ere, but I had nothing to do with
her of the kind that Cibber mentions, to the best of my memory--and
I had so few things of that kind ever on my hands that I could
scarce have forgot it, especially so circumstanced as he
pretends.[18]

An answer to the _Letter_ was demanded, and it was not long in coming.
In August/September, Pope wrote his friend Hugh Bethel concerning a copy
of the _New Dunciad_ he had sent him:

That poem has not done me, or my Quiet, the least harm; only it
provokd Cibber to write a very foolish & impudent Letter, which I
have no cause to be sorry for, & perhaps next Winter I shall be
thought to be glad of: But I lay in my Claim to you, to Testify for
me, that if he should chance to die before a New & Improved Edition
of the Dunciad comes out, I have already, actually written (before,
& not after his death) all I shall ever say about him.[19]

A Cibber-baiting campaign was undertaken by the poet's friends, and the
actor responded with _The egoist_, in which he defended himself, as in
his _Apology_, by freely admitting his flaws with infuriating
complacency. Then a false leaf of the last _Dunciad_ came into his hands
(though certainly not directly from Pope), and he published a second,
very brief, letter which indicated some stress. Pope knew, and at least
tacitly approved, of these tactics, for in February of 1743, he wrote
Lord Marchmont:

I won't publish the fourth _Dunciad_ as 'tis newset till
Michaelmas, that we may have time to play Cibber all the while....
He will be stuck, like the man in the almanac, not deep, but all
over. He won't know which way to turn himself to. Exhausted at the
first stroke, and reduced to passion and calling names, so that he
won't be able to write more, and won't be able to bear living
without writing.[20]

Copyright difficulties not mentioned by Pope prevented the Michaelmas
publication date, but on 29 October 1743, the final _Dunciad_ appeared
with its new hero, for all the world to see.

Cibber kept his promise to "have the last word." _Another Letter from
Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope_ followed the publication of this _Dunciad_,
stating his grievances with somewhat less humor, a number of
scatological references, and an accusation against Warburton for
instigating the change. Included was a twenty-page aside on the
offending Bishop, revealing a startlingly thorough knowledg