ly Whiggish," the reader will not look
far into the allegory before he realizes that one of the central attacks
is against those well-known Whigs Walpole and Marlborough and their
appetite for Dumpling (i.e., bribery and perquisites). Furthermore, the
attack on Swift, which is central to the _Key_, is based on the very
real fear that the Dean's two recent private interviews with Walpole
might presage a return to that leader's Whig party in exchange for
Dumpling. The last pages of the _Key_ (pp. 28-30) deal with the
possibility of an accommodation between Swift and Walpole which is,
I feel sure, the main target of attack. In his poems (_Poems_, ed. Wood,
pp. 83, 86, 88, and _passim_) Carey claims to stand between Whig and
Tory, just as he does in the pamphlets (_Dumpling_, p. 1, and _Key_,
p. 15 and _passim_).

Dr. Wood perceptively points to two parallels between _Dumpling_ and the
satiric _Of Stage Tyrants_ (1735) which Carey openly addressed to the
Earl of Chesterfield. _Dumpling's_ "O Braund, my Patron! my Pleasure!
my Pride" (p. [ii]) becomes: "O Chesterfield, my patron and my pride"
(_Poems_, ed. Wood, p. 104). The passage which follows, dealing with
"all the Monkey-Tricks of Rival Harlequins" (_Dumpling_, p. [ii]),
becomes:

Prefer pure nature and the simple scene
To all the monkey tricks of Harlequin

(_Poems_, ed. Wood, p. 106).

Even more striking is a passage in the _Key_: "Mr. B[ooth] had spoken to
Mr. W[ilks] to speak to Mr. C[ibber] . . ." (p. 111). This is similar to
the following lines in _Stage Tyrants_:

Booth ever shew'd me friendship and respect,
And Wilks would rather forward than reject.
Ev'n Cibber, terror to the scribbling crew,
Would oft solicit me for something new

(_Poems_, ed. Wood, p. 104).

What is particularly impressive is that Carey not only refers to the
three managers of Drury Lane but mentions them in the same order and as
bearing the same relationship to himself. Several highly topical
theatrical allusions in the pamphlets, by which the works can be dated,
accord closely to the life, views, and writings of Carey. All three
managers of Drury Lane were subscribers to Carey's _Poems on Several
Occasions_ (1729), which was dedicated to the Countess of Burlington,
who (like the Earl of Chesterfield) was closely related to Carey's
putative family. In the _Poems_ these people and many others (including
Pope) would have seen _Namby Pamby_ under Carey's name