publication date, but on 29 October 1743, the final Dunciad appeared with its new hero, for all the world to see.

Cibber kept his promise to “have the last word.” Another Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope followed the publication of this Dunciad, stating his grievances with somewhat less humor, a number of scatological references, and an accusation against Warburton for instigating the change. Included was a twenty-page aside on the offending Bishop, revealing a startlingly thorough knowledge of his writings. This was the end. Cibber’s friends were eager for him to keep up his side of the battle, but he, having had his say, resumed his good-humor and refused to speak out again.

It has been suggested that Pope may have planned the change in hero earlier, and aimed the New Dunciad with the express purpose of goading Cibber into just such a reply as the Letter. This is, of course, possible, but it cannot be more than speculation; the final Dunciad does show evidence of hasty revision. Pope was severely ill when his last variation on the dunce theme appeared, and the seven months of life remaining to him were clearly not enough to permit him to polish it to the level of perfection customary in his work. But, as Warburton once noted, quality and posterity have awarded Pope the final say:

Quoth Cibber to Pope, Tho’ in Verse you foreclose,
I’ll have the last Word; for by G—, I’ll write prose.
Poor Colly, thy Reas’ning is none of the strongest,
For know, the last Word is the Word that lasts longest.[21]

Cibber’s words have not been reprinted since the eighteenth century, and his reputation has become so distorted it is sometimes difficult to find the man who, for so many years, amused and delighted London audiences. Yet, if one looks closely, under the froth and foppery, some of the charm and perception of the man still shines through. And, of more importance to the world of literature, it seems fairly clear that, whatever the original offense, the Dunciad as we know it today was a direct result of this Letter.

California State College
San Bernardino

NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION

[1] Not even the winner of the contest has been beyond dispute. 150 years afterward, Robert W. Lowe, “Supplementary Chapter to Colley Cibber’s Apology” in his edition of An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber, Comedian, and Late Patentee of the Theatre-Royal (London: J. C. Nimmo, 1889), II, 270, remarks on Cibber’s later years: “His [Cibber’s] state of mind was probably the more ‘chearful and contented’ because of his unquestionable success in his tilt with the formidable author of ‘The Dunciad;’ a success none the less certain at the time, that the enduring fame of Pope has caused Cibber’s triumph over him to be lost sight of now.”

[2] Norman Ault, New Light on Pope (London: Methuen, 1949), pp. 298-307.

[3] George Paston [Emily Morse Symmonds], Mr. Pope His Life and Times (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1909), I, 197.

[4] Alexander Pope, Works, ed. William Warburton (London: J. and P. Knapton, 1751), V, 86 (Book I, line 108). Griffith 643. This is a note to the variations on lines 108ff: “But chief in BAYS’S monster-breeding breast” and the wording is slightly altered from the earlier note quoted in the Twickenham edition, V, 75, Dunciad (A), Book I, line 106n.

[5] J. V. Guerinot, Pamphlet Attacks on Alexander Pope 1711-1744 (New York: New York University Press, 1969), lists 15 pamphlets between 1724 and the publication of the first Dunciad, but he does not include the frequent newspaper comments.

[6] Cibber, I, 38-39.

[7] William H. Peterson, “Pope and Cibber’s The Non-Juror” MLN, LXX (May, 1955), 332-335. Three instances are given:

These elements, combined with the strong anti-Catholic sentiment, would certainly point attention toward Pope, and, in any case, were not calculated to please him.

[8] See R. H. Barker, Mr. Cibber of Drury Lane (New York: Columbia University Press, 1939), p. 151.

[9] Cibber’s supposition that Pope wrote the Clue to the Non-Juror has subsequently been established as correct. See Ault, pp. 303-313.

[10] Epistle to Arbuthnot, 97. It should be noted here that Cibber misquotes the line, a failing habitual to him. The anonymous pamphlet, A Blast upon Bays; or, a New Lick at the Laureat, which appeared shortly after the Letter, points out rather severely the difference in meaning between Cibber’s “too” and Pope’s “still”, maintaining a mistress twenty years after the events, A Blast is as heated in defense of Pope as it is in attack against Cibber, but it offers no evidence; aside from Pope’s original line, it is the only charge of this kind among contemporary attacks.

[11] Colley Cibber, The Provoked Husband (London, 1728), Preface.

[12] Two examples from the Birth-day Odes will give some idea of the Cibberian quality:

Her Fleets, that now the Seas command,
Were late upon her Forests growing;
Her wholesome Stores, for every Band,
As late within her Fields were sowing. (1741)

Behold! in clouds of