by this Mr. Pope found all he went in Search of, Money and Fame, and this was a fresh Mortification to Mr. Dennis, who could get little of either; indeed his Pieces against our Poet are somewhat of an angry Character, and as they are now scarce extant, a Taste of his Style may be fatisfactory to the Cu

rious.

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"A young fhort Gentleman, whose outward "Form tho' it should be that of a downright Mon"key, would not differ fo much from human Shape, as his unthinking immaterial Part does from hu"man Understanding. He is as ftupid and as ❝venemous as a hunchback'd Toad. A Book, thro' "which Folly and Ignorance, those Brethren fo lame and impotent, do ridiculously look very big, and very dull, and ftrut and hobble Cheek by "Jowl, with their Arms on kimbo; being led, and fupported, and bully-back'd by that blind Hector, "Impudence." Reflect, on the Effay on Crit. Page 26, 29, 30.

“I regard him (faith he) as an Enemy, not fo "much to me, as to my King, to my Country, to my Religion, and to that Liberty which has been "the fole Felicity of my Life. A Vagary of For

tune, who is fometimes pleafed to be frolickfome, " and the epidemic Madness of the Times have gi"ven him Reputation, and Reputation (as Hobbs

fays) is Power, and that has made him dangerous, "Therefore I look on it as my Duty to King "George, whofe faithful Subject I am; to my Coun

try, of which I have appear'd a conftant Lover; " to the Laws, under whofe Protection I have fo long liv'd; and to the Liberty of my Country, more dear then Life to me, of which I have now for forty Years been a conftant Affertor, &c. I look upon it as my Duty, Ifay, to do you fall

" fee

"fee what to pull the Lion's Skin from this little "Afs, which popular Errors has thrown round him; "and to fhow, that this Author, who has been late

ly fo much in Vogue, has neither Sense in his "Thoughts, nor English in his Expreffions." Dennis, Rem. on Hom. Pref. P. 2, and P. 91, &c.

Mrs. Centlivre is complain'd of, as having wrote a Ballad against Mr. Pope's Homer, before he had begun it; and accordingly fhe has a Place of one Line in the Dunciad:

At laft Centlivre felt her Voice to fail.

Mr. Lewis Theobald, after having in the Cenfor given a Character of the Tranflation, which extols it to the greatest Height, changes his Sentiment in his Effay on the Art of finking in Reputation, where he fays thus: "In order to fink in Reputation, 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, fo his << Verfion denotes his Neglect of the Manner how.”

It was infinuated that Mr. Broome was, in Reality, the Tranflator of Homer, and only the Verfification Mr. Pope's. The Opinion our Author had of Mr. Broome was fufficiently fhewn by his joining him in the Undertaking of the Odyssey, in which Mr. Broome having engaged without any previous Agreement, discharg'd his Part fo much to Mr. Pope's Satisfaction, that he gratified him with the full Sum of Five Hundred Pounds, and a Prefent of all thofe Books, for which his own Interest could procure him Subfcription, to the Value of One Hundred more; but he is denied to have had any Hand in the Iliad. "After the Iliad he undertook (fays Mr. Theobald,

Mift's Journal June 8.) the Sequel of that Work, the Odyffey; and having fecur'd the Succefs by a

"numerous

❝ numerous Subscription, he employ'd fome Underlings to perform what according to his Proposals "fhould come from his own Hand." To which heavy Charge, we in Truth oppofe nothing but the Words of MR, POPE'S PROPOSALS FOR THE ODYSSEY, printed by J. Watts, Jan. 10, 1724. "I take this Occafion to declare, that the Sub

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fcription for Shakespear belongs wholly to Mr. "Tonfon; and that the future Benefit of this PROPO"SAL is not folely for my own Ufe, but for that of "two of my Friends, who have affifted me in this "Work."

His Adverfaries were Dennis, Gildon, Welfted, Theobalds, &c. but what are Dennis, Gildon, Welfted, or Theobalds; the great Mr. Addison began not to care that Mr. Pope fhould profper too much in Poetry, tho' he had rais'd himself by it, being the Son of Lancelot Addifon, was born at Milfton near Ambrofebury, in the County of Wilts, in the Year 1671. He receiv'd his firft Education at the Charter-Houfe in London, from whence he was removed to Queen's-College in Oxford; he was afterwards elected into Magdalen College, where he took the Degrees of Batchelor and Master of Arts. He wrote feveral very good Poems, both in Latin and English; and in the Year 1695 he wrote a Poem to King William, upon one of his Majefty's Campaigns, addrefs'd to Sir John Somers, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. This occafioned a Meffage from that Nobleman to Mr. Addison, defiring to see him; Mr. Addifon was then in the 28th Year of his Age, and expreffing a Defi re to see France and Italy, a Penfion was obtained from the Crown of 300l. per Annum, to fupport him in his Travels. The Account of his Travels was publish'd in the Year 1705, which at firft was but indifferently receiv'd. His Dialogues

upon

upon Medals were begun to be cast into the Form he gave them at Vienna in the Year 1702; it is a posthumous Work; an admirable Poem of Mr. Pope's is prefix'd to it.

Mr. Addifon remained without any Employment 'till the Year 1704, when writing a Poem called the Campaign on the Duke of Marlborough's Success, the Lord Treasurer Godolphin beftow'd on him the Place of Commiffioner of the Appeals, vacant by the Removal of Mr. Lock to the Council of Trade. In 1705 he attended the Lord Hallifax to Hanover, and in 1706 was made Secretary to the Secretary of State, who was then Sir Charles Hedges.

About this Time he wrote his Opera called Rofamond, which did not fucceed on the Stage, being wholly un-theatrical, and but badly help'd up with Mufick.

The Earl of Wharton being made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1709, he appointed Mr. Addifon Secretary for that Kingdom; the Salary of Keeper of the Records in Ireland was confiderably augmented, and that Poft was beftow'd on him.

He had a confiderable Hand in the Spectators, Guardians, &c. In the Year 1713, thinking to do Service to his Party, he produc'd Cato; Mr. Pope wrote the Prologue, and it run (being strongly supported by Party) a whole Month.

There are in it a great many fine Verses, but the Plot being ill laid, and the Love Plot being almost the lowest that appears on our Modern Stages, and the monftrous Abfurdity of two Roman Maids converfing as Lucia and Martia do, has leffen'd it much: O Martia, Martia, might my big fwoln Breafts, &c. The French Voltaire, though very often miftaken, has here certainly all the Argument on his Side,

On

On the whole we confefs the Campaign, and what went before it, are the beft of this Gentleman's writing, who began to quit Poetry for Power. Here is not Room to enumerate the feveral Faults pointed at in Cato by the Criticks and Poets then judging, nor did he, I believe, care much, for his End was fully answered. After the Death of Queen Anne he was made Secretary to the Lords Juftices; and when the Earl of Sunderland was constituted Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in September, 1714, he became a second Time Secretary for the Affairs of that Kingdom, and was made one of the Lords Commiffioners of Trade a little after that Earl refign'd his Poft of Lord Lieutenant; and in the Year 1717 he was made Secretary of State, through the Means of the Lord Hallifax.

He died at Holland-Houfe, near Kensington, of an Afthma and Dropfy, on the 17th of June, 1719, and left behind him only one Daughter by the Countels of Warwick and Holland, to whom he was married in 1716.

This Gentleman at once threw off all his former Efteem, Love, and good Treatment of our Poet; and began to endeavour to leffen his Tranflation of the Iliad, though in the Spectator, Numb. 258, he had given Mr. Pope fuch a Profufion of Praife, which he never could, with Honour, withdraw from him ¡again.

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"The Art of Criticifm (faith he) which was published fome Months fince, is a Master-piece " in its Kind. The Obfervations follow one ano"ther, like thofe in Horace's Art of Poetry, with

out 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 explain'd with

❝ that