Mr THOMSON, In his elegant and philofophical poem of the Seafons: "Altho' not fweeter his own Homer fings, "Yet is his life the more endearing fong." To the fame tune alfo fingeth that learned clerk of Suffolk, Mr WILLIAM BROOME. "f Thus, nobly rifing in fair Virtue's cause, And, to close all, hear the reverend dean of St Patrick's: "A Soul with ev'ry virtue fraught, "Whatever Grecian story tells. "A genius for each bus'nefs fit, "Whose meaneft talent is his Wit, &c. Let us now recreate thee by turning to the other fide, and fhewing his Character drawn by thofe with whom he never converfed, and whofe countenances he could not know, though turned against him: First a f In his Poems, and at the end of the Odyffey. gain commencing with the high voiced and never enough quoted Mr JOHN DENNIS, Who, in his Reflections on the Effay on Criticism, thus defcribeth him: "A little affected hypocrite, who has "nothing in his mouth but candour, truth, friendship, "good-nature, humanity, and magnanimity. He is fo "great a lover of falfhood, that, whenever he has a "mind to calumniate his cotemporaries, he brands "them with fome defect which is just contrary to fome "good quality, for which all their friends and their ac66 quaintance commend them. He feems to have a "particular pique to People of Quality, and authors "of that rank.-He muft derive his religion from St "Omer's."-But in the Character of Mr P. and his writings, (printed by S. Popping, 1716) he faith, "Though he is a profeffor of the worft religion, yet "he laughs at it;" but that "nevertheless, he is a vi"rulent Papist; and yet a Pillar for the Church of "England." Of both which opinions Mr LEWIS THEOBALD feems alfo to be; declaring, in Mift's Journal of June 22. 1718, That, if he is not fhrewdly abufed, "he "made it his practice to cackle to both parties in their own fentiments." But, as to his pique against Peo"ple of Quality, the fame Journalist doth not agree, but faith, (May 8. 1728.) "He had, by fome means "or other, the acquaintance and friendship of the "whole body of our nobility." However contradictory this may appear, Mr Dennis and Gildon, in the character last cited, make it all plain, by affuring us, "That he is a creature that re"conciles all contradictions; he is a beaft, and a man; "a Whig, and a Tory; a writer (at one and the fame "time) of & Guardians and Examiners; an Affertor "of liberty, and of the difpenfing power of Kings; a Jefuitical profeffor of truth; a base and a foul pre"tender to candour." So that, upon the whole account, we must conclude him either to have been a great hypocrite, or a very honest man; a terrible impofer upon both parties, or very moderate to either. Be it as to the judicious reader fhall feem good. Sure it is, he is little favoured of certain authors, whose wrath is perilous: For one declares he ought to have a price fet on his head, and to be hunted down as a wild beast h. Another protests that he does not know what may happen; advises him to insure his perfon; fays he has bitter enemies, and exprefsly declares it will be well if he escapes with his life1. One defires he would cut his own throat, or hang himself. But Pafquin femed rather inclined it should be done by the Government, reprefenting him engaged in grievous defigns with a Lord of Parliament, then under profecution. Mr Dennis himself hath written to a Minifter g The Names of two weekly Papers. h Theobald, Letter in Mift's journal, June 22. 1728. i Smedley, Pref to Gulliveriana, p. 14, 16. k Gulliveriana that he is one of the most dangerous perfons in this kingdom m; and affureth the public, that he is an open and mortal enemy to his country; a monster, that will one day, fhew as daring a foul as a mad Indian, who runs a muck to kill the firft Chriftian he meets n. Another gives information of Treafon discovered in his poem. Mr Curl boldly fupplies an imperfect verfe with Kings and Princeffes P. And one Mathew Concanen, yet more impudent, publishes at length the two moft SACRED NAMES in this Nation, as Members of the Dunciad ! This is prodigious! yet it is almost as strange, that in the midst of these invectives his greatest Enemies have (I know not how) borne testimony to fome merit in him. Mr THEOBALD, in censuring his Shakespear, declares, " He has fo great an efteem for Mr Pope, and fo high an opinion of bis "genius and excellencies; that, notwithstanding he m Anno 1729. n Preface to Rem. on the Rape of the Lock, p. 12. and in the laft page of that treatise. o Page 6, 7, of the Preface, by Concanen, to a book intitled, A Collection of all the Letters, Essays, Verses and Advertisements, occafioned by Pope and Swift's Mifcellanies. Printed for A. Moore, octavo, 1712. p Key to the Dunciad, 3d edit. p. 18. q A Lift of Perfons, &c. at the end of the forementioned Collection of all the Letters, Effays, &c. "profeffes a veneration almost rising to Idolatry for the writings of this inimitable poet, he would be very "loth even to do him justice, at the expence of that "other gentleman's character 1.” Mr CHARLES GILDON, after having violently attacked him in many pieces, at laft came to with from his heart, "That Mr Pope "would be prevailed upon to give us Ovid's Epiftles "by his hand, for it is certain we see the original of Sappho to Phaon with much more life and likeness "in his version, than in that of Sir Car. Scrope. And "this (he adds) is the more to be wished, because in "the English tongue we have scarce any thing truly "and naturally written upon Love s." He alfo, in taxing Sir Richard Blackmore for his heterodox opinions of Homer, challengeth him to answer what Mr Pope hath faid in his preface to that poet. Mr OLDMIXON calls him a great master of our tongue; declares "the "purity and perfection of the English language to be "found in his Homer; and faying there are more "good verfes in Dryden's Virgil than in any other "work, except this of our author only t." r Introduction to his Shakespear restored, in quarto, p. 3. s Commentary on the Duke of Buckingham's Essay, octavo, t In his profe Effay on Criticism. 1721, P 97, 98. |