Description:
First edition, very scarce in commerce, of an exhilaratingly spiteful attack on Pope in the wake of the publication of the Dunciad variorum, comprising seven different satirical texts, three in verse, issued in quarto to match 'the least pompous Edition of the Dunciad'.Its authorship remains uncertain. Pope wrote to Lord Oxford on 16 May 1726: 'I see a Book with a Curious Cutt calld Pope Alexrs Supremacy &c. 4o. In it are 3 or 4 things so false & scandalous that I think I know the Authors, and they are of a Rank to merit Detection … The book is writ by Burnet, & a Person who has great obligations to me, & the Cut is done by Ducket'. He later ascribed it to Duckett and John Dennis.
Among the various charges laid at Pope's feet are his deformity ('Be his Crown Picked, to One Side reclin'd / Be to his Neck his Buttocks closely join'd')' his ingratitude to Wycherley; that he is a spy for the Tories ('he listed openly in the Tory Service'); and that he avoided facing his critics after the… Read More