world, and foreigners who have tranflated him into their languages) of all this number not a man hath stood up to fay one word in his defence. The only exception is the author of the following poem, who doubtless had either a better insight into the grounds of this clamour, or a better opinion of Mr. Pope's integrity, join'd with a greater perfonal love for him, than any other of his numerous friends and admirers, Farther, that he was in his peculiar intimacy, appears from the knowledge he manifefts of the most private authors of all the anonymous pieces against him, and from his having in this poem attacked 5 no man living, who had not before printed, or published, some scandal against this gentleman. How I came poffeft of it, is no concern to the reader; but it would have been a wrong to him had I detained the publication; fince those names which are its chief ornaments die off daily fo faft, as muft render it too foon unintelligible. If it provoke the author to give us a more perfect edition, I have my end. 6 Who he is I cannot fay, and (which is a great pity) there is certainly nothing in his ftile and manner of writing, which can distinguish or discover him: For if it bears any resemblance to that of Mr. Pope, 'tis not improbable but it might be done on purpofe, with a view to have it pafs for his. But by the frequency of his allulufions to Virgil, and a laboured (not to fay affected) fhortnefs in imitation of him, I should think him more an 4 A very plain irony, fpeaking of Mr. Pope himself. 5 The publisher in these words went a little too far; but it is certain, whatever names the reader finds that are unknown to him, are of such; and the exception is only of two or three, whofe duinefs, impudent fcurrility or felf conceit, all mankind agreed to have juftly entitled them to a place in the Dunciad. 6 This irony had fmall effect in concealing the author. The Dunciad, imperfect as it was, had not been published two days, but the whole Town gave it to Mr. Pope. admirer admirer of the Roman poet than of the Grecian, and in that not of the fame tafte with his friend. I have been well informed, that this work was the labour of full 7 fix years of his life, and that he wholly retired himself from all the avocations and pleasures of the world, to attend diligently to its correction and perfe&tion; and fix years more he intended to beflow on it, as would feem by this verfe of Statius, which was cited at the head of his manufcript. "O mihi biffenos multum vigilata per annos, c: Duncia! & Hence alfo we learn the true title of the poem; which with the fame certainty as we call that of Homer the Iliad, of Virgil the Æneid, of Camoens the Lufiad, we may pronounce, could have been, and can be no other than The DUNCIAD. It is ftyled Heroic, as being doubly fo; not only with respect to its nature, which, according to the beft rales of the ancients, and ftricteft ideas of the moderns, is crisieally fuch; but also with regard to the heroical dispoition and high courage of the writer, who dar'd to ftir up fuch a formidable, irritable, and implacable race of mortals. There may arife fome obfcurity in chronology from the Names in the poem, by the inevitable removal of This alfo was honestly and seriously believed by divers gentlemen of the Dunciad. J. Ralph, pref. to Sawney. "We are told it was the labour of fix years, with the utmost affiduity and application: It is no great compliment to the author's fenfe, to have employed fo large a part of his life," etc. So alfo Ward, pref. to Durgen, "The Dunciad, as the pub lifher very wifely confeffes, coft the author fix years retirement from all the pleafures of life; though it is fomewhat difficult to conceive, from either its bulk or beauty, that it could be fo long in hatching, etc. Bat the length of time and clofenefs of application were mentioned to pre* poffefs the reader with a good opinion of it." They just as well underftood what Scriblerus faid of the poem. 8. The prefacer to Curl's key, p. 3, took this word to be really in Statias > By a quibble on the word Duncia, the Dunciad is formed." Mr. Ward alfo follows him in the fame opinion. fome Tome authors, and infertion of others, in their niches. For whoever will confider the unity of the whole defign, will be fenfible, that the poem was not made for these authors, but these authors for the poem. I fhould judge that they were clapp'd in as they rose, fresh and fresh, and chang'd from day to day; in like manner as when the old bought wither, we thruft new ones into a chimney. 1 would not have the reader too much troubled or anxious, if he cannot decypher them; fince when he shall have found them out, he will probably know no more of the perfons than before. Yet we judg'd it better to preferve them as they are, than to change them for fictitious names; by which the fatire would only be multiplied, and applied to many inftead of one. Had the hero, for inftance, been called Codrus, how many would have affirmed him to have been Mr. T. Mr. E. Sir R. B. etc. but now all that unjuft fcandal is faved by calling him a name, which by good luck happens to be that of a real person. A LIST A LIST of In which our Author was abufed, before the Publication of the DUNCIAD; with the true Names of the Authors. REFLECTIONS critical and fatirical on a late Rhap-. fody, called, An Effay on Criticism. By Mr Dennis, printed by B. Lintot, price 6 d. A New Rehearsal, or Bays the younger; containing an Examen of Mr. Rowe's plays, and a word or two on Mr. Pope's Rape of the Lock. Anon. [by Charles Gildon] printed for J. Roberts, 1714, price 1s. Homerides, or a Letter to Mr. Pope, occafioned by his intended tranflation of Homer. By Sir Iliad Dogrel. [Tho. Burnet and G. Ducket efquires] printed for W. Wilkins, 1715, price 9 d. Æfop at the Bear - garden; a vifion, in imitation of the Temple of Fame, by Mr. Preston. Sold by JohnMorphew, 1715, price 6 d. The Catholic Poet, or Proteftant Barnaby's Sortowful Lamentation; a Ballad about Homer's Iliad. By Mrs. Centlivre, and others, 1715, price 1 d. An Epilogue to a Puppet-fhew at Bath, concerning the faid Iliad. By George Ducket, efq. printed by E. Curl. A complete Key to the What-d'ye-call-it. Anon. [by Griffin a player, fupervised by Mr. Th~] printed by J. Roberts, 1715. A true character of Mr. P. and his writings, in a letter to a friend. Anon. [Dennis] printed for S, Popping, 1716, price 3d. - The 5 The Confederates, a Farce. By Jofeph Gay, [J. D. Breval] printed for R. Burleigh, 1717, price 1 s. Remarks upon Mr. Pope's tranflation of Homer; with two letters concerning the Windfor Foreft, and the Temple of Fame. By Mr. Dennis, printed for E. Curl, 1717, price I s. 6d. Satires on the tranflators of Homer, Mr. P. and Mr. T. Anon. [Bez. Morris] 1717, price 6 d. : The Triumvirate or a Letter from Palæmon to Celia at Bath. Anon. [Leonard Welfted] 1711, folio, price 1 s. The Battle of Poets, an heroic poem. By Tho. Cooke, printed for J. Roberts, folio, 1725. Memoirs of Lilliput. Anon. [Eliza Haywood] octavo, printed in 1727. An Essay on Criticism, in prose. By the Author of the Critical Hiftory of England [J. Oldmixon] octavo, printed 1728. Gulliveriana and Alexandriana; with an ample preface and critique on Swift and Pope's Mifcellanies. By Jonathan Smedley, printed by J. Roberts, octavo, 1728. Characters of the Time; or an account of the writings, characters, etc. of feveral gentlemen libelled, by S-and P, in a late Mifcellany, octavo, 1728. Remarks on Mr. Pope's Rape of the Lock, in letters to a friend. By Mr. Dennis; written 1724, though not printed till 1728, octavo. Verfes, Letters, Essays, or Advertisements, in the public Prints. British Journal, Nov. 25, 1727. A Letter on Swift and Pope's Mifcellanies. [Writ by M. Concanen.] Daily Journal, March 18, 1728. A Letter by Philomauri. James-Moore Smith. Id. March 29. A letter about Therfites; accufing the author of difaffection to the Government. By James-Moore Smith. 1 VOL. II, Mift's T t |