could always wish for
an Army of regular Troops: I should not have touched upon this
Circumstance, but to obviate some Imputations, which he had suggested,
of my Writing several Pieces, which I never heard of, till I saw them
with the rest of the Town: But these Suggestions shall be considered in
the Preface to the next Epistle, in which, among other Things, I intend
to state several Matters of Fact, in Contradiction to the Notes of the
_Dunciad_, particularly as they concern the Writers of the following
Poem._

[Decoration]

[Decoration]

One

E P I S T L E

to

Mr. _A. P O P E_,

Occasion'd By

Two Lately Publish'd.

If noble _B----m_, (a) in Metre known,
With Strains has grac'd thee, humble as thy own;
Who (b) _G--l--n_'s Dullness did for thine discard,
A better Critick, for as bad a Bard!
Not unregarded let this Tribute be,
Tho' humble, just; well-bred, tho' paid to Thee.

_Parnassian_ Groves, and _Twick'nam_ Fountains, say,
What Homage to the Bard shall _Britain_ pay!
The Bard! that first, from _Dryden's_ thrice-glean'd Page,
Cull'd his low Efforts to Poetic Rage;
Nor pillag'd only that unrival'd Strain,
But rak'd for Couplets [1] _Chapman_ and _Duck-Lane_,
Has sweat each Cent'ry's Rubbish to explore,
And plunder'd every Dunce that writ before,
Catching half Lines, till the tun'd Verse went round,
Complete, in smooth dull (c) Unity of Sound;
Who, stealing Human, scorn'd Celestial Fire,
And strung to _Smithfield_ Airs the [2] _Hebrew_ Lyre;
Who taught declining (d) _Wycherley_ to doze
O'er wire-drawn Sense, that tinkled in the Close,
To lovely _F----r_ impious and obscene,
To mud-born _Naiads_ faithfully unclean;
Whose raptur'd Nonsense, with Prophetick Skill,
First taught that Ombre, which fore-ran Quadrille;
Who from the Skies, propitious to the Fair,
Brought down _Caecilia_, and sent [3] _Cloris_ there,
Censur'd by _W--ke_, by _A------ry_ blest,
Prais'd _Sw----t_ in Earnest, and sung Heav'n in Jest,
Here, mov'd by Whim, and there by Envy stung,
Would flatter _Ch----s_, or would libel [4] _Y----ge_,
By _F----n_ left, by Reverend Linguists hated,
Now learns to read the _Greek_ he once translated.

[Footnote 1: A Translator of _Homer_.]

[Footnote 2: Burlesque of the first _Psalm_, more profest than
_Sternbold's_.]

[Footnote 3: See Verses, in _P--pe_'s Poems, to the Memory of an