TESTIMONIES

O F

AUTHORS

Concerning our POET and his WORKS.

MARTINUS SCRÍBLERUS, Lectori S.

B

EFORE we present thee with our Exer citations on the most delectable Poem of the Dunciad (drawn from the many volumes of our Adverfaria on modern Authors) we shall here, according to the laudable usage of Editors, collect the various judgments of the Learned concerning our Poet: Various indeed, not only of different authors, but of the fame author at different feafons. Nor fhall we gather only the Testimonials of fuch eminent Wits as would of course descend to posterity, and confequently be read without our collection; but we shall likewife with incredible labour feek out for divers others, which but for this our diligence, could never at the distance of a few months appear to the eye of the moft curious. Hereby thou may't not only receive the delectation of Variety, but also arrive at a more certain judgment, by a grave and circumfpect comparison of the Witneffes with each other, or of each with himself. D 2 Hence

Hence alfo thou wilt be enabled to draw reflections, not only of a critical, but of a moral nature, by being let into many particulars of the perfon as well as genius, and of the fortune as well as merit, of our Author: In which, if I relate fome things of little concern peradventure to thee, and fome of as little even to him; I entreat thee to confider how minutely all true Criticks and commentators are wont to infst upon fuch, and how material they seem to themselves if to none other. Forgive me therefore gentle reader, if (following learned example) I ever and anon become tedious; allow me to take the fame pain to find, whether my author were good or bad, well or ill-natured, modeft or arrogant; as another, whether his were fair or brown, fhort or tall, or whether he wore a coat or a caffock?

WE purposed to begin with his Life, Parentage and Education but as to thefe, even his Cotemporaries do exceedingly differ. One faith, he was educated at home; a. another that he was bred abroad at St. Omer's by Jefuits; b. a third, not at St. Omer's, but at Oxford; c. a fourth, that he had no Univerfity education at all. d. Those who allow him to be bred at home, differ as much concerning his Tutor: One faith, he was kept by his father on purpofe; e. a fecond that he was an itinerant prieft; f. a third, that he was a Paarfon ; g. one calleth him a fecular Clergyman of the 'church of Rome ; b. another, a Monk. i. As little agree they about his Father; whom one fuppofeth, like the father of Hefiod, a tradefman or merchant, k. another a husbandman, &c. I. Nor has an author been wanting to give our Poet fuch a Father, as Apuleius hath to Plato, Iamblicus to Pythagoras, and

a. Giles Jacob's Lives of Poets, vol. 2. in his Life. b. Dennis's reflect. on the Effay on Crit. c. Dunciad diffected, p. 4. d. Guardian, No. 40. e. Jacob, ib. f. Dunc. diff. ibid. g. Farmer P. and his fon, ibid. verfe 32. b. Dunc. diffe&t. i. Characters of the Times, p. 45. k. Female Dunciad, pag. ult. 1. Dunc. diffect.

divers

divers to Homer; namely, a Demon. For thus Mr. Gildon. m. "Certain it is, that his Original is not from "Adam but the Devil, and that he wanteth nothing "but horns and tail to be the exact resemblance of "his infernal father." Finding therefore fuch contrariety of opinions, and (whatever be ours of this fort of generation) not being fond to enter into controverfy; we fhall defer writing the life of our Poet, till authors can determine among themselves what parents or education he had, or whether he had any education or parents at all?

Proceed we to what is more certain, his Works, tho' not lefs uncertain the judgments concerning them: beginning with his ESSAY ON CRITICISM, of which hear firft the moft Ancient of Critics,

Mr. JOHN DENNIS.

"His precepts are falfe, or trivial, or both: his thoughts are crude, and abortive, his expreffions abfurd, his numbers harth and unmufical, without "cadence or variety, his rhymes trivial, and com"mon instead of majefty, we have fomething

-

that is very mean; instead of gravity, fomething "that is very boyish: and inftead of perfpicuity, and "lucid order, we have but too often obfcurity and "confufion." And in another place. "What 26 rare Numbers are here? would not one fwear this "youngster had espoused some antiquated muse, who had fued out a divorce from fome fuperannuated "finner, upon account of impotence, and who being poxt by her former fpoufe, has got the gout in her decrepit age, which makes her hobble fo damnably." n. No lefs peremptory is the cenfure of our hypercritical historian,

m. Whom Mr. Curl (Key to the Dunc. 1ft. edit.) declares to be the author of the Character of Mr. Pope and his writings, in a letter to a friend, printed for S. Popping, 1716. where this paffage is to be found, p. 10. n. Reflections critical and fatyrical on a rhapsody call'd, An Efay on Criticism. Printed for B. Lintot.

Mr.

Mr. OLD MIXO N.

"I dare not fay any thing of the Effay on Criti "cifm in verse; but if any more curious reader has "discover'd in it fomething new, which is not in "Dryden's prefaces, dedications, and his effay on dra"matick poetry, not to mention the French criticks, "I fhould be very glad to have the benefit of the "discovery." o.

He is followed (as in fame, fo in judgment) by the modeft and fimple-minded

Mr. LEONARD WELSTED;

Who, out of great refpect to our poet not naming him, doth yet glance at his Eflay (together with the Duke of Buckingham's, and the Criticisms of Dryden and of Horace, which he more openly taxeth.) p." As

66

to the numerous treatifes, effays, arts, &c. both in "verfe and profe, that have been written by the mo"derns on this ground-work, they do but backney "the fame thoughts over again, making them still more "trite. Most of their pieces are nothing but a pert,

66

infipid heap of common place. Horace has even in "his Art of poetry thrown out feveral things which plainly fhew, he thought an art of poetry was of no ufe, even while he was writing one." To all which great authorities, we can only oppose that of Mr. ADDISON.

9. "The Art of Criticifm (faith he) which was published fome months fince, is a master-piece in "its kind. The obfervations follow one another, like "thofe in Horace's art of poetry, without that metho"dical regularity which would have been requifite in a profe-writer. They are fome of them uncommon, "but fuch as the reader muft affent to, when he sees "them explain'd with that ease and perfpicuity in "which they are delivered. As for thofe which are "the most known and the most receiv'd, they are placed "in fo beautiful a light, and illuftrated with fuch apt

o. Effay on Criticism in Profe, 8vo. 1728. by the author of the Critical Hiftory of England. p. Preface to his poems, p. 18, 53. q. Spectator, No. 253. allu

allufions, that they have in them all the graces of novelty; and make the reader, who was before acquainted with them, till more convinc'd of their “truth, and folidity. And here give me leave to " mention what Monfieur Boileau has fo well enlarged upon in the preface to his works: That wit, and "fine writing, doth not confist so much in advancing "things that are new, as in giving things that are

known an agreeable turn. It is impoffible for us "who live in the latter ages of the world, to make "obfervations in criticifm, morality, or any art or "fcience, which have not been touch'd upon by "others; we have little elfe left us, but to represent "the common feuse of mankind in more strong, more "beautiful, or more uncommon lights. If a reader "examines Horace's art of poetry, he will find but "few precepts in it, which he may not meet with in

66

Ariftotle, and which were not commonly known by all the poets of the Auguftan age. His way of ex"preffing, and applying them, not his invention of "them, is what we are chiefly to admire.

"Longinus in his reflections has given us the fame "kind of Sublime, which he observes in the feveral "paffages that occafioned them. I cannot but take "notice that our English Author, has after the fame "manner exemplify'd feveral of the precepts in the

very precepts themselves." He then produces fome inftances of a particular beauty in the Numbers, and concludes with faying, that "there are three poems

in our tongue of the fame nature, and each a "mafter-piece in its kind; The Effay on tranflated "verse, The Effay on the Art of Poetry; and the "Effay on Criticifm.

Of WINDSOR FOREST, pofitive is the judgment of the affirmative

Mr. JOHN DENNIS,

7. "That it is a wretched rhapfody, impudently writ in emulation of the Cooper's Hill of Sir John

"

r. Letter to B. B. at the end of the remarks on Pope's Homer, 1717.

"Denhams: