[192] Pope collected these numerous literary libels with extraordinary
care. He had them bound in volumes of all sizes; and a range
of twelves, octavos, quartos, and folios were marshalled in
portentous order on his shelves. He wrote the names of the
writers, with remarks on these _Anonymiana_. He prefixed to
them this motto, from Job: "Behold, my desire is, that mine
adversary had written a book: surely I would take it upon my
shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me." xxxi. 35. Ruffhead,
who wrote Pope's Life under the eye of Warburton, who revised
every sheet of the volume, and suffered this mere lawyer and
singularly wretched critic to write on, with far inferior
taste to his own--offered "the entire collection to any public
library or museum, whose search is after _curiosities_, and
may be desirous of enriching their common treasure with it: it
will be freely at the service of that which asks first." Did
no one accept the invitation? As this was written in 1769, it
is evidently pointed towards the British Museum; but there I
have not heard of it. This collection must have contained much
of the Secret Memoirs of Grub-street: it was always a fountain
whence those "waters of bitterness," the notes in the
_Dunciad_, were readily supplied. It would be curious to
discover by what stratagem Pope obtained all that secret
intelligence about his Dunces, with which he has burthened
posterity, for his own particular gratification. Arbuthnot, it
is said, wrote some notes merely literary; but Savage, and
still humbler agents, served him as his _Espions de Police_.
He pensioned Savage to his last day, and never deserted him.
In the account of "the phantom Moore," Scriblerus appeals to
Savage to authenticate some story. One curious instance of the
fruits of Savage's researches in this way he has himself
preserved, in his memoirs of "An Author to be Let, by Iscariot
Hackney." This portrait of "a perfect Town-Author" is not
deficient in spirit: the hero was one Roome, a man only
celebrated in the _Dunciad_ for his "funereal frown." But it
is uncertain whether this fellow had really so dismal a
countenance; for the epithet was borrowed from his profession,
being the son of an undertaker! Such is the nature of some
satire! Dr. Warton is astonished, or mortified, for he knew
not which, to see the pains and patience of Pope and his
friends in compiling the Notes to the _Dunciad_, to trace out
the lives and works of such paltry and forgotten scribblers.
"It is like walking through the darkest alleys in the dirtiest
part of St. Giles's." Very true! But may we not be allowed to
detect the vanities of human nature at St. Giles's as well as
St. James's? Authors, however obscure, are always an amusing
race to authors. The greatest find their own passions in the
least, though distorted, or cramped in too small a compass.
It is doubtless from Pope's great anxiety for his own literary
celebrity that we have been furnished with so complete a
knowledge of the grotesque groups in the _Dunciad_. "Give me a
shilling," said Swift, facetiously, "and I will insure you
that posterity shall never know one single enemy, excepting
those whose memory you have preserved." A very useful hint for
a man of genius to leave his wretched assailants to dissolve
away in their own weakness. But Pope, having written a
_Dunciad_, by accompanying it with a commentary, took the only
method to interest posterity. He felt that Boileau's satires
on bad authors are liked only in the degree the objects
alluded to are known. But he loved too much the subject for
its own sake. He abused the powers genius had conferred on
him, as other imperial sovereigns have done. It is said that
he kept the whole kingdom in awe of him. In "the frenzy and
prodigality of vanity," he exclaimed--
"--------Yes, I am proud to see
Men, not afraid of God, afraid of me!"
Tacitus Gordon said of him, that Pope seemed to persuade the
nation that all genius and ability were confined to him and
his friends.
[193] Pope, in his energetic Letter to Lord HERVEY, that "masterpiece
of invective," says Warton, which Tyers tells us he kept long
back from publishing, at the desire of Queen Caroline, who was
fearful her counsellor would become insignificant in the
public esteem, and at last in her own, such was the power his
genius exercised;--has pointed out one of these causes. It
describes himself as "a private person under penal laws, and
many other disadvantages, not for want of honesty or
conscience; yet it is by these alone I have hitherto lived
_excluded from all posts of profit or trust_. I can interfere
with the views of no man."
[194] The first publisher of the "Essay on Criticism" must have been
a Mr. Lewis, a Catholic bookseller in Covent-garden; for,
from a descendant of this Lewis, I heard that Pope, after
publication, came every day, persecuting with anxious
inquiries the cold impenetrable bookseller, who, as the poem
lay uncalled for, saw nothing but vexatious importunities
in a troublesome youth. One day, Pope, after nearly a
month's publication, entered, and in despair tied up a
number of the poems, which he addressed to several who had a
reputation in town, as judges of poetry. The scheme
succeeded, and the poem, having reached its proper circle,
soon got into request.
[195] He was the author of "The Key to the Lock," written to show that
"The Rape of the Lock" was a political poem, designed to
ridicule the Barrier Treaty; [so called from the arrangement
made at the Peace of Utrecht between the ministers of Great
Britain and the States General, as to the towns on the
frontiers of the Dutch, which were to be permanently
strengthened as barrier fortresses. Pope, in the mask of
Esdras Barnivelt, apothecary, thus makes out his poem to be a
political satire. "Having said that by the _lock_ is meant the
_Barrier Treaty_--first then I shall discover, that Belinda
represents Great Britain, or (which is the same thing) her
late Majesty. This is plainly seen in the description of her,
"On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore."
Alluding to the ancient name of Albion, from her white cliffs,
and to the cross which is the ensign of England. The baron who
cuts off the lock, or Barrier Treaty, is the Earl of Oxford.
Clarissa, who lent the scissors, my Lady Masham. Thalestris,
who provokes Belinda to resent the loss of the lock or treaty,
the Duchess of Marlborough; and Sir Plume, who is moved by
Thalestris to re-demand it of Great Britain, Prince Eugene,
"who came hither for that purpose." He concludes 32 pages of
similar argument by saying, "I doubt not if the persons most
concerned would but order Mr. Bernard Lintott, the printer and
publisher of this dangerous piece, to be taken into custody
and examined, many further discoveries might be made both of
this poet's and his abettors secret designs, which are
doubtless of the utmost importance to Government." Such is a
specimen of Pope's chicanery.] Its innocent extravagance could
only have been designed to increase attention to a work, which
hardly required any such artifice. [In the preface to this
production, "the uncommon sale of this book" is stated as one
reason for the publication; "above six thousand of them have
been already vended."] In the same spirit he composed the
"Guardian," in which Phillips's Pastorals were insidiously
preferred to his own. Pope sent this ironical, panegyrical
criticism on Phillips anonymously to the "Guardian," and
Steele not perceiving the drift, hesitated to publish it, till
Pope advised it. Addison detected it. I doubt whether we have
discovered all the _supercheries_ of this kind. After writing
the finest works of genius, he was busily employed in
attracting the public attention to them. In the antithesis of
his character, he was so great and so little! But he knew
mankind! and present fame was the great business of his life.
[196] Cleland was the son of Colonel Cleland, an old friend of Pope;
he and his son had served in the East Indian army; but the
latter returned to London, and became a sort of literary
jackal to Pope, and a hack author for the booksellers. He
wrote several moral and useful works; but as they did not pay
well, he wrote an immoral one, for which he obtained a better
price, and a pension of 100_l._ a-year, on condition that he
never wrote in that manner again. This was obtained for him by
Lord Granville, after Cleland had been cited before the Privy
Council, and pleaded poverty as the reason for such
authorship.--ED.
[197] The narrative of this dark transaction, which seems to have been
imperfectly known to Johnson, being too copious for a note,
will be found at the close of this article.
[198] A list of all the pamphlets which resulted from the _Dunciad_
would occupy a large space. Many of them were as grossly
personal as the celebrated poem. The poet was frequently
ridiculed under the names of "Pope Alexander" (from his
dictatorial style), and "Sawney." In "an heroic poem
occasioned by the _Dunciad_," published in 1728, the poet's
snug retreat at Twickenham is thus alluded to:--
"Sawney! a mimic sage of huge renown,
To Twick'nam bow'rs retir'd, enjoys his wealth,
His malice and his muse: in grottoes cool,
And cover'd arbours, dreams his hours away."
A fragment of Pope's celebrated grotto still remains; the
house is destroyed. Pope spent all his spare cash over his
Twickenham villa. "I never save anything," he said once to
Spence; and the latter has left a detailed account of what he
meant to do in the further decoration of his garden if he had
lived. As he gained a sum of money, he regularly spent it in
this way.--ED.
[199] Pope is, perhaps, the finest _character-painter_ of all
satirists. Atterbury, after reading the portrait of Atticus,
advised him to proceed in a way which his genius had pointed
out; but Arbuthnot, with his dying breath, conjured him "to
reform, and not to chastise;" that is, not to spare the vice,
but the person. It is said, Pope answered, that, to correct
the world with due effect, they become inseparable; and that,
deciding by his own experience, he was justified in his
opinion. Perhaps, at first, he himself wavered; but he strikes
bolder as he gathers strength. The two first editions of the
_Dunciad_, now before me, could hardly be intelligible: they
exhibit lines after lines gaping with an hiatus, or obscured
with initial letters: in subsequent editions, the names stole
into their places. We are told, that the personalities in his
satires quickened the sale: the portraits of Sporus, Bufo,
Clodius, Timon, and Atossa, were purchased by everybody; but
when he once declared, respecting the _characters_ of one of
his best satires, that no real persons were intended, it
checked public curiosity, which was felt in the sale of that
edition. Personality in his satires, no doubt, accorded with
the temper and the talent of Pope; and the malice of mankind
afforded him all the conviction necessary to indulge it. Yet
Young could depend solely on abstract characters and pure wit;
and I believe that his "Love of Fame" was a series of
admirable satires, which did not obtain less popularity than
Pope's. Cartwright, one of the poetical sons of Ben Jonson,
describes, by a beautiful and original image, the office of
the satirist, though he praises Jonson for exercising a virtue
he did not always practise; as Swift celebrates Pope with the
same truth, when he sings:--
"Yet malice never was his aim;
He lash'd the vice, but spared the name."