Dec. 30. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



519 



•which Theobald is dethroned, and Colley Gibber 

 elevated into his place : 



" By Authority. 

 " By virtue of the authority in us vested, by the Act 

 for subjecting poets to the power of a licencer, we have 

 revised this piece ; where, finding the style and appella- 

 tion of king have been given to a certain pretender, 

 pseudo-poet, or phantom of the name of Tibbald; and 

 apprehending the same may be deemed in some sort a 

 reflection on majesty, or at least an insult on that legal 

 authority which has bestowed on another person the 

 crown of poesy : we have ordered the said pretender, 

 pseudo-poet, or phantom, utterly to vanish and evaporate 

 out of this work : and do declare the said throne of poesy 

 from henceforth to be abdicated and vacant, unless duly 

 and lawfully supplied by the laureate himself. And it is 

 hereby enacted, that no other person do presume to fill 

 the same." 



We may in conclusion remark, that the words 

 " never before printed," in the title-page, refer to 

 the Memoirs of Scriblerus. 



(B.) THE DUNCIAD, IN TOUR BOOKS. PRINTED 

 ACCORDING TO THE COMPLETE COPY FOUND IN 

 THE TEAR 1742, WITH THE PROLEGOMENA OF 

 SCRIBLERUS, AND NOTES VARIORUM. TO WHICH 

 ARE ADDED SEVERAL NOTES NOW FIRST PUBLISHED, 

 THE HYPER-CRITICS OF ARISTARCHUS AND HIS 

 DISSERTATION ON THE HERO OF THE POEM: 



" Tandem Phoebus adest, morsusque inferre parantem, 

 Congelat, et patulos, ut erant, indurat hiatus." 



LONDON : PRINTED FOR M. COOPER AT THE GLOBE 

 IN PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCXLIII. 4tO. 



On the back of the title-page is the announce- 

 ment that — 



" Speedily will be published, in the same Paper and 

 Character, to be bound up with this. The Essay on Man, 

 The Essay on Criticism, and the rest of the author's 

 original poems, with the Commentaries and Notes of 

 W. Warburton, M.A." 



This is followed by an " Advertisement to the 

 Reader," signed W. W., which, although of some 

 length, we must give from the light it throws 

 upon the history of the work. 



" Advertisement to the Reader. 



" I have long had a design of giving some sort of Notes 

 on the works of this poet. Before I had the happiness of 

 his acquaintance, I had written a commentary on his 

 Essay on Man, and have since finished another on his 

 Essay on Criticism. There was one already on The 

 Dunciad, which had met with general approbation ; but 

 I still thought that some additions were wanting (of a 

 more serious kind) to the humorous notes of Scriblerus, 

 and even to those written by Mr. Cleland, Dr. Arbuthnot, 

 and others. I had lately the pleasure to pass some 

 months with the author in the country, where I prevailed 

 npon him to do what I had long desired, and favour me 

 with his explanation of several passages in his works. It 

 happened that just at that juncture was published a 

 ridiculous book against him, full of personal reflections, 

 which furnished him with a lucky opportunity of im- 

 proving this poem, by giving it the only thing it wanted, 

 a, more considerable hero. He was always sensible of its 

 defects in that particular, and owned he had let it pass 



with the hero he had, purely for want of a better, not 

 entertaining the least expectation that such an one was 

 reserved for this post as has since obtained the laurel ; 

 but since that had happened he could no longer deny this 

 justice either to him or The Dunciad. And yet I will 

 venture to saj% there was another motive which had still 

 more weight with our author; this person was one, who, 

 from every folly (not to say vice) of which another would 

 be ashamed, has constantly derived a vanitj', and there- 

 fore was the man in the world who would least be hurt 

 by it. — VV. W." 



We may add, that the work consists of xxxvii 

 pages of introductory matter. The poem, notes, 

 and appendix occupy 235 pages ; and these are 

 followed by the "Declaration" before Barber 

 Mayor, and Indices which are not paged. 



The last edition which we shall notice is, — 



(S.) THE DUNCIAD, COMPLETE IN FOUR BOOKS, 

 ACCORDING TO MR. POFe's LAST IMPROVEMENTS, 

 WITH SEVERAL ADDITIONS NOW FIRST PRINTED, 

 AND DISSERTATIONS ON THE POEM AND THE HERO, 

 AND NOTES VARIORUM. PUBLISHED BY MB. WAB- 

 BUBTON. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. AND P. KNAP- 

 TON IN LUDGATE STREET, M.D.CCXLIX. 8vO., (the 



words printed in Italics are in red ink in the 

 original), with a frontispiece illustrative of the 

 lines — 



" All my commands are easy, short, and full. 

 My sons ! be proud, be selfish, and be dull ! " 



What these " Additions ndw first printed" are, 

 — how far Pope's, how far Warburton's — it falls 

 not within our province to inquire. We shall, no 

 doubt, in due time, learn this from the editors of 

 the forth coming edition of Pope's works. 



To those gentlemen, and to all who appreciate 

 the talents of Pope, we think our " Notes upon 

 The Dunciad" may not be without interest. 



Having taken some pains, and occupied no 

 small time in their preparation, we feel that we 

 are entitled to make one request, namely, that in 

 any future discussions on the subject in these 

 columns, the writers will be careful to distinguish 

 the precise editions of the poem which they are 

 quoting or referring to. We have, we think, 

 enabled them to do this. 



p. S. — We have been kindly permitted by the 

 Stationers' Company to consult their registers of 

 the years 1728 and 1729, where we discovered the 

 following entries : 



" May 30, 1728. James Bettenham. Then entered for 

 his copy of The Dunciad, an Ueroich Poem, in three books. 

 Received nine books." 



" April 12, 1729. Lawton Gilliver, Then entered for 

 his copy The Dunciad Variorum, with the Prolegomena 

 of Scriblerus. Received nine books." 



"Nov. 21, 1729. The author of a book entitled The 

 Dunciad, an Heroick Poem, hath by writing under his hand 

 and seal assigned unto the Right Honourable Richard 

 Earl of Burlington and Corke, the Right Honourable 



