on writers so notorious for the contrary practice, became no man so well as himself; as none, it is plain, was so little in their friendships, or so much in that of those whom they had most abused; namely, the greatest and best of all parties. Let me add a further reason, that, though engaged in their friendships, he never espoused their animosities; and can almost singly challenge this honour, not to have written a line of any man which, through guilt, through shame, or through fear, through variety of fortune, or change of interests, he was ever unwilling to own. I shall conclude with remarking, what a pleasure it must be to every reader of humanity to see all along that our author, in his very laughter, is not indulging his own ill nature, but only punishing that of others. As to his poem, those alone are capable of doing it justice who, to usė the words of a great writer, know how hard it is (with regard both to his subject and his manner) vetustis dare novitatem, obsoletis nitorem, obscuris lucem, fastiditis gratiam. I am Your most humble Servant, St. James's, Dec. 22, 1728. WILLIAM CLELAND. 4 This gentleman was of Scotland, and bred at the university of Utrecht with the Earl of Mar. He served in Spain under Earl Rivers. After the peace, he was made one of the commissioners of the customs in Scotland, and then of taxes in England; in which having shown himself for twenty MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS HIS PROLEGOMENA AND ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE DUNCIAD. WITH THE HYPERCRITICS OF ARISTARCHUS. DENNIS, REMARKS ON PRINCE ARTHUR. I CANNOT but think it the most reasonable thing in the world to distinguish good writers, by discouraging the bad: nor is it an ill-natured thing, in relation even to the very persons upon whom the reflections are made. It is true, it may deprive them a little the sooner of a short profit and a transitory reputation; but then it may have a good effect, and oblige them (before it be too late) to decline that for which they are so very unfit, and to have recourse to something in which they may be more successful. CHARACTER OF MR. P. 1716. The persons whom Boileau has attacked in his writings have been for the most part authors, years diligent, punctual, and incorruptible (though without any other assistance of fortune), he was suddenly displaced by the minister, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and died two months after, in 1741. He was a person of universal learning, and an enlarged conversation; no man had a warmer heart for his friend, or a sincerer attachment to the constitution of his country; and yet, for all this, the public would never believe him to be the author of this Letter. SCRIBLERUS HIS PROLEGOMENA, ETC. 159 and most of those authors poets: and the censures he hath passed upon them have been confirmed by all Europe. GILDON, PREFACE TO HIS NEW REHEARSAL. It is the common cry of the poetasters of the town, and their fautors, that it is an ill-natured thing to expose the pretenders to wit and poetry. The judges and magistrates may with full as good reason be reproached with ill nature for putting the laws in execution against a thief or impostor. The same will hold in the Republic of Letters, if the critics and judges will let every ignorant pretender to scribbling pass on the world. THEOBALD, LETTER TO MIST, JUNE 22, 1728. Attacks may be levelled either against failures in genius, or against the pretensions of writing without one. CONCANEN, DEDICATION TO THE AUTHOR OF THE DUNCIAD. A satire upon dulness is a thing that has been used and allowed in all ages. Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, wicked Scribbler! TESTIMONIES OF AUTHORS CONCERNING OUR POET AND HIS WORKS. M. SCRIBLERUS LECTORI S. BEFORE we present thee with our exercitations on this most delectable poem (drawn from the many volumes of our adversaria 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 same author at different seasons. Nor shall we gather only the testimonies of such eminent wits as would of course descend to posterity, and consequently be read without our collection; but we shall likewise, with incredible labour, seek out for divers others, which, but for this our diligence, could never, at the distance of a few months, appear to the eye of the most curious. Hereby thou mayst not only receive the delectation of variety, but also arrive at a more certain judgment, by a grave and circumspect comparison of the witnesses with each other, or of each with himself. Hence, also, thou wilt be enabled to draw reflections, not only of a critical but a moral nature, by being let into many particulars of the person as well as genius, and of the fortune as well as merit, of our author: in which, if I relate some things of little concern, peradventure, to thee, and some of as little even to him, I entreat thee to consider how minutely all true critics and commentators are wont to insist upon such, and how material they seem 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 same pains to find whether my author were good or bad, well or ill natured, modest or arrogant, as another whether his author was fair or brown, short or tall, or whether he wore a coat or a cassock. 4 We purposed to begin with his life, parentage, and education; but as to these, even his contemporaries do exceedingly differ. One saith he was educated at home; another,2 that he was bred at St. Omer's by Jesuits; a third, not at St. Omer's, but at Oxford; a fourth, that he had no university education at all. Those who allow him to be bred at home differ as much concerning his tutor: one saith he was kept by his father on purpose; a second, that he was an itinerant priest; a third, that he was a parson; one 3 6 8 1 Giles Jacob's Lives of the Poets, vol. ii. in his Life. |