The "Dunciad," in the complete edition, is addressed to Dr. Swift.
Of the notes, part were written by Dr. Arbuthnot, and an
apologetical letter was prefixed, signed by Cleland, but supposed to
have been written by Pope.

After this general war upon dulness, he seems to have indulged
himself a while in tranquillity, but his subsequent productions
prove that he was not idle. He published (1731) a poem on "Taste,"
in which he very particularly and severely criticises the house, the
furniture, the gardens, and the entertainments of Timon, a man of
great wealth and little taste. By Timon he was universally
supposed, and by the Earl of Burlington, to whom the poem is
addressed, was privately said, to mean the Duke of Chandos, a man
perhaps too much delighted with pomp and show, but of a temper kind
and beneficent, and who had consequently the voice of the public in
his favour. A violent outcry was, therefore, raised against the
ingratitude and treachery of Pope, who was said to have been
indebted to the patronage of Chandos for a present of a thousand
pounds, and who gained the opportunity of insulting him by the
kindness of his invitation. The receipt of the thousand pounds Pope
publicly denied; but from the reproach which the attack on a
character so amiable brought upon him, he tried all means of
escaping. The name of Cleland was again employed in an apology, by
which no man was satisfied, and he was at last reduced to shelter
his temerity behind dissimulation, and endeavour to make that
disbelieved which he never had confidence openly to deny. He wrote
an exculpatory letter to the duke, which was answered with great
magnanimity, as by a man who accepted his excuse without believing
his professions. He said that to have ridiculed his taste, or his