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---Whips put into an ape's paw to play pranks with-None but apish and Papish brats will heed him*.

An Ass. A camel will take upon him no more burden than is sufficient for his strength, but there is another beast that crouches under allt.

A FROG.] Poet Squab, endued with Poet Maroe's spirit! an ugly, croaking kind of vermin, which would swell to the bulk of an ox‡.

A COWARD.] A Clinias, or a Damætus, or a man of Mr. Dryden's own couragell.

A KNAVE. Mr. Dryden has heard of Paul, the knave of Jesus Christ: and, if I mistake not, I have read somewhere of John Dryden, servant to his Majesty.

A FOOL.] Had he not been such a self-conceited fool**.---Some great poets are positive blockheads††. A THING.] So little a thing as Mr. Dryden‡‡.

*Whip and Key, pref.

p. 11.

pref,

+Milbourn, p. 105, Ib. Ib. p. 176. +Ib. p. 57. **Whip and Key, Milbourne, p. 34. Ib. p. 35.

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surname, viz. A. P. E. and they give you the same idea of an ape as his face*; &c.

An Ass.] It is my duty to pull off the lion's skin from this little assf.

A FROG.] A squab short gentleman---a little creature, that, like the frog inthe fable, swells, and is angry that it is not allowed to be as big as an oxt.

A COWARD.] A lurking, way-laying coward§. A KNAVE.] He is one whom God and Nature have marked for want of commen honesty.

A FOOL. Great fools will be christened by the names of great poets, and Pope will be called Homer**.

A THING. A little abject thing++.

*Dennis's Daily Journal, nis's Rem. on Hom. pref. Rape of the Lock. pref. p. 9. Ibid. **Dennis's Rem. on

p. 8.

May 11, 1728. †DenDennis's Rem. on the §Char. of Mr. P. p. 3. Homer, p. 37.. ttĺbid.

MON PROT

BY AUTHORITY.

By virtue of the Authority in Us vested, by the Act for subjecting Poets to the Power of a Licenser, W. bave revised this Piece; where, finding the style and appellation of KING to have been given to a certain Pretender, Psuedo-Poet, or Phantom, of the name of TIBBALD; and apprehending the same may be deemed in some sort a reflection on Majesty, or, at least, an insult on that Legal Authority, which has bestowed on another Person the Crown of Poesy: We bave ordered the said Pretender, Psuedo-Poet, or Phantom, utterly to vanish and evaporate out of this Work; and do declare the said Throne of Poesy from henceforth to be abdicated and vacant, unless duly and lawfully supplied by the LAUREATE himself. And it is hereby enacted, that no other person do presume to fill the same.

1

BY THE AUTHOR, A DECLARATION.

WHEREAS certain Haberdashers of Points and Particles, being instigated by the spirit of Pride, and assuming to themselves the name of Critics and Restorers, have taken upon them to adulterate the common and current sense of our Glorious Ancestors, Poets of this Realm, by clipping, coining, defacing the images, mixing their own base alloy, or otherwise falsifying the same ; which they publish, utter, and vend as genuine; the said Haberdashers having no right thereto, as neither heirs, executors, administrators, assigns, or in any sort related to such Poets, to all or any of them: Now We, having carefully revised this our Dunciad, beginning with the words, The mighty Mother, and ending with the words buries All, containing the entire sum of One thousand seven hundred and fifty-four verses, declare every word, figure, point, and comma, of this im

*

*Read thus confidently, instead of "beginning "with the words books and ending with the word flies, as formerly it stood: read also,"containing the entire sum of one thousand seven hundred and fifty-four verses," instead of one thousand and twelve lines;"" such being the initial and final words, and such the true and entire contents of this Poem.

Volume IV.

I

pression to be authentic: and do therefore strictly enjoin and forbid any person or persons whatsoever to erase, reverse, put between hooks, or by any other means, directly or indirectly, change or mangle any of them. And we do bereby earnestly exhort all our brethren to follow this our example, which we heartily wish our great Predecessors had heretofore set, as a remedy and prevention of all such abuses. Provided always, that nothing in this Declaration shall be construed to limit the lawful and undoubted right of every subject of this Realm to judge, censure, or condemn, in the whole, or in part, any Poem or Poet whatsoever.

Given under our hand at London, this third day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred thirty and two.

Declarat' cor' me,

JouN BARBER, Mayor.

Thou art to know, Reader! that the first edition thereof, like that of Milton, was never seen by the Author, (though living and not blind:) the editor himself confessed as much in his preface, and no two poems were ever published in so arbitrary a manner. The editor of this had as boldly suppressed whole passages, yea the entire last book, as the editor of Paradise Lost added and augmented. Milton himself gave but ten books, his editor twelve; this Author gave four books, his editor only three. But we have happily done justice to both; and presume we shall live, in this our last labour, as long as any of our others. Bentley.

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