ertain works in a lefs degree of repute, whereof, although owned by others, yet do they affure us he is the writer. Of this fort Mr. DENNIS afcribes to him two farces, whofe names he does not tell, but affures us that there is not one jeft in them: And an imitation of Horace, whose title he does not mention, but affures us it is much more execrable than all his works. The DAILY JOURNAL, May 11, 1728, affures us, "He is below Tom Durfey in the Drama, because (as that writer thinks) the Marriage-Hater matched, and the Boarding-School, are better than the What-d'ye-call-it;" which is not Mr. P's, but Mr. Gay's. Mr. GILDON affures us, in his New Rehearsal, p. 48. "That he was writing a play of the Lady Jane Grey;" but it afterwards proved to be Mr. Rowe's. We are affured by another, "He wrote a pamphlet called Dr. Andrew Tripe;" which proved to be one Dr. Wagstaff's. Mr. THEOBALD affures, in Mift of the 27th of April, "That the treatise 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 must and can only be afcribed to Gulliver "." [Here,

h

gentle reader! cannot I but fmile at the ftrange blindness and pofitiveness of men; knowing the faid treatise to appertain to none other but to me Martinus Scriblerus.]

We

Rem. on Homer, p. 8. • Ibid. p. 6.

f Character of Mr. Pope, p. 7.

h Gulliv. p. 336.

We are affured in Mift of June 8, "That his own plays and farces would better have adorned the Dunciad, than those of Mr. Theobald; for he had neither genius for tragedy nor comedy." Which, whether true or not, it is not easy to judge; in as much as he had attempted neither. Unless we will take it for granted, with Mr. Cibber, that his being once very angry at hearing a friend's Play abufed, was an infallible proof the play was his own; the faid Mr. Cibber thinking it impoffible for a man to be much concerned for any but himself: "Now let any man judge (faith he) by this concern, who was the true mother of the child?"

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 little to have any modefty, fince, when he declined writing in any way himself, the presumption of others was imputed to him. If he fingly enterprized one great work, he was taxed of boldness and madness to a prodigy: If he took assistants in another, it was complained of, and reprefented as a great injury to the publick'. The loftieft heroics, the lowest ballads, treatises against the state or church, satires on lords and ladies, raillery on wits and authors, fquabbles with

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

Burnet's Homerides, p. 1. of his tranflation of the Iliad. The London and Mift's Journals, on his undertaking the Odyffey.

with bookfellers, or even full and true accounts of monsters, poisons, and murders; of hereof was any there nothing fo good, nothing fo bad, which had 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 ftyles, then it was evident; if it did not, then difguised he it on set purpose. Yea, even direct oppofitions in religion, principles, and politics, have equally been supposed in him inherent. Surely a moft rare and fingular character! Of which let the reader make what he can.

Doubtlefs moft 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 boundlefs, as well as his imagination; that he was a perfect master of all ftyles, and all arguments; and that there was in those times no other writer, in any kind, of any degree of excellence, fave he himself. But as this is not our own fentiment, we shall determine on nothing; but leave thee, gentle reader, to steer thy judgment equally between various opinions, and to chufe 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.

MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS

THIS

OF THE POEM*.

HIS poem, as it celebrateth the most grave and ancient of things, Chaos, Night, and Dulness; fo is it of the moft grave and ancient kind. Homer (faith Ariftotle) was the firft who gave the form, and (faith Horace) who adapted the measure, to heroic poefy. But even before this, may be rationally 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, Ariftotle, in his Poetic, chap. iv. doth further fet forth, that as the Iliad and Odyssey gave example to tragedy, fo did this poem to comedy its firft idea.

From thefe authors alfo it fhould feem, that the Hero, or chief perfonage of it was no lefs obfcure, and his understanding and fentiments no lefs quaint and strange (if indeed not more fo) than any of the actors of our poem. MARGITES was the name of this perfonage, whom Antiquity recordeth to have

been

* All this discourse was written by Pope.

VOL. V.

been Dunce the first; and furely from what we hear of him, not unworthy to be the root of fo fpreading a tree, and fo numerous a pofterity. The poem therefore celebrating him was properly and abfolutely a Dunciad; which though now unhappily loft, yet is its nature fufficiently known by the infallible 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 those 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 bestow 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 stimulated 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 poffible it is alfo, that, on due reflection, the maker might find it easier to paint a Charlemagne, a Brute, or a Godfrey, with juft pomp and dignity heroic, than a Margites, a Codrus, or a Fleckno.

We shall next declare the occafion and the caufe which moved our poet to this particular work. He lived in those days, when (after Providence had permitted the invention of printing as a scourge for

the