The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope

Thirdly, there ought to be a public show, or entry of the poet. To settle the order or procession of which, Mr. Anstis and MR. DENNIS ought to have a conference. I apprehend here two difficulties: one, of procuring an elephant; the other of teaching the poet to ride him: therefore I should imagine the next animal in size or dignity would do best; either a mule or a large ass; particularly if that noble one could be had, whose portraiture makes so great an ornament of the Dunciad, and which (unless I am misinformed) is yet in the park of a nobleman near this city:- Unless MR. CIBBER be the man; who may, with great propriety and beauty, ride on a dragon, if he goes by land; or if he chuse the water, upon one of his own swans from Cæsar in Egypt.

We have spoken sufficiently of the ceremony; let us now speak of the qualifications and privileges of the Laureate. First, we see he must be able to make verses extempore, and to pour forth innumerable, if required. In this I doubt MR. TIBBALD. Secondly, he ought to sing, and intrepidly, patulo ore: here, I confess the excellency of MR. CIBBER. Thirdly, he ought to carry a lyre about with him if a large one be thought too cumbersome, a small one may be contrived to hang about the neck, like an order, and be very much a grace to the person. Fourthly, he ought to have a good stomach, to eat and drink whatever his betters think fit; and therefore it is in this high office as in many others, no puny constitution can discharge it. I do not think CIBBER or TIBBALD here so happy but rather a stanch, vigorous, seasoned, and dry old gentleman, whom I have in my eye.

I could also wish at this juncture, such a person as is truly jealous of the honour and dignity of poetry; no joker, or trifler; but a bard in good

earnest; nay, not amiss if a critic, and the better if a little obstinate. For when we consider what great privileges have been lost from this office (as we see from the forecited authentic record of Jovius) namely those of feeding from the prince's table, drinking out of his own flaggon, becoming even his domestic and companion; it requires a man warm and resolute, to be able to claim and obtain the restoring of these high honours. I have cause to fear the most of the candidates would be liable, either through the influence of ministers, or for rewards or favours, to give up the glorious rights of the Laureate yet I am not without hopes, there is one, from whom a serious and steady assertion of these privileges may be expected; and, if there be such a one, I must do him the justice to say, it is MR. DENNIS, the wor thy president of our society.

VII.
ADVERTISEMENT

PRINTED IN THE JOURNALS, 1730.

WHEREAS, upon occasion of certain pieces relating to the gentlemen of the Dunciad, some have been willing to suggest, as if they looked upon them as an abuse: we can do no less than own, it is our opinion, that to call these gentlemen bad authors is no sort of abuse, but a great truth. We cannot alter this opinion without some reason; but 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.

VIII.

A PARALLEL OF THE CHARACTERS OF MR. DRYDEN AND MR. POPE,

AS DRAWN BY CERTAIN OF THEIR CONTEMPORARIES.

Mr. DRYDEN.

Mr. POPE.

HIS POLITICS, RELIGION, MORALS.

MR. Pope is an open and mortal enemy to his country, and the commonwealth of learning'. Some call him a popish whig, which is directly inconsistent 2. Pope as a papist, must be a tory and highflyer 3. He is both a whig and tory 4.

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 MAJESTY, 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 SCANDAL 6.

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 1 Dennis's Rem. on the Rape of the Lock, Pref. p. 2 Dunciad Dissected. 3 Pref. to Gulliveriana.

4 Dennis, Character of Mr. Pope.

xii.

5 Theobald, Letter in Mist's Journal, June 22, 1728. 6 List, at the end of a collection of verses, letters, advertisements, 8vo. Printed for A. Moore, 1728, and the Pre face to it, p. 6. 7 Dennis's Remarks on Homer, p. 27.

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 inetre 1. Mr. Dryden's genius did not appear in anything 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 Augustaan age; but a Virgil of another stamp, a silly, impertinent, nonsensical writer 12. None but a Bavius, a Mævius, or a Bathyllus, carped at Virgil; and none but such unthinking vermin admire his translator 13. 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 expressions; 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 expression14.

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 16. 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 authors. 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 dixwp for ixop must be the error of the author: nor had he art enough to correct it at the press. Mr. Dryden writes for the court ladies. He writes for the ladies, and not for use 2o.

The translator puts in a little burlesque now and then into Virgil, for a ragout to his cheated sub

scribers 1.

pen, but with fire and sword; and such were all those unhappy Wits whom he sacrificed to his accursed popish principles. It deserved vengeance to suggest, that Mr. Pope had less infallibility than his namesake at Rome 9.

Mr. POPE only a Versifier.

The smooth numbers of the Dunciad are all that recommend it, nor has it any other merit 10. It must be owned that he hath got a notable knack 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 2. He has no admirers among those that can distinguish, discern, and judge 13.

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 14.

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. 1 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 fellowwriters with not understanding Greek 16. He has stuck so 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 18.

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

Names bestowed on Mr. POPE.

An APE.] Let us take the initial letter of his christian name, and the initial and final letters of his surname, viz. APE, 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 ass 3.

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 an OX 24.

A COWARD.] A lurking way-laying coward 5.

A KNAVE.] He is one whom God and nature have marked for want of common honesty 26.

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 28.

22 Dennis, Daily Journal, May 11, 1728. 23 Dennis, Rem. on Homer, Pref.

24 Dennis's Remarks on the Rape of the Lock, Pref. p. 9. 25 Char. of Mr. P. page 3. 26 Ibid. 28 Ibid. p. 8.

27 Dennis, Rem, on Homer, p. 37.

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 ALLAY, 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

1 Read thus confidently, instead of " beginning with the word 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.

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 confest as much in his preface: and no two poems were ever published in Bo 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

WORDS THE MIGHTY MOTHER, AND ENDING WITH THE WORDS BURIES ALL, CONTAINING THE ENTIRE SUM OF ONE THOU SAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR VERSES, DECLARE EVERY WORD, FIGURE, POINT, AND COMMA OF THIS IMPRESSION 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 HEREBY EARNESTLY EXHORT ALL OUR BRETHREN TO FOLLOW THIS OUR EXAMPLE, WHICH WE HEARTILY WISH OUR GREAT PREDECESSORS HAD HERE TOFORE SET, AS A REMEDY AND PREVENTION OF ALL SUCH ABUSES. PROVIDED ALWAYS THAT NOTHING IN THIS DE CLARATION 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, JOHN BARBER, Mayor.

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 in any of our others.-BENTLEY,