() And yet fo wondrous, fo fublime a thing, "As the great Iliad, fcarce could make me fing, "Unless I justly could at once commend "A good companion, and as firm a friend; "One moral, or a mere well-natur'd deed, "Can all defert in fciences exceed."

So alfo is he decypher'd by the honourable
SIMON HARCOURT.

"() Say, wondrous youth, what column wilt "thou choose,

"What laurel'd arch, for thy triumphant mufe? Though each great ancient court thee to his farine, [thine, Though every laurel through the dome be "Go to the good and juft, and awful train! Thy foul's delight,

Recorded in like manner for his virtuous difpofition, and gentle bearing, by the ingenious MR. WALTER HART,

in this apoftrophe:

" (d) Oh! ever worthy, ever crown'd with "praife!

"Bleft in thy life, and bleft in all thy lays, "Add, that the Sifters every thought refine, "And ev'n thy life be faultlefs as thy line, "Yet envy ftill with fiercer rage pursues, "Obfcures the virtue, and defames the mufe, "A foul like thine, in pain, in grief, refign'd, "Views with juft fcorn the malice of mankind." The witty and moral fatirift

DR. EDWARD YOUNG, wifhing fome check to the corruption and evil manners of the times, calleth out upon our Poet to undertake a task so worthy of his virtue: (e) Why flumbers Pope, who leads the mufes "train, [plain?" "Nor hears that virtue, which he loves, comMR. MALLET,

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in his Epiftle on Verbal Criticifm: "Whose life, feverely fcann'd, tranfcends his

"lays;

"For wit fupreme, is but his fecond praise;" MR. HAMMOND,

That delicate and correct imitator of Tibullus, in his Love Elegies, Elegy xiv.

"Now, fir'd by Pope and virtue, leave the age,

"In low purfuit of felf-undoing wrong, "And trace the author through his moral page, "Whofe blamelefs life ftill aufwers to his "fong."

MR. THOMSON, in his elegant and philofophical Poem of the Seafons:

"Although not fweeter his own Homer fings, "Yet is his life the more endearing fong." To the fame tune alfo fingeth that learned clerk, of Suffolk,

(b) Verfes to Mr. Pope on his tranflation of Homer. (c) Poem prefixed to bis works. (d) In his Poems, priated for B. Lintot.

MR. WILLIAM BROOME, "(ƒ) Thus, nobly rifing in fair virtue's caufe, "From thy own life tranfcribe th' unnerring "laws."

And, to close all, hear the reverend Dean of St. Patrick's:

"A foul with every virtue fraught,

"By patriots, priefts, and poets taught.
"Whofe filial piety excels.
"Whatever Grecian ftory tells.
"A genius for each bufiuefs fit,

"Whose meancat talent is his wit," &c.

Let us now recreate thee by turning to the other fide, and fhowing his character drawn by those with whom he never converfed, and whose countenances he could not know, though turned against him: first again commencing with the high voiced and never enough quoted

MR. JOHN DENNIS, Who, in his Reflections on the Effay on Criticism, thus defcribeth him: "A little affected hypocrite, "who has nothing in his mouth but candour, truth, "friendship, good-nature, humanity, and magna. "nimity. He is fo great a lover of falsehood, "that, whenever he has a mind to calumniate his contemporaries, he brands them with fome defect "which was juft contrary to fome good quality, "for which all their friends and acquaintance "commend them. He feems to have a particular

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pique to people of quality, and authors of that "rank. He muft derive his religion from St. "Omer's "But in the character of Mr. P. and his writings, (printed by S. Popping, 1716, he faith, "Though he is a profeffor of the worst religion, yet he laughs at it;" but that, "never"thelefs, he is a virulent papift; and yet a pillar "for the church of England."

Of both which opinions

46

MR. LEWIS THEOBALD feems alfo to be; declaring in Mist's Journal, of June 22, 1718, That, if he is not fhrewdly abused, he made it his practice to cackle to both parties in their own fentiments" But, as to his pique against people of quality, the fame journalist doth not agree, but faith (May 8, 1728), " He had, by fome means or other, the acquaintance and "friendship of the whole body of our nobility."

However contradictory this may appear, Mr. Dennis and Gildon, in the character last cited, make it all plain, by affuring us, "That he is a crea ture that reconciles all contradictions: he is a "beast, and a man; a Whig, and a Tory; a writer "(at one and the fame time) of (g) Guardians "and Examiners; an affeffor of liberty, and of "the difpenfing power of kings; a Jefuitical pro"feffor of truth; a bafe and a foul pretender to "candour." So that, upon the whole account, we must conclude him either to have been a great hypocrite, or a very honeft man; a terrible impofer upon both parties, or very moderate to ei❤ ther.

Be it as to the judicious reader shall seem good.

(f) In bis Poems, and at the end of the Odyssey

"moft cowardice to conquer.-A man might as "well triumph for having killed fo many filly flies that offended him. Could he have let them "alone, by this time, poor fouls! they had all been "buried in oblivion (y)." Here we see our excelTent laureat allows the juftice of the fatire on every man in it but himself; as the great Mr. Denis did before him.

The faid MR. DENNIS and MR. GILDON, in the most furious of all their works (the forecited character, p. 5.) do in concert (z) confefs, "That fome men of good understanding value him for his rhymes." And (p. 17.) "that he has got, like Mr Bays in the Rehearsal (that is like “Mr. Dryden), a notable knack at rhyming, and "writing fmooth verfe."

4

"Now, is it not plain, that any one who fends fuch "compliments to another, has not been used to write in "partner feip with him to whom be fends them?" Dennis, remarks on the Dunciad, p. 50. Mr. Dennis is therefore welcome to take this piece to himself.

(a) In a letter under bis own band, dated March

"dation, and ought to have been published in an age and country more worthy of it. If my tef"timony be of any weight, you are fure to have "it in the ampleft manner," &c &c. &c.

Thus we fee every one of his works hath been extolled by one or other of his moft inveterate enemies; and to the fuccefs of them all they do unanimoufly give teftimony. But it is sufficient, infar omnium, to behold the great critic, Mr. Dennis, forely lamenting it, even from the Effay on Criticifm to this day of the Dunciad! "A moit no"torious inftance (quoth he) of the depravity of "genius and tafte, the approbation this effsay meets "with (6).-I can fafely affirm, that I never at"tacked any of thefe writings, unless they had "fuccefs infinitely beyond their merit. This,

though an empty, has been a popular scribbler. "The epidemic madness of the times has given "him reputation (c).—If after the cruel treatment "fo many extraordinary men (Spenser, Lord Bacon, Ben. Jonfon, Milton, Butler, Otway, and others) have received from this country, for "these last hundred years, I should thift the scene, " and fhow all that penury changed at once to riot "and profufenefs; and more fquandered away "upon one fubject, than would have fatisfied the

nature; would believe that all the great quali"ties of these perfons were centered in him alone. "But if I fhould venture to affure him, that the "People of England had made fuch a choice, the "reader would believe me a malicious enemy, and "flanderer; or that the reign of the laft (Queen "Anne's) ministry was defigned by fare to encourage fools (d).”

But it happens, that this our poet never had any place, pension, or gratuity, in any shape, from the faid glorious queen, or any of her ministers. Althe owed, in the whole courfe of his life, to any court, was a fubfcription for his Homer, of 2001. from King George I. and 1001. from the prince and princess.

However, left we imagine our author's fuccefs was constant and univerfal, they acquaint us of certain works in a lefs degree of repute, whereof, although owned by others, yet do they affure us he is the writer. Of this fort, Mr. Dennis (e) afcribes to him two farces, whole names he does not tell; but affures us that there is not one jeft in them: and an imitation of Horace, whofe title he does not mention; but affures us it is much more execrable than all his works (f). The Daily Journal, May 11. 1728, affures us, "He is below l'om "Durfey in the drama; because, as that writer "thinks, the Marriage-hater matched, and the "Boarding-school, are better than the What d'ye "call it;" which is not Mr. P.'s, but Mr. Gay's.

(b) Dennis, prof. to bis Reflect, on the the Effay on Criticifm.

(c) Preface to his remarks on Homer.
(d) Rem. on Homer, p. 8, 9. (e) Tb. p. 3.

Mr. Gildon affuresus, in his New Rehearsal, (p. 48.) "That he was writing a play of the Lady Jane Grey," but it afterwards proved to be Mr. Rowe's. We are affured by another," He wrote "a pamphlet called Dr. Andrew Tripe (g);" which proved to be one Dr. Wagstaff's. Mr. Theobald affures us, in Mift of the 27th of April, "That the treatife of the Profound is very dull " and that Mr. Pope is the author of it" The writer of Gulliveriana is of another opinion; and fays, "The whole, or greatest part of the meris of "this treatise muft, and can only be ascribed to “ Gulliver (b).” [Here, gentle reader! cannot I but fmile at the ftrange blindness and pofitiveness of men; knowing the said treatise to appertain to none other but to me, Martinus Scriblerus]、

We are affured, in Mist of June 8. "That his own plays and farces would better have adorned "the Dunciad, than thofe of Mr. Theobald; for he "had neither genius for tragedy nor comedy." Which, whether true or not, it is not easy to judge; in as much as he had attempted neither. Unless we will take it for granted, with Mr. Cibber, that his being once very angry at hearing a friend's play abused, was an infallible proof the play was His own; the faid Mr. Cibber thinking it impofble for a man to be much concerned for any but himself: "Now let any man judge (faith he) by "his concern, who was the true mother of the "child (i)?"

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 himself, the prefumption of others was imputed to him. If he Lingly enterpris

ed one great work, he was taxed of boldness and madness to a prodigy (4): If he took affiftant in another, it was complained of, and reprefented as a great injury to the public (4) The loftieft heroics; the loweft ballads; treatifes against the fate or church; fatires on lords and ladies; raillery on wits and authors; fquabbles with booksellers; or ever full and true accounts of monters, poisons, and murders; of any hereof was there nothing fo good, nothing so 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 refembled any of his ftyles, then was it evident; if it did not, then disguised he it on fet purpose. Yea, even direct oppofitions in re ligion, principles, and politics, have equally been fuppofed in him inherent. Surely a most rare and fingular character; of which let the reader make what he can.

Doubtless most 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 matter of all ftyles, and all arguments; and that there was in thofe times no other writer, in any kind, of any degree of excellence, fave he him felf But as this is not our own fentiment, we fhall determine o nothing; but leave thee, gentle reader, to fteer thy judgment equally between various opinion, and to choose whether thou wilt incline to the teftimonies of authors avowed, or of authors concealed; of those who knew him, or of those who knew him not.