"On the 12th of May 1729, at St. James's, that

poem was presented to the King and Queen (who "had before been pleafed to read it) by the Right "Honourable Sir Robert Walpole: and fome days "after the whole impreffion was taken and difperfed by feveral noblemen and perfons of the first dif❝tinction.

"It is certainly a true obfervation, that no people "are fo impatient of cenfure as those who are the “ greatest flanderers, which was wonderfully exemplified on this occafion. On the day the book was first vended, a crowd of authors befieged the "fhop; intreaties, advices, threats of law and bat

tery, nay, cries of treason, were all employed to " hinder the coming out of the Dunciad: on the "other fide, the booksellers and hawkers made as

great an effort to procure it. What could a few poor authors do against so great a majority as the "public? There was no stopping a torrent with a finger, fo out it came.

Many ludicrous circumftances attended it. The "Dunces (for by this name they were called) held weekly clubs, to confult of hoftilities against the "author: one wrote a Letter to a great Minister, affuring him, Mr. Pope was the greatest enemy the government had and another bought his image "in clay, to execute him in effigy; with which fort "of fatisfaction the gentlemen were a little com"forted.

VOL. I.

C

"Some

"Some falfe editions of the book having an owl " in their frontispiece, the true one, to distinguish it, "fixed in its ftead an afs laden with authors. Then "another furreptitious one being printed with the "fame afs, the new edition in octavo returned for "diftinction to the owl again. Hence arose a great "conteft of bookfellers against bookfellers, and ad"vertisements against advertisements; fome recom"mended the edition of the owl, and others the edi❝tion of the ass; by which names they came to be "distinguished, to the great honour alfo of the gen"tlemen of the Dunciad."

The complete edition of the Dunciad was elegantly printed in quarto, by Dodd, 1729, with large Notes, and an Appendix, under the name of Cleland, but written by Pope himself. As to the conduct of this poem, the awkward additions made to it, and the many unhappy alterations it underwent, we muft refer to the remarks in the Fifth Volume of this Edition.

After enjoying for two years a complete triumph over Horneck, and Rome, and Gildon, and Concanen, and Oldmixon, and the namelefs fabricators of the Popiad, and Martiniad, he printed, in folio, 1731, (for this was the original title,) "An Epiftle to "Richard Earl of Burlington, occafioned by his "publishing Palladio's Defigns of the Baths, Arches, "Theatres, &c. of Ancient Rome."

The gang of fcribblers immediately rose up together, and accufed him of malevolence and ingratitude,

in having ridiculed the house, gardens, chapel, and dinners, of the Duke of Chandos at Canons, (who had lately, as they affirmed, been his benefactor,) under the name of Timon. He peremptorily and pofitively denied the charge, and wrote an exculpatory letter to the Duke, with the affeverations of which letter, as the last Duke of Chandos told me, his anceftor was not perfectly satisfied.

It ought to be added, that the many refpectable authors, who have, fince this Epistle, treated of the art of laying out grounds and gardens, have acknowledged the juftness and propriety of the rules and precepts delivered by Pope, in this highly-finished piece, What relates to architecture is fhorter, and perhaps not equal to the rest.

Adhering to the chronological order in which the Ethic Epiftles were published, I am next to obferve, that there appeared, in 1732 *, "Of the Ufe of "Riches, an Epiftle to the Right Hon. Allen Lord "Bathurst," folio; which he has treated in fo mafterly a way, as to have almost exhausted the subject. I never faw this very amiable old nobleman, whose wit, vivacity, fenfe, and integrity are well known; but he repeatedly expreffed his difguft, and his furprise, at finding, in later editions, this Epistle awkwardly

* In the Epiftles to Lord Burlington and Lord Bathurst, fays Johnson, Warburton has endeavoured to find a train of thought which was never in the writer's head.

awkwardly converted into a Dialogue, in which he has but little to fay. And I remember he once remarked, "that this line,

"P. But you are tir'd. I'll tell a tale. B. Agreed;— "was infupportably infipid and flat." Pope almost annually vifited, and frequently praised, his fine improvements, and many plantations, at Cirencester.

It was in this year alfo, 1732*, that, determined to wait in fecret the opinion of the public, he published, what he had for eight years at least been revolving in his mind, the First Epistle of his Essay on Man; the Second followed in the fame year; the Third in 1733; and the Fourth in 1734.

He enjoyed in private the various fufpicious † furmifes of those who pretended to point out the right author, and once punished the vanity and petulance of Mallet, who, being asked by him what new publication there was, anfwered, "Only an infignificant "thing, called, An Effay on Man ;" on which Pope ftruck him dumb, and filled him with confufion, by faying, "I wrote it." The nature, the merits, the tendency of this work, are fo much enlarged upon

in

* About this time died Gay, for whom he appears to have felt the trueft tenderness and affection. And Swift was fo affected at the news of Gay's death, that he delayed to open a letter, which he thought contained the affecting intelligence, for many days.

In the edition in 12m0, 1735, by Dodfley, they were called, Ethic Epiftles, the First Book; and not Effay on Man; and the four Epiftles to Lord Burlington, &c. were called, Ethic Epiftles, the Second Book.

in the Notes to this Edition *, that to them the reader must be referred: obferving only, that up and down were scattered so many splendid and striking fentiments of religion and virtue, that for many years it was not, till Croufaz attacked it, fufpected to contain tenets hoftile to the Christian revelation, though not to natural religion. That Pope himself, fome years afterwards, wifhed it might be otherwife interpreted, may appear,

* After the noble panegyric our Poet has bestowed on his guide Bolingbroke at the end of this Efay, his conduct in clandeftinely printing the Patriot King may seem indefenfible. On confidering coolly and impartially the circumstances that attended this improper Publication, I am inclined to think, that he did not print 1500 copies of that Treatife from avarice or treachery; but from too eager a defire to spread, as he thought, the reputation of his friend, whom he idolized.

+ Warburton, who, in the early part of his life, was a cenfurer of Pope, and had said, in a letter to Concahen, with whom he was intimate, that Pope borrowed by neceffity, and who had affifted Theobald in his Notes on Shakspeare, now stept forth with a vigorous defence of the Doctrines of the Effay on Man, against the objections of Croufaz; which defence was first published in a Monthly Literary Journal, but was afterwards collected into a volume, and dedicated to Mr. Allen of Bath; with remarks on Fate and Free Will, of which poor Allen could understand little. With this vindication Pope was fo delighted that he eagerly fought the acquaintance of Warburton, and told him, he underflood his opinions better than he did himself; which acquaintance made the fortune of Warburton, and ultimately got him a wife and a bishopric. Bolingbroke reproached Pope with this new connexion, and faid, “You have at your elbow a foul-mouth'd and dogmatical critic." It is afferted, that, fome years before, Warburton, in a literary club held at Newark, produced and read a Differtation against the Doctrines of the Effay on Man.