monies of the Lord Bolingbroke, of the lady to whom the faid verfes were originally addreffed, of Hugh Bethel, Efq. and others, who knew them as our Author's, long before the faid gentleman compofed his play, it is hoped the ingenuous, that affect not error, will rectify their opinion by the fuffrage of fuch honourable perfonages. And yet followeth another charge, infinuating no less than his enmity both to Church and State, which could come from no other informer than the faid MR. JAMES MOORE SMITH. "The Memoirs of a Parish Clerk was a very dull "and unjust abufe of a person who wrote in defence "of our religion and conftitution, and who has been “dead many years." This feemeth also most untrue, it being known to divers that thele Memoirs were written at the feat of the Lord Harcourt, in Oxfordshire, before that excellent perfon's (Bishop Burnet) death, and many years before the appearance of that hiftory of which they are pretended to be an abuse. Most true it is that Mr. Moore had fuch a defign, and was himfelf the man who preffed Dr. Arbuthnot and Mr. Pope to affift him therein; and that he borrowed thofe Memoirs of our Author, when that hiftory came forth, with intent to turn them to fuch abufe: but being able to obtain from our Author but one fingle hint, and either changing his mind, or having more mind than ability, he contented himself to keep the faid Memoirs, and read them as his own to all his acquaintance. A noble perfon there is into whofe company Mr. Pope once chanced to introduce him; who well remembereth the converfation of Mr. Moore to have turned upon the Contempt he had for the work of that reverend prelate, and how full he was of a defign he declared "himself to have of expofing it." This noble perfon is the Earl of Peterborough. Here, in truth, fhould we crave pardon of all the aforesaid Right Honourable and worthy perfonages, Daily Journal, April, 3, 1728. for having mentioned them in the fame page with such weekly riff-raff railers and rhymers, but that we had their ever-honoured commands for the fame; and that they are introduced not as witnesses in the controversy, but as witneffes that cannot be controverted; not to difpute, but to decide. Certain it is, that dividing our writers into two classes, of such who were acquaintance, and of such who were ftrangers, to our Author, the former are those who speak well, and the other those who speak evil of him. Of the first clafs the most noble JOHN DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM fums up his character in these lines: * And yet fo wondrous, fo fublime a thing, So alfo is he deciphered by the Honourable "Say, wondrous youth, what column wilt thou chufe, "Though each great ancient court thee to his fhrine, Though every laurel through the dome be thine-- "Go to the good and juft, an awful train: "Thy foul's delight -----" Recorded in like manner, for his virtuous difpofition, and gentle bearing, by the ingenious MR. WALTER HART, in this apostrophe: "to! ever worthy, ever crown'd with praife! The witty and moral fatirift wishing fome check to the corruption and evil manners *Verfes to Mr. P. on his Tranflation of Homer. + Poem prefixed to his Works. In his Poems, printed for B. Lintot. of the times, calleth out upon our Poet to undertake a task fo worthy of his virtue: Why lumbers Pope, who leads the Mufes' train, MR. MALLET, in his Epiftle on Verbal Criticism: "Whofe life, feverely fcan'd, tranfcends his lays; MR. HAMMOND, that delicate and correct imitator of Tibullus, "Now fir'd by Pope and Virtue, leave the age, MR. THOMSON, in his elegant and philofophical poem of the Seafons: Although not fweeter his own Homer fings, To the fame tune alfo fingeth that learned MR. WILLIAM BROOME, "Thus nobly rifing in fair Virtue's caufe, "From thy own life tranfcribe th' unerring laws." 1 And, to clofe all, hear the Reverend Dean of A foul with ev'ry virtue fraught, "Who filial piety excels "Whatever Grecian itory tells. A genius for each bus nefs fit, "Whofe meanest talent is his wit," &c. Let us now recreate thee by turning to the other fide, and fhewing his Character drawn by those with whom he never converted, and whole countenances he could not know, though turned against him: first again commencing with the high-voiced and never-enoughquoted * Univerfal Paffion, Sat. I. In his Poems, and at the end of the Odyffey. MR. MR. JOHN DENNIS, who, in his Reflections on the Effay on Criticism, thus defcribeth him: "A little affected hypocrite, who has “nothing in his mouth but candout, truth, friend"fhip, good-nature, humanity, and magnanimity. He "is fo great a lover of falsehood, that whenever he has 66 a mind to calumniate his contemporaries, he brands "them with fome defect which is juft contrary to fome "good quality for which all their friends and their "acquaintance commend them. He feems to have a “particular pique to people of quality, and authors "of that rank. He mult derive his religion from St. "Omer's."-But, in the character of Mr. P. and his writings, (printed by S. Popping, 1716,) he faith, "Though he is a profeffor of the worst religion, yet he laughs at it; but that, nevertheless, he is a "virulent Papift; and yet a pillar for the Church of "England." Of both which opinions MR. LEWIS THEOBALD feems alfo to be; declaring, in MIST'S JOURNAL of June 22, 1718, "That, if he is not fhrewdly abused, "he made it his bufinefs to cackle to both parties in "their own fentiments." But as to his pique against "people of quality, the fame Journalist doth not agree, but faith, (May 8, 1728.) " He has, by fome means "or other, the acquaintance and friendship of the "whole body of our nobility.” However contradictory this may appear, Mr. Dennis and Mr. Gildon, in the character last cited, make it all plain, by affuring us, "That he is a creature that re"conciles all contradictions: he is a beaft, and a "man; a Whig, and a Tory; a writer (at one and "the fame time) of Guardians and Examiners:* "afferter of liberty, and of the difpenfing power of "kings; a Jefuitical profeffor of truth; a bafe and a "foul pretender to candour." So that, upon the whole account, we must conclude him either to have been a The names of two weekly papers. an great hypocrite, or a very honeft man; a terrible impofer upon both parties, or very moderate to either. Be it as to the judicious reader shall seem good. Sure it is he is little favoured of certain authors whofe wrath is perilous for one declares he ought to have a price fet on his head, and to be hunted down as a wild beaft:* another protefts that he does not know what may happen; advises him to infure his perfon; fays he has bitter enemies, and exprefsly declares it will be well if he escapes with his life. One defires he would cut his own throat, or hang himself. But Pafquin feemed rather inclined it fhould be done by the government, reprefenting him engaged in grievous defigns with a Lord of Parliament then under profecution. Mr. Dennis himself hath written to a minifter, that he is one of the most dangerous perfons in this kingdom;** and affureth the Public that he is an open and mortal enemy to his country; a monfter that will, one day, fhew as daring a foul as a mad Indian, who runs a muck to kill the first Christian he meets.++ Another gives information of treafon discovered in his Poem.‡‡ Mr. Curl boldly fupplies an imperfect verfe with kings and princeffes !* and one Matthew Concanen, yet more impudent, publishes, at length, the two most facred names in this nation as members of the Dunciad !+ This is prodigious! yet it is almoft as strange that, in the midst of these invectives, his greatest enemies have (I know not how) borne teltimony to fome merit in him. MR. THEOBald, in cenfuring his Shakespeare, declares, "He has fo great an efteem for Mr. Pope, and fo high an opinion 86 Theobald, Letter in Mift's Journal, June 22d, 1728. Gulliveriana, p. 332. Anno 1723. ** Anno 1729. ++ Preface to Remarks on the Rape of the Lock, p, 12. and in the lat page of t..at treatife, It Page 6, 7, or the preface, by Concanen, to a book entitled, A Collection of all the Letters, Effays, Veries, and Advertifements, occafioned by Pope and Swite's Micellanies. Printed for A Moore, octavo, 1714. Key to the Dunciad, 3d edition, p. 18. A Lit of Perfons, &c. at the end of the fore-mentioned Collection of all the Letters, Effys, &c. |