It was from here that he started writing and publishing political squibs, notably in 1733 State Dunces, inscribed to Alexander Pope.
He forgot that though it is safe to lash the dunces, he could not with equal impunity sneer at those who, though they might not have the ear of the public as he had, could yet contradict and call names.
That he was the greatest tragic and dramatic poet born since the age of Shakespeare, the appearance of Hernani in 1830 made evident for ever to all but the meanest and most perverse of dunces and malignants.
A first edition of John Kennedy Toole's classic "A Confederacy of Dunces" is going to be a very expensive rare book.
It was another principle that his chief exertions should be bestowed on the intermediate class of talent, as the geniuses would help themselves, and the dunces were beyond remedy.