The Author of a Letter to Mr CIBBER 66 22 fays, Pope was fo good a verfifier [once] that his "predeceffor Mr Dryden, and his cotemporary Mr "Prior excepted, the harmony of his numbers is equal "to any body's. And, that he had all the merit, "that a man can have that way." And Mr THOMAS COOKE, after much blemishing our author's Homer, crieth out, "But in his other works what beauties fhine! "While fweetest Music dwells in ev'ry line. "These he admir'd, on these he stamp'd his praise, "And bade them live to brighten future days w." So alfo one who takes the name of H. STANHOPE, the maker of certain verfes to Duncan Campbell*, in that Poem, which is wholly a fatire upon Mr Pope, confeffeth, "'Tis true, if fineft notes alone could fhow (Tun'd juftly high, or regularly low) "That we should fame to these mere vocals give; "Pope more than we can offer should receive: "For when fome gliding river is his theme, "His lines run fmoother than the finootheft ftream," &c. u Printed by J. Roberts, 1742, p. 11. w Battle of Poets, folio, p 15. x Printed under the title of the Progrefs of Dulness, duodecimo 1728. MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8. 1728. Although he fays, "The fimooth numbers of the Dun"ciad are all that recommend it, nor has it any o "ther merit;" yet that fame paper hath these words: "The author is allowed to be a perfect mafter of an "eafy and elegant verfification. In all his works we "find the most happy turns, and natural fimilies, won"derfully fhort and thick fown." The Efay on the Dunciad alfo owns, p. 25. it is very full of beautiful images. But the panegyric, which crowns all that can be said on this poem, is bestowed by our Laureate, who " Mr COLLEY CIBBER. grants it to be a better Poem of its kind than 16 ever was writ:" but adds, "it was a victory over a parcel of poor wretches, whom it was almost "cowardice to conquer.A man might as well "triumph for having killed fo many filly flies that "offended him. Could he have let them alone, by "this time, poor fouls! they had all been buried <in oblivion y." Here we fee our excellent Laureate allows the juftice of the fatire on every man in it, but himself; as the great Mr Dennis did before him. The faid Mr DENNIS and Mr GILDON, in the most furious of all their works (the forecited y Cibber's Letter to Mr Pope, p. 9. 12. Character, p. 5.) do in concert confefs, "That some "men of good understanding value him for his rhymes." "And (p. 17.) "That he has got, like Mr Bays "in the Rehearsal, (that is, like Mr Dryden) a no"table knack at rhyming, and writing smooth "verfe." z in concert] Hear how Mr Dennis hath proved our mistake in this place. "As to my writing in concert with Mr Gildon "I declare upon the honour and word of a Gentleman, that "I never wrote fo much as on line in concert with any one "man whatsoever. And these two Letters from Gildon will plainly fhew, that we are not writers in concert with each "other. ་ '—The height of my Ambition is to please men of the beft Judgment; and finding that I have entertained my Mafter agreeably, I have the extent of the Reward of my Labour.' ་ • Sir, 'I had not the opportunity of hearing of your excellent pamphlet till this day. I am infinitely fatisfied and pleafed with it, and hope you will meet with that encourage'ment your admirable performance deferves,' &c. CH. GIL 'DON. "Now is it not plain, that any one who fends fuch compliments to another, has not been used to write in partnership "with him to whom he fends them?" Dennis remarks on the Dunc. p. 50. Mr Dennis is therefore welcome to take this piece to himself, Of his Effay on Man, numerous were the praises be ftowed by his avowed enemies, in the imagination that the same was not written by him, as it was printed anonymously. Thus fang of it even BEZALEEL MORRIS. "Aufpicious bard! while all admire thy strain, Thy Mufe fublime, fignificant, and clear, "Alike informs the Soul, and charms the Ear," &c. And Mr LEONARD WELSTED thus wrote a to the unknown author, on the first pub. lication of the faid Effay: "I must own, after the re"ception which the vileft and most immoral ribaldry "hath lately met with, I was surprised to see what I "had long despaired, a performance deferving the name "of a poet. Such, Sir, is your work. It is, indeed, "above all commendation, and ought to have been "published in an age and country more worthy of it. "If my teftimony be of weight any where, you are fure to have it in the ampleft manner," &c. &c. &c. Thus we fee every one of his works hath been extolled by one or other of his most inveterate Enemies; and to the fuccefs of them all they do unanimously a In a Letter ander his hand, dated March 12, 1733. give teftimony. But it is fufficient, inflar omnium, to behold the great critic, Mr Dennis, forely lamenting it, even from the Effay on criticism to this day of the Dunciad! "A most notorious inftance (quoth he) of the "depravity of genius and tafte, the approbation this "Effay meets with -I can fafely affirm, that I never "attacked any of thefe writings, unless they had suc"cefs infinitely beyond their inerit.-This, though an empty, has been a popular scribbler. The epidemic "madness of the times has given him reputation c.-If, "after the cruel treatment fo many extraordinary "men (Spencer, Lord Bacon, Ben Johnfon, Milton, "Butler, Otway, and others) have received from this દર country, for these last hundred years, I should shift "the scene, and fhew all that penury changed at once "to riot and profufenefs; and more fquandered away upon one object, than would have satisfied the greater << part of those extraordinary men; the reader to "whom this one creature should be unknown, would "fancy him a prodigy of art and nature, would be"lieve that all the great qualities of these perfons were But if I fhould venture to "centered in him alone. "affure him, that the People of England had made "fuch a choice -the reader would either believe me a "malicious enemy, and flanderer; or that the reign of "the laft (Queen Anne's) Miniftry was defigned by "fate to encourage fools 4." b Dennis, Pref. to his Reflect. on the Effay on Criticism. d Rem, on Homer, p. 8. 9. |