Conduct, unless fhe would allow him fome Affign ment. This Expedient prov'd fuccessful, for Lord Tyrconnel, upon his Promise to lay aside that Design, received him into his Family, and engag'd to allow him two hundred Pounds a Year; but he, by his diforderly Life, and by introducing very improper Company, at very improper Times, forfeited all this, and now it was that he began to find Compaffion and Affiftance from Mr. Pope, who confidered the Circumftances of his Birth, being born in Wedlock, and however strange and extravagant his Actions might many of them have been, yet poffibly great Part of those might be owing to the bad Company his exceeding low Circumftances oftentimes obliged him to keep, and the Want of thofe Means which were requifite to introduce him where good Examples were ofteneft to be met. Mov'd by these Confiderations, Mr. Pope affifted him in his Neceffity, and was the Cause that others did: When obferve his Indifcretion! He figns a Letter to the Right Hon. the Earl of Middlefex, in which he fays, that the Species of bad Poets in the Bathos, were fet down at Random, and as the Letter regards something of the Dunciad, we fhall copy it. My LORD, TH HAT elegant Taste in Poetry, which is hereditary to your Lordfhip, together with that particular Regard, with which you honour the Author to whom thefe Papers relate, make me imagine this Collection will not be unpleafing to you. And I may prefume to fay, the Pieces themselves are fuch as are not unworthy your Lordship's Patronage, my own Part in it excepted. I fpeak only of the Author to be let, having no Title to any other, not even the fmall fmall ones out of the Journals. May I be permitted to declare (to the End I may feem not quite fo unworthy of your Lordship's Favour, as fome Writers of my Age and Circumstances) that I never was concerned in any Journals. I ever thought the exorbitant Liberty, which most of those Papers take with their Superiors, unjustifiable in any Rank of Men; but deteftable in fuch who do it merely for Hire, and without even the bad Excufe of Paffion or Refentment. On the contrary, being once inclined, upon fome advantageous Propofals, to enter into a Paper of another Kind, I immediately defifted, on finding admitted into it (tho' as the Publisher told me purely by an Accident) two or three Lines reflecting on a great Minifter. Were my Life ever fo unhappy, it should not be ftain'd with a Conduct, which my Birth at least (tho' neither my Education nor good Fortune) fhould fet me above, much lefs with any Ingratitude to that noble Perfon, to whofe Interceffion (next to his Majefty's Goodness) I owe in a great Measure that Life itself. Nec fi miferum Fortuna Sinonem I believe your Lordship will pardon this Digreffion, or any other which keeps me from the Stile, you fo much hate, of Dedication. I will not pretend to display those rifing Virtues in your Lordship, which the next Age will certainly know without my Help, but rather relate (what elfe it will as certainly be ignorant of) the Hiftory of thefe Papers, and the Occafion which produced the War of the Dunces, (for fo it has been called) which begun in the Year 1727, and ended in 1730. When Dr. Swift and Mr. Pope thought it proper, for Reafons specified in the Preface to their Mifcel lanies, lanies, to publifh fuch little Pieces of theirs as had cafually got abroad, there was added to them the Treatife of the Bathos, or the Art of finking in Poetry,. It happened that in one Chapter of this Piece, the feveral Species of bad Poets were ranged into Claffes, to which were prefix'd almost all the Letters of the Alphabet (the greatest Part of them at Random) but fuch was the Number of Poets eminent in that Art, that some one or other took every Letter to himself: All fell into fo violent a Fury, that for half a Year, or more, the common News-Papers (in most of which they had fome Property, as being hired Writers) were filled with the most abufive Falfhoods and Scurilities they could poffibly devife. A Liberty no Way to be wondered at in those People, and in those Papers, that, for many Years during the uncontrouled Liberty of the Prefs, had afperfed almost all the great Characters of the Age; and this with Impunity, their own Perfons and Names being utterly secret and obfcure. This gave Mr. Pope the Thought, that he had now an Opportunity of doing Good, by detecting and dragging into Light these common Enemies of Mankind; fince to invalidate this univerfal Slander, it fufficed to fhew what contemptible Men were the Authors of it. He was not without Hopes, that by manifefting the Dulness of those who had only Malice to recommend them, either the Bookfellers would not find their Account in employing them, or the Men themselves when difcovered, want Courage to proceed in fo unlawful an Occupation. This it was that gave Birth to the Dunciad, and he thought it an Happiness, that by the late Flood of Slander on himfelf, he had acquired fuch a peculiar Right over their Names as was neceflary to this Defign. On On the 12th of March 1729, at St. James's, that Poem was presented to the King and Queen (who had before been pleased 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 Distinction. It is certainly a true Obfervation, that no People are fo impatient of Censure as those who are the greateft Slanderers: Which was wonderfully exemplified on this Occafion. On the Day the Book was first vended, a Crowd of Authors befieged the Shop; Entreaties, Advices, Threats of Law, and Battery, nay Cries of Treafon were all employed to hinder the coming out of the Dunciad: On the other Side the Bookfellers and Hawkers made as great Effort to procure it: What could a few poor Authors do against fo great a Majority as the Publick? There was no ftopping a Torrent with a Finger, fo out it came. Many ludicrous Circumstances 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, Mr. Pope was the greatest Enemy the Government had ; and another brought his Image in Clay, to execute him in Effigy; with which fad Sort of Satisfactions the Gentlemen were a little comforted. Some falfe Editions of the Book having an Owl in their Frontispiece, the true one, to diftinguish 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 arofe a great Conteft of Bookfellers against Bookfellers, and Advertisements against Advertisements; for fome recommending the Edition of the Owl, and others the E dition of the Afs; by which Names they came to be diftinguished, to the great Honour alfo of the Gentlemen of the Dunciad. Your Lordship will not think these Particulars altogether unentertaining; nor are they impertinent, fince they clear fome Paffages in the following Collection. The Whole cannot but be of fome Ufe, to fhew the different Spirit with which good and bad Authors have ever acted, as well as written; and to evince a Truth, a greater than which was never advanced, that "Each bad Author is as bad a Friend. However, the Imperfection of this Collection cannot but be owned, as long as it wants that Poem, with which you, my Lord, have honour'd the Author of the Dunciad; but which I durft not prefume to add in your Abfence. As it is, may it please your Lordship to accept of it, as a diftant Testimony, with what Respect and Zeal I am, My LORD, Your moft obedient, and devoted Servant, Even this abominable Blunder (which he never knew how to excufe, but by faying he did it without thinking, was wink'd at by Mr. Pope; a Thing not very common with him. The Friendship even to Partiality shown to him by the greatest Poet of the Age, confequently drew on him the Malice and weak Rage of the little Writers, who had appear'd in Oppofition to Mr. Pope's Poetry, and good Tafte; but the good Opinion he had conceiv'd of Mr. Savage was more worth, than to be loft for the Praife of them all put together. That |