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Mr. THOMAS COOKE,

After much blemishing our author's Homer,

crieth out,

But in his other works what beauties fhine?"
While sweetest Mufic dwells in ev'ry line.

These he admir'd, on these he ftamp'd his praife,
And bade them live to brighten future days (a)..

MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, 1728.

Altho' he fays, "the fmooth Numbers of "the Dunciad are all that recommend it, "nor has it any other merit," Yet in that fame paper hath these words: The author "is allowed to be a perfect mafter of an. eafy, and elegant verfification: In all his "works, we find the most happy turns, and "natural fimilies, wonderfully fhort and " thick fown." The Effay on the Dunciad alfo owns, pag. 25. it is very full of beautiful Images..

Mr. GILDON and DENNIS

in the most furious of all their works, (the forecited Character, p. 5.) do jointly con fefs, "That fome men, of good understand 66 ing, value him for his rhymes: pag. 17. "That he has got, like Mr. Bayes

(4) Battle of Poetsy fol. p. 15.

And

"in the Rehearsal, (that is like Mr. Dryden) "a notable knack of rhyming and writing ❝fmooth verfe."

To the Success of all his pieces, they do unanimously give teftimony: But it is fufficient, inftar omnium, to behold this last great Critick forely lamenting it, even from the Effay on Criticism to this Day of the Dun-ciad!" A most notorious inftance! (quoth. "he) of the depravity of genius and tafte, "the Approbation this Effay meets with (a)! "I can fafely affirm, that I never attack'd << any of thefe writings, unless they had Succefs, infinitely beyond their merit (b)."This, tho' an empty, has been a popular "fcribler: The Epidemic madness of the "times has given him reputation. (c) If after "the cruel treatment fo many extraordinary

men (Spenfer, Lord Bacon, Ben. Johnson, Mil "ton, Butler, Otway, and others) have receiv"-ed from this country, for these last hun«dred years; I fhou'd fhift the fcene, and "fhew all that penury chang'd at once to "riot and profufenefs: and (d) more fquan

(a) Dennis Pref. to the Reflect, on the Effay on Crit. (b) Pref. to his Rem. on Homer. - (c) Ibid. (d) What this vaft fum was, Mr. DENNIS himself in another place informs us (pref. to his Remarks on the Rape of the Lock, p. 15.) to wit, a hundred a year. Whereby we fee how great he fuppofed the moderation of those extraordinary men; even greater than that of his friend Mr. Giles Jacob, who faid of himself

One hundred pounds a year, I think wou'd do
r me, if fingle-Or if marry'd, two.

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"der'd away upon one object than wou'd "have fatisfy'd the greater part of those "extrordinary men: The reader to whom "this one creature fhould be unknown, "wou'd fancy him a prodigy of art and nature, would believe that all the great qualities of these perfons were centred "in him alone But if I should ven"ture to affure him, that the PEOPLE of "ENGLAND had made fuch a choice"The reader would either believe me a ma"licious enemy, and flanderer; or that the "reign of the last (Queen Ann's) Ministry, "was defign'd by fate to encourage Fools (a).

However, left we imagine our Author's Succefs was conftant and univerfal, they ac quaint us of certain works in a lefs degree of repute, whereof (altho' own'd by others yet do they affure us he is the writer. Of this fort Mr. DENNIS afcribes to him (b) Two Farces, whofe names he does not tell, but af fures us there is not one jeft in them; and an Imitation of Horace, whofe title he does not mention, but affures us, it is much more execrable than all his works (c). The DAILY JOURNAL, May 11, 1728. affures us," he

is below Tom Durfey in the Drama, because "(as that writer thinks) the Marriage Hater "match'd, and the Boarding School are bet

(a) Rem. on Hom. p. 8, 9. (b) Rem. on Hom. p. 8. (c) Charact. of Mr. P. p. 7. E

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4 ter than the What d'ye call it ; Which is not Mr. P's but Mr. Gay's. Mr. GILDON affures us, in his New Rehearsal printcd 1714, pag. 48," that he was writing a Play of the Lady Jane Gray; But it af terwards prov'd to be Mr. Row's. The fame Mr. Gildon and Dennis affure us, "he "wrote a pamphlet called Dr. Andrew Tripe; (a) which prov'd to be one Dr. Wagfaff's. Mr. THEOBALD affures us, in Mift of the 27th of April, "That the treatise of the

Profund is very dull, and that Mr. Pope is the author of it:" The writer of Gulliveriana is of another opinion, and fays, the whole or greatest part of the merit of this treatife muft and can only be ascribed to Gulliver (b). [Here gentle reader cannot I but fmile at the ftrange blindness and pofitiveness of men, knowing the faid treatise to appertain to none other but to me, Martinus Scriblerus.]

Laftly we are affured, in Mift of June 8. That his own Plays and Farces would bet"ter have adorn'd the Dunciad, than those of Mr. Theobald: for he had neither genius for Tragedy, or Comedy: Which whether true or not, is not cafy to judge; in as much as he hath attempted neither.

But from all that hath been faid, the dif cerning reader will collect, that it little a

a) Ibid. p. 6.

(b) Gulliveriana, p. 336.

Vail'd

vail'd our author to have any Candour, fince when he declar'd he did not write for others, it was not credited: As little to have any Modefty, fince when he declin'd writing in any way himself, the prefumption of others was imputed to him. If he fingly enterpris'd one great work, he was tax'd of Boldness and Madness to a prodigy: (a). if he took affif tants in another, it was complain'd of and reprefented as a great injury to the public. (b) The loftieft Heroicks, the lowest ballads, treatises against the state or church, fatyr on lords and ladies, raillery on wits and authors, fquabbles with bookfellers, or even full and true accounts of monsters, poyfons, and murders: of any hereof was there nothing fo good, nothing fo bad, which hath not at one or other feafon been to him ascribed. If it bore no author's name, then lay he concealed; if it did, he father'd it on that author to be yet better concealed. If it resembled any of his ftyles then was it evident; if it did not, then difguis'd he it on fet purpose. Yea, even direct oppofitions in religion, principles, and politicks, have cqually been fuppofed in him inherent. Surely a moft rare, and fingular character! of which let the reader make what he can.

(a) Burnet Homerides, p. 1. of his Tranflation of the Iliad. (b) The London, and Mift's Journals, on his Undertaking of the Odyssey.

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