Occafioned by the first correct

EDITION OF THE DUNCIAD,

I

T is with pleasure I hear, that you have procured a correct copy of the DUNCIAD, which the many furreptitious ones have rendered so necessary; and it is yet with more, that I am informed it will be attended with a COMMENTARY: A work so requifite, that I cannot think the Author himself would have omitted it, had he approved of the first appearance of this Poem.

Such Notes as have occurred to me I herewith fend you: You will oblige me by inserting them amongst those which are, or will be, tranfmitted to you by others; fince not only the Author's friends, but even strangers, appear engaged by humanity, to take some care of an Orphan of so much genius and spirit, which its parent seems to have abandoned from the very beginning, and suffered to step into the world naked, unguarded, and unattended.

It was upon reading some of the abusivé papers lately published, that my great regard to a Perfon, whofe Friendship I esteem as one of the chief honours of my life, and a much greater respect to Truth, than to him or any man living, engaged me in inquiries, of which the inclosed Notes are the fruit.

I perceived, that most of these Authors had been (doubtless very wifely) the first aggressors. They had tried, till they were weary, what was to be got by railing at each other: Nobody was either concerned or furprized, if this or that fcribbler was proved a dunce. But every one was curious to read what could be faid to prove Mr. POPE one, and was ready to pay fomething for fuch a discovery: A stratagem, which would they fairly own, it might not only reconcile them to me, but fcreen them from the resentment of their lawful Superiors, whom they daily abuse, only (as I charitably hope) to get that by them, which they cannnot get from them.

I found this was not all: Ill success in that had tranfported them to perfonal abuse, either of himself, or (what I think he could less forgive) of his Friends. They had called Men of virtue and honour bad Men, long before he had either leifure or inclination to call them bad Writers: And fome had been fuch old offenders, that he had quite forgotten their persons as well as their slanders, till they were pleased to revive them. Now what had Mr. POPE done before, to incenfe t fem? He had published those works which are in the hands of every body, in which not the least mention is made

made of any of them. And what has he done since? He has laughed, and written the DUNCIAD. What has that faid of them? A very serious truth, which the Public had faid before, that they were dull: And what it had no fooner faid, but they themselves were at great pains to procure, or even purchase room in the prints, to testify under their hands to the truth of it.

I should still have been filent, if either I had seen any inclination in my friend to be serious with fuch accufers, or if they had only meddled with his Writings; fince whoever publishes, puts himself on his trial by his Country. But when his Moral character was attacked, and in a manner from which neither truth nor virtue can secure the most innocent; in a manner, which, though it annihilates the credit of the accufation with the just and impartial, yet aggravates very much the guilt of the accusers; I mean by Authors without names; then I thought, fince the danger was common to all, the concern ought to be so; and that it was an act of justice to detect the Authors, not only on this account, but as many of them are the fame who for several years past have made free with the greatest names in Church and State, exposed to the world the private misfortunes of Families, abused all, even to women, and whose prostituted papers (for one or other Party, in the unhappy divisions of their Country) have insulted the Fallen, the Friendless, the Exiled, and the Dead.

Befides this, which I take to be a public concern, I have already confeffed confefsed I had a private one. I am one

of that number who have long loved and esteemed Mr. POPE; and had often declared it was not his capacity or writings, (which we ever thought the least valuable part of his character,) but the honest, open, and beneficent man, that we most esteemed, and loved in him. Now, if what these people say were believed, I must appear to all my friends either a fool, or a knave; either impofed on myself, or impofing on them; fo that I am as much interested in the confutation of these calumnies, as he is himself.

I am no Author, and confequently not to be suspected either of jealousy or resentment against any of the Men, of whom scarce one is known to me by fight; and as for their Writings, I have fought them (on this one occafion) in vain, in the closets and libraries of all my acquaintance. I had still been in the dark, if a Gentleman had not procured me (I suppose from fome of themselves, for they are generally much more dangerous friends than enemies) the passages I send you. I folemnly protest I have added nothing to the malice or abfurdity of them; which it behoves me to declare, fince the vouchers themselves will be so soon and fo irrecoverably loft. You may in some measure prevent it, by preferving at least their Titles a, and difcovering (as far as you can depend on the truth of your information) the Names of the concealed authors.

The first objection I have heard made to the Poem is, that the perfons are too obfcure for fatire. The pera Which we have done in a List printed in the Ap

pendix.