Page:The Dunciad - Alexander Pope (1743).djvu/268



Whereas certain Haberdashers of Points and Particles, being instigated by the spirit of Pride, and assuming to themselves the name of Critics and Restorers, have taken upon them to adulterate the common and current sense of our Glorious Ancestors, Poets of this Realm, by clipping, coining, defacing the images, miring their own base allay, or otherwise falsifying the same; which they publish, utter, and bend as genuine: The said haberdashers having no right thereto, as neither heirs, executors, administrators, assigns, or in any sort related to such poets, to all or any of them: Now We, having carefully revised this our