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DENNIS' REMARKS

ON PRINCE ARTHUR.

I CANNOT but think it the most reasonable thing in the world, to diftinguish good writers, by difcouraging the bad. Nor is it an ill-natured thing, in relation even to the very perfons upon whom the reflections are made. It is true, it may deprive them, a little the fooner, of a fhort profit and a tranfitory 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 fomething in which they may be more fuccessful.

CHARACTER OF MR. P. 1716.

The perfons whom Boileau has attacked in his writings, have been for the most part authors, and moft of thofe authors, poets: and the cenfures he hath passed upon them have been confirmed by all Europe.

GILDON, Pref. 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 expofe the pretenders to wit and poetry. The judges and magiftrates may with full as good reafon be reproached with ill-nature for putting the laws in execution against a thief or impoftor.The fame will hold in the republic of letters, if the critics and judges will let every ignorant pretender to fcribbling pafs on the world.

THEOBALD, Letter to Mift, June 22, 1728. Attacks may be levelled, either against failures in genius, or against the pretensions of writing without one.

CONCANEN, Ded. to the Author of the DUNCIAD. A Satire upon dulnefs is a thing that has been ufed and allowed in all ages.

Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, wicked fcribbler!

TESTIMONIES OF AUTHORS CONCERNING OUR POET AND HIS WORKS.

M. SCRIBLERUS LECTORI S.

bred at St. Omer's, by Jesuits; a third (e) not at St. Omer's, but at Oxford! a fourth (d) that he BEFORE we prefent thee with our exercitations had no univerfity education at all. Those who on this most delectable poem (drawn from the allow him to be bred at home, differ as much conmany volumes of our adverfaria on modern au- cerning his tutor: one faith (e) he was kept by thots) we fhall here, according to the laudable his father on purpose; a second(ƒ), that he was an ufage of editors, collect the various judgments of itinerant prieft; a third (g), that he was a parfon; the learned concerning our poet: various indeed, one (b) calleth him a fecular clergyman of the not only of different authors, but of the fathe au- church of Rome; another (i), a monk. As little thor at different feafons. Nor fhall we gather on-do they agree about his father, whom one (4) fuply the teftimonies of fuch eminent wits, as would pofeth, like the father of Hefiod, a tradesman or of course descend to pofterity, and confequently merchant; another (1), a husbandman; another (m,) be read without our collection; but we shall like-a hatter, &c. Nor has an author been wanting to wife with incredible labour feek out for divers give our poet fuch a father as Apuleius hath to others, which, but for this our diligence, could Plato, Jamblichus to Pythagoras, and divers to Honever, at the distance of a few months, appear to mer, namely a dæmon: for thus Mr. Gildon (») : the eye of the most curious. Hereby thou mayeft" Certain it is, that his original is not from Adam, not only receive the delectation of variety, but al-" but the devil; and that he wanteth nothing but To arrive at a more certain judgment, by a grave" horns and tail to be the exact resemblance of his and circumfpect comparison of the witneffes with" infernal father." Finding, therefore, fuch coneach other, or of each with himself. Hence alfo thou wilt be enabled to draw reflections, not only of a critical, but a moral nature, by being let into many particulars of the perfon as well as genius, and of the fortune as well as merit, of our author: in which, if I relate fome things of little concern peradventure to thee, and fome of as little even to Proceed we to what is more certain, his works, him; I entreat thee to confider how minutely all though not lefs uncertain the judgments concerntrue critics and commentators are wont to infifting them; beginning with his Effay on Criticism, upon fuch, and how material they feem to them- of which hear firft the most ancient of critics, felves, if to none other. Forgive me, gentle reader, if (following learned example) I ever and anon become tedious: allow me to take the fame pains to find whether my author were good or bad, well or ill-natured, modeft or arrogant; as another, whether his author was fair or brown, fhort or tall, or whether he wore a coat or a caflock.

We proposed to begin with his life, parentage, and education: but as to thefe, even his contemporaries do exceedingly differ. One faith, (a) he was educated at home; another (b) that he was

(a) Giles Jacob's Lives of the Poets, vol. ii, in bis | Life. (b) Dennis's Reflections on the Efay on Crit.

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trariety of opinions, and (whatever be ours of this fort of generation) not being fond to enter into controverfy, we shall defer writing the life of our poet, till authors can determine among themselves what parents or education he had, or whether he had any education or parents at all.

(e) Dunciad diffected, p. 4. (d) Guardian, No. 40. (e) Jacob's Lives, &e, vol. ii, (ƒ) Dunciad dissected, p. 4. (g) Farmer P. and his fon. (b) Dunciad dissected. (1) Characters of the Times, p. 45. (k) Female Dunciad, p. ult. (1) Dunciad diffected. (m) Roome, Paraphrafe on the ivth of Genefis, printed 1729. (n) Characier of Mr. P. and bis Writings, in a letter to a friend, printed for S. Popping, 1716, p. 10. Curll, in bis Key to the Dunciad (firft edit. faid to be printed for A. Dodd) in the 10th page, declared Gildon to be the author of that libel; though, in the fubfequent edition s of his key, be left out this affertion, and affirmed (in the Curliad, p. 4. and 8), that it was written by Dennis only.

"

MR. JOHN DENNIS.

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"most known and the most received, they are "His precepts are falfe or trivial, or both; his "placed in fo beautiful a light, and illuftrated thoughts are crude and abortive, his expreffions" with fuch apt illufions, that they have in them "abfurd, his numbers harsh and unmufical, his "all the graces of novelty; and make the reader, "rhymes trivial and common-instead of majesty, "who was before acquainted with them, ftill "we have something that is very mean; instead of more convinced of their truth and folidity. " gravity, fomething that is very boyish; and in- "And here give me leave to mention what Mon" ftead of perfpicuity and lucid order, we have but "fieur Boileau has fo well enlarged upon in the "too often obfcurity and confufion." And in an- "preface to his works: that wit and fine writing other place: "What rare numbers are here! "doth not confift so much in advancing things that "Would not one fwear that this youngster had are new, as in giving things that are known an a"espoused fome antiquated mufe, who had fued "agreeable turn. It is impoffibe for us, who live in "out a divorce from fome fuperannuated 'finner, "the latter ages of the world, to make obfervations upon account of impotence; and who, being" in criticism, morality, or any art or fcience, poxed by the former spouse, has got the gout in "which have not been touched upon by others; "her decrepid age, which makes her hobble fo "we have litttle elfe left us, but to represent the damnably (o)." "common fenfe of mankind in more ftrong, "more beautiful, or more uncommon lights. If a "reader examines Horace's Art of Poetry, he will "find but few precepts in it which he may not "meet with in Ariftotle, and which were not "commonly known by all the poets of the Auguf"tan age. His way of expreffing, and applying "them, not his invention of them, is what we "are chiefly to admire.

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No lefs peremptory is the cenfure of our hypercritical hiftorian,

MR. OLDMIXON.

" I dare not say any thing of the Essay on Criti"cifm in verfe; but if any more curious reader "has difcovered in it fomething new, which is not, " in Dryden's prefaces, dedications, and his Effay "on Dramatic Poetry, not to mention the French "critics, I fhould be very glad to have the bene"fit of the discovery (p)."

He is followed (as in fame, fo in udgment) by the modeft and fimple-minded

MR. LEONARD WELSTED. Who, out of great refpect to our poet, not naming him, doth yet glance at his effay, together with the Duke of Buckingham's, and the criticisms of Dryden, and of Horace, which he more openly taxeth: (9) "As to the numerous treatifes, effays, arts, &c. both in verse and prose, that have been "written by the moderns on this ground-work, "they do but hackney the fame thoughts over again, making them ftill more trite. Most of "their pieces are nothing but a pert, infipid heap "of common-place. Horace has, even in his "Art of Poetry, thrown out feveral things which plainly fhew, he thought an Art of Poetry was "of no ufe, even while he was writing one."

To all which great authorities, we can only oppofe that of

MR. ADDISON,

"(r) The Art of Criticism (faith he) which "was published fome months fince, is a mafter"piece in its kind. The obfervations follow one "another like thofe in Horace's Art of Poetry, " without that methodical regularity which would "have been requifite in a profe writer. They * are fome of them uncommon, but fuch as the "reader muft affent to, when he fees them ex"plained with that cafe and perfpicuity in which "they are delivered. As for those which are the

"Longinus, in his Reflections, has given us "the fame kind of fublime, which he observes in "the feveral paffages that occafioned them: I "cannot but take notice that our English author "has, after the fame manner, exemplified feveral "of the precepts in the very precepts themselves." He then produces fome inftances of a particular beauty in the numbers, and concludes with faying, that "there are three poems in our tongue of the

fame nature, and each a mafter-piece in its "kind! The Effay on Tranflated Verfe; the "Effay on the Art of Poetry; and the Essay on "Criticism."

Of Windsor Foreft, pofitive is the judgment of the affirmative

MR. JOHN DENNIS,

"(s) That it is a wretched rhapfody, impudent"ly writ in emulation of the Cooper's Hill of Sir "John Denham: the author of it is obfcure, is "ambiguous, is affected, is temerarious, is barba

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rous.

But the author of the Dispensary (1),
DR. GARTH,

in the preface to his poem of Claremont, differs
from this opinion: "Those who have feen these
"two excellent poems of Cooper's Hill, and
"Windfor Foreft, the one written by Sir John
"Denham, the other by Mr. Pope, will fhew a
"great deal of candor if they approve of this."

Of the epiftle to Eloifa, we are told by the obfcure writer of a poem called Sawney, "That "because Prior's Henry and Emma charmed the "finest tastes, our author writ his Eloifa in op

(0) Reflections critical and fatirical on a Rhapsody," pofition to it: but forgot innocence and virtue : called, An Effay on Criticism.” Printed for Bernard Lintet, octavo.

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(p) Efay on Criticism in profe, octave, 1728, by the author of the Critical Hiftory of England. (9) Preface to bis Poems, p. 18. $3. (7) Spectator, No. 253.

"if you take away her tender thoughts, and her "fierce defires, all the reft is of no value." In

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which, methinks, his judgment refembleth that of
a French taylor on a villa and gardens by the
the Thames: "All this is very fine; but take
the river, and it is good for nothing."
away
But very contrary hereunto was the opinion of
MR. PRIOR

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himself, faying in his Alma (u),

O Abelard? ill-fated youth,
Thy tale will justify this truth:
But well I weet, thy cruel wrong
Adorns a nobler poet's fong:

Dan Pope, for thy misfortune griev'd,
With kind concern and skill has weav'd
A filken web; and ne'er shall fade
Its colours: gently has he laid
The mantle o'er thy fad diftrefs,
And Venus fhall the texture blefs, &c.
Come we now to his tranflation of the Iliad,
celebrated by numerous pens, yet fhall it suffice, to
mention the indefatigable

SIR RICHARD BLACKMORE, Knight, Who (though otherwife a fevere cenfurer of our author) yet ftyleth this a "laudable transla. tion (v)."

That ready writer

MR. OLDMIXON,

MR ADDISON'S FREEHOLDER, No 40. "When I confider myself as a British freeholder, "I am in a particular manner pleased with the la"bours of those who have improved our language "with the tranflations of old Greek and Latin "authors.-We have already moft of their hifto"rians in our own tongue, and, what is more for "the honour of our language, it has been taught "to exprefs with elegance the greatest of their poets in each nation. The illiterate among our "own countrymen may learn to judge from Dry"den's Virgil of the most perfect epic performance. "And thofe parts of Homer which have been pub"lished already by Mr. Pope, give us reason to "think that the Iliad will appear in English with as little difadvantage to that immortal poem."

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As to the reft there is a flight mistake, for this younger mufe was an elder: nor was the gentleman (who is a friend of our author) employed by Mr. Addison to tranflate it after him, fince he' faith himself that he did it before (y). Contrariwife, that Mr. Addifon engaged our author in this work appeareth by declaration thereof in the preface to the Iliad, printed fome time before his death, and by his own letters of October 26, and November 2, 1713, where he declares it is his opi

in his forementioned effay, frequently commends nion that no other perfon was equal to it. the fame. And the painful

MR. LEWIS THEOBALD

Next comes his Shakspeare on the stage: "Let "him" (quoth one, whom I take to be MR. THEOBALD, Mift's Journal, June 8, 1728). publifh fuch an author as he has leaft ftudied, "and forget to discharge even the dull duty of an "editor. In this project let him lend the bookfel"ler his name (for a competent fum of money) to

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promote the credit of an exorbitant fubfcription." Gentle reader, be pleased to caft thine eye on the propofal below quoted, and on what follows (fome months after the former affertion) in the fame Journalist of June 8, "The bookfeller proposed "the book by subscription, and raifed fome thou"fand of pounds for the fame: I believe the gen"tleman did not fhare in the profits of this extravagant fubfcription."

thus extolls it (x)," The spirit of Homer breathes
"all through this tranflation.-I am in doubt,"
whether I fhould not admire the juftness to the
"original, or the force and beauty of the language,
"or the founding variety of the numbers: but
"when I find all these meet, it puts me in mind
"of what the poet fays of one of his heroes,
"That he alone raised and flung with cafe a
"weighty ftone, that two common men could
"to lift from the ground; juft fo, one fingle per-
"fon has performed in this tranflation, what I
"once despaired to have feen done by the force
"of feveral mafterly hands." Indeed the fame
gendeman appears to have changed his fentiments
in his Effay on the Art of Sinking in Reputation
(printed in Mift's Journal, March 30, 1728),
where he fays thus: "In order to fink in repu-
"tation, let him take it into his head to defcend
"into Homer (let the world wonder, as it will,
"how the devil he got there), and pretend to do
"him into English, so his verfion denote his ne-
"glect of the manner how." Strange variation!
We are told in

MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8.
"That this tranflation of the Iliad was not in all
"refpects conformable to the fine taste of his friend
"Mr. Addison; infomuch that he employed
younger mufe in an undertaking of this kind,
"which he supervised himself." Whether Mr.
Addifon did find it conformable to his tafte, or
not, beft appears from his own teftimony the year
following its publication, in these words:

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"After the Iliad, he undertook” (faith

MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, 1728.) "the fequel of that work, the Odyssey; and having "fecured the fuccefs by a numerous fubfcription, "he employed fome underlings to perform what,

according to his propofals, fhould come from his "own hands." To which heavy charge we can in truth oppofe nothing but the words of

MR. POPE'S PROPOSAL FOR THE ODYSSEY

(printed by J. Watts, Jan. 10, 1724.), "I take this occafion to declare that the Gibfcrip"tion for Shakspeare belongs wholly to Mr. Ton"fon and that the benefit of this propofal is not

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folely for my own ufe, but for that of two of my "friends, who have affifted me in this work." But thefe very gentlemen are extolled above our Poct himself in another of Mift's journals, March 30, 1728, faying, "That he would not advife Mr. Pope to try the experiment again of getting a

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(y) Vid. pref. to Mr. Tickell's tranflation of the firft book of the iliad, 419.

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* great part of a book done by assistants, left those extraneous parts fhould unhappily afcend to the fublime, and retard the declenfion of the whole." Behold! these underlings are become good writers! If any fay, that before, the faid proposals were printed, the fubfcription was begun without de claration of fuch affiftance; verily those who set it on foot, or (as the term is) fecured it, to wit, the right honourable the Lord Viscount Harcourt," leave to infert in it, would be known for his, were he living, would teftify; and the right honourable the Lord Bathurst, now living, doth teftify, the fame is a falfehood.

plagiaries, that pretend to make a réputation by ftealing from a man's works in his own life-time, "and out of a public print." Let us join to this what is written by the author of the Rival Modes, the said Mr. James-Moore Smith, in a letter to our author himself, who had informed him a month before that play was acted, Jan. 27, 1726-7, that "Thefe verfes, which he had before given him

Sorry I am, that perfons profeffing to be learned, er of whatever rank of authors, fhould either falfely tax, or be falfely taxed. Yet let us, who are only reporters, be impartial in our citations, and proceed. MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, 1728. "Mr. Addison raised this author from obfcu*rity, obtained him the acquaintance and friend"hip of the whole body of our nobility, and trans"ferred his powerful interests with those great "men to this rifing bard, who frequently levied "by that means unusual contributions on the "public." Which furely cannot be, if, as the author of the Dunciad Diffected reporteth, Mr. Wycherly had before "introduced him into a "familiar acquaintance with the greatest peers and brightest wits then living."

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"No fooner (faith the fame journalist) was his " body lifeless, but this author, reviving his refentment, libelled the memory of his departed friend; " and what was ftill more heinous, made the scan"dal public." Grievous the accufation: unknown the accufer! the perfon accused, no witnefs in his own caufe; the perfon, in whofe regard accused, dead! But if there be living any one nobleman whofe friendship, yea any one gentleman whofe fubfcription Mr. Addifon procured to our author, let him stand forth, that truth may appear! Amitus Plato, amicus Socrates, fed magis amica veritas. In verity, the whole ftory of the libel is a lie; witnefs thofe perfons of integrity, who, feveral years before Mr. Addifon's decease, did fee and approve of the said verses, in no wife a libel, but a friendly rebuke fent privately in our euthor's own hand to Mr. Addifon himself, and never made public, till after their own journals, and Curll had printed the fame. One name alone, which I am here authorised to declare, will fufficiently evince this truth, that of the right honourable the Earl of Burlington.

Next is he taxed with a crime (in the opinion of fome authors, I doubt, more heinous than any in morality), to wit, Plagiarism, from the inventive and quaint-conceited

JAMES-MOORE SMITH, Gent. "(z) Upon reading the third volume of Pope's "miscellanies, I found five lines which I thought "excellent; and happening to praise them, a gentleman produced a modern comedy (the Rival "Modes) published last year, where were the fame "verfes to a tittie.

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"These gentlemen are undoubtedly the first

(~) Daily Journal, March 18, 1728,

"fome copies being got abroad. He defires, ne"vertheless, that fince the lines had been read in "his comedy to several, Mr. P. would not deprive "it of them," &c. Surely, if we add the teftimonies of the Lord Bolingbroke, of the Lady to whom the said verses were originally addressed, of Hugh Bethel, Efq; and others, who knew them as our author's, long before the faid gentleman compofed his play; it is hoped, the ingenious, that affect not error, will rectify their opinion by the fuffrage of fo honourable perfonages.

And yet followeth another charge, infinuating no lefs than hisfenmity both to church and state, which could come from no other informer than the said MR. JAMES-MOORE SHITH.

"(a) The Memoirs of a Parish Clerk was a very "dull and unjust abuse of a person who wrote in "defence of our religion and conftitution, and "who has been dead many years." This feemeth alfo moft untrue; it being known to divers that thefe memoirs were written at the feat of the Lord Harcourt in Oxfordshire, before that excellent perfon (Bishop Burnet's) death, and many years before the appearance of that hiftory, of which they are pretended to be an abufe. Most true it is, that Mr. Moore had fuch a design, and was himself the man who preft Dr. Arbuthnot and Mr. Pope to affift him therein; and that he borrowed thofe memoirs of our author, when that history came forth, with intent to turn them to fuch abuse. But being able to obtain from our author but one fingle hint, and either changing his mind, or having more mind than ability, he contented himfelf to keep the faid memoirs, and read them as his own to all his acquaintance. A noble perfon there is, into whose company Mr. Pope once chanced to introduce him, who well remembereth the converfation of Mr. Moore to have turned upon the contempt he had for the work of that reverend prelate, and how full he was of a defign he de"clared himself to have of expofing it." This noble perfon is the Earl of Peterborough.

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Here in truth fhould we crave pardon of all the forefaid right honourable and worthy perfonages, for having mentioned them in the fame page with fuch weekly riff-raff railers and rhymers; but that we had their ever-honoured commands for the fame; and that they are introduced not as witnesses in the controversy, but as witnesses that cannot be controverted: not to dispute, but to decide.

Certain it is, that dividing our writers into two claffes, of fuch who were acquaintance, and of fuch who were ftrangers to our author; the former are those who speak well, and the other those who

(a) Daily Journal, April 3, 1728.

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