A

LETTER

TO THE

PUBLISHER,

Occafioned by the first correct

Edition of the DUNCIA D.

I

T is with pleasure I hear, that you have procured a correct copy of the DUNCIAD, which the many furreptitious ones have rendered fo neceffary; and it is yet with more, that I am informed it will be attended with a COMMENTARY: A Work fo requifite, that I cannot think the Author himself would have omitted it, had he approved of the first appearance of this Poem.

Such Notes as have occurred to me I herewith fend you: You will oblige me by inferting them amongst those which are, or will be, tranfmited to you by others; fince not only the Author's

friends, but even ftrangers, appear engaged by humanity, to take fome care of an Orphan of fo much genius and fpirit, which its parent feems to have abandoned from the very beginning, and fuffered to step into the world naked, unguarded, and unattended.

It was upon reading some of the abusive papers lately published, that my great regard to a Perfon, whofe Friendship I eftcem as one of the chief honours of my life, and a much greater respect to Truth, than to him or any man living, engaged me in enquiries, of which the enclosed Notes are the fruit.

I perceived, that most of these Authors had been (doubtless very wifely) the first aggreffors. They had tried, 'till they were weary, what was to be got by railing at each other: Nobody was either concerned or furprized, if this or that fcribler was proved a dunce. But every one was curious to read what could be faid to prove Mr. POPE one, and was ready to pay fomething for fuch a difcovery: A ftratagem, which would they fairly own, it might not only reconcile them to me, but fcreen them from the refentment of their lawful Superiors, whom they daily abufe, only (as I charitably hope) to get that by them, which they cannot get from them.

I found this was not all: Ill fuccefs in that had tranfported them to Perfonal abufe, either of himfelf, or (what I think he could lefs forgive) of his

Friends. They had called Men of virtue and honour bad Men, long before he had either leifure or inclination to call them bad Writers: And fome had been fuch old offenders, that he had quite forgotten their perfons as well as their flanders, 'till they were pleased to revive them.

Now what had Mr. POPE done before, to incense them? He had published those works which are in the hands of every body, in which not the least mention is made of any of them. And what has he done fince? He has laughed, and written the DUNCIAD. What has that faid of them? A very serious truth, which the public had said before, that they were dull: And what it had no fooner faid, but they themselves were at great pains. to procure, or even purchase room in the prints, to testify under their hands to the truth of it.

I should still have been filent, if either I had feen any inclination in my friend to be ferious with fuck accusers, or if they had only meddled with his Writings; fince whoever publishes, puts himself on his trial by his Country. But when his Moral character was attacked, and in a manner from which neither truth nor virtue can fecure the most innocent; in a manner, which, though it annihilates the credit of the accufation with the juft and impartial, yet aggravates very much the guilt of the accufers; I mean by Authors without names; then I thought, fince the danger was common to all, the concern ought to be fo; and that it was an act

of justice to detect the Authors, not only on this account, but as many of them are the fame who for feveral years paft have made free with the greatest names in Church and State, expofed to the world the private misfortunes of Families, abufed all, even to women, and whofe prostituted papers (for one or other Party, in the unhappy divifions of their Country) have infulted the Fallen, the Friendless, the Exil'd, and the Dead.

Befides this, which I take to be a public concern, I have already confeffed I had a private one. I am one of that number who have long loved and efteemed Mr. POPE; and had often declared it was not his capacity or writings (which we ever thought the least valuable part of his character) but the honeft, open, and beneficent man, that we most esteemed, and loved in him. Now, if what these people fay were believed, I must appear to all my friends either a fool, or a knave; either impofed on myself, or impofing on them; fo that I am as much interefted in the confutation of these calumnies, as he is himself.

any

I am no Author, and confequently not to be fufpected either of jealoufy or refentment against of the Men, of whom fcarce one is known to me by fight; and as for their Writings, I have fought them (on this one occafion) in vain, in the clofets and libraries of all my acquaintance. I had ftill been in the dark, if a Gentleman had not procured me (I fuppofe from fome of themfelves,