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that he was a parfon; one calleth him a fecular clergyman of the church of Rome; another, a monk. As little do they agree about his father, whom one * fuppofeth, like the father of Hefiod, a tradesman or merchant; another', a husbandman ; another m, a hatter, &c. Nor has an author been wanting to give our poet fuch a father, as Apuleius hath to Plato, Jamblichus to Pythagoras, and divers to Homer, namely a Demon: For thus Mr. Gildon": "Certain it is, that his original is not from Adam, but the Devil; and that he wanted nothing but horns and tail to be the exact refemblance of his infernal Father." Finding therefore fuch contrariety of Opinions, and (whatever be ours of this fort of generation) not being fond to enter into controversy, we shall defer writing the Life of our Poet, till authors can determine determine among themselves what parents or education he had, or whether he had any education or parents at all.

Proceed we to what is more certain, his Works, though not lefs uncertain the judgments concerning them;

Dunciad diffected.

* Female Dunciad, p. ult.

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i Characters of the times, p. 45·

I Dunciad diffected.

Roome, Paraphrase on the ivth of Genefis, printed 1729.

n Character of Mr. P. and his Writings, in a Letter to a Friend, printed for S. Popping, 1716, p. 10. Curl, in his Key to the Dunciad, (first edit. faid to be printed for A. Dodd), in the 10th page, declared Gildon to be author of that libel; though in the subsequent editions of his Key he left out this affertion, and affirmed (in the Curliad, p. 4. and 8.) that it was written by Dennis only.

them; beginning with his Effay on Criticism, of which hear firft the most ancient of Critics,

Mr. JOHN DENNIS.

"His precepts are false or trivial, or both; his thoughts are crude and abortive, his expreffions abfurd, his numbers harsh and unmufical, his rhymes trivial and common:-instead of majesty, we have fomething that is very mean; instead of gravity, fomething that is very boyifh; and instead of perfpicuity and lucid order, we have but too often obfcurity and confufion." And in another place: "What rare numbers are here! Would not one

fwear that this youngster had efpoufed fome antiquated mufe, who had fued out a divorce from some superannued finner, upon account of impotence, and who being poxed by her former spouse, has got the gout in her decrepid age, which makes her hobble fo damnably "."

No less peremptory is the cenfure of our hypercritical Historian,

Mr. OLDMIXON.

"I dare not fay any thing of the Effay on Criticism in verfe; but if any more curious reader has difcovered in it something new which is not in Dryden's prefaces, dedications, and his Effay on Dramatic Poetry, not to mention the French critics, I fhould be very glad to have the benefit of the discovery "."

He

• Reflections critical and fatirical on a Rhapfody, called an

Effay on Criticism. Printed for Bernard Lintot, octavo.

P Effay on Criticism in profe, octavo, 1728, by the author of The Critical History of England.

He is followed (as in fame, fo in judgment) by the modeft and fimple-minded

Mr. LEONARD WELSTEAD;

Who, out of great refpect to our poet not naming him, doth yet glance at his Effay, together with the Duke of Buckingham's, and the Criticifms of Dryden, and of Horace, which he more openly taxeth": "As to the numerous treatifes, effays, arts, &c. both in verse and profe, that have been written by the moderns on this ground-work, they do but hackney the fame thoughts over again, making them still more trite. Most of their pieces are nothing but a pert, infipid heap of common-place. Horace has even in his Art of Poetry thrown out feveral things which plainly fhew he thought an Art of Poetry was of no use, even while he was writing one."

To all which great Authorities, we can only oppose that of

Mr. ADDISON.

"The Art of Criticism (faith he) which was published fome months fince, is a master-piece in its kind. The obfervations follow one another, like thofe in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that methodical regularity which would have been requifite in a profe writer. They are fome of them uncommon, but fuch as the reader must affent to, when he sees them explained with that ease and perfpicuity in which

9 Preface to his Poems, p. 18, 53.

t

Spectator, N° 253.

which they are delivered. As for those which are the most known and the most received, they are placed in fo beautiful a light, and illuftrated with fuch apt allufions, that they have in them all the graces of novelty; and make the reader, who was before acquainted with them, ftill more convinced of their truth and folidity. And here give me leave to mention what Monfieur Boileau has fo well enlarged upon in the preface to his works: That wit and fine writing doth not confift fo much in advancing things that are new, as in giving things that are known an agreeable turn. It is impoffible for us who live in the latter ages of the world, to make observations in criticism, morality, or any art or science, which have not been touched upon by others; we have little elfe left us, but to represent the common sense of mankind in more ftrong, more beautiful, or more uncommon lights. If a reader examines Horace's Art of Poetry, he will find but few precepts in it which he may not meet with in Ariftotle, and which were not commonly known by all the poets of the Auguftan age. His way of expreffing and applying them, not his invention of them, is what we are chiefly to admire.

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Longinus, in his reflections, has given us the fame kind of fublime, which he observes in the feveral paffages that occafioned them: I cannot but take notice that our English author has after the fame manner exemplified feveral of the precepts in

the

the very precepts themselves." He then produces some instances of a particular beauty in the numbers, and concludes with faying, that "there are three poems in our tongue of the fame nature, and each a master-piece in its kind; The Effay on Tranflated Verfe; the Effay on the Art of Poetry; and the Effay on Criticism."

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Of Windfor Foreft, pofitive is the judgment of the affirmative

Mr. JOHN DENNIS.

"That it is a wretched rhapsody, impudently writ in emulation of the Cooper's Hill of Sir John Denham: The author of it is obfcure, is ambiguous, is affected, is temerarious, is barbarous."

But the author of the Dispensary,

Dr. GARTH,

in the preface to his poem of Claremont, differs from this opinion; "Those who have feen these two excellent poems of Cooper's Hill, and Windfor Foreft, the One written by Sir John Denham, the other by Mr. Pope, will fhew a great deal of candour if they approve of this."

Of the Epistle of Eloifa, we are told by the obfcure writer of a poem called Sawney, "That because Prior's Henry and Emma charmed the finest tastes, our author writ his Eloife in oppofition to it; but forgot innocence and virtue: if you take away her

tender

Letter to B. B. at the end of the Remarks on Pope's Homer, 1717. Printed 1728, p. 12.

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