ift, who, however, does
not appear to have been quite in the secret. The complete poem was
intended to appear with an elaborate mock commentary by Scriblerus,
explaining some of the allusions, and with "proeme, prolegomena,
testimonia scriptorum, index auctorum, and notae variorum." In the first
instance, however, it appeared in a mangled form without this burlesque
apparatus or the lines to Swift. Four editions were issued in this form
in 1728, and with a mock notice from the publisher, expressing a hope
that the author would be provoked to give a more perfect edition. This,
accordingly, appeared in 1729. Pope seems to have been partly led to
this device by a principle which he avowed to Warburton. When he had
anything specially sharp to say he kept it for a second edition, where,
it would, he thought, pass with less offence. But he may also have been
under the impression that all the mystery of apparently spurious
editions would excite public curiosity. He adopted other devices for
avoiding unpleasant consequences. It was possible that his victims might
appeal to the law. In order to throw dust in their eyes, two editions
appeared in Dublin and London, the Dublin edition professing to be a
reprint from a London edition, whilst the London edition professed in
the same way to be the reprint of a Dublin edition. To oppose another
obstacle to prosecutors, he assigned the Dunciad to three
noblemen--Lords Bathurst, Burlington, and Oxford--who transferred their
right to Pope's publisher. Pope would be sheltered behind these
responsible persons, and an aggrieved person might be slower to attack
persons of high position and property. By yet another device Pope
applied for an injunction in Chancery to suppress a piratical London
edition; but ensured the failure of his application by not supplying the
necessary proofs of property. This trick, repeated, as we shall see, on
another occasion, was intended either to shirk responsibility or to
increase the notoriety of the book. A further mystification was equally
characteristic. To the Dunciad in its enlarged form is prefixed a
letter, really written by Pope himself, but praising his morality and
genius, and justifying his satire in terms which would have been absurd
in Pope's own mouth. He therefore induced a Major Cleland, a retired
officer of some position, to put his name to the letter, which it is
possible that he may have partly written. The device was transparent,
and only bro