the notes. Cibber
straightway published a letter to Pope, the more cutting because still
in perfect good-humour, and told the story about the original quarrel.
He added an irritating anecdote in order to provoke the poet still
further. It described Pope as introduced by Cibber and Lord Warwick to
very bad company. The story was one which could only be told by a
graceless old representative of the old school of comedy, but it hit its
mark. The two Richardsons once found Pope reading one of Cibber's
pamphlets. He said, "These things are my diversion;" but they saw his
features writhing with anguish, and young Richardson, as they went home,
observed to his father that he hoped to be preserved from such
diversions as Pope had enjoyed. The poet resolved to avenge himself, and
he did it to the lasting injury of his poem. He dethroned Theobald, who,
as a plodding antiquarian, was an excellent exponent of dulness, and
installed Cibber in his place, who might be a representative of folly,
but was as little of a dullard as Pope himself. The consequent
alterations make the hero of the poem a thoroughly incongruous figure,
and greatly injure the general design. The poem appeared in this form in
1743, with a ponderous prefatory discourse by Ricardus Aristarchus,
contributed by the faithful Warburton, and illustrating his ponderous
vein of elephantine pleasantry.

Pope was nearing the grave, and many of his victims had gone before him.
It was a melancholy employment for an invalid, breaking down visibly
month by month; and one might fancy that the eminent Christian divine
might have used his influence to better purpose than in fanning the
dying flame, and adding the strokes of his bludgeon to the keen stabs of
Pope's stiletto. In the fourteen years which had elapsed since the first
Dunciad, Pope had found less unworthy employment for his pen; but,
before dealing with the works produced at this time, which include some
of his highest achievements, I must tell a story which is in some ways a
natural supplement to the war with the dunces. In describing Pope's
entangled history, it seems most convenient to follow each separate line
of discharge of his multifarious energy, rather than to adhere to
chronological order.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] See Pope to Swift, March 25, 1736.

CHAPTER VI.[14]

CORRESPONDENCE.

I have now to describe one of the most singular series of transactions
to be found in the annals of literature. A comp