Pope's mock-heroic satire on the abuse of literature unfolded over time, appearing as The Dunciad: an Heroic Poem in Three Books (1728), The Dunciad Variorum (1729), The New Dunciad (1742), and
The Dunciad in Four Books (1743). The original hero, Lewis
Theobald, was replaced by Colley Cibber in 1743.