...Pope's Dunciad was too fine a poem for its subject, and asked incautiously, " a poem on what ? " JOHNSON (with a disdainful look). Why, on dunces. It was worth...dunce then. Ah, Sir, hadst thou lived in those days ! There is nothing involved or obscure about that. Quite apart from the disdainful look the meaning...

...Pope's Dunciad was too fine a poem for its subject, and asked incautiously, "a poem on what ? " JOHNSON (with a disdainful look). Why, on dunces. It was worth...dunce then. Ah, Sir, hadst thou lived in those days ! There is nothing involved or obscure about that. Quite apart from the disdainful look the meaning...

...lines one of the company ventured to say, "Too fine for such a poem : — a poem on what?" JOHNSON, (with a disdainful look,) "Why, on dunces. It was...worth while being a dunce then. Ah, Sir, hadst thou live in those days ! It is not worth while being a dunce now, when there are no wits." Bickerstaff...

...on what ? " Boswell once asked in rhetorical scorn concerning the Dunciad. " Why," said Johnson, " on dunces. It was worth while being a dunce then. Ah, sir, hadst thou lived in those days ! " At another time Boswell pompously presumed to express his argument by a trite quotation from Hamlet....