"Examiners; an Affertor of liberty, 66 and of the difpenfing power of Kings; a Jefuitical profeffor "of truth; a bafe and a foul pretender to candour." So that, upon the whole account, we must conclude him either to have been a great hypocrite, or a very honest man; a terrible imposer upon both parties, or very moderate to either. Be it as to the judicious reader shall seem good. Sure it is, he is little favoured of certain authors, whose wrath is perilous: For one declares he ought to have a price fet on his head, and to be hunted down as a wild beast. Another protests that he does not know what may happen; advises him to infure his perfon; fays he has bitter enemies, and exprefly declares it will be well if he escapes with his life. One defires he would cut his own throat, or bang himself. But Pafquin feemed rather inclined it fhould be done by the Government, reprefenting him engaged in grievous defigns with a Lord of Parliament, then under profecution1. Mr. Dennis himself hath written to a Minifter, that he is one of the most dangerous perfons in this kingdom TM; and affureth the public, that he is an open and mortal enemy to his country; a monfter, that will, one day, fhew as daring a foul as a mad Indian, who runs a m * Gull Theobald, Letter in Mift's Journal, June 22, 1728. veriana, P. 332. m Anno 1729. muck to kill the firft Chriftian he meets ". Another gives information of Treason discovered in his poem °. Mr. Curl boldly fupplies an imperfect verfe with Kings and Princesses P. And one Matthew Concanen, yet more impudent, publifhes at length the Two moft SACRED NAMES in this Nation, as members of the Dunciad ! This is prodigious! yet it is almost as strange, that in the midst of these invectives his greatest Enemies have (I know not how) born teftimony to fome merit in him. Mr. THEOBALD, in cenfuring his Shakespear, declares, "He has fo "great an efteem for Mr Pope, and so high an opi"nion of his genius and excellencies; that, notwith 66 standing he profeffes a veneration almost rifing to Idolatry for the writings of this inimitable poet, "he would be very loth even to do him justice, "at the expence of that other gentleman's cha"racter "." a Preface to Rem. on the Rape of the Lock, p. 12. and in the last page of that treatise. Page 6, 7, of the Preface, by Concanen, to a book intitled, A Collection of all the Letters, Effays, Verfes and Advertisements, occafioned by Pope and Swift's Mifcellanies. Print ed for A. Moore, octavo, 1712. P Key to the Dunciad, 3d edit. p. 18. A Lift of Perfons, &c. at the end of the forementioned Collection of all the Letters, Effays, &c. Introduction to his Shakespear restored. in quarto, p. 3. Mr. CHARLES GILDON, after having violently attacked him in many pieces, at laft came to wifh from his heart, "That Mr. Pope would be prevailed upon to give us Ovid's Epiftles by his hand, for it is certain we fee the original of Sappho to Phaon with much more "life and likeness in his verfion, than in that of Sir Car. Scrope. And this (he adds) is the more "to be wished, because in the English tongue we have scarce any thing truly and naturally written "upon Love." He also, in taxing Sir Richard Blackmore for his heterodox opinions of Homer, challengeth him to answer what Mr. Pope hath faid in his preface to that poet. Mr. OLD MIXON calls him a great mafter of our tongue; declares "the purity and perfection of the English language "to be found in his Homer; and, faying there are "more good verfes in Dryden's Virgil than in any "other work, except this of our author only ." The Author of a Letter to Mr. CIBBER fays, "Pope was so good a verfifier [once] that his "predeceffor Mr. Dryden, and his cotemporary "Mr. Prior excepted, the harmony of his numbers "is equal to any body's. And, that he had all the • Commentary on the Duke of Buckingham's Effay, octave, 1721, p. 97, 98. In his profe Effay on Criticism. Printed by J. Roberts, 1742, p. 11. “merit, that a man can have that way." And Mr. THOMAS COOKE, after much blemishing our author's Homer, crieth out, "But in his other works what beauties fhine! While sweetest Mufic dwells in ev'ry line. "Thefe he admir'd, on thefe he ftamp'd his praise, "And bade them live to brighten future days w." So alfo one who takes the name of H. STANHOPE, the maker of certain verfes to Duncan Campbell *; in that poem, which is wholly a fatire on Mr. Pope, confeffeth, "Tis true, if fineft notes alone could fhow “(Tun'd justly high, or regularly low) "That we fhould fame to thefe mere vocals give; Pope more than we can offer fhould receive: "For when fome gliding river is his theme, "His lines run fmoother than the smootheft "ftream," &c. MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, 1728. Although he fays, "The fmooth numbers of the "Dunciad are all that recommend it, nor has it any "other merit ;" yet that fame paper hath these words: "The author is allowed to be a perfect "mafter of an easy and elegant verfification. In all w Battle of Poets, folio, p. 15. * Printed under the title of the Progrefs of Dulness, duodeci. mo 1728. "his works we find the most happy turns, and natural fimilies, wonderfully fhort and thick fown." The Effay on the Dunciad alfo owns, p. 25. it is very full of beautiful images. But the panegyric, which crowns all that can be said on this Poem, is bestowed by our Laureate, Mr. COLLEY CIBBER. who "grants it to be a better Poem of its kind than "ever was writ:" but adds, " it was a victory over "a parcel of poor wretches, whom it was almost cowardice to conquer.-A man might as well "triumph for having killed so many filly flies that "offended him. Could he have let them alone, by "this time, poor fouls! they had all been buried " in oblivion." Here we fee our excellent Laureate allows the juftice of the fatire on every man in it, but himself; as the great Mr. Dennis did before him. The faid Mr. DENNIS and Mr. GILDON, in the most furious of all their works (the forecited Character, p. 5.) do in concert confefs, "That Cibber's Letter to Mr. Pope, p. 9, 12. in concert] Hear how Mr. Dennis hath proved our mistake in this place," As to my writing in concert with Mr. Gildon, I declare upon the honour and word of a gentleman, that I ne"ver wrote fo much as one line in concert with any "whatsoever. And these two Letters from Gildon will plainly "fhew, that we are not writers in concert with each other. one man |