of Liquor swim,
He seiz'd the Scholar, and the Scholar him. [pp. 11-12]
The mock-pedantic Annotations are more bulky than the poem itself. They are in the manner of the Dunciad Variorum, and are signed with such names as Vossius, Heinsius and Bentleius.
A third edition appeared in 1730 in Dublin: The Censoriad . . . third edition . . . [imprint as above]; and in London: The Censoriad . . . London, Re-printed from the Dublin Third Edition, for Weaver Bickerton. MDCCXXX. This third edition has additional matter, with an Advertisement for 'a curious Collection of Notes, which we promise faithfully to insert in the next Edition.' I have not traced any later editions — or the first edition.
| | |