ABSTRACT
John Dennis, extract from Remarks upon Several Passages in the Preliminaries to the Dunciad … (1729), Critical Works, ii. 358–62. Dennis's pamphlet was published on 7 July 1729. After the publication of The Dunciad (1728) Pope believed (mistakenly) that Dennis had a hand in the letter to Mist's Weekly Journal, published 8 June 1728 (No. 52). His response was to attack Dennis in the ‘Testimonies of Authors’ and in the notes of The Dunciad Variorum. Dennis's attempt at self-defence, of which only a brief portion is given here, was his last assault on Pope and his last piece of literary criticism. He survived, suffering from age and poverty, until 6 January 1734.
