Dropp'd Words that might create a Patriot Soul Fulvius: Yet I don't defpair [mine, Nor think our State fo defp'rate as you speak: Probus. A Prophet's Voice Be your's; and our Redemption near at Hand! This Dialogue, in a publick Office of the King's, a Gentleman publickly protefted that it was Mr. Pope's; who though (he faid) he had disguised himfelf in Blank Verfe, there was fome Phrafes and Paffages, that very plainly declar'd it to be his: On this a Gentleman then prefent took the Paper to Mr. Pope, then much indifpos'd, and told him what he had heard; when Mr. Pope affur'd him, that he had never feen nor heard the Lines 'till that Hour, however, that he should be glad to know who the Author was, which the Gentleman who brought them tok upon himself to find; accordingly, after a little Enquiry, Enquiry, he met with one at the Temple-Exchange Coffee-houfe, who had privately feen the Verfes in Manufcript, being acquainted with the Author; by which Means, after proper Explanation of his Intention and good Meaning, thefe Gentlemen had an Interview with the Author, and prevailed on him to reprint the Dialogue on a Sheet of fire Paper, fitted for a Frame and Glass, and from one of thefe Frames the foregoing Copy was taken, by Direction of a Perfon of Honour, our Obedience to whom we value ourselves much upon. But a great many Things were father'd on him by Bookfellers and others his Enemies, which were wholly unworthy his, or any other Pen; burlesquing every Thing moral and facred, monftroufly obfcene and profligate, and without the leaft Relifh of either Wit, Learning, or Tafte: Of thefe is the firft Pfalm travestied, and many others, for which we make no Room, for as our witty Poet Mr. Abraham Cowley pronounces; Much less muft that have any Place, This made Mr. Pope fo angry, when his Letters were publifh'd without his Confent or Knowledge, and fo defirous to call into his own Hands any that. might remain in thofe of his Friends; which had he done, we make no Doubt, but the Fire had purg'd away that Drofs, which is now (tho' very thinly). mix'd with the bright Metal. Certainly it is very hard, that an Author fhall not have the Liberty to present to the Publick only fuch of his Writings as he thinks proper, but shall have forcibly dragg'd into the Light all the little Privacies acted in Youth, and Q2 only only thought, fpoke to fome particular Friend, and to be foon forgot: It is unpardonable Cruelty, for we are fully perfwaded had Mr. Pope revis'd all the Works publish'd as his, he would have left nothing indecent or to be complain'd of, and the Rondeau, the Letter to a Lady about an Hermaphrodite, and alk in that Strain, had never had a Place any where but in the Fire, which is propereft for them; not that there is any Thing fo very heinous in them that they may be call'd wicked, they are only jocofely obscene but it is unmannerly, only to fhew any tho' the least Indecency to the Publick, and thofe Things which are pardonable among Companions and Intimates, would be infufferable to be done or spoke, where Perfons of both Sexes, and all Ages and Degrees, are fuppos'd prefent. ; Thefe, tho' very great, were not all the Injuries which Mr. Pope receiv'd; he was by different People publickly accus'd to be an open and mortal Enemy ta his Country; it was faid he had abus'd the KING, the QUEEN, his late MAJESTY, both Houfes of PARLIAMENT, the Privy-Council, the Bench of BISHOPS, the Eftablifh'd CHURCH, and the prefent Ministry. It was faid he had been brought up with a Contempt of the facred Writings, and having faid in one of his Letters to Mr. Cromwell, " "Priefts in ແ deed in their Characters, if they reprefent God, are "facred, and fo are Conftables, as they represent the King; but you will own a great many of them are "very odd Fellows, and the Devil a Bit of Likeness " in them." This was interpreted a general Dislike to all Chriftian Priefts, tho' others faid, he was wholly biafs'd and govern'd by them. They declared, that he was no Poet only a Verfifier, underftood no Greek, and trick'd his Subfcribers; call'd him Ape, Ass, Frog, lurking way-laying Coward, 1...0 Knave, Knave, little abject Thing, Fool; nay, Welsted had the Impudence to tell in Print, (as all the other Abufes are) that Mr. Pope had occafion'd a great Lady's Death, talking about what he was not at all inform'd, for he nam'd a Lady which Mr. Pope had never heard of: This Man added, that he had libell'd the Duke of Chandos, with whom this false Parfon faid he had liv'd in great Familiarity, and receiv'd from him a Prefent of Five Hundred Pounds, the Falfehood of both which was known to his Grace. Mr. Pope never receiv'd any Prefent, farther than the Subfcription for Homer, from him or any Great Man whatfoever; and all he ow'd in the whole Course of his Life to any Court, was a Subfcription for his Homer of Two Hundred Pounds, from the late King, and One Hundred from his prefent Majefty and the late Queen, then Prince and Princefs of Wales. All this and more had Mr. Pope to bear, not only thefe Falsehoods and uncommon Scurrilities, but even Threats; and one declares, he ought to have a Price fet on his Head, and be hunted down as a wild Beaft; another protefts, that he does not know what may happen, advises him to infure his Perfon, fays he has bitter Enemies, and exprefly declares, it will be well if he escapes with his Life. Not intimidated with thefe bold and open Threats, he, as we have fhown before, continued to oppose and fatirize Vice and Folly, and defend Wisdom and Virtue, and at length publishes his laft poetical Work, a fourth Book of the Dunciad; in which the Poet being to declare the Completion of all the Prophecies mentioned at the End of the former, makes a new Invocation, as the greater Poets are wont, when fome high and worthy Matter is to be fung. He fhows the Goddefs coming in her Majefty to destroy Order and Science, and to fubftitute the Kingdom of the Dull fan |