may think amiss in this Story, will be
excused, by my being so hardly driven to tell it.

I could wish too, it might be observed, that whatever Faults I find with
the Morals of Mr. _Pope_, I charge none to his Poetical Capacity, but
chiefly to his _Ruling Passion_, which is so much his Master, that we
must allow, his inimitable Verse is generally warmest, where his too
fond Indulgence of that Passion inspires it. How much brighter still
might that Genius shine, could it be equally inspired by Good-nature!

Now though I may have less Reason to complain of his Severity, than many
others, who may have less deserv'd it: Yet by his crowding me into so
many of his Satyrs, it is plain his Ill-will is oftner at Work upon
_Cibber_, than upon any Mortal he has had a mind to make a Dunce, or a
Devil of: And as there are about half a Score remaining Verses, where
_Cibber_ still fills up the Numbers, and which I have not yet produced,
I think it will pretty near make good my Observation: Most of them, 'tis
true, are so slight Marks of his Disfavour, that I can charge them with
little more, than a mere idle Liberty with my Name; I shall therefore
leave the greater part of them without farther Observation to make the
most of their Meaning. Some few of them however (perhaps from my want
of Judgment) seem so ambiguous, as to want a little Explanation.

In his First Epistle of the Second Book of _Horace_, ver. 86, speaking
of the Uncertainty of the publick Judgment upon Dramatick Authors, after
naming the best, he concludes his List of them thus:

_But for the Passions,_ Southern _sure, and_ Rowe.
_These, only these support the crouded Stage,
From eldest_ Heywood _down to_ Cibber_'s Age_.

Here he positively excludes _Cibber_ from any Share in supporting the
Stage as an Author; and yet, in the Lines immediately following, he
seems to allow it him, by something so like a Commendation, that if it
be one, it is at the same time a Contradiction to _Cibber_'s being the
Dunce, which the _Dunciad_ has made of him. But I appeal to the Verses;
here they are--_ver._ 87.

_All this may be; the Peoples Voice is odd,
It is, and it is not the Voice of God.
To_ Gammer Gurton _if it give the Bays,
And yet deny_ The Careless Husband _Praise._

Now if _The Careless Husband_ deserv'd Praise, and had it, must it not
(without comparing it with the Works of the above-cited Authors) have
had its Share in supporting the Stage? which Mr. _