John Oldmixon (1673-1742), who, like Dennis and Gildon, has a place in the Dunciad, was the author of An Essay on Criticism, as it regards Design, Thought, and Expression in Prose and Verse (1728) and The Arts of Logick and Rhetorick, illustrated by examples taken out of the best authors (1728). The latter is based on the Manière de bien penser of Bouhours.
A certain celebrated Paper,—The Spectator.
semper acerbum, etc. Virgil, Aeneid, v. 49.
[106]. Note, “See his Letters to me.” These letters are not extant.
[108]. Saint Chrysostom ... Aristophanes. This had been a commonplace in the discussions at the end of the seventeenth century, in England and France, on the morality of the drama.
Ludolf Kuster (1670-1716) appears also in the Dunciad, iv., l. 237. His edition of Suidas was published, through Bentley's influence, by the University of Cambridge in 1705. He also edited Aristophanes (1710), and wrote De vero usu Verborum Mediorum apud Graecos. Cf. Farmer's Essay, p. [176].
who thrust himself into the employment. Hanmer's letters to the University of Oxford do not bear out Warburton's statement.
[109]. Gilles Ménage (1613-1692). Les Poésies de M. de Malherbe avec les Observations de M. Ménage appeared in 1666.
Selden's “Illustrations” or notes appeared with the first part of Polyolbion in 1612. This allusion was suggested by a passage in a letter from Pope of 27th November, 1742: “I have a particular reason to [pg 320] make you interest yourself in me and my writings. It will cause both them and me to make the better figure to posterity. A very mediocre poet, one Drayton, is yet taken some notice of, because Selden writ a few notes on one of his poems” (ed. Elwin and Courthope, ix., p. 225).
[110]. Verborum proprietas, etc. Quintilian, Institut. Orat., Prooem. 16.