t which the enraged Monarch may inflict;

"And beat the Knave--full sore!"

The fatal blow is struck! We cannot but rejoice that guilt is justly
punished, though we sympathize with the guilty object of punishment.
Here _Scriblerus_, who, by the bye, is very fond of making unnecessary
alterations, proposes reading "_Score_" instead of "_sore_," meaning
thereby to particularize, that the beating bestowed by this Monarch,
consisted of _twenty_ stripes. But this proceeds from his ignorance of
the genius of our language, which does not admit of such an expression
as "_full score_," but would require the insertion of the particle
"_a_," which cannot be, on account of the metre. And this is another
great artifice of the Poet: by leaving the quantity of beating
indeterminate, he gives every reader the liberty to administer it, in
exact proportion to the sum of indignation which he may have conceived
against his Hero; that by thus amply satisfying their resentment, they
may be the more easily reconciled to him afterwards.

"The King of Hearts
"Call'd for those Tarts,
"And beat the Knave full sore!"

Here ends the second part, or _middle_ of the poem; in which we see the
character, and exploits of the Hero, pourtrayed with the hand of a
master.

Nothing now remains to be examined, but the third part, or _End_. In the
_End_, it is a rule pretty well established, that the Work should draw
towards a conclusion, which our Author manages thus.

"The Knave of Hearts
"Brought back those Tarts."

Here every thing is at length settled; the theft is compensated; the
tarts restored to their right owner; and _Poetical Justice_, in every
respect, strictly, and impartially administered.

We may observe, that there is nothing in which our Poet has better
succeeded, than in keeping up an unremitted attention in his readers to
the main instruments, the machinery of his poem, viz. The _Tarts_;
insomuch, that the aforementioned _Scriblerus_ has sagely observed, that
"he can't tell, but he doesn't know, but the tarts may be reckoned the
heroes of the Poem." _Scriblerus_, though a man of learning, and
frequently right in his opinion, has here certainly hazarded a rash
conjecture. His arguments are overthrown entirely by his great opponent,
_Hiccius_, who concludes, by triumphantly asking, "Had the tarts been
eaten, how could the Poet have compensated for the loss of his Heroes?"

We are now come to the _denouement_, th