fore. Contrariwife that Mr. Addison engaged our author in this work appeareth by declaration thereof in the preface to the Iliad, printed fometime before his death, and by his own letters of October 26, and November 2, 1713. Where he declares it is his opinion, that no other perfon was equal to it.

Next comes his Shakespear on the stage: "Let "him (quoth one, whom I take to be

Mr.THEOBALD, Mift's Journal, June 8, 1728,) publish such an author as he has least studied, "and forget to discharge even the dull duty of "an editor. editor. In this project let him lend the "bookseller his name (for a competent fum of "money) to promote the credit of an exorbitant

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fubfcription." Gentle reader, be pleased to caft thine eye on the Propofal below quoted, and on what follows (fome months after the former affertion) in the fame Journalist of June 8, "The "bookfeller proposed the book by fubfcription, “and raised some thousands of pounds for the "fame: I believe the gentleman did not fhare in the profits of this extravagant fubfcription. "After the Iliad, he undertook (faith

MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, 1728) "the fequel of that work, the Odyffey; and having fecured the fuccess by a numerous sub"fcription, he employed fome underlings to per"form what, according to his propofals, fhould " come from his own hands." "To which heavy charge we can in truth oppofe nothing but the words of

y Vid. pref. to Mr. Tickel's tranflation of the first book of the Iliad, 4to.

Mr. POPE'S PROPOSAL for the ODYSSEY,

(printed for J. Watts, Jan. 10, 1724.) "I take this occafion to declare that the fubfcrip"tion for Shakespear belongs wholly to Mr. Ton"fon: And that the benefit of this Propofal is "not folely for my own ufe, but for that of two

of my friends, who have affifted me in this "work." But these very gentlemen are extolled above our poet himself in another of Mift's Journals, March 30, 1728, faying, " That he would "not advise Mr. Pope to try the experiment again of getting a great part of a book done by affiftants, left those extraneous parts should unhappily afcend to the fublime, and retard "the declenfion of the whole." Behold! these Underlings are become good writers!

If any fay, that before the faid proposals were printed, the fubfcription was begun without declaration of fuch affiftance; verily those who set it on foot, or (as the term is) fecured it, to wit, the right honourable the Lord Viscount HARCOURT, were he living, would teftify, and the right honourable the Lord BATHURST, now living, doth testify, the fame is a falfhood.

Sorry I am, that perfons profeffing to be learned, or of whatever rank of authors, fhould either falfely tax, or be falfely taxed. Yet let Yet let us, who are only reporters, be impartial in our citations, and procceed.

MIST'S JOURNAL, June 8, 1728.

"Mr. Addifon raised this author from obfcurity, obtained him the acquaintance and friendfhip of the whole body of our nobility, and tranf

"ferred his powerful interests with those great "men to this rifing bard, who frequently le"vied by that means unufual contributions on "the public." Which furely cannot be, if as the author of the Dunciad diffected reporteth; "Mr. Wycherley had before introduced him "into a familiar acquaintance with the greatest "Peers and brightest Wits then living."

"No fooner (faith the fame Journalist) was "his body lifeless, but this author reviving his "refentment, libelled the memory of his departed friend; and, what was still more "heinous, made the scandal public." Grievous the accufation! unknown the accufer! the perfon accused no witness in his own cause; the perfon, in whofe regard accused, dead! But if there be living any one nobleman whose friendhip, yea any one gentleman whofe fubfcription Mr. Addifon procured to our author; let him stand forth, that truth may appear! Amicus Plato, amicus Socrates, fed magis amica veritas. In verity the whole story of the libel is a lye; witness those perfons of integrity, who feveral years before Mr. Addifon's decease, did fee and approve of the said verses, in no wife a libel, but a friendly rebuke fent privately in our author's own hand to Mr. Addison himself, and never made public, till after their own Journals, and Curl had printed the fame. One name alone, which I am here authorised to declare, will fufficiently evince the truth, that of the right honourable the Earl of BURLINGTON,

Next is he taxed with a crime (in the opinion of fome authors, I doubt, more heinous than any in morality) to wit Plagiarifm, from the inventive and quaint-conceited

JAMES-MOORE SMITH, Gent. "Upon reading the third volume of Pope's Mifcellanies, I found five lines which I thought "excellent; and happening to praise them, a "gentleman procured a modern comedy (the "Rival Modes) published laft year, where were

"the fame verfes to a tittle.

"These gentlemen are undoubtedly the first plagiaries, that pretend to make a reputation by ftealing from a man's works in his own "life time, and out of a public print." Let us join to this what is written by the author of the Rival Modes, the faid Mr. James-Moore Smith, in a letter to our author himself, who had informed him, a month before that play was acted, Jan. 27, 1726-7, that " Thefe "verfes, which he had before given him leave "to infert in it, would be known for his, fome copies being got abroad. He defires, nevertheless, that fince the lines had been read in "his comedy to several, Mr. P. would not deprive it of them," &c. Surely if we add the teftimonies of the Lord BOLINGBROKE, of the lady to whom the faid verfes were originally addreffed, of Hugh Bethel, Efq; and others who knew them as our author's long before the faid gentleman compofed his play; it is hoped, the ingenuous that affect not error, 7 Daily Journal, March 18, 1728.

Ꮓ

ice will rectify their opinion by the fuffrage of so an honourable perfonages.

en

And yet followeth another charge, infinuating no less than his enmity both to Church and State, which could come from no other infor's mer than the faid

Mr. JAMES-MOORE SMITH. "The Memoirs of a Parish Clerk was a very "dull and unjuft abuse of a person who wrote "in defence of our Religion and Conftitution, " and who has been dead many years." This feemeth almost untrue; it being known to divers that these Memoirs were written at the feat of the Lord Harcourt in Oxfordshire, before that excellent perfon (bishop Burnet's) death, and many years before the appearance of that history, of which they are pretended to be an abuse. Most true it is that Mr. Moore had fuch a defign, and was himself the man who preft Dr. Arbuthnot and Mr. Pope to affift him therein; and that he borrowed those Memoirs of our author, when that history came forth, with intent to turn them to fuch abuse. But being able to obtain from our author but one fingle hint, and either changing his mind, or having more mind than ability, he contented himself to keep the faid Memoirs, and read them as his own to all his acquaintance. A noble person there is, into whofe company Mr. Pope once chanced to introduce him, who well remembereth the converfation of Mr. Moore to have turned upon the " the "Contempt he had for "the work of that reverend prelate, and how Daily Journal, April 3, 1728.

VOL. V.

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