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laws in execution against a thief or impostor.---The same will hold in the Republic of Letters, if the critics and judges will let every ignorant pretender to scribbling pass on the world.

THEOBALD, Letter to MIST, June 22, 1728.

Attacks may be levelled either against failures in genius, or against the pretentions of writing without

one.

CONCANEN, Ded. to the Author of the Dunciad.

A Satire upon dullness is a thing that has been used and allowed in all ages.

Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, wicked Scribbler!

TESTIMONIES OF AUTHORS

CONCERNING OUR POET AND HIS WORKS.

M. SCRIBLERUS LECTORI S.

BEFORE we present thee with our Exercitations on this most delectable Poem (drawn from the many volumes of our adversaria 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 same author of dif ferent seasons. Nor shall we gather only the Testimonies of such eminent wits as would of course descend to posterity, and consequently be read without our collection; but we shall likewise, with incredible labour, seek 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 most curious. Hereby thou mayst not only receive the delectation of variety, but also arrive at a more certain judgment, by a grave and circumspect comparison of the witnesses with each other, or of each with himself. Hence, also, thou wilt be enabled to draw reflections not only of a critical, but a moral nature, by being let into many particulars of the persons as well as genius, and of the fortune as well as merit, of our Author: in which, if I relate some things of little concern, peradventure, to thee, and some of as little even to him, I intreat thee to consider how minutely all true critics and commentators are wont to insist upon such, and how material they seem to themselves, if to none other. Forgive me, gentle Reader, if (following learned example) I, ever and anon, become tedious; allow me to take the same pains to find whether my Author were good or bad, well or ill-natured, modest or arrogant; as another, whether his author was fair or brown, short or tall, or whether he wore a coat or a cassock.

We purposed to begin with his life, parentage, and education; but as to those even his contemporaries

do exceedingly differ. One saith he was educated at home; another, that he was bred at St. Omer's by Jesuits; a third, not at St. Omer's, but at Oxford; a fourth, that he had no university education at all. Those who allow him to be bred at home differ as much concerning his tutor: one saith he was kept by his father on purpose; a second**, that he was an itinerant priest; a third, that he was a parson: one calleth him a secular clergyman of the church of Rome; another, a monk. As little do they agree about his father, whom one supposeth, like the father of Hesicd, a tradesman or merchant; anothert, a husbandman; another, a hatter, &c. Nor has an author been wanting to give our Poet such a father as Apuleius hath to Plato, Jamblichus to Pathagoras, and divers to Homer, namely, a dæmon: for thus Mr. Gildon || ; "Certain it is that his original is not from Adam,

*Giles Jacob's Lives of the Poets, vol. II. in his life. Dennis's Reflections on the Essay on Criticism, p. 4. Dunciad Dissected, p. 4. || Guardian, No. 40. § Jacob's Lives, &c. vol. II. **Dunciad Dissected, p. 4. ++ Farmer P. and his son. 11 Dunciad Dissected. Characters of the Times, p. 45. † Female Dunciad, p. ult. f Dunc ad Dissected. Roome Paraphrase on the 4th of Genesis, printed 1729. Character of Mr. P. and his writings, in a letter to a friend, printed for S. Popping, 1716, p. 1o. Curl, in his Key to the Dunciad, (first edit. said to be printed for A. Dodd) in the tenth page, declared Gildon to be author of that Lb.1; though in the subsequent editions of his Key he left out this assertion, and affirmed (in the Curlaid, p. 4. and 8.) that it was written by Dennis only.

"but the devil? and that he wanteth nothing but "horns and tail to be the exact resemblance of his "infernal father." Finding, therefore, such contrariety of opinions, and (whatever be ours of this sort of generation) not being fond to enter into controversy, we shall 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; though not less uncertain the judgments concerning them; beginning with his Essay on Criticism, of which hear first the most ancient of critics,

MR. JOHN DENNIS.

"His precepts are false or trivial, or both; his "thoughts are crude and abortive; his expressions "absurd, his numbers harsh and unmusical, his "rhymes trivial and common.---Instead of ma"jesty we have something that is very mean; in"stead of gravity, something that is very boyish; "and instead of perspicuity and lucid order, we "have but too often obscurity and confusion." And in another place; "What rare Numbers are "here! would not one swear that this youngster "had espoused some antiquated Muse, who had sued out a divorce from some superanuated sin

66

ner, upon account cf impotence, and who being "poxed by the former spouse, has got the gout in

"her decrepit age, which makes her hobble so dam"nably *?"

No less peremptory is the censure of our hypercritical historian,

MR, OLDMIXON.

"I dare not say any thing of the Essay on Cri"ticism in verse; but if any more curious reader has "discovered in it something new, which is not in 66 Dryden's Prefaces, Dedications, and his Essay "on Dramatic Poetry, not to mention the French "critics, I should be very glad to have the benefit of "the discovery †."

He is followed (as in fame, so in judgment) by the modest and simple-minded

MR. LEONARD WELSTEAD,

who, out of great respect to our Poet, not naming him, doth yet glance at his Essay, together with the Duke of Buckingham's, and the Criticisms of Dryden, and of Horace, which he more openly taxeth:"As to the numerous treatises, essays, 66 arts, &c. both in verse and prose, that have "been written by the Moderns on this ground"work, they do but hackney the same thoughts over "again, making them still more trite. Most of their

*Reflections Critical and Satirical on a Rhapsody called, "An Essay on Criticism, printed for Bernard Lintor, octavo.

Essay on Criticism in prose, octavo, 1728, by the author of the Critical History of England.

Preface to his Poems, p. 18, 53.

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