ntum valere potest_.

In your Remark upon the same Lines you say,

"_Eusden_ no sooner died, but his Place of Laureat was supply'd by
_Cibber_, in the Year 1730, on which was made the following
Epigram." (May I not believe by yourself?)

_In merry_ Old England, _it once was a Rule,
The King had his Poet, and also his Fool.
But now we're so frugal, I'd have you to know it,
That_ Cibber _can serve both for Fool and for Poet._

Ay, marry Sir! here you souse me with a Witness! This is a Triumph
indeed! I can hardly help laughing at this myself; for, _Se non e vero,
ben Trovato_! A good Jest is a good Thing, let it fall upon who it will:
I dare say _Cibber_ would never have complain'd of Mr. _Pope_,

----_Si sic_
----_Omnia dixisset_------ Juv.

If he had never said any worse of him. But hold, Master _Cibber_! why
may not you as well turn this pleasant Epigram into an involuntary
Compliment? for a King's Fool was no body's Fool but his Master's, and
had not his Name for nothing; as for Example,

_Those Fools of old, if Fame says true,
Were chiefly chosen for their Wit;
Why then, call'd Fools? because, like you
Dear_ Pope, _too Bold in shewing it._

And so, if I am the King's Fool; now, Sir, pray whose Fool are you? 'Tis
pity, methinks, you should be out of Employment: for, if a satyrical
Intrepidity, or, as you somewhere call it, a _High Courage of Wit_, is
the fairest Pretence to be the _King's Fool_, I don't know a Wit in the
World so fit to fill up the Post as yourself.

Thus, Sir, I have endeavour'd to shake off all the Dirt in your
_Dunciad_, unless of here and there some little Spots of your Ill-will,
that were not worth tiring the Reader's Patience with my Notice of them.
But I have some more foul way to trot through still, in your Epistles
and Satyrs, _&c._ Now whether I shall come home the filthy Fellow, or
the clean contrary Man to what you make me, I will venture to leave to
your own _Conscience_, though I dare not make the same Trust to your
_Wit_: For that you have often _spoke_ worse (merely to shew your Wit)
than you could possibly _think_ of me, almost all your Readers, that
observe your Good-nature _will easily_ believe.

However, to shew I am not blind to your Merit, I own your Epistle to Dr.
_Arbuthnot_ (though I there find myself contemptibly spoken of) gives me
more Delight in the whole, than any one Poem of the kin