Page:The Dunciad - Alexander Pope (1743).djvu/26



y virtue of the Authority in Us vested by the Act for subjecting Poets to the power of a Licenser, we have revised this piece; where finding the style and appellation of to have been given to a certain Pretender, Pseudo-Poet, or Phantom, of the name of ; and apprehending the same may be deemed in some sort a 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 to declare the said Throne of Poetry from henceforth to be abdicated and vacant, unless duly and lawfully supplied by the  himself. And it is hereby enacted, that no other person do presume to fill the same.

Ͻ C, Ch.