wn it, but Himself_ (1743); _The lady's lecture, a theatrical
dialogue, between Sir Charles Easy and his marriageable daughter. Being
an attempt to engage obedience by filial liberty, and to given the
maiden conduct of virtue, chearfulness_ (1748); and _The Character and
Conduct of Cicero_ (1749), which Davies defends:

A player daring to write upon a known subject without a college
permission, was a shocking offense; and yet Dr. Middleton, to whom
the conduct of Cicero was addressed, spoke of it with respect; and
Mr. Hooke, the writer of the best Roman History in our language,
has quoted Cibber's arguments in this [his?] pamphlet against the
murderers of Julius Caesar, and speaks of them, not only with
honour, but insists upon them as cogent and unanswerable.[15]

Cibber seems to have become more and more aware of the written word as a
powerful legacy, and Pope's attacks began to hold a menace they had not
had during the years of lighthearted stage warfare. On 20 March 1742,
the _New Dunciad_ struck him with enough force to cause him to reply
with this open _Letter_ of 7 July, which attracted a great deal of
attention.[16] Four engravings and at least six pamphlets, all focusing
on the bawdy house story, were shortly in circulation. Whether or not
the story is true, or whether it was even believed, is immaterial. Its
importance lies in that it allowed Pope's enemies to have at him in the
most devastating way. The _Letter_ may well have been as painful as
Jonathan Richardson, Jr. claimed when he told Dr. Johnson that

he attended his father, the painter, on a visit to Twickenham when
one of Cibber's pamphlets had just come into Pope's hands. 'These
things are my diversion,' said Pope. They sat by him while he read
it, and saw his features writhing with anguish. After the visitors
had taken their leave, young Richardson said to his father that he
'hoped to be preserved from such diversion as had been that day the
lot of Pope.'[17]

If so, the other attacks must have been shattering, since they lacked
even the surface good humor of Cibber's _Letter_. Pope, at any rate, was
concerned enough to tell Spence:

The story published by Cibber, as to the main point, is an absolute
lie. I do remember that I was invited by Lord Warwick to pass an
evening with him. He carried me and Cibber in his coach to a
bawdy-house. There was a woman th