n which our Author was abused"
which is our best guide to Popiana, is somewhat confusing and made more
difficult because the first part dates from 1729, the second from 1735:
"_Labeo_, A Paper of Verses written by Leonard Welsted. [1729 a-d],
which after came into One Epistle, and was publish'd by James Moore.
4to. 1730. Another part of it came out in Welsted's own name in 1731,
under the just Title of _Dulness and Scandal_, fol. [1735a]."[3]

The _Labeo_ reference is mysterious. Pope in his note on Welsted to _The
Dunciad A_ II.293 had said in a sentence omitted in all editions from
1735a, "The strength of the metaphors in this passage is to express the
great scurrility and fury of this writer, which may be seen, One day, in
a Piece of his, call'd (as I think) _Labeo_."[4] Since no _Labeo_ has
ever turned up, it seems reasonable to conclude with Fineman that,
though Welsted may have toyed with the idea of writing one, "he either
never did enough with it to warrant its publication, or discarded it
entirely in favor of writing the collaborative _One Epistle to Mr. Pope_
that appeared in 1730. Naturally, he would not broadcast his plans, and
as a result the enemy camp continued to believe--or at any rate, to
say--that Welsted would retaliate with a _Labeo_."[5] This was in 1729;
by 1735 Pope had realized no _Labeo_ would appear and deciding,
apparently on no evidence, that it had been incorporated into Welsted's
_One Epistle_ and _Of Dulness and Scandal_ (1732), made the appropriate
changes in _The Dunciad_.

Pope did not at first realize that _One Epistle_ was by Welsted. It
had been announced as early as 1 Feb. 1729 in _The Universal Spectator_
"as the due Chastisement of Mr. Pope for his _Dunciad_, by James Moore
Smythe, Esq; and Mr. Welsted." The poem must have been circulated
privately before publication at least by October, 1729 at which time
Pope believed it to be Lady Mary's, since we find Lady Mary writing to
Dr. Arbuthnot twice in October 1729 denying Pope's accusation that she
had written it.[6] There is no evidence that she was not telling the
truth, but on 21 May 1730 _The Grub-Street Journal_ reported that Lady
Mary had "some hand in the piece."

Like most Pope attacks, the poem was published anonymously. The preface,
a defence of the Dunces, is, with probably intentional ambiguity,
written in the first person singular but ends by referring to "the
Writers of the following Poem" (p. viii). One hand seems r