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- Title
Disappearances from The Dunciad: Pope's Late Use of the Grub-Street Journal.
- Authors
Rogers, Pat
- Abstract
Over time Pope made extensive alterations to The Dunciad , within the text but also in the surrounding apparatus. One short-lived change concerned an appendix in Robert Dodsley's octavo edition of the Works , Volume III, Part II (ESTC T5425; Griffith 566). This appeared only in the earliest state of the volume, published in 1742, as it was deleted in subsequent printings (Griffith 567, 579). The first of four elements in the appendix, 'Of the Poet Laureate', was restored in 1743, but banished in 1751 to a separate volume, not to be included with The Dunciad again until 1882. The three remaining portions have never been reprinted in any collection of Pope's works since 1742. They consist of items reprinted from the Grub-Street Journal in 1730 and 1731. Two concern James Moore Smythe, depicted in The Dunciad as 'the phantom poet' accused of plagiarism and deception. They also involve the 'worm doctor' John Moore, an object of derision by Pope and John Arbuthnot since 1716. All four items in the appendix are likely to have come from Pope or his circle. The article seeks to place these attacks in the context of their appearance in the Journal ; to relate them to the Scriblerian campaign against shoddy writing habits and the activities of quacks; and to offer some explanation for their sudden emergence and instant disappearance from all versions of the poem. Consideration of a segment that has been totally ignored until now casts some light on the poet's aims in reordering all parts of The Dunciad.
- Subjects
DUNCIAD, The (Poem : Pope); DODSLEY, Robert; ARBUTHNOT, John, 1667-1735; POPE, Alexander, 1688-1744; GRUB-Street Journal, The (Book)
- Publication
Review of English Studies, 2021, Vol 72, Issue 306, p707
- ISSN
0034-6551
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/res/hgaa118