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TESTIMONIES

O F

AUTHORS

CONCERNING

Our POET and his WORK S.

M. SCRIBLERUS LECTORI S.

BEFORE we prefent thee with our exercitations on this most delectable poem (drawn from the many voJumes of our Adverfaria on modern Authors) we shall here, according to the laudable usage of editors, collect the various judgments of the learned concerning our poet: various indeed, not only of different authors, but of the fame author at different feafons. Nor fhall we gather only the teftimonies of fuch eminent wits, as would of course descend to pofterity, and confequently be read without our collection; but we fhall likewise with incredible labour feek out for divers others, which, but for this our diligence, could never at the diftance of a few months appear to the eye of the most curious. Hereby thou mayft not only receive the delectation of variety, but also arrive at a more certain judgment, by a grave and circumfpect comparison of the witneffes with each other, or of each with himself. Hence alfo thou wilt be enabled to draw reflections, not only of a critical, but a

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moral nature, by being let into many particulars of the perfon as well as genius, and of the fortune as well as merit, of our author in which if I relate fome things of little concern peradventure to thee, and fome of as little even to him, I entreat thee to confider how minutely all true critics and commentators are wont to infift upon fuch, and how material they feem to themselves, if to none other. Forgive me, gentle reader, if (following learned example) I ever and anon become tedious: allow me to take the fame pains to find whether my author were good or bad, well or ill natured, modeft or arrogant; as another, whether his author was fair or brown, fhort or tall, or whether he wore a coat or a caffock.

We proposed to begin with his life, parentage, and education; but as to thefe, even his cotemporaries db exceedingly differ. One faith, he was educated at home; another, that he was bred at St. Omer's, by Jefuits; a third, not at St. Omer's, but at Oxford; a fourth, that he had no univerfity education at all. Thofe who allow him to be bred at home, differ as much concerning his tutor one faith, he was kept by his father on purpofe; a fecond f, that he was an itinerant prieft; a third that he was a parfon; one 1 calleth him a fecular clergyman of the Church of Rome; another, a monk. As little do they agree about his father, whom one fuppofeth, like the father of Hefiod, a tradefman or merchant; another', a husbandman; another", a hatter, &c. Nor has an author been wanting to give our poet such a father as Apuleius hath to Plato, Jamblichus to Pythagoras, and divers to Homer, namely

a Giles Jacob's Lives of the Poets, vol ii. in his Life. b Dennis's Reflections on the Effay on Crit. c Dunciad diffected, p. 4. d Guardian, No. 40. e Jacob's Lives, &c vol. ii, f Dunciad diffected, p. 4. g Farmer P. and his fon. h Dunciad diffected. i Characters of the times, p 45. k Female Dunciad, pult. 1 Dunciad difft&ted. m Roome, Paraphrafe on the ivth of Genefis, printed 1729.

a Dæmon

a Demon: for thus Mr. Gildon": "Certain it is, "that his original is not from Adam, but the Devil; "and that he wanteth nothing but horns and tail to

be the exact refemblance of his infernal father." Finding, therefore, fuch contrariety of opinions, and (whatever be ours of this fort of generation) not being fond to enter into controverfy, we fhall defer writing the life of our poet, 'till authors can determine among themselves what parents or education he had, or whether he had any education or parents at all.

Proceed we to what is more certain, his Works, tho' not lefs uncertain the judgments concerning them; beginning with his ESSAY on CRITICISM, of which hear firft the most antient of critics.

Mr. JOHN DENNIS.

His precepts are falfe or trivial, or both; his thoughts are crude and abortive, his expreffions ab"furd, his numbers harfh and unmufical, his rhymes " trivial and common;-inftead of majefty, we have "fomething that is very mean; inftead of gravity, "fomething that is very boyish; and instead of perspicuity and lucid order, we have but too often obfcurity and confufion." And in another place: "What rare numbers are here! Would not one fwear that this youngfter had efpoufed fome antiquated mufe, who had fued out a divorce from fome fuperannuated finner, upon account of impotence, and who, being poxed by the former fpoufe, has got the gout in her decrepid age, "which makes her hobble fo damnably °.”

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Character of Mr. P. and his Writings, in a Letter to a Friend, printed for S. Popping, 1716, p. 10. (url, in his Key to the Dunciad (first edit. faid to be priated for A. Dodd) in the roth page, declared Gildon to be au thor of that libel; though in the fubfequent editions of his Key he left out this affertion, and affirmed (in the Curliad, p. 4. and 3.) that it was written by Dennis only.

Reflections critical and fatirical on a Rhapfody, called, An Effay on Cri. ticifm. Printed for Bernard Lintot, octavo.

VOL. II.

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No lefs peremptory is the cenfure of our hypercritical hiftorian,

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Mr. OLD MIXON.

"I dare not say any thing of the Effay on Criticism "in verfe; but if any more curious reader has difcovered in it fomething new which is not in Dryden's prefaces, dedications, and his essay on dramatic poc<6 try, not to mention the French critics, 1 fhould be "very glad to have the benefit of the discovery P." He is followed (as in fame, fo in judgment) by the modeft and fimple-minded

Mr. LEONARD WELSTED,

Who, out of great respect to our poet, not naming him, doth yet glance at his Effay, together with the duke of Buckingham's, and the Criticisms of Dryden, and of Horace, which he more openly taxeth : "As to the "numerous treatifes, effays, arts, &c. both in verfe and "profe, that have been written by the moderns on this "ground-work, they do but hackney the fame thoughts over "again, making them ftill more trite. Moft of their pieces "are nothing but a pert infipid heap of common place. Ho66 race has even in his Art of Poetry thrown out several things which plainly fhew, he thought an Art of Poetry 66 was of no use, even while he was writing one." To all which great authorities, we can only oppose

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that of

Mr. ADDISON.

"The Art of Criticism (faith he) which was published "fome months fince, is a mafter-piece in its kind. "The obfervations follow one another like those in Ho"race's Art of Poetry, without that methodical regula"rity which would have been requifite in a profe writer.

p Effay on Criticism in profe, octavo, 1728, by the author of the Critical History of England.

q Preface to his Poems, p, 18, 53a

r Spectator, No. 25.3.

"They

They are fome of them uncommon, but such as the rea❝der muft affent to, when he fees them explained with "that ease and perfpicuity in which they are delivered. "As for those which are the most known and the most re❝ceived, 'they are placed in fo beautiful a light, and il

luftrated with fuch apt allufions, that they have in " them all the graces of novelty; and make the reader, "who was before acquainted with them, ftill more con"vinced of their truth and folidity. And here give me "leave to mention what Monfieur Boileau has fo well "enlarged upon in the preface to his works that wit ❝and fine writing doth not confist so much in advanc"ing things that are new, as in giving things that are "known an agreeable turn. It is impoffible for us who live in the latter ages of the world, to make obfervations in criticifm, morality, or any art or fcience, which have not been touched upon by others; we "have little elfe left us, but to reprefent the common fenfe of mankind in more ftrong, more beautiful, or "more uncommon lights. If a reader examines Horace's Art of Poetry, he will find but few precepts in "it which he may not meet with in Ariftotle, and which were not commonly known by all the poets of the <<< Auguftan age. His way of expreffing, and applying them, not his invention of them, is what we are "chiefly to admire.

"Longinus, in his reflections, has given us the fame “ kind of fublime, which he observes in the several pas"fages that occafioned them: I cannot but take notice "that our English author has after the fame manner ex"emplified feveral of the precepts in the very precepts "themselves." He then produces fome inftances of a particular beauty in the numbers, and concludes with faying, that there are three poems in our tongue of "the fame nature, and each a mafter-piece in its kind: "the Effay on Tranflated Verfe; Effay on the Art of "Poetry; and the Effay on Criticism,"

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