authors, fquabbles with book fellers, or even full and true accounts of monfters, poifons, and murders; of any hereof was there nothing fo good, nothing fo bad, which hath not at one or other feafon been to him afcribed. If it bore no author's name, then lay he concealed; if he did, he fathered it upon that author to be yet better concealed: If it refembled any of his ftyles, then was it evident, if it did not, then disguised he it on fet purpose. Yea, even direct oppofitions in religion, principles, and politics, have equally been fuppofed in him inherent. Surely a moft rare and fingular character! Of which let the reader make what

he can.

Doubtlefs moft Commentators would hence take occafion to turn all to their Author's advantage, and from the teftimony of his very Enemies would affirm, That his Capacity was boundlefs, as well as his Imagination; that he was a perfect mafter of all Styles; and all Arguments; and that there was in thofe times no other Writer, in any kind, of any degree of excellence, fave he himself. But as this is not our own fentiment, we fhall determine on nothing; but leave thee, gentle reader, to fteer thy judgment equally between various opinions, and to chufe whether thou wilt incline to the Teftimonies of Authors avowed, or of Authors concealed; of those who knew him, or of those who knew him not.

P.

MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS

Of the POE M.
РОЕМ.

HIS poem, as it celebrateth the most grave and ancient of things, Chaos, Night, and Dulnefs; fo is it of the moft grave and ancient kind. Homer (faith Ariftotle) was the firft who gave the Form, and (faith Horace) who adapted the Measure, to heroic poefy. But even before this, may be rationally prefumed from what the Ancients have left written, was a piece by Homer compofed, of like nature and matter with this of our Poet. For of Epic fort it ap→ peareth to have been, yet of matter furely not unpleafant, witness what is reported of it by the learned archbishop Euftathius, in Odyff. x. And accordingly Ariftotle, in his Poetic, chap. iv. doth further fet forth, that as the Iliad and Odyffey gave example to Tragedy, fo did this poem to Comedy its first idea.

From these authors alfo it fhould feem, that the Hero, or chief perfonage of it was no lefs obfcure, and his understanding and fentiments no lefs quaint and ftrange (if indeed not more fo) than any of the actors of our poem. MARGITES was the name of this perfonage, whom Antiquity recordeth to have been Dunce the firft; and furely from what we hear of him, not unworthy to be the root of fo fpreading a tree, and fo numerous a pofterity. The poem therefore celebrating him was properly and abfolutely a Dunciad; which though now unhappily loft, yet is its nature fufficiently known by the

infallible tokens aforefaid. And thus it doth appear, that the first Dunciad was the firft Epic poem, written by Homer himself, and anterior even to the Iliad or Odyffey.

Now, forafmuch as our poet hath translated those two famous works of Homer which are yet left, he did conceive it in fome fort his duty to imitate that also which was loft: And was therefore induced to beftow on it the fame form which Homer's is reported to have had, namely that of Epic poem; with a title also framed after the ancient Greek manner, to wit, that of Dunciad.

Wonderful it is, that fo few of the moderns have been stimulated to attempt fome Dunciad! fince, in the opinion of the multitude, it might coft lefs pain and oil than an imitation of the greater Epic. But poffible it is also, that, on due reflection, the maker might find it easier to paint a Charlemagne, a Brute, or a Godfrey, with juft pomp and dignity heroic, than a Margites, a Codrus, or a Fleckno.

We fhall next declare the occafion and the cause which moved our poet to this particular work. He lived in those days, when (after Providence had permitted the invention of Printing as a fcourge for the fins of the learned) Paper alfo became fo cheap, and Printers fo numerous, that a deluge of Authors covered the land: Whereby not only the peace of the honeft unwriting fubject was daily molefted, but unmerciful demands were made of his applaufe, yea of his money, by fuch as would neither earn the one, nor deferve the other. At the fame time, the licence of the Prefs was fuch, that it grew dangerous to refuse them either: for they would forthwith publish flanders unpunished, the authors being anonymous, and skulking under the wings of Publifhers, a fet of men who never fcrupled to vend either Calumny or Blafphemy, as long as the Town would call for it.

a Now our author, living in thofe times, did conceive it an endeavour well worthy an honest Satirift, to diffuade the dull, and punish the wicked, the only way that was left. In that public-fpirited view he laid the plan of this poem, as the greatest service he was capable (without much hurt, or being flain) to render his dear country. First, taking things from their original, he confidereth the caufes creative of fuch Authors, namely Dulness and Poverty; the one born with them, the other contracted by neglect of their proper talents, through felf-conceit of greater abilities. This truth he wrappeth in an Allegory (as the construction of Epic poely requireth) and feigns that one of these Goddeffes had taken up her abode with the other, and that they jointly infpired all fuch writers and fuch works. He proceedeth to fhew the qualities they bestow on these authors, and the effects they produced: then the materials, or stock, with which they furnish theme; and (above all) that felf-opinion which caufeth it to feem to themselves vastly greater than it is, and is the prime motive of their fetting up in this fad and forry merchandice. The great power of thefe Goddeffes acting in alliance (whereof as the one is the mother of Indu ftry, fo is the other of Plodding) was to be exemplified in fome one, great and remarkable Action: And none could be more fo than that which our poet hath chofen, viz. the restoration of the reign of Chaos and Night, by the ministry of Dulness their daughter, in the removal of her imperial feat from the City to the polite World; as the Action of the Æneid is the restoration of the empire of Troy, by the removal of the race from thence to Latium. But as Homer finging only the Wrath of Achilles, yet includes in his Poem the whole hiftory of the Trojan war; in like manner our author

Vide Boffu, Du Poeme Epique ch. viii. Book I. ver. 32, &c. d Ver. 45 to 54. Ibid. chap, vii, viii.

Ver. 80,

b Boffu, chap. vii."

e

Ver. 57 to 77

hath drawn into this fingle Action the whole hiftory of Dulness and her children.

A Perfon muft next be fixed upon to fupport this Action. This Phantom in the poet's mind must have a Name: He finds it to be; and he becomes of courfe the Hero of the poem.

The Fable being thus, according to the best example, one and entire, as contained in the Propofition; the Machinery is a continued chain of Allegories, fetting forth the whole Power, Miniftry, and Empire of Dulnefs, extended through her fubordinate inftruments, in all her various operations.

This is branched into Epifodes, each of which hath its Moral apart, though all conducive to the main end. The Crowd affembled in the fecond book, demonftrates the defign to be more extenfive than to bad poets only, and that we may expect other Episodes of the Patrons, Encouragers, or Paymafters of fuch authors, as occafion fhall bring them forth. And the third book, if well confidered, feemeth to embrace the whole World. Each of the Games relateth to fome or other vile clafs of writers: The first concerneth the plagiary, to whom he giveth the name of More; the fecond the libelou's Novellift, whom he styleth Eliza; the third, the flattering Dedicator; the fourth, the bawling Critic, or noify Poet; the fifth, the dark and dirty Party-writer; and fo of the reft; affigning to each fome proper name or other, fuch as he could find.

As for the Characters, the public hath already ac knowledged how juftly they are drawn: The manners are fo depicted, and the fentiments fo peculiar to those to whom applied, that furely to transfer them to any other or wifer perfonages, would be exceeding difficult: And certain it is, that every perfon concerned, being confulted apart, hath readily owned the refem

Boffu, chap. viii. Vide Ariftot. Poetic. cap. ix.