The first copy of Pope's books, with those of Fenton, are to be seen in the Museum. The parts of Pope are less interlined than the Iliad, and the latter books of the Iliad less than the former. He grew dexterous by practice, and every sheet_enabled him to write the next with more facility. The books of Fenton have very few alterations by the hand of Pope. Those of Broome have not been found; but Pope complained, as it is reported, that he had much trouble in correcting them. His contract with Lintot was the same as for the Iliad, except that only one hundred pounds were to be paid him for each volume. The number of sub. scribers were five hundred and seventy-four, and of copies eight hundred and nineteen; so that his profit, when he had paid his assistants, was still very considerable. The work was finished in 1725; and from that time he resolved to make no more translations. The sale did not answer Lintot's expectation; and he then pretended to discover something of fraud in Pope, and commenced or threatened a suit in Chancery. On the English Odyssey a criticism was published by Spence, at that time Prelector of Poetry at Oxford; a man whose learning was not very great, and whose mind was not very powerful. His criticism, however, was commonly just. What he thought, he thought rightly: and his remarks were recommended by his coolness and candour. In him Pope had the eighteenth, and twenty-third Books. Broome had five hundred pounds for his assistance, and Fenton three hundred. WARTON Not Poetry Professor; that office was then filled by Dr. Warton's father. Mr. Spence's criticism was entitled, an "Essay " on the Odyssey," in a dialogue betwixt Philypsus and Antiphaus, after the manner of Bouhours and Dryden, on the Drama. Dr. Warton maintains that Spence was an excellent scholar; and adds that he knows no critical treatise better calculated to form the taste of young men of genius than the above Essay. C. first experience of a critick without malevolence, who thought it as much his duty to display beauties as expose faults; who censured with respect and praised with alacrity. With this criticism Pope was so little offended, that he sought the acquaintance of the writer, who lived with him from that time in great familiarity, attended him in his last hours, and compiled memorials of his conversation. The regard of Pope recommended him to the great and powerful; and he obtained very valuable preferments in the church. Not long after, Pope was returning home from a visit in a friend's coach, which, in passing a bridge, was overturned into the water; the windows were closed, and, being unable to force them open, he was in danger of immediate death, when the postilion snatched him out by breaking the glass, of which the fragments cut two of his fingers in such a manner that he lost their use. Voltaire, who was then in England, sent him a letter of consolation. He had been entertained by Pope at his table, where he talked with so much grossness, that Mrs. Pope was driven from the room. Pope discovered, by a trick, that he was a spy for the court, and never considered him as a man worthy of confidence. He soon afterwards (1727) joined with Swift, who was then in England, to publish three volumes of Miscellanies, in which, among other things, he inserted the "Memoirs of a Parish Clerk," in ridicule of Burnet's importance in his own history, and a "Debate upon Black and White Horses," written in all the formalities of a legal process, by the assistance, as is said, of Mr. Fortescue, afterwards Master of the Rolls. Before these Miscellanies is a preface signed by Swift and Pope, but apparently written by Pope; in which he makes a ridiculous and romantick complaint of the robberies committed upon authors by the clandestine seizure and sale of their papers. He tells, in tragick strains, how " the cabinets of the sick and the closets "of the dead have been broken open and ransacked;" as if those violences were often committed for papers of uncertain and accidental value which are rarely provoked by real treasures; as if epigrams and essays were in danger where gold and diamonds are safe. A cat hunted for his musk is, according to Pope's account, but the emblem of a wit winded by booksellers. His complaint, however, received some attestation; for the same year the letters written by him to Mr. Cromwell in his youth were sold by Mrs. Thomas to Curl, who printed them. In these Miscellanies was first published the “Art "of Sinking in Poetry," which, by such a train of consequences as usually passes in literary quarrels, gave in a short time, according to Pope's account, occasion to the Dunciad. In the following year (1728) he began to put Atterbury's advice in practice; and shewed his satirical powers by publishing the Dunciad, one of his greatest and most elaborate performances, in which he endeavoured to sink into contempt all the writers by whom he had been attacked, and some others whom he thought unable to defend themselves. At the head of the Dunces he placed poor Theobald, whom he accused of ingratitude; but whose real crime was supposed to be that of having revised "Shakspeare" more happily than himself. This satire had the effect which he intended, by blasting the characters which it touched. Ralph, who, unnecessarily interposing in the quarrel, got a place in a subsequent edition, complained that for a time he was in danger of starving, as the booksellers had no longer any confidence in his capacity. The prevalence of this poem was gradual and slow; the plan, if not wholly new, was little understood by common readers. Many of the allusions required il lustration; the names were often expressed only by the initial and final letters, and, if they had been printed at length, were such as few had known or recollected. The subject itself had nothing generally interesting; for whom did it concern to know that one or another scribbler was a dunce? If therefore it had been possible for those who were attacked to conceal their pain and their resentment, the Dunciad might have made its way very slowly in the world. This, however, was not to be expected: every man is of importance to himself, and therefore, in his own opinion, to others; and, supposing the world already acquainted with all his pleasures and his pains, is perhaps the first to publish injuries or misfortunes, which had never been known unless related by himself, and at which those that hear them will only laugh; (for no man sympathizes with the sorrows of vanity. The history of the Dunciad is very minutely related by Pope himself, in a Dedication which he wrote to Lord Middlesex, in the name of Savage 4. "I will relate the wars of the Dunces' (for so it "has been commonly called) which began in the year 46 1727, and ended in 1730. 66 "When Dr. Swift and Mr. Pope thought it proper, "for reasons specified in the Preface to their Miscel "lanies, to publish such little pieces of theirs as had casually got abroad, there was added to them the "Treatise of the Bathos,' or the Art of Sinking "in Poetry.' It happened that, in one chapter of "this piece, the several species of bad poets were "ranged in classes, to which were prefixed almost all "the letters of the alphabet (the greatest part of "them at random); but such was the number of "poets eminent in that art, that some one or other "took every letter to himself: all fell into so violent According to Dr. Warton, Savage assisted Pope in finding out many particulars of these scribblers' lives. C. a fury, that, for half a year or more, the common "newspapers (in most of which they had some pro"perty, as being hired writers) were filled with the "most abusive falsehoods and scurrilities they could "possibly devise: a liberty no ways to be wondered "at in those people, and in those papers, that, for many years during the uncontrouled licence of the press, had aspersed almost all the great characters "of the age; and this with impunity, their own per"sons and names being utterly secret and obscure. 66 "This gave Mr. Pope the thought, that he had "now some opportunity of doing good, by detecting and dragging into light these common enemies of "mankind; since, to invalidate this universal slan"der, it sufficed to shew what contemptible men were "the authors of it. He was not without hopes that, *by manifesting the dulness of those who had only "malice to recommend them, either the booksellers "would not find their account in employing them, or "the men themselves, when discovered, want courage "to proceed in so unlawful an occupation. This it 66 was that gave birth to the Dunciad; and he thought "it an happiness, that, by the late flood of slander "on himself, he had acquired such a peculiar right "over their names as was neceffary to this design. "On the 12th of March, 1729, at St. James's, "that poem was presented to the King and Queen "(who had before been pleased to read it) by the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole; and, some "days after, the whole impression was taken and "dispersed by several noblemen and persons of the first distinction. "It is certainly a true observation, that no people 46 are so impatient of censure as those who are the "greatest slanderers, which was wonderfully exem"plified on this occasion. On the day the book was "first vended, a crowd of authors besieged the shops “entreaties, advices, threats of law and battery, nay, VOL. I. |