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among his Letters, but to a cool reader of the present time exhibits nothing but tedious malignity.

His laft Satires, of the general kind, were two Dialogues, named, from the year in which they were published, Seventeen Hundred and Thirty-eight. In these poems many are praifed and many are reproached. Pope was then entangled in the oppofition; a follower of the Prince of Wales, who dined at his houfe, and the friend of many who obftructed and cenfured the conduct of the Ministers. His political partiality was too plainly fhewn: he forgot the prudence with which he passed, in his earlier years, uninjured and unoffending through much more violent conflicts of faction.

In the first Dialogue, having an opportunity of praifing Allen of Bath, he asked his leave to mention him as a man not illuftrious by any merit of his anceftors, and called him in his verfes low-born Allen. Men are feldom fatisfied with praife introduced or fol lowed by any mention of defect. Allen feems not to have taken any pleasure in his epither, which was afterwards foftened into bumble Allen.

In the fecond Dialogue he took some liberty with one of the Foxes, among others; which Fox, in a reply to Lyttelton, took an opportunity of repaying, by reproaching him with the friendship of a lampooner, who scattered his ink without fear or decency, and against whom he hoped the refentment of the Legiflature would quickly be discharged.

About this time Paul Whitehead, a small poet, wis fummoned before the Lords for a poem called Manners, together with Dodfley his publifher. Whitehead, who hung loofe upon fociety, fculked and efcaped; but

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Dodfley's.

Dodfley's fhop and family made his appearance necef fary. He was, however, foon difmiffed; and the whole process was probably intended rather to intimidate Pope, than to punish Whitehead.

Pope never afterwards attempted to join the patriot with the poet, nor drew his pen upon ftatefinen. That he defifted from his attempts of reformation is imputed, by his commentator, to his defpair of prevailing over the corruption of the time. He was not likely to have been ever of opinion, that the dread of his fatire would countervail the love of power or of money; he pleased himself with being important and formidable, and gratified fometimes his pride, and fometimes his refentment; till at laft he began to think he should be more fafe if he were lefs busy.

The Memoirs of Scriblerus, published about this time, extend only to the first book of a work projected in concert by Pope, Swift, and Arbuthnot, who used to meet in the time of Queen Anne, and denominated themselves the Scriblerus Club. Their purpose was to cenfure the abuses of learning by a fictitious Life of an infatuated Scholar. They were difperfed; the defign was never completed; and Warburton laments its mifcarriage, as an event very difaftrous to polite letters.

If the whole may be estimated by this fpecimen, which feems to be the production of Arbuthnot, with a few touches perhaps by Pope, the want of more will not be much lamented; for the follies which the writer ridicules are fo little practised, that they are not known; nor can the fatire be understood but by the learned: he raifes phantoms of abfurdity, and then drives them away. He cures difcafes that were never felt.

For

For this reason this joint production of three great writers has never obtained any notice from mankind; it has been little read, or when read has been forgotten, as no man could be wifer, better, or merrier, by remembering it.

The defign cannot boast of much originality; for, befides its general resemblance to Don Quixote, there will be found in it particular imitations of the Hiftory of Mr. Ouffle.

Swift carried fo much of it into Ireland as fupplied him with hints for his Travels; and with those the world might have been contented, though the reft had been fuppreffed.

Pope had fought for images and fentiments in a religion not known to have been explored by many other of the English writers; he had confulted the modern writers of Latin poetry, a clafs of authors whom Boileau endeavoured to bring into contempt, and who are too generally neglected. Pope, however, was not afhamed of their acquaintance, nor ungrateful for the advantages which he might have derived from it. A finall felection from the Italians, who wrote in Latin, had been published at London, about the latter end of the last century, by a man who concealed his name, but whom his Preface fhews to have been well qualified for his undertaking. This collection Pope amplified by more than half, and (1740) published it in two volumes, but injuriously omitted his predeceffor's preface. To these books, which had nothing but the mere text, no regard was paid, the authors were still neglected, and the editor was neither praised nor cenfured.

He did not fink into idlenefs; he had planned a work, which he confidered as fubfequent to his Efay

on Man, of which he has given this account to Dr. Swift.

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"March 25, 1736.

"If ever I write any more Epiftles in verfe, one of "them fhall be addreffed to you. I have long con"certed it, and begun it; but I would make what "bears your name as finished as my last work ought to be, that is to fay, more finished than any of the "reft. The fubject is large, and will divide into four Epiftles, which naturally follow the Effay on Man ; "viz. 1. Of the Extent and Limits of Human Reafon "and Science. 2. A View of the useful and there"fore attainable, and of the unufeful and therefore "unattainable, Arts. 3. Of the Nature, Ends, Ap"plication, and Ufe of different Capacities. 4. Of "the Ufe of Learning, of the Science, of the World, "and of Wit. It will conclude with a fatire against "the Mifapplication of all these, exemplified by Pictures, Characters, and Examples."

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This work in its full extent, being now afflicted with an asthma, and finding the powers of life gradually declining, he had no longer courage to undertake; but, from the materials which he had provided, he added, at Warburton's request, another book to the Dunciad, of which the design is to ridicule fuch ftudies as are either hopeless or useless, as either pursue what is unattainable, or what, if it be attained, is of no use.

When this book was printed (1742) the laurel had been for fome time upon the head of Cibber; a man whom it cannot be fuppofed that Pope could regard with much kindness or esteem, though in one of the Imitations of Horace he has liberally enough praised the Careless Hufband. In the Dunciad, among other

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worthlefs fcribblers, he had mentioned Cibber; who, in his Apology, complains of the great poet's unkindnefs as more injurious, becaufe, fays he, I never have of fended him.

It might have been expected that Pope fhould have been, in fome degree, mollified by this fubmiffive gentleness; but no fuch confequence appeared. Though he condefcended to commend Cibber once, he mentioned him afterwards contemptuoufly in one of his Satires, and again in his Epistle to Arbuthnot; and in the fourth book of the Dunciad attacked him with acrimony, to which the provocation is not easily discoverable. Perhaps he imagined that, in ridiculing the Laureat, he fatirifed thofe by whom the laurel had been given, and gratified that ambitious petulance with which he affected to infult the great.

The severity of this fatire left Cibber no longer any patience. He had confidence enough in his own powers to believe that he could disturb the quiet of his adverfary, and doubtless did not want inftigators, who, without any care about the victory, defired to amuse themselves by looking on the conteft. He therefore gave the town a pamphlet, in which he declares his refolution from that time never to bear another blow without returning it, and to tire out his adverfary by perfeverance, if he cannot conquer him by ftrength

The inceffant and unappeafable malignity of Pope he imputes to a very diftant caufe. After the Three Hours after Marriage had been driven off the ftage, by the offence which the mummy and crocodile gave the audience, while the exploded fcene was yet fresh in memory, it happened that Cibber played Bayes in the Rehearsal; and, as it had been usual to enliven the part VOL. IV. G

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