from his having in this poem attacked [1]no man living, who had not before printed, or published, some scandal against this gentleman.
How I came possest of it, is no concern to the reader; but it would have been a wrong to him had I detain'd the publication; since those names which are its chief ornaments die off daily so fast, as must render it too soon unintelligible. If it provoke the author to give us a more perfect edition, I have my end.
Who he is I cannot say, and (which is great pity) there is certainly [2]nothing in his style and manner of writing which can distinguish or discover him: For if it bears any resemblance to that of Mr. Pope, 'tis not improbable but it might be done on purpose, with a view to have it pass for his. But by the frequency of his allusions to Virgil, and a labour'd (not to say affected) shortness, in imitation of him, I should think him more an admirer of the Roman poet than of the Grecian, and in that not of the same taste with his friend.
I have been well inform'd, that this work was the labour of full [3]six years of his life, and that he wholly retired himself from all the avocations and pleasures of the world, to attend diligently to its correction and perfection; and six years more he in tended to bestow upon it, as it should seem by this verse of Statius which was cited at the head of his manuscript,
Oh mihi bissenos multum vigilata per annos,
Duncia[4]!
Hence also we learn the true title of the poem; which with the same certainty as we call that of Homer the Iliad, of Virgil the Æneid, of Camoens the Lusiad, we may pronounce could have been, and can be no other than
The DUNCIAD.
- ↑ The publisher in these words went a little too far: But it is certain whatever names the reader finds that are unknown to him, are of such; and the exception is only of two or three, whole dulness, impudent scurrility, or self conceit, all mankind agreed to have justly entitled them to a place in the Dunciad.
- ↑ There is certainly nothing in his style, &c.] This irony had small effect in concealing the author. The Dunciad, imperfect as it was, had not been published two days, but the whole Town gave it to Mr. Pope.
- ↑ The labour of full six years, &c.] This also was honestly and seriously believed by divers gentlemen of the Dunciad. J. Ralph, pref. to Sawney. "We are told it was the labour of six years, with the utmost assiduity and application: It is no great compliment to the author's sense, to have employed so large a part of his life, &c. So also Ward, pref., to Durgen, "The Dunciad, as the publisher very wisely confesses, cost the author six years retirement from all the pleasures of life; though it is somewhat difficult to conceive, from either its bulk or beauty, that it could be so long in hatching, &c. But the length of time and closeness of application were mentioned to prepossess the reader with a good opinion of it."
They just as well underlined what Scriblerus said of the Poem. - ↑ The prefacer to Curl's Key, p.3. took this word to be really in Statius: "By a quibble on the word Duncia, the Dunciad is formed." Mr. Ward also follows him in the same opinion.
