THE DUNCIAD, IN FOUR BOOKS, WITH THE PROLEGOMENA of SCRIBLERUS, THE HYPERCRITICS of ARISTARCHUS, AND NOTES VARIORUM. VOL. V. A LETTER TO THE PUBLISHER, Occafioned by the first correct Edition of the DUNCIAD. I T is with pleasure I hear, that you have procured a correct copy of the DUNCIAD, which the many furreptitious ones have rendered fo neceffary; and it is yet with more, that I am informed it will be attended with a COMMENTARY: A Work fo requifite, that I cannot think the Author himself would have omitted it, had he approved of the first appearance of this Poem. Such Notes as have occurred to me I herewith send you: You will oblige me by inserting them amongst thofe which are, or will be, tranfmitted to you by others; fince not only the Author's friends, but even ftrangers, appear engaged by humanity, to take fome care of an Orphan of fo much genius and spirit, which its parent seems to have abandoned from the very beginning, and fuffered to step into the world naked, unguarded, and unattended, It was upon reading some of the abusive papers lately published, that my great regard to a Perfon, whofe Friendship I esteem as one of the chief honours of my life, and a much greater respect to Truth, than to him or to any man living, engaged me in enquiries, of which the enclosed Notes are the fruit. I perceived, that most of these Authors had been (doubtless very wifely) the firft aggreffors. They had tried, 'till they were weary, what was to be got by railing at each other: Nobody was either concerned or furprized if this or that fcribler was proved a dunce. But every one was curious to read what could be faid to prove Mr. POPE one, and was ready to pay fomething for fuch a difcovery: A ftratagem, which would they fairly own, it might not only reconcile them to me, but fcreen them from the refentment of their lawful Superiors, whom they daily abufe, only (as I charitably hope) to get that by them, which they cannot get from them. I found this was not all: Ill fuccefs in that had transported them to Perfonal abufe, either of himself, or (what I think he could lefs forgive) of his Friends. They had called Men of virtue and honour bad Men, long before he had either leifure or inclination to call them bad writers: And fome had been fuch old offenders, that he had quite forgotten their perfons as well as their flanders, 'till they were pleased to revive them. Now what had Mr. POPE done before, to incenfe them? He had published those works which are in the hands of every body, in which not the leaft mention is made of any of them. And what has he done |