as Mr. Pope, had a Hand in the Comedy call'd, Mr. Pope us'd to fay, and has confefs'd it in Writing, that if it had not been for 'Dr. Arbuthnot, he fhould not have had fufficient Health to apply himfelf to Study, fo that much of Mr. Pope's Writings, must be allowed to be owing to bis Care of him; he had a Brother of the greatest Affability and good Nature, of whom Mr. Pope, writing to Mr. 1 Digby then at Bath, speaks, September 1, 14222012 of disodw stort ruit & flow an " Octor Arbuthnot is going to Bath, and will stay D there or more: Perhaps you would a Fortnight be comforted to have a Sight of, whether you need him or not. I think him as good a Doctor as any Man for one that is ill, and a better Doctor for one that is well. He would do admirably for Mrs. Mary Digby: She needed only to follow his Hints, to be in eternal Bufinefs and Amusement of Mind, and as active as the could deffe. But indeed I fear the would out-walk him; for (as Dean Swift obferv'd to me the very firft Time I faw the Doctor) 2. He is a Man that can do every Thing, but walk!" - His Brother, who is lately come into England, goes alfo to the Bath; and is a more extraordinary Man than he, worth your going thither on purpofe to know him. The Spirit of Philanthropy, To long 1 17: sad suit bɔm } Efq ; dead to our World, is reviv'd in him: He is a Philofopher all of Fire; fo warmly, nay fo wildly in the right, that he forces all others about him to be fo too, and draws them into his Vortex. He is a Star that looks as if it were all Fire, but is all Benignity, all gentle and beneficial Influence. If there be other Men in the World that would serve a Friend, yet he is the only one I believe that could make even an Enemy serve a Friend, &c. In this Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, our Author complains how he is pefter'd with troublesome and impertinent Vifitants, which put him by better Company, and confequently out of Humour; of thefe Difturbers of his Peace he reckons up a few; Is there a Parfon, much be-mus'd in Beer, A maudlin Poetefs, a rhyming Peer, A Clerk, foredoom'd his Father's Soul to cross, / And after he makes a second Perfon (like Horace) object against him for meddling with the Great, with Ministers, and Queens, and Kings; to which he replies: Whom have I hurt? Has Poet yet, or Peer, VOL. II, G And And has not Colley ftill his Lord and Whore ? The Lines which reflects on Mr. Cibber he quietly let alone, not thinking it (I believe) for his Advantage, to take up a Pen against an Adversary so potent, and now fo much in Favour with the World; but after the Publication of the new Dunciad, where Mr. Pope was ftill very bright upon his Dulness, he immediately endeavoured to answer thofe Bills of Difcredit, which he fays Mr. Pope had drawn on him: And Mr. Cibber has been of that very peaceable Nature, in Regard to the Defence of his Odes and other poetical Performances, that though he has been perfecuted for Twenty Years together, he never 'till now made any Answer; nay, he has wrote Verses against his own Odes, meerly for the Pleasure. of fitting in Coffee-Houfes and hearing them (for they were not known to be his) praised and called. palpable Hits, keen, Things with a Spirit in them, . He had in this Contest with Mr. Pope, which is a Letter to him, the Cunning to write in Profe,. and to keep his Temper, which he has done extremely well. As to his own Poetry, he openly and candidly confeffes, that he wrote more to be fed than to be famous; and that he is fo contented a Dunce, that he would not have even Mr. Pope's merited Fame attended with the Solicitude he has been at to mantain it, allowing at the fame Time the Dunciad to be a better Poem, in its Kind, than ever. was writ. He protests that he had never ufed Mr. Pope nor any Body else with Ill-manners, and feems to give other Reafons for his Ill-will towards him. In his Letter he fays: THE THE HE Play of the Rehear fal, which had lain prefent Majefty (then Prince of Wales) commanded to be revived, the Part of Bays fell to my Share. To this Character there had always been allow'd fuch ludicrous Liberties of Obfervation, upon any Thing new or remarkable in the State of the Stage, as Mr. Bays might think proper to take. Much about this Time, then, the Three Hours after Marriage had been acted without Succefs; when Mr. Bays, as usual, had a Fling at it, which in itself was no Jeft, unless the Audience would please to make it one: But however, flat as it was, Mr. Pope was mortally fore upon it. This was the Offence; in this Play two Coxcombs being in Love with a learned Virtuofo's Wife, to get unfufpected Access to her, ingenioufly fend themselves, as two prefented Rarities to the Husband, the one curiously fwath'd up like an Egyptian Mummy, and the other flily covered in the Pafte-board Skin of a Crocodile: Upon which poetical Expedient I, Mr. Bays, when the two Kings of Brentford came from the Clouds into the Throne again, instead of what my Part directed me to fay, made Use of these Words, viz. "Now, Sir, this "Revolution I had fome Thoughts of introducing "by a quite different Contrivance; but my Defign "taking Air, fome of your sharp Wits, I found, "had made Ufe of it before me otherwife, I in "tended to have ftolen one of them in the Shape "of a Mummy, and t'other in that of a Crocodile." Upon which, I doubt, the Audience by the Roar of their Applaufe, fhew'd their proportionable Contempt of the Play they belong'd to. But why am I anfwerable for that? I did not lead them, by any Re flexion of my own, into that Contempt: Surely, to G 2 have have used the bare Word Mummy and Crocodile, was neither unjust, or unmannerly; Where then was the Crime of fimply faying there had been two fuch Things in a former Play? But this, it feems, was fo heinously taken by Mr. Pope, that, in the Swelling of his Heart, after the Play was over, he came behind the Scenes, with his Lips pale and his Voice trembling to call me to Account for the Infult; and accordingly fell upon me with all the foul Language, that a Wit out of his Senfes could be capable of. How durft I have the Impudence to treat any Gentleman in that Manner? &c. &c. &c. Now let the Reader judge by this Concern, who was the true Mother of the Child! When he was almost choaked with the Foam of his Paffion, I was enough recover'd from my Amazement, to make him (as near as I can remember) this Reply, viz. .. Mr. "Pope You are fo particular a Man, that I must "be ashamed to return your Language as I ought "to do: But fince you have attack'd me in fo mon"ftrous a Manner, this you may depend upon; "That as long as the Play continues to be acted, I "will never fail to repeat the fame Words over and "over again." Now, as he accordingly found I kept my Word, for feveral Days following, I am afraid he has fince thought, that his Pen was a fharper Weapon than his Tongue to truft his Revenge with. And however juft Cause this may be for his fo doing, it is, at leaft, the only Caufe my Confcience can charge me with. The Nonjuror, and Mr. Pope was one as being a Papift, being brought upon the Stage with great Succefs, he was difpleafed, and fpoke of it to Mr. Fervas contemptuoufly, Such a Play as the Nonjuror : And here Mr. Cibber thinks arofe another Caufe. Mr. Gibber reafons thus: WELL |