As such, he was a fit pretender enough to the throne once occupied by Settle.

The Dunciad begins by a spirited description of the goddess brooding in her cell upon the eve of a Lord Mayor's day, when the proud scene was o'er, But lived in Settle's numbers one day more.
The predestined hero is meanwhile musing in his Gothic library, and addresses a solemn invocation to Dulness, who accepts his sacrifice--a pile of his own works--transports him to her temple, and declares him to be the legitimate successor to the former rulers of her kingdom.

The second book describes the games held in honour of the new ruler.

Some of them are, as a frank critic observes, "beastly;" but a brief report of the least objectionable may serve as a specimen of the whole performance.

Dulness, with her court descends To where Fleet Ditch with disemboguing streams Rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames, The king of dykes than whom no sluice of mud With deeper sable blots the silver flood .-- Here strip, my children, here at once leap in; Here prove who best can dash through thick and thin, And who the most in love of dirt excel.
And, certainly by the poet's account, they all love it as well as their betters.