In these "Miscellanies" there appeared the famous "Memoirs of Martinus
Scriblerus," written chiefly by Pope, in which he lashed the various
proficients in the bathos, under the names of flying fishes, swallows,
parrots, frogs, eels, &c., and appended the initials of well-known
authors to each head. This roused Grub Street, whose malice had nearly
fallen asleep, into fresh fury, and he was bitterly assailed in every
possible form. Like Hyder Ali, he now--to travesty Burke--"in the
recesses of a mind capacious of such things, determined to leave all
Duncedom an everlasting monument of vengeance, and became at length so
confident of his force, so collected in his might, that he made no
secret whatever of his dreadful resolution, but, compounding all the
materials of fun, sarcasm, irony, and invective, into one black cloud,
he hung for a while on the declivities of Richmond Hill; and whilst the
authors were idly and stupidly gazing on this menacing meteor which
blackened all their horizon, it suddenly burst and poured down the whole
of its contents on the garrets of Grub Street. Then issued a scene of
(ludicrous) woe, the like of which no eye had seen, no heart conceived,
and which no tongue can adequately tell. All the horrors of literary war
before known or heard of--(MacFlecknoe, the Rehearsal, &c.)--were mercy
to the new tempest of havoc which burst from the brain of this
remorseless poet.
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