ankind."'

Dennis's pamphlet, _The Stage defended from Scripture, Reason,
Experience, and the Common Sense of Mankind for Two Thousand Years_, was
published in 1726. In his latter days he suffered from two grievous
calamities, poverty and blindness. In 1733 Vanbrugh's play, _The
Provoked Husband_, was acted for his benefit, and his old enemy Pope
wrote the prologue, of which the sarcasm is more conspicuous than the
kindness. There is a story, to which allusion is made in the _Dunciad_,
that Dennis had invented some kind of theatrical thunder, and how, being
once present at a tragedy, he fell into a great passion because his art
had been appropriated, and cried out ''Sdeath! that is _my_ thunder.'
The critic was also known to have an intense hatred of the French and of
the Pope, and these peculiarities are not forgotten in the prologue.

After saying that Dennis lay pressed by want and weakness, his doubtful
friend adds:

'How changed from him who made the boxes groan,
And shook the stage with thunders all his own!
Stood up to dash each vain Pretender's hope,
Maul the French tyrant, or pull down the Pope!
If there's a Briton then, true bred and born,
Who holds Dragoons and wooden shoes in scorn;
If there's a critic of distinguished rage;
If there's a senior who contemns this age;
Let him to-night his just assistance lend,
And be the Critic's, Briton's, Old Man's friend.'

Dennis got L100 by this benefit, but had little time in which to spend
it, for he died about a fortnight afterwards at the age of
seventy-seven. Upon his death Aaron Hill wrote some memorial verses, in
which he prophesies that, while the critic's frailties will be no longer
remembered,

'The rising ages shall redeem his name,
And nations read him into lasting fame.'

It will be seen that the poets did not all treat Dennis unkindly. If
praise were substantial food, he would have had enough to sustain him
from 'glorious John' alone.

[Sidenote: Colley Cibber (1671-1757).]

Colley Cibber holds a more prominent place than Dennis in the list of
men whom Pope selected for attack. He could not have chosen one more
impervious to assault. The poet's anger excited Cibber's mirth, his
satire contributed to his content. The comedian's unbounded
self-satisfaction and good humour, his vivacity and spirits, were proof
against Pope's malice. Graceless he may have been, but a dullard the
mercurial 'King Colley