By Virtue of the Authority in Us vefted by the A&t for fubjecting Poets to the Power of a Licenfer, we have revised this Piece; where finding the file and appellation of King to have been given to a certain Pretender, Pfeudo-Poet, or Phantom, of the name of TIBBALD; and apprehending the same may be deemed in some sort a Heflection on Majesty, or at least an Infult on that Legal Authority which has beflowed on another Person the Crown of Poefy: We have ordered the said Pretender, Pfeudo-Poet, or Phantom, utterly to vanish and evaporate out of this work: And do declare the said Throne of Poesy from henceforth to be abdicated and vacant, unless duly and lawfully supplied by the LAUREATE himself. And it is hereby enacted, that no other person do presume to fill the sawe. C. Ch. TH ARGUMENT. HE propofition, the invocation, and the infcription. Then the original of the great empire of Dulness, and caufe of the continuance thereof. The college of the Goddess in the city, with her private academy for poets in particular; the governors of it, and the four cardinal virtues. Then the Poem haftes into the midst of things, prefenting her, on the evening of a lord mayor's day, revolving the long fucceffion of her fons, and the glories paft and to come. She fixes her eye on Bays to be the inftrument of that great event which is the fubje& of the Poem. He is defcribed penfive among his books, giving up the cause, and apprehending the period of her empire: after debating whether to betake himfelf to the church, or to gaming, or to party-writing, he raifes an VOL. II. Ꮓ altar altar of proper books, and (making firft his folemn prayer and declaration) purposes thereon to facrifice all his unfuccefsful writings. As the pile is kindled, the Goddess, beholding the flame from her feat, flies and puts it out by cafting upon it the poem of Thule. She forthwith reveals herself to him, tranfports him to her temple, unfolds her arts, and initiates him into her myfteries; then announcing the death of Eufden, the poet laureate, anoints him, carries him to court, and proclaims him fucceffor. BOOK BOOK I. THE mighty mother*, and her fon, who brings REMARK S. I fing. The DUNCIAD.] It is an inconvenience, to which writers of reputation are fubject, that the juftice of their refentment is not always rightly underftood. For the calumnies of dull authors being foon forgotten, and those whom they aimed to injure, not caring to recall to memory the particulars of false and scandalous abuse, their necessary correction is suspected of severity unprovoked. But, in this cafe, it would be but candid to estimate the chaf tifement on the general character of the offender, compared with that of the perfon injured. Let this ferve with the candid reader, in justification of the Poet; and, on occafion of the Editor. The DUNCIAD, fic MS. It may well be difputed whether this be a right reading ought it not rather to be spelled Dunceiad, as the etymology evidently demands? Dunce with an e, therefore Dunceiad with an e. That accurate and punctual man of letters, the restorer of Shakespeare, constantly ob.. ferves the preservation of this very lettere, in fpelling the name of his beloved author, and not like his common careless editors, with the omiffion of one, nay fometimes of two ee's, (as Shakspear) which is utterly unpardonable. "Nor is the neglect of a fingle letter so trivial as to fome it may ap"pear; the alteration whereof in a learned language is an atchievement that "brings honour to the critic who advances it; and Dr. Bentley will be re"membered to pofterity for his performances of this fort, as long as the "world shall have any esteem for the remains of Menander and Philemon," THEOBALD. This is furely a flip in the learned author of the foregoing note; there having been fince produced by an accurate antiquary, an autograph of ShakSpeare himself, whereby it appears that he spelled his own name without the first e. And upon this authority it was, that those most critical curators of his monument in Westminster abbey erafed the former wrong reading, and reftored the true fpelling on a new piece of old Egyptian granite. Nor for this only do they deferve our thanks, but for exhibiting on the fame monu❤ ment the first specimen of an edition of an author in marble; where (as may be feen on comparing the Tomb with the Book) in the space of five lines, two words and a whole verfe are changed, and it is to be hoped will there stand and outlast whatever hath been hitherto done in paper; as for the future, our Z 2 learned |