private authors of all the anonymous pieces againft.

no

him, and from his having in this poem attacked * man living, who had not before printed, or published fome scandal against this gentleman.

How I came poffeft of it, is no concern to the reader; but it would have been a wrong to him had I detain'd the publication; fince thofe names which are its chief ornaments die off daily fo faft, as must render it too foon unintelligible. If it provoke the author to give us a more perfect edition, I have my end.

Who he is I cannot fay, and (which is a great pity) there is certainly † nothing in his style and manner of writing, which can diftinguish or discover him: For, if it bears any resemblance to that of Mr. Pope, it is not improbable but it might be done on purpofe, with a view to have it pafs for his. But by the frequency of his allufions to Virgil, and a labour'd (not to fay affected) Shortnefs in imitation of him, I should think him more an admirer of the Roman poet than of the Grecian, and in that not of the fame taste with his friend.

The publisher in these words went a little too far: But it is certain, whatever names the reader finds that are unknown to him, are of fuch; and the exception is only of two or three, whofe dulnefs, impudent fcurrility, or felf conceit, all mankind agreed to have juftly intitled them to a place in the Dunciad.

there is certainly nothing in his ftyle, &c.] This irony had fmall effect in concealing the author. The Dunciad, imperfect as it was, had not been published two days, but the whole Town gave it to Mr Pope.

I have been well informed, that this work was the labour of full fix * years of his life, and that he wholly retired himself from all the avocations and pleafures of the world, to attend diligently to its correction and perfection; and fix years more he intended to bestow upon it, as it fhould feem by this verfe of Statius, which was cited at the head of his manuscript, O mihi biffenos multum vigilata per annos,

Hence alfo we learn the true title of the poem ; which, with the fame certainty as we call that of Homer the Iliad, of Virgil the Æneid, of Camoens the Lufiad, we may pronounce, could have been, and can be no other than

The DUNCIAD.

the labour of full fix years, &c.] This alfo was honeftly and feriously believed by divers gentlemen of the Dunciad. J. Ralph, pref. to Sawney. "We are told it was the labour of fix years, with the utmost affiduity and application :

It is

no great complimeut to the author's fenfe, to have employed "fo large a part of his life," c. So alfo Ward, pref. to Durgen, "The Dunciad, as the publisher very wifely confeffes, "coft the author fix years retirement from all the pleasures of "life; though it is fomewhat difficult to conceive, from either "its bulk or beauty, that could be fo long in hatching, "c. But the length of time, and clofeness of application, were mentioned to prepoffefs the reader with a good opinion "of it."

They just as well understood what Scriblerus faid of the Poem.

The prefacer to Curl's Key, p. 3. took this word to be really in Statius: " By a quibble on the word Duncia, the "Dunciad is formed." Mr Ward alfo follows him in the fame opinion.

''

It is ftyled Heroic, as being doubly fo; not only with respect to its nature, which, according to the best rules of the ancients, and stricteft ideas of the moderns, is critically fuch; but also with regard to the heroical difpofition and high courage of the writer, who dar'd to ftir up such a formidable, irritable, and implacable race of mortals.

There may raise some obfcurity in chronology from the Names in the poem, by the inevitable removal of fome authors, and infertion of others, in their niches. For whoever will confider the unity of the whole defign, will be fenfible, that the poem was not made for thefe authors, but these authors for the poem. I should judge that they were clapp'd in as they rofe, fresh and fresh, and chang❜d from day to day; in like manner as when the old boughs wither, we thruft new ones into a chimney.

I would not have the reader too much troubled or anxious, if he cannot decypher them; fince, when he shall have found them out, he will probably know no more of the perfons than before.

Yet we judg'd it better to preserve them as they are, than to change them for fictitions names; by which the fatire would only be multiplied, and applied to many instead of one. Had the hero, for instance, been called Codrus, how many would have affirmed him to have been Mr T Mr E. Sir R. B. &c. but now all that unjust scandal is faved by calling him by

a name, which by good luck happens to be that of a

real perfon.

II.

A LIST of

BOOKS, PAPERS, and VERSES, In which our Author was abused, before the Publication of the DUNCIAD; with the true Names of the Authors.

R

EFLECTIONS critical and fatirical on a late Rhapfody, called, An Effay on Criticifm. By Mr Dennis, printed by B. Lintot, price 6 d.

A New Rehearsal, or Bays the younger; containing an Examen of Mr Rowe's plays, and a word or two on Mr Pope's Rape of the Lock. Anon. [by Charles Gildon] printed for J. Roberts, 1714, price 1 s.

Homerides, or a Letter to Mr Pope, occafioned by his intended tranflation of Homer. By Sir Iliad Dogrel. [Tho Burnet and G. Ducket, efquires] printed for W. Wilkins, 1715, price 9 d.

Æfop at the Bear-garden; a vision, in imitation of the Temple of Fame, by Mr Preston. Sold by John

Morphew, 1715, price 6 d.

The Catholic Poet, or Proteftant Barnaby's Sorrowful Lamentation; a Ballad about Homer's Iliad. By Mrs Centlivre, and others, 1715, price 1d.

An Epilogue to a Puppet-shew at Bath, concerning

the faid Iliad. By George Ducket efq; printed by E. Curl.

A complete Key to the What-d'ye-call-it. Anon. [by Griffin a player, fupervised by Mr Th-] printed by J. Roberts, 1715.

A true character of Mr P. and his writings, in a letter to a friend. Anon. [Dennis] printed for S. Popping, 1716, price 3 d.

The Confederates, a Farce. By Jofeph Gay, [J. D. Breval] printed for R. Burleigh, 1717, price 1 s. Remarks upon Mr Pope's tranflation of Homer; with two letters concerning the Windfor Foreft, and the Temple of Fame. By Mr Dennis, printed for E. Curl. 1717, price is 6d.

Satyrs on the tranflators of Homer, Mr P. and Mr T. Anon. [Bez. Morris] 1717, price 6 d.

The Triumvirate: or, a Letter from Palæmon to Celia at Bath. Anon. [Leonard Welfted] 1711, Folio, price 1 s.

The Battle of Poets, an heroic poem. By Tho. Cooke, printed for J. Roberts. Folio, 1725.

Memoirs of Lilliput. Anon. [Eliza Haywood]

octavo, printed in 1777.

An Effay on Criticifin, in profe. By the Author of the Critical History of England [J. Oldmixon] octavo, printed 1728.

Gulliveriana and Alexandriana; with an ample preface and Critique on Swift and Pope's Mifcellanies. By Jonathan Smedley, printed by J. Roberts, oct. 1728.