Mr. Row's. We are affured by another," He wrote a "pamphlet called Dr. Andrew Tripes;" which proved to be one Dr. Wagstaff's. Mr. THEOBALD affures us, in Mift of the 27th of April," That the treatise of the "Profound is very dull, and that Mr. Pope is the au"thor of it." The writer of Gulliveriana is of another opinion; and fays, "the whole, or greatest part, of the "merit of this treatise must and can only be ascribed to "Gulliver h.” [Here, gentle reader! cannot I but fmile at the strange blindnefs and pofitiveness of men; know, ing the faid treatife to appertain to none other but to me, Martinus Scriblerus.]

We are affured, in Mift of June 8, "That his own "Plays and Farces would better have adorned the Dun"ciad, than those of Mr. Theobald; for he had neither "genius for Tragedy nor Comedy." Which whether true or not, is not eafy to judge; in as much as he hath attempted neither. Unless we will take it for granted, with Mr. Cibber, that his being once very angry at hearing a friend's Play abufed, was an infallible proof the Play was his own; the faid Mr. Cibber thinking it im poffible for a man to be much concerned for any but himfelf: "Now let any man judge (faith he) by this concern, who was the true mother of the child?"

66

But from all that hath been said, the difcerning reader will collect, that it little availed our author to have any Candour, fince, when he declared he did not write for others, it was not credited; as little to have any Modefty, fince, when he declined writing in any way himfelf, the prefumption of others was imputed to him. If he fingly enterprised one great work, he was taxed of Boldness and Madness to a prodigyk: If he took affistants in another, it was complained of, and reprefented as a great injury to the public'. The loftieft heroics, the lowest ballads, treatifes against the state or church, fatires on lords and ladies, raillery on wits and authors, fquab

Character of Mr. Pope, p. 6. h Gulliv. p. 336. Cibber's Letter to Mr. P. p. 19. k Burnet's Homerides, p.1. of his tranflation of the Iliad. The London and Mift's Journals, on his undertaking of the Odyssey.

bles with bookfellers, or even full and true accounts of monsters, poisons, and murders; of any hereof was there nothing fo good, nothing fo bad, which hath not at one or other feafon been to him afcribed. If it bore no

author's name, then lay he concealed; if it did, he fathered it upon that author to be yet better concealed: If it resembled any of his ftyles, then was it evident; if it did not, then disguised he it on fet purpose. Yea, even direct oppofitions in religion, principles, and politics, have equally been fuppofed in him inherent. Surely a moft rare and fingular character! Of which let the reader make what he can.

Doubtless moft Commentators would hence take occafion to turn all to their Author's advantage, and from the teftimony of his very Enemies would affirm, That his Capacity was boundless, as well as his Imagination ; that he was a perfect mafter of all Styles, and all Arguments; and that there was in thofe times no other Writer, in any kind, of any degree of excellence, fave he himself But as this is not our own fentiment, we shall determine on nothing; but leave thee, gentle reader, to fteer thy judgment equally between various opinions, and to chufe whether thou wilt incline to the Testimonies of Authors avowed, or of Authors concealed; of those who knew him, or of those who knew him not.

P.

MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS

T

Of the POE M.
Роем.

HIS poem, as it celebrateth the most grave and ancient of things, Chaos, Night, and Dulness;

fo is it of the most grave and ancient kind. Homer (faith Ariftotle) was the first who gave the Form, and (faith Horace) who adapted the Meafure, to heroic poefy. But even before this, may be rationally prefumed from what the Ancients have left written, was a piece by Homer compofed, of like nature and matter with this of our poet. For of Epic fort it appeareth to have been, yet of matter furely not unpleafant, witnefs what is reported of it by the learned archbishop Euftathias, in Odyff. x. And accordingly Aristotle, in his Poetic, chap. iv. doth further fet forth, that as the Iliad and Odyffey gave example to Tragedy, fo did this poem to Comedy its firft idea.

From these authors alfo it fhould feem, that the Hero, or chief perfonage of it was no lefs obfcure, and his underftanding and fentiments no lefs quaint and ftrange (if indeed not more fo) than any of the actors of our poem. MARGITES was the name of this perfonage, whom Antiquity recordeth to have been Dunce the firft; and furely from what we hear of him, not unworthy to be the root of fo fpreading a tree, and fo numerous a pofterity. The poem therefore celebrating him was properly and abfolutely a Dunciad; which though now unhappily loft, yet is its nature fufficiently known by the infallible tokens aforefaid. And thus it doth appear, that the first Dunciad was the firft Epic poem, written by Homer himself, and anterior even to the Iliad or Odysey.

Now, forafmuch as our poet had tranflated thofe two famous works of Homer which are yet left, he did con

ceive it in some fort his duty to imitate that alfo which was loft: And was therefore induced to beftow on it the fame form which Homer's is reported to have had, namely that of Epic poem; with a title alfo framed after the ancient Greek manner, to wit, that of Dunciad.

Wonderful it is, that fo few of the moderns have been ftimulated to attempt fome Dunciad! fince, in the opinion of the multitude, it might coft lefs pain and oil than an imitation of the greater Epic. But poflible it is also, that, on due reflection, the maker might find it easier to paint a Charlemagne, a Brute, or a Godfrey, with juft pomp and dignity heroic, than a Margites, a Codrus, or a Fleckno.

We fhall next declare the occafion and the caufe which moved our poet to this particular work. He lived in those days, when (after Providence had permitted the invention of Printing as a fcourge for the fins of the learned) Paper also became fo cheap, and Printers fo numerous, that a deluge of Authors covered the land: Whereby not only the peace of the honeft unwriting fubject was daily molefted, but unmerciful demands were made of his applaufe, yea of his money, by fuch as would neither earn the one, nor deferve the other. At the fame time, the licence of the Prefs was fuch, that it grew dangerous to refufe them either for they would forthwith publish flanders unpunished, the authors being anonymous, and skulking under the wings of Publifhers, a fet of men who never fcrupled to vend either Calumny or Blafphemy, as long as the Town would

call for it.

that

Now our author, living in thofe times, did conceive it an endeavour well worthy an honeft Satirift, to dif fuade the dull, and punish the wicked, the only way was left. In that public-fpirited view he laid the plan of this Poem, as the greateft fervice he was capable (without much hurt, or being flain) to render his dear country. First, taking things from their original, he

a Vide Boffu, Du Poeme Epique, ch. viii.

f

confidereth the caufes creative of fuch Authors, namely Dulness and Poverty; the one born with them, the other contracted by neglect of their proper talents, through felf-conceit of greater abilities. This truth he wrappeth in an Allegory b (as the conftruction of Epic poely requireth) and feigns that one of thefe Goddeffes had taken up her abode with the other, and that they jointly infpired all fuch writers and fuch works. He proceedeth to fhew the qualities they bestow on these authors, and the effects they produced: then the materials, or flock, with which they furnish them; and (above all) that felf opinion which caufeth it to feem to themfelves vaftly greater than it is, and is the prime motive of their fetting up in this fad and forry merchandise. The great power of thefe Goddeffes acting in alliance (whereof as the one is the mother of Induftry, fo is the other of Plodding) was to be exemplified in fome one, great and remarkable Action: And none could be more fo than that which our poet hath chofen, viz. the restoration of the reign of Chaos and Night, by the miniftry of Dulnefs their daughter, in the removal of her imperial feat from the City to the polite World; as the Action of the Æneid is the restoration of the empire of Troy, by the removal of the race from thence to Latium. But as Homer finging only the Wrath of Achilles, yet includes in his poem the whole hiftory of the Trojan war; in like manner our author hath drawn into this fingle Action the whole history of Dulnefs and her children.

A Perfon must next be fixed upon to fupport this A&tion. This Phantom in the poet's mind must have a Name: He finds it to be ; and he becomes of course the Hero of the poem.

The Fable being thus, according to the best example, one and entire, as contained in the Propofition; the Machinery is a continued chain of Allegories, fetting forth the whole Power, Ministry, and Empire of Dulnefs, ex

Bollu,

b Boffu, chap. vii. c Book 1. 32, &c. d Ver. 45 to 54° • Ver. 57 to 77: f Ver. 80. g Ibid. chap. vii, viii. chap. viii. Vide Ariftot. Poetic. cap. ix.