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and to fhew that he thought him no common adverfary, he prepared no common vengeance; he published a new edition of the Dunciad, in which he de-. graded Theobald from his painful preeminence, and enthroned Cibber in his. ftead. Unhappily the two heroes were of oppofite characters, and Pope was unwilling to lofe what he had already written; he has therefore depraved his. poem by giving to Cibber the old books, the cold pedantry and fluggish pertinacity of Theobald.

Pope was ignorant enough of his own intereft to make another change, and introduced Osborne contending for the prize among the bookfellers. Osborne was a man intirely deftitute of fhame,

without

without fenfe of any difgrace but that of poverty. He told me, when he was' doing that which raised Pope's refentment, that he should be put into the Dunciad; but he had the fate of Caffandra; I gave no credit to his prediction, till in time I saw it accomplished. The fhafts of fatire were directed equally in vain against Cibber and Ofborne; being repelled by the impenetrable impudence of one, and deadened by the impaffive dulness of the other. Pope confeffed his own pain by his anger; but he gave no pain to those who had provoked him. He was able to hurt none but himself; by transferring the fame ridicule from one to another, he destroyed its efficacy; for by fhewing that what he

had

had faid of one he was ready to say of another, he reduced himself to the infignificance of his own magpye, who from his cage calls cuckold at a venture.

Cibber, according to his engagement, repaid the Dunciad with another pamphlet, which, Pope faid, would be as good as a dofe of hartfhorn to him; but his tongue and his heart were at variance. I have heard Mr. Richardfon relate, that he attended his father on a vifit, when one of Cibber's pamphlets came into the hands of Pope, who faid, Thefe things are my diverfion. They fat by him while he perufed it, and faw his features writhen with anguifh; and young Richardfon faid to his father, when they returned, that he hoped to be preserved

from

from fuch diverfion as had been that day

the lot of Pope.

From this time, finding his diseases more oppreffive, and his vital powers gradually declining, he no longer ftrained his faculties with any original compofition, nor propofed any other employment for his remaining life than the revifal and correction of his former works; in which he received advice and affiftance from Warburton, whom he appears to have trufted and honoured in the highest degree.

He laid afide his Epick Poem, perhaps without much lofs to mankind; for his hero was Brutus the Trojan, who, according to a ridiculous fiction, eftablished a colony in Britain. The subject there

7

therefore was of the fabulous

age; the

actors were a race upon whom imagination has been exhaufted, and attention wearied, and to whom the mind will. not eafily be recalled, when it is invited in blank verfe, which Pope had adopted with great imprudence, and, I think, without due confideration of the nature of our language. The sketch is, at least in part, preferved by Ruffhead; by which it appears, that Pope was thoughtless enough to model the names of his heroes with difcordant terminations not known in the fame age.

He lingered through the next year; but perceived himself, as he expreffes it, going down the hill. He had for at leaft five years been afflicted with an asthma,

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