VII. A PARALLEL OF THE CHARACTERS OF Mr. DRYDEN and Mr. POPE, As drawn by certain of their Contemporaries. Mr. DRYDEN, HIS POLITICS, RELIGION, MORALS. MR. Dryden is a mere renegado from monarchy, poetry, and good sense. A true Republican fon of monarchical Church. A Republican Atheist c. Dryden was from the beginning an arrowpócan☞, and I doubt not will continue fo to the last". In the poem called Abfalom and Achitophel are notoriously traduced, The KING, the QUEEN, the LORDS, and GENTLEMEN, not only their honourable perfons expofed, a Milbourn on Dryden's Virgil, 8vo. 1698. p. 6. d Page 8. VII. A PARALLEL OF THE CHARACTERS · O F Mr. POPE and Mr. DRYDEN, As drawn by certain of their Contemporaries. Mr. POPE, HIS POLITICS, RELIGION, MORALS. MR. Pope is an open and mortal enemy to his country, and the commonwealth of learning 1. Some call him a popish whig, which is directly inconfiftent. Pope, as a papift, must be a tory and high flyer. He is both a whig and tory d He hath made it his cuftom to cackle to more than one party in their own fentiments". a Dennis Rem. on the Rape of the Lock, pref. p. xii. b Dunciad diffected. d Dennis, Character of Mr. P. • Pref. to Gulliveriana. e Theobald, Letter in Mift's Journal, June 22, 1728. In exposed, but the whole NATION and its REPRESENTATIVES notoriously libelled. It is fcandalum magnatum, yea of MAJESTY itself *. He looks upon God's gofpel as a foolish fable, like the Pope, to whom he is a pitiful purveyor'. His very Christianity may be queftioned. He ought to expect more severity than other men, as he is most unmerciful in his reflections on others. With as good a right as his Holiness, he sets up for poetical infallibility i. *. Mr. DRYDEN only a Verfifier. His whole Libel is all bad matter, beautify'd (which is all that can be faid of it) with good metre *. Mr. Dryden's genius did not appear in any thing more than his Verfification, and whether he is to be ennobled for that only, is a queftion'. Mr. DRYDEN'S VIRGIL. Tonfon calls it Dryden's Virgil, to fhew that this is not that Virgil so admired in the Augustean age; but a Virgil of another stamp, a filly, impertinent, non fenfical * Whip and Key, 4to, printed for R. Janeway, 1682. Preface. h Ibid. p. 175. f Ibid. i Page 39. Milbourn, p. 9. 1 Oldmixon, Effay on Criticism, p. 84. In his Mifcellanies the Perfons abused are, The KING, the QUEEN, his late MAJESTY, both Houses of PARLIAMENT, the Privy-Council, the Bench of BISHOPS, the Established CHURCH, the prefent MINISTRY, &c. To make Sense of fome paffages, they must be construed into RoYAL SCANDAL f. He is a Popish Rhymefter, bred up with a contempt of the Sacred Writings. His Religion allows him to destroy Heretics, not only with his pen, but with fire and fword; and fuch were all thofe unhappy Wits whom he facrificed to his accurfed Popish Principles. It deserved Vengeance to fuggest, that Mr. Pope had lefs infallibility than his Namefake at Rome. Mr. POPE only a Verfifier. The smooth numbers of the Dunciad are all that recommend it, nor has it any other merit. It muft be owned that he hath got a notable knack of rhyming and writing smooth verse1. Mr. POPE'S HOMER. The Homer which Lintot prints, does not talk like Homer, but like Pope; and he who tranflated him, one f Lift at the end of a Collection of Verfes, Letters, Advertisements, 8vo. Printed for A. More, 1728, and the Preface to it, p. 6. 8 Dennis's Rem. on Homer, p. 27. h Preface to Gul liveriana, p. 11. Letters, &c. p. 9. i Dedication to the Collection of Verses, * Mift's Journal of June 8, 1728. 1 Character of Mr. P. and Dennis on Hom. fenfical writer m. None but a Bavius, a Maevius, or a Bathyllus, carped at Virgil; and none but fuch unthinking Vermin admire his Tranflator". It is true, foft and eafy lines might become Ovid's Epistles or Art of Love-But Virgil, who is all great and majestic, &c. requires ftrength of lines, weight of words, and closeness of expreffion; not an ambling Muse running on Carpet-ground, and fhod as lightly as a Newmarket-racer.-He has numberlefs faults in his Author's meaning, and in propriety of expreffion °. Mr. DRYDEN understood no Greek nor Latin. Mr. Dryden was once, I have heard, at Westminfter-school: Dr. Busby would have whipt him for so childish a Paraphrase ". The meanest Pedant in England would whip a Lubber of twelve for conftruing fo abfurdly. The Tranflator is mad, every line betrays his Stupidity. The faults are innumerable, and convince me that Mr. Dryden did not, or would not understand his Author. This fhews how fit Mr. D. may be to tranflate Homer! A miftake in a fingle letter might fall on the Printer well enough, but xwe for ixwe must be the error of the Author: Nor had he art enough to correct it at the Press . Mr. Dryden writes for the Court Ladies-He writes for the Ladies, and not for use". |