and his commentator were equally pleased with each other; and their acquaintance was quickly changed into a sincere and enduring friendship.

A collection of the Letters and Prose Works of Pope, in two volumes folio and quarto, appeared in 1741. In it the Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus (already mentioned p. lxxviii,) were first printed. The design of this satire, says Spence, from the information of Pope, 66 was to have ridiculed all the false tastes in learning, under the character of a man of capacity enough, that had dipped into every art and science, but injudiciously in each. It was begun by a club of some of the greatest wits of the age: Lord Oxford, the Bishop of Rochester, Mr. Pope, Congreve, Arbuthnot, Swift, and others. Gay often held the pen; and Addison liked it very well, and was not disinclined to come into it. The Deipnosophy consisted of disputes on ridiculous tenets of all sorts and the adventure of the Shield was designed against Doctor Woodward and the Antiquaries. It was Anthony Henley who wrote 'the life of his music-master Tom Durfey,' a chapter by way of episode. It was from a part of these Memoirs that Dr. Swift took his first hints for Gulliver (there were pigmies in Schreibler's travels), and the projects of Laputa. The design was carried on much farther than has appeared in print; and was stopped by some of the gentlemen being dispersed or otherwise engaged."1

1 Spence's Anecdotes, ed. Singer, p. 10.

In this year Pope and Warburton set out on a tour through different parts of the country. During a short stay at Oxford, they were officially informed that it was the intention of the University to confer on each of them a Doctor's degree, that of divinity on Warburton - that of civil law on Pope. The honour proposed for the former was, however, prevented by two or three persons, whom he terms "the creatures of a man in power, and the slaves of their own passions and prejudices ;" and so indignant was Pope at the treatment of his friend, that he refused to accept the degree intended for himself, and afterwards satirized the University in the fourth Book of The Dunciad, in the lines concerning Apollo's Mayor and Aldermen.

Towards the end of the same year, Pope, who was then residing at Bath with Mr. Allen, wrote a letter to Warburton, containing a pressing invitation from himself and his worthy host to join them there. By complying with the request, Warburton laid the foundation of his future fortunes. On this occasion, he supplied various notes to the fourth book of The Dunciad, which Pope appears to have written chiefly at his suggestion, and which early in 1742 was given, as a separate piece, to the world.

The attacks of our author on Colley Cibber, which were certainly far too severe, had drawn forth from that very lively, good-humoured, and

1 Note on a letter from Pope to Warburton, Sept. 20, 1741.

dissolute personage, the following remarks, in his Apology for his Life, published in 1740. "Not our great Imitator of Horace himself [Pope] can have more Pleasure in writing his Verses, than I have in reading them, tho' I sometimes find myself there (as Shakespeare terms it) dispraisingly spoken of. If he is a little free with me, I am generally in good company: he is as blunt with my Betters; so that even here I might laugh in my turn. My Superiors, perhaps, may be mended by him; but, for my part, I own myself incorrigible: I look upon my Follies as the best part of my Fortune, and am more concern'd to be a good Husband of Them, than of That; nor do I believe I shall ever be rhim'd out of them."1 "When I find my Name at length in the Satyrical Works of our most celebrated living Author [Pope], I never look upon those Lines as Malice meant to me (for he knows I never provok'd it), but Profit to himself. One of his Points must be, to have many Readers. He considers that my Face and Name are more known than those of many thousands of more consequence in the Kingdom: That therefore, right or wrong, a Lick at the Laureat will always be a sure Bait, ad captandum vulgus, to catch him little Readers: And that to gratify the Unlearned, by now and then interspersing those merry Sacrifices of an old Acquaintance to their Taste, is a piece of

1 P. 13, ed. 4to.

"The

quite right Poetical Craft.”1 In consequence of these observations, Pope again held Cibber up to ridicule in the fourth book of The Dunciad, as the "laureate son" of the Goddess of Dulness. Colley then made an attempt at retaliation, by printing A Letter to Mr. Pope, Inquiring into the Motives that might induce him in his Satyrical Works to be so frequently fond of Mr. Cibber's name, 1742; in which he thus accounts for the enmity of the poet towards him. Play of the Rehearsal, which had lain some few Years dormant, being by his present Majesty (then Prince of Wales) commanded to be revived, the part of Bays fell to my share. Το this Character there had always been allow'd such ludicrous Liberties of Observation upon any thing new or remarkable, in the state of the Stage, as Mr. Bays might think proper to take. Much about this time, then, the Three. Hours after Marriage2 had been acted without Success; when Mr. Bays, as usual, had a fling at it, which, in itself, was no Jest, unless the Audience would please to make it one: But however, flat as it was, Mr. Pope was mortally sore upon it. This was the Offence. In this Play, two Coxcombs, being in love with a learned Virtuoso's Wife, to get unsuspected Access to her, ingeniously send themselves as two presented Rarities to the Husband, the one curiously swath'd up like an Egyptian

1 P. 22, ed. 4to.

2 See p. lxi of this Memoir.

Mummy, and the other slily cover'd in the Pasteboard Skin of a Crocodile: upon which poetical Expedient, I, Mr. Bays, when the two Kings of Brentford came from the Clouds into the Throne again, instead of what my Part directed me to say, made use of these Words, viz. Now, Sir, this Revolution I had some Thoughts of introducing by a quite different Contrivance; but my Design taking air, some of your sharp Wits, I found, had made use of it before me; otherwise I intended to have stolen one of them in, in the Shape of a Mummy, and t'other, in that of a Crocodile.' Upon which, I doubt, the Audience by the Roar of their Applause shew'd their proportionable Contempt of the Play they belong'd to. But why am I answerable for that? I did not lead them, by any Reflection of my own, into that Contempt: Surely to have used the bare Word Mummy, and Crocodile, was neither unjust, or unmannerly: Where then was the Crime of simply saying there had been two such things in a former Play? But this, it seems, was SO heinously taken by Mr. Pope, that, in the swelling of his Heart, after the Play was over, he came behind the Scenes, with his Lips pale and his Voice trembling, to call me to account for the Insult: And accordingly fell upon me with all the foul language that a Wit out of his Senses could be capable ofHow durst I have the Impudence to treat any Gentleman in that manner? &c. &c. &c. Now let the Reader judge