Who he is I cannot say, and (which is a great pity) there is certainly f nothing in his style and manner of writing, which can distinguish or discover him: For if it bears any resemblance to that of Mr. Pope, it is not improbable but it might be done on purpose, with a view to have it pass for his. But by the frequency of his allusions to Virgil, and a laboured (not to say affected) shortness in imitation of him, I should think him more an admirer of the Roman poet than of the Grecian, and in that not of the fame tafte with his friend.

I have been well informed, that this work was the labour of full & fix years of his life, and that he wholly retired

f There is certainly nothing in his style, &c.] This irony had small effect in concealing the author. The Dunciad, imperfect as it was, had not been published two days, but the whole Town gave it to Mr. Pope.

We are

g the labour of full fix years, &c.] This also was honestly and seriously believed by divers gentlemen of the Dunciad. J. Ralph, pref. to Sawney. " told it was the labour of fix years, with the utmost " affiduity and application: It is no great compliment " to the author's sense, to have employed so large a part " of his life, &c." So alfo Ward, pref. to Durgen, "The Dunciad, as the publisher very wisely confeffes, "cost the author fix years retirement from all the plea"sures of life; though it is somewhat difficult to con"ceive, from either its bulk or beauty, that it could " be so long in hatching, &c. But the length of time " and closeness of application were mentioned, to pre" poffefs the reader with a good opinion of it."

They just as well understood what Scriblerus faid of the poem.

retired himself from all the avocations and pleasures of the world, to attend diligently to its correction and perfection; and fix years more he intended to bestow upon it, as would feem by this verse of Statius, which was cited at the head of his manufcript.

"O mihi bissenos multum vigilata per annos,
"Duncia! h"

Hence also we learn the true title of the poem: which with the fame certainty as we call that of Homer the Iliad, of Virgil the Æneid, of Camoens the Lufiad, we may pronounce, could have been, and can be, no other than

The DUNCIAD.

It is styled Heroic, as being doubly fo; not only with refpect to its nature, which according to the best rules of the ancients, and strictest ideas of the moderns, is critically fuch; but also with regard to the heroical difpofition and high courage of the writer, who dared to stir up fuch a formidable, irritable, and implacable race of mortals.

There may arise some obscurity in chronology from the Names in the poem, by the inevitable removal of some authors, and insertion of others in their niches. For whoever will confider-the unity of the whole defign, will be sensible, that the poem was not made for

thefe

h The prefacer to Curll's key, p. 3. took this word to be really in Statius: "By a quibble on the word Dun"cia, the Dunciad is formed." Mr. Ward also follows him in the fame opinion.

these authors, but these authors for the poem. I should judge that they were clapped in as they rose, fresh and fresh, and changed from day to day; in like manner as when the old boughs wither, we thrust new ones into a chimney.

I would not have the reader too much troubled, or anxious, if he cannot decypher them: fince when he shall have found them out, he will probably know no more of the perfons than before.

Yet we judged it better to preferve them as they are, than to change them for fictitious names; by which the fatire would only be multiplied, and applied to many instead of one. Had the hero, for instance, been called Codrus, how many would have affirmed him to have been Mr. T. Mr. E. Sir R. B. &c. But now all that unjust scandal is saved by calling him by a name, which by good luck happens to be that of a real perfon.

II.

A LIST of

BOOKS, PAPERS, and VERSES,

In which our Author was abused, before the Publication of the DUNCIAD; with the true Names of the Authors.

REFLECTIONS critical and fatirical on a late

Rhapsody, called, An Effay on Criticifm. By

Mr. Dennis, printed by B. Lintot, price 6 d.

A New Rehearsal, or Bays the younger: containing an Examen of Mr. Rowe's plays, and a word or two on Mr. Pope's Rape of the Lock. Anon. [by Charles Gildon] printed for J. Roberts, 1714, price 1 s.

Homerides, or a Letter to Mr. Pope, occafioned by his intended tranflation of Homer. By Sir Iliad Dogrel. [Tho. Burnet and G. Ducket esquires] printed for W. Wilkins, 1715, price 9 d.

Æfop at the Bear-garden; a vision, in imitation of the Temple of Fame, by Mr. Preston. Sold by John Morphew, 1715, price 6 d.

The Catholic Poet, or Protestant Barnaby's Sorrowful Lamentation; a Ballad about Homer's Iliad. By Mrs. Centlivre and others, 1715, price 1 d.

An Epilogue to a Puppet-show at Bath, concerning the faid Iliad. By George Ducket esq; printed by E. Curll.

A com

F

A complete Key to the What-d'ye-call-it. Anon. (by Griffin a player, supervised by Mr. Th-] printed by J. Roberts, 1715.

A true character of Mr. P. and his writings, in a letter to a friend. Anon. (Dennis] printed for S. Popping, 1716, price 3 d.

The Confederates, a Farce. By Joseph Gay, [J. D. Breval) printed for R. Burleigh, 1717, price 1 s.

Remarks upon Mr. Pope's tranflation of Homer; with two letters concerning the Windfor Forest, and the Temple of Fame. By Mr. Dennis, printed for E. Curll, 1717, price 1 s. 6 d.

Satires on the tranflators of Homer, Mr. P. and Mr. T. Anon. [Bez. Morris) 1717, price 6d.

The Triumvirate: or a Letter from Palæmon to Celia at Bath. Anon. (Leonard Welsted] 1711, Folio, price 1 s.

The Battle of Poets, an heroic poem. By Tho. Cooke, printed for J. Roberts. Folio, 1725.

Memoirs of Lilliput. Anon. [Eliz. Haywood] octavo, printed in 1727.

An Effay on Criticism, in prose. By the Author of the Critical Hiftory of England (J. Oldmixon) octavo, printed 1728.

Gulliveriana and Alexandriana; with an ample preface and critique on Swift and Pope's Miscellanies. By Jonathan Smedley, printed by J. Roberts, octavo, 1728.

Characters of the Times; or an account of the writings, characters, &c. of several gentlemen libelled, by S- and P-, in a late Miscellany, octavo, 1728.