Full download ebook at ebookgate.

com

The Dunciad in Four Books 2nd ed Edition

Alexander Pope

https://ebookgate.com/product/the-dunciad-in-four-
books-2nd-ed-edition-alexander-pope/

Download more ebook from https://ebookgate.com

More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

The Twickenham Edition of the Poems of Alexander Pope

Index Maynard Mack (Ed.)

https://ebookgate.com/product/the-twickenham-edition-of-the-
poems-of-alexander-pope-index-maynard-mack-ed/

The English Studies Book 2nd Edition Rob Pope

https://ebookgate.com/product/the-english-studies-book-2nd-
edition-rob-pope/

Plant Pathogen Detection Disease Diagnosis 2nd ed Books

in Soils Plants and the Environment 2nd Edition P.
Narayanasamy

https://ebookgate.com/product/plant-pathogen-detection-disease-
diagnosis-2nd-ed-books-in-soils-plants-and-the-environment-2nd-
edition-p-narayanasamy/

Musculoskeletal Imaging 2nd Edition Morrison & Wilson

Pope

https://ebookgate.com/product/musculoskeletal-imaging-2nd-
edition-morrison-wilson-pope/
Optimization Algorithms In Physics 1st ed Edition
Alexander K. Hartmann

https://ebookgate.com/product/optimization-algorithms-in-
physics-1st-ed-edition-alexander-k-hartmann/

The Pirates and the Mouse 1st Fantagraphics Books Ed

Edition Bob Levin

https://ebookgate.com/product/the-pirates-and-the-mouse-1st-
fantagraphics-books-ed-edition-bob-levin/

The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment

2nd Edition Alexander Broadie

https://ebookgate.com/product/the-cambridge-companion-to-the-
scottish-enlightenment-2nd-edition-alexander-broadie/

Best books for young adults 3rd ed. / Edition Holly

Koelling

https://ebookgate.com/product/best-books-for-young-adults-3rd-ed-
edition-holly-koelling/

Team Leader Workbook 1st Edition Sara Pope

https://ebookgate.com/product/team-leader-workbook-1st-edition-
sara-pope/
 THE

DUNCIAD
IN FOUR BOOKS
 LONGMAN ANNOTATED TEXTS

general editors
Charlotte Brewer, Hertford College, Oxford
H. R. Woudhuysen, University College London
Daniel Karlin, University College London

published titles
Michael Mason, Wordsworth and Coleridge: Lyrical Ballads
Alexandra Barratt, Women’s Writing in Middle English
Tim Armstrong, Thomas Hardy: Selected Poems
René Weis, King Lear: A Parallel Text Edition
Randall Martin, Women Writers in Renaissance England
Helen Phillips and Nick Havely, Chaucer’s Dream Poetry
Valerie Rumbold, Alexander Pope: The Dunciad in Four Books
Virginia Blair, Victorian Women Poets
ALEXANDER POPE

THE

DUNCIAD
IN FOUR BOOKS

EDITED BY
VALERIE RUMBOLD
First published 1999 by Pearson Education Limited
Second edition published 2009

Published 2014 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright © 1999, 2009, Taylor & Francis.

The right of Valerie Rumbold to be identified as author

of this work has been asserted by her in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.

Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience
broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical
treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in
evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In
using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of
others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors,
assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products
liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products,
instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.

ISBN 13: 978-1-4082-0416-0 (pbk)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pope, Alexander, 1688–1744.
The Dunciad : in four books / edited by Valerie Rumbold. – 2nd ed.
p. cm. – (Longman annotated texts)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-1-4082-0416-0 (pbk.)
1. Verse satire, English. 2. Literature publishing – Poetry.
3. Authorship – Poetry. I. Rumbold, Valerie. II. Title.
PR3625.A2R86 2008
821′.5–dc22
2008031246

Set by 35 in 9/12pt Stone Serif and 8.75/11pt Amasis

 CONTENTS

Acknowledgements vi
Frontispiece viii
Introduction 1
Map: The London area in the 1740s 20

THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS (1743) 21

Advertisement to the Reader 25

By Authority 27
Epigraphs 29
A Letter to the Publisher 31
Testimonies of Authors 43
Martinus Scriblerus of the Poem 69
Ricardus Aristarchus of the Hero of the Poem 75

Book I 87
Book II 143
Book III 215
Book IV 265

Appendix 361
I: Prefixed to the first Editions 363
II: A List of Books, Papers, and Verses 367
III: Advertisement to 1729 372
IV: Advertisement to the Fourth Book 374
V: The Guardian on Pastorals 376
VI: Of the Poet Laureate 384
VII: Advertisement, 1730 388
VIII: A Parallel 390
By the Author A Declaration 396
Index of Persons 398
Index of Matters 401

Bibliography 409
Selective index to editorial matter 442

v
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This edition would have been impossible to complete without the generous sup-
port of friends and colleagues. Howard Erskine-Hill and Roger Lonsdale have been
patient in their encouragement of what has seemed at times a very slow project,
and I am particularly grateful to them for their time and care in reading the com-
mentary. I am also grateful to J. Paul Hunter, William Kinsley, Sarah Prescott and
Bruce Redford for allowing me to see and to quote from their unpublished work.
Don Fowler has given invaluable help with classical allusions; and Christine
Gerrard, Isobel Grundy, Brean Hammond, Rosamond McGuinness, Isabel Rivers
and Ruth Smith have been unstinting in sharing knowledge and ideas.
I have been particularly fortunate in the bibliographical expertise I have been
able to draw upon. At the outset of the project James Sutherland responded gen-
erously to my enquiries, and David Vander Meulen shared with me some of the
detailed results of his work on the bibliography of the Dunciads. James McLaverty
has been an unfailing source of information and ideas on typography, bookmak-
ing and the book trade; and his indefatigable and judicious reading of text and
commentary has saved me from many errors. I am also grateful to David Foxon
for arranging for me to examine his fine-paper copy of The Dunciad in Four Books,
since presented to the Bodleian Library.
Research involving the numbers of eighteenth-century books required for a pro-
ject of this kind can only be undertaken in a major library, and I am grateful to
Bill Tydeman and Tom Corns, my successive heads of department in Bangor, for
helping to secure the support of the various bodies whose contributions have made
extended library visits possible: the Research Committee of the University of Wales,
Bangor, helped with start-up funding; the English Department supplied further
financial support and arranged study leave; the British Academy supported the pro-
ject under its Small Personal Research Grants scheme; and St John’s College, Oxford,
provided a Summer Visiting Scholarship. Without such practical support this pro-
ject would not have been feasible.
My bibliography gives some idea of the burdens I have placed on library staff
over the years: the staff of the Upper Reserve in the Bodleian Library have been
patient and helpful throughout, and Ann Illsley and Marion Poulton in the Main
Arts Library in Bangor have contributed invaluable expertise in mobilising re-
sources. In the English Department Office in Bangor I should like to thank Michelle
Harrison, Gail Kincaid and Linda Jones, who have helped in all kinds of practical
ways.
I would like to thank the Longman editorial team for supporting this project
throughout. The enthusiasm of Henry Woudhuysen, academic editor to the series,

vi
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii

has been a constant encouragement, and Katy Coutts, my copy-editor, has coped
with the complexities of the typescript with remarkable calmness and thoroughness.
No-one is likely to edit The Dunciad in Four Books without wondering period-
ically why they started and how they can ever hope to finish: the line ‘Call’d to
this work by Dulness, Jove, and Fate’ has, in this context, a discomforting ring. I
have been fortunate to have had so many tolerant listeners, both in my own depart-
ment in Bangor and elsewhere. My deepest debt of gratitude, on this score as on
so many others, is, as always, to Ian.

The publishers are grateful to the British Library for the illustration on p. viii, the
spoof royal arms on pp. 27 and 396, and the monograms on p. 28, all taken from
The Dunciad in Four Books (Alexander Pope), 1743 edition. © British Library Board.
All Rights Reserved (shelfmark: 641l 17(1) ).

NOTE TO THE SECOND IMPRESSION

For this reimpression, corrections have been made to the following pages: 93, 97,
98, 137, 148, 150, 173, 176, 217, 227, 250, 286, 355, 378, 412, 420, 432. Except
for minor changes to the pagination of the bibliography, the original pagination
has been preserved throughout.
 Book II. The DUN C I A D.

With armS' expanded Bernard rows his flate~

And left-Iegg'd Jacob feems to emulate.
Full in the middle way there flood a lake~
70Wliich Curl's"Corinna chanc'd that morn to make:
(Such was her wont, at, early dawn to drop
Her evening cates before his neighbour's (hop,)
Here fortun'd Curl to flide; loud {bout the band,
And Bernard! Bernard! rings thro' all the Strand.
75 Obfcene with filth the mifcreant lies bewray'd,
Fal'n in the plafu his wickednefs had laid:

REM ARK s~,

VEil. 70' Curfs Corinnal This name, ments of men and books, and only excu-
it (eems, was taken by one Mrs. T - - , fable from the youth and inexperience of
who procured fome private letters of Mr. ·the writer.
Pope's, while almoft a boy, to Mr. Crom- VER. 75. Obfcene with filth, &c.]
well, and fold them without the confent Though this incident may feem too low
of either of thofe Gentlemen to Curl, who and bafe for the dignity of an Epic poem,
printed them in 12mo, 1727' He dif- the learned very well know it to be but a
covered her to be the publifher, in his copy of Homer and'Virgil ; the very words
Key, p. II. We only take :this oppor- ~9<f#' and fimus are ufed by them, though
tunity ofmentioning the manner in which our poet (in compliance to m.odern nice-
thefe letters got abroad, which the author ty) has remarkably enriched and coloured
was ailiamed of as very trivial things, full his language, as well as raifed the vedifi-
not only of levities, but of wrong judg- catioll, in this Epifode, and in the fol-

I MIT A T ION S.
Vn. 73. Hm jortun'd Curl to jlide;]
Labilur infelix, Clejis ut forte juvencis
FuJus humum virideJque Juper llIadefecera.t herbas_
Concidit, immlmdoque fimo, facrofjue "uore. .
VirgolEn. v. of Nifus.
VER. 70. And Bernard! Bernard!]
- Ut littUf, Byla, Byla, omne jonaret. Vireo Eel. vi.
Lz

A page from The Dunciad in Four Books (1743), showing the complexity of the original lay-
out and typography.

viii
 INTRODUCTION

LEVELS OF COMPLEXITY

Reading The Dunciad in Four Books can be a marvellously rewarding experience. As

the culminating achievement of Pope’s career, it engages so memorably with so
many aspects of its time that it is regularly cited in discussions of a whole range
of aesthetic, ideological, cultural and historical issues. To a novice reader, how-
ever, at more than two centuries’ distance from the events, assumptions and con-
troversies involved, it can seem bafflingly complex and offputtingly alien. This
Introduction aims principally to provide a practical approach to a first reading:
once that is achieved, the reader is in a stronger position to explore, evaluate and
contest theoretical and critical approaches – including those implicit in this edi-
tion and commentary. A few particularly helpful books and articles are marked
with asterisks in the Bibliography.
The Dunciad in Four Books is complex both in itself and in its relation to
Pope’s previous Dunciads. The most obvious level of complexity is chronological,
since Pope altered and updated the Dunciads from one edition to the next over a
period of fifteen years. Leaving aside intermediate variants, there were four prin-
cipal versions:

1. The Dunciad of 1728, a poem in three books, with a hero called Tibbald.
2. The Dunciad Variorum of 1729, the same poem in a slightly revised version, but
with commentary and apparatus (i.e. prefaces, appendices, index, etc.).
3. The New Dunciad of 1742, a new book of verse conceived as a sequel to the pre-
vious three, with commentary and apparatus. (The first three books were not
included in this version.)
4. The Dunciad in Four Books of 1743, a revised version of the original three books
and a slightly revised version of the fourth book of 1742 with revised com-
mentary and apparatus. A new character, Bays, replaces Tibbald in the role of
hero.

We therefore need to be careful how we speak of the Dunciads: much that is true
of one version will not be true of another, and even the material they have in
common takes on altered perspectives as surrounding elements change over time.
The present edition gives the text of The Dunciad in Four Books of 1743, the fullest
and arguably the most interesting of the versions. Other versions are mentioned
only as background.1
The second major aspect of the texts’ complexity is that after 1728 the Dunciad
ceased to be simply a poem: succeeding versions were composite texts of verse and

1
2 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

prose. Lavish care and ingenuity went into the elaboration of annotations, pref-
aces and appendices, and much of the fun of the Dunciads is lost if they are over-
looked; moreover, once they began to appear, the reader’s experience of the work
became vastly more complicated, as eye and judgement were diverted into nego-
tiation between poem and surrounding prose.
A third level of complexity in all Dunciads from 1729 onwards relates to author-
ship; for there are several hints that the commentary, which first appeared in 1729
and developed further in subsequent versions, incorporated contributions from
others besides Pope. Although the prefatory A Letter to the Publisher suggests that
notes were contributed by ‘strangers’ as well as ‘the Author’s friends’, it seems
likely that most of the extra material came from his own circle; but exactly what
and how much remains to a large extent unclear (see editor’s note on note c) to
Appendix I). By the time he was revising for The Dunciad in Four Books of 1743,
many of his early friends were dead or, in the case of Jonathan Swift (1667–1745),
isolated by distance and failing health in the deanery of St Patrick’s Cathedral in
Dublin. In 1740, however, Pope had met William Warburton (1698–1779), an ambi-
tious clergyman and former attorney whom he rapidly adopted as his authorised
editor and commentator. Pope invited Warburton to contribute to the prose of
1743, and after the poet’s death Warburton indicated their respective contributions
(Warburton 1751: V). These are noted in the present commentary, although it
should be borne in mind that they are attributions after the fact, published by
someone with a vested interest in emphasising his importance to the project. Any
other evidence for the authorship of notes is also recorded: otherwise, although it
is overwhelmingly likely that Pope wrote most of the notes himself, I have tried
to avoid implying that any particular note is necessarily his.
Readers of Pope have typically found Warburton an unappealing addition to the
poet’s circle. His characteristic tone is ponderous and over-assertive, and he very
obviously used his friendship with Pope to further his career: aided by his status
as Pope’s authorised editor, he was to marry an heiress to whom Pope had intro-
duced him, rising to become a bishop and a considerable figure in the world of
letters. Yet, although his contributions to The Dunciad in Four Books often work
against the grain, he remains an invited co-author, the last heir of Pope’s tradition
of collaborative wit.

VALUES AND PERSONALITIES

Origins

Pope was experimenting with motifs which he would later work into the Dunciads
from his teenage years; but the precise point at which he decided to begin a major
satire on the perverse stupidity that he called ‘Dulness’ remains debatable. He
may have been provoked by the promotion of one or other undistinguished poet
to a position of distinction, or by what he took to be perverse judgements about
contemporary literary history (Vander Meulen 1991: 3–16; McLaverty 1985). In
1726, however, the project took an important turn when the lawyer, translator,
 INTRODUCTION 3

playwright and textual scholar Lewis Theobald (1688–1744) offended Pope by find-
ing fault with his edition of Shakespeare in a book provocatively entitled Shake-
speare Restored: or, A Specimen of the Many Errors, as well Committed, as Unamended,
by Mr. Pope in his late Edition of this Poet. This came in the context of Pope’s already
substantial experience of concerted and bitterly hostile attacks on his character
and writing in newspapers and pamphlets (Guerinot 1969: xxi–xxiii). A year later,
in 1727, came the coronation of George II, an episode of pomp and pageantry
which offered a focus for dissatisfaction with the continuing Hanoverian regime
and its effect on the national culture (Rogers 1985: 120–50). In the Dunciads Pope
is obviously angry about what could be described as personal issues (the success
of writers he considers unworthy, and media hostility to his own career); but he
is also, from an early stage in the development of the Dunciads, angry about wider
issues (the state of contemporary literature, culture and politics).
An important pointer to the themes and motivations of the Dunciads lies in
the dedication to Swift which Pope included from 1729 (I.19–28; and see the anec-
dote recorded in note a) to Appendix I). Pope and Swift, along with the poet and
dramatist John Gay (1685–1732) and John Arbuthnot (1667–1735), satirist and
physician to Queen Anne, had been key members of the Scriblerus Club, which
had flourished briefly in the second decade of the century (Kerby-Miller 1950: 1–
77). It took its name from the fictitious character Martinus Scriblerus, whose mock-
biography the club originally intended to compose: he was conceived as ‘a man
of capacity enough that had dipped in every art and science, but injudiciously in
each’, a caricature of what the members took to be the ludicrous excesses of mod-
ern intellectual life (OAC: I, 56). In the event, enthusiasm for this project waned,
and Pope was finally left to edit the materials, from which he published Memoirs
of the Extraordinary Life, Works, and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus in 1741. More
significant by far had been three parodic satires stimulated by the heady mix of
wit, conservative indignation and camaraderie among the collaborators: Swift’s
Gulliver’s Travels appeared in 1726, and 1728 saw a double Scriblerian triumph with
Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera and Pope’s first Dunciad (PW: II, 174). Pope had earlier that
year presented Scriblerus as author of a satirical guide to bad writing, Peri Bathous:
or, Martinus Scriblerus, His Treatise of the Art of Sinking in Poetry, which Arbuthnot
may initially have helped to draft (PW: II, 180–81). From 1729 Scriblerus’s cour-
teously preposterous interventions also became a key feature in the apparatus of
the Dunciads.

Ancients and Moderns

There is a strangely belated quality about many of Pope’s most heartfelt loyal-
ties: as a young man he tended to adopt as mentors distinguished men whose
active careers were largely behind them; and their quarrels often became his
quarrels, to be pursued with the intensity that marked his commitment to friend-
ship as an ideal. This is highly relevant to the values espoused with such passion
in the Dunciads, values which in important ways hark back to issues debated
in the late seventeenth century, long before Pope was of an age to be directly
involved.
4 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

The Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns had broken out in the late seven-
teenth century in France around the question of whether present civilisations could
hope to outdo the achievements of the ancient world in the arts and in science
and technology. If some contemporaries were excited by the possibility, others
realised with horror that aspirations of this kind threatened the educational and
cultural structures that Europe’s elite had shared ever since the Renaissance re-
discovery of the classical past. Such humanistically educated men believed that
values derived from Greek and Roman literature provided authoritative standards
of virtue, rationality and aesthetic taste, and – quite contrary to our own culture’s
assumption of the pre-eminent importance of empirical science and the tech-
nologies it supports – they assumed that the skills required to read classical texts
and interpret their values for the benefit of society must always be superior to the
merely mechanical skills of an investigator of the physical world. This faith, so
alien to most people today, was the product of an educational system which sep-
arated boys of the social elite from girls and from boys of lower rank by immers-
ing them in classical languages and literature almost to the exclusion of other
subjects; and once that system and the view of the classics on which it depended
was questioned, the way was open (as we might see it now) to new, more demo-
cratic forms of literature, notably the novel, and to the triumphs of science and
technology; but for those nurtured within the intensely demanding and corres-
pondingly satisfying intellectual world of humanistic classicism, what lay ahead
seemed a wilderness without structure or standard, where ignorance would be no
bar to literary ambition, and the dissection of a flea could be claimed as a more
important endeavour than the understanding of an epic. It is the fear of such a
world, and a poignant sense of the beauty and dignity of what is being lost, that
fuels the Dunciads’ onslaught on modernity.

Grub Street
One specifically literary aspect of the modernity attacked in the Dunciads is the
milieu metonymically referred to as ‘Grub Street’, that is, the world of the new
breed of writers who – as the stereotype alleged – lived a hand-to-mouth existence
by selling the products of their labour in the expanding market for printed books
and ephemera. The classic account by Pat Rogers links the actual Grub Street (in
an insalubrious area abutting the north-western corner of the City of London) with
the careers of actual writers named in the Dunciads (Rogers 1972).2 This remains a
suggestive and illuminating treatment of the Dunciads’ terrain, and of some of their
characteristic objects of satire; but it is also important to recognise that – especially
in The Dunciad in Four Books – Pope’s targets extend more widely, indicting, ulti-
mately, the highest in the land as the crucial encouragers of Dulness. At a more
mundane level, it should also be noted that some of those named as bad writers
in any and all of the Dunciads were too genteel, or too successful, to lodge in any-
thing like the squalor of the actual Grub Street. Grub Street remains, however, a
powerful image of shabbiness of way of life, morals and literary standards: it may
overlap, in strictly factual terms, with only a small minority of the careers cited
 INTRODUCTION 5

as evidence for the triumph of Dulness, but it retains the figurative capacity to
smear even the successful with the connotations of their complicity in a new
system of literary production which Pope – and others – resented as a betrayal of
traditional values.
Literature had formerly been associated with leisure and privilege. It required
reserves of learning and an intensity of concentration possible only for those who
could combine a gentleman’s education with freedom from the need to earn a liv-
ing. A writer without independent means needed patronage, rendering his work in
a sense a vicarious product of the social group conventionally associated with good
writing. Literature produced under these conditions assumed an elite readership.
This had never been an unproblematic basis for literary production; and Pope
himself – from a middle-class trading background, and excluded by his Roman
Catholicism from the conventional schooling of a gentleman – was centrally
involved in the changes by which literary works were coming to be seen as a kind
of property which a writer could legitimately sell in order to earn a living. As a
young man he had shown exceptionally shrewd business sense in organising the
sale of his translations of Homer. But the crucial turn in his management of his
career was that he used the profit from his Homer not as a basis for proclaiming
himself a literary professional in the modern literary marketplace, but as capital
on which he could build a self-presentation as independent poet. He fashioned an
image of himself as gentleman-poet, a writer as free from pressure from the mar-
ketplace as he was of pressure from patrons. In a telling passage in To Arbuthnot
(1735) he lists the gentlemen and aristocrats who had first encouraged him to pub-
lish, contrasting them contemptuously with writers who had attacked him and
whom he had attacked in his Dunciads (lines 135–46; see Hammond 1986: 70–98).
The Dunciads, particularly in the games of Book II, construct such writers as com-
mercially driven artisans producing to specification. Their masters are commercial
publishers or government propaganda agents; venality in art and venality in poli-
tics are typically intertwined.3
Yet the Dunciads are not simple expressions of contempt. In what is probably the
single most stimulating essay ever written on the Dunciads, Emrys Jones stresses
the seductive relish with which Pope’s imagination dwells on what he decries, cit-
ing the ostensibly disgusting but in effect ‘strangely attractive’ sewer-diving com-
petition in Book II (Jones 1968: 641–2). A comparable ambivalence characterises
Pope’s attitude to the conceptual and technological fecundity of the book trade,
with its continual transformation of literary genres, book formats, readerships and
marketing structures. Pope’s mock-epic Dunciad in Four Books, its verse set in clas-
sically elegant typography amid the pomp of ample margins, aspires to lofty judge-
ment over the alleged chaos of hack writing; but it is intrinsic to the effect of the
work that the verse is surrounded by dense and intricately laid out parody of the
supposed excesses of contemporary scholarship, making the whole in effect as
hybrid a product and as reliant on sophisticated presentation as any of the mixed
genres and theatrical extravaganzas it condemns. Pope clearly wants to diagnose
terminal degeneracy, but the work itself suggests a cultural proliferation as excit-
ing as it is threatening.
6 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

A plethora of persons
Values and personalities are closely identified in Pope’s imaginative construction
of his world, whether we look at the positive ideals focused on his early mentors,
or the fears of cultural disintegration projected onto a range of modern writers.
What strikes readers first about the Dunciads is likely to be not so much a struc-
ture of values as a plethora of persons: even Swift warned Pope that within a few
years or a few miles from London many of the names would be opaque to readers
(Corr.: II, 504–5). Yet there is also a sense in which a chaos of striving and often
unmemorably insignificant individuals is precisely the image of modernity that
Pope wants to evoke. Artfully reconstructed in verse and commentary, such per-
sons focus the issues and values which Pope felt to be at stake in current contro-
versies – not least because many of their names become a kind of shorthand allusion
to much-resented episodes of personal insult and aggression.4
Some of the writers who agitated against Pope had long been his enemies;
others rushed into print on seeing themselves and their associates ridiculed in
the first Dunciad; and Cibber was provoked to sustained attack only when he sus-
pected that he was to be a central target in a new revision. Indeed, Pope delib-
erately orchestrated the response to his Dunciads, as if to obtain indisputable
testimony to the antagonism that he wanted to pillory (see editor’s note on note
a) to Appendix I, and on the preliminary ‘Advertisement’). He collected pamphlet
attacks and had them bound into volumes, writing at the front of the first the
biblical quotation, ‘Behold it is my desire, that mine Adversary had written a Book.
Surely I would take it on my Shoulder, and bind it as a crown unto me’ ( Job
31:35–6; Guerinot 1969: li). Pope takes the pamphlets as proof of his case against
their authors: in the words of ‘A Letter to the Publisher’, ‘they themselves were at
great pains ... to testify under their hands to the truth of it’; or in the phrase that
follows the epigraphs to The Dunciad in Four Books (all taken from the writings of
his attackers), ‘Out of thine own Mouth will I judge thee, wicked Scribler!’
In this connection it is important to realise just how unpleasant some of these
writers had been about Pope. What is remarkable about these attacks, as sum-
marised in Guerinot’s chronological listing, is not only their unprecedented quan-
tity, but also their routine use of tactics which would today be considered both
outrageous and irrelevant. Far from confining themselves to discussion of his writ-
ing, his antagonists employed gross vilification of his family (his father was a mer-
chant), his religion (he was a Roman Catholic), and his physical appearance (only
four feet six inches tall, he was hunched both forward and to the side). Fictitious
allegations about his personal and professional life were made and repeated; and
pamphleteers revelled in inventing crude sexual and excremental fantasies. The
eagerness to wound and misrepresent was by no means all on Pope’s side, although
the fame of the Dunciads and the relative obscurity of most of his attackers have
sometimes made it seem so.
How, though, is the first-time reader of The Dunciad in Four Books to cope with
this crowd of unknown names? A practicable approach would be to start by get-
ting familiar with a few of the most central figures – those discussed in the para-
graphs that follow – and then to read the verse for the first time without pausing
 INTRODUCTION 7

over the detail of the original or editorial annotation. In subsequent readings more
attention can be paid to the original and editorial commentaries. Thus more detail
about issues and individuals can be absorbed into and can adjust the reader’s gen-
eral sense of the shape of the work, until a complex sense emerges of the tensions
between the roles that persons and events are made to play and what we might
discover about them from other sources and points of view. This can only be done
gradually, in repeated readings, for this is not a work that allows even the illusion
of a single, unified reading.

Sir William Temple and Jonathan Swift

The Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns became personal for Pope through
his friendship with men who had supported the ancient side when the quarrel
arrived in England. Swift had been secretary to Sir William Temple (1628–99), a
retired statesman of traditional humanistic outlook whose confidence in the
obvious rightness of the ancient cause had led him to commit himself in print to
opinions which were soon to be exposed (not that Swift or Pope would ever have
admitted this) as completely erroneous. In An Essay upon the Ancient and Modern
Learning (1690), Temple had not only demonstrated extremes of scepticism about
the recent achievements of empirical science and of credulity about the techno-
logy of the ancient world, but had also declared that in the realm of literature ‘the
oldest books we have are still in their kind the best’ (Monk 1963: 56–9, 64). As
one of his examples in support of this claim he cited the (to him) evident merits
of what he took to be one of the oldest books extant, namely the Epistles of Phalaris.

Richard Bentley
The controversy that followed hinged on whether these Epistles really were the
work of Phalaris, a Sicilian of the sixth century bc, or whether they were a later
composition falsely attributed to him. The professional classicist Richard Bentley
(1662–1742), a pioneering figure in the editing and interpretation of ancient texts,
was able to mobilise the kind of evidence that literary scholars now take for
granted to show from dialect and internal references that these particular writings
could not have been the work of a person living in the time and place of Phalaris.
Such an argument would today be regarded as conclusive, because historicist
study is now the accepted foundation for the editing of texts; but at the time
Bentley’s conclusions outraged those committed to the superiority of the ancients.
Opposition centred on Christ Church, an Oxford college at that time headed by
Pope’s future friend Francis Atterbury (1662–1732). To contemporaries, it was far
from obvious that Bentley had won the debate, since his lack of the wit and grace-
ful polish of the gentlemanly advocates of the classics ranged against him was
widely mistaken for incompetence: later readers too would hardly judge from Swift’s
defence of his patron’s position in The Battle of the Books that Bentley, not Temple,
had had the best of the argument. The issues were widely conceived as issues of
taste, not fact, since the taste of a classically trained gentleman could, it was
8 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

assumed, be trusted to discern the essential qualities of the literature in which he

had been immersed from boyhood; whereas the taste of a pedant, a person of
inferior rank who earned his living by teaching and writing on the classics, could
be assumed to have been corrupted by over-emphasis on technicalities which he
would lack the instinctive discernment to ignore as irrelevant. Moreover, whereas
a gentleman would involve himself in such a controversy only light-heartedly,
to display the superiority of his wit and taste, a pedant would exploit the contro-
versy to promote his professional expertise, either by advancing preposterous views
or by dredging up unfamiliar works whose novelty depended on their being so
tedious or fragmentary that gentlemen had no time for them. Bentley offended
on both counts, and his blunt sarcasms, often delivered in language both coarse
and archaic, further debarred him from any possibility of promotion to the rank
of man of taste. For Swift, Pope and Atterbury, Bentley could no more be con-
sidered a gentleman than his techniques of historicist textual analysis and emenda-
tion (‘verbal criticism’) could convince them of unwelcome truths about ancient
texts. When, a third of a century later, Bentley published an edition of Milton’s
Paradise Lost which proposed readings apparently in flat contradiction to common
sense and probability, he further qualified himself for the direct onslaught that
he received in The Dunciad in Four Books (Bentley 1732). It remains difficult to be
sure exactly what he thought he was doing with Milton’s text, which, as a book
printed in the author’s lifetime, presented radically different editorial problems
from the ancient texts whose scattered and fragmentary manuscript traditions he
had previously analysed. For sceptical contemporaries, however, this work of his
old age confirmed long-held suspicions of his arrogance and perversity.

Lewis Theobald
Lewis Theobald, pilloried in the Dunciads as the hero Tibbald from 1728 until he
was replaced in 1743, was closely identified with Bentley’s approach to texts at
precisely the point that the quarrel impinged on Pope’s own career. His Shakespeare
Restored extended to an English author the principles of historicist analysis estab-
lished by Bentley in his work on Greek and Latin texts. He showed that read-
ing the books Shakespeare would have known, and comparing his grammar and
idioms with those of his contemporaries, produced answers to textual problems
very different from those which had resulted from Pope’s reliance on taste rooted
in assumed universal standards. The quarrel between such taste and the techniques
of professional scholarship was thus revived over an English author, and the
Dunciads’ attack on Theobald as a pedantic and self-interested quibbler was one of
its results. Again, although the commentary to any modern edition of Shakespeare
will confirm that posterity has backed Theobald’s belief in the importance of con-
textual study, if we looked only at the early Dunciads, the most famous contem-
porary response to his work, we might well be persuaded that his approach was
doomed to perish without trace. It is the irony of the Dunciads, in common with
Scriblerian works more generally, to espouse outmoded positions with such daz-
zling accomplishment that readers, especially those disposed to cultural nostalgia,
have often overlooked their tendentiousness.
 INTRODUCTION 9

Theobald qualified for his role as butt of the early Dunciads by more than his
textual scholarship, for though a lawyer by training, he worked as a professional
writer; and Pope would repeatedly insist that the mark of a dunce was to neglect
some lowlier – and implicitly more appropriate – occupation in the hope of mak-
ing money by writing. In Vander Meulen’s words, ‘Theobald was the ideal center-
piece; he perfectly embodied the functions of farce-writing dramatist, occasional
poet, periodical journalist, and pedantic editor and critic that Pope in his develop-
ing satire was identifying as generators of cultural degradation’ (Vander Meulen
1991: 13).

Whigs and Tories

The values and personalities of the Dunciads need also to be understood in rela-
tion to contemporary politics, a theme that emerges with particular explicitness
in The Dunciad in Four Books.
Pope’s family background placed him in an ambiguous relation to the political
alignments of his time. As a Roman Catholic he was debarred from normal school-
ing, residence in central London, admission to university, public employment
(including the post of Poet Laureate) and the ownership of land. In addition, he
was always vulnerable to representation through the stereotypes of anti-Popish pro-
paganda as a traitor to his country. Such a situation alone would have rendered
contemporary Whiggism unattractive, since this was a strongly anti-Popish ideo-
logy which had at the close of the previous century crystallised around the insist-
ence that no Catholic should be king. The fact that Pope’s father was a merchant,
belonging to a group seen by Whigs as vital to the expanding economy, might
seem a potential counterweight; but Pope’s paternal grandfather had been an
Anglican royalist clergyman, and although his mother’s recently gentrified family
had for generations been prominent York tradesmen, Pope, who was only a child
when his father retired from business and moved to the country, was to adopt an
outlook that had much in common with traditional Toryism. Rather than cele-
brating business and the values of modernity, this child of a merchant forbidden
by law to own land would grow up to celebrate not only a social order of rank
and responsibility founded on landownership, but also many other traditional
assumptions about literature, art, religion and politics which in retrospect we can
recognise as associated with that increasingly obsolescent order. The Dunciads in
particular are fundamentally based on such values.

Walpole’s regime
When Pope was young the political climate was sufficiently relaxed for him to
mix with people of a wide variety of political outlooks. Although the Scriblerians
represented a strongly Tory grouping, Pope also counted among his friends com-
mitted Whigs like the dramatist and Shakespeare editor Nicholas Rowe (1674–
1718), and Joseph Addison (1672–1719), celebrated co-author of The Spectator and
mentor to a circle of Whig writers. This changed when Queen Anne died in 1714
and was succeeded by the Hanoverian George I, who feared Tories as potential
10 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

Jacobites, supporters of the exiled line of Catholic Stuarts. He therefore ensured

that they were excluded from power, and placed his government entirely in Whig
hands. It was in the context of this hardening of political attitudes that Pope
learned that Addison was secretly intriguing against him (OAC: I, 60–80). Although
he continued for the rest of his life to proclaim his commitment to moderation
and his willingness to befriend decent men of both parties, this betrayal marked
the end of an era in his personal and political life.
The most powerful politician under George I and his successor George II was
Sir Robert Walpole (1676–1745; Earl of Orford from 1742). Walpole, who has often
been seen as, in effect, the first Prime Minister – the first to attain a degree of
power over sovereign and colleagues which, though now familiar, was then a poten-
tially scandalous usurpation – was a shrewd manager of the individuals and inter-
est groups who sustained his regime, and remained in power until 1742. As a Whig,
he was obviously open to conservative accusations of favouring the burgeoning
financial and commercial schemes of the period to the detriment of traditional
values; but as time went on, the opposition to his policies was swelled also by dis-
affected Whigs, typically motivated by disgust at his reluctance to use military
force to defend British commercial interests (Gerrard 1994). By the time the first
Dunciad appeared in 1728, opposition to his administration was already endemic
among men of letters: what particularly outraged them was his indifference to the
long-established expectation that monarchs and ministers should encourage the
arts by providing financial support for writers (Goldgar 1976). With Walpole in
charge it was clear that the government would do nothing to protect literature
from the commercial pressures that were beginning to render obsolete some of
the most cherished assumptions of traditional elite culture. From the beginning,
Pope’s Dunciads implied that Walpole’s regime was the necessary condition for the
flourishing of Theobald and his like.

Bolingbroke and the Patriot opposition

This is not to assert that Pope was himself a Jacobite, committed to returning the
exiled Catholic Stuarts to the throne, although all his Dunciads employ Jacobite
allusions as part of their arsenal against the status quo. By the 1730s, indeed, many
Whigs as well as Tories, members of a group known as the Patriots, had gathered
round the figurehead of Frederick, Prince of Wales, in the hope of establishing a
reformed administration when his father should die (Gerrard 1994). Pope never
fully committed himself to this opposition group, early suspecting the motives of
some of its leaders. In revising the poem for The New Dunciad and The Dunciad
in Four Books he made no attempt to set up the movement as an ideal: it effec-
tively collapsed in the rush for power that greeted Walpole’s fall in 1742. On the
other hand, the Patriot platform had been to a large extent shaped by Henry
St John (1678–1751), first Viscount Bolingbroke, one of Pope’s most admired
friends and mentors; and much in the politics of the 1742–3 revision rests on
Bolingbroke’s analysis of Whig corruption. Bolingbroke had served as a Tory min-
ister under Anne and had after her death fled into exile and become for a time a
professed Jacobite. More recently he had returned to England and attempted to
 INTRODUCTION 11

cast off these associations, arguing that Walpole’s regime had made such labels
irrelevant. Walpole’s Whig government, he claimed, had now assimilated the abso-
lutist faith in its own power and prerogative that had formerly marked the extremes
of Tory and royalist ideology, and was attempting to rule without regard for
the balance of powers within the constitution (A Dissertation upon Parties 1735).
The attacks on absolutism in Book IV of The Dunciad in Four Books allude to
Bolingbroke’s analysis; but Pope, apparently thoroughly disillusioned by this stage,
does not even hint at a celebration of his positive programme.

Colley Cibber
The greatest surprise to readers in 1743, when Pope finally worked together the
text of the earlier three-book Dunciad with the New Dunciad which had appeared
separately in 1742, must have been that there was a new hero: instead of Theobald,
the familiar target, the honour passed to Colley Cibber (1671–1757), a figure of
undeniable cultural centrality whose ties to Walpole and the King, and to the
worlds of playhouse and bookseller, were not only arguably closer than Theobald’s
had ever been, but were also more topical in the changed circumstances of the
1740s, especially since the publication of his self-satisfied An Apology for the Life
of Mr. Colley Cibber in 1740. As a lackey of the regime, one who wrote, acted and
produced plays, and was besides the King’s chosen poet (Pope calls him ‘Bays’ to
emphasise his Laureate status), he presented a potent focus for the alleged vicious
circle of Whig corruption, cultural commercialism and the decline of taste.

Warburton and ‘Bentley’/Aristarchus

The main problem in substituting Bays for Tibbald was that, unlike Theobald,
Cibber was no scholar. The awkwardness shows in the list of medieval and early-
modern books carried over from Tibbald’s library, books in which Bays would have
had little interest (I.135–40). However, Pope now had Warburton working along-
side him. Warburton, who had reason to feel uneasy about the markedly friendly
discussions he had had with Theobald about literature and editing before he met
Pope, had first earned the gratitude of his new mentor by defending him against
accusations that the Essay on Man was heretical (from 1738: see Warburton 1742).
His initial training had been in the law, and his application of close critical read-
ing to the defence of Pope’s orthodoxy had about it an aggressive pertinacity not
entirely unlike the attitude that Pope deplored in Theobald and Bentley. There is,
therefore, a certain irony in Warburton’s role in creating the character of ‘Bentley’/
Aristarchus in The Dunciad in Four Books, for which he composed the prefatory
essay ‘Ricardus Aristarchus of the Hero of the Poem’. He also contributed a dis-
tinctive brand of pedantic dogmatism to some of the notes attributed to ‘Bentley’,
and to his predecessor Scriblerus, in the revised commentary.
The development of ‘Bentley’/Aristarchus in 1743 was not simply a compensa-
tion for the new hero’s unsuitability to the scholarly aspect of the satire, for Bentley,
as the crucial figure in the English branch of the Quarrel of the Ancients and the
Moderns, and also as a staunch supporter of the Whig regime in his later role as
12 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

head of Trinity College, Cambridge, was far more important to Pope’s grievances
than the earlier Dunciads had revealed: a draft of the verse character of Aristarchus,
not printed until 1742 and 1743 (IV.203–74), probably dates from a decade or more
earlier.5 By finally including in The Dunciad in Four Books this indictment of
Bentley’s literary, educational and political record, and by encouraging Warburton
to elaborate the caricature of his methods, manner and attitudes, Pope was mak-
ing explicit the connection between his dislike of modernity and the quarrel over
the meaning of the past which had first called into question the gentlemanly taste
of his early mentors. Although Bentley was eighty in 1742, and actually died in
that year, the ridicule that had greeted his edition of Paradise Lost in 1732 had
effectively renewed the topicality of what might otherwise have appeared an obso-
lete antagonism.

EPIC AND MOCK EPIC

The Dunciads owe their form to a late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century
hybrid of ancient and modern, the mock-epic or mock-heroic poem. Epic, which
reflected on the culture and values of a society by retelling a traditional story of
heroes and the gods who protected them, was the earliest narrative verse form
known in Europe, the Greek Iliad and Odyssey attributed to Homer being, along
with the Roman Aeneid of Virgil, the examples best known in the eighteenth cen-
tury. Described by John Dryden (1631–1700) as ‘the greatest Work which the Soul
of Man is capable to perform’, the epic or heroic poem (as it was often called) was
respected as the highest form of narrative art: both Dryden and Pope translated
ancient epic into English heroic couplets (rhyming pairs of lines in iambic pen-
tameter) and aspired to write original epic for their own times (‘Dedication of the
Aeneis’, Hooker 1956–89: V, 267). Neither, however, managed to do so; but both
excelled at mock epic (Dryden in Mac Flecknoe and Pope in The Rape of the Lock
and the Dunciads), in which a story of modern life was told with all the traditional
grandeur of the old heroic poetry. Both indeed executed these poems in what had
become the age’s favourite metrical form, the heroic couplet, whose very name
recalled its use in the translation of the ancient epic: there was no getting away
from standards implied by this revered inheritance. The effect of decking out a
modern tale in ancient dress has been much debated: does the grandeur shame
and belittle modern life, or does it reveal an insufficiently recognised value in
modernity? Despite a long tradition of insisting that mock epic (like those trans-
parent but now rather dated frauds, mock cream and mock-turtle soup) never
mocks but always pays tribute to the object of its imitation, readers have recently
been more willing to concede that it also exposes the inadequacy of ancient
models to a full exploration of the modern; and in the light of current interest in
the vitality and volatility of eighteenth-century modernity, that inadequacy is no
longer seen simply as an implicit condemnation of the modern. With the benefit
of hindsight, and from a world in which the classics are even further from being
accepted as cultural absolutes, we see that the epic was, by the eighteenth cen-
tury, effectively finished; that the novel was gaining the ascendancy it still retains
among literary forms; and that the combination of ostensibly triumphant wit and
 INTRODUCTION 13

elegiac edginess typical of mock epic arises precisely from its precarious straddling
of the growing divide.
Pope had already worked with the genre in The Rape of the Lock, placing a
young society beauty in the structural position occupied in epic by the warrior
hero. In the Dunciads, which from the beginning featured a kind of progress from
the plebeian and mercantile City of London towards the royal and aristocratic
Westminster, he signals an overarching allusion to the action of Virgil’s Aeneid, in
which Aeneas leaves the ruins of Troy and sails westward to found the new and
greater city of Rome. Pope’s perverse hero is still, in 1743, engaged on a version
of this project: he is Dulness’s ‘Son who brings / The Smithfield Muses to the ear
of Kings’, translating fairground culture to theatres and palaces (I.1–2 and 2n.; and
see map). Just as Aeneas has for his mother the powerful goddess Venus, so Pope’s
hero has Dulness. The classic account of the Dunciads’ relation to the Aeneid is that
by Aubrey Williams, who also emphasises Pope’s invocation of Milton’s Paradise
Lost as exemplar of the English epic. There is, however, a danger in reading the
Dunciads primarily as structural allusion to earlier epics, for by overemphasising the
elements that correspond, we may pass over too lightly those that do not, making
too tidy a set of equivalences. The Dunciad in Four Books is not predominantly
characterised by sequences of action and speech: much of what passes for action
is phantasmagoric; and long stretches of the verse, notably the whole fourth book,
contain hardly anything describable as action. Thus we need to be alert to its often
disconcerting differences from – even irrelevancies to – the Aeneid and the other
classical antecedents so lavishly memorialised in its allusions and authorial com-
mentary, as well as noticing its carefully crafted similarities.
This is not in any way to imply that today’s reader can afford to ignore the
Dunciads’ classical heritage; and my commentary attempts to give a detailed sense
of the beauty and complexity of the allusions with which Pope loads verse and
notes alike, as well as of the jokes against ignorance or supposed perversity in clas-
sical studies by which he encourages the conventionally educated reader to preen
himself on his superiority. After a first reading, it is particularly useful to turn in
an accessible modern translation to the Homeric and Virgilian games which under-
pin much of Book II, and to the Virgilian visit to the underworld which shapes
Book III, to get some sense of the structural importance to Pope’s work of these
poems which every educated male of the upper ranks then knew almost by heart.
After examining the way these are refracted through Pope’s memory and imagina-
tion, a modern reader can begin to see something of the thoroughness with which
ancient poetry permeated the creativity of the conventionally educated. From this,
even at our historical distance, we may be able to glimpse something of the ter-
rifying prospect that opened up when it became conceivable that these basic
building blocks of literate thought might be defaced by crass verbal critics or dis-
placed by ignorant moderns convinced of the sufficiency of their own creations.

THE ACTION OF THE POEM

Although the prose elements of The Dunciad in Four Books are integral to its effects,
there is at its heart a narrative poem, and new readers in particular may find it
14 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

helpful to have a summary of its action keyed to line numbers. (Personalities,

vocabulary, etc. are not explained here, but should be followed up in the edi-
torial commentary on the relevant passage.)

Book I
The speaker declares Dulness and her son as subject, and invokes the great, her
servants, to tell how she brought Britain under her power (1–8). The speaker
describes Dulness’s origins and ambitions (9–18). The work is dedicated to Jonathan
Swift (19–28). In the Cave of Poverty and Poetry, near a lunatic asylum, Dulness
reviews a mass of printed matter which testifies to the perversion of morality and
literary decorum (29–84). On the evening of a Lord Mayor’s Day she reflects how
the achievements of the poets formerly employed by the City of London are con-
tinued in poets of the present (85–106). Bays, her favourite, is introduced, at a loss
how to proceed in his writing and surrounded by worthless books (107–54). He
builds an altar of books and places his works on it as a burnt offering, calling on
Dulness to remember his lifelong devotion (155–256). Dulness puts out the flames
and transports him to her home, where she reveals the processes by which liter-
ature degenerates under her care (257–86). She anoints him as her chosen son and
prophesies his triumph at court, looking forward to the day when monarch and
parliament will also succumb to her power (287–318). The book closes with gen-
eral acclaim for Bays, prompting a comparison with the fable of the frogs who
asked for a king (319–30).

Book II
Bays is enthroned, and Dulness summons Dunces of all ranks and occupations
to join in games in his honour (1–30). The booksellers Lintot and Curll chase a
phantom poet: Curll falls, sends a petition to Jupiter by way of the divine privy
tended by Cloacina, and is inspired to get up and overtake his rival; but as he
lays hold on the phantom it vanishes; and Dulness repeats the joke by providing
three more phantom writers for a second race (31–130). Dulness advises Curll to
learn from her trick how to market his authors under the names of their betters;
and she gives him as a consolation prize a tapestry representing the sufferings of
her champions, among whom he recognises himself in the act of being tossed in
a blanket by the boys of Westminster School (131–56). Eliza is offered as first prize
in a urination contest, with a chamber pot as second prize: Osborne’s poor per-
formance merits only the latter, while Curll’s, impressive enough to be compared
to the River Po, secures the first prize (157–90). Authors compete to tickle the
patron with their dedications, but he is won over only by the prostitution of the
sister of a candidate otherwise without merit (191–220). Dulness proclaims a noise-
making contest in two classes: on hearing the equally matched performances in
the jabbering class she awards a prize of a catcall to everyone; but in the braying
class Blackmore easily outdoes the rest and is awarded the drum (221–68). Dulness
then invites journalists to dive into a sewer, offering an ingot of lead as first prize
and consolation prizes of coal for everyone else: competitors include Oldmixon,
 INTRODUCTION 15

Smedley, Concanen and Arnall; but Smedley appears to be lost, and emerges only
later, relating how the mud-nymphs had revealed to him the underworld where
authors from among the clergy spend the afterlife, and how he had been acclaimed
there by his predecessor Milbourne (269–364). Dulness finally proposes to see who
can stay awake while authors read from their works, offering the winner critical
licence to say whatever he likes about literature; but there is no winner, as every-
one falls asleep (365–418). Night falls, and the competitors disperse (419–28).

Book III
Meanwhile, Bays lies dreaming in Dulness’s lap (1–12). He is led into the under-
world by a slovenly sibyl, and is rowed over the Styx, past the souls of dead bad
poets, to the place where they wait to be returned to the world in new bodies
(13–34). He is greeted by Settle, his poetic father, who explains the metempsy-
chosis of nonsense and promises him visions of the past and future triumphs of
Dulness (35–66). Settle begins with a historical survey of the destruction of learn-
ing, ranging over China, Alexandria, the Roman Empire and the Islamic world;
and he presents religious bigotry as prime cause of the ruin of Roman art and cul-
ture both in Rome itself and in medieval Britain (67–122). He prophesies Dulness’s
coming triumph, localising her in Grub Street among her literary sons; and he goes
on to survey individual writers, closing with a warning that though the Dunces
should set themselves against everything good, they must still be careful not actu-
ally to commit blasphemy (123–224). This advice is ascribed to a transitory flash
of reason; and Settle moves on to show Bays apocalyptic scenes of contemporary
stage-effects in pantomime, assuring him that all this is destined for him to achieve
(225–72). Bays will fulfil what Settle, in a relatively limited career whose high point
was the office of poet to the City of London, could only dream of; for Bays will
be taken up by the highest in the land; he will be involved with fashionable opera,
and will produce theatrical programmes featuring apocalyptic special effects
(273–316). Settle closes by acclaiming Bays as agent of the return of Dulness’s
empire, by identifying the cultural signals of her approach – which include Gay’s
failure to secure a pension, Swift’s exile and Pope’s turn from original poetry to
translating Homer and editing Shakespeare – and by foreseeing the dissolution of
the educational system (317–38). Bays’s dream vanishes through the ivory gate
(339–40).

Book IV
The speaker implores Chaos and Night to allow him time to conclude (1–9). Amid
widespread sickness and infertility Dulness takes her throne, with Bays on her lap
and personifed abstractions – the good under restraint and the bad triumphant –
grouped around (9–44). Opera warns Dulness to banish Handel (45–70). Dulness
summons her supporters (71–100). Seeing editors bringing up the rear, Dulness
encourages them to distinguish themselves at their authors’ expense (101–34). The
schoolmaster emerges from the jostling crowd to celebrate the narrowly verbal
learning imposed on schoolboys, prompting Dulness to wish for a return, via
16 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

verbal quibbling, to arbitrary monarchy (135–88). This rouses the intellectual reac-
tionaries of Oxford and Cambridge, led by Aristarchus, who boasts of his service
to Dulness in textual criticism and in educating the young in such a way as to
prevent them from understanding anything important; but he falls silent when he
sees the young traveller returning from the Grand Tour (189–274). The traveller’s
tutor presents his pupil and his foreign whore, describing the experiences abroad
that have improved the pupil’s capacity to serve Dulness (275–336). She notices
Paridel among an apathetic group of idlers: her favour only makes him sleepier
(336–46). Annius prays to be allowed to cheat by trading in fake antiquities, and
when challenged by Mummius to produce medals which he has paid for but which
Annius has swallowed, suggests that they dine with Pollio with a view to recover-
ing the treasure (347–97). From a crowd of virtuosi in natural history emerge a
horticulturalist and a butterfly collector who argue over a carnation damaged by
the collector in his eagerness to capture a butterfly: Dulness commends both
and exhorts them to interest others in such hobbies in order to distract them from
the worship of the God who creates the objects of their obsessions (397–458). A
clergyman of deist leanings with a taste for a priori argument promises to take care
of the latter project (459–92). Silenus, mentioned at the end of the clergyman’s
speech, wakes up and explains to Dulness that the returned traveller is the finished
product of the education she sponsors: devoid of religious awe and skilled only in
empty words, he is ready to submit to arbitrary authority (493–516). The Wizard
offers the young a potion which turns them into mere dilettanti, obsessed with
distractions from horseracing and hunting, through varieties of self-obsession, to
opera and gastronomy (517–64). Dulness confers titles and degrees on her dis-
ciples (565–78). She instructs them to cultivate pride, selfishness and dullness, sug-
gests hobbies to distract the ruling class from public responsibilities, and looks
forward to the ambition of one of her servants who, by daring to make the monarch
his puppet, will bring the whole country under her control (579–604). She is pre-
vented from saying more by a yawn which puts to sleep the church, educational
institutions, parliament, government and the armed forces (605–18). The speaker
implores the muse to list the victims of the yawn, but his speech lapses into
asterisks (619–26). Even the muse succumbs as Dulness arrives in triumph, extin-
guishing intellectual light and putting to flight the personifications of moral and
religious principle: she restores the chaos which existed before the creation, and
shuts the curtain on a darkened universe (627–56).

THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS AS PHYSICAL OBJECT

Pope was unusually interested in the physical appearance of his works, and con-
trolled the production process carefully. The Dunciad in Four Books of 1743 was
conceived in the quarto format which he had adopted for his most expensive edi-
tions, and many features of its appearance testify to his aspiration to present it as
a modern classic, at the same time as parodying what he saw as the excesses of
modern editors. The poem itself is printed with a plain dignity which had become
established as the appropriate style for prestige editions of Latin poetry, and which
 INTRODUCTION 17

Pope increasingly favoured for his own works: it marks a reaction against the
relative fussiness of the conventional format – with routine capitalisation of nouns
and extensive italicisation – in which his earliest works had been produced. How-
ever, The Dunciad in Four Books as a whole is typographically very complex: the
verse is elaborately underlaid with double columns of footnotes, with much italic
type and substantial quotations in Greek; and even archaic blackletter type is occa-
sionally used. The layout of notes is further complicated by a division between
‘Remarks’ and ‘Imitations’. This somewhat artificial distinction between explan-
atory notes and citation of passages imitated reflects another aspect of Pope’s
aspiration to present himself as a classic: it is copied, along with other features of
layout and typography, from the 1716 Geneva edition of the much-admired French
poet Nicolas Boileau Despréaux (1636–1711: known as Boileau), which had pre-
sented, in double columns, a three-decker commentary divided into ‘Changemens’,
‘Remarques’ and ‘Imitations’ (McLaverty 1984: 99–105 and plates on pp. 102–3).
(Warburton completed the resemblance after the poet’s death by adding a third
level of commentary, ‘Changes’, which recorded the different versions through
which particular lines had passed.)
Around the poem and its notes is arranged a complex series of prefaces and
appendices. Some parody the methods of scholars in presenting classic Greek and
Latin texts. Others parody legal documents. Several reprint documents from previ-
ous stages in the text’s production and reception history. All in all, the accumula-
tion of supplementary documentation both parodies the modern developments in
the volume and the ephemerality of printed matter and implies a claim to be the
kind of classic text that generates a documentary and interpretative tradition.

A NOTE ON THE TEXT

Copy text

This edition has been made from British Library 641.l.17 (1.), one of the 100 fine-
paper copies of the 1743 Dunciad in Four Books (Maslen & Lancaster 1991: Checklist,
no. 3138). These were printed on larger, thicker paper than the 1500 ordinary
copies, and were presumably intended for presentation. Additional minor correc-
tions were also made between the printing of the ordinary and fine-paper copies.
Fine-paper copies are now very rare: apart from the one in the British Library, there
is one at Yale, and another was presented to the Bodleian Library by David Foxon
in 1997 (Vander Meulen 1989: 309; Bodleian Vet. A4 c. 429(1) ).
One particular feature of the fine-paper copies deserves comment: they are not
affected as most of the ordinary copies are by the substitution of a cancel which
replaced IV.115–18 with four lines of asterisks. The issues surrounding the cancel
are complex: allegations about it appeared soon after Pope’s death, and have recently
been reconsidered by David Vander Meulen (Gentleman’s Magazine 14 (1745): 611;
Vander Meulen 1989: 307–8). However, no cancels were printed for the fine-paper
copies, so there is at least a case for believing that Pope wished his most privileged
readers not to be deprived of these four lines (Vander Meulen 1989: 309–10).
18 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

Copies of 1743 vary in the order in which the titles, preliminaries and introduc-
tory essays are bound. It is not easy to see in what order the items were intended
to appear, and binders evidently had difficulty in making the two pagination
sequences (one roman, one arabic) run properly. The order given here is not that
of my copy text: it has been devised to present the items in a plausible sequence
compatible with the page-numbering.

General
The aim of this edition is to present The Dunciad in Four Books with a full modern
commentary set out on the same page, but with a clear visual separation between
the modern commentary and the verse and prose of Pope’s text.
I present the text largely unmodernised, because there are particularly strong
arguments for regarding the accidentals of Pope’s Dunciads as part of their meaning:
these are texts which discuss the implications of the new market in the printed
word, and as they develop they mobilise an increasing range of the resources
of early eighteenth-century print technology. I have preserved, with the exceptions
listed below, the spelling, capitalisation and italicisation of 1743; and I have made
no attempt either to regularise its inconsistencies of referencing or to bring its
punctuation into line with modern usage. Two features, however, have been mod-
ernised: diphthongs are spelled out as two letters; and contemporary abbreviations
for ‘et’, ‘et cetera’ and ‘verse’ which use unfamiliar characters have been mod-
ernised. Some additional changes which particularly affect the original footnotes
have been dictated by the need to save space: double inverted commas have been
changed to single and are not repeated at the beginning of each line of the quota-
tion, and in the light of this omission closing speech marks have been inserted
where necessary to prevent confusion; double-column presentation of footnotes
has been abandoned; short verse quotations which were originally italicised, in-
dented and spaced off from the prose preceding and following have been set in
roman inside inverted commas and set continuously with the prose, with punctua-
tion modified accordingly and slashes inserted to show line divisions; the separate
sequences of footnotes originally designated as ‘Remarks’ and ‘Imitations’ have
been merged, with cues adapted as necessary; the abbreviation ‘VER.’ before line
cues has been omitted and square brackets following cues supplied where absent;
and the quotations which follow cues in the original are omitted – with cues
adapted accordingly – except in cases where the quotation is necessary to identify
the particular word or phrase engaged by the note. Literal errors (mainly miscued
notes and incorrect book, page and line references) have been silently corrected.
An annotated edition can assist the reader in many ways, but it can never replace
the original book, particularly in the case of so significantly complex a piece of
bookmaking as The Dunciad in Four Books. Although facsimiles might provide a
partial solution, at the time of writing these have been published only for the
Dunciads of 1728 and 1729. However, although fine-paper copies of 1743 are rare
and access to them is usually restricted, ordinary copies are quite widely distrib-
uted among major libraries, and anyone working on The Dunciad in Four Books
who can arrange to examine one will find that the experience well repays the effort.
 INTRODUCTION 19

NOTES

1. In contrast, James Sutherland’s Volume V of The Twickenham Edition of the Poems of

Alexander Pope collates all four versions, as well as intermediate variants, and pro-
duces from them two reading texts. The present text is a variant of Sutherland’s B
type, but is presented without the need to reconstruct the original and editorial com-
mentaries by cross-referencing to the earlier versions subsumed in his A text.
2. The principal places named in The Dunciad in Four Books are marked on the simpli-
fied map included in the present edition. A contemporary large-scale map is repro-
duced and indexed in Hyde 1981.
3. Hammond has recently extended and elaborated his view of Pope’s relation to this
tension between the ideal of the gentlemanly amateur and the new realities of pro-
fessional authorship (Hammond 1997).
4. Few readers will be in danger of taking literally a satirical poem which assigns
imaginary words and actions to named individuals; but where Pope does assign to
a character a name (Tibbald, Bays) which distinguishes him from his historical orig-
inal (Theobald, Cibber), the distinction is worth preserving. In the case of Richard
Bentley (whose role I discuss later in this Introduction), the original commentary
assigns to him so many fictitious pronouncements that I have distinguished in my
commentary between the real Bentley and the fictionalised ‘Bentley’.
5. This formed part of the second of two known manuscripts of Dunciad material, which
are now extant only in later transcriptions. Dating of the original second manuscript
is problematic: Vander Meulen places it in its entirety before the first Dunciad of
1728, while McLaverty suggests that some parts, including the Bentley passage, may
date from as late as the early 1730s. For discussion see Mack 1982: 339–43; Mack
1984: 98, 127–8; Vander Meulen 1991: 49–59; McLaverty 1993: 9–14.
 Hockley in
the Hole Charterhouse

Moorfields

B ST
Smithfield Artillery
Ground

GRU
HOLBOR
N
To
Tyburn Lincoln's
Bedlam
Inn

C H AN

D
R
U

C ER
RY
Guildhall

Fleet Ditch
LA

Y LA
NE
Covent FLEET STREET

NE
Garden St Paul's
Temple Aldgate
Bar Ludgate
St Mary St Mary le Bow
ND le Strand Bridewell
RA

HAYMARKET
ST
Rag Fair
Charing Thames Billingsgate
Cross r
Hungerford
Stairs ve Tower
St James's Palace

Ri
Southwark

P ar k

W H ITE H A L L
1
0 /2 Mile
Westminster City wall
Hall
0 Approximate scale 1km

The London area in the 1740s

 THE

D U N C I A D,
IN

FOUR BOOKS.
Printed according to the complete Copy
found in the Year 1742.
WITH THE

Prolegomena of S c r i b l e r u s,
AND

Notes Variorum.

To which are added,

S everal Notes now first publish’d, the Hy p e rc r i t i c s

of A r i sta rc h u s, and his Dissertation on the Hero of
the P oem.

Tandem Phoebus adest, morsusque inferre parantem

Congelat, et patulos, ut erant, indurat hiatus. O v i d.

L O N D O N,
Printed for M. Coop er at the Globe in Pater-noster-row,
mdccxliii.

complete Copy found in the Year 1742: The Dunciad in Four Books of 1743 first incorporated
Book IV (published separately in 1742 as The New Dunciad ). The claim that the text was
‘found’ rather than deliberately published by Pope is a transparent pretence.
P ROLEGOMENA of S CRIBLERUS: Introductory material provided by the fictitious Martinus
Scriblerus.
N OTES VARIORUM: ‘Variorum’ (‘of various people’) designates an edition which compiles
extracts from the critical tradition, a potentially uncritical procedure from which Bentley, with
his emphasis on critical judgement, was moving away (McLaverty 1984: 97). The fiction was
that Scriblerus had compiled the 1729 Dunciad Variorum: ‘Bentley’/Aristarchus is now brought
in to challenge and update his work.
H YPERCRITICS of A RISTARCHUS : ‘Hypercritics’ suggests that the critical input will be excessive

21
22 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

and unreasonable. Aristarchus of Samothrace (c.215–c.143 BC), librarian at Alexandria and

reputedly the first professional scholar, produced commentaries on some of the texts later to
be edited by Richard Bentley, who had specified the qualities of Aristarchus among the require-
ments of an editor (Bentley 1711: Praefatio). Pope makes Bentley call himself Aristarchus at
IV.210.
Tandem: The Roman poet Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso: 43 BC–AD 17) describes how Phoebus
(Apollo), god of poetry, prevented a serpent from devouring the murdered poet Orpheus: ‘At
last Phoebus appears, and freezes him as he is about to bite, and turns to stone, just as they
were, his gaping jaws’ (Metamorphoses XI.58, 60). This implies an identification between
Orpheus, the Apollonian poet-priest whose song brought order and peace and continued even
after his death, and the author of the Dunciad, suggesting that Pope’s adversaries will find a
similarly unwelcome immortality through their representation in the Dunciad (Regan 1975;
Peterson 1975).
 Speedily will be publish’d,
[In the same Paper, and Character, to be bound up with this,]
The ESSAY on MAN,
The ESSAY on CRITICISM,
And the rest of the Author’s Original Poems,
With the COMMENTARIES and NOTES of
W. Warburton, A. M.

Speedily will be publish’d: When Pope died in 1744 he left his collaborator Warburton
‘the property of all such of my Works already printed, as he hath written, or shall write
Commentaries or Notes upon’ (Nichol 1992: xxxii). For the collaboration and its relation to
the publication process of The Dunciad in Four Books and to Warburton’s subsequent career,
see Foxon 1991: 144–52.
Character: type.

23
This page intentionally left blank
 ADVERTISEMENT
TO THE

READER.

I Have long had a design of giving some sort of Notes on the Works of this Poet. Before
I had the happiness of his acquaintance, I had written a Commentary on his Essay
on Man, and have since finished another on the Essay on Criticism. There was one
already on the Dunciad, which had met with general approbation: but I still thought
some additions were wanting (of a more serious kind) to the humorous Notes of Scriblerus,
and even to those written by Mr. Cleland, Dr. Arbuthnot, and others. I had lately the
pleasure to pass some months with the Author in the Country, where I prevailed upon
him to do what I had long desired, and favour me with his explanation of several pas-
sages in his Works. It happen’d, that just at that juncture was published a ridiculous
book against him, full of Personal Reflections which furnished him with a lucky oppor-
tunity of improving This Poem, by giving it the only thing it wanted, a more consid-
erable Hero. He was always sensible of its defect in that particular, and owned he had

ADVERTISEMENT: This declaration, first used in 1743 and ostensibly by Warburton, was
apparently drafted by Pope as part of his ‘Project ... to make you in some measure the Editor
of this new Edit. of the Dunc. if you have no scruple of owning some of the Graver Notes
which are now added’ (Corr.: IV, 427; Leranbaum 1977: 143–4). The ‘scruple’ might seem to
suggest that the notes were actually not by Warburton; but Pope may simply have thought
that Warburton might be unwilling to ‘own’ his participation in a satire potentially embar-
rassing to a clergyman (compare Corr.: IV, 430). By initialling the ‘Advertisement’ Warburton
declared his status as Pope’s authorised commentator.
one already: From 1729 the Dunciad had a commentary written mostly by Pope, but appar-
ently incorporating contributions from friends and others.
Mr. Cleland: Pope’s friend Major (called ‘Colonel’) William Cleland (c.1674–1741), who
allowed his signature to be put to ‘A Letter to the Publisher’, and was similarly accommo-
dating in 1731 over a letter defending To Burlington (Butt 1954: 32–3; Corr.: III, 162, 254–7;
Mack 1984: 423). Pope addressed a verse invitation to him (TE: VI, 321–2). A Scot, he pur-
sued a military career during the War of the Spanish Succession, and ‘after the Peace’ con-
cluded at Utrecht in 1713 held civil service posts (Blanchard 1941: 119–20). Pope suggests
that he was unjustly dismissed by Walpole (see notes on the conclusion of ‘A Letter to the
Publisher’, and for Pope’s response to news of Cleland’s death, Corr.: IV, 377–8).
a ridiculous book: Cibber’s A Letter from Mr. Cibber, To Mr. Pope (1742).
a more considerable hero: The original hero, Tibbald, caricatured Lewis Theobald, who had
given particular offence by his criticism of Pope’s Shakespeare in his Shakespeare Restored
(1726). In 1743 Tibbald was replaced by Bays, caricaturing Colley Cibber, a more compel-
ling focus for increasingly explicit and wide-ranging political and cultural concerns (Rogers
1975: 121). Cibber had been an object of Pope’s ridicule from before the publication of the
first Dunciad in 1728 (see the ironic guide to bad writing Peri Bathous: PW: II, 197, 230). His

25
26 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

let it pass with the Hero it had, purely for want of a better; not entertaining the least
expectation that such an one was reserved for this Post, as has since obtained the Laurel:
But since that had happened, he could no longer deny this justice either to him or the
Dunciad.
And yet I will venture to say, there was another motive which had still more weight
with our Author: This person was one, who from every Folly (not to say Vice) of which
another would be ashamed, has constantly derived a Vanity; and therefore was the man
in the world who would least be hurt by it.
W. W.

appointment as Poet Laureate in 1730 enabled Pope to present him as a buffoon raised
from playhouse to court by the corruption of the establishment (for Pope’s attitude to the
Laureateship, from which he was barred by religion, see Woodman 1990). Once he had
decided on the change, Pope had deliberately provoked Cibber into offering apparent
justification by attacking him further (Corr.: IV, 448–9; OAC: I, 111–12, 148–9).
This person was one: Cibber’s Apology, characterised by frankness about arguably dis-
creditable traits, marked a new departure in the construction of actors as media figures (Straub
1992: 24–46).
W. W.: William Warburton.
 By AUTHORITY.

Y virtue of the Authority in Us vested by the Act for subjecting Poets to the
B power of a Licenser, we have revised this Piece; where finding the style and appel-
lation of King to have been given to a certain Pretender, Pseudo-Poet, or Phantom,
of the name of Tibbald; and apprehending the same may be deemed in some sort a

By AUTHORITY: The announcement of the new hero of 1743, a parody of an official pro-
clamation, printed in archaic blackletter type under a spoof royal arms. The royal lion has an
exaggerated smirk perhaps indicative of Cibber’s self-satisfaction; and, like the unicorn, has
suggestively large genitals (Mengel in Mack & Winn 1980: 767–73). The initials on the Garter
buckle could be read as ‘G’ for George II and a reversed ‘C’ for Colley; while the interlocked
‘C’s under the text could stand for Colley Cibber (while recalling the ‘X’ used by the illiterate
to sign documents), and a ‘Ch.’ for Lord Chancellor, anticipating III.324. A monogram of inter-
locked ‘C’s was also used by the actual Lord Chamberlain, Charles Fitzroy (1683–1757), sec-
ond Duke of Grafton, responsible for appointing Cibber as Laureate in 1730, and widely
ridiculed for stupidity (Gibbs 1910–40: VI, 45–6).
Act for subjecting Poets: Dramatic verse (only) was subject to licensing, in that by the Act
of 1737 plays had to be approved by the Lord Chamberlain before they could be performed.
The opposition to Walpole condemned this as oppressive censorship: see IV.35–44 and
notes.
K ING to have been given to a certain Pretender: Since George II had honoured Cibber as
Laureate, it would be treasonable to promote any other writer (such as Theobald) ahead of
him. ‘Pretender’ at this time primarily denoted a Jacobite claimant to the throne: in 1745 the
‘Young Pretender’, Charles Edward Stuart (1720–88), was to lead a rebellion in favour of his
father, James Francis Edward Stuart (1688–1766), the ‘Old Pretender’.
Phantom: A term used by the literary theorist René Le Bossu (1631–80) to suggest that
the importance of the epic hero was representative, not individual. Here it allows Pope to
play with the notion that his victim was not even a real person. Scriblerus develops the notion
in ‘Martinus Scriblerus of the Poem’.

27
28 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

Reflection on Majesty, or at least an insult on that Legal Authority which has bestowed
on another person the Crown of Poesy: We have ordered the said Pretender, Pseudo-
Poet, or Phantom, utterly to vanish and evaporate out of this work: And do declare
the said Throne of Poesy from henceforth to be abdicated and vacant, unless duly and
lawfully supplied by the Laureate himself. And it is hereby enacted, that no other per-
son do presume to fill the same.

abdicated and vacant: A tendentious allusion to the official justification of the accession
of William and Mary in 1688 (‘The Glorious Revolution’): when James II fled from William’s
invasion, he was held to have abdicated, and to have left the throne vacant.
 D ennis, Remarks on Pr. A rt h u r .

I Cannot but think it the most reasonable thing in the world, to distinguish good
writers, by discouraging the bad. Nor is it an ill-natured thing, in relation even
to the very persons upon whom the reflections are made. It is true, it may deprive
them, a little the sooner, of a short profit and a transitory reputation; but then it may
have a good effect, and oblige them (before it be too late) to decline that for which
they are so very unfit, and to have recourse to something in which they may be
more successful.

Ch a r ac t e r of Mr. P. 1716.
THE Persons whom Boileau has attacked in his writings, have been for the most
part Authors, and most of those Authors, Poets: And the censures he hath passed
upon them have been confirmed by all Europe.

Gildon, Pref. to his New Rehearsal.

IT is the common cry of the Poetasters of the town, and their fautors, that it is
an ill-natured thing to expose the Pretenders to wit and poetry. The Judges and
Magistrates may with full as good reason be reproached with Ill-nature for putting
the Laws in execution against a Thief or Impostor. — The same will hold in the
republic of Letters, if the Critics and Judges will let every ignorant pretender to scrib-
ling pass on the world.

D ENNIS: John Dennis (1657–1734), literary critic and convinced Whig, was an inveterate and
immoderate adversary of Pope who early set the precedent for attacks on his work and char-
acter. In Peri Bathous, published just before the first Dunciad in 1728, Dennis is implied to be
among the ‘Porpoises’ who cause ‘a great turmoil and tempest, but ... are only shapeless and
ugly monsters’ (PW: II, 197). Dennis is ironically made to ‘justify’ Pope’s attack on the vic-
tims of the Dunciad by a loose quotation from Remarks on Prince Arthur, an attack on Sir
Richard Blackmore (d. 1729), physician, prolific epicist and favourite butt of the wits, respon-
sible for more than twice as many examples of bad writing in Peri Bathous as any other writer
(Hooker 1939–43: I, 48).
C HARACTER of Mr. P. 1716: A True Character of Mr. Pope (1716), an anonymous attack by
Dennis, apparently incorporating material by Charles Gildon (1665–1724) (Hooker 1939–43:
II, 107; for other grounds of offence see OAC: I, 71; II, 625). In Peri Bathous Gildon seems to
be included both among the ‘Porpoises’ alongside Dennis and among the ‘Flying Fishes ... who
now and then rise’ above their general level of bad writing (PW: II, 196–7). Boileau:
Boileau, who had satirised fellow poets, is shown by repeated allusions to be a model for the
stance towards contemporary writers adopted in the Dunciad.
G ILDON: Adapted from the opening of Gildon’s anonymously published A New Rehearsal
(1714). Poetasters: worthless poets. fautors: supporters. pass on the world: Pass
themselves off to the public as what they are not.

29
30 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

T heobald, Letter to Mist, June 22, 1728.

ATTACKS may be levelled, either against Failures in Genius, or against the
Pretensions of writing without one.

Co n c a n e n , Ded. to the Author of the D u n c i a d .

A Satyr upon Dulness is a thing that has been used and allowed in All Ages.

Out of thine own Mouth will I judge thee, wicked Scribler!

Mist: Mist’s Weekly Journal, a paper which specialised in Tory, sometimes Jacobite, polit-
ical comment (for title changes see The Weekly Journal: or, Saturday’s Post; Black 1987b).
C ONCANEN: Matthew Concanen (1701–49), writer and Whig propagandist, to whom Pope
attributed ‘To the Author of the Dunciad’, the preface to A Compleat Collection (1728).
Out of thine own Mouth: Echoing the words of the master to the servant who buried his
one talent rather than investing it (‘Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked
servant’: Luke 19:22). The allusion serves Pope’s contention that bad writers refuse to labour
at the work nature and education have fitted them for and wrongly aspire instead to an elite
activity: cp. his own self-justificatory claim that ‘I left no Calling for this idle trade’ (To Arbuthnot,
line 129). By citing his victims’ own defences of satire on bad writers, Pope has made them
‘justify’ the satire he will turn against them.
 A

LETTER
TO THE

PUBLISHER,
Occasioned by the first correct

E d i t i o n of the DUNCIAD.

I
T is with pleasure I hear, that you have procured a correct copy of the Dunciad,
which the many surreptitious ones have rendered so necessary; and it is yet
with more, that I am informed it will be attended with a Commentary: A Work
so requisite, that I cannot think the Author himself would have omitted it, had
he approved of the first appearance of this Poem.
Such Notes as have occurred to me I herewith send you: You will oblige me by
inserting them amongst those which are, or will be, transmitted to you by others;
since not only the Author’s friends, but even strangers, appear engaged by human-
ity, to take some care of an Orphan of so much genius and spirit, which its par-
ent seems to have abandoned from the very beginning, and suffered to step into
the world naked, unguarded, and unattended.
It was upon reading some of the abusive papers lately published, that my great
regard to a Person, whose Friendship I esteem as one of the chief honours of my
life, and a much greater respect to Truth, than to him or any man living, engaged
me in enquiries, of which the inclosed Notes are the fruit.
I perceived, that most of these Authors had been (doubtless very wisely) the first
aggressors. They had tried, ’till they were weary, what was to be got by railing at
each other: Nobody was either concerned or surprised, if this or that scribler was
proved a dunce. But every one was curious to read what could be said to prove

A LETTER TO THE PUBLISHER: Generally supposed to be by Pope, though signed by

Cleland. First used in 1729, it was adapted for 1743, after Cleland was dead. Like the 1729
Dunciad, it focuses on bad writing and on personal offences against Pope rather than on the
larger political concerns stressed in The Dunciad in Four Books.
had he approved: In line with the fiction that the Dunciad had been published without
Pope’s consent.
abusive papers: Pope’s politics, religion and literary attitudes had long made him a target
of printed abuse (listed and described in Guerinot 1969).
the inclosed Notes: Implying that Cleland contributed to the annotation of 1729.
railing at each other: The mutual enmity of bad writers is a key theme of the Dunciad.
if this or that scribler was proved a dunce: ‘Dunce’ derives from the celebrated thirteenth-
century scholastic philosopher Duns Scotus. In the Renaissance scholastic thought came to
be seen as perverse sophistry, and ‘dunce’ to imply wrong-headed stupidity.

31
32 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

Mr. Pope one, and was ready to pay something for such a discovery: A stratagem,
which would they fairly own, it might not only reconcile them to me, but screen
them from the resentment of their lawful Superiors, whom they daily abuse, only
(as I charitably hope) to get that by them, which they cannot get from them.
I found this was not all: Ill success in that had transported them to Personal
abuse, either of himself, or (what I think he could less forgive) of his Friends. They
had called Men of virtue and honour bad Men, long before he had either leisure
or inclination to call them bad Writers: And some had been such old offenders,
that he had quite forgotten their persons as well as their slanders, ’till they were
pleased to revive them.
Now what had Mr. Pope done before, to incense them? He had published those
works which are in the hands of every body, in which not the least mention is
made of any of them. And what has he done since? He has laughed, and written
the Dunciad. What has that said of them? A very serious truth, which the public
had said before, that they were dull: And what it had no sooner said, but they
themselves were at great pains to procure or even purchase room in the prints, to
testify under their hands to the truth of it.
I should still have been silent, if either I had seen any inclination in my friend to
be serious with such accusers, or if they had only meddled with his Writings; since
whoever publishes, puts himself on his trial by his Country. But when his Moral
character was attacked, and in a manner from which neither truth nor virtue can
secure the most innocent, in a manner, which, though it annihilates the credit of
the accusation with the just and impartial, yet aggravates very much the guilt of
the accusers; I mean by Authors without names: then I thought, since the danger
was common to all, the concern ought to be so; and that it was an act of justice to
detect the Authors, not only on this account, but as many of them are the same who
for several years past have made free with the greatest names in Church and State,
exposed to the world the private misfortunes of Families, abused all, even to Women,
and whose prostituted papers (for one or other Party, in the unhappy divisions of
their Country) have insulted the Fallen, the Friendless, the Exil’d, and the Dead.

own: admit.
to get that by them, which they cannot get from them: As these writers cannot gain their
patronage, they are reduced to earning money by writing against them.
not the least mention is made of any of them: Peri Bathous (1728) had equivocated over
the identity of its victims by using initials, allegedly at random. ‘Those works which are in
the hands of every body’ could be read as limiting the field to Pope’s most widely read poems
and translations.
the prints: the press.
to testify under their hands: By publishing signed proof of their dulness.
only meddled with his Writings: Distinguishing between legitimate criticism of published
works, and illegitimate personal attacks.
prostituted papers: Political propaganda written only for money.
unhappy divisions: Pope’s society was polarised around oppositions between Whig and
Tory, Hanoverian and Jacobite. Though basically Tory in outlook, he prided himself on cul-
tivating friendships across party lines, and even The Dunciad in Four Books attempts some
semblance of neutrality (e.g. I.207–8).
the Fallen, the Friendless, the Exil’d, and the Dead: Notably three friends highly placed in
 A LETTER TO THE PUBLISHER 33

Besides this, which I take to be a public concern, I have already confessed I

had a private one. I am one of that number who have long loved and esteemed
Mr. Pope; and had often declared it was not his capacity or writings (which we
ever thought the least valuable part of his character) but the honest, open, and
beneficent man, that we most esteemed, and loved in him. Now, if what these
people say were believed, I must appear to all my friends either a fool, or a knave;
either imposed on myself, or imposing on them; so that I am as much interested
in the confutation of these calumnies, as he is himself.
I am no Author, and consequently not to be suspected either of jealousy or
resentment against any of the Men, of whom scarce one is known to me by sight;
and as for their Writings, I have sought them (on this one occasion) in vain, in
the closets and libraries of all my acquaintance. I had still been in the dark, if a
Gentleman had not procured me (I suppose from some of themselves, for they are
generally much more dangerous friends than enemies) the passages I send you. I
solemnly protest I have added nothing to the malice or absurdity of them; which
it behoves me to declare, since the vouchers themselves will be so soon and so

the Tory regime of Anne’s last years, but threatened with prosecution by the Whig adminis-
tration of George I: Robert Harley (1661–1724), first Earl of Oxford and former Lord Treasurer,
was accused of treason (largely because he had ended the War of the Spanish Succession,
which the Whigs wished to continue) and sent to the Tower in 1715, but acquitted in 1717;
his associate and rival Bolingbroke fled to France and for a time became Foreign Secretary
to the Pretender, but was pardoned in 1723; and Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, was
sentenced to exile in 1723 after a Bill of Pains and Penalties was brought against him: this
required only a parliamentary vote, rather than a conviction. The government correctly sus-
pected, but could not prove, that he was plotting a Jacobite invasion.
the honest, open, and beneficent man: Pope frequently insisted that friendship and integ-
rity meant more to him than literary fame.
I am as much interested: I have as much at stake.
the confutation of these calumnies: the disproof of these false charges.
in vain: Because no person of taste would buy such works.
closets: Small rooms used for private study and reading.
a Gentleman: Probably Richard Savage (d. 1743), a gifted but unstable writer, best known
from Samuel Johnson’s Life of Savage (1744: Tracy 1971). Although Savage claimed his real par-
ents were aristocrats, he lived a hand-to-mouth existence as a writer, and thus knew the less
respectable aspects of the literary marketplace in a way that the successful and financially self-
sufficient Pope did not. Pope respected Savage’s talent and attempted unsuccessfully to help
him settle to a more constructive way of life, paying him a regular allowance long after he had
exasperated other friends (see Index to Tracy 1971 under ‘Pope’). Savage was routinely accused
of being Pope’s spy on the victims of the Dunciad (Guerinot 1969: 93, 162, 233–4, 302, 315).
much more dangerous friends than enemies: The bad writers who provided samples of each
other’s work (perhaps ultimately bound into Pope’s collection of attacks, British Library
C.116.b.1–4) were providing evidence against their supposed friends.
I have added nothing: Although the quotations and paraphrases used in the notes are often
deftly edited to sharpen the intended application.
the vouchers themselves: The books and pamphlets which vouch for the truth of the quota-
tions are ephemeral rubbish which no-one will think worth preserving.
34 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

irrecoverably lost. You may in some measure prevent it, by preserving at least their
Titlesa, and discovering (as far as you can depend on the truth of your informa-
tion) the Names of the concealed authors.
The first objection I have heard made to the Poem is, that the persons are too
obscure for satyr. The persons themselves, rather than allow the objection, would
forgive the satyr; and if one could be tempted to afford it a serious answer, were
not all assassinates, popular insurrections, the insolence of the rabble without
doors, and of domestics within, most wrongfully chastised, if the Meanness of
offenders indemnified them from punishment? On the contrary, Obscurity renders
them more dangerous, as less thought of: Law can pronounce judgment only on
open facts; Morality alone can pass censure on intentions of mischief; so that for
secret calumny, or the arrow flying in the dark, there is no public punishment left,
but what a good Writer inflicts.
The next objection is, that these sort of authors are poor. That might be
pleaded as an excuse at the Old Baily, for lesser crimes than Defamation, (for ’tis
the case of almost all who are tried there) but sure it can be none: For who will
pretend that the robbing another of his Reputation supplies the want of it in him-
self? I question not but such authors are poor, and heartily wish the objection
were removed by any honest livelihood. But Poverty is here the accident, not the
subject: He who describes Malice and Villany to be pale and meagre, expresses
not the least anger against Paleness or Leanness, but against Malice and Villany.
The Apothecary in Romeo and Juliet is poor; but is he therefore justified in
vending poison? Not but Poverty itself becomes a just subject of satyr, when it is
the consequence of vice, prodigality, or neglect of one’s lawful calling; for then it

a
Which we have done in a List printed in the Appendix.

at least their Titles: See Appendix II.

assassinates: murderers.
without doors: outside.
domestics: household servants.
Meanness: low social standing.
open facts: Actions to which witnesses can testify.
the arrow flying in the dark: Cp. Psalm 91:5: ‘Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by
night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day’.
what a good Writer inflicts: Satire is presented as the only punishment that can be applied
to false accusations made anonymously.
the Old Baily: The Old Bailey is the central criminal court in London.
for lesser crimes than Defamation: Poverty is said not to mitigate defamation, since, in con-
trast with a poor man who by stealing gains what he lacks, a writer who lacks reputation can-
not gain one by taking it from someone else.
Poverty is here the accident, not the subject: Poverty is alleged to be an accidental not an
essential attribute of the writers accused. For the established poetic tradition of satirising the
poverty of writers, see Jones in Mack & Winn 1980: 628–34.
Apothecary in Romeo and Juliet: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act V.i.
 A LETTER TO THE PUBLISHER 35

increases the public burden, fills the streets and highways with Robbers, and the
garrets with Clippers, Coiners, and Weekly Journalists.
But admitting that two or three of these offend less in their morals, than in their
writings; must Poverty make nonsense sacred? If so, the fame of bad authors would
be much better consulted than that of all the good ones in the world; and not one
of an hundred had ever been called by his right name.
They mistake the whole matter: It is not charity to encourage them in the way
they follow, but to get them out of it; for men are not bunglers because they are
poor, but they are poor because they are bunglers.
Is it not pleasant enough, to hear our authors crying out on the one hand, as if
their persons and characters were too sacred for Satyr; and the public objecting on
the other, that they are too mean even for Ridicule? But whether Bread or Fame
be their end, it must be allowed, our author, by and in this Poem, has mercifully
given them a little of both.
There are two or three, who by their rank and fortune have no benefit from the
former objections, supposing them good, and these I was sorry to see in such com-
pany. But if, without any provocation, two or three Gentlemen will fall upon one,
in an affair wherein his interest and reputation are equally embarked; they can-
not certainly, after they have been content to print themselves his enemies, com-
plain of being put into the number of them.
Others, I am told, pretend to have been once his Friends. Surely they are their
enemies who say so, since nothing can be more odious than to treat a friend as
they have done. But of this I cannot persuade myself, when I consider the con-
stant and eternal aversion of all bad writers to a good one.
Such as claim a merit from being his Admirers I would gladly ask, if it lays him
under a personal obligation? At that rate he would be the most obliged humble
servant in the world. I dare swear for these in particular, he never desired them to

it increases the public burden: Wilful poverty increases the number of paupers who have
to be supported by the public.
Clippers, Coiners, and Weekly Journalists: Levelling writers of propaganda with criminals
who devalue the currency: clippers (who clipped precious metal from the edges of coins and
sold it) and forgers. All three are implied to have forsaken a ‘lawful calling’.
consulted: attended to.
not one ... by his right name: The quality of canonical authors would never have been
recognised if the poverty of their worthless contemporaries had been held to compensate for
their lack of merit.
pleasant: amusing.
two or three: An admission that not all the authors ridiculed in the Dunciad are poor or of
humble birth.
supposing them good: Even if ‘the former objections’ had been accepted.
pretend to have been once his Friends: Notably the would-be dramatist James Moore
Smythe (1702–34), who had initially sought Pope’s favour, but is condemned in the Dunciad
as a plagiarist (see II.35–50). In Peri Bathous he is apparently classed with the ‘Frogs’, who
‘live generally in the bottom of a ditch, and make a great noise whenever they thrust their
heads above water’ (PW: II, 197).
36 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

be his admirers, nor promised in return to be theirs: That had truly been a sign he
was of their acquaintance; but would not the malicious world have suspected such
an approbation of some motive worse than ignorance, in the author of the Essay
on Criticism? Be it as it will, the reasons of their Admiration and of his Contempt
are equally subsisting, for his works and theirs are the very same that they were.
One, therefore, of their assertions I believe may be true, ‘That he has a contempt
for their writings.’ And there is another, which would probably be sooner allowed
by himself than by any good judge beside, ‘That his own have found too much
success with the public.’ But as it cannot consist with his modesty to claim this as
a justice, it lies not on him, but entirely on the public, to defend its own judgment.
There remains what in my opinion might seem a better plea for these people,
than any they have made use of. If Obscurity or Poverty were to exempt a man
from satyr, much more should Folly or Dulness, which are still more involuntary;
nay, as much so as personal Deformity. But even this will not help them: Deformity
becomes an object of Ridicule when a man sets up for being handsome; and so
must Dulness when he sets up for a Wit. They are not ridiculed because Ridicule
in itself is, or ought to be, a pleasure; but because it is just to undeceive and vin-
dicate the honest and unpretending part of mankind from imposition, because
particular interest ought to yield to general, and a great number who are not
naturally Fools, ought never to be made so, in complaisance to a few who are.
Accordingly we find that in all ages, all vain pretenders, were they ever so poor or
ever so dull, have been constantly the topics of the most candid satyrists, from
the Codrus of Juvenal to the Damon of Boileau.

some motive worse than ignorance: Observers would have suspected Pope of self-serving
flattery if he, the author of a poem demonstrating a refined taste, had pretended to admire
such authors’ works.
are ... subsisting: still exist.
it cannot consist with his modesty: It would be improper for Pope himself to assert that his
poetry deserved its initial success. Only readers can do this by their continued esteem.
as much so as personal Deformity: A pointed comparison, since Pope’s physical handicaps
had been used to ridicule him.
sets up for: claims to be.
it is just to undeceive: Attacks on bad writers are justified as an attempt to protect unsus-
pecting readers from being imposed upon.
particular interest ought to yield to general: The interest of a few has to give way to the
interest of the whole community.
complaisance: politeness, deference.
Codrus of J UVENAL: Juvenal, Roman satirist (flourished early second century AD), attacks
in his first satire a tedious poet called Cordus. Pope follows the tradition of assuming Cordus
to be the same character as Codrus, an impoverished book-lover in the third satire who lives
in the Roman equivalent of a garret. The assimilation of the two suits Pope’s insistence that
poverty is the dunces’ proper punishment for refusing to give up a literary career for which they
lack talent (for the use of the name to attack Pope, see Codrus: or, The Dunciad Dissected 1728).
Damon of B OILEAU: Although Damon the poor poet, the speaker in Boileau’s first satire, is
to some extent the author’s persona, Pope’s desire to present poverty as the ordained pun-
ishment of bad poets is best satisfied by treating the account as simple satire.
 A LETTER TO THE PUBLISHER 37

Having mentioned Boileau, the greatest Poet and most judicious Critic of his
age and country, admirable for his Talents, and yet perhaps more admirable for
his Judgment in the proper application of them; I cannot help remarking the
resemblance betwixt him and our author, in Qualities, Fame, and Fortune; in the
distinctions shewn them by their Superiors, in the general esteem of their Equals,
and in their extended reputation amongst Foreigners; in the latter of which ours
has met with the better fate, as he has had for his Translators persons of the most
eminent rank and abilities in their respective nationsb. But the resemblance holds
in nothing more, than in their being equally abused by the ignorant pretenders to
Poetry of their times; of which not the least memory will remain but in their own
Writings, and in the Notes made upon them. What Boileau has done in almost
all his poems, our author has only in this: I dare answer for him he will do it in
no more; and on this principle, of attacking few but who had slandered him, he
could not have done it at all, had he been confined from censuring obscure and
worthless persons, for scarce any other were his enemies. However, as the parity
is so remarkable, I hope it will continue to the last; and if ever he shall give us an
edition of this Poem himself, I may see some of them treated as gently, on their
repentance or better merit, as Perrault and Quinault were at last by Boileau.
In one point I must be allowed to think the character of our English Poet the
more amiable. He has not been a follower of Fortune or Success; he has lived with
the Great without flattery; been a friend to Men in power, without pensions, from

b
Essay on Criticism, in French verse, by General Hamilton; the same, in verse also, by
Monsieur Roboton, Counsellor and Privy Secretary to king George I. after by the Abbé Reynel,
in verse, with notes. Rape of the Lock, in French, by the Princess of Conti, Paris 1728. and
in Italian verse, by the Abbé Conti a Noble Venetian; and by the Marquis Rangoni, Envoy
Extraordinary from Modena to King George II. Others of his works by Salvini of Florence,
etc. His Essays and Dissertations on Homer, several times translated in French. Essay on Man,
by the Abbé Reynel, in verse, by Monsieur Silhouet, in prose, 1737. and since by others in
French, Italian, and Latin.

the distinctions shewn them by their Superiors: People of higher rank enhanced the status
of both poets by condescending to associate with them.
his Translators: The stress on their status is characteristic of Pope’s representation of his
admirers. Anthony Hamilton (1645?–1719), Irish Jacobite in exile, sent Pope his translation of
the Essay on Criticism in manuscript (Corr.: I, 192–3). For French translations of the works
mentioned, see index to Audra 1931. For Italian translations of The Rape of the Lock, see
O’Grady 1986: 15–57.
parity: similarity, parallel.
Perrault and Quinault: Charles Perrault (1628–1703) and Philippe Quinault (1635–1688)
were writers attacked by Boileau. In the preface to the 1701 edition of his works he attempted
to minimise the antagonism. Instances of reconciliation in The Dunciad in Four Books are sparse
and sometimes equivocal (e.g. editor’s note on I.146).
He has not been a follower: Pope prided himself on not seeking patronage for himself, par-
ticularly from the Hanoverian establishment (for his refusal of pensions, see OAC : I, 99–100).
His Catholicism rendered him legally ineligible for many kinds of patronage.
38 THE DUNCIAD IN FOUR BOOKS

whom, as he asked, so he received no favour, but what was done Him in his Friends.
As his Satyrs were the more just for being delayed, so were his Panegyrics; bestowed
only on such persons as he had familiarly known, only for such virtues as he had
long observed in them, and only at such times as others cease to praise, if not begin
to calumniate them, I mean when out of power or out of fashionc. A satyr, there-
fore, on writers so notorious for the contrary practice, became no man so well as

c
As Mr. Wycherley, at the time the Town declaimed against his book of Poems; Mr. Walsh,
after his death; Sir William Trumbull, when he had resigned the Office of Secretary of State;
Lord Bolingbroke, at his leaving England after the Queen’s death; Lord Oxford in his last
decline of life; Mr. Secretary Craggs, at the end of the South Sea year, and after his death:
Others only in Epitaphs.

what was done Him in his Friends: The favours which the establishment did him by bestow-
ing favours on his friends: he was sometimes prepared to solicit for others as he would not
have done for himself (e.g. OAC: I, 29–31).
more just for being delayed: Pope’s harshest satire comes from relatively late in his career.
so were his Panegyrics ... out of fashion: Asserting that Pope praised his heroes most when
they had least power to reward him: it remains true, however, that some of them benefited
him substantially by their advice, contacts and influence.
William Wycherley (1640–1716) had been a celebrated dramatist, but his Miscellany Poems
(1704) were badly received. The young Pope defended the collection in his ‘Epigram.
Occasion’d by Ozell’s Translation of Boileau’s Lutrin’, and dedicated the third of his Pastorals
to Wycherley. Pope also helped to revise his verse; and it was one of Pope’s grudges against
Theobald, who had attended the dying Wycherley as lawyer and hence came under suspicion
of helping to deceive him into a fraudulent and mercenary deathbed marriage, that he had
gained possession of the corrected papers, which he had further altered and published in 1728
as Wycherley’s Posthumous Works (Corr.: I, xi–xii; OAC: I, 36, 39–40). Pope retaliated in 1729
by publishing what he called Volume II (PW: II, 305–16).
William Walsh (1663–1708) was a gentleman critic whose guidance Pope acknowledged in
the closing lines of the Essay on Criticism and in To Arbuthnot (lines 135–6) (OAC : I, 31–2).
Sir William Trumbull (1639–1716) retired to Windsor Forest after a career in politics and
diplomacy. He became a valued friend of Pope, who dedicated the first of his Pastorals to
him, complimented him in Windsor Forest (lines 235–58) and composed an epitaph for him
(OAC: I, 31).
Pope honoured both Oxford and Bolingbroke after their fall, notably by praising Oxford in
his ‘Epistle. To Robert Earl of Oxford, and Earl Mortimer’ (prefaced to his posthumous edi-
tion of the works of their mutual friend Thomas Parnell (1679–1718; works published 1722) ),
and by dedicating the Essay on Man to Bolingbroke.
James Craggs (1686–1721), Secretary of State, was in fact praised by Pope when at
the height of his career, notably at the close of To Mr. Addison, Occasioned by his Dialogues
on Medals, first published in 1720; but the lines were re-used in 1727 in an epitaph for his
monument in Westminster Abbey, where, despite the suspicions of dishonest dealing in South
Sea stock that had gathered around him at the time of his sudden death, Craggs was pro-
claimed as ‘in Honour clear’, an expression of loyalty on Pope’s part which drew immediate
disapproval (TE: VI, 205–6, 282–3).
The exiled Atterbury was honoured in an epitaph (TE: VI, 343–5).
the contrary practice: Flattering those in power.
 A LETTER TO THE PUBLISHER 39

himself; as none, it is plain, was so little in their friendships, or so much in that

of those whom they had most abused, namely the Greatest and Best of all Parties.
Let me add a further reason, that, though engaged in their Friendships, he never es-
poused their Animosities; and can almost singly challenge this honour, not to have
written a line of any man, which, through Guilt, through Shame, or through Fear,
through variety of Fortune, or change of Interests, he was ever unwilling to own.
I shall conclude with remarking what a pleasure it must be to every reader of
Humanity, to see all along, that our Author in his very laughter is not indulging
his own ill-nature, but only punishing that of others. As to his Poem, those
alone are capable of doing it justice, who, to use the words of a great writer, know
how hard it is (with regard both to his subject and his manner) vetustis dare
novitatem, obsoletis nitorem, obscuris lucem, fastiditis gratiam. I am

Your most humble servant,

St. James’s
Dec. 22, 1728. W illiam Clel andd.

d
This Gentleman was of Scotland, and bred at the University of Utrecht, with the Earl of
Mar. He served in Spain under Earl Rivers. After the Peace, he was made one of the
Commissioners of the Customs in Scotland, and then of Taxes in England, in which having
shewn himself for twenty years diligent, punctual, and incorruptible, though without any
other assistance of Fortune, he was suddenly displaced by the Minister in the sixty eighth
year of his age; and died two months after, in 1741. He was a person of Universal Learning,
and an enlarged Conversation; no man had a warmer heart for his Friend, or a sincerer attach-
ment to the Constitution of his Country.

he never espoused their Animosities: A strategy vital to his ability to resist being limited to
one political or literary clique.
not to have written a line of any man: Although Pope had published anonymously, the
equivocation turns on the despicable motives for doing so that he attributes to the dunces.
not indulging his own ill-nature: Satire is pointedly presented as the administration of just-
ice rather than the indulgence of malice.
a great writer: The quotation (slightly adapted) from the preface to the Natural History of
Pliny the Elder (AD 23/4–79) may be translated as ‘to give novelty to what is ancient, sparkle
to what is commonplace, clarity to what is obscure, charm to what is distasteful’. The man-
ner in which it is introduced is a reminder of the assumption, fundamental to the Dunciad,
that literature is the preserve of the educated gentleman: those who cannot recognise the
author of a Latin quotation without being told are implicitly excluded.
St. James’s: The royal associations of Cleland’s address (close to St James’s Palace in
Westminster) lend the authority of social distinction to his defence of Pope (Corr.: III, 381).
This Gentleman: The note presents Cleland as a victim of the unjust conduct of ‘the
Minister’, Sir Robert Walpole (cp. Corr.: IV, 377–8). Cleland is suggestively associated with
two eminent but ultimately disaffected servants of Whig regimes: John Erskine (1675–1732),
sixth (or twenty-third) Earl of Mar, who became a Jacobite; and Richard Savage (1660?–1712),
fourth Earl Rivers. Pope presents Cleland as well informed, ‘enlarged’ (‘liberal’, ‘enlightened’)
in attitude, and devoted to ‘the Constitution of his Country’ – in implied contrast to the regime
that slighted him.
This page intentionally left blank
MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS
HIS

Prolegomena and Illustrations

TO THE

DUNCIAD:
WITH THE

Hyper-critics of A rista rc hus.

41
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The crystal
ray
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: The crystal ray

Author: Raymond Z. Gallun

Illustrator: S. Strother

Release date: June 27, 2024 [eBook #73926]

Language: English

Original publication: New York, NY: Stellar Publishing Corporation,

1929

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRYSTAL

RAY ***
 The Crystal Ray

BY RAYMOND GALLUN

By the Author of "The Space Dwellers"

RAYMOND GALLUN

The greatest advances in

science will come during the
next hundred years, when our
understanding of the different
forms of rays emitted by
various strange materials is
better developed. The past
 century witnessed the
discovery of X-rays, as well as
the emanation rays of radium
and others. Only very recently
a new ray, the cosmic ray, has
been announced as a very
potent factor in our lives. That
many more materials found to
emit powerful rays will be
discovered, some of them
with deadly and altogether
unexpected qualities, is a
foregone conclusion. The
present story deals with such
instrumentalities and,
incidentally, the author has
built a marvelous stirring
story which cannot fail to
impress you.

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Air Wonder Stories November 1929.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
A mid-afternoon sun of the stirring war year 2141 A.D. shone upon a
small battle flier which was speeding southward at an altitude of
fifteen miles. It was a two-seated outfit, cigar-shaped and made of
an aluminum alloy. On the shining metal of its body were painted
several red, white and blue stars—the insignia of the United States;
mounted on its prow were two dangerous looking automatic guns.
Beneath the body of the machine was a convex, hollow sheet of
metal containing a substance which neutralized gravity when acted
upon by the electromagnetic waves sent out by the power stations
throughout the western hemisphere; this device, the Whitley
gravitational screen, supported the craft in the air. Hissing jets of gas
ejected at the stern were driving the machine through the thin
atmosphere at a velocity of nearly a thousand miles an hour. A faint
wake of bluish vapor trailed behind like the tail of a comet.
In the flier were two men wearing the oxygen masks and metal
armor necessary at extreme altitudes; attired in this fantastic garb
they looked for all the world like a pair of goblins from some distant
planet.
As members of the U. S. Scout Squadron Number Five, both had
done their bit in the seemingly hopeless battle of Caucasian nations
against the yellow men of Asia. Holding the controls was George
Calhoun, the ace who had to his credit more than sixty aerial
victories, including the bombing of two great battleships of the skies.
Joseph Pelton, his companion, who in peace time had devoted all his
spare moments to science, was not so successful a fighter; but he
had participated in many hazardous struggles.
These men were now on a three days' leave of absence. The United
States—the only formidable power of the Occident that had so far
escaped being wiped out by the air fleets of Asia, could ill spare
either; but science had not yet found a way to relieve the fatigue
that comes with constant war.
Above them the aviators could see the deep blue-black sky, sprinkled
with stars because of the rarity of the atmosphere. Beneath rolled an
ever-changing panorama of earth, seemingly turned up at the edges
like an enormous saucer. Now they were over the Gulf of Mexico
veiled in its gray-blue mist; now above the verdant agricultural
districts of Central America, long ago occupied by the invaders.
A little more than three hours after they had set out from Chicago,
the young men hung over the snow-capped pinnacles of the Andes,
which looked like mere ash heaps far beneath. Here was one of the
few spots on earth that did not yet resound with the din of war; it
was such a place they sought.
Presently the airboat began to descend in a long spiral; a few
minutes later it settled gently at the edge of a little adobe village on
the eastern slope of the mountains.

The Legend of the Mountain

A flier was an unusual sight here and the inquisitive inhabitants,

men, women and children, crowded around to get a glimpse at the
wonderful machine.
There was nothing resembling a hostelry in the village; but, when
the worthy Señor Hernando Diaz, its richest citizen, learned that
these young men were soldiers like his own three sons who were
fighting against the Asiatics in Argentina, he offered his hospitality.
After the evening meal Señor Diaz and his guests repaired to a
broad veranda which faced west. For quite a time the three men
remained silent. Pelton and Calhoun were absorbed in the grandeur
of the mountains over which dusk was settling, and Hernando Diaz
knew too well the power of silence and the spell of that majestic
sight, to break it with words.
At length Calhoun murmured musingly: "God is up there—God and
Peace. Even war couldn't disturb the eternal serenity of those
Andes."
He spoke in Spanish. Both Calhoun and Pelton had a fairly complete
mastery of that language.
Diaz leaned far forward in his chair: "God in those mountains,
Señor? Ah, yes, perhaps in the great peaks far off; but do you see
that one which is quite near? It is less than two thousand meters
high and at its summit there is a small depression or crater. Madre
de Dios—there indeed is the lair of Satan!"
A quizzical smile came over Calhoun's lips. He turned toward the
Ecuadorian: "I'm afraid the gentleman you mention has gone north
to help with the big row up there. But let's hear the rest of what you
were going to say. I'm intensely interested and I think that Joe is
perfectly willing to listen too."
"There is a legend about 'The Devil's Nest' which says that in ancient
times the Indians made human sacrifices to the sun there," Diaz
began in a low voice, while he toyed nervously with the ends of his
curling mustache: "Certainly there is something dreadful about the
place still, but no one knows what. In the memory of living men,
only two have ventured into it. That was ten years ago. A certain
youth named Pedro Menendez was driven by the spirit of adventure,
which is the inherent possession of most boys, to scale the heights
of 'The Devil's Nest.' He failed to return. Three days later his father
ventured up the walls of the extinct volcano in search of him. No
human eye has seen either of them since. Truly, it was as though
Satan had swallowed up both."
"Men have gone up into mountains before, and failed to return," said
Pelton: "There are places where footing is precarious, and crevices in
which it would be almost impossible to find a human body. However,
we have a little mystery here to solve—George, what do you say if
we take a trip to 'The Devil's Nest' tomorrow?"
"Bully enough, old egg," returned Calhoun laughingly: "We've faced
devils before, haven't we? They were real devils hurtling at us from
out of the sky and shooting streams of poisoned lead dangerously
close to our gills. They will probably get us anyway in a week or two
and, if we get killed in the mountains, we will at least have the
satisfaction of cheating them."
Seeing that argument was useless against such reckless hot-heads,
their host merely muttered softly to himself: "They are rash—these
soldiers of the United States."
The last pale light had faded from above the peaks of the Andes, a
faint wind soughed through the trees. The conversation drifted to
other topics.

The Devil's Nest

When the early morning sun of another day had mounted up into a
cloudless firmament, the two aviators were preparing for their
adventure. Believing that the vigorous exercise of climbing would do
their little-used muscles good, they decided to leave the flier behind.
Since this was so, they realized that it might be necessary to camp
on top of the mountain that night; consequently they packed up a
light tent, a couple of blankets and some extra provisions.
Señor Diaz did not urge them to desist from their venture but, when
he wished them good luck, Pelton noticed that there was something
strangely solemn about his voice and eyes. His attitude was not at
all that of a friend bidding him good luck at the outset of a holiday of
sport; it resembled, instead, the attitude of a certain fatherly old
captain speaking kindly to him when he was about to risk his life in
an aerial combat.
When all was ready, Calhoun and Pelton started out up the slopes of
the Andes. For a couple of miles the going was easy; but, as they
approached closer to the sinister bulk of "The Devil's Nest," the
ground grew steep and sterile and the trail more and more difficult.
Calhoun was outwardly in a carefree mood and he scoffed often
about the story. "Just imagine, Joe," he would say, "demons and
what-not in these mountains that are nearer to God than anything
on earth—beneath this blue sky that is the very symbol of peace and
beauty! What a superstitious lot the Señor and all his kind are!"
Pelton said very little. Somehow he felt that his friend's
lightheartedness was forced, and over his own mind there was
coming a sense of depression that increased as the mountain grew
more rugged. Was there really some horror in the ancient, extinct
crater far above? "No!" he told himself emphatically. The idea was
ridiculous; he was a fool even to think of it.
The two men paused to eat their noonday meal at a small level
space nearly three thousand feet above the village. The stillness of
the place and his own gloomy mood inspired strange thoughts in the
mind of Pelton. Finally he turned to Calhoun who was vigorously
chewing the last fragment of a ham sandwich (yes—this ancient
food still delighted palates of the twenty-second century.)
"Do you think often of Death, George?" he asked.
The other swallowed hard and then smiling slightly, answered:
"Death? Well rather. I couldn't help thinking of him now and then,
because you see I play hide-and-seek with him pretty nearly every
day. He's come to be about my most intimate playfellow, and he's a
real sport. He's always 'it' and he never gets sore. So far he hasn't
found me, and I will continue to keep out of his way if I can.
However, if it's necessary, I'll take my hat off to Death and admit I'm
beaten. I'd rather do that than become a slave to those Asiatics."
"I don't fear death in the physical sense any more than you do,
George," said Pelton, "but, Lord! How I hate to be forgotten! I'd like
to survive this war and live long enough to work out some of my
scientific theories. Since I was just a kid I have dreamed of doing
something really big and that idea has grown to be almost an
obsession with me. You are lucky; even our enemies will remember
you as one of the cleverest aerial duelists that ever fought."
"Pshaw!" returned Calhoun; "If there isn't anybody left on earth to
remember me but those disgusting Asiatics, I'd rather not be
remembered. But listen here, old fellow, I don't think it is the least
bit nice of you to make this holiday disagreeable with your glum talk.
Just forget it and stow some food and then let's be on our way. The
top of the mountain is still about three thousand feet above us, and
if we want to reach it before sunset we had better get a move on."
A few minutes later the adventurers continued with their ascent.
Now they began to encounter real difficulties; there were rugged,
almost perpendicular crags, offering but the barest hand- and foot-
holds. These almost baffled the amateur climbers. Here and there
were narrow shelves where they could stop to get their breath.

The Blue Crystals

It was during one of these rests that Pelton noticed crystals of a

bluish, semi-opaque mineral clinging to the rocks about him. These
crystals appeared to become more and more plentiful as they neared
the summit of the volcano. Pelton knew something of mineralogy,
but never in his considerable experience had he encountered such a
substance. Curious to know its nature, he thrust several pieces into
his pack; hoping that some day, if luck was with him, he might
analyze them.
Just as the two Americans were starting on the last hundred feet of
climbing that lay between them and their goal a large cloud came
over the declining sun and an ominous gloom settled over the world.
And now the youths peered eagerly over the rim of the crater into
"The Devil's Nest." Five minutes later they had descended fifty feet
to its floor.
They found themselves in a small, circular valley about a thousand
feet across. Everywhere, topping the walls of multi-colored stone
that surrounded it, were pinnacles of the strange blue mineral,
pointing toward the sky like the thin minarets of a city of goblins. On
the summit of the rocky barrier at the western side of the crater was
a huge mass of the crystal that gleamed darkly under the shadow of
the obscuring cloud which hung persistently before the sun.
"This place has more weird beauty than 'The Island of Death'," said
Calhoun. "It would make a fine painting. Somehow, there's
something about it that gives me a creepy feeling."
There were a few patches of hardy grass and several bushes
scattered here and there over the floor of the crater. Suddenly
Pelton's searching eyes fell upon a circular spot of bleached earth,
not more than ten feet across, lying thirty paces away at the center
of the valley. For a moment he scrutinized it intently and then he
grasped his companion violently by the arm. "Look, George!" he
cried.
A moment later the two youths were bending over a pair of human
skeletons whitened by years of exposure. With them there lay
several coins, two tarnished brass buckles and the rusted remnants
of a few metal buttons. The owners of those bones had obviously
been dead for a very long time.
"These are evidently the men that Diaz spoke of," said Pelton, "but
what in the name of Heaven could have killed them, George?" There
was a look almost expressive of fear in his face.
"Volcanic gases, probably," essayed Calhoun.
"Impossible, man!" returned Pelton; "This volcano has certainly been
extinct for ages."
Calhoun knelt down beside the skeletons and began to examine
them. "Let's see if there are any marks of violence, fractured skulls,
broken ribs, or anything," he said.
Pelton stepped back from the ghastly patch of earth. Never
afterward was he able to tell exactly why.
And then a miracle happened—a miracle and a tragedy. The setting
sun at last escaped from the cloud that covered it and its ruddy rays,
coming over the summit of a nearby Andean peak, fell upon the
mass of crystal at the western edge of the valley. A beam of bluish
light, like the reflection from the glossy scales of a black serpent and
more evilly gorgeous than the slumbering fires of a thousand opals,
leaped from it. The ray struck Calhoun squarely. He staggered to his
feet, uttered a choking cry, and crumpled lifeless to the earth! A few
moments later the sun dropped behind the mountains and "The
Devil's Nest" was again in shadow.

Ready for Battle

Six more weeks rolled by and, now the Asiatic Air Fleet advancing up
the Mississippi Valley was only five hundred miles from Chicago.
Should this last big city of the Occident be destroyed, all hope for
further resistance would immediately crumble; for here were
situated the munition factories and here was the government that
kept the dwindling energies of the United States organized.
Surrender was useless to the Americans. The blood lust of their foes
had grown to such proportions that they had proclaimed that only
the complete extermination of Occidentals would satisfy them. In a
few more days, when the needed reinforcements had arrived from
China, there would be a battle surpassing in magnitude and horrors
all previous struggles. Then the men from the East would dump tons
of chemicals upon the American metropolis; her twenty million
inhabitants would suffer a moment of intense agony and, in a few
minutes, she would be left silent and empty. So, at least, thought
Tsu Tsin Ho, "The Wizard of the East," and many another wise head
among the invaders; for the air fleet of the United States was
outnumbered three to one.
But there was one thing that the brilliant Orientals did not know of.
In Whitley Park, Chicago's most important pleasure ground, an
unusual engineering operation was in progress. Four slender, two-
thousand-foot towers of steel, seemingly as frail as spider web, were
rising as if by magic. They were arranged in a square and between
them skillful workmen were fastening a maze of fine wires.
In the center of the rectangle formed by the towers two enigmatic
machines were being assembled. One was a huge apparatus, very
similar in appearance to a gas engine of the twentieth century. Fully
a hundred feet its eight bulky cylinders reared, gleaming with a
glossy black sheen. There was something sinister and awesome
about it—a suggestion that within its slumbering frame there lurked
sufficient power to send the earth hurtling from its orbit. Beside the
engine a great drum-like contrivance was slowly taking form beneath
the hammers and riveters of the construction crew. It was a
generator that would soon supply energy to the mass of wires
overhead.
What was the sinister purpose of this gigantic wireless power plant?
Only a few men knew, and these often smiled grimly.
With feverish haste Chicago's factories were turning out new and
strange devices by the thousand—things the purpose of which even
their builders did not know. They were tubes of varying sizes, from
one foot in length to twelve, made of black enameled steel.
The report that the impending battle was very near came sooner
than was expected. In the midst of a glorious June day, the sunny
serenity of which was mocked by the awful contest that was going
on, a lone air scout raced over the city from the south. He brought
news that the enemy was preparing every available ship, evidently
for the final struggle.
Ten minutes after the arrival of the messenger, a hundred and fifty
battleships, America's only reserve force, arose majestically from the
landing stage to join the main fleet.
What appeared to be Chicago's last day of life was drawing to a
close when they reached their destination. With this reinforcement
the American fleet numbered about 2,000 large battlecraft. They
hung stationary, supported high above the earth by their
gravitational screens, awaiting the attack.
To the south of them, at a distance of perhaps twenty miles, the
ships of the enemy were being arranged in battle formation. From
deck, port and bridge, keen eyes watched their movements, through
powerful glasses. There were at least five thousand of them—all
first-class fighting machines of the largest size. Accompanying them
was a countless hoard of small fliers.
Now the Orientals began to advance in a great V-shaped
arrangement. A thousand feet above them, the one-man craft
moved like a swarm of hornets.
Suddenly the position of the Asiatic fleet seemed to change from
south to a little west by south in a way that would have made a man
of the twentieth century doubt the evidence of his senses. But these
latter-day Americans knew well what was happening. It was merely
a weird illusion—another creation of Thomas Whitley's master mind.
Soon after he invented the gravitational screen, he had found that,
under the influence of certain electromagnetic waves produced by a
special generator, air could be made to refract light enormously. This
discovery was of tremendous advantage in war. Both the Caucasians
and the Mongolians used it to prevent each other from knowing the
exact position of their forces. It practically eliminated battles at long
range since, without knowing exactly where the enemy is, a gun
crew cannot fire with any degree of accuracy. At a range of less than
five miles the Whitley "mirafractor," as the device was called, was
useless; and consequently within these limits the great contests
were fought. At such close quarters the guns shooting projectiles
filled with the new radioactive explosive, terrorium, could be used
with dreadful effect.
 The Last Stand

The Asiatic fleet was quite close now. In order to meet their
onslaught the Americans had arranged their ships into three vast
rings, one above the other.
Suddenly a light puff of smoke broke from the side of one of the
Mongolian aircraft. For a fraction of a second a high, plaintive whine
was heard above the roar of rocket-motors. Then, with a report that
sounded like the crack of doom, the forward end of an American
greyhound of the air was bent into a twisted mass of scrap. Upon
the wreckage was spattered a greenish slimy fluid that gave off a
gas which turned the shattered flesh of men black, the instant it
touched them, and ate into bright metal like a powerful acid,
covering it with half an inch of grayish compound.
The titanic struggle had begun—a thundering, hissing maelstrom of
destruction. Again and again the Asiatics rushed upon their intended
victims and, as often as they did so, they were beaten back by the
revolving rings of American aircraft that poured broadside after
broadside into their midst.
Losses to both contestants were awful, but among the invaders they
were greatest. Time and again a monster dreadnaught gaudily
painted with orange suns would crumple up under well-directed
terrorium shells and take the ten-mile dive to earth, almost
completely burying itself in the soft soil. Gradually, however, the
Asiatics were getting the upper hand by force of numbers.
After night had fallen the scene of battle was brilliantly illuminated
with searchlights and magnesium flares.
In the purple sky the stars glittered as calmly as ever. Though the
fates of the human races of the world hung in the balance, nature's
serenity was unruffled.
And now the slow retreat of the Americans toward Chicago had
begun. Every mile of the way was contested with dogged courage.
Time was what the United States needed, and the commander of
the fleet meant to gain time if it were humanly possible. "Hang on,
men—for God's sake—hang on!" were his constant orders, "If we
can delay long enough, victory is ours!"
Set in the revolving turrets at the bow and stern of each American
dreadnaught were strange thick cylinders; at the end of each was a
mass of glassy crystalline substance, looking like a staring ray. What
was the purpose of these queer devices? Many Asiatics wondered.
Why was it that they did not flash forth some new kind of dreadful
death? Their silence was enigmatic.
Now the contending fleets were a hundred and fifty miles from
Chicago, now a hundred, and now only twenty-five. "How much
longer must we hold them?" the American commander queried
anxiously by radio.
"Fifteen minutes," was the reply. "By then we think that we can be
ready. There has been some unforeseen delay of operations at
Whitley Park."
And so the Americans continued to fight for time with all the reckless
pluck they had to offer.
Chicago stood as dead and silent as though the Asiatics had already
dumped their poisonous vapors upon her. Her unlighted skyscrapers
loomed up wanly under the blinking stars and her streets were
gorges of Stygian shadow. Scarcely a speck of radiance was left to
betray her location to the enemy. The inhabitants had shut
themselves indoors. A few wept quietly, but otherwise there was no
inordinate display of emotion. These people had lost much of their
terror of war by constant contact with it.

The Crystal Ray

In the glow of floodlights, a thousand workmen were laboring like
demons on some giant machine that gleamed dimly in the faint
radiance. Far, far aloft, supported by four slender towers, was a vast
network of wires.
Plainly the finishing touches to the engine were in progress. A
hundred men were fastening cables to a two-hundred ton cylinder-
head which would in a moment be hoisted into place by an electric
crane. Other workers were inspecting and oiling the giant machine.
At one end of the strange titan was a control board bearing many
levers, switches and dials; and before it stood the gaunt figure of a
man who shouted orders through an amplifier system. It was Pelton;
but how greatly changed from the plump young aviator of two
months before! His hair was wildly disheveled, and sweat streamed
down his shrunken face which, in the wan light, looked almost like a
parchment mask hiding the visage of a skull. Lack of sleep and
endless hours of labor had wrought this startling change. In spite of
his worn condition, there was something magnetic about him that
could not help but inspire confidence.
"Crew One, see to the lubrication of the cylinder valves and other
parts," he cried; "use the L. F. liquid. Crew Two, examine all the
connections of the Z wires. Crew Three, fill the main fuel tanks with
the liquid terrorium preparation; Crews Four and Five will take care
of the cylinder-head. Are all the cables securely fastened? We can't
afford another mishap, you know. Good! Now start the crane."
Every man realized that it was vitally important that he should
perform his task to the best of his ability in the shortest possible
time; and every man responded to the will of his chief with the
promptness of a well-oiled machine. In a moment the mass of
aluminum alloy soared upward and settled into position.
To the south, and high in the air, a vast oval patch of white light,
looking like the head of some enormous comet, had appeared. It
had drifted ominously near, and from it there came a subdued roar.
In it thousand of insect-like specks flitted, and from them tiny points
of radiance leaped as though they were fireflies. It was the battle.
As they fought the two contesting fleets had done their best to get
above each other, to gain the advantage of position. As a result their
altitude was prodigious. They must have been fully twenty miles
above the earth.
"See! They are almost upon us," shouted Pelton. "Hurry! Ten
minutes more of delay and we will be too late! Doubtless they are
already bombing the outskirts of the city."
With all the speed they could muster the workmen bolted the
cylinder-head into place.
"Is everything ready?" cried Pelton.
"Everything is ready," echoed Jerry Armstrong, his chief subordinate.
"Then, stand back, out of danger!" Pelton twirled a few dials on the
control board; and then, grasping the big black switch at its center,
he pulled it far down. There was a series of ponderous throbs that
rapidly grew into an easy humming. The engine and the generator
to which it was connected, were in operation. Leaping in the
network of wires far above were many bright flashes like the
lightning of a violent thunderstorm.
And now all eyes in Chicago had turned fearfully and expectantly
toward the monstrous sea of light that was dropping plummet-like
from the sky upon the city. The ships were only four or five miles
above the ground now, and they could be seen quite plainly in the
glow of their searchlights and magnesium flares. The American
formation had been broken up and scattered. Apparently there was
nothing that could prevent the Asiatics from completely crushing
them within the next few minutes. Then they would destroy the city.
Already an occasional bomb was falling, like the big raindrops that
herald a summer thundershower. They contained the green chemical
that gave off the gas which ate into human flesh like sulphuric acid.
With mingled doubt, fear, and hope gnawing at his very soul, Pelton
stared at the sky. Had he calculated correctly? For a few seconds
nothing happened; then his heart leaped with a mighty exultation!
From the bow of one of America's ships a faint beam of bluish light
stabbed out and struck an enemy craft, sweeping it from stem to
stern! It passed through the vessel as though she had been made of
glass, instead of thousands of tons of metal. Immediately the
dreadnaught began to blunder oddly as though completely out of
control. What had happened to her occupants? A grim smile passed
over Pelton's lips, for he knew!
 From the bow of one of America's ships a beam of bluish
light stabbed out and struck an enemy craft. It passed thru
the vessel as tho it had been made of glass instead of
thousands of tons of steel.

Presently, other beams of blue light awoke—hundreds of them!—

thousands of them! And other Oriental craft rushed about crazily,
crashing into each other or hurtling earthward. At the very threshold
of complete success, the alchemy of fate was changing Asia's victory
into crushing defeat.
 Pelton Explains

Now Pelton felt a hand upon his shoulder. Turning he saw that Jerry
was standing beside him. The man's face was pale with awe and
when he spoke his voice was husky: "Congratulations, Capt. Pelton—
here, shake! When it looks black as night, along you come and put
those invaders in their proper place. I can't see through this at all.
What wonder is it that you have created?"
The fulfillment of his ambition beyond the wildest dreams of his
school days had wrought the young scientist up to a pitch of
excitement more intense than ever before, "It is the thing that killed
Calhoun, the ace," he almost shrieked; "The crystal ray!"
"You mean that your weapon inflicts death with just a beam of light?
That sounds impossible."
"But it isn't! I'll tell you about it." Pelton's eyes were glittering and
his face was flushed: "Not more than a month and a half ago I was
in Ecuador with Calhoun on leave of absence. We explored an
extinct Andean volcano of particularly ghastly reputation. There I
found a peculiar crystal, which, on analysis proved to be a complex
compound of silicon, iron and the hitherto supposedly inert gas,
krypton—I call it andite.
"It was just by chance that I discovered what terrible things andite
could do. There was a big block of the material at the crater's
western edge. The sun had been obscured by a cloud and, when it
came out, its light struck the block, passed through it, and came out
as a bluish beam. It hit my old friend and sent him on the long
journey west. Thank God, it was not in vain!
"After a lot of effort I learned more about the wonderful properties
of the crystal. You know that light is the vibration of an all-pervading
medium sometimes called the ether, just as are radio waves. When a
beam of light passes through andite, its rate of vibration is
enormously increased; so that it exceeds by many thousands of
times the vibratory rate of even Hadley's Q-ray which is used as an
anaesthetic. This super-vibration is the crystal ray. It will penetrate
four feet of solid lead and a much greater thickness of any other
metal. When it strikes a man it produces within his blood a poison
that is instantly fatal. The process is comparable with that which
goes on in the leaves of a plant when starch is produced by the
action of sunlight.
"The projectors of the crystal ray are merely specially constructed
radio lamps, equipped with a receiver of wireless power, and fitted
with a piece of andite which modifies the light.
"After I had learned what my discovery was capable of, I staged a
demonstration before the best minds of America. They gave me the
cooperation of the whole country and this is the result."
"But what was the necessity of building this enormous power plant?"
inquired Jerry: "Couldn't the old stations supply the needed energy?"
"No," said Pelton; "The light produced in the ray projectors must be
many times as intense as that produced by ordinary lamps, in order
to be effective at any considerable range. Only this new power plant
could furnish sufficient energy. The filaments in the projectors would
only glow on the power supplied by the old outfits."
Momentarily the roar of terrorium shells and the flashing of
magnesium flares waxed more intense in the air above. In the few
minutes that the big generator had been running, the Americans had
annihilated practically three-quarters of their foes. However, a few
were trying to escape into the night with their lights turned off. One
fifteen-hundred-foot monster was directly above at an altitude of not
more than half a mile. Its guns belching with the fury of despair at a
smaller but much more agile American ship that was rapidly
approaching.
Suddenly the invaders scored a hit. The little vessel crumpled up and
fell. The big ship was continuing its retreat away from the scene of
battle when a bluish beam, originating from a projector in the
neighborhood of Whitley Park, leaped up from the earth and struck
it. The ray lingered over the whole expanse of its hull for a second
and then died out. The dreadnaught continued to hurtle blindly on
its way, its rocket-motors roaring full blast. It was headed straight
for a sky-scraper, and a moment later it struck. A third of the
building's height was sheared off; together with the twisted
remnants of the ship the mass of steel and masonry fell with a
terrific crash into the cleft of a dark street. There the airship still
buzzed and hissed like a wounded insect.
A wild impulse was surging up in the breast of Pelton—an intense
desire to take an active part in the victory he had done so much to
bring about.
He turned to his companion: "Keep the outfit running, Jerry, I've
simply got to be in this fight."
As rapidly as his legs would carry him, the young scientist raced to
the little shed nearby where he kept his flier. In his hand he carried a
small black tube fitted with a pistol grip and trigger. It was a ray
projector.
In a moment he had dragged the little craft out and climbed into the
cockpit. He turned a dial that operated the gravitational screen.
There was a sudden feeling of weightlessness—and then he shot
upward amid the gust of rising air.
Three thousand feet Pelton ascended before he started his terrorium
rocket-motors.
At a distance of perhaps half a mile, a "dog-fight" between countless
small craft, was in progress.
At first he thought there was no one in his immediate vicinity; and
then, above him and a little to the north, he saw a flier similar to his
own, but obviously Asiatic. A bar of opalescence leaped out from the
little weapon in Pelton's hand, and the enemy pilot was no more.
The discoverer of the crystal ray was in the act of turning around to
join the "dog-fight" when a dozen or more bullets directed with an
uncanny accuracy swept down upon him from above. He was
unhurt, but a lead pellet had struck his weapon, destroying it
completely. When he looked up, clammy fear seized him; for he saw
a black flier painted with orange suns and piloted with a fiendish
skill, diving straight toward him. Every inhabitant of the United
States would have recognized that craft. It belonged to Saku, the
ace who had shot more than a hundred opponents from the sky!
Impelled by the instinct of self-preservation, Pelton shut off the
power from his gravitational screen. It was all he could do. He
thought that perhaps by a rapid dive he could escape the yellow
ace; but it was a vain hope. Even as he began to fall plummet-like
toward the earth, a gust of poisoned bullets ripped through his body.
Probably his sense swam, and it was certain that he felt no pain; for
death in those cases is a matter of an instant. Nevertheless a faint
smile crossed his lips. Against the blackness of the eternity that
poured into his brain, he seemed to see his name written so that
people of the future would read with awe, and after his name the
words: "He won the war!"

THE END
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRYSTAL RAY
***

Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.

Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S.

copyright law means that no one owns a United States copyright in
these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it
in the United States without permission and without paying
copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of
Use part of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™
concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following
the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use
of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything
for copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is
very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as
creation of derivative works, reports, performances and research.
Project Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given
away—you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with
eBooks not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject
to the trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.

START: FULL LICENSE

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
 PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free

distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or
any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at
www.gutenberg.org/license.

Section 1. General Terms of Use and

Redistributing Project Gutenberg™
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree
to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your
possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be
bound by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund
from the person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in
paragraph 1.E.8.

1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be

used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people
who agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a
few things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic
works even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.
See paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with
Project Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this
agreement and help preserve free future access to Project
Gutenberg™ electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.