chang’d from day to day; in like manner as when the old boughs wither, we thrust new ones into a chimney.
I would not have the reader too much troubled or anxious, if he cannot decypher them; since when he shall have found them out, he will probably know no more of the persons than before.
Yet we judg’d it better to preserve them as they are, than to change them for fictitious ’names, by which the satire would only be multiplied and applied to many instead of one. Had the Hero, for instance, been called Codrus, how many would have affirm’d him to have been Mr. W. Mr. D. Sir R. B, &c. but now all that unjust scandal is saved by calling him Theobald, which by good luck happens to be the name of a real person.
I am indeed aware, that this name may to some appear too mean for the Hero of an Epic Poem: But it is hoped, they will alter that opinion, when they find, that an author no less eminent than la Bruyere has honour’d him with frequent mention, and thought him worthy a place in his characters.
Voudriez vous, Theobalde, que je crusse que vous etes baisse? que vous n’ etes plus Poete, ni bel esprit? que vous etes presentement auss: mauvais Juge de tout genre d’Ouvrage, que mechant Auteur? Votre air libre & presumtueux me rassure, & me persuade tout la contraire, &c. Characters, Vol. I. de la Societe & de la Conversation, pap. 176. Edit. Amst. 1720.
II.
A List of Books, Papers, and Verses, in which our Author was abused, before the publication of the Dunciad: With the true Names of the Authors.
REFLECTIONS critical and satirical on a late Rhapsody call’d an Essay on Criticism by Mr. Dennis, printed for B. Lintot, price 6 d.
A new Rehearsal, or Bays the Younger, containing an Examen of Mr. Rowe’s plays, and a word or two on Mr. Pope’s Rape of the Lock. Anon. [by Charles Gildon] printed for J. Roberts, 1714, price 1 s.
Homerides, or a letter to Mr. Pope, occasion’d by his intended translation of Homer. By Sir Iliad Dogrel. [Tho. Burnet and G. Ducket, Esquires] printed for W. Wilkins, 1715, price 9 d.
Aesop at the Bear-garden. A vision in imitation of the Temple of Fame. By Mr. Preston. Sold by John Morphew 1715, price 6 d.
The Catholick Poet, or Protestant Barnaby’s Sorrowful Lamentation, a Ballad about Homer’s Iliad, by Mrs. Centlivre and others, 1715, price 1 d.
An Epilogue to a Puppet-show at Bath, concerning the said Iliad, by George Ducket, Esq printed by E. Curl.