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THE DUNCIAD.

had drawn each other's characters on certain occasions; but the few here inserted are all that could be saved from the general destruction of such works.

Of the part of Scriblerus I need say nothing; his manner is well enough known, and approved by all but those who are too much concerned to be judges.

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We apprehend it can be deemed no injury to the author of the three first books of the Dunciad,

that we publish this fourth. It was found merely by accident, in taking a survey of the library of a late eminent nobleman; but in so blotted a condition, and in so many detached pieces, as plainly showed it to be not only incorrect, but unfinished. That the author of the three first books had a design to extend and complete his poem in this manner, appears from the dissertation prefixed to it, where it is said, that the design is more extensive, and that we may expect other episodes to complete it: And from the declaration in the argument to the third book, that the accomplishment of the prophecies therein would be the theme hereafter of a greater Dunciad. But whether or not he be the author of this, we declare ourselves ignorant. If he be, we are no more to be blamed for the publication of it, than

Tucca and Varius for that of the last six books of the Æneid, though perhaps inferior to the former.

If any person be possessed of a more perfect copy of this work, or of any other fragments of it, and will communicate them to the publisher, we shall make the next edition more complete: in which we also promise to insert any criticisms that shall be published (if at all to the purpose) with the names of the authors; or any letters sent us (though not to the purpose) shall yet be printed under the title of Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum; which, together with some others of the same kind formerly laid by for that end, may make no unpleasant addition to the future impressions of this poem.

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the happiness of his acquaintance, I had written notes on the 'works of this poet. Before I had a commentary on his Essay on Man, and have since finished another on the Essay of Criticism. met with general approbation: but I still thought. There was one already on the Dunciad, which had some additions were wanting (of a more serious kind), to the humorous notes of Scriblerus, and even to those written by Mr. Cleland, Dr. Arbuthnot, and others. I had lately the pleasure

to pass some months with the author in the country, where I prevailed upon him to do what I had long desired, and favour ine with his explanation of several passages in his works. that just at that juncture was published a ridiculIt happened, ous book against him, full of personal reflections, which furnished him with a lucky opportunity of improving this poem, by giving it the only thing it wanted, a more considerable hero. He was always sensible of its defect in that particular, and owned he had let it pass with the hero it had, purely for want of a better, not entertaining the least expectation that such an one was reserved for this post, as has since obtained the laurel : but since that had happened, he could no longer deny this justice either to him or the Dunciad.

And yet I will venture to say, there was another motive which had still more weight with our author: This person was one, who from every folly [not to say vice) of which another would be ashamed, has constantly derived a vanity! and therefore was the man in the world who would least be hurt by it. W. W.

VI.

ADVERTISEMENT.

PRINTED IN THE JOURNALS, 1730. lating to the gentlemen of the Dunciad, some WHEREAS, upon occasion of certain pieces rehave been willing to suggest, as if they looked own, it is our opinion, that to call these gentlemen upon them as an abuse: we can do no less than We cannot alter this opinion without some reason; bad authors is no sort of abuse, but a great truth. bnt we promise to do it in respect to every person who thinks it an injury to be represented as no wit, or poet, provided he procures a certificate of his being really such, from any three of his companions, in the Dunciad, or from Mr. Dennis singly, who is esteemed equal to any three of the number.

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358

In the poem called Absalom and Achitophel are notoriously traduced, the king, the queen, the lords and gentlemen, not only their honourable persons exposed, but the whole nation and its representatives notoriously libelled. It is scandalum magnatum yea of majesty itself'.

He looks upon God's gospel as a foolish fable, like the Pope, to whom he is a pitiful purveyor?. His very christianity may be questioned. He ought to expect more severity than other men, as he is most unmerciful in his own reflections on others': With as good a right as his holiness, he sets up for poetical infallibility'.

MR. DRYDEN ONLY A VERSIFIER. His whole libel is all bad matter, beautified (which is all that can be said of it) with good metre'. Mr. Dryden's genius did not appear in any thing more than his versification, and whether he is to be ennobled for that only is a question'.

MR. DRYDEN'S VIRGIL.

Tonson calls it Dryden's Virgil, to show that this is not that Virgil so admired in the Augustan age; but a Virgil of another stamp, a silly, impertinent, nonsensical writer. None but a Bavius, Mævius, or a Bathyllus, carped at Virgil; and none but such unthinking vermin admire his translator. It is true, soft and easy lines might become Ovid's Epistles or Art of Love-But Virgil, who is all great and majestic, &c. requires strength of lines, weight of words, and closeness of expression; not an ambling Muse running on carpet ground, and shod as lightly as a Newmarket racer. He has numberless faults in his author's meaning, and in propriety of expression 10.

MR. DRYDEN UNDERSTOOD NO GREEK NOR LATIN.

Mr. Dryden was once, I have heard, at Westminster school: Dr. Busby would have whipt him for so childish a paraphrase ". The meanest pedant in England would whip a lubber of twelve for construing so absurdly 12. The translator is mad: every line betrays his stupidity". The faults are innumerable, and convince me that Mr Dryden did not, or would not understand his author. This shows how fit Mr. D. may be to translate Homer! A mistake in a single letter might fall on the printer well enough, but we for ixeg must be the errour of the author: Nor had he art enough to correct it at the press1. Mr. Dryden writes for the court ladies He writes for the ladies, and not for use ".

MR. DRYDEN TRICKED HIS SUBSCRIBERS.

I wonder that any man, who could not but be conscious of his own uufitness for it, should go to amuse the learned world with such an undertaking! A man ought to value his reputation more than money; and not to hope that those who can read for themselves, will be imposed upon, merely by The translator puts in a little burlesque now and

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! Whip and Key, 4to, printed for R. Janeway, 1682. Pref. 2 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 3 Milbourne, p. 9. p. 175. Pag. 39. Whip and Key, Pref. Oldmixon, Essay on Criticism, p. 84. Milbourne p. 2. Pag. 35. 10 Milb. p. 22, and 192. " Page 72. " Pag. 203. 13 Pag. 78. 14 Pag. 206. "Pag. 19. 16 Pag. 144. 190.

He hath made it his custom to cackle to more than one party in their own sentiments'.

In his Miscellanies, the persons abused are, the king, the queen, his late najesty, both houses of parliament, the privy-council, the bench of bishops, the established church, the present ministry, &c. To make sense of some passages, they must be construed into royal scandal2.

He is a popish rhymester, bred up with a contempt of the sacred writings'. His religion allows him to destroy heretics, not only with his pen, but with fire and sword; and such were all those unhappy wits whom he sacrificed to his accursed It deserved vengeance to popish principles.

suggest, that Mr. Pope had less infallibility, than his namesake at Rome".

MR. POPE ONLY A VERSIFIER. The smooth numbers of the Dunciad are all that It recommend it, nor has it any other merit. must be owned that he hath got a notable nack of rhyming and writing smooth verse'.

MR. POPE'S HOMER.

The Homer which Lintot prints, does not talk like Homer, but like Pope; and he who translated him, one would swear, had a hill in Tipperary for his Parnassus, and a puddle in some bog for his Hippocrene". He has no admirers, among those that can distinguish, discern, and judge.

He hath a knack at smooth verse, but without either genius or good sense, or any tolerable knowledge of English. The qualities which distinguish Homer are the beauties of his diction, and the harmony of his versification-but this little author, who is so much in vogue, has neither sense in his thoughts, nor English in his expressions 10.

MR. POPE UNDERSTOOD NO GREEK.

He hath undertaken to translate Homer from the Greek, of which he knows not one word, into English, of which he understands as little": I wonder how this gentleman would look, should it be discovered, that he has not translated ten verses together in any book of Homer with justice to the poet, and yet he dares reproach his fellow-writers with not understanding Greek 12. He has stuck se little to his original as to have his knowledge in Greek called in question". I should be glad to know which it is of all Homer's excellencies which has so delighted the ladies, and the gentlemen who judge like ladies 1.

But he has a notable talent at burlesque; his genius slides so naturally into it, that he hath burlesqued Homer without designing it".

'Theobald, Letter in Mist's Journal, June 22,

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then into Virgil, for a ragout to his cheated sub-
scribers!.

■ partiality and unseasonably celebrated name?.
Poctis quidlibet audendi shall be Mr. Dryden's
motto, though it should extend to picking of
pockets'.

NAMES BESTOWED ON MR. DRYDEN.

An Ape.] A crafty ape drest up in a gawdy gown
-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 all'.

A Frog.] Poet Squab endued with Poet Maro's
spirit! an ugly, croaking ki g of vermin, which would
swell to the bulk of an ox".

A Coward.] A Clinias or a Damætas, or a man
of Mr. Dryden's own courage'.

A Knave.] Mr. Dryden has heard of Paul the
knave of Jesus Christ: and if I mistake not, I've
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 block-
heads 19.

A thing.] So little a thing as Mr. Dryden".

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MR. POPE TRICKED HIS SUBCRIBERS.

digious, for a single man to undertake such a work :
It is indeed somewhat bold, and almost pro-
but it is too late to dissuade by demonstrating the
madness of the project. The subscribers expec
tations have been raised in proportion to what
their pockets have been drained of'. Pope has
booksellers'.
been concerned in jobs, and hired out his name to

NAMES BESTOWED ON MR. POPE.

An Ape.] Let us take the initial letter of his
christian name, and initial and final letters of his
surname, viz. APE, and they give you the same
idea of an ape as his face, &c.

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

A Frog. A squab short gentleman-a little
creature that, like the frog in the fable, swells,
and is angry that it is not allowed to be as big as ap
ox '.

A Coward.] A lurking, way-laying coward'.
A Knave.] He is one whom God and Nature have
marked for want of common 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".

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INDEX

OF PERSONS CELEBRATED IN THIS POEM.

Benson, William, Esq. iii. 325. iv. 110.
Burgersdick, iv. 198.

The first number shows the book, the second the Boeotians, iii. 50.

verse.
A

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Bruin and bears, i. 101.
Bear and fiddle, i. 224.

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Howard, Edward, i. 297.

Ralph, James, i. 216. iii. 165.
Roome, Edward, iii. 152..

Ripley, Tho. iii. 327.

Ridpath, George, i. 208. ii. 149.
Roper, Abel, ii. 149.

Rich, iii. 261.

S.

Settle, Elkanah, i. 90. 146. iii. 37.
Smedley, Jonathan, ii. 291. &c.

Shadwell, Thomas, i. 240. iii. 22.
Scholiasts, iv. 231.
Silenus, iv. 492.
Sooterkins, i. 126.

Tate, i. 105. 238.

T

Theobald, or Tibbald, i. 133. 285.
Tutchin, John, ii. 148.

Toland, John, ii. 399. iii. 212.

Henley, John, the Orator, ii. 2. 425. iii. 199. &c. Tindal, Dr. ii. 399. iii. 212. iv. 492.

Huns, iii. 90.

Heywood, John, i. 98.

Taylor, John, the water-poet, iii. 19.

Harpsfield, i. 153.

Hays, iv. 560.

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Visigoths, iii. 94.

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ADDISON (Mr.) railed at by A. Philips, iii. 326.
-abused by J. Oldmixon, in his Prose
Essay on Criticism, &c. ii. 283.
-by J. Ralph, in a London Journal, iii. 165.
-Celebrated by our author,-Upon his Discourse
of Medals-In his Prologue to Cato-In his Imi-
tation of Horace's Epistles to Augustus—and in '
his Poem, ii. 140.

False facts concerning him and our author related
by anonymous persons in Mist's Journal, &c. Test.
-Disproved by the testimonies of

-The Earl of Burlington,

-Mr. Tickell,

-Mr. Addison himself. ib.

Anger, one of the characteristics of Mr. Dennis's
critical writings, i. 106.

-Affirmation, another: Test.

[To which are added by Mr. Theobald, illna
ture, spite, revenge, i. 106.]

Altar of Cibber's Works, how built, and how found-
ed, i. 157, &c.
Eschylus, iii. 313.

Asses, at a citizen's gate in a morning, ii. 247.
Appearances, that we are never to judge by them,
especially of poets and divines, ii. 426.
Alehouse, the birth-place of Mr. Cook, ii. 138.
-one kept by Edw. Ward, i. 233.

-and by Taylor the water-poet, iii. 19.
Arnal, William, what he received out of the trea-
sury for writing pamphlets, ii. 315.
Aristotle, his friends, and confessors, who, iv.
192.

-How his Ethics came into disuse, ibid.
B

Bedlam, i. 29.

Banks, his resemblance to Mr. Cibber in tragedy,
i. 146.

Bates (Julius) see Hutchinson (John).

Broom, Ben Jonson's man, ibid.

Bavius, iii. 24. Mr. Dennis his great opinion of
him, ib.

Bawdry, in plays, not disapproved of by Mr.
Dennis, iii. 179.
Blackmore, (sir Rich.) his impiety and irreli-
gion, proved by Mr. Dennis, ii. 268.

His quantity of works, and various
opinions of them-His abuse of Mr. Dryden and
Mr. Pope, ibid.

Bray, a word much beloved by sir Richard, ii.
260.

Braying, described, ii. 247.

Birch, by no means proper to be applied to young
noblemen, iii. 334.

Bl-d, what became of his works, i. 231.
Broome, (rev. Mr. Will.) His sentiments of our
author's virtue, Test.

-Our author of his, iii. 332.
Brooms (a seller of) taught Mr. John Jackson his
trade, ii. 137.

Billingsgate language, how to be used by learned
authors, ii. 142.

Bond, Besaleel, Breval, not living writers, but
phantoms, ii. 126.

Booksellers, how they run for a poet, ii. 31. &c.
Bailiffs, how poets run from them, ii. 61.
Bridewell, ii. 269.

Bow-bell, iii. 278

Balm of Dulness, the true and the spurious, its effi-
cacy, and by whom prepared, iv. 544.

C

Cibber, hero of the poem, his character, i 107.
not absolutely stupid, 109. Not unfortunate as
a coxcomb, ibid. Not a slow writer, but pre-
cipitate, though heavy 123. His productions
the effects of heat, though an imperfect one,
126. His folly heightened with frensy. 125.
He borrowed from Fletcher and Moliere, 131:
mangled Shakespeare, 133. His head distin-
guished for wearing an extraordinary perriwig,
167. more than for its reasoning faculty, yet
not without furniture, 177. His elasticity,
and fire, and how he came by them, 186. He
was once thought to have wrote a reasonable
play, 188. The general character of his verse
and prose, 190. His conversation, in what man-
ner extensive and useful, 192, &c. Once de-
signed for the church, where he should have
been a bishop, 200. Since inclined to write for

the minister of state, 213. but determines to
stick to his other talents; what those are, 217.
&c His apostrophe to his works before he
burns them, 225, &c. His repentance and
tears, 243. Dulness puts out the fire, 257.
Inaugurates and anoints him, 287. His crown,
by whom woven, 223. of what composed, i.
303. who let him into court, 300. who his
supporters, 307. His entry, attendants, and
proclamation, usque ad fin. His enthroniza-
tion, ii. 1. passes his whole reign in seeing
shows, through book ii. and dreaming dreams,
through book iii. Settle appears to him, iii.
35. Resemblance between him and Settle, iii.
37.
and i. 146. Goodman's prophecy of him,
iii. 232. How he translated an opera, without
knowing the story, 305. and encouraged farces
because it was against his conscience, 266.
Declares he never mounted a dragon, 268.
Apprehensions of acting in a serpent, 287.
What were the passions of his old age, 303,
304. Finally subsides in the lap of Dulness,
Cibber, his father, i. 31. His two brothers, 32.
where he rests to all eternity, iv. 20. and note.
Cibberian forehead, what is meant by it, i. 218.
His son, ii. 142. His better progeny, i. 228.

Cooke (Tho.) abused by Mr. Pope, ii. 138.
-read by some Cerberian, ibid. n te.
Concanen, (Mat.) one of the authors of the
Weekly Journals, ii. 299.

-declared that when his poem had blanks
they meant treason, iii. 297.

-of opinion that Juvenal never satirized the
poverty of Codrus, ii. 144.

Corncutter's Journal, what it cost, ii. 314.
Critics, verbal ones, must have two postulata
allowed them, ii. 1.

Catcalls, ii. 231.

Curll, Edm. his panegyric, ii. 58.

-His Corinna, and what she did, 70.
-his prayer, 80.-Like Eridanus, 182.
-much favoured by Cloacina, 97, &c.
-tost in a blanket, and whipped, 151.
-pillory'd, ii. 3.

Carolina, a curious flower, its fate, iv. 409, &c.

D.

Dulness, the goddess; her original and parents,
i. 12. Her ancient empire, 17. Her public col-
lege, i. 29. Academy for poetical education,
33. Her cardinal virtues, 45, &c. Her ideas,
productions, and creation, 55, &c. Her survey
and contemplation of her works, 79, &c. And
of her children, 93. Their uninterupted succes-
sion, 98, &c. to 108. Her appearance to Cib-
ber, 261. She manifests to him her works, 273,
&c. Anoints him, 287, &c. Institutes games at
his coronation, ii. 18, &c. The manner how she
makes a vit, ii. 47. A great lover of a joke,
34. And loves to repeat the same over again,
122. Her ways and means to procure the
pathetic and terrible in tragedy, 225, &c.
Encourages chattering and bawling, 237, &c.
And is patroness of party-writing and railing,
276, &c.. Makes use of the heads of critics
as scales to weigh the heaviness of authors,
367. Promotes slumber with the works of the
said authors, ibid. The wonderful virtue of
sleeping in her lap, iii. 5, &c. Her elysium,
15, &c. The souls of her sons dipt in Lethe,
23. How brought into the world, 29. Their

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