Mr. Gildon affuresus, in his New Rehearsal, (p. 48.) | ed one great work, he was taxed of boldness and That he was writing a play of the Lady Jane madness to a prodigy (4) : If he took afsistant in Grey;" but it afterwards proved to be Mr. another, it was complained of, and reprefented as Rowe's. We are affured by another, "He wrote a great injury to the public (1) The loftieft hero" pamphlet called Dr. Andrew Tripe (g);"|ics; the loweft ballads; treatifes against the state 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 merit of "this treatise muft, and can only be ascribed to "Gulliver (b)." [Here, gentle reader! cannot I but fmile at the ftrange blindness and positiveness of men; knowing the faid treatife 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 eafy to judge; in as much as he had attempted neither. Unlefs 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 faid, 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 hrtle to have any modefty, fince, when he declined writing in any way himself, the prefumption of others was imputed to him. If he fingly enterprif

(g) Character of Mr. Pope, p. 6. (b) Gulliv. p. 336.

{i} Cibber's Letter to Mr. P. p. 19.

or church; fatires on lords and ladies; raillery on wits and authors; squabbles with booksellers; or ever full and true accounts of monters, 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 refembled any of his styles, 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 testimony of his very enemies would affirm, that his capacity was boundless, as well as his imagination that he was a perfect matter 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 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.

P.

1

(¿Y Burnet's Homerides, p. 1. of his translation' of“

the Iliad.

(1) The "ondon and Miff's Journals, on his unders taking the Odyffey. Mij

MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS

OF THE POEM.

THIS poem, as it celebrateth the most grave and ancient things, Chaos, Night, and Dulnefs; 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 measure to heroic poefy. But even before this, may be rationaily prefumed from what the ancients have left written, was a piece by Homer composed, of like nature and matter with this of our poet. For of epic fort it appeareth to have been, yet of matter furely not unpleasant; witness what is reported of it by the learned Archbishop Euftathius, in Odyff. x. And accordingly Aristotle, in his Poetics, chap. iv. doth further fet forth, that as the Iliad and Odyssey gave example to tragedy, fo did this poem to comedy its first idea.

We fhall next declare the occafion and the cause 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 be- . came fo cheap, and printers fo numerous, that a deluge of authors covered the land: whereby not only the peace of the honest unwriting subject was daily molested, but unmerciful demands were made of his applause, yea of his money, by fuch as would neither earn the one, nor deserve the other. At the fame time, the licence of the prefs was fuch, that it grew dangerous to refuse them either: for they would forthwith publish flanders unpunished, the authors being anonymous, and skulking under the wings of publishers; a fet of men who neither fcrupled to vend either calumny or blafphemy, as long as the town would call for it.

From thefe authors alfo it fhould feem, that the hero, or chief perfonage of it was no lefs obfcure, and his understanding and sentiments no less quaint (a) Now our author, living in those times, did. and strange (if indeed not more fo) than any of conceive it an endeavour well worthy an honeft the actors of our poem. Margites was the name of fatirift, to diffuade the dull, and punish the wickthis perfonage, whom antiquity recordeth to have ed, the only way that was left. In that publicbeen Dunce the firft; and furely, from what we fpirited view he laid the plan of this poem, as the hear him, not unworthy to be the root of fo fpread-greatest service he was capable (without much ing a tree, and fo numerous a pofterity. The poem, hurt, or being flain) to render his dear country. therefore, celebrating him, was properly and ab- First, taking things from their original, he confolutely a Dunciad; which though now unhappily fidereth the caufes creative of fuch authors, nameloft, yet is its nature fufficiently known by the in-ly Dulness and Poverty; the one born with them, fallible tokens aforefaid. And thus it doth appear, that the first Dunciad was the first epic poem written by Homer himself, and anterior even to the Iliad or Odyffey.

Now, forafmuch as our poet hath translated ahofe two famous works of Homer, which are yet left, he did conceive it in fome 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 toil than an imitation of the greater epic. But poflible it is alio, that on due reflection the maker might find it easier to paint a Charlemagne, a Brute, or a Godfrey, with juft pomp, and dignity

the other contracted by neglect of their proper ta-
lents, through felf-conceit of greater abilities. This
truth he wrappeth in an allegory (6) (as the con-
ftruction of epic poefy requireth), and feigns tout
one of thefe goddeffes had taken up her abode with
the other, and that they jointly infpired all fuch'
writers, and fuch works. (c) He proceedeth to
fhow the qualities they beftow on thefe authors,
and the effects they produce (d): then the mate-
rials, or ftock, with which they furnish them (e),
and, above all, that self-opinion (ƒ) which caufeth
it to feem to themfclves vaftly greater than it is,
and is the prime motive of their fetting up in this

(a) Vide Boff, Du Poem Epique, chap. viii.
(b) Bolu, chap. vii.

(c) Book i. ver. 32. c.
(d) Ver. 45. to 54.
(e) Ver. 57. to 77.

MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS OF THE POEM.

181

them, "a parcel of poor wretches, fo many filly "flies (i):" but adds, our author's wit is remark ably more bare and barren, whenever it would "fall foul on Cibber, than upon any other perfon "whatever."

fad and forry merchandise. The great power of
thefe goddesses acting in alliance (whereof as the
one is the mother of industry, so is the other of
plodding) was to be exemplified in fome one great
and remarkable action: (g) 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 ministry of Dulness their daughter, in the
removal of her imperial feat from the city to the
polite world; as the action of the Æneid is the
reftoration of the empire of Troy, by the removal
of the race from thence to Latium. But as Homer
fingeth only the wrath of Achilles, yet includes in
his poem the whole history of the Trojan war; in
like manner, our author hath drawn into this fin-ed
gle action the whole history of Dulness, and her
children.

A person must next be fixed upon to fupport this action. This phantom in the poet's mind mutt have a name (6): 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, miniftry, and empire of Dulness, extended through her subordinate inftruments, in all her various operations.

The descriptions are fingular; the comparisons very quaint; the narration various, yet of one colour: the purity and chastity of diction is fo preserved, that in the places most suspicious, not the words, but only the images have been cenfured; and yet are thofe images no other than have been fanctified by ancient and claffical authority (though, as was the manner of thofe good times, not lo curiously wrapped up), yea, and commentupon by the most grave doctors, and approv ed critics.

As it beareth the name of epic, it is thereby fubject to fuch fevere indifpenfible rules as are laid on all neoterics, a ftrict imitation of the an cients; infomuch that any deviation, accompanied with whatever poetic beauties, hath always been cenfured by the found critic. How exact that li mitation hath been in this piece, appeareth not only by its general structure, but by particular illt « fions infinite, many whereof have efcaped both the commentator and poet himself; yea divers, by his exceeding diligence, are fo altered and interwoven with the reft, that feveral have already been and more will be, by the ignorant, abused as altogether and originally his own.

This is branched into episodes; each of which hath its moral apart, though all conducive to the main end. The crowd affembled in the second book, demonstrates the defign to be more extenfive In a word, the whole poem proveth itself to be than to bad poets only; and that we may expect the work of our author, when his faculties were other episodes of the patrons, encouragers, or pay-in full vigour and perfection; at that exact time mafters of fuch authors, as occafion fhall bring them forth. And the third book, if well confidered, feemeth to embrace the whole world. Each of the games relateth to fome or other vile clafs of writers: the first concerneth the plagiary, to whom he giveth the name of Moore; the fecond, the libellous novelist, whom he styleth Eliza; the third, the flattering dedicator; the fourth, the bawling critic, or noify poet; the fifth, the dark and dirty party-writer; and so of the reft; afligning to each fome proper name or other, fuch as he could find. As for the characters, the public hath already acknowledged how justly they are drawn: the manners are fo depicted, and the fentiment fo peculiar to those to whom applied, that surely to transfer them to any other or wifer perfonage, would be exceeding difficult and certain it is, that every perfon concerned, being confulted apart, hath readily owned the refemblance of every portrait, his own excepted. So Mr. Cibber calls

(g) Ibid. chap vii. viii.

(†) Bessu, chap. viii. Vide Arift. Poet, sop, ix.

when years have ripened the judgment, without diminishing the imagination: - which, by good critics, is held to be punctually at forty. For at that feafon it was that Virgil finifhed his Georgics; and Sir Richard Blackmore at the like age compofing his Arthurs; declared the fame to be the very acne and pitch of life for epic poefy = though fince he hath altered it to fixty, the year in which he published his Alfred (4). True it is, that the talents for criticism, namely smartness, quick cenfure, vivacity of remark, certainty of af feveration, indeed all but acerbity, seem rather the gifts of youth, than of riper age: but it is far otherwife in poetty; witnefs the works of Mr. Rymer and Mr. Dennis; who beginning with cri ticifm, became afterwards fuch poets as no age hath paralleled. With good reason, therefore, did our author choose to write his effay on that fulject at twenty, and referve for his maturer years this great and wonderful work of the Dunciad.

RICARDUS ARISTARCHAS

OF THE HERO OF THE POEM.

Or the nature of Dunciad in general, whence de-
rived, and on what authority founded, as well as
of the art and condu& of this our Poem in parti-
cular, the learned and laborious Scriblerus hath,
according to his manner, and with tolerable fhare
of judgment, differtated. But when he cometh to
fpeak of the perfon of the hero fitted for fuch"
roem, in truth he miferably halts and hallucinates:
for, mifled by one Monfieur Boffu, a Gallic critic,
he prateth of I cannot tell what phantom of a he-
ro, only raised up to fupport the fable. A putrid
conceit! As if Homer and Virgil, like modern
undertakers, who firft build their houfe and then
feek out for a tenant, had contrived the ftory of a
war and a wandering, before they once thought
either of Achilles or Æneas. We fhall therefore
fet our good brother and the world also right in
this particular, by affuring them, that, in the
greater epic, the prime intention of the mufe is
to exalt heroic virtue, in order to propagate the
love of it among the children of men; and con-
Jequently that the poet's first thought must needs
be turned upon a real fubject mect for laud and
celebration not one whom he is to make, but one
whom he may find, truly illuftrious. This is the
primum mobile of his poctic world, whence every
thing is to receive life and motion. For, this fub-
ject being found, he is immediately ordained, or
rather acknowledged, an hero, and put upon fuch
aЯion as befitteth the dignity of his character.

་

But the mufe ceafeth not here her eagle-flight. For fometimes, fatiated with the contemplation of these fons of glory, he turneth downward on her wing, and darts with Jove's lightning on the goose and ferpent kind. For we may apply to the mufe in her various moods, what an ancient mafter of wifdom affirmeth of the Gods in general: "Si Dii non irafcuntur impiis et injuftis, nec pios utique "juftofque diligunt. In rebus enim diverfis, aut in in utramque partem moveri neceffe eft, aut in "neutram. Itaque qui bonos diligit, et malos odit; et qui malos non odit, nec bonos diligit. Quia et diligere bonos ex odio malorum venit; et ma"los odiffe ex bonorum caritate defcendit." Which in our vernacular idiom may be thus interpreted: If the Gods be not provoked at evil men, neither are they delighted with

"For contrary obje&s must either excite contrary
affections, or no affections at all. So that he who
"loveth good men, must at the fame time hate the
"bad; and he who hateth not bad men, cannot love
"the good; because to love good men proceedeth
from an averfion to evil, and to hate evil men
from a tenderness to the good." From this de-
licacy of the mufe arofe the little epic (more lively
and choleric than her elder fifter, whose bulk and
complexion incline her to the phlegmatic): and
for this, fome notorious vehicle of vice and folly
was fought out, to make thereof an example. An
early inftance of which (nor could it escape the ac-
curate Scriblerus) the father of epic poem himself
affordeth us. From him the practice defcended to
the Greek dramatic poets, his off-pring; who, in
the compofition of their Tetralogy, or fet of four
pieces, were wont to make the last a fatiric tragedy.
Happily, one of these ancient Dunciads) as we may
well term it) is come down unto us, amongst the
tragedies of the poet Euripides. And what doth
the reader fuppose may be the subject thereof?
'Why in truth, and it is worthy obfervation, the
unequal contest of an old, dull, debauched buffoon
Cyclops, with the heaven-directed favourite of
Minerva; who, after having quietly borne all the
monfter's obfcene and impious ribaldry, endeth the
farce in puniffing him with the mark of an inde-
lible brand in his forehead. May we not then be
excufed, if, for the future, we confider the epics of
Homer, Virgil, and Milton, together with this our
poem, as a complete Tetralogy; in which the last
worthily holdeth the place or ftation of the satiric
piece ?' ~~

9

Proceed we therefore in our fubject. It hath been long, and alas for pity! ftill remaineth a question, whether the hero of the greater epic fhould be an honest man; or as the French critics exprefs it, un honnete homme (a): but it never admitted of á doubt, but that the hero of the little epic fhould be just the contrary. Hence, to the advantage of our Dunciad, we may obferve, how much jufter the moral of that poem must needs be, 4

(a) Si un Heros Poët que doit être un lonnite bomme, Boffu, du Pelme Epiqur, hv. v. ch.

where To important a question is previously decid

ed.

and his language to confift of what we must allow to be the most daring figure of speech, that which is taken from the name of God

Gentle love, the next ingredient in the true

(as Shakspeare calls it) fummer-teeming luft, and evaporates in the heat of youth; doubtless by that refinement it fuffers in paffing through thofe certain ftrainers which our poet fomewhere fpeaketh of. But when it is let alone to work upon the lees, it acquireth strength by old age; and becometh a lafting ornament to the little epic. It is true, indeed, there is one objection to its fitnefs for fuch an ufe for not only the ignorant may think if common, but it is admitted to be fo, even by him who beft knoweth its value. "Dont you think "(argueth he), to fay only a man has his "whore (d),'" ought to go for little or nothing? "Becaufe defendit numerus; take the first ten thou"fand men you meet, and, I believe, you would "be no lofer if you betted ten to one, that every "fingle finner of them, one with another, has "been guilty of the fame frailty (e)." But here he feemeth not to have done juftice to himself the man is fure enough a hero, who hath his lady at fourfcore. How doth his modesty herein kep the merit of a whole well-fpent life: not taking to himself the commendation (which Horace accounted the greatest in a theatrical character) of continuing to the very dregs the fame he was from the beginning,

But then it is not every knave, nor (let me add) every fool, that is a fit fubject for a Dunciad. There must still exift fome analogy, if not refem-hero's compofition, is a mere bird of paffage, or blance of qualities between the heroes of the two poems; and this, to admit of what neoteric critics call the parody, one of the livelieft graces of the little epic. Thus it being agreed that the conftituent qualities of the greater epic hero, are wifdom, bravery, and love, from whence fpringeth heroic virtue; it followeth, that thofe of the leffer epic hero fhould be vanity, affurance, and debauchery, from which affemblage refulteth heroic dulnefs, the never-dying fubject of this our poem. This being fettled, come we now to particulars. It is the character of true wisdom, to feek its chief fupport and confidence within itself; and to place that fupport in the resources which proceed from a confcious rectitude of will.-And are the advantages of vanity, when arifing to the heroic ftandard, at all short of this felf-complacence? Nay, are they not, in the opinion of the enamoured owner, far beyond it? "Let the world (will fuch an one fay) impute to me what folly or weakness "they please; but till wisdom can give me fome"thing that will make me more heartily happy, "I am content to be GAZED AT (b).” This, we fee, is vanity according to the heroic gage or measure; not that low and ignoble fpecies which pretendeth to virtues we have not; but the laudable ambition of being gazed at for glorying in those vices, which every body knows we have."The world may afk "(fays he) why I make my follies public? Why "not? I have passed my life very pleasantly with "them" In fhort, there is no fort of vanity fuch a hero would fcruple, but that which might go near to degrade him from his high ftation in this our Dunciad; namely," whether it would not be "vanity in him, to take shame to himself for not "being a wife man?"

Bravery, the second attribute of the true hero, is courage manifesting itfelf in every limb; while its correfpondent virtue in the mock hero, is, that fame courage all collected into the face. And as power, when drawn together, muft needs have more force and fpirit than when difperfed, we generally find this kind of courage in fo high and heroic a degree, that it infults not only men, but Gods. Mezentius is, without doubt, the braveft character in all the Æneis: but how? His bravery, we know, was an high courage of blafphemy. And can we fay less of this brave man's, who having told us that he placed his "fummum "bonum in those follies, which he was not con"tent barely to poffefs, but would likewife glory “ in,” adds, “ If I am misguided, 'TIS NATURE'S "FAULT, and I follow HER (c)." Nor can we be mistaken in making this happy quality a fpecies of courage, when we confider thofe illuftrious marks of it, which made his FACE more known (as he "justly boasteth) than most in the kingdom;"

(b) Del. to the Life of C. C.
(c) Life of G. C. p. 23. al. edit.

"Servetur ad IMUM

Qualis ab incepto procefferat

But here, in justice both to the poet and the hero, let us farther remark, that the calling her his whore, implied fhe was his own, and not his neighbour's. Truly a commendable continence! and fuch as Scipio himself must have applauded. For how much felf-denial was neceffary not to covet his neighbour's whore? and what disorders muft the coveting her have occafioned in that fociety, where (according to this political calculator) nine in ten of all ages have their concubines!

We have now, as briefly as we could advife, gone through the three conflituent qualities of either hero. But it is not in any, or in all of thefe that heroifm properly or effentially refideth. It is a lucky refult rather from the collifion of these lively qualities against one another. Thus, as from wifdom, bravery, and love, arifeth magnanimity, the object of admiration, which is the aim of the greater epic; fo from vanity, affurance, and debauchery, fpringeth buffoonry, the fource of ridicule, that" laughing ornament," as he well termeth it (f), of the little epic.

(d) Alluding to thefe lines in the Epift. to Dr. Are buthnot:

"And has not Colly fill his lord and whore,
"His butchers Henley, his free-mofons Moore?
(e) Letter to Mr. P. p. 46.
(f) Letter to Mr. P. p. 31.

1