Jesuitical professor of truth; a base and foul pre-] Mr. Oldmixon tender to candour.' So that, upon the whole account, calls him a great master of our tongue; declares 'the we must conclude him either to have been a great purity and perfection of the English language to be hypocrite, or a very honest man; a terrible impostor found in his Homer; and, saying there are more good upon both parties, or very moderate to either. verses in Dryden's Virgil than in any other work, except this of our author only." The Author of a Letter to Mr. Cibber Mr. Thomas Cooke, Be it as to the judicious reader shall seem good. Sure it is, he is little favoured of certain authors, whose wrath is perilous; for one declares he ought to have a price set on his head, and to be hunted says: 'Pope was so good a versifier [once] that, his down as a wild beast. Another protests that he predecessor Mr. Dryden, and his contemporary Mr. does not know what may happen; advises him to Prior excepted, the harmony of his numbers is equal insure his person; says he has bitter enemies, and to any body's. And, that he had all the merit that a expressly declares it will be well if he escapes with man can have that way.'2 And his life.2 One desires he would cut his own throat, or hang himself.3 But Pasquin seemed rather inclined it should be done by the government, representing after much blemishing our author's Homer, crieth him engaged in grievous designs with a lord of out: parliament then under prosecution.4 Mr. Dennis himself hath written to a minister, that he is one of the most dangerous persons in this kingdom;5 and assureth the public, that he is an open and mortal enemy to his country; a monster that will one day show as daring a soul as a mad Indian, who runs a-muck to kill the first Christian he meets.6 Another gives information of treason discovered in his poem. Mr. the maker of certain verses to Duncan Campbell,4 in Curll boldly supplies an imperfect verse with kings that poem, which is wholly a satire upon Mr. Pope, and princesses 8 and one Matthew Concanen, yet more impudent, publishes at length the two most sacred names in this nation, as members of the Dunciad !9 This is prodigious! yet it is almost as strange, that in the midst of these invectives his greatest enemies have (I know not how) borne testimony to some merit in him. Mr. Theobald, 'But in his other works what beauties shine, confesseth, H. Stanhope, "'Tis true, if finest notes alone could show in censuring his Shakspeare, declares, 'He has so Mist's Journal, June 8, 1728. great an esteem for Mr. Pope, and so high an opinion Although he says, 'The smooth numbers of the Dunof his genius and excellences, that, notwithstanding ciad are all that recommend it, nor has it any other he professes a veneration almost rising to idolatry for merit;' yet that same paper hath these words: The the writings of this inestimable poet, he would be author is allowed to be a perfect master of an easy very loath even to do him justice, at the expence of and elegant versification. In all his works we find that other gentleman's character.'10 the most happy turns, and natural similes, wonderfully short and thick sown.' Mr. Charles Gildon, The Essay on the Dunciad also owns, p. 25, it is after having violently attacked him in many pieces, very full of beautiful images. But the panegyric at last came to wish from his heart, 'That Mr. Pope which crowns all that can be said on this poem, is would be prevailed upon to give us Ovid's Epistles bestowed by our laureate, by his hand; for it is certain we see the original of Sappho to Phaon with much more life and likeness Mr. Colley Cibber, in his version, than in that of sir Car Scrope. And who 'grants it to be a better poem of its kind than this (he adds) is the more to be wished, because in ever was writ;' but adds, 'it was a victory over a the English tongue we have scarcely any thing truly parcel of poor wretches, whom it was almost cowand naturally written upon love." He also, in taxing sir Richard Blackmore for his heterodox opinions of Homer, challengeth him to answer what Mr. Pope hath said in his preface to that poet. 1 Theobald, Letter in Mist's Journal, June 22, 1728. 6 Preface to Rem. on the Rape of the Lock, p. 12; and in the last page of that treatise. 7 Page 6, 7, of the Preface, by Concanen, to a book ardice to conquer.-A man might as well triumph for having killed so many silly flies that offended him. Could he have let them alone, by this time, poor souls! they had all been buried in oblivion.'5 Here we see our excellent laureate allows the justice of the satire on every man in it, but himself; as the great Mr. Dennis did before him. The said Mr. Dennis and Mr. Gildon, called, A Collection of all the Letters, Essays, Verses, in the most furious of all their words (the forecited and Advertisements, occasioned by Pope and Swift's Miscellanies. Printed for A. Moore, 8vo. 1712. Key to the Dunciad, 3d edit. p. 18. 9 A list of Persons, &c. at the end of the foremen. tioned Collection of all the Letters, Essays, &c. 10 Introduction to his Shakspeare Restored, in 4to. p. 3. 11 Commentary on the Duke of Buckingham's Essay, 8vo, 1721, p 97, 98 1 In his prose Essay on Criticism. 2 Printed by J. Roberts, 1742, p. 11. 3 Battle of the Poets, folio, p. 15. 4 Printed under the title of the Progress of Dulness, 12mo, 1728. 5 Cibber's Letter to Mr. Pope, p. 9. 12. Character, p. 5,) do in concert confess, 'that some Otway, and others) have received from this country, men of good understanding value him for his rhymes.' for these last hundred years, I should shift the scene, And (p. 17) that he has got, like Mr. Bayes in the and show all that penury changed at once to riot Rehearsal, (that is, like Mr. Dryden,) a notable knack and profuseness; and more squandered away upon at rhyming, and writing smooth verse.' one object, than would have satisfied the greater part On his Essay on Man, numerous were the praises of those extraordinary men; the reader to whom this bestowed by his avowed enemies, in the imagination one creature should be unknown, would fancy him a that the same was not written by him, as it was printed anonymously. Thus sang of it even Bezaleel Morris: 'Auspicious bard! while all admire thy strain, Mr. Leonard Welstead prodigy of art and nature, would believe that all the great qualities of these persons were centered in him alone. But if I should venture to assure him, that the people of England had made such a choice-the reader would either believe me a malicious enemy, and slanderer, or that the reign of the last (Queen Anne's) ministry was designed by fate to encourage fools." But it happens that this our poet never had any place, pension, or gratuity, in any shape, from the said glorious queen, or any of her ministers. All he owed, in the whole course of his life, to any court, was a subscription for his Homer, of £200, from King thus wrote to the unknown author, on the first pub- However, lest we imagine our author's success George I. and £100 from the prince and princess. lication of the said Essay; 'I must own, after the re- was constant and universal, they acquaint us of cerception which the vilest and most immoral ribaldry tain works in a less degree of repute, whereof, alhath lately met with, I was surprised to see what I though owned by others, yet do they assure us he is had long despaired, a performance deserving the name the writer. Of this sort Mr. Dennis2 ascribes to him of a poet. Such, sir, is your work. It is, indeed, two farces, whose names he does not tell, but assures above all commendation, and ought to have been pub- us that there is not one jest in them; and an imitation lished in an age and country more worthy of it. If my testimony be of weight any where, you are sure to have it in the amplest manner,' &c. &c. &c. of Horace,.whose title he does not mention, but assures us it is much more execrable than all his works.3 The Daily Journal, May 11, 1728, assures us, 'He is Thus we see every one of his works hath been exbelow Tom Durfey in the drama, because (as that tolled by one or other of his most inveterate enemies; writer thinks) the Marriage-Hater Matched, and the and to the success of them all they do unanimously it;' which is not Mr. P.'s, but Mr. Gay's. Mr. GilBoarding School, are better than the What-d'ye-callgive testimony. But it is sufficient instar omnium, to don assures us, in his New Rehearsal, p. 48, "That behold the great critic, Mr. Dennis, sorely lamenting he was writing a play of the Lady Jane Grey:' but it it, even from the Essay on Criticism to this day of the Dunciad! A most notorious instance (quoth he) of ed by another, He wrote a pamphlet called Dr. Anafterwards proved to be Mr. Rowe's. We are assurthe depravity of genius and taste, the approbation this drew Tripe;'4 which proved to be one Dr. Wagstaff's. Essay meets with.—I can safely affirm, that I never Mr. Theobald assures us, in Mist of the 27th of April, attacked any of these writings, unless they had suc- That the treatise of the Profound is very dull, and cess infinitely beyond their merit. This, though an that Mr. Pope is the author of it.' The writer of empty, has been a popular scribbler. The epidemic Gulliveriana is of another opinion; and says, ‘The madness of the times has given him reputation.4-If, whole, or greatest part, of the merit of this treatise after the cruel treatment so many extraordinary men must and can only be ascribed to Gulliver. [Here, (Spenser, lord Bacon, Ben Jonson, Milton, Butler, gentle reader! cannot I but smile at the strange blind 1 In concert] Hear how Mr. Dennis hath proved our ness and positiveness of men? knowing the said mistake in this case: As to my writing in concert with treatise to appertain to none other but to me, MarMr. Gildon, I declare upon the honour and word of a tinus Scriblerus.] gentleman, that I never wrote so much as one line in concert with any one man whatsoever. And these two letters from Gildon will plainly show, that we are not writers in concert with each other. "Sir, We are assured, in Mist of June 8th, "That his own plays and farces would better have adorned the Dunciad, than those of Mr. Theobald; for he had neither "The height of my ambition is to please men of the genius for tragedy nor comedy.' Which whether best judgment; and, finding that I have entertained my true or not, it is not easy to judge; in as much as he master agreeably, I have the extent of the reward of my had attempted neither. Unless we will take it for labour." "Sir, "I had not the opportunity of hearing of your excellent pamphlet till this day. I am infinitely satisfied and pleased with it, and hope you will meet with that encouragement your admirable performance deserves, &c. "CH. GILDON." 'Now is it not plain, that any one who sends such compliments to another, has not been used to write in partnership with him to whom he sends them? Dennis, Remarks on the Dunciad, p. 50. Mr. Dennis is therefore welcome to take this piece to himself. 2 In a letter under his own hand, dated March 12, 1733. 3 Dennis, Preface to his Reflections on the Essay on Criticism. 4 Preface to his Remarks on Homer. Y granted, with Mr. Cibber, that his being once very angry at hearing a friend's play abused, was an infal lible proof the play was his own; the said Mr. Cibber thinking it impossible for a man to be much concerned for any but himself: 'Now let any man judge (saith he) by his concern, who was the true mother of the child.'6 But from all that has been said, the discerning reader will collect, that it little availed our author to of our poem. Margites was the name of this personhave any candour, since, when he declared he did age, whom antiquity recordeth to have been Dunce not write for others, it was not credited; as little to the first; and surely from what we hear of him, not have any modesty, since, when he declined writing in unworthy to be the root of so spreading a tree, and any way himself, the presumption of others was im- so numerous a posterity. The poem, therefore, celeputed to him. If he singly enterprised one great brating him was properly and absolutely a Dunciad; work, he was taxed of boldness and madness to a which, though now unhappily lost, yet is its nature prodigy: if he took assistants in another, it was com- sufficiently known by the infallible tokens aforesaid. plained of, and represented as a great injury to the And thus it doth appear, that the first Dunciad was public. The loftiest heroics, the lowest ballads, the first epic poem, written by Homer himself, and treatises against the state or church, satires on lords anterior even to the Iliad or Odyssey. and ladies, raillery on wits and authors, squabbles Now, forasmuch as our poet hath translated those with booksellers, or even full and true accounts of two famous works of Homer which are yet left, he monsters, poisons, and murders; of any hereof was did conceive it in some sort his duty to imitate that there nothing so good, nothing so bad, which hath not also which was lost: and was therefore induced to at one or other season been to him ascribed. If it bestow on it the same form which Homer's is reportbore no author's name, then lay he concealed; if it ed to have had, namely, that of epic poem; with a did, he fathered it upon that author to be yet better title also framed after the ancient Greek manner, to concealed: if it resembled any of his styles, then was wit, that of Dunciad. it evident; if it did not, then disguised he it on set Wonderful it is, that so few of the moderns have purpose. Yea, even direct oppositions in religion, been stimulated to attempt some Dunciad! since in principles, and politics, have equally been supposed the opinion of the multitude, it might cost less pain in him inherent. Surely a most rare and singular and toil than an imitation of the greater epic. But character: of which let the reader make what he can. possible it is also, that, on due reflection, the maker Doubtless most commentators would hence take might find it easier to paint a Charlemagne, a Brute, occasion to turn all to their author's advantage, and or a Godfrey with just pomp and dignity heroic, than from the testimony of his very enemies would affirm, a Margites, a Codrus, or a Fleckno. that his capacity was boundless, as well as his imagi- We shall next declare the occasion and the cause nation; that he was a perfect master of all styles, and which moved our poet to this particular work. He all arguments; and that there was in those times, no lived in those days, when (after providence had perother writer, in any kind, of any degree of excellence, mitted the invention of printing as a scourge for the save he himself. But as this is not our own senti- sins of the learned) paper also became so cheap, and ment, we shall determine on nothing; but leave thee, printers so numerous, that a deluge of authors covergentle reader, to steer thy judgment equally between ed the land; whereby not only the peace of the hovarious opinions, and to choose whether thou wilt nest unwriting subject was daily molested, but unmerincline to the testimony of authors avowed, or of authors concealed; of those who knew him, or of those who knew him not. P. MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS OF THE POEM. ciful demands were made of his applause, yea, of his money, by such as would neither earn the one nor deserve the other. At the same time, the licence of the press was such, that it grew dangerous to refuse them either: for they would forthwith publish slanders unpunished, the authors being anonymous, and skulking under the wings of publishers, a set of men who neither scrupled to vend either calumny or blasphemy, as long as the town would call for it. 1 Now our author, living in those times, did conTHIS poem, as it celebrateth the most grave and ceive it an endeavour well worthy an honest satirist, ancient of things, Chaos, Night, and Dulness: so is it to dissuade the dull, and punish the wicked, the only of the most grave and ancient kind. Homer (saith way that was left. In that public-spirited view he Aristotle) was the first who gave the form, and (saith laid the plan of this poem, as the greatest service he Horace) who adapted the measure to heroic poesy. was capable (without much hurt, or being slain) to But even before this, may be rationally presumed, render his dear country. First, taking things from from what the ancients have left written, was a piece their original, he considereth the causes creative of by Homer, composed of like nature and matter with such authors, namely, dulness and poverty; the one this of our poet. For of epic sort it appeareth to have born with them, the other contracted by neglect of been, yet of matter surely not unpleasant, witness their proper talents, through self-conceit of greater what is reported of it by the learned archbishop abilities. This truth he wrappeth in an allegory? (as Eustathius, in Odyss. x. And accordingly Aristotle, the construction of epic poesy requireth,) and feigns in his Poetics, chap. iv doth further set forth, that as that one of these goddesses had taken up her abode the Iliad and Odyssey gave example to tragedy, so did with the other, and that they jointly inspired all such this poem to comedy its first idea. From these authors also it should seem, that the hero, or chief personage of it was no less obscure, and his understanding and sentiments no less quaint and strange (if indeed no more so) than any of the actors 1 Burnet's Homerides, p. 1, of his translation of the Iliad. 2 The London and Mist's Journals, on his undertaking the Odyssey. writers and such works. He proceedeth to show the qualities they bestow on these authors, and the effects they produce: then the materials or stock, with which they furnish them; and, above all, that self-opinion which causeth it to seem to themselves 1 Vide Bossu, Du Poeme Epique, chap. viii. vastly greater than it is, and is the prime motive of of those good times, not so curiously wrapped up,) their setting up in this sad and sorry merchandise. yea, and commented upon by the most grave doctors, The great power of these goddesses acting in alli- and approved critics. ance (whereof as the one is the mother of industry, As it beareth the name of epic, it is thereby subso is the other of plodding) was to be exemplified in jected to such severe indispensable rules as are laid some one great and remarkable action; and none could on all neoterics, a strict imitation of the ancients; inbe more so than that which our poet hath chosen, viz. somuch that any deviation, accompanied with whatthe restoration of the reign of Chaos and Night, by ever poetic beauties, hath always been censured by the ministry of Dulness, their daughter, in the removal the sound critic. How exact that limitation hath of her imperial seat from the city to the polite world, been in this piece, appeareth not only by its general as the action of the Eneid is the restoration of the structure, but by particular allusions infinite, many empire of Troy, by the removal of the race from whereof have escaped both the commentator and thence to Latium. But as Homer singeth only the poet himself, yea, divers by his exceeding diligence wrath of Achilles, yet includes in his poem the whole are so altered and interwoven with the rest, that se history of the Trojan war, in like manner our author veral have already been, and more will be, by the ighath drawn into this single action the whole history norant abused, as altogether and originally his own. of Dulness and her children. In a word, the whole poem proveth itself to be the A person must next be fixed upon to support this work of our author, when his faculties were in full action. This phantom in the poet's mind must have vigour and perfection; at that exact time when years a name,2 he finds it to be ; and he becomes have ripened the judgment, without diminishing the of course the hero of the poem. imagination: which, by good critics, is held to be The fable being thus, according to the best exam- punctually at forty. For at that season it was that ple, one and entire, as contained in the proposition; Virgil finished his Georgics; and sir Richard Blackthe machinery is a continued chain of allegories, more, at the like age, composing his Arthurs, declared setting forth the whole power, ministry, and empire, the same to be the very acme and pitch of life for of Dulness, extended through her subordinate instru- epic poesy: though since he hath altered it to sixty, ments, in all her various operations. the year in which he published his Alfred. True it This is branched into episodes, each of which hath is, that the talents for criticism, namely, smartness, its moral apart, though all conducive to the main end. quick censure, vivacity of remark, certainty of asseveThe crowd assembled in the second book, demon- ration, indeed all but acerbity, seem rather the gifts strates the design to be more extensive than to bad of youth than of riper age: but it is far otherwise in poets only, and that we may expect other episodes poetry; witness the works of Mr. Rymer and Mr. of the patrons, encouragers, or paymasters of such Dennis, who, beginning with criticism, became afterauthors, as occasion shall bring them forth. And the wards such poets as no age hath paralleled. With third book, if well considered, seemeth to embrace good reason, therefore, did our author choose to write the whole world. Each of the games relateth to his essay on that subject at twenty, and reserve for some or other vile class of writers: the first concern-his maturer years this great and wonderful work of eth the plagiary, to whom he giveth the name of the Dunciad. Moore; the second, the libellous novelist, whom he styleth Eliza; the third, the flattering dictator; the fourth, the brawling critic, or noisy poet; the fifth, the dark and dirty party writer: and so of the rest: assigning to each some proper name or other, such as he could find. RICARDUS ARISTARCHUS. Of the Hero of the Poem. As for the characters, the public hath already acOr the nature of Dunciad in general, whence deknowledged how justly they are drawn; the manners rived, and on what authority founded, as well as of are so depicted, and the sentiment so peculiar to the art and conduct of this our poem in particular, those to whom applied, that surely to transfer them the learned and laborious Scriblerus hath, according to any other or wiser personages, would be exceed- to his manner, and with tolerable share of judgment, ing difficult and certain it is, that every person con- dissertated. But when he cometh to speak of the cerned, being consulted apart, hath readily owned person of the hero fitted for such poem, in truth he the resemblance of every portrait, his own excepted. miserably halts and hallucinates: for, misled by one So Mr. Cibber calls them 'a parcel of poor wretches, Monsieur Bossu, a Gallic critic, he prateth of I canso many silly flies :'3 but adds, our author's wit is not tell what phantom of a hero, only raised up to remarkably more bare and barren, whenever it would support the fable. A putid conceit! as if Homer fall foul on Cibber, than upon any other person what- and Virgil, like modern undertakers, who first build their house, and then seek out for a tenant, had conThe descriptions are singular, the comparisons very trived the story of a war and a wandering, before quaint, the narration various, yet of one colour; the they once thought either of Achilles or Eneas. We purity and chastity of diction is so preserved, that, in shall therefore set our good brother and the world the places most suspicious, not the words but only also right in this particular, by assuring them, that, in the images have been censured, and yet are those the greater epic, the prime intention of the muse is to images no other than have been sanctified by ancient exalt heroic virtue, in order to propagate the love of and classical authority (though, as was the manner it among the children of men; and consequently that ever.' 1 Ibid. chap. vii. viii. 2 Bossu, chap. viii. Vide Aristot. Poet. chap. ix. 3 Cibber's Letter to Mr. P. p. 9, 12, 41. the poet's first thought must needs be turned upon a real subject meet for laud and celebration; not one 1 See his Essays. whom he is to make, but one whom he may find, But then it is not every knave, nor (let me add) truly illustrious. This is the primum mobile of his every fool, that is a fit subject for a Dunciad. There poetic world, whence every thing is to receive life must still exist some analogy, if not resemblance of and motion. For, this subject being found, he is im-qualities, between the heroes of the two poems; and mediately ordained, or rather acknowledged, a hero, this, in order to admit what neoteric critics call and put upon such action as befitteth the dignity of the parody, one of the liveliest graces of the little his character. epic. Thus it being agreed that the constituent But the muse ceaseth not here her eagle-flight. qualities of the great epic hero, are wisdom, bravery, For sometimes, satiated with the contemplation of and love, from whence springeth heroic virtue; it these suns of glory, she turneth downward on her followeth, that those of the lesser epic hero should wing, and darts with Jove's lightning on the goose be vanity, assurance, and debauchery, from which and serpent kind. For we may apply to the muse in happy assemblage resulteth heroic dulness, the neverher various moods what an ancient master of wisdom dying subject of this our poem. affirmeth of the gods in general: Si Di non iras- This being settled, come we now to particulars. It cuntur impiis et injustis, nec pios utique justosque dili- is the character of true wisdom to seek its chief supgunt. In rebus enim diversis, aut in utramque partem port and confidence within itself; and to place that moveri necesse est, aut in neutram. Itaque qui bonos support in the resources which proceed from a condiligit, et malos odit ; et qui malos non odit, nec bonos scious rectitude of will.—And are the advantages of diligit. Quia et diligere bonos ex odio malorum venit; vanity, when arising to the heroic standard, at all et malos odisse ex bonorum caritate descendit. Which short of this self-complacence? nay, are they not, in in our vernacular idiom may be thus interpreted: 'If the opinion of the enamoured owner, far beyond it? the gods be not provoked at evil men, neither are they 'Let the world,' will such an one say, 'impute to me delighted with the good and just. For contrary ob- what folly or weakness they please: but till wisdom jects must either excite contrary affections, or no af- can give me something that will make me more fections at all. So that he who loveth good men, heartily happy, I am content to be gazed at." This, must, at the same time, hate the bad; and he who we see, is vanity according to the heroic gage or hateth not bad men, cannot love the good: because measure; not that low and ignoble species which to love good proceedeth from an aversion to evil, and pretendeth to virtues we have not; but the laudable to hate evil men from a tenderness to the good.' ambition of being gazed at for glorying in those vices From this delicacy of the muse arose the little epic, which every body knows we have. The world (more lively and choleric than her elder sister, whose may ask,' says he, 'why I make my follies public? bulk and complexion incline her to the phlegmatic :) Why not? I have passed my life very pleasantly with and for this, some notorious vehicle of vice and folly them."2 In short, there is no sort of vanity such a was sought out, to make thereof an example. An hero would scruple, but that which might go near to early instance of which (nor could it escape the ac-degrade him from his high station in this our Duncuracy of Scriblerus) the father of epic poem him- ciad; namely, 'whether it would not be vanity in him, self affordeth us. From him the practice descended to take shame to himself, for not being a wise man?'3 to the Greek dramatic poets, his offspring; who, in Bravery, the second attribute of the true hero, is the composition of their tetralogy, or set of four courage manifesting itself in every limb; while its pieces, were wont to make the last a satiric tragedy. correspondent virtue, in the mock hero, is that same Happily, one of these ancient Dunciads (as we may courage all collected into the face. And as power, well term it) is come down unto us, amongst the tra- when drawn together, must needs have more force gedies of the poet Euripides. And what doth the and spirit than when dispersed, we generally find this reader suppose may be the subject thereof? Why, kind of courage in so high and heroic a degree, that in truth, and it is worthy observation, the unequal it insults not only men, but gods. Mezentius is, contest of an old, dull, debauched buffoon Cyclops, without doubt, the bravest character in all the Eneis: with the heaven-directed favourite of Minerva; who, but how? His bravery, we know, was a high couafter having quietly borne all the monster's obscene rage of blasphemy. And can we say less of this and impious ribaldry, endeth the farce in punishing brave man's? who, having told us that he placed his him with the mark of an indelible brand in his fore-summum bonum in those follies which he was not head. May we not then be excused, if, for the future, content barely to possess, but would likewise glory we consider the epics of Homer, Virgil, and Milton, in,' adds, "if I am misguided, 'tis nature's fault, and I together with this our poem, as a complete tetralogy; in which the last worthily holdeth the place or station of the satiric piece? follow her.'4 Nor can we be mistaken in making this happy quality a species of courage, when we consider those illustrious marks of it, which made his face 'more known (as he justly boasteth) than most in the kingdom;' and his language to consist of what we must allow to be the most daring figure of speech, that which is taken from the name of God. Proceed we, therefore, in our subject. It hath been long, and, alas for pity! still remaineth a question, whether the hero of the greater epic should be an honest man; or, as the French critics express it, un honnete homme: but it never admitted of a doubt,| Gentle love, the next ingredient of the true hero's but that the hero of the little epic should be just the composition, is a mere bird of passage, or (as Shakcontrary. Hence, to the advantage of our Dunciad, speare calls it) 'summer-teeming lust,' and evaporates we may observe, how much juster the moral of that in the heat of youth; doubtless by that refinement it poem must needs be where so important a question suffers in passing through those certain strainers is previously decided. which our poet somewhere speaketh of. But when 1 Si un heros poëtique doit être un honnête homme. Bossu, du Poëme Epique, liv. v. ch. 5. 1 Ded. to the Life of C. C. 2 Life, p. 2, 8vo. edit. 4 Ibid. p. 23. |