[6] Cibber, I, 38-39.
[7] William H. Peterson, “Pope and Cibber’s The Non-Juror” MLN, LXX (May, 1955), 332-335. Three instances are given:
1. Maria, the coquette, quotes The Rape of the Lock with great relish. The praise is in the wrong mouth.
2. Maria speaks slightingly of her English version of Homer. Pope’s last volume had just come out.
3. Dr. Wolf refers to “Eloisa and Abelard” in his second attempt to seduce Lady Woodvil. The argument is twisted out of context.
These elements, combined with the strong anti-Catholic sentiment, would certainly point attention toward Pope, and, in any case, were not calculated to please him.
[8] See R. H. Barker, Mr. Cibber of Drury Lane (New York: Columbia University Press, 1939), p. 151.
[9] Cibber’s supposition that Pope wrote the Clue to the Non-Juror has subsequently been established as correct. See Ault, pp. 303-313.
[10] Epistle to Arbuthnot, 97. It should be noted here that Cibber misquotes the line, a failing habitual to him. The anonymous pamphlet, A Blast upon Bays; or, a New Lick at the Laureat, which appeared shortly after the Letter, points out rather severely the difference in meaning between Cibber’s “too” and Pope’s “still”, maintaining a mistress twenty years after the events, A Blast is as heated in defense of Pope as it is in attack against Cibber, but it offers no evidence; aside from Pope’s original line, it is the only charge of this kind among contemporary attacks.
[11] Colley Cibber, The Provoked Husband (London, 1728), Preface.