other useful Parts of Architecture, which would become a Prince:

These are Imperial Works, and worthy Kings!

For this Poem was publish'd in the Year 1732: When fome of the new built Churches, by the Act of Q Anne, were ready to fall, being founded in boggy Land, and others vilely executed, thro' fraudulent Cavils between Undertakers, Officers, &c. when Dagenham Breach had done very great Mischiefs; when the Propofal of building a Bridge at Weftminfter had been petition'd againft, and rejected when many of the Highways throughout Englana were hardly paffable, and most of those that were repair'd by Turnpikes, made Jobbs for private Lucre, and infamoufly executed, even to the Entrances of London itself.

These four original Epiftles, we defire to diftinguifh from thofe wrote when our Poet was younger, as well as from those wherein he profeffes to imitate Horace, and Dr. Donne, thefe being purely his own Wit and Philofophy, and are fufficient, had he wrote nothing else, to have prov'd him a very great Poet and nice Thinker, where nothing but Morals were to be difcours'd of; of this Sort, or very like, we have one more to Dr. Arbuthnot, which contains an Apology of Mr. Pope for himself and Writings; it was drawn up at feveral Times, as Occafion offer'd; he had no Thought of publishing it, till it pleas'd fome Perfons of Rank and Fortune to attack, in a very extraordinary Manner, not only his Writings, but his Morals, Perfon, and Family, of which he therefore thought himself oblig'd to give fome Ac

count.

Dr. Arbuthnot was befides an excellent Phyfician, a very ingenious Gentleman, his Epitaph on Col. Chartres fhows it: It was reported that he, as well

as Mr. Pope, had a Hand in the Comedy call'd,
Three Hours after Marriage, that goes in the Name
of Mr. Gay, which not fucceeding, for it was a mean
Performance, occafioned Reflections on all the three
Gentlemen beforementioned: In the Prologue to the
Sultanefs, spoken by Mr. Wilks, was this Fling at it.
Such were the Wags who boldly did adventure,
To club a Farce by Tripartite Indenture:
But let them fhare their Dividend of Praife.
And wear their own Fools Cap inftead of Bays.

Mr. Pope us'd to fay, and has confefs'd it in Writing, that if it had not been for Dr. Arbuthnot, he thould not have had fufficient Health to apply himfelf to Study, fo that much of Mr. Pope's Writings, must be allowed to be owing to his Care of him; he had a Brother of the greatest Affability and good Nature, of whom Mr. Pope, writing to Mr. Digby then at Bath, fpeaks, September 1, 1722.

Doctor Arbuthnot is going to Bath, and will stay

there a Fortnight or more: Perhaps you would be comforted to have a Sight of, whether you need him or not. I think him as good a Doctor as any Man for one that is ill, and a better Doctor for one that is well. He would do admirably for Mrs. Mary Digby: She needed only to follow his Hints, to be in eternal Business and Amusement of Mind, and as active as fhe could deftre. But indeed I fear fhe would out-walk him; for (as Dean Swift oblerv'd to me the very firft Time I faw the Doctor)" He " is a Man that can do every Thing, but walk," His Brother, who is lately come into England, goes alfo to the Bath; and is a more extraordinary Man than he, worth your going thither on purpofe to know him. The Spirit of Philanthropy, fo long dead

dead to our World, is reviv'd in him: He is a Philofopher all of Fire; fo warmly, nay fo wildly in the right, that he forces all others about him to be fo too, and draws them into his Vortex. He is a Star that looks as if it were all Fire, but is all Benignity, all gentle and beneficial Influence. If there be other Men in the World that would ferve a Friend, yet he is the only one I believe that could make even an Enemy serve a Friend, &c.

In this Epiftle to Dr. Arbuthnot, our Author complains how he is pefter'd with troublesome and impertinent Vifitants, which put him by better Company, and confequently out of Humour; of thefe Difturbers of his Peace he reckons up a few:

Is there a Parfon, much be-mus'd in Beer, A maudlin Poetefs, a rhyming Peer, A Clerk, foredoom'd his Father's Soul to cross, Who pens a Stanza when he should engros? Is there, who lock'd from Ink and Paper, fcrawls With defp'rate Charcoal round his darken'd Walls? All fly to Twit'nam, and in humble Strain Apply to me, to keep them mad or vain. Arthur, whofe giddy Son neglects the Laws, Imputes to me and my damn'd Works the Cause: Poor Cornus fees his frantic Wife elope, And curfes Wit, and Poetry, and Pope.

And after he makes a fecond Perfon (like Horace) object against him for meddling with the Great, with Minifters, and Queens, and Kings; to which he replies:

Whom have I hurt? Has Poet yet, or Peer,
Loft the arch'd Eye-brow, or Parnaffian Sneer?

-VOL. II.

G

And

And has not Colley ftill his Lord and Whore?
His Butcher Henley and Free-Mafon Moor?

The Lines which reflects on Mr. Cibber he quietly let alone, not thinking it (I believe) for his Advantage, to take up a Pen against an Adverfary fo potent, and now fo much in Favour with the World but after the Publication of the new Dunciad, where Mr. Pope was ftill very bright upon his Dulness, he immediately endeavoured to answer thofe Bills of Difcredit, which he fays Mr. Pope had drawn on him: And Mr. Cibber has been of that very peaceable Nature, in Regard to the Defence of his Odes and other poetical Performances, that though he has been perfecuted for Twenty Years together, he never 'till now made any Anfwer; nay, he has wrote Verses against his own Odes, meerly for the Pleasure of fitting in Coffee-Houfes and hearing them (for they were not known to be his) praised and called palpable Hits, keen, Things with a Spirit in them, &c. He had in this Contest with Mr. Pope, which is a Letter to him, the Cunning to write in Profe, and to keep his Temper, which he has done extremely well. As to his own Poetry, he openly and candidly confeffes, that he wrote more to be fed than to be famous; and that he is fo contented a Dunce, that he would not have even Mr. Pope's merited Fame attended with the Solicitude he has been at to mantain it, allowing at the fame Time the Dunciad to be a better Poem, in its Kind, than ever was writ.

He protefts that he had never ufed Mr. Pope nor any Body else with Ill-manners, and feems to give other Reasons for his Ill-will towards him. In his Letter he fays:

THE

HE Play of the Rehearsal, which had lain fome few Years dormant, being by his present Majefty (then Prince of Wales) commanded to be revived, the Part of Bays fell to my Share. To this Character there had always been allow'd fuch ludicrous Liberties of Obfervation, upon any Thing new or remarkable in the State of the Stage, as Mr. Bays might think proper to take. Much about this Time, then, the Three Hours after Marriage had been acted without Succefs; when Mr. Bays, as ufual, had a Fling at it, which in itself was no Jeft, unless the Audience would please to make it one: But however, flat as it was, Mr. Pope was mortally fore upon it. This was the Offence; in this Play two Coxcombs being in Love with a learned Virtuofo's Wife, to get unfufpected Accefs to her, ingenibufly fend themselves, as two prefented Rarities to the Hufband, the one curiously fwath'd up like an Egyptian Mummy, and the other flily covered in the Pafte-board Skin of a Crocodile: Upon which poetical Expedient I, Mr. Bays, when the two Kings of Brentford came from the Clouds into the Throne again, inftead of what my Part directed me to fay, made Use of thefe Words, viz. Now, Sir, this "Revolution I had fome Thoughts of introducing by a quite different Contrivance; but my Defign taking Air, fome of your fharp Wits, I found, had made Use of it before me; otherwife, I intended to have ftolen one of them in the Shape "of a Mummy, and t'other in that of a Crocodile." Upon which, I doubt, the Audience by the Roar of their Applaufe, fhew'd their proportionable Contempt of the Play they belong'd to. But why am I anfwerable for that? I did not lead them, by any Reflexion of my own, into that Contempt: Surely, to G 2

have