POPE, Alexander

POPE, Alexander, a celebrated English poet, descended from a respectable family, was born the 8th of June 1688, at London, where his father was then a considerable merchant. He was taught to read very early by an aunt; and learned to write without any assistance, by copying printed books. The family being of the Romish religion, he was put, at eight years of age, under one Taverner, a priest, who taught him the rudiments of the Latin and Greek tongues together; and soon after was sent to a Popish seminary at Winchester, from whence he was removed to a school at Hyde-

Hyde-Park Corner. He discovered early an inclination to versifying; and the translations of Ogilby and Sandys from Virgil and Ovid first falling in his way, they were his favourite authors. At twelve he retired with his parents to Binfield, in Windsor Forest; and there became acquainted with the writings of Spenser, Waller, and Dryden. Dryden struck him most, probably because the cast of that poet was most congenial with his own; and therefore he not only studied his works intensely, but ever after mentioned him with a kind of rapturous veneration. He once obtained a sight of him at a coffee-house, but never was known to him: a misfortune which he laments in these short but expressive words, Virgilium tantum vidi. Though Pope had been under more tutors than one, yet it seems they were so insufficient for the purpose of teaching, that he had learned very little from them: so that, being obliged afterwards to begin all over again, he may justly be considered as one of the self-taught or self-taught. At fifteen he had acquired a readiness in the two learned languages; to which he soon after added the French and Italian. He had already scribbled a great deal of poetry in various ways; and this year set about an epic poem called Alcander. He long after communicated it to Atterbury, with a declared intention to burn it; and that friend concurred with him: "Though (adds he) I would have interceded for the first page, and put it, with your leave, among my curiosities." What the poet himself observes upon these early pieces is agreeable enough; and shows, that though at first a little intoxicated with the waters of Helicon, he afterwards arrived to great sobriety of thinking. "I confess (says he) there was a time when I was in love with myself; and my first productions were the children of Self-love upon Innocence. I had made an epic poem, and panegyrics on all the princes; and I thought myself the greatest genius that ever was. I cannot but regret these delightful visions of my childhood, which, like the fine colours we see when our eyes are shut, are vanished for ever." His pastorals, begun in 1704, first introduced him to the wits of the time; among which were Wycherly and Walsh. This last gentleman proved a sincere friend to him; and soon discerning that his talent lay, not so much in striking out new thoughts of his own, as in improving those of other men, and in an easy versification, told him, among other things, that there was one way left open for him to excel his predecessors in, which was correctness: observing, that though we had several great poets, yet none of them were correct. Pope took the hint, and turned it to good account; for no doubt the distinguishing harmony of his numbers was in a great measure owing to it. The same year, 1704, he wrote the first part of his Windsor Forest, though the whole was not published till 1710. In 1708, he wrote the Essay on Criticism: which production was justly esteemed a masterpiece in its kind, and showed not only the peculiar turn of his talents, but that those talents, young as he was, were ripened into perfection. He was not yet twenty years old; and yet the maturity of judgement, the knowledge of the world, and the penetration into human nature, displayed in that piece, were such as would have done honour to the greatest abilities and experience. But whatever may be the merit of the Essay on Criticism, it was still surpassed, in a poetical view, by the Rape of the Lock, first com-

pletely published in 1712. The former excelled in the didactic way, for which he was peculiarly formed; a clear head, strong sense, and a sound judgement, being his characteristic qualities; but it is the creative power of the imagination that constitutes what is properly called a poet; and therefore it is in the Rape of the Lock that Pope principally appears one, there being more our imaginandi displayed in this poem than perhaps in all his other works put together. In 1713, he gave out proposals for publishing a translation of Homer's Iliad, by subscription; in which all parties concurred so heartily, that he acquired a considerable fortune by it. The subscription amounted to 6000l. besides 1200l. which Lintot the bookseller gave him for the copy. Pope's finances being now in good condition, he purchased a house at Twickenham, whither he removed with his father and mother in 1715, where the former died about two years after. As he was a Papist, he could not purchase, nor put his money to interest on real security; and as he adhered to the cause of King James, he made it a point of conscience not to lend it to the new government; so that, though he was worth near 20,000l. when he laid aside business, yet, living afterwards upon the quick stock, he left but a slender subsistence to his family. Our poet, however, did not fail to improve it to the utmost: he had already acquired much by his publications, and he was all attention to acquire more. In 1717, he published a collection of all he had printed separately; and proceeded to give a new edition of Shakespeare: which, being published in 1721, discovered that he had consulted his fortune more than his fame in that undertaking. The Iliad being finished, he engaged upon the like footing to undertake the Odyssey. Mr Broome and Mr Fenton did part of it, and received 500l. of Mr Pope for their labours. It was published in the same manner, and on the same conditions to Lintot; excepting that, instead of 1200l. he had but 600l. for the copy. This work being finished in 1725, he was afterwards employed with Swift and Arbuthnot in printing some volumes of Miscellanies. About this time he narrowly escaped losing his life, as he was returning home in a friend's chariot; which, on passing a bridge, happened to be overturned, and thrown with the horses into the river. The glasses were up, and he was not able to break them: so that he had immediately been drowned, if the postillion had not broke them, and dragged him out to the bank. A fragment of the glass, however, cut him so desperately, that he ever after lost the use of two of his fingers. In 1727 his Dunciad appeared in Ireland; and the year after in England, with notes by Swift, under the name of Scriblerus. This edition was presented to the king and queen by Sir Robert Walpole; who, probably about this time, offered to procure Pope a pension, which however he refused, as he had formerly done a proposal of the same kind made him by Lord Halifax. He greatly cultivated the spirit of independency; and "Unplac'd, unpension'd, no man's heir or slave," was frequently his boast. He somewhere observes, that the life of an author is a state of warfare: he has shown himself a complete general in this way of warring. He bore the insults and injuries of his enemies long; but at length, in the Dunciad, made an absolutely universal slaughter of them: for even Cibber, who was afterwards advanced to be the

hero of it, could not forbear owning, that nothing was ever more perfect and finished in its kind than this poem. In 1729, by the advice of Lord Bolingbroke, he turned his pen to subjects of morality; and accordingly we find him, with the assistance of that noble friend, who furnished him with the materials, at work this year upon the Essay on Man. The following extract of a letter to Swift discovers the reason of his lordship's advice: "Bid him (says Bolingbroke) talk to you of the work he is about, I hope in good earnest; it is a fine one, and will be, in his hands, an original. His sole complaint is, that he finds it too easy in the execution. This flatters his laziness: it flatters my judgement; who always thought, that, universal as his talents are, this is eminently and peculiarly his, above all the writers I know, living or dead; I do not except Horace." Pope tells the dean in the next letter, that "the work Lord Bolingbroke speaks of with such abundant partiality, is a system of ethics, in the Horatian way." In pursuing the same design, he wrote his Ethic Epistles: the fourth of which, upon Taste, giving great offence, as he was supposed to ridicule the duke of Chandos under the character of Timon, is said to have put him upon writing satires, which he continued till 1739. He ventured to attack persons of the highest rank, and set no bounds to his satirical rage. A genuine collection of his letters was published in 1737. In 1738, a French translation of the Essay on Man, by the Abbé Refnel, was printed at Paris; and Mr Croufaz, a German professor, animadverted upon this system of ethics, which he represented as nothing else but a system of naturalism. Mr Warburton, afterwards bishop of Gloucester, wrote a commentary upon the Essay; in which he defends it against Croufaz, whose objections he supposes owing to the faultiness of the Abbé Refnel's translation. The poem was republished in 1740, with the commentary. Our author now added a fourth book to the Dunciad, which was first printed separately in 1742: but the year after, the whole poem came out together, as a specimen of a more correct edition of his works. He had made some progress in that design, but did not live to complete it. He had all his life long been subject to the headache; and that complaint, which he derived from his mother, was now greatly increased by a dropsy in his breast, under which he expired the 30th of May 1744, in the 56th year of his age. In his will, dated December 11. 1743, Miss Blount, a lady to whom he was always devoted, was made his heir during her life: and among other legacies, he bequeathed to Mr Warburton the property of all such of his works, already printed, as he had written, or should write commentaries upon, and which had not otherwise been disposed of or alienated; with this condition, that they were published without future alterations. In discharge of this trust, that gentleman gave a complete edition of all Mr Pope's works, 1751, in nine vols. 8vo. A work, entitled, An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope, by Mr Warton, two vols. 8vo, will be read with pleasure by those who desire to know more of the person, character, and writings of this excellent poet. Lord Orrery's account of him is very flattering: "If we may judge of him by his works (says this noble author), his chief aim was to be esteemed a man of virtue. His letters are written in that style; his last volumes are all of the

moral kind; he has avoided trifles, and consequently has escaped a rock which has proved very injurious to Swift's reputation. He has given his imagination full scope, and yet has preserved a perpetual guard upon his conduct. The constitution of his body and mind might really incline him to the habits of caution and reserve. The treatment which he met with afterwards, from an innumerable tribe of adversaries, confirmed this habit; and made him flower than the dean in pronouncing his judgement upon persons and things. His prose-writings are little less harmonious than his verse; and his voice, in common conversation was so naturally musical, that I remember honest Tom Southern used to call him the little nightingale. His manners were delicate, easy, and engaging; and he treated his friends with a politeness that charmed, and a generosity that was much to his honour. Every guest was made happy within his doors; pleasure dwelt under his roof, and elegance presided at his table."

Yet, from Dr Johnson's account of his domestic habits, we have reason to doubt the latter part of this character. His parsimony (he informs us) appeared in very petty matters, such as writing his compositions on the backs of letters, or in a niggardly reception of his friends, and a scantiness of entertainment—as the setting a single pint on the table to two friends, when, having himself taken two small glasses, he would retire, saying, I leave you to your wine. He sometimes, however, the Doctor acknowledges, made a splendid dinner; but this happened seldom. He was very full of his fortune, and frequently ridiculed poverty; and he seems to have been of an opinion not very uncommon in the world, that to want money is to want every thing. He was almost equally proud of his connection with the great, and often boasted that he obtained their notice by no means of fervency. This admiration of the great increased in the advance of life; yet we must acknowledge, that he could derive but little honour from the notice of Cobham, Burlington, or Bolingbroke.

By natural deformity, or accidental distortion, his vital functions were so much disordered, that his life was a long disease; and from this cause arose many of his peculiarities and weaknesses. He stood constantly in need of female attendants; and to avoid cold, of which he was very sensible, he wore a fur doublet under his shirt, &c. The indulgence and accommodation which his sickness required, had taught him all the unpleasing and unsocial qualities of a valetudinarian man.—When he wanted to sleep, he nodded in company; and once slumbered at his own table when the prince of Wales was talking of poetry. He was extremely troublesome to such of his friends as asked him out, which many of them frequently did, and plagued the servants beyond description. His love of eating is another fault, to which he is said to have fallen a sacrifice. In all his intercourse with mankind, he had great delight in artifice, and endeavoured to attain all his purposes by indirect and unsuspected methods.

In familiar conversation it is said he never excelled; and he was so fretful and so easily displeased, that he would sometimes leave Lord Oxford's silently without any apparent reason, and was to be courted back by more letters and messages than the servants were willing to carry.

Dr Johnson also gives a view of the intellectual character of Pope, and draws a parallel between Dryden and him. For particulars, however, we must refer our readers to Johnson's Lives of the Poets.