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When did The Dunciad expand from three books to four books?
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Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope, portrait by Thomas Hudson, c. 1739; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Alexander Pope expanded his poem The Dunciad from three books to four in 1743.1
While the poem was originally published in three books in 1728, Pope published The New Dunciad in 1742, which served as the fourth book. In 1743, he released the final version, titled The Dunciad in Four Books, which integrated this new material and replaced the original hero, Lewis Theobald, with the poet laureate Colley Cibber.1