squandered 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 believe that all the great qualities of these persons were centred in him alone. But if I should venture to assure him that the People of England had made such a choice-the reader would either believe me a malicious enemy and slanderer, or that the reign of the last (Queen Anne's) Ministry was designed by fate to encourage fools."

But it happens that this our poet never had any place, pension, or gratuity, in any shape, from the said glorious Queen, or any of her Ministers. All he owed, in the whole course of his life, to any court, was a subscription, for his Homer, of £200 from King George I., and £100 from the Prince and Princess."

However, lest we imagine our author's success was constant and universal, they acquaint us of certain works in a less degree of repute, whereof, although owned by others, yet do they assure us he is the writer. Of this sort Mr. Dennis' ascribes to him two farces, whose names he does not tell,' but assures us that there is not one jest in them. And an imitation of Horace, whose title he does not mention, but assures us, it is much more execrable than all his works. The Daily Journal, May 11th, 1728, assures us, "he is below Tom Durfey in the Drama, because," as that writer thinks, "the Marriage Hater matched, and the Boarding School are better than the What-d'-ye-call-it;" which is not Mr. P.'s but Mr. Gay's. Mr. Gildon assures us, in his New Rehearsal, p. 48, "That he was writing a play of the Lady Jane Grey;" but it

1 Rem. on Homer, pp. 8, 9.-POPE.

2 This paragraph does not appear in the edition of 1729.

3 Rem. on Homer, p. 8.-POPE.

The two farces were the 'What d'ye Call it?' and the Three Hours after Marriage.' Both were mainly written by Gay, but Pope had a hand in the latter.

5 Character of Mr. Pope, p. 7.-POPE. What this imitation was cannot be ascertained. The 'Sober Advice' was not written at the time.

3

afterwards proved to be Mr. Rowe's.' We are assured by another, "he wrote a pamphlet called Dr. Andrew Tripe;" which proved to be one Dr. Wagstaff's. Mr. Theobald assures us, in Mist of the 27th of April, "that the treatise of the Profound is very dull, and that Mr. Pope is the author of it." The writer of Gulliveriana is of another opinion; and says, "the whole, or greatest part, of the merit of this treatise must and can only be ascribed to Gulliver." [Here, gentle reader! cannot I but smile at the strange blindness and positiveness of men; knowing the said treatise to appertain to none other but to me, Martinus Scriblerus.]

'We are assured, in Mist of June 8th, "That his own plays and farces would better have adorned the Dunciad, than those of Mr. Theobald; for he had neither genius for tragedy nor comedy." Which whether true or not, is not easy to judge; inasmuch as he hath attempted neither. Unless we will take it for granted, with Mr. Cibber, that his being once very angry at hearing a friend's play abused, was an infallible proof the play was his own; the said Mr. Cibber thinking it impossible for a man to be much concerned for any but himself: "Now let any man judge," saith he, "by this concern, who was the true mother of the child ? ""

But from all that hath been said, the discerning reader will collect, that it little availed our author to have any candour, since, when he declared he did not write for others, it was not

1 Pope seems, however, to have meditated a play on the subject. See his letter to Cromwell of December 21, 1711.

2 Character of Mr. Pope, p. 6.-POPE.

3 Andrew Tripe was the assumed name of one William Wagstaffe. The pamphlet alluded to must have been either one written in 1714, and entitled A Letter from Andrew Tripe at Bath to Nestor Ironside,' or one published in 1719, and entitled 'A Letter from the facetious Dr. Andrew Tripe at Bath, to his loving brother, the profound Greshamite' (i.c., Dr. Woodward). I suspect that it was the latter, and that it was ascribed to Pope on account of his known dislike to Dr. Woodward, which had been exhibited in 'Three Hours after Marriage.'

4 Gulliv., p. 336.-POPE.

5 In 1729, " Lastly, we are assured."

Cibber's Letter to Mr. P., p. 19.-POPE. This sentence was of course added to the original testimony as it appears in 1729.

credited; as little to have any modesty, since, when he declined writing in any way himself, the presumption of others was imputed to him. If he singly enterprised one great work, he was taxed of boldness and madness to a prodigy:' if he took assistants in another, it was complained of, and represented as a great injury to the public. The loftiest heroics, the lowest ballads, treatises against the State or Church, satires' on lords and ladies, raillery on wits and authors, squabbles with booksellers, or even full and true accounts of monsters, poisons, and murders; of any hereof was there nothing so good, nothing so bad, which hath not at one or other season been to him ascribed. If it bore no author's name, then lay he concealed; if it did, he fathered it upon that author to be yet better concealed: if it resembled any of his styles, then was it evident; if it did not, then disguised he it on set purpose. Yea, even direct oppositions in religion, principles, and politics have equally been supposed in him inherent. Surely a most rare and singular character! Of which let the reader make what he can.

Doubtless most commentators would hence take occasion to turn all to their author's advantage, and from the testimony of his very enemies would affirm, that his capacity was boundless, as well as his imagination; that he was a perfect master of all styles, and all arguments; and that there was in those times no other writer, in any kind, of any degree of excellence, save he himself. But as this is not our own sentiment, we shall determine on nothing; but leave thee, gentle reader, to steer thy judgment equally between various opinions, and to choose whether thou wilt incline to the testimonies of authors avowed, or of authors concealed; of those who knew him, or of those who knew him not.

1 Burnet's Homerides, p. 1, of his translation of the Iliad.-Pore.

2 The London and Mist's Journals, on his undertaking of the Odyssey.— POPE.

3 In 1729, "satire."

In 1729, "believe the testimonies of."

MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS

OF THE POEM.

THIS poem, as it celebrateth the most grave and ancient of things, Chaos, Night, and Dulness; so is it of the most grave and ancient kind. Homer (saith Aristotle) was the first who gave the Form, and (saith Horace) who adapted the Measure, to heroic poesy. But, even before this, may be rationally presumed from what the Ancients have left written, was a piece by Homer composed, of like nature and matter with this of our poet. For of Epic sort it appeareth to have been, yet of matter surely not unpleasant, witness what is reported of it by the learned Archbishop Eustathius, in Odyss. x. And accordingly Aristotle, in his Poetic. chap. iv., doth further set forth, that as the Iliad and Odyssey gave example to Tragedy, so did this poem to Comedy its first idea.

From these authors also it should seem, that the Hero, or chief personage of it was no less obscure, and his understanding and sentiments no less quaint and strange (if indeed not more so) than any of the actors of our poem. Margites was the name of this personage, whom Antiquity recordeth to have been Dunce the first; and surely, from what we hear of him, not unworthy to be the root of so spreading a tree, and so numerous a posterity. posterity. The poem, therefore, celebrating him was properly and absolutely a Dunciad; which though now unhappily lost, yet is its nature sufficiently known by the infallible tokens aforesaid. And thus it doth appear, that the

first Dunciad was the first Epic poem, written by Homer himself, and anterior even to the Iliad or Odyssey.

Now, forasmuch as our poet had translated those two famous works of Homer which are yet left, he did conceive it in some sort his duty to imitate that also which was lost and was therefore induced to bestow on it the same form which Homer's is reported to have had, namely that of Epic poem; with a title also framed after the ancient Greek manner, to wit, that of Dunciad.

Wonderful it is, that so few of the moderns have been stimulated to attempt some Dunciad! since, in the opinion of the multitude, it might cost less pain and oil than an imitation of the greater epic. But possible it is also, that, on due reflection, the maker might find it easier to paint a Charlemagne, a Brute, or a Godfrey, with just pomp and dignity heroic, than a Margites, a Codrus, or a Flecknoe.'

We shall next declare the occasion and the cause which moved our poet to this particular work. He lived in those days, when (after Providence had permitted the invention of Printing as a scourge for the sins of the learned) Paper also became so cheap, and Printers so numerous, that a deluge of Authors covered the land: whereby, not only the peace of the honest unwriting subject was daily molested, but unmerciful demands were made of his applause, yea of his money, by such as would neither earn the one, nor deserve the other. At the same time, the licence of the Press was such, that it grew dangerous to refuse them either; for they would forthwith publish slanders unpunished, the authors being anonymous, and skulking under the wings of Publishers, a set of men who never scrupled to vend either Calumny or Blasphemy, as long as the Town would call for it."

2

1 In 1729, "a Flecknoe or a Tibbald." 2 In 1729, "liberty."

In 1729, this clause ran thus: "for they would forthwith publish slanders unpunished, nay, the immediate publishers thereof by skulking under the wings of an Act of Parliament assuredly intended for better purposes."