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dead to our World, is reviv'd in him: He is a Philofopher all of Fire; fo warmly, nay fo wildly in the right, that he forces all others about him to be so too, and draws them into his Vortex. He is a Star that looks as if it were all Fire, but is all Benignity, all gentle and beneficial Influence. If there be other Men in the World that would ferve a Friend, yet he is the only one I believe that could make even an Enemy ferve a Friend, &c.

In this Epiftle to Dr. Arbuthnot, our Author complains how he is pefter'd with troublesome and impertinent Vifitants, which put him by better Company, and confequently out of Humour; of thefe Di fturbers of his Peace he reckons up a few:

Is there a Parfon, much be-mus'd in Beer,
A maudlin Poetefs, a rhyming Peer,

A Clerk, foredoom'd his Father's Soul to cross,
Who pens a Stanza when he should engross?
Is there, who lock'd from Ink and Paper, fcrawls
With defp'rate Charcoal round his darken'd Walls?
All fly to Twit'nam, and in humble Strain
Apply to me, to keep them mad or vain,
Arthur, whofe giddy Son neglects the Laws,
Imputes to me and my damn'd Works the Caufe:
Poor Cornus fees his frantic Wife elope,
And curfes Wit, and Poetry, and Pope,

And after he makes a frond Perfon (like Horace) object against him for meddling with the Great, with Ministers, and Queens, and Kings; to which he replies:

Whom have I hurt? Has Poet yet, or Peer,
Loft the arch'd Eye-brow, or Parnaffian Sneer?

VOL. II.

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And has not Colley ftill his Lord and Whore?
His Butcher Henley and Free-Mafon Moor?

The Lines which reflects on Mr. Cibber he quietly let alone, not thinking it (I believe) for his Advantage, to take up a Pen against an Adversary so potent, and now fo much in Favour with the World; but after the Publication of the new Dunciad, where Mr. Pope was ftill very bright upon his Dulness, he immediately endeavoured to answer thofe Bills of Difcredit, which he fays Mr. Pope had drawn on. him: And Mr. Cibber has been of that very peaceable Nature, in Regard to the Defence of his Odes and other poetical Performances, that though he has been perfecuted for Twenty Years together, he never 'till now made any Answer; nay, he has wrote Verfes against his own Odes, meerly for the Pleasure of fitting in Coffee-Houfes and hearing them (for they were not known to be his) praised and called palpable Hits, keen, Things with a Spirit in them,. &c. He had in this Contest with Mr. Pope, which is a Letter to him, the Cunning to write in Profe, and to keep his Temper, which he has done extremely well. As to his own Poetry, he openly and candidly confeffes, that he wrote more to be fed than to be famous; and that he is fo contented a Dunce, that he would not have even Mr. Pope's merited Fame attended with the Solicitude he has been: at to mantain it, allowing at the fame Time the Dunciad to be a better Poem, in its Kind, than ever: was writ.

He protests that he had never ufed Mr. Pope nor any Body else with Ill-manners, and feems to give other Reafons for his Ill-will towards him. In his Letter he says:

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HE Play of the Rehearsal, which had lain fome few Years dormant, being by his prefent Majefty (then Prince of Wales) commanded to be revived, the Part of Bays fell to my Share. To this Character there had always been allow'd fuch ludicrous Liberties of Obfervation, 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 Marriage had been acted without Succefs; when Mr. Bays, as ufual, had a Fling at it, which in itself was no Jeft, unless the Audience would please to make it one : But however, flat as it was, Mr. Pope was mortally fore upon it. This was the Offence; in this Play two Coxcombs being in Love with a learned Virtuo fo's Wife, to get unfufpected Access to her, ingeniously fend themselves, as two prefented Rarities to the Husband, the one curiously swath'd up like an Egyptian Mummy, and the other flily covered in the Pafte-board 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 fay, made Ufe of thefe Words, viz. "Now, Sir, this "Revolution I had fome Thoughts of introducing

by a quite different Contrivance; but my Defign "taking Air, fome of your sharp Wits, I found,

had made Ufe of it before me; otherwife, I in"tended to have ftolen one of them 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, fhew'd their proportionable Contempt of the Play they belong'd to. But why am I anfwerable for that? I did not lead them, by any Reflexion of my own, into that Contempt: Surely, to G 24

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have used the bare Word Mummy and Crocodile, was neither unjuft, or unmannerly; Where then was the Crime of fimply faying there had been two fuch 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 Infult; and accordingly fell upon me with all the foul Language, that a Wit out of his Senfes could be capable of.

How durft I have the Impudence to treat any Gentleman in that Manner? &c. &c. &c. Now let the Reader judge by this Concern, who was the true Mother of the Child! When he was almost choaked with the Foam of his Paffion, I was enough recover'd from my Amazement, to make him (as near as I can remember) this Reply, viz. .. Mr. "Pope You are fo particular a Man, that I must "be afhamed to return your Language as I ought "to do: But fince you have attack'd me in so mon"ftrous a Manner, this you may depend upon;

That as long as the Play continues to be acted, I "will never fail to repeat the fame Words over and "over again." Now, as he accordingly found I kept my Word, for feveral Days following, I am afraid he has fince thought, that his Pen was a fharper Weapon than his Tongue to truft his Revenge with. And however juft Cause this may be for his fo doing, it is, at leaft, the only Caufe my Confcience can charge me with.

The Nonjuror, and Mr. Pope was one as being a Papift, being brought upon the Stage with great Succefs, he was difpleafed, and fpoke of it to Mr. Jerwas contemptuoufly, Such a Play as the Nonjuror: And here Mr. Cibber thinks arofe another Caufe Mr. Cibber reafons thus: WELL

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ELL then! upon the great Success of this enormous Play the Nonjuror, poor Mr. Pope laments the Decay of Poetry; though the Impolitenefs of the Piece is his only infinuated Objection againft it. How nice are the Noftrils of this delicate Critick! This indeed is a Scent, that thofe widemouth'd Hounds the Daily-Paper Criticks could never hit off! though they purfued it with the Imputation of every Offence that could run down a Play: Yet Impolitenefs at least they overfaw. No! they did not disguise their real Dislike, as the prudent Mr. Pope did; they all fairly spoke out, and in full Cry open'd against it, only for its fo audaciously expofing the facred Character of a lurking, treason-hatching jefuit, and for inhumanly ridiculing the confcientious Cause of an honeft deluded Jacobite Gentleman. Now may we not as well fay to Mr. Pope, Hinc illeR Lachryma! Here was his real Disgust to the Play! For if Impolitenefs could have fo offended him, he would never have beftowed fuch Encomiums upon the Beggars Opera, which, whatever Beauties it might boaft, Politeness certainly was not one of its moft ftriking Features. No, no! if the Play had not fo impudently fallen upon the poor Enemies of the Government, Mr. Pope, poffibly, might have been lefs an Enemy to the Play: But he has a charitable Heart, and cannot bear to fee his Friends derided in their Diftrefs: Therefore you may have obfer ved, whenever the Government cenfures a Man of Confequence for any extraordinary Difaffection to it; then is Mr. Pope's Time generously to brighten and lift him up with Virtues, which never had been fo confpicuous in him before. Now, though he may be led into all this, by his thinking it a religious Duty; yet those who are of a different Religion may

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