Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/239

Rh We ſhall now take a view of Mr. Dennis, in that part of his life and writings, in which he makes a leſs conſiderable figure, by expoſing himſelf to the reſentment of one ſo much his ſuperior; and who, after a long provocation, at laſt let looſe his rage againſt him, in a manner that no time can obliterate. Mr. Dennis we have already obſerved, waged a perpetual war with ſucceſsful writers, except thoſe few who were his friends; but never engaged with ſo much fury, and leſs juſtice, againſt the writings of any poet, as thoſe of Mr. Pope.

Some time after the death of Dryden, when Pope’s reputation began to grow, his friends who were ſanguine in his intereſt, were imprudent enough to make compariſons, and really aſſert, that Pope was the greateſt poet of the two: Dennis, who had made court to Dryden, and was reſpected by him, heard this with indignation, and immediately exerted all the criticiſm and force of which he was maſter, to reduce the character of Pope. In this attempt he neither has ſucceeded, nor did he purſue it like a gentleman.

In his reflexions on Pope’s Eſſay on Criticiſm, he uſes the following unmannerly epithets. ‘A young ſquab, ſhort gentleman, whoſe outward form tho’ it ſhould be that of a downright monkey, would not differ ſo much from human ſhape, as his unthinking, immaterial part does from human underſtanding.He is as ſtupid and as venemous as an hunch-backed toad.A book through which folly and ignorance, thoſe brethren ſo lame, and impotent, do ridiculouſly look very big, and very dull, and ſtrut, and hobble cheek by jowl, with their arms on kimbo, being led, and ſupported, and bully-backed, by that blind Hector impudence.’ The reaſons which our critic gives for this extraordinary fury are equally ridiculous. ‘I