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Swift, coming to England, 1727, joined with Pope in publishing, in four volumes octavo, their Miscellaneous Pieces, in prose and verse; to which Pope wrote a Preface, complaining, among other instances, of the ill usage he had received from booksellers, and of the liberty Curll had taken in publishing his juvenile Letters, purchased from a Mrs. Thomas, a mistress of Mr. Cromwell. The two most remarkable passages in this Preface are, where they say, "That in several parts of our lives, we have written some things which we may wish never to have thought on:" And when they also say, "In regard to two persons only, we wish our raillery, though ever so tender, or resentment ever so just, had not been indulged. We speak of Sir T. Vanbrugh, who was a man of wit and of honour; and of Mr. Addison, whose name deserves all respect from every lover of learning."

And now, in the year 1728, too much exasperated by the rude attacks of impotent scribblers, and forgetting what he had said in the before-mentioned

particular remarks on many of our Author's pieces; and because both of them were patronized by Bolingbroke. I have been always as ready to censure his inconsistencies as to praise his talents. At this time he was supported and caressed by the British court and nobility, and particularly by Queen Caroline, to whom he dedicated the quarto edition of his Henriade, published by subscription in London. The Marquis d'Argenson, his intimate friend, says of him, 1736: "Plaise au ciel que la magie de son style n'accrédite pas des fausses opinions et des idées dangereuses, qu'il ne deshonore pas ce style charmant en prose et en vers, en le faisant servir à des ouvrages dont les sujets soient indignes et du peintre et du coloris; et qu'il ne devienne pas le chef d'une secte à qui il arrivera, comme à bien d'autres, que les sectateurs se tromperont sur les intentions de leur Patriarche !"

1727

* * *

Preface," that it is to be lamented that Virgil let pass a line which told posterity he had two enemies called Bavius and Mævius," he determined to crush his adversaries in a mass, by one strong and decisive blow, and wrote his Dunciad: The history of which, is so very minutely related by Pope himself, in a Dedication which he wrote to Lord Middlesex, under the name of Savage, who, by the way, assisted Pope in finding out many particulars of these Scribblers' lives, that it ought to be inserted in this place.

"I will relate the war of the Dunces (for so it has been commonly called), which began in the year 1727, and ended in 1730.

"When Dr. Swift and Mr. Pope thought it proper, for reasons specified in the Preface to their Miscellanies, to publish such little pieces of theirs, as had casually got abroad, there was added to them the Treatise of the Bathos, or the Art of Sinking in Poetry. It happened, that in one Chapter of this Piece the several species of bad Poets were ranged in classes, to which were prefixed almost all the Letters of the Alphabet (the greatest part of them at random); but such was the number of poets eminent in that art, that some one or other took every letter to himself: All fell into so violent a fury, that, for half a year or more, the common newspapers (in most of which they had some property, as being hired writers) were filled with the most abusive falsehoods and scurrilities they could possibly devise. A liberty no way to be wondered at in those people, and in those papers, that for so many years, during the uncontrolled licence of the press, had

aspersed almost all the great characters of the age; and this with impunity, their own persons and names being utterly secret and obscure.

"This gave Mr. Pope the thought, that he had now some opportunity of doing good, by detecting, and bringing into light, these common enemies of mankind; since, to invalidate this universal slander, it sufficed to shew what contemptible men were the authors of it. He was not without hopes, that, by manifesting the dulness of those, who had only malice to recommend them, either the booksellers would not find their account in employing them, or the men themselves, when discovered, want courage to proceed in so unlawful an occupation. This it was that gave birth to the Dunciad; and he thought it a happiness, that, by the late flood of slander on himself, he had acquired such a peculiar right over their names as was necessary to this design.

"On the 12th of May 1729, at St. James's, that poem was presented to the King and Queen (who had before been pleased to read it) by the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole: and some days after the whole impression was taken and dispersed by several noblemen and persons of the first distinction.

"It is certainly a true observation, that no people are so impatient of censure as those who are the greatest slanderers, which was wonderfully exemplified on this occasion. On the day the book was first vended, a crowd of authors besieged the shop; entreaties, advices, threats of law and battery, nay, cries of treason, were all employed to hinder the

1729

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coming out of the Dunciad: on the other side, the
booksellers and hawkers made as great an effort
to procure it. What could a few
What could a few poor authors do
against so great a majority as the public? There was
no stopping a torrent with a finger, so out it came.
Many ludicrous circumstances attended it. The
Dunces (for by this name they were called) held
weekly clubs, to consult of hostilities against the
author: one wrote a Letter to a great Minister, assur-
ing him, Mr. Pope was the greatest enemy the go-
vernment had and another bought his image in
clay, to execute him in effigy; with which sort of
satisfaction the gentlemen were a little comforted.

"Some false editions of the book having an owl in their frontispiece, the true one, to distinguish it, fixed in its stead an ass laden with authors. Then another surreptitious one being printed with the same ass, the new edition in octavo returned for distinction to the owl again. Hence arose a great contest of booksellers against booksellers, and advertisements against advertisements; some recommended the edition of the owl, and others the edition of the ass; by which names they came to be distinguished, to the great honour also of the gentlemen of the Dunciad."

The complete edition of the Dunciad was elegantly printed in quarto, by Dodd, 1729, with large Notes, and an Appendix, under the name of Cleland, but written by Pope himself. As to the conduct of this poem, the awkward additions made to it, and the many unhappy alterations it underwent, we must refer to the remarks in the Fifth Volume of this Edition.

After enjoying for two years a complete triumph over Horneck, and Rome, and Gildon, and Concanen, and Oldmixon, and the nameless fabricators of the Popiad, and Martiniad, he printed, in folio, "3/ 1731 (for this was the original title), “An Epistle to Richard Earl of Burlington, occasioned by his publishing Palladio's Designs of the Baths, Arches, Theatres, &c. of Ancient Rome."

The gang of scribblers immediately rose up toge ther, and accused him of malevolence and ingratitude, in having ridiculed the house, gardens, chapel, and dinners, of the Duke of Chandos at Canons (who had lately, as they affirmed, been his benefactor), under the name of Timon. He peremptorily and positively denied the charge, and wrote an exculpatory letter to the Duke, with the asseverations of which letter, as the last Duke of Chandos told me, his ancestor was not perfectly satisfied.

It ought to be added, that the many respectable authors, who have, since this Epistle, treated of the art of laying out grounds and gardens, have acknowledged the justness and propriety of the rules and precepts delivered by Pope, in this highly-finished piece. What relates to architecture is shorter, and perhaps not equal to the rest.

Adhering to the chronological order in which the Ethic Epistles were published, I am next to observe, that there appeared, in 17326, "Of the Use of Riches, an Epistle to the Right Hon. Allen Lord Bathurst,"

In the Epistles to Lord Burlington and Lord Bathurst, says Johnson, Warburton has endeavoured to find a train of thought which was never in the writer's head.

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