quel to the _Beggars'
Opera_, was prohibited by the Lord Chamberlain, and a good subscription
made him ample amends. Pope has immortalized the complaint by lamenting
the fate of "neglected genius" in the Epistle to Arbuthnot, and
declaring that the "sole return" of all Gay's "blameless life" was

My verse and Queensberry weeping o'er thy urn.

Pope's alliance with Gay had various results. Gay continued the war with
Ambrose Philips by writing burlesque pastorals, of which Johnson truly
says that they show "the effect of reality and truth, even when the
intention was to show them grovelling and degraded." They may still be
glanced at with pleasure. Soon after the publication of the mock
pastorals, the two friends, in company with Arbuthnot, had made an
adventure more in the spirit of the Scriblerus Club. A farce called
_Three Hours after Marriage_ was produced and damned in 1717. It was
intended (amongst other things) to satirize Pope's old enemy Dennis,
called "Sir Tremendous," as an embodiment of pedantic criticism, and
Arbuthnot's old antagonist Woodward. A taste for fossils, mummies, or
antiquities, was at that time regarded as a fair butt for unsparing
ridicule; but the three great wits managed their assault so clumsily as
to become ridiculous themselves; and Pope, as we shall presently see,
smarted as usual under failure.

After Swift's retirement to Ireland, and during Pope's absorption in
Homer, the Scriblerus Club languished. Some fragments, however, of the
great design were executed by the four chief members, and the dormant
project was revived, after Pope had finished his Homer, on occasion of
the last two visits of Swift to England. He passed six months in England
from March to August, 1726, and had brought with him the MS. of
Gulliver's Travels, the greatest satire produced by the Scriblerians. He
passed a great part of his time at Twickenham, and in rambling with
Pope or Gay about the country. Those who do not know how often the
encounter of brilliant wits tends to neutralize rather than stimulate
their activity, may wish to have been present at a dinner which took
place at Twickenham on July 6th, 1726, when the party was made up of
Pope, the most finished poet of the day; Swift, the deepest humourist;
Bolingbroke, the most brilliant politician; Congreve, the wittiest
writer of comedy; and Gay, the author of the most successful burlesque.
The envious may console themselves by thinking that Pope very l