THE

POETICAL WORKS

OF

ALEXANDER POPÈ.

WITH

THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

BY SAMUEL JOHNSON, L.L.D.

POPE! if like mine, or Codrus' were thy style,
The blood of vipers had not stain'd thy file;
Merit less solid, less despite had bred:
They had not bit, and then they had not bled.
Fame is a public mistress, none enjoys;
But, more or less, his rival's peace destroys---
Slight, peevish insects round a genius rise,
As a bright day awakes the world of flies;
With hearty malice, but with feeble wing,
(To shew they live) they flutter, and they sting:
But as, by depredations, wasps proclaim
The fairest fruit, so these the fairest fame.

YOUNG.

IN ELEVEN VOLUMES.

VOL. IV.

London:

d for Cadell and Davies; Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme; hols and Son; J. Walker; Wilkie and Robinson; W. J. and ichardson; F. C. and J. Rivington; Lackington, Allen, and R. H. Evans; Cuthell and Martin; Scatcherd and LetterOtridge and Son; Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe; R. FaulT. Payne; J. Nunn; R. Lea; J. Deighton; J. Johnson; Clarke and Sons; W. Lowndes; J. Hatchard; Black and ; J. Harding; E. Jeffery; J. Carpenter; W. Miller; h and Sotheby; Payne and Mackinlay; Matthews and Leigh; P. Wynne; J. Booker; and

SAMUEL BAGSTER.

THE DUNCIAD.

A LETTER TO THE PUBLISHER.

Occasioned by the first correct edition of

THE DUNCIAD.

It is with pleasure I hear, that you have procured a correct copy of the Dunciad, which the many surreptitious ones have rendered so necessary; and it is yet with more, that I am informed it will be attended with a Commentary; a work so requisite, that I cannot think the Author himself would have omitted it, had he approved of the first appearance of this Poem.

Such Notes as have occurred to me I herewith send you you will oblige me by inserting them amongst those which are, or will be, transmitted to you by others; since not only the Author's friends, but even strangers, appear engaged, by humanity, to take some care of an Orphan of so much genius and spirit, which its Parent seems to have abandoned