A farce called _Three Hours after Marriage_ was produced and damned in 1717.

It was intended (amongst other things) to satirize Pope's old enemy Dennis, called "Sir Tremendous," as an embodiment of pedantic criticism, and Arbuthnot's old antagonist Woodward.

A taste for fossils, mummies, or antiquities, was at that time regarded as a fair butt for unsparing ridicule; but the three great wits managed their assault so clumsily as to become ridiculous themselves; and Pope, as we shall presently see, smarted as usual under failure.
After Swift's retirement to Ireland, and during Pope's absorption in Homer, the Scriblerus Club languished.

Some fragments, however, of the great design were executed by the four chief members, and the dormant project was revived, after Pope had finished his Homer, on occasion of the last two visits of Swift to England.

He passed six months in England from March to August, 1726, and had brought with him the MS.