diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/lvpc10.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/lvpc10.txt | 6731 |
1 files changed, 6731 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/lvpc10.txt b/old/lvpc10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f80ff2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/lvpc10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6731 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lives of the English Poets: Prior, etc. +by Samuel Johnson +(#7 in our series by Samuel Johnson) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Lives of the English Poets: Prior, Congreve, Blackmore, Pope + +Author: Samuel Johnson + +Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5101] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 26, 2002] +[Most recently updated: April 26, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, LIVES OF THE ENGLISH POETS *** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1891 Cassell and Company edition by David +Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +THE LIVES OF THE ENGLISH POETS: PRIOR, CONGREVE, BLACKMORE AND POPE + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + + +When, at the age of sixty-eight, Johnson was writing these "Lives of +the English Poets," he had caused omissions to be made from the +poems of Rochester, and was asked whether he would allow the +printers to give all the verse of Prior. Boswell quoted a censure +by Lord Hailes of "those impure tales which will be the eternal +opprobrium of their ingenious author." Johnson replied, "Sir, Lord +Hailes has forgot. There is nothing in Prior that will excite to +lewdness;" and when Boswell further urged, he put his questionings +aside, and added, "No, sir, Prior is a lady's book. No lady is +ashamed to have it standing in her library." Johnson distinguished +strongly, as every wise man does, between offence against +convention, and offence against morality. + +In Congreve's plays he recognised the wit but condemned the morals, +and in the case of Blackmore the regard for the religious purpose of +Blackmore's poem on "The Creation" gave to Johnson, as to Addison, +an undue sense of its literary value. + +With his "Life of Pope," which occupies more than two-thirds of this +volume, Johnson took especial pains. "He wrote it," says Boswell, +"'con amore,' both from the early possession which that writer had +taken of his mind, and from the pleasure which he must have felt in +for ever silencing all attempts to lessen his poetical fame. . . . I +remember once to have heard Johnson say, 'Sir, a thousand years may +elapse before there shall appear another man with a power of +versification equal to that of Pope.'" + +Pope's laurel, since Johnson's days, has flourished, without showing +a dead bough, for all the frosts of hostile criticism. + +H. M. + + + +PRIOR + + + +Matthew Prior is one of those that have burst out from an obscure +original to great eminence. He was born July 21, 1664, according to +some, at Wimborne, in Dorsetshire, of I know not what parents; +others say that he was the son of a joiner of London: he was +perhaps willing enough to leave his birth unsettled, in hope, like +Don Quixote, that the historian of his actions might find him some +illustrious alliance. He is supposed to have fallen, by his +father's death, into the hands of his uncle, a vintner near Charing +Cross, who sent him for some time to Dr. Busby, at Westminster; but, +not intending to give him any education beyond that of the school, +took him, when he was well advanced in literature, to his own house, +where the Earl of Dorset, celebrated for patronage of genius, found +him by chance, as Burnet relates, reading Horace, and was so well +pleased with his proficiency, that he undertook the care and cost of +his academical education. He entered his name in St. John's +College, at Cambridge, in 1682, in his eighteenth year; and it may +be reasonably supposed that he was distinguished among his +contemporaries. He became a Bachelor, as is usual, in four years, +and two years afterwards wrote the poem on the Deity, which stands +first in his volume. + +It is the established practice of that College to send every year to +the Earl of Exeter some poems upon sacred subjects, in +acknowledgment of a benefaction enjoyed by them from the bounty of +his ancestor. On this occasion were those verses written, which, +though nothing is said of their success, seem to have recommended +him to some notice; for his praise of the countess's music, and his +lines on the famous picture of Seneca, afford reason for imagining +that he was more or less conversant with that family. + +The same year he published "The City Mouse and Country Mouse," to +ridicule Dryden's "Hind and Panther," in conjunction with Mr. +Montague. There is a story of great pain suffered, and of tears +shed, on this occasion by Dryden, who thought it hard that "an old +man should be so treated by those to whom he had always been civil." +By tales like these is the envy raised by superior abilities every +day gratified. When they are attacked every one hopes to see them +humbled; what is hoped is readily believed, and what is believed is +confidently told. Dryden had been more accustomed to hostilities +than that such enemies should break his quiet; and, if we can +suppose him vexed, it would be hard to deny him sense enough to +conceal his uneasiness. + +"The City Mouse and Country Mouse" procured its authors more solid +advantages than the pleasure of fretting Dryden, for they were both +speedily preferred. Montague, indeed, obtained the first notice +with some degree of discontent, as it seems, in Prior, who probably +knew that his own part of the performance was the best. He had not, +however, much reason to complain, for he came to London and obtained +such notice that (in 1691) he was sent to the Congress at the Hague +as secretary to the embassy. In this assembly of princes and +nobles, to which Europe has perhaps scarcely seen anything equal, +was formed the grand alliance against Louis, which at last did not +produce effects proportionate so the magnificence of the +transaction. + +The conduct of Prior, in this splendid initiation into public +business, was so pleasing to King William, that he made him one of +the gentlemen of his bedchamber; and he is supposed to have passed +some of the next years in the quiet cultivation of literature and +poetry. + +The death of Queen Mary (in 1695) produced a subject for all the +writers--perhaps no funeral was ever so poetically attended. +Dryden, indeed, as a man discountenanced and deprived, was silent; +but scarcely any other maker of verses omitted to bring his tribute +of tuneful sorrow. An emulation of elegy was universal. Mary's +praise was not confined to the English language, but fills a great +part of the Musae Anglicanae. + +Prior, who was both a poet and a courtier, was too diligent to miss +this opportunity of respect. He wrote a long ode, which was +presented to the king, by whom it was not likely to be ever read. +In two years he was secretary to another embassy at the Treaty of +Ryswick (in 1697), and next year had the same office at the court of +France, where he is said to have been considered with great +distinction. As he was one day surveying the apartments at +Versailles, being shown the "Victories of Louis," painted by Le +Brun, and asked whether the King of England's palace had any such +decorations: "The monuments of my master's actions," said he, "are +to be seen everywhere but in his own house." + +The pictures of Le Brun are not only in themselves sufficiently +ostentatious, but were explained by inscriptions so arrogant, that +Boileau and Racine thought it necessary to make them more simple. +He was in the following year at Leo with the king, from whom, after +a long audience, he carried orders to England, and upon his arrival +became Under Secretary of State in the Earl of Jersey's office, a +post which he did not retain long, because Jersey was removed, but +he was soon made Commissioner of Trade. + +This year (1700) produced one of his longest and most splendid +compositions, the "Carmen Seculare," in which he exhausts all his +powers of celebration. I mean not to accuse him of flattery; he +probably thought all that he writ, and retained as much veracity as +can be properly exacted from a poet professedly encomiastic. King +William supplied copious materials for either verse or prose. His +whole life had been action, and none ever denied him the resplendent +qualities of steady resolution and personal courage. He was really +in Prior's mind what he represents him in his verses; he considered +him as a hero, and was accustomed to say that he praised others in +compliance with the fashion, but that in celebrating King William he +followed his inclination. To Prior, gratitude would dictate praise, +which reason would not refuse. + +Among the advantages to arise from the future years of William's +reign, he mentions a Society for Useful Arts, and among them:- + + +"Some that with care true eloquence shall teach, +And to just idioms fix our doubtful speech; +That from our writers distant realms may know + The thanks we to our monarchs owe, +And schools profess our tongue through every land +That has invoked his aid, or blessed his hand." + + +Tickell, in his "Prospect of Peace," has the same hope of a new +academy:- + + +"In happy chains our daring language bound, +Shall sport no more in arbitrary sound." + + +Whether the similitude of those passages, which exhibit the same +thought on the same occasion, proceeded from accident or imitation, +is not easy to determine. Tickell might have been impressed with +his expectation by Swift's "Proposal for Ascertaining the English +Language," then lately published. + +In the Parliament that met in 1701 he was chosen representative of +East Grinstead. Perhaps it was about this time that he changed his +party, for he voted for the impeachment of those lords who had +persuaded the king to the Partition Treaty, a treaty in which he +himself had been ministerially employed. + +A great part of Queen Anne's reign was a time of war, in which there +was little employment for negotiators, and Prior had, therefore, +leisure to make or to polish verses. When the Battle of Blenheim +called forth all the verse-men, Prior, among the rest, took care to +show his delight in the increasing honour of his country by an +epistle to Boileau. He published, soon afterwards, a volume of +poems, with the encomiastic character of his deceased patron, the +Earl of Dorset. It began with the College exercise, and ended with +the "Nutbrown Maid." + +The Battle of Ramillies soon afterwards (in 1706) excited him to +another effort of poetry. On this occasion he had fewer or less +formidable rivals, and it would be not easy to name any other +composition produced by that event which is now remembered. + +Everything has its day. Through the reigns of William and Anne no +prosperous event passed undignified by poetry. In the last war, +when France was disgraced and overpowered in every quarter of the +globe, when Spain, coming to her assistance, only shared her +calamities, and the name of an Englishman was reverenced through +Europe, no poet was heard amidst the general acclamation; the fame +of our counsellors and heroes was entrusted to the Gazetteer. The +nation in time grew weary of the war, and the queen grew weary of +her ministers. The war was burdensome, and the ministers were +insolent. Harley and his friends began to hope that they might, by +driving the Whigs from court and from power, gratify at once the +queen and the people. There was now a call for writers, who might +convey intelligence of past abuses, and show the waste of public +money, the unreasonable conduct of the allies, the avarice of +generals, the tyranny of minions, and the general danger of +approaching ruin. For this purpose a paper called the Examiner was +periodically published, written, as it happened, by any wit of the +party, and sometimes, as is said, by Mrs. Manley. Some are owned by +Swift; and one, in ridicule of Garth's verses to Godolphin upon the +loss of his place, was written by Prior, and answered by Addison, +who appears to have known the author either by conjecture or +intelligence. + +The Tories, who were now in power, were in haste to end the war, and +Prior, being recalled (1710) to his former employment of making +treaties, was sent (July, 1711) privately to Paris with propositions +of peace. He was remembered at the French court; and, returning in +about a month, brought with him the Abbe Gaultier and M. Mesnager, a +minister from France, invested with full powers. This transaction +not being avowed, Mackay, the master of the Dover packet-boat, +either zealously or officiously, seized Prior and his associates at +Canterbury. It is easily supposed they were soon released. + +The negotiation was begun at Prior's house, where the queen's +ministers met Mesnager (September 20, 1711), and entered privately +upon the great business. The importance of Prior appears from the +mention made of him by St. John in his letter to the queen:- + +"My Lord Treasurer moved, and all my Lords were of the same opinion, +that Mr. Prior should be added to those who are empowered to sign; +the reason for which is because he, having personally treated with +Monsieur de Torcy, is the best witness we can produce of the sense +in which the general preliminary engagements are entered into; +besides which, as he is the best versed in matters of trade of all +your Majesty's servants who have been trusted in this secret, if you +shall think fit to employ him in the future treaty of commerce, it +will be of consequence that he has been a party concerned in +concluding that convention, which must be the rule of this treaty." + +The assembly of this important night was in some degree clandestine, +the design of treaty not being yet openly declared and when the +Whigs returned to power was aggravated to a charge of high treason; +though, as Prior remarks in his imperfect answer to the Report of +the Committee of Secrecy, no treaty ever was made without private +interviews and preliminary discussions. + +My business is not the history of the peace, but the life of Prior. +The conferences began at Utrecht on the 1st of January (1711-12), +and the English plenipotentiaries arrived on the 15th. The +ministers of the different potentates conferred and conferred; but +the peace advanced so slowly that speedier methods were found +necessary, and Bolingbroke was sent to Paris to adjust differences +with less formality. Prior either accompanied him or followed him, +and after his departure had the appointments and authority of an +ambassador, though no public character. By some mistake of the +queen's orders the court of France had been disgusted, and +Bolingbroke says in his letter, "Dear Mat,--Hide the nakedness of +thy country, and give the best turn thy fertile brain will furnish +thee with to the blunders of thy countrymen, who are not much better +politicians than the French are poets." + +Soon after, the Duke of Shrewsbury went on a formal embassy to +Paris. It is related by Boyer that the intention was to have joined +Prior in the commission, but that Shrewsbury refused to be +associated with a man so meanly born. Prior therefore continued to +act without a title till the duke returned next year to England, and +then he assumed the style and dignity of ambassador. But while he +continued in appearance a private man, he was treated with +confidence by Louis, who sent him with a letter to the queen, +written in favour of the Elector of Bavaria. "I shall expect," says +he, "with impatience, the return of Mr. Prior, whose conduct is very +agreeable to me." And while the Duke of Shrewsbury was still at +Paris, Bolingbroke wrote to Prior thus:- "Monsieur de Torcy has a +confidence in you; make use of it, once for all, upon this occasion, +and convince him thoroughly that we must give a different turn to +our Parliament and our people according to their resolution at this +crisis." + +Prior's public dignity and splendour commenced in August, 1713, and +continued till the August following; but I am afraid that, according +to the usual fate of greatness, it was attended with some +perplexities and mortifications. He had not all that is customarily +given to ambassadors: he hints to the queen in an imperfect poem +that he had no service of plate; and it appeared by the debts which +he contracted that his remittances were not punctually made. + +On the 1st of August, 1714, ensued the downfall of the Tories and +the degradation of Prior. He was recalled, but was not able to +return, being detained by the debts which he had found it necessary +to contract, and which were not discharged before March, though his +old friend Montague was now at the head of the Treasury. He +returned, then, as soon as he could, and was welcomed on the 25th of +March by a warrant, but was, however, suffered to live in his own +house, under the custody of the messenger, till he was examined +before a committee of the Privy Council, of which Mr. Walpole was +chairman, and Lord Coningsby, Mr. Stanhope, and Mr. Lechmere were +the principal interrogators, who, in this examination, of which +there is printed an account not unentertaining, behaved with the +boisterousness of men elated by recent authority. They are +represented as asking questions sometimes vague, sometimes +insidious, and writing answers different from those which they +received. Prior, however, seems to have been overpowered by their +turbulence; for he confesses that he signed what, if he had ever +come before a legal judicature, he should have contradicted or +explained away. The oath was administered by Boscawen, a Middlesex +justice, who at last was going to write his attestation on the wrong +side of the paper. They were very industrious to find some charge +against Oxford, and asked Prior, with great earnestness, who was +present when the preliminary articles were talked of or signed at +his house? He told them that either the Earl of Oxford or the Duke +of Shrewsbury was absent, but he could not remember which, an answer +which perplexed them, because it supplied no accusation against +either. "Could anything be more absurd," says he, "or more inhuman, +than to propose to me a question, by the answering of which I might, +according to them, prove myself a traitor? And notwithstanding +their solemn promise that nothing which I should say should hurt +myself, I had no reason to trust them, for they violated that +promise about five hours after. However, I owned I was there +present. Whether this was wisely done or no I leave to my friends +to determine." When he had signed the paper, he was told by Walpole +that the committee were not satisfied with his behaviour, nor could +give such an account of it to the Commons as might merit favour; and +that they now thought a stricter confinement necessary than to his +own house. "Here," says he, "Boscawen played the moralist, and +Coningsby the Christian, but both very awkwardly." The messenger, +in whose custody he was to be placed, was then called, and very +indecently asked by Coningsby "if his house was secured by bars and +bolts." The messenger answered, "No," with astonishment. At which +Coningsby very angrily said, "Sir, you must secure this prisoner; it +is for the safety of the nation: if he escape, you shall answer for +it." + +They had already printed their report; and in this examination were +endeavouring to find proofs. + +He continued thus confined for some time; and Mr. Walpole (June 10, +1715) moved for an impeachment against him. What made him so +acrimonious does not appear; he was by nature no thirster for blood. +Prior was a week after committed to close custody, with orders that +"no person should be admitted to see him without leave from the +Speaker." When, two years after, an Act of Grace was passed, he was +excepted, and continued still in custody, which he had made less +tedious by writing his "Alma." He was, however, soon after +discharged. He had now his liberty, but he had nothing else. +Whatever the profit of his employments might have been, he had +always spent it; and at the age of fifty-three was, with all his +abilities, in danger of penury, having yet no solid revenue but from +the fellowship of his college, which, when in his exaltation he was +censured for retaining it, he said he could live upon at last. +Being, however, generally known and esteemed, he was encouraged to +add other poems to those which he had printed, and to publish them +by subscription. The expedient succeeded by the industry of many +friends, who circulated the proposals, and the care of some who, it +is said, withheld the money from him lest he should squander it. +The price of the volume was two guineas; the whole collection was +four thousand; to which Lord Harley, the son of the Earl of Oxford, +to whom he had invariably adhered, added an equal sum for the +purchase of Down Hall, which Prior was to enjoy during life, and +Harley after his decease. He had now, what wits and philosophers +have often wished, the power of passing the day in contemplative +tranquillity. But it seems that busy men seldom live long in a +state of quiet. It is not unlikely that his health declined, he +complains of deafness; "for," says he, "I took little care of my +ears while I was not sure if my head was my own." + +Of any occurrences of his remaining life I have found no account. +In a letter to Swift, "I have," says he, "treated Lady Harriet, at +Cambridge (a Fellow of a College treat!) and spoke verses to her in +a gown and cap! What, the plenipotentiary, so far concerned in the +damned peace at Utrecht; the man that makes up half the volume of +terse prose, that makes up the report of the committee, speaking +verses! Sic est, homo sum." + +He died at Wimpole, a seat of the Earl of Oxford, on the 18th of +September, 1721, and was buried in Westminster; where on a monument, +for which, as the "last piece of human vanity," he left five hundred +pounds, is engraven this epitaph:- + + +Sui Temporis Historiam meditanti, +Paulatim obrepens Febris +Operi simul et Vitae filum abrupit, +Sept. 18. An. Dom. 1721. AEtat. 57. +H.S.E. +Vir Eximius Serenissimis +Regi GULIELMO Reginaeque MARIAE +In Congressione Foederatorum +Hagae anno 1690 celebrata, +Deinde Magnae Britanniae Legatis +Tum iis, +Qui anno 1697 Pacem RYSWICKI confecerunt, +Tum iis, +Qui apud Gallos annie proximis Legationem obierunt +Eodem etiani anno 1657 in Hibernia +SECRETARIUS; +Necnon in utroque Honorabili consessu +Eorum, +Qui anno 1700 ordinandis Commercii negotiis, +Quique anno 1711 dirigendis Portorii rebus, +Praeidebant, +COMMISSIONARIUS; +Postremo ab ANNA, +Felicissimae memoriae Regina, +Ad LUDOVICUM XIV. Galliae Regem +Missus anno 1711 +De Pace stabilienda +(Pace etiam num durante +Diuque ut boni jam omnes sperant duratura), +Cum sunma potestate Legatus; +MATTHAES PRIOR Armiger +Qui +Hos omnes, quibus cumulates est, Titulos +Humanitatis, Ingenii, Ereditionis laude +Superavit; +Cui enim nascenti faciles arriserant Mesae. +Hunc Puerum Schola hic Regia perpolivit; +Jevenem in Collegio S'ti Johannis +Cantabrigia optimis Scientiis instruxit; +Virum denique auxit, et perfecit, +Multa cum viris Principibus censuetudo; +Ita natus, ita institutus, +A Vatam Choro avelli numquam potuit, +Sed solebat saepe rerum civilium gravitatem +Amoeniorum Literarum Studiis condire: +Et cum omne adeo Poetices genus +Haud infeliciter tentaret, +Tum in Fabellis concinne lepideque texendis +Mirus Artifex +Neminem habuit parem. +Haec liberalis animi oblectamenta: +Quam nullo illi labore constiterint, +Facile ii perspexere, quibus usus est Amici; +Apud quos Urbanitatem et Leporum plenus +Cum ad rem, quaecunque forte inciderat, +Apte varie copioseque alluderet, +Interea nihil quaesitum, nihil vi expressum +Videbatur, +Sed omnia ultro effluere, +Et quasi jugi e foote affatim exuberare, +Ita suos tandem dubios reliquit, +Essetne in Scriptis, Poeta Elegantior, +An in Convictu, Comes Jocundior. + + +Of Prior, eminent as he was, both by his abilities and station, very +few memorials have been left by his contemporaries; the account, +therefore, must now be destitute of his private character and +familiar practices. He lived at a time when the rage of party +detected all which it was any man's interest to hide; and, as little +ill is heard of Prior, it is certain that not much was known. He +was not afraid of provoking censure; for when he forsook the Whigs, +under whose patronage he first entered the world, he became a Tory +so ardent and determinate. that he did not willingly consort with +men of different opinions. He was one of the sixteen Tories who met +weekly, and agreed to address each other by the title of Brother; +and seems to have adhered, not only by concurrence of political +designs, but by peculiar affection, to the Earl of Oxford and his +family. With how much confidence he was trusted has been already +told. + +He was, however, in Pope's opinion, fit only to make verses, and +less qualified for business than Addison himself. This was surely +said without consideration. Addison, exalted to a high place, was +forced into degradation by the sense of his own incapacity; Prior, +who was employed by men very capable of estimating his value, having +been secretary to one embassy, had, when great abilities were again +wanted, the same office another time; and was, after so much +experience of his own knowledge and dexterity, at last sent to +transact a negotiation in the highest degree arduous and important, +for which he was qualified, among other requisites, in the opinion +of Bolingbroke, by his influence upon the French minister, and by +skill in questions of commerce above other men. + +Of his behaviour in the lighter parts of life, it is too late to get +much intelligence. One of his answers to a boastful Frenchman has +been related; and to an impertinent he made another equally proper. +During his embassy he sat at the opera by a man who, in his rapture, +accompanied with his own voice the principal singer. + +Prior fell to railing at the performer with all the terms of +reproach that he could collect, till the Frenchman, ceasing from his +song, began to expostulate with him for his harsh censure of a man +who was confessedly the ornament of the stage. "I know all that," +says the ambassador, "mais il chante si haut, que je ne scaurois +vous entendre." + +In a gay French company, where every one sang a little song or +stanza, of which the burden was "Bannissons la Melancolie," when it +came to his turn to sing, after the performance of a young lady that +sat next him, he produced these extemporary lines + + +"Mais cette voix, et ces beaux yeux, +Font Cupidon trop dangereux, +Et je suis triste quand je crie +Bannissons la Melancolie." + + +Tradition represents him as willing to descend from the dignity of +the poet and statesman to the low delights of mean company. His +Chloe probably was sometimes ideal: but the woman with whom he +cohabited was a despicable drab of the lowest species. One of his +wenches, perhaps Chloe, while he was absent from his house, stole +his plate and ran away, as was related by a woman who had been his +servant. Of his propensity to sordid converse, I have seen an +account so seriously ridiculous, that it seems to deserve insertion. + +"I have been assured that Prior, after having spent the evening with +Oxford, Bolingbroke, Pope, and Swift, would go and smoke a pipe and +drink a bottle of ale with a common soldier and his wife in Long +Acre before he went to bed, not from any remains of the lowness of +his original, as one said, but I suppose that his faculties - + + +"'--strained to the height, +In that celestial colloquy sublime, +Dazzled and spent, sunk down, and sought repair.'" + + +Poor Prior; why was he so STRAINED, and in such WANT OF REPAIR, +after a conversation with men not, in the opinion of the world, much +wiser than himself? But such are the conceits of speculatists, who +STRAIN their FACULTIES to find in a mine what lies upon the surface. +His opinions, so far as the means of judging are left us, seem to +have been right; but his life was, it seems, irregular, negligent, +and sensual. + + +Prior has written with great variety, and his variety has made him +popular. He has tried all styles, from the grotesque to the solemn, +and has not so failed in any as to incur derision or disgrace. His +works may be distinctly considered as comprising Tales, Love Verses, +Occasional Poems, "Alma," and "Solomon." + +His tales have obtained general approbation, being written with +great familiarity and great sprightliness; the language is easy, but +seldom gross, and the numbers smooth, without appearance of care. +Of these tales there are only four: "The Ladle," which is +introduced by a preface, neither necessary nor pleasing, neither +grave nor merry. "Paulo Purganti," which has likewise a preface, +but of more value than the tale. "Hans Carvel," not over-decent; +and "Protogenes and Apelles," an old story mingled, by an +affectation not disagreeable, with modern images. "The Young +Gentleman in Love" has hardly a just claim to the title of a tale. +I know not whether he be the original author of any tale which he +has given us. The adventure of Hans Carvel has passed through many +successions of merry wits, for it is to be found in Ariosto's +"Satires," and is perhaps yet older. But the merit of such stories +is the art of telling them. + +In his amorous effusions he is less happy; for they are not dictated +by nature or by passion, and have neither gallantry nor tenderness. +They have the coldness of Cowley, without his wit, the dull +exercises of a skilful versifier, resolved at all adventures to +write something about Chloe, and trying to be amorous by dint of +study. His fictions, therefore, are mythological. Venus, after the +example of the Greek epigram, asks when she was seen NAKED AND +BATHING. Then Cupid is MISTAKEN; then Cupid is DISARMED; then he +loses his darts to Ganymede; then Jupiter sends him a summons by +Mercury. Then Chloe goes a-hunting with an IVORY QUIVER GRACEFUL AT +HER SIDE; Diana mistakes her for one of her nymphs, and Cupid laughs +at the blunder. All this is surely despicable; and even when he +tries to act the lover without the help of gods or goddesses, his +thoughts are unaffecting or remote. He talks not "like a man of +this world." + +The greatest of all his amorous essays is "Henry and Emma," a dull +and tedious dialogue, which excites neither esteem for the man nor +tenderness for the woman. The example of Emma, who resolves to +follow an outlawed murderer wherever fear and guilt shall drive him, +deserves no imitation; and the experiment by which Henry tries the +lady's constancy is such as must end either in infamy to her or in +disappointment to himself. + +His occasional poems necessarily lost part of their value, as their +occasions, being less remembered, raised less emotion, Some of them, +however, are preserved by their inherent excellence. The burlesque +of Boileau's ode on Namur has in some parts such airiness and levity +as will always procure it readers, even among those who cannot +compare it with the original. The epistle to Boileau is not so +happy. The "Poems to the King," are now perused only by young +students, who read merely that they may learn to write; and of the +"Carmen Seculare," I cannot but suspect that I might praise or +censure it by caprice without danger of detection; for who can be +supposed to have laboured through it? Yet the time has been when +this neglected work was so popular that it was translated into Latin +by no common master. + +His poem on the Battle of Ramillies is necessarily tedious by the +form of the stanza. An uniform mass of ten lines thirty-five times +repeated, inconsequential and slightly connected, must weary both +the ear and the understanding. His imitation of Spenser, which +consists principally in _I_ WEEN and _I_ WEET, without exclusion of +later modes of speech, makes his poem neither ancient nor modern. +His mention of Mars and Bellona, and his comparison of Marlborough +to the eagle that bears the thunder of Jupiter, are all puerile and +unaffecting; and yet more despicable is the long tale told by Louis +in his despair of Brute and Troynovante, and the teeth of Cadmus, +with his similes of the raven and eagle and wolf and lion. By the +help of such easy fictions and vulgar topics, without acquaintance +with life, and without knowledge of art or nature, a poem of any +length, cold and lifeless like this, may be easily written on any +subject. + +In his epilogues to Phaedra and to Lucius he is very happily +facetious; but in the prologue before the queen the pedant has found +his way with Minerva, Perseus, and Andromeda. + +His epigrams and lighter pieces are, like those of others, sometimes +elegant, sometimes trifling, and sometimes dull; among the best are +the "Chamelion" and the epitaph on John and Joan. + +Scarcely any one of our poets has written so much and translated so +little: the version of Callimachus is sufficiently licentious; the +paraphrase on St. Paul's Exhortation to Charity is eminently +beautiful. + +"Alma" is written in professed imitation of "Hudibras," and has at +least one accidental resemblance: "Hudibras" wants a plan because +it is left imperfect; "Alma" is imperfect because it seems never to +have had a plan. Prior appears not to have proposed to himself any +drift or design, but to have written the casual dictates of the +present moment. + +What Horace said when he imitated Lucilius, might be said of Butler +by Prior; his numbers were not smooth nor neat. Prior excelled him +in versification; but he was, like Horace, inventore minor; he had +not Butler's exuberance of matter and variety of illustration. The +spangles of wit which he could afford he knew how to polish; but he +wanted the bullion of his master. Butler pours out a negligent +profusion, certain of the weight, but careless of the stamp. Prior +has comparatively little, but with that little he makes a fine show. +"Alma" has many admirers, and was the only piece among Prior's works +of which Pope said that he should wish to be the author. + +"Solomon" is the work to which he entrusted the protection of his +name, and which he expected succeeding ages to regard with +veneration. His affection was natural; it had undoubtedly been +written with great labour; and who is willing to think that he has +been labouring in vain? He had infused into it much knowledge and +much thought; had often polished it to elegance, often dignified it +with splendour, and sometimes heightened it to sublimity: he +perceived in it many excellences, and did not discover that it +wanted that without which all others are of small avail--the power +of engaging attention and alluring curiosity. + +Tediousness is the most fatal of all faults; negligence or errors +are single and local, but tediousness pervades the whole; other +faults are censured and forgotten, but the power of tediousness +propagates itself. He that is weary the first hour is more weary +the second, as bodies forced into motion, contrary to their +tendency, pass more and more slowly through every successive +interval of space. Unhappily this pernicious failure is that which +an author is least able to discover. We are seldom tiresome to +ourselves; and the act of composition fills and delights the mind +with change of language and succession of images. Every couplet, +when produced, is new, and novelty is the great source of pleasure. +Perhaps no man ever thought a line superfluous when he first wrote +it, or contracted his work till his ebullitions of invention had +subsided. And even if he should control his desire of immediate +renown, and keep his work NINE YEARS unpublished, he will be still +the author, and still in danger of deceiving himself: and if he +consults his friends he will probably find men who have more +kindness than judgment, or more fear to offend than desire to +instruct. The tediousness of this poem proceeds not from the +uniformity of the subject, for it is sufficiently diversified, but +from the continued tenor of the narration; in which Solomon relates +the successive vicissitudes of his own mind without the intervention +of any other speaker or the mention of any other agent, unless it be +Abra; the reader is only to learn what he thought, and to be told +that he thought wrong. The event of every experiment is foreseen, +and therefore the process is not much regarded. Yet the work is far +from deserving to be neglected. He that shall peruse it will be +able to mark many passages to which he may recur for instruction or +delight; many from which the poet may learn to write and the +philosopher to reason. + +If Prior's poetry be generally considered, his praise will be that +of correctness and industry, rather than of compass of comprehension +or activity of fancy. He never made any effort of invention: his +greater pieces are only tissues of common thoughts; and his smaller, +which consist of light images or single conceits, are not always his +own. I have traced him among the French epigrammatists, and have +been informed that he poached for prey among obscure authors. The +"Thief and Cordelier" is, I suppose, generally considered as an +original production, with how much justice this epigram may tell, +which was written by Georgius Sabinus, a poet now little known or +read, though once the friend of Luther and Melancthon:- + + + "De Sacerdote Furem consolante. +"Quidam sacrificus furem comitatus euntem + Huc ubi dat sontes carnificina neci. +Ne sis moestus, ait; summi conviva Tonantis + Jam cum coelitibus (si modo credis) eris. +Ille gemens, si vera mihi solatia praebes, + Hospes apud superos sis meus oro, refert. +Sacrificus contra; mihi non convivia fas est + Ducere, jejunas hac edo luce nihil." + + +What he has valuable he owes to his diligence and his judgment. His +diligence has justly placed him amongst the most correct of the +English poets; and he was one of the first that resolutely +endeavoured at correctness. He never sacrifices accuracy to haste, +nor indulges himself in contemptuous negligence, or impatient +idleness; he has no careless lines, or entangled sentiments; his +words are nicely selected, and his thoughts fully expanded. If this +part of his character suffers an abatement, it must be from the +disproportion of his rhymes, which have not always sufficient +consonance, and from the admission of broken lines into his +"Solomon;" but perhaps he thought, like Cowley, that hemistichs +ought to be admitted into heroic poetry. + +He had apparently such rectitude of judgment as secured him from +everything that approached to the ridiculous or absurd; but as law +operates in civil agency, not to the excitement of virtue, but the +repression of wickedness, so judgment in the operations of intellect +can hinder faults, but not produce excellence. Prior is never low, +nor very often sublime. It is said by Longinus of Euripides, that +he forces himself sometimes into grandeur by violence of effort, as +the lion kindles his fury by the lashes of his own tail. Whatever +Prior obtains above mediocrity seems the effort of struggle and of +toil. He has many vigorous, but few happy lines; he has everything +by purchase, and nothing by gift; he had no NIGHTLY VISITATIONS of +the Muse, no infusions of sentiment or felicities of fancy. His +diction, however, is more his own than of any among the successors +of Dryden; he borrows no lucky turns, or commodious modes of +language, from his predecessors. His phrases are original, but they +are sometimes harsh; as he inherited no elegances, none has he +bequeathed. His expression has every mark of laborious study, the +line seldom seems to have been formed at once; the words did not +come till they were called, and were then put by constraint into +their places, where they do their duty, but do it sullenly. In his +greater compositions there may be found more rigid stateliness than +graceful dignity. + +Of versification he was not negligent. What he received from Dryden +he did not lose; neither did he increase the difficulty of writing +by unnecessary severity, but uses triplets and alexandrines without +scruple. In his preface to "Solomon" he proposes some improvements +by extending the sense from one couplet to another with variety of +pauses. This he has attempted, but without success; his interrupted +lines are unpleasing, and his sense, as less distinct, is less +striking. He has altered the stanza of Spenser as a house is +altered by building another in its place of a different form. With +how little resemblance he has formed his new stanza to that of his +master these specimens will show:- + + +SPENSER. + + "She flying fast from Heaven's fated face, +And from the world that her discovered wide, +Fled to the wasteful wilderness space, +From living eyes her open shame to hide, +And lurked in rocks and caves long unespied. +But that fair crew of knights, and Una fair, +Did in that castle afterwards abide, +To rest themselves, and weary powers repair, +Where store they found of all that dainty was and rare?" + + +PRIOR. + + "To the close rock the frightened raven flies, +Soon as the rising eagle cuts the air; +The shaggy wolf unseen and trembling lies, +When the hoarse roar proclaims the lion near. +Ill-starred did we our forts and lines forsake, +To dare our British foes to open fight: +Our conquest we by stratagem should make; +Our triumph had been founded in our flight. +'Tis ours by craft and by surprise to gain; +'Tis theirs to meet in arms, and battle in the plain." + + +By this new structure of his lines he has avoided difficulties; nor +am I sure that he has lost any of the power of pleasing, but he no +longer imitates Spencer. Some of his poems are written without +regularity of measures; for, when he commenced poet, he had not +recovered from our Pindaric infatuation; but he probably lived to be +convinced that the essence of verse is order and consonance. His +numbers are such as mere diligence may attain; they seldom offend +the ear, and seldom soothe it; they commonly want airiness, +lightness, and facility. What is smooth is not soft. His verses +always roll, but they seldom flow. + +A survey of the life and writings of Prior may exemplify a sentence +which he doubtless understood well when he read Horace at his +uncle's, "The vessel long retains the scent which it first +receives." In his private relaxation he revived the tavern, and in +his amorous pedantry he exhibited the college. But on higher +occasions and nobler subjects, when habit was overpowered by the +necessity of reflection, he wanted not wisdom as a statesman, or +elegance as a poet. + + + +CONGREVE + + + +William Congreve descended from a family in Staffordshire of so +great antiquity, that it claims a place among the few that extend +their hue beyond the Norman Conquest, and was the son of William +Congreve, second son of Richard Congreve, of Congreve and Stratton. +He visited, once at least, the residence of his ancestors; and, I +believe, more places than one are still shown in groves and gardens, +where he is related to have written his Old Bachelor. + +Neither the time nor place of his birth is certainly known. If the +inscription upon his monument be true, he was born in 1672. For the +place, it was said by himself that he owed his nativity to England, +and by everybody else that he was born in Ireland. Southern +mentioned him with sharp censure as a man that meanly disowned his +native country. The biographers assigned his nativity to Bardsa, +near Leeds, in Yorkshire, from the account given by himself, as they +suppose, to Jacob. To doubt whether a man of eminence has told the +truth about his own birth is, in appearance, to be very deficient in +candour; yet nobody can live long without knowing that falsehoods of +convenience or vanity, falsehoods from which no evil immediately +visible ensues, except the general degradation of human testimony, +are very lightly uttered, and once uttered are sullenly supported. +Boileau, who desired to be thought a rigorous and steady moralist, +having told a pretty lie to Louis XIV., continued it afterwards by +false dates; thinking himself obliged IN HONOUR, says his admirer, +to maintain what, when he said it, was so well received. [Congreve +was baptised at Bardsey, February 10, 1670.] + +Wherever Congreve was born, he was educated first at Kilkenny, and +afterwards at Dublin, his father having some military employment +that stationed him in Ireland; but after having passed through the +usual preparatory studies, as may be reasonably supposed, with great +celerity and success, his father thought it proper to assign him a +profession, by which something might be gotten, and about the time +of the Revolution sent him, at the age of sixteen, to study law in +the Middle Temple, where he lived for several years, but with very +little attention to statutes or reports. His disposition to become +an author appeared very early, as he very early felt that force of +imagination, and possessed that copiousness of sentiment, by which +intellectual pleasure can be given. His first performance was a +novel called "Incognita; or, Love and Duty Reconciled;" it is +praised by the biographers, who quote some part of the preface, that +is, indeed, for such a time of life, uncommonly judicious. I would +rather praise it than read it. + +His first dramatic labour was The Old Bachelor, of which he says, in +his defence against Collier, "That comedy was written, as several +know, some years before it was acted. When I wrote it I had little +thoughts of the stage; but did it to amuse myself in a slow recovery +from a fit of sickness. Afterwards, through my indiscretion it was +seen, and in some little time more it was acted; and I, through the +remainder of my indiscretion suffered myself to be drawn into the +prosecution of a difficult and thankless study, and to be involved +in a perpetual war with knaves and fools." + +There seems to be a strange affectation in authors of appearing to +have done everything by chance. The Old Bachelor was written for +amusement in the languor of convalescence. Yet it is apparently +composed with great elaborateness of dialogue, and incessant +ambition of wit. The age of the writer considered, it is indeed a +very wonderful performance; for, whenever written, it was acted +(1693) when he was not more than twenty-one years old; and was then +recommended by Mr. Dryden, Mr. Southern, and Mr. Maynwaring. Dryden +said that he never had seen such a first play; but they found it +deficient in some things necessary to the success of its exhibition, +and by their greater experience fitted it for the stage. Southern +used to relate of one comedy, probably of this, that when Congreve +read it to the players he pronounced it so wretchedly, that they had +almost rejected it; but they were afterwards so well persuaded of +its excellence that, for half a year before it was acted, the +manager allowed its author the privilege of the house. + +Few plays have ever been so beneficial to the writer, for it +procured him the patronage of Halifax, who immediately made him one +of the commissioners for licensing coaches, and soon after gave him +a place in the Pipe-office, and another in the Customs, of six +hundred pounds a year. Congreve's conversation must surely have +been at least equally pleasing with his writings. + +Such a comedy, written at such an age, requires some consideration. +As the lighter species of dramatic poetry professes the imitation of +common life, of real manners. and daily incidents, it apparently +presupposes a familiar knowledge of many characters, and exact +observation of the passing world; the difficulty, therefore, is to +conceive how this knowledge can be obtained by a boy. + +But if The Old Bachelor be more nearly examined, it will be found to +be one of those comedies which may be made by a mind vigorous and +acute, and furnished with comic characters by the perusal of other +poets, without much actual commerce with mankind. The dialogue is +one constant reciprocation of conceits or clash of wit, in which +nothing flows necessarily from the occasion, or is dictated by +nature. The characters, both of men and women, are either +fictitious and artificial, as those of Heartwell and the ladies, or +easy and common, as Wittol, a tame idiot; Bluff, a swaggering +coward; and Fondlewife, a jealous Puritan; and the catastrophe +arises from a mistake, not very probably produced, by marrying a +woman in a mask. Yet this gay comedy, when all these deductions are +made, will still remain the work of very powerful and fertile +faculties; the dialogue is quick and sparkling, the incidents such +as seize the attention, and the wit so exuberant that it "o'er- +informs its tenement." + +Next year he gave another specimen of his abilities in The Double +Dealer, which was not received with equal kindness. He writes to +his patron the Lord Halifax a dedication, in which he endeavours to +reconcile the reader to that which found few friends among the +audience. These apologies are always useless: de gestibus non est +disputandem. Men may be convinced, but they cannot be pleased, +against their will. But though taste is obstinate, it is very +variable, and time often prevails when arguments have failed. Queen +Mary conferred upon both those plays the honour of her presence; and +when she died soon after, Congreve testified his gratitude by a +despicable effusion of elegiac pastoral, a composition in which all +is unnatural and yet nothing is new. + +In another year (1695) his prolific pen produced Love for Love, a +comedy of nearer alliance to life, and exhibiting more real manners, +than either of the former. The character of Foresight was then +common. Dryden calculated nativities; both Cromwell and King +William had their lucky days; and Shaftesbury himself, though he had +no religion, was said to regard predictions. The Sailor is not +accounted very natural, but he is very pleasant. With this play was +opened the New Theatre, under the direction of Betterton, the +tragedian, where he exhibited two years afterwards (1687) The +Mourning Bride, a tragedy, so written as to show him sufficiently +qualified for either kind of dramatic poetry. In this play, of +which, when he afterwards revised it, he reduced the versification +to greater regularity; there is more bustle than sentiment; the plot +is busy and intricate, and the events take hold on the attention; +but, except a very few passages, we are rather amused with noise and +perplexed with stratagem, than entertained with any true delineation +of natural characters. This, however, was received with more +benevolence than any other of his works, and still continues to be +acted and applauded. + +But whatever objections may be made either to his comic or tragic +excellence, they are lost at once in the blaze of admiration, when +it is remembered that he had produced these four plays before he had +passed his twenty-fifth year, before other men, even such as are +some time to shine in eminence, have passed their probation of +literature, or presume to hope for any other notice than such as is +bestowed on diligence and inquiry. Among all the efforts of early +genius, which literary history records, I doubt whether any one can +be produced that more surpasses the common limits of nature than the +plays of Congreve. + +About this time began the long-continued controversy between Collier +and the poets. In the reign of Charles I. the Puritans had raised a +violent clamour against the drama, which they considered as an +entertainment not lawful to Christians, an opinion held by them in +common with the Church of Rome; and Prynne published +"Histriomastix," a huge volume in which stage-plays were censured. +The outrages and crimes of the Puritans brought afterwards their +whole system of doctrine into disrepute, and from the Restoration +the poets and players were left at quiet; for to have molested them +would have had the appearance of tendency to puritanical malignity. +This danger, however, was worn away by time, and Collier, a fierce +and implacable non-juror, knew that an attack upon the theatre would +never make him suspected for a Puritan; he therefore (1698) +published "A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the +English Stage," I believe with no other motive than religious zeal +and honest indignation. He was formed for a controvertist, with +sufficient learning, with diction vehement and pointed, though often +vulgar and incorrect, with unconquerable pertinacity, with wit in +the highest degree and sarcastic, and with all those powers exalted +and invigorated by just confidence in his cause. Thus qualified and +thus incited, he walked out to battle, and assailed at once most of +the living writers, from Dryden to Durfey. His onset was violent; +those passages, which, while they stood single, had passed with +little notice, when they were accumulated and exposed together, +excited horror. The wise and the pious caught the alarm, and the +nation wondered why it had so long suffered irreligion and +licentiousness to be openly taught at the public charge. + +Nothing now remained for the poets but to resist or fly. Dryden's +conscience or his prudence, angry as he was, withheld him from the +conflict. Congreve and Vanbrugh attempted answers. Congreve, a +very young man, elated with success, and impatient of censure, +assumed an air of confidence and security. His chief art of +controversy is to retort upon his adversary his own words: he is +very angry, and hoping to conquer Collier with his own weapons, +allows himself in the use of every term of contumely and contempt, +but he has the sword without the arm of Scanderbeg; he has his +antagonist's coarseness but not his strength. Collier replied, for +contest was his delight. "He was not to be frighted from his +purpose or his prey." + +The cause of Congreve was not tenable; whatever glosses he might use +for the defence or palliation of single passages, the general tenour +and tendency of his plays must always be condemned. It is +acknowledged, with universal conviction, that the perusal of his +works will make no man better, and that their ultimate effect is to +represent pleasure in alliance with vice, and to relax those +obligations by which life ought to be regulated. + +The stage found other advocates, and the dispute was protracted +through ten years: but at last comedy grew more modest, and Collier +lived to see the reformation of the theatre. + +Of the powers by which this important victory was achieved, a +quotation from Love for Love, and the remark upon it, may afford a +specimen:- + +Sir Samps. "Sampson's a very good name; for your Sampsons were +strong dogs from the beginning." + +Angel. "Have a care--if you remember, the strongest Sampson of your +name pulled an old house over his head at last." + +"Here you have the sacred history burlesqued, and Sampson once more +brought into the house of Dagon, to make sport for the Philistines!" + +Congreve's last play was The Way of The World, which, though, as he +hints in him dedication it was written with great labour and much +thought, was received with so little favour, that being in a high +degree offended and disgusted, he resolved to commit his quiet and +his fame no more to the caprices of an audience. + +From this time his life ceased to be public; he lived for himself +and his friends, and among his friends was able to name every man of +his time whom wit and elegance had raised to reputation. It may be +therefore reasonably supposed that his manners were polite, and his +conversation pleasing. He seems not to have taken much pleasure in +writing, as he contributed nothing to the Spectator, and only one +paper to the Tatler, though published by men with whom he might be +supposed willing to associate: and though he lived many years after +the publication of his "Miscellaneous Poems," yet he added nothing +to them, but lived on in literary indolence, engaged in no +controversy, contending with no rival, neither soliciting flattery +by public commendations, nor provoking enmity by malignant +criticism, but passing his time among the great and splendid, in the +placid enjoyment of his fame and fortune. + +Having owed his fortune to Halifax, he continued, always of his +patron's party, but, as it seems, without violence or acrimony, and +his firmness was naturally esteemed, as his abilities were +reverenced. His security therefore was never violated; and when, +upon the extrusion of the Whigs, some intercession was used lest +Congreve should be displaced, the Earl of Oxford made this answer:- + + +"Non obtusa adeo gestamus pectora Poeni, +Nec tam aversus equos Tyria sol jungit ab urbe." + + +He that was thus honoured by the adverse party might naturally +expect to be advanced when his friends returned to power, and he was +accordingly made secretary for the island of Jamaica, a place, I +suppose without trust or care, but which, with his post in the +Customs, is said to have afforded him twelve hundred pounds a year. +His honours were yet far greater than his profits. Every writer +mentioned him with respect, and among other testimonies to his +merit, Steele made him the patron of his "Miscellany," and Pope +inscribed to him his translations of the "Iliad." But he treated +the muses with ingratitude; for, having long conversed familiarly +with the great, he wished to be considered rather as a man of +fashion than of wit; and, when he received a visit from Voltaire, +disgusted him by the despicable foppery of desiring to be considered +not as an author but a gentleman; to which the Frenchman replied, +"that, if he had been only a gentleman, he should not have come to +visit him." + +In his retirement he may be supposed to have applied himself to +books, for he discovers more literature than the poets have commonly +attained. But his studies were in his later days obstructed by +cataracts in his eyes, which at last terminated in blindness. This +melancholy state was aggravated by the gout, for which he sought +relief by a journey to Bath: but, being overturned in his chariot, +complained from that time of a pain in his side, and died at his +house in Surrey Street in the Strand, January 29, 1728-9. Having +lain in state in the Jerusalem Chamber, he was buried in Westminster +Abbey, where a monument is erected to his memory by Henrietta +Duchess of Marlborough, to whom, for reasons either not known or not +mentioned, he bequeathed a legacy of about ten thousand pounds, the +accumulation of attentive parsimony, which, though to her +superfluous and useless, might have given great assistance to the +ancient family from which he descended, at that time, by the +imprudence of his relation, reduced to difficulties and distress. + + +Congreve has merit of the highest kind; he is an original writer, +who borrowed neither the models of his plot nor the manner of his +dialogue. Of his plays I cannot speak distinctly, for since I +inspected them many years have passed, but what remains upon my +memory is, that his characters are commonly fictitious and +artificial, with very little of nature, and not much of life. He +formed a peculiar idea of comic excellence, which he supposed to +consist in gay remarks and unexpected answers; but that which he +endeavoured, he seldom failed of performing. His scenes exhibit not +much of humour, imagery, or passion: his personages are a kind of +intellectual gladiators; every sentence is to ward or strike; the +contest of smartness is never intermitted; his wit is a meteor +playing to and fro with alternate coruscations. His comedies have, +therefore, in some degree, the operation of tragedies, they surprise +rather than divert, and raise admiration oftener than merriment. +But they are the works of a mind replete with images, and quick in +combination. + +Of his miscellaneous poetry I cannot say anything very favourable. +The powers of Congreve seem to desert him when he leaves the stage, +as Antaeus was no longer strong than when he could touch the ground. +It cannot be observed without wonder, that a mind so vigorous and +fertile in dramatic compositions should on any other occasion +discover nothing but impotence and poverty. He has in these little +pieces neither elevation of fancy, selection of language, nor skill +in versification: yet, if I were required to select from the whole +mass of English poetry the most poetical paragraph, I know not what +I could prefer to an exclamation in the "Mourning Bride":- + + +ALMERIA. + + It was a fancied noise; for all is hushed. + +LEONORA. + + It bore the accent of a human voice. + +ALMERIA. + + It was thy fear, or else some transient wind +Whistling through hollows of this vaulted isle: +We'll listen - + +LEONORA. + + Hark! + +ALMERIA. + + No, all is hushed and still as death.--'Tis dreadful! +How reverend is the face of this tall pile, +Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads, +To bear aloft its arched and ponderous roof, +By its own weight made steadfast and immovable, +Looking tranquillity! It strikes an awe +And terror on my aching sight; the tombs +And monumental caves of death look cold, +And shoot a chillness to my trembling heart. +Give use thy hand, and let me hear thy voice; +Nay, quickly speak to me, and let me hear +Thy voice--my own affrights me with its echoes. + + +He who reads these lines enjoys for a moment the powers of a poet; +he feels what he remembers to have felt before, but he feels it with +great increase of sensibility; he recognises a familiar image, but +meets it again amplified and expanded, embellished with beauty and +enlarged with majesty. Yet could the author, who appears here to +have enjoyed the confidence of Nature, lament the death of Queen +Mary in lines like these:- + + +"The rocks are cleft, and new-descending rills +Furrow the brows of all the impending hills. +The water-gods to floods their rivulets turn, +And each, with streaming eyes, supplies his wanting urn. +The fauns forsake the woods, the nymphs the grove, +And round the plain in sad distractions rove: +In prickly brakes their tender limbs they tear, +And leave on thorns their locks of golden hair. +With their sharp nails, themselves the satyrs wound, +And tug their shaggy beards, and bite with grief the ground. +Lo Pan himself, beneath a blasted oak, +Dejected lies, his pipe in pieces broke +See Pales weeping too in wild despair, +And to the piercing winds her bosses bare. +And see yon fading myrtle, where appears +The Queen of Love, all bathed in flowing tears; +See how she wrings her hands, and beats her breast, +And tears her useless girdle from her waist: +Hear the sad murmurs of her sighing doves! +For grief they sigh, forgetful of their loves." + + +And many years after he gave no proof that time had improved his +wisdom or his wit, for, on the death of the Marquis of Blandford, +this was his song:- + + +"And now the winds, which had so long been still, +Began the swelling air with sighs to fill; +The water-nymphs, who motionless remained +Like images of ice, while she complained, +Now loosed their streams; as when descending rains +Roll the steep torrents headlong o'er the plains. +The prone creation who so long had gazed +Charmed with her cries, and at her griefs amazed, +Began to roar and howl with horrid yell, +Dismal to hear, and terrible to tell! +Nothing but groans and sighs were heard around, +And echo multiplied each mournful sound." + + +In both these funeral poems, when he has YELLED out many SYLLABLES +of senseless DOLOUR, he dismisses his reader with senseless +consolation. From the grave of Pastora rises a light that forms a +star, and where Amaryllis wept for Amyntas from every tear sprung up +a violet. But William is his hero, and of William he will sing:- + + +"The hovering winds on downy wings shall wait around, +And catch, and waft to foreign lands, the flying sound." + + +It cannot but be proper to show what they shall have to catch and +carry:- + + +"'Twas now, when flowery lawns the prospect made, +And flowing brooks beneath a forest shade, +A lowing heifer, loveliest of the herd, +Stood feeding by; while two fierce bulls prepared +Their armed heads for light, by fate of war to prove +The victor worthy of the fair one's love; +Unthought presage of what met next my view; +For soon the shady scene withdrew. +And now, for woods, and fields, and springing flowers, +Behold a town arise, bulwarked with walls and lofty towers; +Two rival armies all the plain o'erspread, +Each in battalia ranged, and shining arms arrayed +With eagle eyes beholding both from far, +Namur, the price and mistress of the war." + + +The "Birth of the Muse" is a miserable fiction. One good line it +has which was borrowed from Dryden. The concluding verses are +these:- + + +"This said, no more remained. The ethereal host +Again impatient crowd the crystal coast. +The father now, within his spacious hands, +Encompassed all the mingled mass of seas and lands; +And, having heaved aloft the ponderous sphere, +He launched the world to float in ambient air." + + +Of his irregular poems, that to Mrs. Arabella Hunt seems to be the +best; his Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, however, had some lines which +Pope had in his mind when he wrote his own. His imitations of +Horace are feebly paraphrastical, and the additions which he makes +are of little value. He sometimes retains what were more properly +omitted, as when he talks of VERVAIN and GUMS to propitiate Venus. + +Of his Translations, the "Satire of Juvenal" was written very early, +and may therefore be forgiven, though it had not the massiness and +vigour of the original. In all his versions strength and +sprightliness are wanting; his "Hymn to Venus," from Homer, is +perhaps the best. His lines are weakened with expletives, and his +rhymes are frequently imperfect. His petty poems are seldom worth +the cost of criticism; sometimes the thoughts are false and +sometimes common. In his verses on Lady Gethin, the latter part is +in imitation of Dryden's ode on Mrs. Killigrew; and "Doris," that +has been so lavishly flattered by Steele, has indeed some lively +stanzas, but the expression might be mended, and the most striking +part of the character had been already shown in "Love for Love." +His "Art of Pleasing" is founded on a vulgar, but perhaps +impracticable principle, and the staleness of the sense is not +concealed by any novelty of illustration or elegance of diction. +This tissue of poetry, from which he seems to have hoped a lasting +name, is totally neglected, and known only as it is appended to his +plays. + +While comedy or while tragedy is regarded, his plays are likely to +be read; but, except what relates to the stage, I know not that he +has ever written a stanza that is sung, or a couplet that is quoted. +The general character of his "Miscellanies" is that they show little +wit and little virtue. Yet to him it must be confessed that we are +indebted for the connection of a national error, and for the cure of +our Pindaric madness. He first taught the English writers that +Pindar's odes were regular; and though certainly he had not the lire +requisite for the higher species of lyric poetry, he has shown us +that enthusiasm has its rules, and that in mere confusion there is +neither grace nor greatness. + + + +BLACKMORE + + + +Sir Richard Blackmore is one of those men whose writings have +attracted much notice, but of whose life and manners very little has +been communicated, and whose lot it has been to be much oftener +mentioned by enemies than by friends. He was the son of Robert +Blackmore, of Corsham in Wiltshire, styled by Wood Gentleman, and +supposed to have been an attorney, having been for some time +educated in a country school, he was at thirteen sent to +Westminster, and in 1668 was entered at Edmund Hall in Oxford, where +he took the degree of MA. June 8, 1676, and resided thirteen years, +a much longer time than is usual to spend at the university, and +which he seems to have passed with very little attention to the +business of the place; for, in his poems, the ancient names of +nations or places, which he often introduces, are pronounced by +chance. He afterwards travelled. At Padua he was made doctor of +physic, and, after having wandered about a year and a half on the +Continent, returned home. + +In some part of his life, it is not known when, his indigence +compelled him to teach a school, a humiliation with which, though it +certainly lasted but a little while, his enemies did not forget to +reproach him, when he became conspicuous enough to excite +malevolence; and let it be remembered for his honour, that to have +been once a schoolmaster is the only reproach which all the +perspicacity of malice, animated by wit, has ever fixed upon his +private life. + +When he first engaged in the study of physic, he inquired, as he +says, of Dr. Sydenham, what authors he should read and was directed +by Sydenham to "Don Quixote": "which" said he, "is a very good +book; I read it still." The perverseness of mankind makes it often +mischievous to men of eminence to give way to merriment; the idle +and the illiterate will long shelter themselves under this foolish +apophthegm. Whether he rested satisfied with this direction, or +sought for better, he commenced physician, and obtained high +eminence and extensive practice. He became Fellow of the College of +Physicians, April 12, 1687, being one of the thirty which, by the +new charter of King James, were added to the former fellows. His +residence was in Cheapside, and his friends were chiefly in the +City. In the early part of Blackmore's time a citizen was a term of +reproach; and his place of abode was another topic, to which his +adversaries had recourse in the penury of scandal. + +Blackmore, therefore, was made a poet not by necessity but +inclination, and wrote not for a livelihood but for fame; or, if he +may tell his own motives, for a nobler purpose, to engage poetry in +the cause of virtue. + +I believe it is peculiar to him that his first public work was an +heroic poem. He was not known as a maker of verses till he +published (in 1695) "Prince Arthur," in ten books, written, as he +relates, "by such catches and starts, and in such occasional +uncertain hours as his profession afforded, and for the greatest +part in coffee-houses, or in passing up and down the streets." For +the latter part of this apology he was accused of writing "to the +rumbling of his chariot wheels." He had read, he says, "but little +poetry throughout his whole life; and for fifteen years before had +not written a hundred verses except one copy of Latin verses in +praise of a friend's book." He thinks, and with some reason, that +from such a performance perfection cannot be expected; but he finds +another reason for the severity of his censurers, which he expresses +in language such as Cheapside easily furnished. "I am not free of +the Poet's Company, having never kissed the governor's hands: mine +is therefore not so much as a permission poem, but a downright +interloper. Those gentlemen, who carry on their poetical trade in a +joint stock, would certainly do what they could to sink and ruin an +unlicensed adventurer, notwithstanding I disturbed none of their +factories, nor imported any goods they have ever dealt in." He had +lived in the City till he had learned its note. + +That "Prince Arthur" found many readers is certain; for in two years +it had three editions, a very uncommon instance of favourable +reception, at a time when literary curiosity was yet confined to +particular classes of the nation. Such success naturally raised +animosity; and Dennis attacked it by a formal criticism, more +tedious and disgusting than the work which he condemns. To this +censure may be opposed the approbation of Locke, and the admiration +of Molyneux, which are found in their printed "Letters." Molyneux +is particularly delighted with the song of Mopas, which is therefore +subjoined to this narrative. + +It is remarked by Pope, that "what raises the hero, often sinks the +man." Of Blackmore is may be said that, as the poet sinks, the man +rises; the animadversions of Dennis, insolent and contemptuous as +they were, raised in him no implacable resentment; he and his critic +were afterwards friends; and in one of his latter works he praises +Dennis "as equal to Boileau in poetry, and superior to him in +critical abilities." He seems to have been more delighted with +praise than pained by censure, and instead of slackening, quickened +his career. Having in two years produced ten books of "Prince +Arthur," in two years more (1697) he sent into the world "King +Arthur" in twelve. The provocation was now doubled, and the +resentment of wits and critics may be supposed to have increased in +proportion. He found, however, advantages more than equivalent to +all their outrages. He was this year made one of the physicians in +ordinary to King William, and advanced by him to the honour of +knighthood, with the present of a gold chaise and medal. The +malignity of the wits attributed his knighthood to his new poem, but +King William was not very studious of poetry; and Blackmore perhaps +had other merit, for he says in his dedication to "Alfred," that "he +had a greater part in the succession of the house of Hanover than +ever he had boasted." + +What Blackmore could contribute to the Succession, or what he +imagined himself to have contributed, cannot now be known. That he +had been of considerable use, I doubt not but he believed, for I +hold him to have been very honest; but he might easily make a false +estimate of his own importance. Those whom their virtue restrains +from deceiving others, are often disposed by their vanity to deceive +themselves. Whether he promoted the Succession or not, he at least +approved it, and adhered invariably to his principles and party +through his whole life. + +His ardour of poetry still continued; and not long after (1700) he +published a "Paraphrase on the Book of Job, and other parts of the +Scripture." This performance Dryden, who pursued him with great +malignity, lived long enough to ridicule in a Prologue. + +The wits easily confederated against him, as Dryden, whose favour +they almost all courted, was his professed adversary. He had, +besides, given them reason for resentment, as, in his preface to +"Prince Arthur," he had said of the dramatic writers almost all that +was alleged afterwards by Collier; but Blackmore's censure was cold +and general, Collier's was personal and ardent; Blackmore taught his +reader to dislike what Collier incited him to abhor. + +In his preface to "King Arthur" he endeavoured to gain at least one +friend, and propitiated Congreve by higher praise of his "Mourning +Bride" than it has obtained from any other critic. + +The same year he published a "Satire on Wit," a proclamation of +defiance which united the poets almost all against him, and which +brought upon him lampoons and ridicule from every side. This he +doubtless foresaw, and evidently despised; nor should his dignity of +mind be without its praise, had he not paid the homage to greatness +which he denied to genius, and degraded himself by conferring that +authority over the national taste, which he takes from the poets, +upon men of high rank and wide influence, but of less wit and not +greater virtue. + +Here is again discovered the inhabitant of Cheapside, whose head +cannot keep his poetry unmingled with trade. To hinder that +intellectual bankruptcy which he affects to fear he will erect a +"Bank for Wit." In this poem he justly censured Dryden's +impurities, but praised his powers, though in a subsequent edition +he retained the satire, and omitted the praise. What was his +reason, I know not; Dryden was then no longer in his way. His head +still teemed with heroic poetry; and (1705) he published "Eliza," in +ten books. I am afraid that the world was now weary of contending +about Blackmore's heroes, for I do not remember that by any author, +serious or comical, I have found "Eliza" either praised or blamed. + +She "dropped," as it seems, "dead-born from the press." It is never +mentioned, and was never seen by me till I borrowed it for the +present occasion. Jacob says "it is corrected and revised from +another impression," but the labour of revision was thrown away. + +From this time he turned some of his thoughts to the celebration of +living characters, and wrote a poem on the Kit-Cat Club, and "Advice +to the Poets how to celebrate the Duke of Marlborough" but on +occasion of another year of success, thinking himself qualified to +give more instruction, he again wrote a poem of "Advice to a Weaver +of Tapestry." Steele was then publishing the Tatler, and, looking +round him for something at which he might laugh, unluckily alighted +on Sir Richard's work, and treated it with such contempt that, as +Fenton observes, he put an end to that species of writers that gave +advice to painters. + +Not long after (1712) he published "Creation," a philosophical poem, +which has been, by my recommendation, inserted in the late +collection. Whoever judges of this by any other of Blackmore's +performances will do it injury. The praise given it by Addison +(Spectator, 339) is too well known to be transcribed; but some +notice is due to the testimony of Dennis, who calls it a +"philosophical poem, which has equalled that of 'Lucretius' in the +beauty of its versification, and infinitely surpassed it in the +solidity and strength of its reasoning." + +Why an author surpasses himself it is natural to inquire. I have +heard from Mr. Draper, an eminent bookseller, an account received by +him from Ambrose Philips, "That Blackmore, as he proceeded in this +poem, laid his manuscript from time to time before a club of wits +with whom he associated, and that every man contributed, as he +could, either improvement or correction; so that," said Philips, +"there are perhaps nowhere in the book thirty lines together that +now stand as they were originally written." + +The relation of Philips, I suppose, was true; but when all +reasonable, all credible allowance is made for this friendly +revision, the author will still retain an ample dividend of praise; +for to him must always be assigned the plan of the work, the +distribution of its parts, the choice of topics, the train of +argument, and, what is yet more, the general predominance of +philosophical judgment and poetical spirit. Correction seldom +effects more than the suppression of faults: a happy line, or a +single elegance, may perhaps be added; but of a large work, the +general character must always remain. The original constitution can +be very little helped by local remedies; inherent and radical +dulness will never be much invigorated by intrinsic animation. This +poem, if he had written nothing else, would have transmitted him to +posterity among the first favourites of the English muse; but to +make verses was his transcendent pleasure, and, as he was not +deterred by censure, he was not satiated with praise. He deviated, +however, sometimes into other tracks of literature, and condescended +to entertain his readers with plain prose. When the Spectator +stopped, he considered the polite world as destitute of +entertainment, and in concert with Mr. Hughes, who wrote every third +paper, published three times a week the "Lay Monastery," founded on +the supposition that some literary men, whose characters are +described, had retired to a house in the country to enjoy +philosophical leisure, and resolved to instruct the public by +communicating their disquisitions and amusements. Whether any real +persons were concealed under fictitious names is not known. The +hero of the club is one Mr. Johnson, such a constellation of +excellence, that his character shall not be suppressed, though there +is no great genius in the design nor skill in the delineation. + +"The first I shall name is Mr. Johnson, a gentleman that owes to +nature excellent faculties and an elevated genius, and to industry +and application many acquired accomplishments. His taste is +distinguishing, just, and delicate; his judgment clear, and his +reason strong, accompanied with an imagination full of spirit, of +great compass, and stored with refined ideas. He is a critic of the +first rank and, what is his peculiar ornament, he is delivered from +the ostentation, malevolence, and supercilious temper, that so often +blemish men of that character. His remarks result from the nature +and reason of things, and are formed by a judgment free and +unbiassed by the authority of those who have lazily followed each +other in the same beaten track of thinking, and are arrived only at +the reputation of acute grammarians and commentators; men who have +been copying one another many hundred years without any improvement, +or, if they have ventured farther, have only applied in a mechanical +manner the rules of ancient critics to modern writings, and with +great labour discovered nothing but their own want of judgment and +capacity. As Mr. Johnson penetrates to the bottom of his subject, +by which means his observations are solid and natural, as well as +delicate, so his design is always to bring to light something useful +and ornamental; whence his character is the reverse to theirs, who +have eminent abilities in insignificant knowledge, and a great +felicity in finding out trifles. He is no less industrious to +search out the merit of an author, than sagacious in discerning his +errors and defects, and takes more pleasure in commending the +beauties than exposing the blemishes of a laudable writing. Like +Horace, in a long work he can bear some deformities, and justly lay +them on the imperfection of human nature, which is incapable of +faultless productions. When an excellent drama appears in public, +and by its intrinsic worth attracts a general applause, he is not +stung with envy and spleen; nor does he express a savage nature in +fastening upon the celebrated author, dwelling upon his imaginary +defects, and passing over his conspicuous excellences. He treats +all writers upon the same impartial foot, and is not, like the +little critics, taken up entirely in finding out only the beauties +of the ancient and nothing but the errors of the modern writers. +Never did any one express more kindness and good-nature to young and +unfinished authors, he promotes their interests, protects their +reputation, extenuates their faults, and sets off their virtues, and +by his candour guards them from the severity of his judgment. He is +not like those dry critics who are morose because they cannot write +themselves, but is himself master of a good vein in poetry; and +though he does not often employ it, yet he has sometimes entertained +his friends with his unpublished performances." + +The rest of the lay monks seem to be but feeble mortals an +comparison with the gigantic Johnson, who yet, with all his +abilities and the help of the fraternity, could drive the +publication but to forty papers, which were afterwards collected +into a volume, and called in the title "A Sequel to the Spectators." + +Some years afterwards (1716 and 1717) he published two volumes of +essays in prose, which can be commended only as they are written for +the highest and noblest purpose--the promotion of religion. +Blackmore's prose is not the prose of a poet, for it is languid, +sluggish, and lifeless; his diction is neither daring nor exact, his +flow neither rapid nor easy, and his periods neither smooth nest +strong. His account of WIT will show with how little clearness he +is content to think, and how little his thoughts are recommended by +his language. + +"As to its efficient cause, WIT owes its production to an +extraordinary and peculiar temperament in the constitution of the +possessor of it, in which is found a concurrence of regular and +exalted ferments, and an affluence of animal spirits, refined and +rectified to a great degree of purity; whence, being endowed with +vivacity, brightness, and celerity, as well in their reflections as +direct motions, they become proper instruments for the sprightly +operations of the mind, by which means the imagination can with +great facility range the wide field of Nature, contemplate an +infinite variety of objects, and, by observing the similitude and +disagreement of their several qualities, single out and abstract, +and then suit and unite, those ideas which will best serve its +purpose. Hence beautiful allusions, surprising metaphors, and +admirable sentiments, are always ready at hand; and while the fancy +is full of images, collected from innumerable objects, and their +different qualities, relations, and habitudes, it can at pleasure +dress a common notion in a strange but becoming garb, by which, as +before observed, the same thought will appear a new one, to the +great delight and wonder of the hearer. What we call genius results +from this particular happy complexion in the first formation of the +person that enjoys it, and is Nature's gift, but diversified by +various specific characters and limitations, as its active fire is +blended and allayed by different proportions of phlegm, or reduced +and regulated by the contrast of opposite ferments. Therefore, as +there happens in the composition of facetious genius a greater or +less, though still an inferior, degree of judgment and prudence, one +man of wit will be varied and distinguished from another." + +In these essays he took little care to propitiate the wits, for he +scorns to avert their malice at the expense of virtue or of truth. + +"Several, in their books, have many sarcastical and spiteful strokes +at religion in general; while others make themselves pleasant with +the principles of the Christian. Of the last kind this age has seen +a most audacious example in the book entitled 'A Tale of a Tub.' +Had this writing been published in a pagan or popish nation, who are +justly impatient of all indignity offered to the established +religion of their country, no doubt but the author would have +received the punishment he deserved. But the fate of this impious +buffoon is very different, for in a Protestant kingdom, zealous of +their civil and religious immunities, he has not only escaped +affronts and the effects of public resentment, but has been caressed +and patronised by persons of great figure, and of all denominations. +Violent party-men, who differed in all things besides, agreed in +their turn to show particular respect and friendship to this +insolent derider of the worship of his country, till at last the +reputed writer is not only gone off with impunity, but triumphs in +his dignity and preferment. I do not know that any inquiry or +search was ever made after this writing, or that any reward was ever +offered for the discovery of the author, or that the infamous book +was ever condemned to be burnt in public. Whether this proceeds +from the excessive esteem and love that men in power, during the +late reign, had for wit, or their defect of zeal and concern for the +Christian religion will be determined best by those who are best +acquainted with their character." + +In another place he speaks with becoming abhorrence of a GODLESS +AUTHOR who has burlesqued a Psalm. This author was supposed to be +Pope, who published a reward for any one that would produce the +coiner of the accusation, but never denied it, and was afterwards +the perpetual and incessant enemy of Blackmore. + +One of his essays is upon the spleen, which is treated by him so +much to his own satisfaction, that he has published the same +thoughts in the same words; first, in the "Lay Monastery," then in +the "Essay," and then in the "Preface to a Medical Treatise on the +Spleen." One passage, which I have found already twice, I will here +exhibit, because I think it better imagined and better expressed +than could be expected from the common tenor of his prose:- + +"--As the several combinations of splenetic madness and folly +produce an infinite variety of irregular under-standing, so the +amicable accommodation and alliance between several virtues and +vices produce an equal diversity in the dispositions and manners of +mankind; whence it comes to pass, that as many monstrous and absurd +productions are found in the moral as in the intellectual world. +How surprising is it to observe among the least culpable men, some +whose minds are attracted by heaven and earth with a seeming equal +force; some who are proud of humility; others who are censorious and +uncharitable, yet self-denying and devout; some who join contempt of +the world with sordid avarice; and others, who preserve a great +degree of piety with ill-nature and ungoverned passions. Nor are +instances of this inconsistent mixture less frequent among bad men, +where we often with admiration see persons at once generous and +unjust, impious lovers of their country, and flagitious heroes, +good-natured sharpers, immoral men of honour, and libertines who +will sooner die than change their religion; and though it is true +that repugnant coalitions of so high a degree are found but in a +part of mankind, yet none of the whole mass, either good or bad, are +entirely exempted from some absurd mixture." + +He about this time (August 22, 1716) became one of the elects of the +College of Physicians, and was soon after (October 1) chosen Censor. +He seems to have arrived late, whatever was the reason, at his +medical honours. + +Having succeeded so well in his book on Creation, by which he +established the great principle of all religion, he thought his +undertaking imperfect, unless he likewise enforced the truth of +Revelation, and for that purpose added another poem on "Redemption." +He had likewise written before his "Creation" three books on the +Nature of Man. + +The lovers of musical devotion have always wished for a more happy +metrical version than they have yet obtained of the Book of Psalms. +This wish the piety of Blackmore led him to gratify, and he produced +(1721) "A New Version of the Psalms of David fitted to the Tunes +used in Churches," which being recommended by the archbishops and +many bishops, obtained a license for its admission into public +worship; but no admission has it yet obtained, nor has it any right +to come where Brady and Tate have got possession. Blackmore's name +must be added to those of many others who, by the same attempt, have +obtained only the praise of meaning well. + +He was not yet deterred from heroic poetry. There was another +monarch of this island (for he did not fetch his heroes from foreign +countries) whom he considered as worthy the epic muse, and he +dignified "Alfred" (1723) with twelve books. But the opinion of the +nation was now settled; a hero introduced by Blackmore was not +likely to find either respect or kindness; "Alfred" took his place +by "Eliza" in silence and darkness. Benevolence was ashamed to +favour, and malice was weary of insulting. Of his four epic poems, +the first had such reputation and popularity as enraged the critics; +the second was at least known enough to be ridiculed; the two last +had neither friends nor enemies. + +Contempt is a kind of gangrene, which, if it seizes one part of a +character, corrupts all the rest by degrees. Blackmore being +despised as a poet, was in time neglected as a physician; his +practice, which was once invidiously great, forsook him in the +latter part of his life, but being by nature, or by principle, +averse from idleness, he employed his unwelcome leisure in writing +books on physic, and teaching others to cure those whom he could +himself cure no longer. I know not whether I can enumerate all the +treatises by which he has endeavoured to diffuse the art of healing, +for there is scarcely any distemper of dreadful name which he has +not taught the reader how to oppose. He has written on the small- +pox, with a vehement invective against inoculation; on consumption, +the spleen, the gout, the rheumatism, the king's evil, the dropsy, +the jaundice, the stone, the diabetes, and the plague. Of those +books, if I had read them, it could nor be expected that I should be +able to give a critical account. I have been told that there is +something in them of vexation and discontent, discovered by a +perpetual attempt to degrade physic from its sublimity, and to +represent it as attainable without much previous or concomitant +learning. By the transient glances which I have thrown upon them I +have observed an affected contempt of the ancients, and a +supercilious derision of transmitted knowledge. Of this indecent +arrogance the following quotation from his preface to the "Treatise +on the Small-pox" will afford a specimen, in which, when the reader +finds what I fear is true, that, when he was censuring Hippocrates, +he did not know the difference between aphorism and apophthegm, he +will not pay much regard to his determinations concerning ancient +learning. + +"As for this book of aphorisms, it is like my Lord Bacon's of the +same title, a book of jests, or a grave collection of trite and +trifling observations; of which, though many are true and certain, +yet they signify nothing, and may afford diversion, but no +instruction, most of them being much inferior to the sayings of the +wise men of Greece, which yet are so low and mean, that we are +entertained every day with more valuable sentiments at the table +conversation of ingenious and learned men." + +I am unwilling, however, to leave him in total disgrace, and will +therefore quote from another preface a passage less reprehensible. + +"Some gentlemen have been disingenuous and unjust to me, by wresting +and forcing my meaning, in the preface to another book, as if I +condemned and exposed all learning, though they knew I declared that +I greatly honoured and esteemed all men of superior literature and +erudition, and that I only undervalued false or superficial +learning, that signifies nothing for the service of mankind; and +that as to physic, I expressly affirmed that learning must be joined +with native genius to make a physician of the first rank; but if +those talents are separated, I asserted, and do still insist, that a +man of native sagacity and diligence will prove a more able and +useful practiser than a heavy notional scholar, encumbered with a +heap of confused ideas." + +He was not only a poet and a physician, but produced likewise a work +of a different kind, "A True and Impartial History of the Conspiracy +against King William of Glorious Memory in the Year 1695." This I +have never seen, but suppose it is at least compiled with integrity. +He engaged likewise in theological controversy, and wrote two books +against the Arians: "Just Prejudices against the Arian Hypothesis," +and "Modern Arians Unmasked." Another of his works is "Natural +Theology; or, Moral Duties considered apart from Positive; with some +Observations on the Desirableness and Necessity of a Supernatural +Revelation." This was the last book that he published. He left +behind him "The Accomplished Preacher; or, an Essay upon Divine +Eloquence," which was printed after his death by Mr. White of +Nayland, in Essex, the minister who attended his death-bed, and +testified the fervent piety of his last hours. He died on the 8th +of October, 1729. + + +Blackmore, by the unremitted enmity of the wits, whom he provoked +more by his virtue than his dulness, has been exposed to worse +treatment than he deserved. His name was so long used to point +every epigram upon dull writers, that it became at last a byword of +contempt but it deserves observation, that malignity takes hold only +of his writings, and that his life passed without reproach, even +when his boldness of reprehension naturally turned upon him many +eyes desirous to espy faults which many tongues would have made +haste to publish. But those who could not blame, could, at least, +forbear to praise, and therefore of his private life and domestic +character there are no memorials. + +As an author, he may justly claim the honours of magnanimity. The +incessant attacks of his enemies, whether serious or merry, are +never discovered to have disturbed his quiet, or to have lessened +his confidence in himself: they neither awed him to silence nor to +caution: they neither provoked him to petulance, nor depressed him +to complaint. While the distributors of literary fame were +endeavouring to depreciate and degrade him, he either despised or +defied them, wrote on as he had written before, and never turned +aside to quiet them by civility, or repress them by confutation. He +depended with great security on his own powers, and perhaps was for +that reason less diligent in perusing books. His literature was, I +think, but small. What he knew of antiquity, I suspect him to have +gathered from modern compilers; but, though he could not boast of +much critical knowledge, his mind was stored with general +principles, and he left minute researches to those whom he +considered as little minds. With this disposition he wrote most of +his poems. Having formed a magnificent design, he was careless of +particular and subordinate elegances; he studied no niceties of +versification; he waited for no felicities of fancy, but caught his +first thoughts in the first words in which they were presented; nor +does it appear that he saw beyond his own performances, or had ever +elevated his was to that ideal perfection which every genius born to +excel is condemned always to pursue, and never overtake. In the +first suggestions of his imagination he acquiesced; he thought them +good, and did not seek for better. His works may be read a long +time without the occurrence of a single line that stands prominent +from the rest. The poem on "Creation" has, however, the appearance +of more circumspection; it wants neither harmony of numbers, +accuracy of thought, nor elegance of diction. It has either been +written with great care, or, what cannot be imagined of so long a +work, with such felicity as made care less necessary. Its two +constituent parts are ratiocination and description. To reason in +verse is allowed to be difficult; but Blackmore not only reasons in +verse, but very often reasons poetically; and finds the art of +uniting ornament with strength and ease with closeness. This is a +skill which Pope might have condescended to learn from him, when he +needed it so much in his "Moral Essays." + +In his descriptions both of life and nature, the poet and the +philosopher happily co-operate; truth is recommended by elegance, +and elegance sustained by truth. In the structure and order of the +poem, not only the greater parts are properly consecutive, but the +didactic and illustrative paragraphs are so happily mingled, that +labour is relieved by pleasure, and the attention is led on through +a long succession of varied excellence to the original position, the +fundamental principle of wisdom and of virtue. + +As the heroic poems of Blackmore are now little read, it is thought +proper to insert, as a specimen from "Prince Arthur," the song of +Mopas mentioned by Molyneux:- + + + "But that which Arthur with most pleasure heard +Were noble strains, by Mopas sung the bard, +Who to his harp in lofty verse began, +And through the secret maze of Nature ran. +He the Great Spirit sung, that all things filled, +That the tumultuous waves of Chaos stilled; +Whose nod disposed the jarring seeds to peace, +And made the wars of hostile Atoms cease. +All Beings, we in fruitful Nature find, +Proceeded from the Great Eternal mind: +Streams of his unexhausted spring of power, +And, cherished with his influence, endure. +He spread the pure cerulean fields on high, +And arched the chambers of the vaulted sky, +Which he, to suit their glory with their height, +Adorned with globes, that reel, as drunk with light. +His hand directed all the tuneful spheres, +He turned their orbs, and polished all the stars. +He filled the Sun's vast lamp with golden light: +And bid the silver Moon adorn the night. +He spread the airy Ocean without shores, +Where birds are wafted with their feathered oars. +Then sung the bard how the light vapours rise +From the warm earth, and cloud the smiling skies; +He sung how some, chilled in their airy flight, +Fall scattered down in pearly dew by night; +How some, raised higher, sit in secret steams +On the reflected points of bounding beams, +Till, chilled with cold, they shade th' ethereal plain, +Then on the thirsty earth descend in rain; +How some, whose parts a slight contexture show, +Sink hovering through the air in fleecy snow; +How part is spun in silken threads, and clings +Entangled in the grass is gluey strings; +How others stamp to stones, with rushing sound +Fall from their crystal quarries to the ground; +How some are laid in trains, that kindled fly, +In harmless fires by night, about the sky; +How some in winds blow with impetuous force, +And carry ruin where they bend their course, +While some conspire to form a gentle breeze, +To fan the air, and play among the trees; +How some, enraged, grow turbulent and loud, +Pent in the bowels of a frowning cloud, +That cracks, as if the axis of the world +Was broke, and Heaven's bright towers were downwards hurled. +He sung how earth's wide ball, at Jove's command, +Did in the midst on airy columns stand; +And how the soul of plants, in prison held, +And bound with sluggish fetters, lies concealed, +Till with the spring's warm beams, almost released +From the dull weight, with which it lay opprest, +Its vigour spreads, and makes the teeming earth +Heave up, and labour with the sprouting birth: +The active spirit freedom seeks in vain, +It only works and twists a stronger chain; +Urging its prison's sides to break a way, +It makes that wider, where 'tis forced to stay: +Till, having formed its living house, it rears +Its head, and in a tender plant appears. +Hence springs the oak, the beauty of the grove, +Whose stately trunk fierce storms can scarcely move. +Hence grows the cedar, hence the swelling vine +Does round the elm its purple clusters twine. +Hence painted flowers the smiling gardens bless, +Both with their fragrant scent and gaudy dress. +Hence the white lily in full beauty grows, +Hence the blue violet and blushing rose. +He sung how sunbeams brood upon the earth, +And in the glebe hatch such a numerous birth; +Which way the genial warmth in Summer storms +Turns putrid vapours to a bed of worms; +How rain, transformed by this prolific power, +Falls from the clouds an animated shower. +He sung the embryo's growth within the womb, +And how the parts their various shapes assume. +With what rare art the wondrous structure's wrought, +From one crude mass to such perfection brought; +That no part useless, none misplaced we see, +None are forgot, and more would monstrous be." + + + +POPE + + + +Alexander Pope was born in London, May 22, 1688, of parents whose +rank or station was never ascertained: we are informed that they +were of "gentle blood;" that his father was of a family of which the +Earl of Downe was the head, and that his mother was the daughter of +William Turner, Esquire, of York, who had likewise three sons, one +of whom had the honour of being killed, and the other of dying, in +the service of Charles the First; the third was made a general +officer in Spain, from whom the sister inherited what sequestrations +and forfeitures had left in the family. This, and this only, is +told by Pope, who is more willing, as I have heard observed, to show +what his father was not, than what he was. It is allowed that he +grew rich by trade; but whether in a shop or on the Exchange was +never discovered till Mr. Tyers told, on the authority of Mrs. +Racket, that he was a linendraper in the Strand. Both parents were +Papists. + +Pope was from his birth of a constitution tender and delicate, but +is said to have shown remarkable gentleness and sweetness of +disposition. The weakness of his body continued through his life, +but the mildness of his mind perhaps ended with his childhood. His +voice when he was young was so pleasing, that he was called in +fondness "The Little Nightingale." + +Being not sent early to school, he was taught to read by an aunt; +and, when he was seven or eight years old, became a lover of books. +He first learned to write by imitating printed books, a species of +penmanship in which he retained great excellence through his whole +life, though his ordinary hand was not elegant. When he was about +eight he was placed in Hampshire, under Taverner, a Romish priest, +who, by a method very rarely practised, taught him the Greek and +Latin rudiments together. He was now first regularly initiated in +poetry by the perusal of "Ogilby's Homer" and "Sandys' Ovid." +Ogilby's assistance he never repaid with any praise; but of Sandys +he declared, in his notes to the "Iliad," that English poetry owed +much of its beauty to his translations. Sandys very rarely +attempted original composition. + +From the care of Taverner, under whom his proficiency was +considerable, he was removed to a school at Twyford, near +Winchester, and again to another school about Hyde Park Corner, from +which he used sometimes to stroll to the play-hones, and was so +delighted with theatrical exhibitions, that he formed a kind of play +from "Ogilby's Iliad," with some verses of his own intermixed, which +he persuaded his schoolfellows to act, with the addition of his +master's gardener, who personated Ajax. + +At the two last schools he used to represent himself as having lost +part of what Taverner had taught him, and on his master at Twyford +he had already exercised his poetry in a lampoon. Yet under those +masters he translated more than a fourth part of the +"Metamorphoses." If he kept the same proportion in his other +exercises, it cannot be thought that his loss was great. He tells +of himself, in his poems, that "he lisped in numbers;" and used to +say that he could not remember the time when he began to make +verses. In the style of fiction, it might have been said of him, as +of Pindar, that when he lay in his cradle "the bees swarmed about +his mouth." + +About the time of the Revolution his father, who was undoubtedly +disappointed by the sudden blast of Popish prosperity, quitted his +trade, and retired to Binfield, in Windsor Forest, with about twenty +thousand pounds, for which, being conscientiously determined not to +entrust it to the Government, he found no better use than that of +locking it up in a chest, and taking from it what his expenses +required; and his life was long enough to consume a great part of it +before his son came to the inheritance. + +To Binfield Pope was called by his father when he was about twelve +years old, and there he had for a few months the assistance of one +Deane, another priest, of whom he learned only to construe a little +of "Tully's Offices." How Mr. Deane could spend with a boy who had +translated so much of "Ovid" some months over a small part of +"Tully's Offices," it is now vain to inquire. Of a youth so +successfully employed, and so conspicuously improved, a minute +account must be naturally desired; but curiosity must be contented +with confused, imperfect, and sometimes improbable intelligence. +Pope, finding little advantage from external help, resolved +thenceforward to direct himself, and at twelve formed a plan of +study, which he completed with little other incitement than the +desire of excellence. His primary and principal purpose was to be a +poet, with which his father accidentally concurred by proposing +subjects and obliging him to correct his performances by many +revisals, after which the old gentleman, when he was satisfied, +would say, "These are good rhymes." In his perusal of the English +poets he soon distinguished the versification of Dryden, which he +considered as the model to be studied, and was impressed with such +veneration for his instructor, that he persuaded some friends to +take him to the coffee-house which Dryden frequented, and pleased +himself with having seen him. + +Dryden died May 1, 1701, some days before Pope was twelve; so early +must he therefore have felt the power of harmony, and the zeal of +genius. Who does not wish that Dryden could have known the value of +the homage that was paid him, and foreseen the greatness of his +young admirer? + +The earliest of Pope's productions is his "Ode on Solitude," written +before he was twelve, in which there is nothing more than other +forward boys have attained, and which is not equal to Cowley's +performance at the same age. His time was now wholly spent in +reading and writing. As he read the classics he amused himself with +translating them, and at fourteen made a version of the first book +of the "Thebais," which, with some revision, he afterwards +published. He must have been at this time, if he had no help, a +considerable proficient in the Latin tongue. + +By Dryden's fables, which had then been not long published, and were +much in the hands of poetical readers, he was tempted to try his own +skill in giving Chaucer a more fashionable appearance, and put +"January and May" and the "Prologue of the Wife of Bath" into modern +English. He translated likewise the Epistle of "Sappho to Phaon" +from Ovid, to complete the version, which was before imperfect, and +wrote some other small pieces, which he afterwards printed. He +sometimes imitated the English poets, and professed to have written +at fourteen his poem upon "Silence," after Rochester's "Nothing." +He had now formed his versification, and the smoothness of his +numbers surpassed his original; but this is a small part of his +praise; he discovers such acquaintance both with human life and +public affairs as is not easily conceived to have been attainable by +a boy of fourteen in Windsor Forest. + +Next year he was desirous of opening to himself new sources of +knowledge, by making himself acquainted with modern languages, and +removed for a time to London, that he might study French and +Italian, which, as he desired nothing more than to read them, were +by diligent application soon despatched. Of Italian learning he +does not appear to have ever made much use in his subsequent +studies. He then returned to Binfield, and delighted himself with +his own poetry. He tried all styles, and many subjects. He wrote a +comedy, a tragedy, an epic poem, with panegyrics on all the princes +of Europe; and, as he confesses, "thought himself the greatest +genius that ever was." Self-confidence is the first requisite to +great undertakings. He, indeed, who forms his opinion of himself in +solitude, without knowing the powers of other men, is very liable to +error; but it was the felicity of Pope to rate himself at his real +value. Most of his puerile productions were, by his maturer +judgment, afterwards destroyed. "Alcander," the epic poem, was +burnt by the persuasion of Atterbury. The tragedy was founded on +the legend of St. Genevieve. Of the comedy there is no account. +Concerning his studies, it is related that he translated "Tully on +Old Age," and that, besides his books of poetry and criticisms, he +read "Temple's Essays" and "Locke on Human Understanding." His +reading, though his favourite authors are not known, appears to have +been sufficiently extensive and multifarious, for his early pieces +show with sufficient evidence his knowledge of books. He that is +pleased with himself easily imagines that he shall please others. +Sir William Trumbull, who had been Ambassador at Constantinople, and +Secretary of State, when he retired from business, fixed his +residence in the neighbourhood of Binfield. Pope, not yet sixteen, +was introduced to the statesman of sixty, and so distinguished +himself that their interviews ended in friendship and +correspondence. Pope was, through his whole life, ambitious of +splendid acquaintance; and he seems to have wanted neither diligence +nor success in attracting the notice of the great, for, from his +first entrance into the world, and his entrance was very early, he +was admitted to familiarity with those whose rank or station made +them most conspicuous. + +From the age of sixteen the life of Pope, as an author, may be +properly computed. He now wrote his pastorals, which were shown to +the poets and critics of that time. As they well deserved, they +were read with admiration, and many praises were bestowed upon them +and upon the preface, which is both elegant and learned in a high +degree; they were, however, not published till five years +afterwards. + +Cowley, Milton, and Pope are distinguished among the English poets +by the early exertion of their powers, but the works of Cowley alone +were published in his childhood, and, therefore, of him only can it +be certain that his puerile performances received no improvement +from his maturer studies. + +At this time began his acquaintance with Wycherley, a man who seems +to have had among his contemporaries his full share of reputation, +to have been esteemed without virtue, and caressed without good +humour. Pope was proud of his notice. Wycherley wrote verses in +his praise, which he was charged by Dennis with writing to himself, +and they agreed for a while to flatter one another. It is pleasant +to remark how soon Pope learned the cant of an author, and began to +treat critics with contempt, though he had yet suffered nothing from +them. But the fondness of Wycherley was too violent to last. His +esteem of Pope was such that he submitted some poems to his +revision, and when Pope, perhaps proud of such confidence, was +sufficiently bold in his criticisms, and liberal in his alterations, +the old scribbler was angry to see his pages defaced, and felt more +pain from the detection than content from the amendment of his +faults. They parted, but Pope always considered him with kindness, +and visited him a little time before he died. Another of his early +correspondents was Mr. Cromwell, of whom I have learned nothing +particular, but that he used to ride a-hunting in a tie-wig. He was +fond, and perhaps vain, of amusing himself with poetry and +criticism, and sometimes sent his performances to Pope, who did not +forbear such remarks as were now and then unwelcome. Pope, in his +turn, put the juvenile version of "Statius" into his hands for +correction. Their correspondence afforded the public its first +knowledge of Pope's epistolary powers, for his letters were given by +Cromwell to one Mrs. Thomas, and she many years afterwards sold them +to Curll, who inserted them in a volume of his "Miscellanies." + +Walsh, a name yet preserved among the minor poets, was one of his +first encouragers. His regard was gained by the pastorals, and from +him Pope received the counsel from which he seems to have regulated +his studies. Walsh advised him to correctness, which, as he told +him, the English poets had hitherto neglected, and which, therefore, +was left to him as a basis of fame; and, being delighted with rural +poems, recommended to him to write a pastoral comedy, like those +which are read so eagerly in Italy, a design which Pope probably did +not approve, as he did not follow it. + +Pope had now declared himself a poet, and, thinking himself entitled +to poetical conversation, began at seventeen to frequent Will's, a +coffee-house on the north side of Russell Street, in Covent Garden, +where the wits of that time used to assemble, and where Dryden had, +when he lived, been accustomed to preside. During this period of +his life he was indefatigably diligent and insatiably curious, +wanting health for violent and money for expensive pleasures, and +having excited in himself very strong desires of intellectual +eminence, he spent much of his time over his books; but he read only +to store his mind with facts and images, seizing all that his +authors presented with undistinguishing voracity, and with an +appetite for knowledge too eager to be nice. In a mind like his, +however, all the faculties were at once involuntarily improving. +Judgment is forced upon us by experience. He that reads many books +must compare one opinion or one style with another; and, when he +compares, must necessarily distinguish, reject, and prefer. But the +account given by himself of his studies was, that from fourteen to +twenty he read only for amusement, from twenty to twenty-seven for +improvement and instruction; that in the first part of his time he +desired only to know, and in the second he endeavoured to judge. + +The Pastorals, which had been for some time handed about among poets +and critics, were at last printed (1709) in Tonson's "Miscellany," +in a volume which began with the Pastorals of Philips, and ended +with those of Pope. The same year was written the "Essay on +Criticism," a work which displays such extent of comprehension, such +nicety of distinction, such acquaintance with mankind, and such +knowledge both of ancient and modern learning, as are not often +attained by the maturest age and longest experience. It was +published about two years afterwards, and, being praised by Addison +in the Spectator, with sufficient liberality, met with so much +favour as enraged Dennis, "who," he says, "found himself attacked, +without any manner of provocation on his side, and attacked in his +person instead of his writings, by one who was wholly a stranger to +him, at a time when all the world knew he was persecuted by fortune; +and not only saw that this was attempted in a clandestine manner, +with the utmost falsehood and calumny, but found that all this was +done by a little, affected hypocrite, who had nothing in his mouth +at the same time but truth, candour, friendship, good-nature, +humanity, and magnanimity. How the attack was clandestine is not +easily perceived, nor how his person is depreciated; but he seems to +have known something of Pope's character, in whom may be discovered +an appetite to talk too frequently of his own virtues. The pamphlet +is such as rage might be expected to dictate. He supposes himself +to be asked two questions; whether the essay will succeed, and who +or what is the author. + +Its success he admits to be secured by the false opinions then +prevalent; the author he concludes to be "young and raw." + +"First, because he discovers a sufficiency beyond his little +ability, and hath rashly undertaken a task infinitely above his +force. Secondly, while this little author struts and affects the +dictatorian air, he plainly shows that at the same time he is under +the rod: and, while he pretends to give laws to others, is a +pedantic slave to authority and opinion. Thirdly, he hath, like +schoolboys, borrowed both from living and dead. Fourthly, he knows +not his own mind, and frequently contradicts himself. Fifthly, he +is almost perpetually in the wrong." + +All these positions he attempts to prove by quotations and remarks; +but his desire to do mischief is greater than his power. He has, +however, justly criticised some passages in these lines:- + + +"There are whom Heaven has blessed with store of wit, +Yet want as much again to manage it: +For wit and judgment ever are at strife--" + + +It is apparent that wit has two meanings, and that what is wanted, +though called wit, is truly judgment. So far Dennis is undoubtedly +right: but not content with argument, he will have a little mirth, +and triumphs over the first couplet in terms too elegant to be +forgotten. "By the way, what rare numbers are here! Would not one +swear that this youngster had espoused some antiquated muse, who had +sued out a divorce on account of impotence, from some superannuated +sinner; and, having been p--d by her former spouse, has got the gout +in her decrepit age, which makes her hobble so damnably?" This was +the man who would reform a nation sinking into barbarity. + +In another place Pope himself allowed that Dennis had detected one +of those blunders which are called "bulls." The first edition had +this line:- + + +"What is this wit - +Where wanted scorned; and envied where acquired?" + + +"How," says the critic, "can wit be scorned where it is not? Is not +this a figure frequently employed in Hibernian land! The person +that wants this wit may indeed be scorned, but the scorn shows the +honour which the contemner has for wit." Of this remark Pope made +the proper use, by correcting the passage. + +I have preserved, I think, all that is reasonable in Dennis's +criticism; it remains that justice be done to his delicacy. "For +his acquaintance," says Dennis, "he names Mr. Walsh, who had by no +means the qualification which this author reckons absolutely +necessary to a critic, it being very certain that he was, like this +essayer a very indifferent poet; he loved to be well dressed; and I +remember a little young gentleman whom Mr. Walsh used to take into +his company as a double foil to his person and capacity. Inquire +between Sunning Hill and Oakingham, for a young, short, equal, +gentleman, the very bow of the God of Love, and tell me whether he +be a proper author to make personal reflections? He may extol the +ancients, but he has reason to thank the gods that he was born a +modern; for had he been born of Grecian parents, and his father +consequently had by law had the absolute disposal of him, his life +had been no longer than that of one of his poems, the life of half a +day. Let the person of a gentleman of his parts be never so +contemptible, his inward man is ten times more ridiculous; it being +impossible that his outward form, though it be that of downright +monkey, should differ so much from human shape as his unthinking, +immaterial part does from human understanding." Thus began the +hostility between Pope and Dennis, which, though it was suspended +for a short time, never was appeased. Pope seems, at first, to have +attacked him wantonly; but though he always professed to despise +him, he discovers, by mentioning him very often, that he felt his +force or his venom. + +Of this essay, Pope declared that he did not expect the sale to be +quick, because "not one gentleman in sixty, even of liberal +education, could understand it." The gentleman, and the education +of that time, seem to have been of a lower character than they are +of this. He mentioned a thousand copies as a numerous impression. + +Dennis was not his only censurer; the zealous Papists thought the +monks treated with too much contempt, and Erasmus too studiously +praised; but to these objections he had not much regard. + +The "Essay," has been translated into French by Hamilton, author of +the "Comte de Grammont," whose version was never printed, by +Robotham, secretary to the king for Hanover, and by Resnel; and +commented by Dr. Warburton, who has discovered in it such order and +connection as was not perceived by Addison, nor, as it is said, +intended by the author. + +Almost every poem, consisting of precepts, is so far arbitrary and +immethodical, that many of the paragraphs may change places with no +apparent inconvenience; for of two or more positions, depending upon +some remote and general principle, there is seldom any cogent reason +why one should precede the other. But for the order in which they +stand, whatever it be, a little ingenuity may easily give a reason. +"It is possible," says Hooker, "that, by long circumduction, from +any one truth all truth may be inferred." Of all homogeneous +truths, at least of all truths respecting the same general end, in +whatever series they may be produced, a concatenation by +intermediate ideas may be formed, such as, when it is once shown, +shall appear natural; but if this order be reversed, another mode of +connection equally spacious may be found or made. Aristotle is +praised for naming fortitude first of the cardinal virtues, as that +without which no other virtue can steadily be practised; but he +might, with equal propriety, have placed prudence and justice before +it; since without prudence fortitude is mad; without justice, it is +mischievous. As the end of method is perspicuity, that series is +sufficiently regular that avoids obscurity; and where there is no +obscurity, it will not be difficult to discover method. + +In the Spectator was published the "Messiah," which he first +submitted to the perusal of Steele, and corrected in compliance with +his criticisms. It is reasonable to infer from his "Letters" that +the verses on the "Unfortunate Lady" were written about the time +when his "Essay" was published. The lady's name and adventures I +have sought with fruitless inquiry. I can therefore tell no more +than I have learned from Mr. Ruffhead, who writes with the +confidence of one who could trust his information. She was a woman +of eminent rank and large fortune, the ward of an uncle, who, having +given her a proper education, expected, like other guardians, that +she should make at least an equal match; and such he proposed to +her, but found it rejected in favour of a young gentleman of +inferior condition. Having discovered the correspondence between +the two lovers, and finding the young lady determined to abide by +her own choice, he supposed that separation might do what can rarely +be done by arguments, and sent her into a foreign country, where she +was obliged to converse only with those from whom her uncle had +nothing to fear. Her lover took care to repeat his vows; but his +letters were intercepted and carried to her guardian, who directed +her to be watched with still greater vigilance, till of this +restraint she grow so impatient that she bribed a woman servant to +procure her a sword, which she directed to her heart. + +From this account, given with evident intention to raise the lady's +character, it does not appear that she had any claim to praise nor +much to compassion. She seems to have been impatient, violent, and +ungovernable. Her uncle's power could not have lasted long; the +hour of liberty and choice would have come in time. But her desires +were too hot for delay, and she liked self-murder better than +suspense. Nor is it discovered that the uncle, whoever he was, is +with much justice delivered to posterity as "a false guardian." He +seems to have done only that for which a guardian is appointed; he +endeavoured to direct his niece till she should be able to direct +herself. Poetry has not often been worse employed than in +dignifying the amorous fiery of a raving girl. + +Not long after he wrote the "Rape of the Lock," the most airy, the +most ingenious, and the most delightful off all his compositions, +occasioned by a frolic of gallantry, rather too familiar, in which +Lord Petre cut off a lock of Mrs. Arabella Fermor's hair. This, +whether stealth or violence, was so much resented that the commerce +of the two families, before very friendly, was interrupted. Mr. +Caryl, a gentleman who, being secretary to King James's queen, had +followed his mistress into France, and who, being the author of Sir +Solomon Single, a comedy, and some translations, was entitled to the +notice of a wit, solicited Pope to endeavour a reconciliation by a +ludicrous poem which might bring both the parties to a better +temper. In compliance with Caryl's request, though his name was for +a long time marked only by the first and last letter, "C--l," a poem +of two cantos, was written (1711), as is said, in a fortnight, and +sent to the offended lady, who liked it well enough to show it; and, +with the usual process of literary transactions, the author, +dreading a surreptitious edition, was forced to publish it. + +The event is said to have been such as was desired, the pacification +and diversion of all to whom it related, except Sir George Brown, +who complained with some bitterness that, in the character of Sir +Plume, he was made to talk nonsense. Whether all this be true I +have some doubt; for at Paris, a few years ago, a niece of Mrs. +Fermor, who presided in an English convent, mentioned Pope's work +with very little gratitude, rather as an insult than an honour; and +she may be supposed to have inherited the opinion of her family. At +its first appearance at was termed by Addison "merum sal." Pope, +however, saw that it was capable of improvement; and, having luckily +contrived to borrow his machinery from the Rosicrucians, imparted +the scheme with which his head was teeming to Addison, who told him +that his work, as it stood, was "a delicious little thing," and gave +him no encouragement to retouch it. + +This has been too hastily considered as an instance of Addison's +jealousy, for, as he could not guess the conduct of the new design, +or the possibilities of pleasure comprised in a fiction of which +there had been no examples, he might very reasonably and kindly +persuade the author to acquiesce in his own prosperity, and forbear +an attempt which he considered as an unnecessary hazard. Addison's +counsel was happily rejected. Pope foresaw the future efflorescence +of imagery then budding in his mind, and resolved to spare no art or +industry of cultivation. The soft luxuriance of his fancy was +already shooting, and all the gay varieties of diction were ready at +his hand to colour and embellish it. His attempt was justified by +its success. The "Rape of the Lock" stands forward, in the classes +of literature, as the most exquisite example of ludicrous poetry. +Berkeley congratulated him upon the display of powers more truly +poetical than he had shown before with elegance of description and +justness of precepts he had now exhibited boundless fertility of +invention. He always considered the intermixture of the machinery +with the action as his most successful exertion of poetical art. +He, indeed, could never afterwards produce anything of such +unexampled excellence. Those performances, which strike with +wonder, are combinations of skilful genius with happy casualty; and +it is not likely that any felicity, like the discovery of a new race +of preternatural agents, should happen twice to the same man. Of +this poem the author was, I think, allowed to enjoy the praise for a +long time without disturbance. Many years afterwards Dennis +published some remarks upon it with very little force and with no +effect; for the opinion of the public was already settled, and it +was no longer at the mercy of criticism. + +About this time he published the "Temple of Fame," which, as he +tells Steele in their correspondence, he had written two years +before--that is, when he was only twenty-two years old, an early +time of life for so much learning and so much observation as that +work exhibits. On this poem Dennis afterwards published some +remarks, of which the most reasonable is that some of the lines +represent motion as exhibited by sculpture. + +Of the Epistle from "Eloisa to Abelard," I do not know the date. +His first inclination to attempt a composition of that tender kind +arose, as Mr. Savage told me, from his perusal of Prior's "Nut-brown +Maid." How much he has surpassed Prior's work it is not necessary +to mention, when perhaps it may be said, with justice, that he has +excelled every composition of the same kind. The mixture of +religious hope and resignation gives an elevation and dignity to +disappointed love, which images merely natural cannot bestow. The +gloom of a convent strikes the imagination with far greater force +than the solitude of a grove. This piece was, however, not much his +favourite in his later years, though I never heard upon what +principle he slighted it. + +In the next year (1713) he published "Windsor Forest," of which part +was, as he relates, written at sixteen, about the same time as his +Pastorals, and the latter part was added afterwards. Where the +addition begins we are not told. The lines relating to the peace +confess their own date. It is dedicated to Lord Lansdowne, who was +then in high reputation and influence among the Tories; and it is +said that the conclusion of the poem gave great pain to Addison, +both as a poet and a politician. Reports like this are often spread +with boldness very disproportionate to their evidence. Why should +Addison receive any particular disturbance from the last lines of +"Windsor Forest"? If contrariety of opinion could poison a +politician, he could not live a day; and, as a poet, he must have +felt Pope's force of genius much more from many other parts of his +works. The pain that Addison might feel it is not likely that he +would confess; and it is certain that he so well suppressed his +discontent that Pope now thought himself his favourite, for, having +been consulted in the revisal of "Cato" he introduced it by a +prologue; and, when Dennis published his remarks, undertook, not +indeed to vindicate, but to revenge his friend, by a "Narrative of +the Frenzy of John Dennis." + +There is reason to believe that Addison gave no encouragement to +this disingenuous hostility, for, says Pope, in a letter to him, +"indeed your opinion, that 'tis entirely to be neglected, would be +my own in my own case; but I felt more warmth here than I did when I +first saw his book against myself (though, indeed, in two minutes it +made me heartily merry)." Addison was not a man on whom such cant +of sensibility could make much impression. He left the pamphlet to +itself, having disowned it to Dennis, and perhaps did not think Pope +to have deserved much by his officiousness. + +This year was printed in the Guardian the ironical comparison +between the pastorals of Philips and Pope, a composition of +artifice, criticism, and literature, to which nothing equal will +easily be found. The superiority of Pope is so ingeniously +dissembled, and the feeble lines of Philips so skilfully preferred, +that Steele, being deceived, was unwilling to print the paper, lest +Pope should be offended. Addison immediately saw the writer's +design, and, as it seems, had malice enough to conceal his +discovery, and to permit a publication which, by making his friend +Philips ridiculous, made him for ever an enemy to Pope. + +It appears that about this time Pope had a strong inclination to +unite the art of painting with that of poetry, and put himself under +the tuition of Jervas. He was near-sighted, and therefore not +formed by nature for a painter; he tried, however, how far he could +advance, and sometimes persuaded his friends to sit. A picture of +Betterton, supposed to be drawn by him, was in the possession of +Lord Mansfield. If this was taken from the life, he must have begun +to paint earlier, for Betterton was now dead. Pope's ambition of +this new art produced some encomiastic verses to Jervas, which +certainly show his power as a poet; but I have been told that they +betray his ignorance of painting. He appears to have regarded +Betterton with kindness and esteem, and after his death published, +under his name, a version into modern English of Chaucer's Prologues +and one of his Tales, which, as was related by Mr. Harte, were +believed to have been the performance of Pope himself by Fenton, who +made him a gay offer of five pounds if he would show them in the +hand of Betterton. + +The next year (1713) produced a bolder attempt, by which profit was +sought as well as praise. The poems which he had hitherto written, +however they might have diffused his name, had made very little +addition to his fortune. The allowance which his father made him, +though, proportioned to what he had, it might be liberal, could not +be large; his religion hindered him from the occupation of any civil +employment; and he complained that he wanted even money to buy +books. He therefore resolved to try how far the favour of the +public extended by soliciting a subscription to a version of the +"Iliad," with large notes. To print by subscription was, for some +time, a practice peculiar to the English. The first considerable +work for which this expedient was employed is said to have been +Dryden's "Virgil," and it had been tried again with great success +when the Tatlers were collected into volumes. + +There was reason to believe that Pope's attempt would be successful. +He was in the full bloom of reputation and was personally known to +almost all whom dignity of employment or splendour of reputation had +made eminent; he conversed indifferently with both parties, and +never disturbed the public with his political opinions; and it might +be naturally expected, as each faction then boasted its literary +zeal, that the great men, who on other occasions practised all the +violence of opposition, would emulate each other in their +encouragement of a poet who delighted all, and by whom none had been +offended. With these hopes, he offered an English "Iliad" to +subscribers, in six volumes in quarto, for six guineas, a sum +according to the value of money at that time by no means +inconsiderable, and greater than I believe to have been ever asked +before. His proposal, however, was very favourably received, and +the patrons of literature were busy to recommend his undertaking and +promote his interest. Lord Oxford, indeed, lamented that such a +genius should be wasted upon a work not original, but proposed no +means by which he might live without it. Addison recommended +caution and moderation, and advised him not to be content with the +praise of half the nation when he might be universally favoured. + +The greatness of the design, the popularity of the author, and the +attention of the literary world, naturally raised such expectations +of the future sale, that the booksellers made their offers with +great eagerness; but the highest bidder was Bernard Lintot, who +became proprietor on condition of supplying, at his own expense, all +the copies which were to be delivered to subscribers, or presented +to friends, and paying two hundred pounds for every volume. + +Of the quartos it was, I believe, stipulated that none should be +printed but for the author, that the subscription might not be +depreciated; but Lintot impressed the same pages upon a small folio, +and paper perhaps a little thinner, and sold exactly at half the +price, for half a guinea each volume, books so little inferior to +the quartos that, by fraud of trade, those folios being afterwards +shortened by cutting away the top and bottom, were sold as copies +printed for the subscribers. + +Lintot printed two hundred and fifty on royal paper in folio for two +guineas a volume; of the small folio, having printed seventeen +hundred and fifty copies of the first volume, he reduced the number +in the other volumes to a thousand. It is unpleasant to relate that +the bookseller, after all his hopes and all his liberality, was, by +a very unjust and illegal action, defrauded of his profit. An +edition of the English "Iliad" was printed in Holland in duodecimo, +and imported clandestinely for the gratification of those who were +impatient to read what they could not yet afford to buy. This fraud +could only be counteracted by an edition equally cheap and more +commodious; and Lintot was compelled to contract his folio at once +into a duodecimo, and lose the advantage of an intermediate +gradation. The notes which in the Dutch copies were placed at the +end of each book as they had been in the large volumes, were now +subjoined to the text in the same page, and are therefore more +easily consulted. Of this edition two thousand five hundred were +first printed, and five thousand a few weeks afterwards; but indeed +great numbers were necessary to produce considerable profit. + +Pope, having now emitted his proposals, and engaged not only his own +reputation but in some degree that of his friends who patronised his +subscription, began to be frightened at his own undertaking, and +finding himself at first embarrassed with difficulties which +retarded and oppressed him, he was for a time timorous and uneasy, +had his nights disturbed by dreams of long journeys through unknown +ways, and wished, as he said, "that somebody would hang him." This +misery, however, was not of long continuance; he grew by degrees +more acquainted with Homer's images and expressions, and practice +increased his facility of versification. In a short time he +represents himself as despatching regularly fifty verses a day, +which would show him by an easy computation, the termination of his +labour. His own diffidence was not his only vexation. He that asks +a subscription soon finds that he has enemies. All who do not +encourage him defame him. He that wants money would rather be +thought angry than poor; and he that wishes to save his money +conceals his avarice by his malice. Addison had hinted his +suspicion that Pope was too much a Tory; and some of the Tories +suspected his principles because he had contributed to the Guardian, +which was carried on by Steele. + +To those who censured his politics were added enemies more +dangerous, who called in question his knowledge of Greek, and his +qualifications for a translator of "Homer." To these he made no +public opposition, but in one of his letters escapes from them as +well as he can. At an age like his, for he was not more than +twenty-five, with an irregular education and a course of life of +which much seems to have passed in conversation, it is not very +likely that he overflowed with Greek. But when he felt himself +deficient he sought assistance, and what man of learning would +refuse to help him? Minute inquiries into the force of words are +less necessary in translating Homer than other poets, because his +positions are general, and his representations natural, with very +little dependence on local or temporary customs, on those changeable +scenes of artificial life, which, by mingling original with +accidental notions and crowding the mind with images which time +effaces, produces ambiguity in dictation and obscurity in books. To +this open display of unadulterated nature it must be ascribed that +Homer has fewer passages of doubtful meaning than any other poet +either in the learned or in modern languages. I have read of a man +who, being by his ignorance of Greek compelled to gratify his +curiosity with the Latin printed on the opposite page, declared that +from the rude simplicity of the lines literally rendered he formed +nobler ideas of the Homeric majesty than from the laboured elegance +of polished versions. Those literal translations were always at +hand, and from them he could easily obtain his author's sense with +sufficient certainty and among the readers of Homer the number is +very small of those who find much in the Greek more than in the +Latin, except the music of the numbers. + +If more help was wanting he had the poetical translation of Eobanus +Hessus, an unwearied writer of Latin verses; he had the French +Homers of La Valterie and Dacier, and the English of Chapman, +Hobbes, and Ogilby. With Chapman, whose work, though now totally +neglected, seems to have been popular almost to the end of the last +century, he had very frequent consultations, and perhaps never +translated any passage till he had read his version, which he indeed +has been sometimes suspected of using instead of the original. +Notes were likewise to be provided, for the six volumes would have +been very little more than six pamphlets without them. What the +mere perusal of the text could suggest Pope wanted no assistance to +collect or methodise; but more was necessary. Many pages were to be +filled, and learning must supply materials to wit and judgment. +Something might be gathered from Dacier, but no man loves to be +indebted to his contemporaries, and Dacier was accessible to common +readers. Eustathius was therefore necessarily consulted. To read +Eustathius, of whose work there was then no Latin version, I suspect +Pope if he had been willing not to have been able. Some other was +therefore to be found who had leisure as well as abilities, and he +was doubtless most readily employed who would do much work for +little money. + +The history of the notes has never been traced. Broome, an his +preface to his poems, declares himself the commentator "in part upon +the 'Iliad,'" and it appears from Fenton's letter, preserved in the +Museum, that Broome was at first engaged in consulting Eustathius; +but that after a time, whatever was the reason, he desisted. +Another man of Cambridge was then employed, who soon grew weary of +the work, and a third, that was recommended by Thirlby, is now +discovered to have been Jortin, a man since well known to the +learned world, who complained that Pope, having accepted and +approved his performance, never testified any curiosity to see him, +and who professed to have forgotten the terms on which he worked. +The terms which Fenton uses are very mercantile: "I think at first +sight that his performance is very commendable, and have sent word +for him to finish the seventeenth book, and to send it with his +demands for his trouble. I have here enclosed the specimen; if the +rest come before the return, I will keep them till I receive your +order." + +Broome then offered his service a second time, which was probably +accepted, as they had afterwards a closer correspondence. Parnell +contributed the "Life of Homer," which Pope found so harsh, that he +took great pains in correcting it; and by his own diligence, with +such help as kindness or money could procure him, in somewhat more +than five years he completed his version of the "Iliad," with the +notes. He began it in 1712, his twenty-fifth year, and concluded it +in 1718, his thirtieth year. When we find him translating fifty +lines a day, it is natural to suppose that he would have brought his +work to a more speedy conclusion. The "Iliad," containing less than +sixteen thousand verses, might have been despatched in less than +three hundred and twenty days by fifty verses in a day. The notes, +compiled with the assistance of his mercenaries, could not be +supposed to require more time than the text. According to this +calculation, the progress of Pope may seem to have been slow; but +the distance is commonly very great between actual performances and +speculative possibility. It is natural to suppose, that as much as +has been done to-day may be done to-morrow; but on the morrow some +difficulty emerges, or some external impediment obstructs. + +Indolence, interruption, business, and pleasure, all take their +turns of retardation; and every long work is lengthened by a +thousand causes that can, and ten thousand that cannot, be +recounted. Perhaps no extensive and multifarious performance was +ever effected within the term originally fixed in the undertaker's +mind. He that runs against time has an antagonist not subject to +casualties. + +The encouragement given to this translation, though report seems to +have overrated it, was such as the world has not often seen. The +subscribers were five hundred and seventy-five. The copies, for +which subscriptions were given, were six hundred and fifty-four; and +only six hundred and sixty were printed. For these copies Pope had +nothing to pay. He therefore received, including the two hundred +pounds a volume, five thousand three hundred and twenty pounds, four +shillings, without deduction, as the books were supplied by Lintot. + +By the success of his subscription Pope was relieved from those +pecuniary distresses with which, notwithstanding his popularity, he +had hitherto struggled. Lord Oxford had often lamented his +disqualification for public employment, but never proposed a +pension. While the translation of "Homer" was in its progress, Mr. +Craggs, then Secretary of State, offered to procure him a pension, +which, at least during his ministry, might be enjoyed with secrecy. +This was not accepted by Pope, who told him, however, that, if he +should be pressed with want of money, he would send to him for +occasional supplies. Craggs was not long in power, and was never +solicited for money by Pope, who disdained to beg what he did not +want. + +With the product of this subscription, which he had too much +discretion to squander, he secured his future life from want, by +considerable annuities. The estate of the Duke of Buckingham was +found to have been charged with five hundred pounds a year, payable +to Pope, which doubtless his translation enabled him to purchase. + +It cannot be unwelcome to literary curiosity, that I deduce thus +minutely the history of the English "Iliad." It is certainly the +noblest version of poetry which the world has ever seen, and its +publication must therefore be considered as one of the great events +in the annals of learning. To those who have skill to estimate the +excellence and difficulty of this great work, it must be very +desirable to know how it was performed, and by what gradations it +advanced to correctness. Of such an intellectual process the +knowledge has very rarely been attainable; but happily there remains +the original copy of the "Iliad," which, being obtained by +Bolingbroke as a curiosity, descended from him to Mallet, and is +now, by the solicitation of the late Dr. Maty, reposited in the +Museum. Between this manuscript, which is written upon accidental +fragments of paper, and the printed edition, there must have been an +intermediate copy, that was perhaps destroyed as it returned from +the press. + +From the first copy I have procured a few transcripts, and shall +exhibit first the printed lines; then, in a small print, those of +the manuscripts, with all their variations. Those words in the +small print, which are given in italics, are cancelled in the copy, +and the words placed under them adopted in their stead: + +The beginning of the first book stands thus:- + + + The wrath of Peleus' son, the direful spring +Of all the Grecian woes, O Goddess, sing, +That wrath which hurled to Pluto's gloomy reign +The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain. + + The stern Pelides' rage, O Goddess, sing, + wrath + Of all the woes of Greece too fatal spring, + Grecian + That screwed with warriors dead the Phrygian plain, + heroes + And peopled the dark with heroes slain: + filled the shady hell with chiefs untimely + +Whose limbs, unburied on the naked shore, +Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore, +Since great Achilles and Atrides strove; +Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove. + + Whose limbs, unburied on the hostile shore, + Devouring dogs and greedy vultures tore, + Since first Atrides and Achilles strove; + Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove. + +Declare, O Muse, in what ill-fated hour +Sprung the fierce strife from what offended Power? +Latona's son a dire contagion spread, +And heaped the camp with mountains of the dead; + +The King of Men his reverend priest defied, +And for the King's offence the people died. + + Declare, O Goddess, what offended Power + Enflamed their rage in that ill-omened hour; + anger fatal, hapless + Phoebus himself the dire debate procured, + fierce + To avenge the wrongs his injured priest endured; + For this the god a dire infection spread, + And heaped the camp with millions of the dead: + The King of men the sacred sire defied, + And for the King's offence the people died. + +For Chryses sought with costly gifts to gain +His captive daughter from the Victor's chain; +Suppliant the venerable father stands, +Apollo's awful ensigns grace his hands, +By these he begs, and, lowly bending down, +Extends the sceptre and the laurel crown. + + For Chryses sought by presents to regain + costly gifts to gain + His captive daughter from the Victor's chain; + Suppliant the venerable father stands, + Apollo's awful ensigns graced his hands. + By these he begs, and, lowly bending down + The golden sceptre and the laurel crown, + Presents the sceptre + For these as ensigns of his god he bare, + The god who sends his golden shaft afar; + Then low on earth the venerable man, + Suppliant before the brother kings began. + +He sued to all, but chief implored for grace, +The brother kings of Atreus' royal race; +Ye kings and warriors, may your vows be crowned, +And Troy's proud walls lie level with the ground; +May Jove restore you, when your toils are o'er, +Safe to the pleasures of your native shore. + + To all he sued, but chief implored for grace + The brother kings of Atreus' royal race. + Ye sons of Atreus, may your vows be crowned, + kings and warriors + Your labours, by the gods be all your labours crowned; + So may the gods your arms with conquest bless, + And Troy's proud walls lie level with the ground; + Till laid + And crown your labours with desired success; + May Jove restore you when your toils are o'er + Safe to the pleasures of your native shore. + +But, oh! relieve a wretched parent's pain, +And give Chryses to these arms again; +If mercy fail, yet let my present move, +And dread avenging Phoebus, son of Jove. + + But, oh! relieve a hapless parent's pain, + And give my daughter to these arms again; + Receive my gifts, if mercy fails, yet let my present move, + And fear the god who deals his darts around, + avenging Phoebus, son of Jove. + +The Greeks, in shouts, their joint assent declare, +The priest to reverence, and release the fair: +Not so Atrides; he, with kingly pride, +Repulsed the sacred sire, and thus replied. + + He said, the Greeks their joint assent declare, + The father said, the generous Greeks relent, + To accept the ransom, and restore the fair: + Revere the priest, and speak their joint assent; + Not so the tyrant; he, with kingly pride, + Atrides, + Repulsed the sacred sire, and thus replied + [Not so the tyrant. DRYDEN.] + + +Of these lines, and of the whole first book, I am told that there +was yet a former copy, more varied, and more deformed with +interlineations. + +The beginning of the second book varies very little from the printed +page, and is therefore set down without any parallel. The few +slight differences do not require to be elaborately displayed. + + + Now pleasing sleep had sealed each mortal eye: +Stretched in the tents the Grecian leaders lie; +The Immortals slumbered on their thrones above, +All but the ever-wakeful eye of Jove. +To honour Thetis' son he bends his care, +And plunge the Greeks in all the woes of war. +Then bids an empty phantom rise to sight, +And thus commands the vision of the night: + directs +Fly hence, delusive dream, and, light as air, +To Agamemnon's royal tent repair; +Bid him in arms draw forth the embattled train, +March all his legions to the dusty plain. +Now tell the King 'tis given him to destroy +Declare even now +The lofty walls of wide-extended Troy; + towers +For now no more the gods with fate contend; +At Juno's suit the heavenly factions end. +Destruction hovers o'er yon devoted wall, + hangs +And nodding Ilion waits the impending fall. + + +Invocation to the catalogue of ships. + + +Say, virgins, seated round the throne divine, +All-knowing goddesses! immortal nine! +Since earth's wide regions, heaven's unmeasured height, +And hell's abyss, hide nothing from your sight + (We, wretched mortals! lost in doubts below, +But guess by rumour, and but boast we know), +Oh! say what heroes, fired by thirst of fame, +Or urged by wrongs, to Troy's destruction came! +To count them all demands a thousand tongues, +A throat of brass and adamantine lungs. + + Now virgin goddesses, immortal nine! + That round Olympus' heavenly summit shine, + Who see through heaven and earth, and hell profound, + And all things know, and all things can resound! + Relate what armies sought the Trojan land, + What nations followed, and what chiefs command; + (For doubtful fame distracts mankind below, + And nothing can we tell, and nothing know) + Without your aid, to count the unnumbered train, +A thousand mouths, a thousand tongues, were vain. + + +Book V. v. 1. + + + But Pallas now Tydides' soul inspires, +Fills with her force, and warms with all her fires: +Above the Greeks his deathless fame to raise, +And crown her hero with distinguished praise, +High on his helm celestial lightnings play, +His beamy shield emits a living ray; +The unwearied blaze incessant streams supplies, +Like the red star that fires the autumnal skies. + But Pallas now Tydides' soul inspires, +Fills with her rage, and warms with all her fires; + force +O'er all the Greeks decrees his fame to raise, +Above the Greeks her warrior's fame to raise, + his deathless +And crown her hero with immortal praise: + distinguished +Bright from his beamy crest the lightnings play, + High on helm +From his broad buckler flashed the living ray; +High on his helm celestial lightnings play, +His beamy shield emits a living ray; +The goddess with her breath the flame supplies, +Bright as the star whose fires in autumn rise; +Her breath divine thick streaming flames supplies, +Bright as the star that fires the autumnal skies: +The unwearied blaze incessant streams supplies, +Like the red star that fires the autumnal skies. + +When fresh he rears his radiant orb to sight, +And bathed in ocean shoots a keener light, +Such glories Pallas on the chief bestowed, +Such from his arms the fierce effulgence flowed; +Onward she drives him, furious to engage, +Where the fight burns, and where the thickest rage. + + When fresh he rears his radiant orb to sight, + And gilds old ocean with a blaze of light, + Bright as the star that fires the autumnal skies, + Fresh from the deep, and gilds the seas and skies: + Such glories Pallas on her chief bestowed, + Such sparkling rays from his bright armour flowed, + Such sparkling rays from his bright armour flowed, + Onward she drives him headlong to engage, + furious + Where the war bleeds, and where the fiercest rage. + fight burns, thickest + +The sons of Dares first the combat sought, +A wealthy priest, but rich without a fault; +In Vulcan's fane the father's days were led, +The sons to toils of glorious battle bred; + + There lived a Trojan--Dares was his name, + The priest of Vulcan, rich, yet void of blame; + The sons of Dares first the combat sought, + A wealthy priest, but rich without a fault. + + +Conclusion of Book VIII. v. 687. + + +As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night, +O'er heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light, +When not a breath disturbs the deep serene, +And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene; +Around her throne the vivid planets roll, +And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole: +O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed, +And tip with silver every mountain's head: +Then shine the vales--the rocks in prospect rise, +A flood of glory bursts from all the skies; +The conscious swains, rejoicing in the sight, +Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light. +So many flames before proud Ilion blaze, +And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays; +The long reflections of the distant fires +Gleam on the walls, and tremble on the spires. +A thousand piles the dusky horrors gild, +And shoot a shady lustre o'er the field; +Full fifty guards each flaming pile attend, +Whose umbered arms by fits thick flashes send; +Loud neigh the coursers o'er their heaps of corn, +And ardent warriors wait the rising morn. + + As when in stillness of the silent night, + As when the moon in all her lustre bright, + As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night, + O'er Heaven's clear azure sheds her silver light; + pure spreads sacred + As still in air the trembling lustre stood, + And o'er its golden border shoots a flood; + When no loose gale disturbs the deep serene, + not a breath + And no dim cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene; + not a + Around her silver throne the planets glow, + And stars unnumbered trembling beams bestow; + Around her throne the vivid planets roll, + And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole: + Clear gleams of light o'er the dark trees are seen, + o'er the dark trees a yellow sheds + O'er the dark trees a yellower green they shed, + gleam + verdure + And tip with silver all the mountain heads + forest + And tip with silver every mountain's head. + The valleys open, and the forests rise, + The vales appear, the rocks in prospect rise, + Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise, + All nature stands revealed before our eyes; + A flood of glory bursts from all the skies. + The conscious shepherd, joyful at the sight, + Eyes the blue vault, and numbers every light. + The conscious swains rejoicing at the sight, + shepherds gazing with delight + Eye the blue vault, and bless the vivid light. + glorious + useful + So many flames before the navy blaze, + proud Ilion + And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays, + Wide o'er the fields to Troy extend the gleams, + And tip the distant spires with fainter beams; + The long reflections of the distant fires + Gild the high walls, and tremble on the spires; + Gleam on the walls, and tremble on the spires; + A thousand fires at distant stations bright, + Gild the dark prospect, and dispel the night. + + +Of these specimens every man who has cultivated poetry, or who +delights to trace the mind from the rudeness of its first +conceptions to the elegance of its last, will naturally desire a +great number; but most other readers are already tired, and I am not +writing only to poets and philosophers. + +The "Iliad" was published volume by volume, as the translation +proceeded. The four first books appeared in 1713. The expectation +of this work was undoubtedly high, and every man who had connected +his name with criticism or poetry was desirous of such intelligence +as might enable him to talk upon the popular topic. Halifax, who, +by having been first a poet, and then a patron of poetry, had +acquired the right of being a judge, was willing to hear some books +while they were yet unpublished. Of this rehearsal Pope afterwards +gave the following account:- + +"The famous Lord Halifax was rather a pretender to taste than really +possessed of it. When I had finished the two or three first books +of my translation of the 'Iliad,' that lord desired to have the +pleasure of hearing them read at his house. Addison, Congreve, and +Garth were there at the reading. In four or five places Lord +Halifax stopped me very civilly, and with a speech each time of much +the same kind, 'I beg your pardon, Mr. Pope, but there is something +in that passage that does not please me. Be so good as to mark the +place, and consider it a little at your leisure. I am sure you can +give it a little turn.' I returned from Lord Halifax's with Dr. +Garth in his chariot, and as we were going along was saying to the +Doctor that my lord had laid me under a great deal of difficulty by +such loose and general observations; that I had been thinking over +the passages almost ever since, and could not guess at what it was +that offended his lordship in either of them. Garth laughed +heartily at my embarrassment: said I had not been long enough +acquainted with Lord Halifax to know his way yet; that I need not +puzzle myself about looking those places over and over when I got +home. 'All you need do,' says he, 'is to leave them just as they +are, call on Lord Halifax two or three months hence, thank him for +his kind observations on those passages, and then read them to him +as altered. I have known him much longer than you have, and will be +answerable for the event.' I followed his advice, waited on Lord +Halifax some time after; said I hoped he would find his objections +to those passages removed; read them to him exactly as they were at +first; and his lordship was extremely pleased with them, and cried +out, 'Ay, now they are perfectly right; nothing can be better.'" + +It is seldom that the great or the wise suspect that they are +despised or cheated. Halifax, thinking this a lucky opportunity of +securing immortality, made some advances of favour and some +overtures of advantage to Pope, which he seems to have received with +sullen coldness. All our knowledge of this transaction is derived +from a single letter (December 1, 1714), in which Pope says, "I am +obliged to you, both for the favours you have done me and those you +intend me. I distrust neither your will nor your memory when it is +to do good; and if I ever become troublesome or solicitous, it must +not be out of expectation, but out of gratitude. Your lordship may +cause me to live agreeably in the town, or contentedly in the +country, which is really all the difference I set between an easy +fortune and a small one. It is indeed a high strain of generosity +in you to think of making me easy all my life, only because I have +been so happy as to divert you some few hours; but, if I may have +leave to add it is because you think me no enemy to my native +country, there will appear a better reason; for I must of +consequence be very much (as I sincerely am) yours, &c." + +These voluntary offers, and this faint acceptance, ended without +effect. The patron was not accustomed to such frigid gratitude; and +the poet fed his own pride with the dignity of independence. They +probably were suspicious of each other. Pope would not dedicate +till he saw at what rate his praise was valued; he would be +"troublesome out of gratitude, not expectation." Halifax thought +himself entitled to confidence, and would give nothing unless he +knew what he should receive. Their commerce had its beginning in +hope of praise on one side and of money on the other, and ended +because Pope was less eager of money than Halifax of praise. It is +not likely that Halifax had any personal benevolence to Pope; it is +evident that Pope looked on Halifax with scorn and hatred. + +The reputation of this great work failed of gaining him a patron but +it deprived him of a friend. Addison and he were now at the head of +poetry and criticism, and both in such a state of elevation that, +like the two rivals in the Roman State, one could no longer bear an +equal, nor the other a superior. Of the gradual abatement of +kindness between friends, the beginning is often scarcely +discernible to themselves, and the process is continued by petty +provocations, and incivilities sometimes peevishly returned, and +sometimes contemptuously neglected, which would escape all attention +but that of pride, and drop from any memory but that of resentment. +That the quarrel of these two wits should be minutely deduced is not +to be expected from a writer to whom, as Homer says, "nothing but +rumour has reached, and who has no personal knowledge." + +Pope doubtless approached Addison, when the reputation of their wit +first brought them together, with the respect due to a man whose +abilities were acknowledged, and who, having attained that eminence +to which he was himself aspiring, had in his hands the distribution +of literary fame. He paid court with sufficient diligence by his +prologue to "Cato," by his abuse of Dennis, and with praise yet more +direct, by his poem on the "Dialogues on Medals," of which the +immediate publication was then intended. In all this there was no +hypocrisy for he confessed that he found in Addison something more +pleasing than in any other man. + +It may be supposed that, as Pope saw himself favoured by the world, +and more frequently compared his own powers with those of others, +his confidence increased, and his submission lessened; and that +Addison felt no delight from the advances of a young wit, who might +soon contend with him for the highest place. Every great man, of +whatever kind be his greatness, has among his friends those who +officiously or insidiously quicken his attention to offences, +heighten his disgust, and stimulate his resentment. Of such +adherents Addison doubtless had many; and Pope was now too high to +be without them. From the emission and reception of the proposals +for the "Iliad," the kindness of Addison seems to have abated. +Jervas the painter once pleased himself (August 20,1714) with +imagining that he had re-established their friendship, and wrote to +Pope that Addison once suspected him of too close a confederacy with +Swift, but was now satisfied with his conduct. To this Pope +answered, a week after, that his engagements to Swift were such as +his services in regard to the subscription demanded, and that the +Tories never put him under the necessity of asking leave to be +grateful. "But," says he, "as Mr. Addison must be the judge in what +regards himself, and seems to have no very just one in regard to me, +so I must own to you I expect nothing but civility from him." In +the same letter he mentions Philips, as having been busy to kindle +animosity between them; but in a letter to Addison he expresses some +consciousness of behaviour, inattentively deficient in respect. + +Of Swift's industry in promoting the subscription there remains the +testimony of Kennet, no friend to either him or Pope. + +"November 2, 1713, Dr. Swift came into the coffee-house, and had a +bow from everybody but me, who, I confess, could not but despise +him. When I came to the antechamber to wait, before prayers, Dr. +Swift was the principal man of talk and business, and acted as +master of requests. Then he instructed a young nobleman that the +BEST POET IN ENGLAND was Mr. Pope (a papist), who had begun a +translation of 'Homer' into English verse, for which HE MUST HAVE +THEM ALL SUBSCRIBE: for, says he, the author SHALL NOT begin to +print till _I_ HAVE a thousand guineas for him." + +About this time it is likely that Steele, who was, with all his +political fury, good-natured and officious, procured an interview +between these angry rivals, which ended in aggravated malevolence. +On this occasion, if the reports be true, Pope made his complaint +with frankness and spirit, as a man undeservedly neglected or +opposed; and Addison affected a contemptuous unconcern, and in a +calm, even voice reproached Pope with his vanity, and, telling him +of the improvements which his early works had received from his own +remarks and those of Steele, said that he, being now engaged in +public business, had no longer any care for his poetical reputation, +nor had any other desire with regard to Pope than that he should +not, by too much arrogance, alienate the public. + +To this Pope is said to have replied with great keenness and +severity, upbraiding Addison with perpetual dependence, and with the +abuse of those qualifications which he had obtained at the public +cost, and charging him with mean endeavours to obstruct the progress +of rising merit. The contest rose so high that they parted at last +without any interchange of civility. + +The first volume of "Homer" was (1715) in time published; and a +rival version of the first "Iliad," for rivals the time of their +appearance inevitably made them, was immediately printed, with the +name of Tickell. It was soon perceived that, among the followers of +Addison, Tickell had the preference, and the critics and poets +divided into factions. "I," says Pope, "have the town, that is, the +mob, on my side; but it is not uncommon for the smaller party to +supply by industry what it wants in numbers. I appeal to the people +as my rightful judges, and, while they are not inclined to condemn +me, shall not fear the high-flyers at Button's." This opposition he +immediately imputed to Addison, and complained of it in terms +sufficiently resentful to Craggs, their common friend. + +When Addison's opinion was asked, he declared the versions to be +both good, but Tickell's the best that had ever been written; and +sometimes said that they were both good, but that Tickell had more +of "Homer." + +Pope was now sufficiently irritated; his reputation and his interest +were at hazard. He once intended to print together the four +versions of Dryden, Maynwaring, Pope, and Tickell, that they might +be readily compared and fairly estimated. This design seems to have +been defeated by the refusal off Tonson, who was the proprietor of +the other three versions. + +Pope intended, at another time, a rigorous criticism of Tickell's +translation, and had marked a copy, which I have seen, in all places +that appeared defective. But while he was thus meditating defence +or revenge, his adversary sunk before him without a blow; the voice +of the public was not long divided, and the preference universally +given to Pope's performance. He was convinced, by adding one +circumstance to another, that the other translation was the work of +Addison himself; but, if he knew it in Addison's lifetime, it does +not appear that he told it. He left his illustrious antagonist to +lie punished by what has been considered as the most painful of all +reflections--the remembrance of a crime perpetrated in vain. The +other circumstances of their quarrel were thus related by Pope:- + +"Philips seemed to have been encouraged to abuse me in coffee-houses +and conversations, and Gildon wrote a thing about Wycherley, in +which he had abused both me and my relations very grossly. Lord +Warwick himself told me one day that it was in vain for me to +endeavour to be well with Mr. Addison; that his jealous temper would +never admit of a settled friendship between us; and, to convince me +of what he had said, assured me that Addison had encouraged Gildon +to publish those scandals, and had given him ten guineas after they +were published. The next day, while I was heated with what I had +heard, I wrote a letter to Mr. Addison, to let him know that I was +not unacquainted with this behaviour of his; that if I was to speak +severely of him in return for it, it should not be in such a dirty +way; that I should rather tell him himself fairly of his faults, and +allow his good qualities; and that it should be something in the +following manner. I then adjoined the first sketch of what has +since been called my satire on Addison. Mr Addison used me very +civilly ever after." + +The verses on Addison, when they were sent to Atterbury, were +considered by him as the most excellent of Pope's performances; and +the writer was advised, since he knew where his strength lay, not to +suffer it to remain unemployed. This year (1715), being by the +subscription enabled to live more by choice, having persuaded his +father to sell their estate at Binfield, he purchased, I think only +for his life, that house at Twickenham to which his residence +afterwards procured so much celebration, and removed thither with +his father and mother. Here he planted the vines and the quincunx +which his verses mention; and being under the necessity of making a +subterraneous passage to a garden on the other side of the road, he +adorned it with fossil bodies, and dignified it with the title of a +grotto; a place of silence and retreat, from which he endeavoured to +persuade his friends and himself that cares and passions could be +excluded. + +A grotto is not often the wish or pleasure of all Englishmen, who +has more frequent need to solicit than exclude the sun; but Pope's +excavation was requisite as an entrance to his garden; and, as some +men try to be proud of their defects, he extracted an ornament from +an inconvenience, and vanity produced a grotto where necessity +enforced a passage. It may be frequently remarked of the studious +and speculative, that they are proud of trifles, and that their +amusements seem frivolous and childish. Whether it be that men, +conscious of great reputation, think themselves above the reach of +censure, and safe in the admission of negligent indulgences, or that +mankind expect from elevated genius a uniformity of greatness, and +watch its degradation with malicious wonder, like him who, having +followed with his eye an eagle into the clouds, should lament that +she ever descended to a perch. + +While the volumes of his "Homer" were annually published, he +collected his former works (1717) into one quarto volume, to which +he prefixed a preface, written with great sprightliness and +elegance, which was afterwards reprinted, with some passages +subjoined that he at first omitted. Other marginal additions of the +same kind he made in the later editions of his poems. Waller +remarks, that poets lose half their praise, because the reader knows +not what they have blotted. Pope's voracity of fame taught him the +art of obtaining the accumulated honour both of what he had +published, and of what he had suppressed. In this year his father +died suddenly, in his seventy-fifth year, having passed twenty-nine +years in privacy. He is not known but by the character which his +son has given him. If the money with which he retired was all +gotten by himself, he had traded very successfully in times when +sudden riches were rarely attainable. + +The publication of the "Iliad" was at last completed in 1720. The +splendour and success of this work raised Pope many enemies that +endeavoured to depreciate his abilities. Burnet, who was afterwards +a judge of no mean reputation, censured him in a piece called +"Homerides" before it was published. Ducket likewise endeavoured to +make him ridiculous. Dennis was the perpetual persecutor of all his +studies. But whoever his critics were, their writings are lost, and +the names, which are preserved are preserved in the "Dunciad." + +In this disastrous year (1720) of national infatuation, when more +riches than Peru can boast were expected from the South Sea, when +the contagion of avarice tainted every mind, and even poets panted +after wealth, Pope was seized with the universal passion, and +ventured some of his money. The stock rose in its price, and for a +while he thought himself the lord of thousands. But this dream of +happiness did not last long, and he seems to have waked soon enough +to get clear with the loss of what he once thought himself to have +won, and perhaps not wholly of that. + +Next year he published some select poems of his friend Dr. Parnell, +with a very elegant dedication to the Earl of Oxford, who, after all +his struggles and dangers, then lived in retirement, still under the +frown of a victorious faction, who could take no pleasure in hearing +his praise. He gave the same year (1721) an edition of Shakespeare. +His name was now of so much authority that Tonson thought himself +entitled, by annexing it, to demand a subscription of six guineas +for Shakespeare's plays in six quarto volumes. Nor did his +expectation much deceive him, for, of seven hundred and fifty which +he printed, he dispersed a great number at the price proposed. The +reputation of that edition indeed, sunk, afterwards so low, that one +hundred and forty copies were sold at sixteen shillings each. On +this undertaking, to which Pope was induced by a reward of two +hundred and seventeen pounds twelve shillings, he seems never to +have reflected afterwards without vexation; for Theobald a man of +heavy diligence, with very slender powers, first, in a book called +"Shakespeare Restored," and then in a formal edition, detected his +deficiencies with all the insolence of victory; and as he was now +high enough to be feared and hated, Theobald had from others all the +help that could be supplied, by the desire of humbling a haughty +character. From this time Pope became an enemy to editors, +collators, commentators, and verbal critics, and hoped to persuade +the world that he miscarried in this undertaking only by having a +mind too great for such minute employment. + +Pope in his edition undoubtedly did many things wrong, and left many +things undone; but let him not be defrauded of his due praise. He +was the first that knew, at least the first that told, by what helps +the text might be improved. If he inspected the early editions +negligently, he taught others to be more accurate. In his preface +he expanded with great skill and elegance the character which had +been given of Shakespeare by Dryden; and he drew the public +attention upon his works, which, though often mentioned, had been +little read. Soon after the appearance of the "Iliad," resolving +not to let the general kindness cool, he published proposals for a +translation of the "Odyssey," in five volumes, for five guineas. He +was willing, however, now to have associates in his labour, being +either weary with toiling upon another's thoughts, or having heard, +as Ruffhead relates, that Fenton and Broome had already begun the +work, and liking better to have them confederates than rivals. In +the patent, instead of saying that he had "translated" the +"Odyssey," as he had said of the "Iliad," he says that he had +"undertaken" a translation: and in the proposals, the subscription +is said to be not solely for his own use, but for that of "two of +his friends who have assisted him in his work." + +In 1723, while he was engaged in this new version, he appeared +before the Lords at the memorable trial of Bishop Atterbury, with +whom he had lived in great familiarity, and frequent correspondence. +Atterbury had honestly recommended to him the study of the Popish +controversy, in hope of his conversion; to which Pope answered in a +manner that cannot much recommend his principles or his judgment. +In questions and projects of learning they agree better. He was +called at the trial to give an account of Atterbury's domestic life +and private employment, that it might appear how little time he had +left for plots. Pope had but few words to utter, and in those few +he made several blunders. + +His letters to Atterbury express the utmost esteem, tenderness, and +gratitude. "Perhaps," says he, "it is not only in this world that I +may have cause to remember the Bishop of Rochester." At their last +interview in the Tower, Atterbury presented him with a Bible. + +Of the "Odyssey" Pope translated only twelve books. The rest were +the work of Broome and Fenton: the notes were written wholly by +Broome, who was not over liberally rewarded. The public was +carefully kept ignorant of the several shares; and an account was +subjoined at the conclusion which is now known not to be true. The +first copy of Pope's books, with those of Fenton, are to be seen in +the Museum. The parts of Pope are less interlined than the "Iliad," +and the latter books of the "Iliad" less than the former. He grew +dexterous by practice, and every sheet enabled him to write the next +with more facility. The books of Fenton have very few alterations +by the hand of Pope. Those of Broome have not been found, but Pope +complained, as it is reported, that he had much trouble in +correcting them. His contract with Lintot was the same as for the +"Iliad," except that only one hundred pounds were to be paid him for +each volume. The number of subscribers were five hundred and +seventy-four, and of copies eight hundred and nineteen, so that his +profit, when he had paid his assistants, was still very +considerable. The work was finished in 1723; and from that time he +resolved to make no more translations. The sale did not answer +Lintot's expectation, and he then pretended to discover something of +a fraud in Pope, and commenced or threatened a suit in Chancery. + +On the English "Odyssey" a criticism was published by Spence, at +that time Prelector of Poetry at Oxford, a man whose learning was +not very great, and whose mind was not very powerful. His +criticism, however, was commonly just; what he thought he thought +rightly, and his remarks were recommended by his coolness and +candour. In him Pope had the first experience of a critic without +malevolence, who thought it as much his duty to display beauties as +expose faults, who censured with respect, and praised with alacrity. +With this criticism Pope was so little offended, that he sought the +acquaintance of the writer, who lived with him from that time in +great familiarity, attended him in his last hours, and compiled +memorials of his conversation. The regard of Pope recommended him +to the great and powerful, and he obtained very valuable preferments +in the Church. Not long after Pope was returning home from a visit +in a friend's coach, which, in passing a bridge, was overturned into +the water; the window's were closed, and, being unable to force them +open, he was in danger of immediate death, when the postillion +snatched him out by breaking the glass, of which the fragments cut +two of his fingers in such a manner that he lost their use. + +Voltaire, who was then in England, sent him a letter of consolation. +He had been entertained by Pope at his table, where he talked with +so much grossness that Mrs. Pope was driven from the room. Pope +discovered, by a trick, that he was a spy for the Court, and never +considered him as a man worthy of confidence. He soon afterwards +(1727) joined with Swift, who was then in England, to publish three +volumes of "Miscellanies," in which, amongst other things, he +inserted the "Memoirs of a Parish Clerk," in ridicule of Burnet's +importance in his own history, and a "Debate upon Black and White +Horses," written in all the formalities of a legal process by the +assistance, as is said, of Mr. Fortescue, afterwards Master of the +Rolls. Before these "Miscellanies" is a preface signed by Swift and +Pope, but apparently written by Pope, in which he makes a ridiculous +and romantic complaint of the robberies committed upon authors by +the clandestine seizure and sale of their papers. He tells in +tragic strains how "the cabinets of the sick and the closets of the +dead have been broken open and ransacked," as if those violences +were often committed for papers of uncertain and accidental value +which are rarely provoked by real treasures--as if epigrams and +essays were in danger where gold and diamonds are safe. A cat +hunted for his musk is, according to Pope's account, but the emblem +of a wit winded by booksellers. His complaint, however, received +some attestation, for the same year the letters written by him to +Mr. Cromwell in his youth were sold by Mrs. Thomas to Curll, who +printed them. + +In these "Miscellanies" was first published the "Art of Sinking in +Poetry," which, by such a train of consequences as usually passes in +literary quarrels, gave in a short time, according to Pope's +account, occasion to the "Dunciad." + +In the following year (1728) he began to put Atterbury's advice in +practice, and showed his satirical powers by publishing the +"Dunciad," one of his greatest and most elaborate performances, in +which he endeavoured to sink into contempt all the writers by whom +he had been attacked, and some others whom he thought unable to +defend themselves. At the head of the "Dunces" he placed poor +Theobald, whom he accused of ingratitude, but whose real crime was +supposed to be that of having revised Shakespeare more happily than +himself. This satire had the effect which he intended, by blasting +the characters which it touched. Ralph, who, unnecessarily +interposing in the quarrel, got a place in a subsequent edition, +complained that for a time he was in danger of starving, as the +booksellers had no longer any confidence in his capacity. The +prevalence of this poem was gradual and slow: the plan, if not +wholly new, was little understood by common readers. Many of the +allusions required illustration; the names were often expressed only +by the initial and final letters, and if they had been printed at +length were such as few had known or recollected. The subject +itself had nothing generally interesting, for whom did it concern to +know that one or another scribbler was a dunce? If, therefore, it +had been possible for those who were attacked to conceal their pain +and their resentment, the "Dunciad" might have made its way very +slowly in the world. This, however, was not to be expected: every +man is of importance to himself, and therefore, in his own opinion, +to others; and, supposing the world already acquainted with all his +pleasures and his pains, is perhaps the first to publish injuries or +misfortunes, which had never been known unless related by himself, +and at which those that hear them will only laugh, for no man +sympathises with the sorrows of vanity. + +The history of the "Dunciad" is very minutely related by Pope +himself in a dedication which he wrote to Lord Middlesex in the name +of Savage. + +"I will relate the war of the 'Dunces' (for so it has been commonly +called), which began in the year 1727, and ended in 1730 + +"When Dr. Swift and Mr. Pope thought it proper, for reasons +specified in the preface to their 'Miscellanies,' to publish such +little pieces of theirs as had occasionally got abroad, there was +added to them the 'Treatise of the Bathos, or the Art of Sinking in +Poetry.' It happened that in one chapter of this piece the several +species of bad poets were ranged in classes, to which were prefixed +almost all the letters of the alphabet (the greatest part of them at +random); but such was the number of poets eminent in that art, that +some one or other took every letter to himself. All fell into so +violent a fury, that, for half a year or more, the common newspapers +(in most of which they had some property, as being hired writers) +were filled with the most abusive falsehoods and scurrilities they +could possibly devise, a liberty no way to be wondered at in those +people, and in those papers, that, for many years during the +uncontrolled license of the Press, had aspersed almost all the great +characters of the age; and this with impunity, their own persons and +names being utterly secret and obscure. This gave Mr. Pope the +thought that he had now some opportunity of doing good by detecting +and dragging into light these common enemies of mankind, since, to +invalidate this universal slander, it sufficed to show what +contemptible men were the authors of it. He was not without hopes +that, by manifesting the dulness of those who had only malice to +recommend them, either the booksellers would not find their account +in employing them, or the men themselves, when discovered, want +courage to proceed in so unlawful an occupation. This it was that +gave birth to the 'Dunciad,' and he thought it a happiness that, by +the late flood of slander on himself, he had acquired such a +peculiar right over their names as was necessary to this design. + +"On the 12th of March, 1729, at St. James's, that poem was presented +to the king and queen (who had before been pleased to read it) by +the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole, and some days after the +whole impression was taken and dispersed by several noblemen and +persons of the first distinction. + +It is certainly a true observation that no people are so impatient +of censure as those who are the greatest slanderers, which was +wonderfully exemplified on this occasion. On the day the book was +first vended a crowd of authors besieged the shop; entreaties, +advices, threats of law and battery--nay, cries of treason--were all +employed to hinder the coming out of the 'Dunciad.' On the other +side, the booksellers and hawkers made as great efforts to procure +it. What could a few poor authors do against so great a majority as +the public? There was no stopping a torrent with a finger, so out +it came. + +"Many ludicrous circumstances attended it. The 'Dunces' (for by +this name they were called) held weekly clubs, to consult of +hostilities against the author. One wrote a letter to a great +minister, assuring him Mr. Pope was the greatest enemy the +Government had, and another bought his image in clay to execute him +in effigy, with which sad sort of satisfaction the gentlemen were a +little comforted. Some false editions of the book, having an owl in +their frontispiece, the true one, to distinguish it, fixed in his +stead an ass laden with authors. Then another surreptitious one +being printed with the same ass, the new edition in octavo returned +for distinction to the owl again. Hence arose a great contest of +booksellers against booksellers, and advertisements against +advertisements, some recommending the edition of the owl, and others +the edition of the ass, by which names they came to be +distinguished, to the great honour also of the gentlemen of the +'Dunciad.'" + +Pope appears by this narrative to have contemplated his victory over +the "Dunces" with great exultation; and such was his delight in the +tumult which he had raised, that for a while his natural sensibility +was suspended, and he read reproaches and invectives without +emotion, considering them only as the necessary effects of that pain +which he rejoiced in having given. It cannot, however, be concealed +that, by his own confession, he was the aggressor, for nobody +believes that the letters in the "Bathos" were placed at random; and +at may be discovered that, when he thinks himself concealed, he +indulges the common vanity of common men, and triumphs in those +distinctions which he affected to despise. He is proud that his +book was presented to the king and queen by the Right Honourable Sir +Robert Walpole; he is proud that they had read it before; he is +proud that the edition was taken off by the nobility and persons of +the first distinction. The edition of which he speaks was, I +believe, that which, by telling in the text the names, and in the +notes the characters, of those whom he had satirised, was made +intelligible and diverting. The critics had now declared their +approbation of the plan, and the common reader began to like it +without fear. Those who were strangers to petty literature, and +therefore unable to decipher initials and blanks, had now names and +persons brought within their view, and delighted in the visible +effects of those shafts of malice which they had hitherto +contemplated as shot into the air. + +Dennis, upon the fresh provocation now given him, renewed the enmity +which had for a time been appeased by mutual civilities, and +published remarks, which he had till then suppressed, upon the "Rape +of the Lock." Many more grumbled in secret, or vented their +resentment in the newspapers by epigrams or invectives. Ducket, +indeed, being mentioned as loving Burnet with "pious passion," +pretended that his moral character was injured, and for some time +declared his resolution to take vengeance with a cudgel. But Pope +appeased him, by changing "pious passion" to "cordial friendship," +and by a note, in which he vehemently disclaims the malignity of the +meaning imputed to the first expression. Aaron Hill, who was +represented as diving for the prize, expostulated with Pope in a +manner so much superior to all mean solicitation, that Pope was +reduced to sneak and shuffle, sometimes to deny, and sometimes to +apologies; he first endeavours to wound, and is then afraid to own +that he meant a blow. + +The "Dunciad," in the complete edition, is addressed to Dr. Swift. +Of the notes, part were written by Dr. Arbuthnot, and an +apologetical letter was prefixed, signed by Cleland, but supposed to +have been written by Pope. + +After this general war upon dulness, he seems to have indulged +himself a while in tranquillity, but his subsequent productions +prove that he was not idle. He published (1731) a poem on "Taste," +in which he very particularly and severely criticises the house, the +furniture, the gardens, and the entertainments of Timon, a man of +great wealth and little taste. By Timon he was universally +supposed, and by the Earl of Burlington, to whom the poem is +addressed, was privately said, to mean the Duke of Chandos, a man +perhaps too much delighted with pomp and show, but of a temper kind +and beneficent, and who had consequently the voice of the public in +his favour. A violent outcry was, therefore, raised against the +ingratitude and treachery of Pope, who was said to have been +indebted to the patronage of Chandos for a present of a thousand +pounds, and who gained the opportunity of insulting him by the +kindness of his invitation. The receipt of the thousand pounds Pope +publicly denied; but from the reproach which the attack on a +character so amiable brought upon him, he tried all means of +escaping. The name of Cleland was again employed in an apology, by +which no man was satisfied, and he was at last reduced to shelter +his temerity behind dissimulation, and endeavour to make that +disbelieved which he never had confidence openly to deny. He wrote +an exculpatory letter to the duke, which was answered with great +magnanimity, as by a man who accepted his excuse without believing +his professions. He said that to have ridiculed his taste, or his +buildings, had been an indifferent action in another man, but that +in Pope, after the reciprocal kindness that had been exchanged +between them, it had been less easily excused. + +Pope, in one of his letters, complaining of the treatment which his +poem had found, "owns that such critics can intimidate him, nay +almost persuade him, to write no more, which is a compliment this +age deserves." The man who threatens the world is always +ridiculous, for the world can easily go on without him, and in a +short time will cease to miss him. I have heard of an idiot, who +used to revenge his vexatious by lying all night upon the bridge. +"There is nothing," says Juvenal, "that a man will not believe in +his own favour." Pope had been flattered till he thought himself +one of the moving powers in the system of life. When he talked of +laying down his pen, those who sat round him entreated and implored; +and self-love did not suffer him to suspect that they went away and +laughed. + +The following year deprived him of Gay, a man whom he had known +early, and whom he seemed to love with more tenderness than any +other of his literary friends. Pope was now forty-four years old, +an age at which the mind begins less easily to admit new confidence, +and the will to grow less flexible, and when, therefore, the +departure of an old friend is very acutely felt. In the next year +(1733) he lost his mother, not by an unexpected death, for she had +lasted to the age of ninety-three. But she did not die unlamented. +The filial piety of Pope was in the highest degree amiable and +exemplary. His parents had the happiness of living till he was at +the summit of poetical reputation, till he was at ease in his +fortune, and without a rival in his fame, and found no diminution of +his respect or tenderness. Whatever was his pride, to them he was +obedient; and whatever was his irritability, to them he was gentle. +Life has, among its soothing and quiet comforts, few things better +to give than such a son. + +One of the passages of Pope's life, which seems to deserve some +inquiry, was a publication of "Letters" between him and many of his +friends, which, falling into the hands of Curll, a rapacious +bookseller, of no good fame, were by him printed and sold. This +volume containing some letters from noblemen, Pope incited a +prosecution against him in the House of Lords for breach of +privilege, and attended himself to stimulate the resentment of his +friends. Curll appeared at the bar, and, knowing himself in no +great danger, spoke of Pope with very little reverence. "He has," +said Curll, "a knack at versifying, but in prose I think myself a +match for him." When the orders of the House were examined, none of +them appeared to have been infringed. Curll went away triumphant, +and Pope was left to seek some other remedy. + +Curll's account was, that one evening a man in a clergyman's gown, +but with a lawyer's band, brought and offered for sale a number of +printed volumes, which he found to be Pope's epistolary +correspondence; that he asked no name, and was told none, but gave +the price demanded, and thought himself authorised to use his +purchase to his own advantage. That Curll gave a true account of +the transaction it is reasonable to believe, because no falsehood +was ever detected; and when, some years afterwards, I mentioned it +to Lintot, the son of Bernard, he declared his opinion to be, that +Pope knew better than anybody else how Curll obtained the copies, +because another parcel was at the same time sent to himself, for +which no price had ever been demanded, as he made known his +resolution not to pay a porter, and consequently not to deal with a +nameless agent. Such care had been taken to make them public, that +they were sent at once to two booksellers; to Curll, who was likely +to seize them as a prey, and to Lintot, who might he expected to +give Pope information of the seeming injury. Lintot, I believe, did +nothing, and Curll did what was expected. That to make them public +was the only purpose may be reasonably supposed, because the numbers +offered to sale by the private messengers showed that the hope of +gain could not have been the motive of the impression. It seems +that Pope, being desirous of printing his "Letters," and not knowing +how to do, without imputation of vanity, what has in this country +been done very rarely, contrived an appearance of compulsion, that, +when he could complain that his "Letters" were surreptitiously +published, he might decently and defensively publish them himself. + +Pope's private correspondence, thus promulgated, filled the nation +with the praises of his candour, tenderness, and benevolence, the +purity of his purposes, and the fidelity of his friendship. There +were some letters which a very good or a wise man would wish +suppressed; but, as they had been already exposed, it was +impracticable now to retract them. From the perusal of those +letters, Mr. Allen first conceived the desire of knowing him; and +with so much zeal did he cultivate the friendship which he had newly +formed, that, when Pope told his purpose of vindicating his own +property by a genuine edition, he offered to pay the cost. This, +however, Pope did not accept; but in time solicited a subscription +for a quarto volume, which appeared (1737), I believe, with +sufficient profit. In the preface he tells that his letters were +reposited in a friend's library, said to be the Earl of Oxford's, +and that the copy thence stolen was sent to the press. The story +was doubtless received with different degrees of credit. It may be +suspected that the preface to the "Miscellanies" was written to +prepare the public for such an incident; and, to strengthen this +opinion, James Worsdale, a painter, who was employed in clandestine +negotiations, but whose voracity was very doubtful, declared that he +was the messenger who carried, by Pope's direction, the books to +Curll. When they were thus published and avowed, as they had +relation to recent facts, and persons either then living or not yet +forgotten, they may be supposed to have found readers; but, as the +facts were minute, and the characters being either private or +literary, were little known, or little regarded, they awaked no +popular kindness or resentment. The book never became much the +subject of conversation. Some read it as a contemporary history, +and some perhaps as a model of epistolary language; but those who +read it did not talk of it. Not much therefore was added by it to +fame or envy, nor do I remember that it produced either public +praise or public censure. It had, however, in some degree, the +recommendation of novelty. Our language had few letters, except +those of statesmen. Howel, indeed, about a century ago, published +his "Letters," which are commended by Morhoff, and which alone, of +his hundred volumes, continue his memory. Loveday's "Letters" were +printed only once; those of Herbert and Suckling are hardly known. +Mrs. Phillips's (Orinda's) are equally neglected. And those of +Walsh seem written as exercises, and were never sent to any living +mistress or friend. Pope's epistolary excellence had an open field; +he had no English rival, living or dead. + +Pope is seen in this collection as connected with the other +contemporary wits, and certainly suffers no disgrace in the +comparison; but it must be remembered that he had the power of +favouring himself. He might have originally had publication in his +mind, and have written with care, or have afterwards selected those +which he had most happily conceived or most diligently laboured; and +I know not whether there does not appear something more studied and +artificial in his productions than the rest, except one long letter +by Bolingbroke, composed with all the skill and industry of a +professed author. It is indeed not easy to distinguish affectation +from habit; he that has once studiously formed a style, rarely +writes afterwards with complete ease. Pope may be said to write +always with his reputation in his head; Swift, perhaps, like a man +that remembered he was writing to Pope; but Arbuthnot, like one who +lets thoughts drop from his pen as they rise into his mind. Before +these "Letters" appeared he published the first part of what he +persuaded himself to think a system of Ethics, under the title of an +"Essay on Man," which, if his letter to Swift (of September 14, +1723), be rightly explained by the commentator, had been eight years +under his consideration, and of which he seems to have desired the +success with great solicitude. He had now many open, and doubtless +many secret, enemies. The "Dunces" were yet smarting from the war, +and the superiority which he publicly arrogated disposed the world +to wish his humiliation. All this he knew, and against all this he +provided. His own name, and that of his friend to whom the work is +inscribed, were in the first editions carefully suppressed; and the +poem being of a new kind was ascribed to one or another as favour +determined or conjecture wandered. It was given, says Warburton, to +every man except him only who could write it. Those who like only +when they like the author, and who are under the dominion of a name, +condemned it, and those admired it who are willing to scatter praise +at random, which, while it is unappropriated, excites no envy. +Those friends of Pope that were trusted with the secret went about +lavishing honours on the new-born poet, and hinting that Pope was +never so much in danger from any former rival. To those authors +whom he had personally offended, and to those whose opinion the +world considered as decisive, and whom he suspected of envy or +malevolence, he sent his Essay as a present before publication, that +they might defeat their own enemity by praises which they could not +afterwards decently retract. With these precautions, in 1733, was +published the first part of the "Essay on Man." There had been for +some time a report that Pope was busy upon a "System of Morality," +but this design was not discovered in the new poem, which had a form +and a title with which its readers were unacquainted. Its reception +was not uniform. Some thought it a very imperfect piece, though not +without good lines. While the author was unknown, some, as will +always happen, favoured him as an adventurer, and some censured him +as an intruder, but all thought him above neglect. The sale +increased, and editions were multiplied. The subsequent editions of +the first epistle exhibited two memorable corrections. At first, +the poet and his friend + + +"Expatiate freely o'er this scene of man, +A mighty maze OF WALKS WITHOUT A PLAN;" + + +for which he wrote afterwards, + + +"A mighty maze, BUT NOT WITHOUT A PLAN;" + + +for if there was no plan it was in vain to describe or to trace the +maze. + +The other alteration was of these lines:- + + +"And spike of pride, AND IN THY REASON'S SPITE, +One truths is clear, whatever is, is right: + + +but having afterwards discovered, or been shown, that the "truth" +which subsisted "in spite of reason" could not be very "clear," he +substituted + + +"And spite of pride IN ERRING REASON'S SPITE." + + +To such oversights will the most vigorous mind be liable when it is +employed at once upon argument and poetry. + +The second and third epistles were published, and Pope was, I +believe, more and more suspected of writing them. At last, in 1734, +he avowed the fourth, and claimed the honour of a moral poet. In +the conclusion it is sufficiently acknowledged that the doctrine of +the "Essay on Man" was received from Bolingbroke, who is said to +have ridiculed Pope, among those who enjoyed his confidence, as +having adopted and advanced principles of which he did not perceive +the consequence, and as blindly propagating opinions contrary to his +own. That those communications had been consolidated into a scheme +regularly drawn, and delivered to Pope, from whom it returned only +transformed from prose to verse, has been reported, but hardly can +be true. The essay plainly appears the fabric of a poet; what +Bolingbroke supplied could be only the first principles, the order, +illustration, and embellishments, must all be Pope's. These +principles it is not my business to clear from obscurity, dogmatism, +or falsehood, but they were not immediately examined. Philosophy +and poetry have not often the same readers; and the essay abounded +in splendid amplifications and sparkling sentences, which were read +and admired with no great attention to their ultimate purpose. Its +flowers caught the eye, which did not see what the gay foliage +concealed, and for a time flourished in the sunshine of universal +approbation. So little was any evil tendency discovered, that, as +innocence is unsuspicious, many read it for a manual of piety. Its +reputation soon invited a translator. It was first turned into +French prose, and afterwards by Resnel into verse. Both +translations fell into the hands of Crousaz, who first, when he had +the version in prose, wrote a general censure, and afterwards +reprinted Resnel's version, with particular remarks upon every +paragraph. + +Crousaz was a professor of Switzerland, eminent for his treatise of +logic, and his "Examen de Pyrrhonisme," and, however little known or +regarded here, was no mean antagonist. His mind was one of those in +which philosophy and piety are happily united. He was accustomed to +argument and disquisition, and perhaps was grown too desirous of +detecting faults, but his intentions were always right, his opinions +were solid, and his religion pure. His incessant vigilance for the +promotion of piety disposed him to look with distrust upon all +metaphysical systems of theology, and all schemes of virtue and +happiness purely rational; and therefore it was not long before he +was persuaded that the positions of Pope, as they terminated for the +most part in natural religion, were intended to draw mankind away +from revelation, and to represent the whole course of things as a +necessary concatenation of indissoluble fatality, and it is +undeniable that in many passages a religious eye may easily discover +expressions not very favourable to morals or to liberty. + +About this time Warburton began to make his appearance in the first +ranks of learning. He was a man of vigorous faculties, a mind +fervid and vehement, supplied by incessant and unlimited inquiry, +with wonderful extent and variety of knowledge, which yet had not +oppressed his imagination nor clouded his perspicacity. To every +work he brought a memory full fraught, together with a fancy fertile +of original combinations and at once exerted the powers of the +scholar, the reasoner, and the wit. But his knowledge was too +multifarious to be always exact, and his pursuits were too eager to +be always cautions. His abilities gave him a haughty confidence, +which he disdained to conceal or mollify, and his impatience of +opposition disposed him to treat his adversaries with such +contemptuous superiority as made his readers commonly his enemies, +and excited against the advocate the wishes of some who favoured the +cause. He seems to have adopted the Roman Emperor's determination, +oderint dum metuant; he used no allurements of gentle language, but +wished to compel rather than persuade. His style is copious without +selection, and forcible without neatness. He took the words that +presented themselves. His diction is coarse and impure, and his +sentences are unmeasured. He had in the early part of his life +pleased himself with the notice of inferior wits, and corresponded +with the enemies of Pope. A letter was produced, when he had +perhaps himself forgotten it, in which he tells Concanen, "Dryden, I +observe, borrows for want of leisure, and Pope for want of genius, +Milton out of pride, and Addison out of modesty." And when Theobald +published Shakespeare, in opposition to Pope, the best notes were +supplied by Warburton. But the time was now come when Warburton was +to change his opinion, and Pope was to find a defender in him who +had contributed so much to the exaltation of his rival. + +The arrogance of Warburton excited against him every artifice of +offence, and therefore it may be supposed that his union with Pope +was censured as hypocritical inconstancy, but surely to think +differently at different times of poetical merit may be easily +allowed. Such opinions are often admitted, and dismissed without +nice examination. Who is there that has not found reason for +changing his mind about questions of greater importance? + +Warburton, whatever was his motive, undertook, without solicitation, +to rescue Pope from the talons of Crousaz, by freeing him from the +imputation of favouring fatality or rejecting revelation; and from +month to month continued a vindication of the "Essay on Man," in the +literary journal of that time called the "Republic of Letters." + +Pope, who probably began to doubt the tendency of his own work, was +glad that the positions, of which he perceived himself not to know +the full meaning, could by any mode of interpretation be made to +mean well. How much he was pleased with his gratuitous defender the +following letter evidently shows:- + + +"April 11, 1739. + +"Sir,--I have just received from Mr. R. two more of your letters. +It is in the greatest hurry imaginable that I write this; but I +cannot help thanking you in particular for your third letter, which +is so extremely clear, short, and full, that I think Mr. Crousaz +ought never to have another answer, and deserved not so good an one. +I can only say, you do him too much honour, and me too much right, +so odd as the expression seems; for you have made my system as clear +as I ought to have done, and could not. It is indeed the same +system as mine, but illustrated with a ray of your own, as they say +our natural body is the same still when it is glorified. I am sure +I like it better than I did before, and so will every man else. I +know I meant just what you explain; but I did not explain my own +meaning so well as you. You understand me as well as I do myself; +but you express me better than I could express myself. Pray accept +the sincerest acknowledgments. I cannot but wish these letters were +put together in one book, and intend (with your leave) to procure a +translation of part at least, or of all of them, into French; but I +shall not proceed a step without your consent and opinion," &c. + + +By this fond and eager acceptance of an exculpatory comment Pope +testified that, whatever might be the seeming or real import of the +principles which he had received from Bolingbroke, he had not +intentionally attacked religion; and Bolingbroke, if he meant to +make him, without his own consent, an instrument of mischief, found +him now engaged, with his eyes open, on the side of truth. It is +known that Bolingbroke concealed from Pope his real opinions. He +once discovered them to Mr. Hooke, who related them again to Pope, +and was told by him that he must have mistaken the meaning of what +he heard: and Bolingbroke, when Pope's uneasiness incited him to +desire an explanation, declared that Hooke had misunderstood him. + +Bolingbroke hated Warburton, who had drawn his pupil from him; and a +little before Pope's death they had a dispute, from which they +parted with mutual aversion. From this time Pope lived in the +closest intimacy with his commentator, and amply rewarded his +kindness and his zeal, for he introduced him to Mr. Murray, by whose +interest he became preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and to Mr. Allen, who +gave him his niece and his estate, and by consequence a bishopric. +When he died, he left him the property of his works, a legacy which +may be reasonably estimated at four thousand pounds. + +Pope's fondness for the "Essay on Man" appeared by his desire of its +propagation. Dobson, who had gained reputation by his version of +Prior's "Solomon," was employed by him to translate it into Latin +verse, and was for that purpose some time at Twickenham; but he left +his work, whatever was the reason, unfinished; and, by Benson's +invitation, undertook the longer task of "Paradise Lost." Pope then +desired his friend to find a scholar who should turn his essay into +Latin prose; but no such performance has ever appeared. + +Pope lived at this time AMONG THE GREAT, with that reception and +respect to which his works entitled him, and which he had not +impaired by any private misconduct or factious partiality. Though +Bolingbroke was his friend, Walpole was not his enemy, but treated +him with so much consideration as, at his request, to solicit and +obtain from the French Minister an abbey for Mr. Southcot, whom he +considered himself as obliged to reward, by his exertion of his +interest, for the benefit which he had received from his attendance +in a long illness. It was said, that when the Court was at +Richmond, Queen Caroline had declared her intention to visit him. +This may have been only a careless effusion, thought on no more. +The report of such notice, however, was soon in many mouths; and, if +I do not forget or misapprehend Savage's account, Pope, pretending +to decline what was not yet offered, left his house for a time, not, +I suppose, for any other reason than lest he should be thought to +stay at home in expectation of an honour which would not be +conferred. He was therefore angry at Swift, who represents him as +"refusing the visits of a queen," because he knew that what had +never been offered had never been refused. + +Beside the general system of morality, supposed to be contained in +the "Essay on Man," it was his intention to write distinct poems +upon the different duties or conditions of life, one of which is the +"Epistle to Lord Bathurst" (1733) on the "Use of Riches," a piece on +which he declared great labour to have been bestowed. Into this +poem some hints are historically thrown, and some known characters +are introduced, with others of which it is difficult to say how far +they are real or fictitious: but the praise of Kryle, the Man of +Ross, deserves particular examination, who, after a long and pompous +enumeration of his public works and private charities, is said to +have diffused all those blessings from five hundred a year. Wonders +are willingly told and willingly heard. The truth is, that Kyrle +was a man of known integrity and active benevolence, by whose +solicitation the wealthy were persuaded to pay contributions to his +charitable schemes. This influence he obtained by an example of +liberality exerted to the utmost extent of his power, and was thus +enabled to give more than he had. This account Mr. Victor received +from the minister of the place, and I have preserved it, that the +praise of a good man, being made more credible, may be more solid. +Narrations of romantic and impracticable virtue will be read with +wonder, but that which is unattainable is recommended in vain; that +good may be endeavoured it must be shown to be possible. This is +the only piece in which the author has given a hint of his religion, +by ridiculing the ceremony of burning the Pope, and by mentioning +with some indignation the inscription on the Monument. + +When this poem was first published, the dialogue having no letters +of direction was perplexed and obscure. Pope seems to have written +with no very distinct idea, for he calls that an "Epistle to +Bathurst," in which Bathurst is introduced as speaking. He +afterwards (1734) inscribed to Lord Cobham his "Characters of Men," +written with close attention to the operations of the mind and +modifications of life. In this poem he has endeavoured to establish +and exemplify his favourite theory of the RULING PASSION, by which +he means an original direction of desire to some particular object, +an innate affection which gives all action a determinate and +invariable tendency, and operates upon the whole system of life, +either openly, cut more secretly by the intervention of some +accidental or subordinate propension. Of any passion, thus innate +and irresistible, the existence may reasonably be doubted. Human +characters are by no means constant; men change by change of place, +of fortune, of acquaintance. He who is at one time a lover of +pleasure, is at another a lover of money. Those, indeed, who attain +any excellence commonly spend life in one pursuit, for excellence is +not often gained upon easier terms. But to the particular species +of excellence men are directed, not by an ascendant planet or +predominating humour, but by the first book which they read, some +early conversation which they heard, or some accident which excited +ardour and emulation. It must at least be allowed that this ruling +passion, antecedent to reason and observation, must have an object +independent on human contrivance, for there can be no natural desire +of artificial good. No man, therefore, can be born, in the strict +acceptation, a lover of money, for he may be born where money does +not exist; nor can he be born in a moral sense a lover of his +country, for society politically regulated is a state +contradistinguished from a state of nature, and any attention to +that coalition of interests which makes the happiness of a country +is possible only to those whom inquiry and reflection have enabled +to comprehend it. This doctrine is in itself pernicious as well as +false; its tendency is to produce the belief of a kind of moral +predestination or over-ruling principle which cannot be resisted. +He that admits it is prepared to comply with every desire that +caprice or opportunity shall excite, and to flatter himself that he +submits only to the lawful dominion of nature in obeying the +resistless authority of his ruling passion. + +Pope has formed his theory with so little skill that in the examples +by which he illustrates and confirms it he has confounded passions, +appetites, and habits. To the "Characters of Men" he added soon +after, in an epistle supposed to have been addressed to Martha +Blount, but which the last edition has taken from her, the +"Characters of Women." This poem, which was laboured with great +diligence and in the author's opinion with great success, was +neglected at its first publication, as the commentator supposes, +because the public was informed by an advertisement that it +contained no character drawn from the life, an assertion which Pope +probably did not expect nor wished to have been believed, and which +he soon gave his readers sufficient reason to distrust, by telling +them in a note that the work was imperfect because part of his +subject was vice too high to be yet exposed. The time, however, +soon came in which it was safe to display the Duchess of Marlborough +under the name of Atossa, and her character was inserted with no +great honour to the writer's gratitude. + +He published from time to time (between 1730 and 1740) imitations of +different poems of Horace, generally with his name, and once, as was +suspected, without it. What he was upon moral principles ashamed to +own he ought to have suppressed. Of these pieces it is useless to +settle the dates, as they had seldom much relation to the times, and +perhaps had been long in his hands. This mode of imitation, in +which the ancients are familiarised by adapting their sentiments to +modern topics, by making Horace say of Shakespeare what he +originally said of Ennius, and accommodating his satires on +Pantolabus and Nomentanus to the flatterers and prodigals of our own +time, was first practised in the reign of Charles the Second, by +Oldham and Rochester, at least I remember no instances more ancient. +It is a kind of middle composition between translation and original +design, which pleases when the thoughts are unexpectedly applicable, +and the parallels lucky. It seems to have been Pope's favourite +amusement, for he has carried it farther than any former poet. He +published likewise a revival, in smoother numbers, of Dr. Donne's +"Satires," which was recommended to him by the Duke of Shrewsbury +and the Earl of Oxford. They made no great impression on the +public. Pope seems to have known their imbecility and therefore +suppressed them while he was yet contending to rise in reputation, +but ventured them when he thought their deficiencies more likely to +be imputed to Donne than to himself. + +The "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot," which seems to be derived in its +first design from Boileau's Address a son Esprit, was published in +January, 1735, about a month before the death of him to whom it is +inscribed. It is to be regretted that either honour or pleasure +should have been missed by Arbuthnot, a man estimable for his +learning, amiable for his life, and venerable for his piety. +Arbuthnot was a man of great comprehension, skilful in his +profession, versed in the sciences, acquainted with ancient +literature, and able to animate his mass of knowledge by a bright +and active imagination; a scholar with great brilliance of wit, a +wit who, in the crowd of life, retained and discovered a noble +ardour of religious zeal. In this poem Pope seems to reckon with +the public. He vindicates himself from censures, and with dignity +rather than arrogance enforces his own claims to kindness and +respect. Into this poem are interwoven several paragraphs which had +been before printed, as a fragment, and among them the satirical +lines upon Addison, of which the last couplet has been twice +corrected. It was at first - + + +"Who would not smile if such a man there be? +Who would not laugh if Addison were he?" + + +Then - + + +"Who would not grieve if such a man there be? +Who would not laugh if Addison were he?" + + +At last it is - + + +"Who but must laugh if such a man there he? +Who would not weep if Atticus were he?" + + +He was at this time at open war with Lord Hervey, who had +distinguished himself as a steady adherent to the ministry, and +being offended with a contemptuous answer to one of his pamphlets, +had summoned Pulteney to a duel. Whether he or Pope made the first +attack perhaps cannot now be easily known. He had written an +invective against Pope, whom he calls, "Hard as thy heart, and as +thy birth obscure;" and hints that his father was a hatter. To this +Pope wrote a reply in verse and prose. The verses are in this poem, +and the prose, though it was never sent, is printed among his +letters; but to a cool reader of the present time exhibits nothing +but tedious malignity. + +His last "Satires" of the general kind, were two Dialogues, named, +from the year in which they were published, "Seventeen hundred and +thirty-eight." In these poems many are praised and many reproached. +Pope was then entangled in the opposition, a follower of the Prince +of Wales, who dined at his house, and the friend of many who +obstructed and censured the conduct of the ministers. His political +partiality was too plainly shown; he forgot the prudence with which +he passed, in his earlier years, uninjured and unoffending, through +much more violent conflicts of faction. In the first Dialogue, +having an opportunity of praising Allen of Bath, he asked his leave +to mention him as a man not illustrious by any merit of his +ancestors, and called him in his verses "low-born Allen." Men are +seldom satisfied with praise introduced or followed by any mention +of defect. Allen seems not to have taken any pleasure in his +epithet, which was afterwards softened into "humble Allen." In the +second Dialogue he took some liberty with one of the Foxes among +others; which Fox in a reply to Lyttelton, took an opportunity of +repaying, by reproaching him with the friendship of a lampooner, who +scattered his ink without fear or decency, and against whom he hoped +the resentment of the Legislature would quickly be discharged. + +About this time Paul Whitehead, a small poet, was summoned before +the Lords for a poem called "Manners," together with Dodsley, his +publisher. Whitehead, who hung loose upon society, skulked and +escaped, but Dodsley's shop and family made his appearance +necessary. He was, however, soon dismissed, and the whole process +was probably intended rather to intimidate Pope than to punish +Whitehead. + +Pope never afterwards attempted to join the patriot with the poet, +nor drew his pen upon statesmen. That he desisted from his attempts +of reformation is imputed by his commentator to his despair of +prevailing over the corruption of the time. He was not likely to +have been ever of opinion that the dread of his satire would +countervail the love of power or of money; he pleased himself with +being important and formidable, and gratified sometimes his pride, +and sometimes his resentment, till at last he began to think he +should be more safe if he were less busy. + +The "Memoirs of Scriblerus," published about this time, extend only +to the first book of a work projected in concert by Pope, Swift, and +Arbuthnot, who used to meet on the time of Queen Anne, and +denominated themselves the "Scriblerus Club." Their purpose was to +censure the abuses of learning by a fictitious life of an infatuated +scholar. They were dispersed; the design was never completed, and +Warburton laments its miscarriage as an event very disastrous to +polite letters. If the whole may be estimated by this specimen, +which seems to be the production of Arbuthnot, with a few touches +perhaps by Pope, the want of more will not be much lamented; for the +follies which the writer ridicules are so little practised that they +are not known; nor can the satire be understood but by the learned. +He raises phantoms of absurdity, and then drives them away. He +cures diseases that were never felt. For this reason this joint +production of three great writers has never obtained any notice from +mankind. It has been little read, or when read has been forgotten, +as no man could be wiser, better, or merrier, by remembering it. +The design cannot boast of much originality; for, besides its +general resemblance to "Don Quixote," there will be found in it +particular imitations of the "History of Mr. Ouffle." + +Swift carried so much of it into Ireland as supplied him with hints +for his "Travels;" and with those the world might have been +contented, though the rest had been suppressed. + +Pope had sought for images and sentiments in a region not known to +have been explored by many other of the English writers. He had +consulted the modern writers of Latin poetry, a class of authors +whom Boileau endeavoured to bring into contempt, and who are too +generally neglected. Pope, however, was not ashamed of their +acquaintance, nor ungrateful for the advantages which he might have +derived from it. A small selection from the Italians, who wrote in +Latin, had been published at London, about the latter end of the +last century, by a man who concealed his name, but whom his preface +shows to have been qualified for his undertaking. This collection +Pope amplified by more than half, and (1740) published it in two +volumes, but injuriously omitted his predecessor's preface. To +these books, which had nothing but the mere text, no regard was +paid; the authors were still neglected, and the editor was neither +praised nor censured. He did not sink into idleness; he had planned +a work, which he considered as subsequent to his "Essay on Man," of +which he has given this account to Dr. Swift:- + + +"March 25, 1736. + +"If ever I write any more Epistles in verse, one of them shall be +addressed to you. I have long concerted it and begun it; but I +would make what bears your name as finished as my last work ought to +be, that is to say, more finished than any of the rest. The subject +is large, and will divide into four Epistles, which naturally follow +the 'Essay on Man,' viz: 1. Of the Extent and Limits of Human +Reason and Science. 2. A view of the useful and therefore +attainable, and of the unuseful and therefore unattainable Arts. 3. +Of the Nature, Ends, Application, and Use, of different Capacities. +4. Of the Use of Learning, of the Science, of the World, and of Wit. +It will conclude with a satire against the misapplication of all +these, exemplified by Pictures, Characters, and Examples." + + +This work in its full extent--being now afflicted with an asthma, +and finding the powers of life gradually declining--he had no longer +courage to undertake; but, from the materials which he had provided, +he added, at Warburton's request, another book to the "Dunciad," of +which the design is to ridicule such studies as are either hopeless +or useless, as either pursue what is unattainable, or what, if it be +attained, is of no use. When this book was printed (1742) the +laurel had been for some time upon the head of Cibber, a man whom it +cannot be supposed that Pope could regard with much kindness or +esteem, though in one of the imitations of Horace he has liberally +enough praised the "Careless Husband." In the "Dunciad," among +other worthless scribblers, he had mentioned Cibber, who, in his +"Apology," complains of the great Poet's unkindness as more +injurious, "because," says he, "I never have offended him." + +It might have been expected that Pope should have been in some +degree mollified by this submissive gentleness, but no such +consequence appeared. Though he condescended to commend Cibber +once, he mentioned him afterwards contemptuously in one of his +satires, and again in his "Epistle to Arbuthnot," and in the fourth +book of the "Dunciad" attacked him with acrimony, to which the +provocation is not easily discoverable. Perhaps he imagined that, +in ridiculing the Laureate, he satirised those by whom the laurel +had been given, and gratified that ambitious petulance with which he +affected to insult the great. The severity of this satire left +Cibber no longer any patience. He had confidence enough in his own +powers to believe that he could disturb the quiet of his adversary, +and doubtless did not want instigators, who, without any care about +the victory, desired to amuse themselves by looking on the contest. +He therefore gave the town a pamphlet, in which he declares his +resolution from that time never to bear another blow without +returning it, and to tire out his adversary by perseverance if he +cannot conquer him by strength. + +The incessant and unappeasable malignity of Pope he imputes to a +very distant cause. After the Three Hours After Marriage had been +driven off the stage, by the offence which the mummy and crocodile +gave the audience, while the exploded scene was yet fresh in memory, +it happened that Cibber played Bayes in the Rehearsal; and, as it +had been usual to enliven the part by the mention of any recent +theatrical transactions, he said, that he once thought to have +introduced his lovers disguised in a mummy and a crocodile. "This," +says he, "was received with loud claps, which indicated contempt for +the play." Pope, who was behind the scenes, meeting him as he left +the stage, attacked him, as he says, with all the virulence of a +"wit out of his senses;" to which he replied, "that he would take no +other notice of what was said by so particular a man, than to +declare, that as often as he played that part he would repeat the +same provocation." He shows his opinion to be that Pope was one of +the authors of the play which he so zealously defended, and adds an +idle story of Pope's behaviour at a tavern. + +The pamphlet was written with little power of thought or language, +and, if suffered to remain without notice, would have been very soon +forgotten. Pope had now been enough acquainted with human life to +know, if his passion had not been too powerful for his +understanding, that, from a contention like his with Cibber, the +world seeks nothing but diversion, which is given at the expense of +the higher character. When Cibber lampooned Pope, curiosity was +excited. What Pope would say of Cibber nobody inquired, but in hope +that Pope's asperity might betray his pain and lessen his dignity. +He should therefore have suffered the pamphlet to flutter and die, +without confessing that it stung him. The dishonour of being shown +as Cibber's antagonist could never be compensated by the victory. +Cibber had nothing to lose. When Pope had exhausted all his +malignity upon him, he would rise in the esteem both of his friends +and his enemies. Silence only could have made him despicable; the +blow which did not appear to be felt would have been struck in vain. +But Pope's irascibility prevailed, and he resolved to tell the whole +English world that he was at war with Cibber; and, to show that he +thought him to common adversary, he prepared no common vengeance. +He published a new edition of the "Dunciad," in which he degraded +Theobald from his painful pre-eminence, and enthroned Cibber in his +stead. Unhappily the two heroes were of opposite characters, and +Pope was unwilling to lose what he had already written. He has +therefore depraved his poem by giving to Cibber the old books, the +old pedantry, and the sluggish pertinacity of Theobald. + +Pope was ignorant enough of his own interest to make another change, +and introduced Osborne contending for a prize among the booksellers. +Osborne was a man entirely destitute of shame, without sense of any +disgrace but that of poverty. He told me, when he was doing that +which raised Pope's resentment, that he should be put into the +"Dunciad;" but he had the fate of Cassandra. I gave no credit to +his prediction, till in time I saw it accomplished. The shafts of +satire were directed equally in vain against Cibber and Osborne; +being repelled by the impenetrable impudence of one, and deadened by +the impassive dulness of the other. Pope confessed his own pain by +his anger; but he gave no pain to those who had provoked him. He +was able to hurt none but himself; by transferring the same ridicule +from one to another, he reduced himself to the insignificance of his +own magpie, who from his cage calls cuckold at a venture. + +Cibber, according to his engagement, repaid the "Dunciad" with +another pamphlet, which, Pope said, "would be as good as a dose of +hartshorn to him;" but his tongue and his heart were at variance. I +have heard Mr. Richardson relate that he attended his father the +painter on a visit, when one of Cibber's pamphlets came into the +hands of Pope, who said, "These things are my diversion." They sat +by him while he perused it, and saw his features writhing with +anguish: and young Richardson said to his father, when they +returned, that he hoped to be preserved from such diversion as had +been that day the lot of Pope. From this time, finding his diseases +more oppressive, and his vital powers gradually declining, he no +longer strained his faculties with any original composition, nor +proposed any other employment for his remaining life than the +revisal and correction of his former works, in which he received +advice and assistance from Warburton, whom he appears to have +trusted and honoured in the highest degree. He laid aside his Epic +Poem, perhaps without much loss to mankind; for his hero was Brutus +the Trojan, who, according to a ridiculous fiction, established a +colony in Britain. The subject, therefore, was of the fabulous age; +the actors were a race upon whom imagination has been exhausted, and +attention wearied, and to whom the mind will not easily be recalled, +when it is invited in blank verse, which Pope had adopted with great +imprudence, and, I think, without due consideration of the nature of +our language. The sketch is, at least in part, preserved by +Ruffhead, by which it appears that Pope was thoughtless enough to +model the names of his heroes with terminations not consistent with +the time or country in which he places them. He lingered through +the next year, but perceived himself, as he expresses it, "going +down the hill." He had for at least five years been afflicted with +an asthma, and other disorders, which his physicians were unable to +relieve. Towards the end of his life he consulted Dr. Thomson, a +man who had, by large promises, and free censures of the common +practice of physic, forced himself up into sudden reputation. +Thomson declared his distemper to be a dropsy, and evacuated part of +the water by tincture of jalap, but confessed that his belly did not +subside. Thomson had many enemies, and Pope was persuaded to +dismiss him. + +While he was yet capable of amusement and conversation, as he was +one day sitting in the air with Lord Bolingbroke and Lord Marchmont, +he saw his favourite Martha Blount at the bottom of the terrace, and +asked Lord Bolingbroke to go and hand her up. Bolingbroke, not +liking his errand, crossed his legs and sat still; but Lord +Marchmont, who was younger and less captious, waited on the lady, +who, when he came to her, asked, "What, is he not dead yet?" She is +said to have neglected him with shameful unkindness, in the latter +time of his decay; yet, of the little which he had to leave she had +a very great part. Their acquaintance began early; the life of each +was pictured on the other's mind; their conversation therefore was +endearing, for when they met, there was an immediate coalition of +congenial notions. Perhaps he considered her unwillingness to +approach the chamber of sickness as female weakness, or human +frailty; perhaps he was conscious to himself of peevishness and +impatience, or, though he was offended by her inattention, might yet +consider her merit as overbalancing her fault; and if he had +suffered his heart to be alienated from her, he could have found +nothing that might fill her place; he could have only shrunk within +himself. It was too late to transfer his confidence or fondness. + +In May, 1744, his death was approaching. On the 6th he was all day +delirious, which he mentioned for days afterwards as a sufficient +humiliation of the vanity of man; he afterwards complained of seeing +things as through a curtain, and in false colours, and one day, its +the presence of Dodsley, asked what arm it was that came from the +wall. He said that his greatest inconvenience was inability to +think. Bolingbroke sometimes wept over him in this state of +helpless decay; and being told by Spence, that Pope, at the +intermission of his deliriousness, was always saying something kind +either of his present or absent friends, and that his humanity +seemed to have survived his understanding, answered, "It has so." +And added, "I never in my life knew a man that had so tender a heart +for his particular friends, or more general friendship for mankind." +At another time he said, "I have known Pope these thirty years, and +value myself more in his friendship than--" His grief then +suppressed his voice. + +Pope expressed undoubting confidence of a future state. Being asked +by his friend Mr. Hooke, a papist, whether he would not die like his +father and mother, and whether a priest should not be called, he +answered, "I do not think it essential, but it will be very right; +and I thank you for putting me in mind of it." In the morning, +after the priest had given him the last sacraments, he said "There +is nothing that is meritorious but virtue and friendship; and indeed +friendship itself is only a part of virtue." He died in the evening +of the 30th day of May 1744, so placidly, that the attendants did +not discern the exact time of his expiration. He was buried at +Twickenham, near his father and mother, where a monument has been +erected to him by his commentator, the Bishop of Gloucester. + +He left the care of his papers to his executors; first to Lord +Bolingbroke, and, if he should not be living, to the Earl of +Marchmont, undoubtedly expecting them to be proud of the trust, and +eager to extend his fame. But let no man dream of influence beyond +his life. After a decent time Dodsley, the bookseller, went to +solicit preference as the publisher, and was told that the parcel +had not been yet inspected; and, whatever was the reason, the world +has been disappointed of what was "reserved for the next age." He +lost, indeed, the favour of Bolingbroke by a kind of posthumous +offence. The political pamphlet called "The Patriot King" had been +put into his hands that he might procure the impression of a very +few copies, to be distributed, according to the author's direction, +among his friends, and Pope assured him that no more had been +printed than were allowed; but, soon after his death, the printer +brought and resigned a complete edition of fifteen hundred copies, +which Pope had ordered him to print and retain in secret. He kept, +as was observed, his engagement to Pope better than Pope had kept it +to his friend; and nothing was known of the transaction till, upon +the death of his employer, he thought himself obliged to deliver the +books to the right owner, who, with great indignation, made a fire +in his yard, and delivered the whole impression to the flames. + +Hitherto nothing had been done which was not naturally dictated by +resentment of violated faith; resentment more acrimonious, as the +violator had been more loved or more trusted. But here the anger +might have stopped; the injury was private, and there was little +danger from the example. Bolingbroke, however, was not yet +satisfied. His thirst of vengeance excited him to blast the memory +of the man over whom he had wept in his last struggles; and he +employed Mallet, another friend of Pope, to tell the tale to the +public, with all its aggravations. Warburton, whose heart was warm +with his legacy and tender by the recent separation, thought it +proper for him to interpose, and undertook, not indeed to vindicate +the action, for breach of trust has always something criminal, but +to extenuate it by an apology. Having advanced what cannot be +denied, that moral obliquity is made more or less excusable by the +motives that produce it, he inquires what evil purpose could have +induced Pope to break his promise. He could not delight his vanity +by usurping the work, which, though not sold in shops, had been +shown to a number more than sufficient to preserve the author's +claim; he could not gratify his avarice, for he could not sell his +plunder till Bolingbroke was dead; and even then, if the copy was +left to another, his fraud would be defeated, and if left to himself +would be useless. + +Warburton therefore supposes, with great appearance of reason, that +the irregularity of his conduct proceeded wholly from his zeal for +Bolingbroke, who might perhaps have destroyed the pamphlet, which +Pope thought it his duty to preserve, even without its author's +approbation. To this apology an answer was written in "A letter to +the most impudent man living." He brought some reproach upon his +own memory by the petulant and contemptuous mention made in his will +of Mr. Allen and an affected repayment of his benefactions. Mrs. +Blount, as the known friend and favourite of Pope, had been invited +to the house of Allen, where she comported herself with such +indecent arrogance that she parted from Mrs. Allen in a state of +irreconcilable dislike, and the door was for ever barred against +her. This exclusion she resented with so much bitterness as to +refuse any legacy from Pope unless he left the world with a +disavowal of obligation to Allen. Having been long under her +dominion, now tottering in the decline of life, and unable to resist +the violence of her temper, or perhaps, with the prejudice of a +lover, persuaded that she had suffered improper treatment, he +complied with her demand, and polluted his will with female +resentment. Allen accepted the legacy, which he gave to the +hospital at Bath, observing that Pope was always a bad accountant, +and that if to 150 pounds he had put a cipher more he had come +nearer to the truth. + +The person of Pope is well known not to have been formed by the +nicest model. He has, in his account of the "Little Club," compared +himself to a spider, and by another is described as protuberant +behind and before. He is said to have been beautiful in his +infancy, but he was of a constitution originally feeble and weak; +and, as bodies of a tender frame are easily distorted, his deformity +was probably in part the effect of his application. His stature was +so low, that to bring him to a level with common tables, it was +necessary to raise his seat. But his face was not displeasing, and +his eyes were animated and vivid. By natural deformity, or +accidental distortion, his vital functions were so much disordered, +that his life was "a long disease." His most frequent assailant was +the headache, which he used to relieve by inhaling the steam of +coffee, which he very frequently required. + +Most of what can be told concerning his petty peculiarities was +communicated by a female domestic of the Earl of Oxford, who knew +him perhaps after the middle of life. He was then so weak as to +stand in perpetual need of female attendance; extremely sensible of +cold, so that he wore a kind of fur doublet, under a shirt of a very +coarse warm linen with fine sleeves. When he rose, he was invested +in bodice made of stiff canvas, being scarcely able to hold himself +erect till they were laced, and he then put on a flannel waistcoat. +One side was contracted. His legs were so slender, that he enlarged +their bulk with three pairs of stockings, which were drawn on and +off by the maid, for he was not able to dress or undress himself, +and neither went to bed nor rose without help. His weakness made it +very difficult for him to be clean. His hair had fallen almost all +away, and he used to dine sometimes with Lord Oxford, privately, in +a velvet cap. His dress of ceremony was black, with a tie-wig, and +a little sword. The indulgence and accommodation which his sickness +required, had taught him all the unpleasing and unsocial qualities +of a valetudinary man. He expected that everything should give way +to his ease or humour, as a child, whose parents will not hear her +cry, has an unresisted dominion in the nursery. + + +"C'est que l'enfant toujours est homme, +C'est que l'homme est toujours enfant." + + +When he wanted to sleep he "nodded in company," and once slumbered +at his own table while the Prince of Wales was talking of poetry. + +The reputation which his friendship gave procured him many +invitations, but he was a very troublesome inmate. He brought no +servant, and had so many wants, that a numerous attendance was +scarcely able to supply them. Wherever he was, he left no room for +another, because he exacted the attention, and employed the activity +of the whole family. His errands were so frequent and frivolous, +that the footmen in time avoided and neglected him, and the Earl of +Oxford discharged some of his servants for their resolute refusal of +his messages. The maids, when they had neglected their business, +alleged that they had been employed by Mr. Pope. One of his +constant demands was of coffee in the night, and to the woman that +waited on him in his chamber he was very burthensome. But he was +careful to recompense her want of sleep, and Lord Oxford's servant +declared, that in the house where her business was to answer his +call, she would not ask for wages. He had another fault, easily +incident to those who, suffering much pain, think themselves +entitled to what pleasures they can snatch. He was too indulgent to +his appetite: he loved meat highly seasoned and of strong taste; +and, at the intervals of the table, amused himself with biscuits and +dry conserves. If he sat down to a variety of dishes, he would +oppress his stomach with repletion; and though he seemed angry when +a dram was offered him, did not forbear to drink it. His friends, +who knew the avenues to his heart, pampered him with presents of +luxury, which he did not suffer to stand neglected. The death of +great men is not always proportioned to the lustre of their lives. +Hannibal, says Juvenal, did not perish by the javelin or the sword, +the slaughters of Cannae were revenged by a ring. The death of Pope +was imputed by some of his friends to a silver saucepan, in which it +was his delight to eat potted lampreys. That he loved too well to +eat is certain; but that his sensuality shortened his life will not +be hastily concluded, when it is remembered that a conformation so +irregular lasted six-and-fifty years, notwithstanding such +pertinacious diligence of study and meditation. In all his +intercourse with mankind he had great delight in artifice, and +endeavoured to attain all his purposes by indirect and unsuspected +methods. "He hardly drank tea without a stratagem." If at the +house of friends he wanted any accommodation, he was not willing to +ask for it in plain terms, but would mention it remotely as +something convenient; though when it was procured, he soon made it +appear for whose sake it had been recommended. Thus he teased Lord +Orrery till he obtained a screen. He practised his arts on such +small occasions, that Lady Bolingbroke used to say, in a French +phrase, that "he played the politician about cabbages and turnips." +His unjustifiable impression of the "Patriot King," as it can be +attributed to no particular motive, must have proceeded from his +general habit of secrecy and cunning; he caught an opportunity of a +sly trick, and pleased himself with the thought of outwitting +Bolingbroke. In familiar or convivial conversation, it does not +appear that he excelled. He may be said to have resembled Dryden, +as being not one that was distinguished by vivacity in company. It +is remarkable that, so near his time, so much should be known of +what he has written, and so little of what he has said: traditional +memory retains no sallies of raillery, nor sentences of observation: +nothing either pointed or solid, either wise or merry. One +apophthegm only stands upon record. When an objection, raised +against his inscription for Shakespeare, was defended by the +authority of Patrick, he replied, horresco referens, that he "would +allow the publisher of a dictionary to know the meaning of a single +word, but not of two words put together." + +He was fretful and easily displeased, and allowed himself to be +capriciously resentful. He would sometimes leave Lord Oxford +silently, no one could tell why, and was to be courted back by more +letters and messages than the footmen were willing to carry. The +table was indeed infested by Lady Mary Wortley, who was the friend +of Lady Oxford, and who, knowing his peevishness, could by no +entreaties be restrained from contradicting him, till their disputes +were sharpened to such asperity, that one or the other quitted the +house. He sometimes condescended to be jocular with servants or +inferiors; but by no merriment, either of others or his own, was he +ever seen excited to laughter. + +Of his domestic character, frugality was a part eminently +remarkable. Having determined not to be dependent, he determined +not to be in want, and therefore wisely and magnanimously rejected +all temptations to expense unsuitable to his fortune. This general +care must be universally approved; but it sometimes appeared in +petty artifices of parsimony, such as the practice of writing his +compositions on the back of letters, as may be seen in the remaining +copy of the "Iliad," by which perhaps in five years five shillings +were saved; or in a niggardly reception of his friends, and +scantiness of entertainment, as, when he had two guests in his +house, he would set at supper a single pint upon the table; and +having himself taken two small glasses, would retire, and say, +"Gentlemen. I leave you to your wine." Yet he tells his friends +that "he has a heart for all, a house for all, and whatever they may +think, a fortune for all." He sometimes, however, made a splendid +dinner, and is said to have wanted no part of the skill or elegance +which such performances require. That this magnificence should be +often displayed, that obstinate prudence with which he conducted his +affairs would not permit; for his revenue, certain and casual, +amounted only to about eight hundred pounds a year, of which, +however, he declares himself able to assign one hundred to charity. +Of this fortune, which, as it arose from public approbation, was +very honourably obtained, his imagination seems to have been too +full: it would be hard to find a man so well entitled to notice by +his wit, that ever delighted so much in talking of his money. In +his Letters and in his poems, his garden and his grotto, his +quincunx and his vines, or some hints of his opulence, are always to +be found. The great topic of his ridicule is poverty; the crimes +with which he reproaches his antagonists are their debts, their +habitation in the Mint, and their want of a dinner. He seems to be +of an opinion not very uncommon in the world, that to want money is +to want everything. Next to the pleasure of contemplating his +possessions, seems to be that of enumerating the men of high rank +with whom he was acquainted, and whose notice he loudly proclaims +not to have been obtained by any practices of meanness or servility; +a boast which was never denied to be true, and to which very few +poets have ever aspired. Pope never set genius to sale; he never +flattered those whom he did not love, nor praised those whom he did +not esteem. Savage, however, remarked that he began a little to +relax his dignity when he wrote a distich for "his Highness's dog." + +His admiration of the great seems to have increased in the advance +of life. He passed over peers and statesmen to inscribe his "Iliad" +to Congreve, with a magnanimity of which the praise had been +complete, had his friend's virtue been equal to his wit. Why he was +chosen for so great an honour, it is not now possible to know; there +is no trace in literary history of any particular intimacy between +them. The name of Congreve appears in the Letters among those of +his other friends, but without any observable distinction or +consequence. To his latter works, however, he took care to annex +names dignified with titles, but was not very happy in his choice; +for, except Lord Bathurst, none of his noble friends were such as +that a good man would wish to have his intimacy with them known to +posterity; he can derive little honour from the notice of Cobham, +Burlington, or Bolingbroke. + +Of his social qualities, if an estimate be made from his Letters, an +opinion too favourable cannot easily be formed; they exhibit a +perpetual and unclouded effulgence of general benevolence, and +particular fondness. There is nothing but liberality, gratitude, +constancy, and tenderness. It has been so long said as to be +commonly believed, that the true characters of men may be found in +their letters, and that he who writes to his friend lays his heart +open before him. But the truth is that such were the simple +friendships of the Golden Age, and are now the friendships only of +children. Very few can boast of hearts which they dare lay open to +themselves, and of which, by whatever accident exposed, they do not +shun a distinct and continued view; and, certainly, who we hide from +ourselves we do not show to our friend. There is, indeed, no +transaction which offers strange temptations to fallacy and +sophistication than epistolary intercourse. In the eagerness of +conversation the first emotions of the mind often burst out before +they are considered; in the tumult of business, interest and passion +have their genuine effect; but a friendly letter is a calm and +deliberate performance in the cool of leisure, in the stillness of +solitude, and surely no man sits down to depreciate by design his +own character. + +Friendship has no tendency to secure veracity; for by whom can a man +so much wish to be thought better than he is, as by him whose +kindness he desires to gain or keep? Even in writing to the world +there is less constraint; the author is not confronted with his +reader, and takes his chance of approbation among the different +dispositions of mankind; but a letter is addressed to a single mind, +of which the prejudices and partialities are known; and must +therefore please, if not by favouring them, by forbearing to oppose +them. To charge those favourable representations, which men give of +their own minds, with the guilt of hypocritical falsehood, would +show more severity than knowledge. The writer commonly believes +himself. Almost every man's thoughts, while they are general, are +right; and most hearts are pure while temptation is away. It is +easy to awaken generous sentiments in privacy; to despise death when +there is no danger; to glow with benevolence when there is nothing +to be given. While such ideas are formed they are felt; and self- +love does not suspect the gleam of virtue to be the meteor of fancy. + +If the Letters of Pope are considered merely as compositions, they +seem to be premeditated and artificial. It is one thing to write +because there is something which the mind wishes to discharge, and +another to solicit the imagination because ceremony or vanity +requires something to be written. Pope confesses his early Letters +to be vitiated with AFFECTATION AND AMBITION: to know whether he +disentangled himself from these perverters of epistolary integrity, +his book and his life must be set in comparison. One of his +favourite topics is contempt of his own poetry. For this, if it had +been real, he would deserve no commendation; and in this he was +certainly not sincere, for his high value of himself was +sufficiently observed; and of what could he be proud but of his +poetry? He writes, he says, when "he has just nothing else to do;" +yet Swift complains that he was never at leisure for conversation, +because he "had always some poetical scheme in his head." It was +punctually required that his writing-box should be set upon his bed +before he rose; and Lord Oxford's domestic related that, in the +dreadful winter of Forty, she was called from her bed by him four +times in one night, to supply him with paper, lest he should lose a +thought. He pretends insensibility to censure and criticism, though +it was observed by all who knew him that every pamphlet disturbed +his quiet, and that his extreme irritability laid him open to +perpetual vexation; but he wished to despise his critics, and +therefore hoped that he did despise them. As he happened to live in +two reigns when the court paid little attention to poetry, he nursed +in his mind a foolish disesteem of kings, and proclaims that "he +never sees courts." Yet a little regard shown him by the Prince of +Wales melted his obduracy; and he had not much to say when he was +asked by his Royal Highness, "How he could love a prince while he +disliked kings?" + +He very frequently professes contempt of the world, and represents +himself as looking on mankind, sometimes with gay indifference, as +on emmets of a hillock, below his serious attention; and sometimes +with gloomy indignation, as on monsters more worthy of hatred than +pity. These were dispositions apparently counterfeited. How could +he despise those whom he lived by pleasing, and on whose approbation +his esteem of himself was superstructed? Why should he hate those +to whose favour he owed his honour and his ease? Of things that +terminate in human life, the world is the proper judge: to despise +its sentence, if it were possible, is not just; and if it were just, +is not possible. Pope was far enough from this unreasonable temper; +he was sufficiently A FOOL TO FAME, and his fault was that he +pretended to neglect it. His levity and his sullenness were only in +his letters; he passed through common life, sometimes vexed, and +sometimes pleased, with the natural emotions of common men. His +scorn of the great is repeated too often to be real; no man thinks +much of that which he despises; and as falsehood is always in danger +of inconsistency, he makes it his boast at another time that he +lives among them. It is evident that his own importance swells +often in his mind. He is afraid of writing, lest the clerks of the +post-office should know his secrets; he has many enemies; he +considers himself as surrounded by universal jealousy: "After many +deaths, and many dispersions, two or three of us," says he, "may +still be brought together, not to plot, but to divert ourselves, and +the world too, if it pleases;" and they can live together, and "show +what friends wits may be, in spite of all the fools in the world." +All this while it was likely that the clerks did not know his hand; +he certainly had no more enemies than a public character like his +inevitably excites; and with what degree of friendship the wits +might live, very few were so much fools as ever to inquire. Some +part of this pretended discontent he learned from Swift, and +expresses it, I think, most frequently in his correspondence with +him. Swift's resentment was unreasonable, but it was sincere; +Pope's was the mere mimicry of his friend, a fictitious part which +he began to play before it became him. When he was only twenty-five +years old, he related that "a glut of study and retirement had +thrown him on the world," and that there was danger lest "a glut of +the world should throw him back upon study and retirement." To this +Swift answered with great propriety, that Pope had not yet acted or +suffered enough in the world to have become weary of it. And, +indeed, it must have been some very powerful reason that can drive +back to solitude him who has once enjoyed the pleasures of society. + +In the Letters both of Swift and Pope there appears such narrowness +of mind as makes them insensible of any excellence that has not some +affinity with their own, and confines their esteem and approbation +to so small a number, that whoever should form his opinion of their +age from their representation, would suppose them to have lived +amidst ignorance and barbarity, unable to find among their +contemporaries either virtue or intelligence, and persecuted by +those that could not understand them. + +When Pope murmurs at the world, when he professes contempt of fame, +when he speaks of riches and poverty, of success and disappointment, +with negligent indifference, he certainly does not express his +habitual and settled resentments, but either wilfully disguises his +own character, or, what is more likely, invests himself with +temporary qualities, and sallies out in the colours of the present +moment. His hopes and fears, his joys and sorrows, acted strongly +upon his mind, and if he differed from others it was not by +carelessness; he was irritable and resentful; his malignity to +Philips, whom he had first made ridiculous and then hated for being +angry continued too long. Of his vain desire to make Bentley +contemptible I never heard any adequate reason. He was sometimes +wanton in his attacks, and before Chandos, Lady Wortley, and Hill, +was mean in his retreat. The virtues which seem to have had most of +his affection were liberality and fidelity of friendship, in which +it does not appear that he was other than he describes himself. His +fortune did not suffer his character to be splendid and conspicuous, +but he assisted Dodsley with a hundred pounds that he might open a +shop, and of the subscription of forty pounds a year that he raised +for Savage twenty were paid by himself. He was accused of loving +money, but his love was eagerness to gain, not solicitude to keep +it. In the duties of friendship he was zealous and constant; his +early maturity of mind commonly united him with men older than +himself, and therefore, without attaining any considerable length of +life, he saw many companions of his youth sink into the grave; but +it does not appear that he lost a single friend by coldness or by +injury; those who loved him once continued their kindness. His +ungrateful mention of Allen in his will was the effect of his +adherence to one whom he had known much longer, and whom he +naturally loved with greater fondness. His violation of the trust +reposed in him by Bolingbroke could have no motive inconsistent with +the warmest affection; he either thought the action so near to +indifferent that he forgot it, or so laudable that he expected his +friend to approve it. It was reported with such confidence as +almost to enforce belief, that in the papers entrusted to his +executors was found a defamatory Life of Swift, which he had +prepared as an instrument of vengeance, to be used if any +provocation should be ever given. About this I inquired of the Earl +of Marchmont, who assured me that no such piece was among his +remains. + +The religion in which he lived and died was that of the Church of +Rome, to which, in his correspondence with Racine, he professes +himself a sincere adherent. That he was not scrupulously pious in +some part of his life is known by many idle and indecent +applications of sentences taken from the Scriptures, a mode of +merriment which a good man dreads for its profaneness, and a witty +man disdains for its easiness and vulgarity. But to whatever +levities he has been betrayed, it does not appear that his +principles were ever corrupted, or that he ever lost his belief of +revelation. The positions which he transmitted from Bolingbroke he +seems not to have understood, and was pleased with an interpretation +that made them orthodox. + +A man of such exalted superiority and so little moderation would +naturally have all his delinquencies observed and aggravated; those +who could not deny that he was excellent would rejoice to find that +he was not perfect. Perhaps it may be imputed to the unwillingness +with which the same man is allowed to possess many advantages, that +his learning has been depreciated. He certainly was in his early +life a man of great literary curiosity, and when he wrote his "Essay +on Criticism," had, for his age, a very wide acquaintance with +books. When he entered into the living world it seems to have +happened to him, as to many others, that he was less attentive to +dead masters; he studied in the academy of Paracelsus, and made the +universe his favourite volume. He gathered his notions fresh from +reality, not from the copies of authors, but the originals of +Nature. Yet there is no reason to believe that literature ever lost +his esteem; he always professed to love reading, and Dobson, who +spent some time at his house translating his "Essay on Man," when I +asked him what learning he found him to possess, answered, "More +than I expected." His frequent references to history, his allusions +to various kinds of knowledge, and his images selected from art and +nature, with his observations on the operations of the mind and the +modes of life, show an intelligence perpetually on the wing, +excursive, vigorous, and diligent, eager to pursue knowledge, and +attentive to retain it. From this curiosity arose the desire of +travelling, to which he alludes in his verses to Jervas, and which, +though he never found an opportunity to gratify it, did not leave +him till his life declined. + +Of his intellectual character, the constituent and fundamental +principle was good sense, a prompt and intuitive perception of +consonance and propriety. He saw immediately of his own conceptions +what was to be chosen and what to be rejected, and, in the works of +others, what was to be shunned and what was to be copied. But good +sense alone is a sedate and quiescent quality, which manages its +possessions well, but does not increase them; it collects few +materials for its own operations, and preserves safety, but never +gains supremacy. Pope had likewise genius; a mind active, +ambitious, and adventurous, always investigating, always aspiring; +in its widest searches still longing to go forward, in its highest +flights still wishing to be higher, always imagining some thing +greater than it knows, always endeavouring more than it can do. To +assist these powers he is said to have had great strength and +exactness of memory. That which he had heard or read was not easily +lost, and he had before him not only what his own meditations +suggested, but what he had found in other writers that might be +accommodated to his present purpose. These benefits of Nature he +improved by incessant and unwearied diligence; he had recourse to +every source of intelligence, and lost no opportunity of +information; he consulted the living as well as the dead; he read +his compositions to his friends, and was never content with +mediocrity when excellence could be attained. He considered poetry +as the business of his life, and however he might seem to lament his +occupation he followed it with constancy; to make verses was his +first labour, and to mend them was his last. From his attention to +poetry he was never diverted. If conversation offered anything that +could be improved, he committed it to paper; if a thought, or +perhaps an expression, more happy than was common, rose to his mind, +he was careful to write it; an independent distich was preserved for +an opportunity of insertion, and some little fragments have been +found containing lines, or parts of lines, to be wrought upon at +some other time. He was one of those few whose labour is their +pleasure; he was never elevated to negligence nor wearied to +impatience; he never passed a fault unamended by indifference, nor +quitted it by despair. He laboured his works first to gain +reputation, and afterwards to keep it. + +Of composition there are different methods. Some employ at once +memory and invention, and, with little intermediate use of the pen, +form and polish large masses by continued meditation, and write +their productions only when, in their own opinion, they have +completed them. It is related of Virgil that his custom was to pour +out a great number of verses in the morning, and pass the day in +retrenching exuberances and correcting inaccuracies. The method of +Pope, as may be collected from his translation, was to write his +first thoughts in his first words, and gradually to amplify, +decorate, rectify, and refine them. With such faculties and such +dispositions he excelled every other writer in poetical prudence; he +wrote in such a manner as might expose him to few hazards. He used +almost always the same fabric of verse, and, indeed, by those few +essays which he made of any other, he did not enlarge his +reputation. Of this uniformity the certain consequence was +readiness and dexterity. By perpetual practice language had, in his +mind, a systematical arrangement; having always the same use for +words, he had words so selected and combined as to be ready at his +call. This increase of facility he confessed himself to have +perceived in the progress of his translation. But what was yet of +more importance, his effusions were always voluntary, and his +subjects chosen by himself. His independence secured him from +drudging at a task, and labouring upon a barren topic; he never +exchanged praise for money, nor opened a shop of condolence or +congratulation. His poems, therefore, were scarcely ever temporary. +He suffered coronations and royal marriages to pass without a song, +and derived no opportunities from recent events, nor any popularity +from the accidental disposition of his readers. He was never +reduced to the necessity of soliciting the sun to shine upon a +birthday, of calling the graces and virtues to a wedding, or of +saying what multitudes have said before him. When he could produce +nothing new he was at liberty to be silent. + +His publications were for the same reason never hasty. He is said +to have sent nothing to the press till it had lain two years under +his inspection: it is at least certain that he ventured nothing +without nice examination. He suffered the tumult of imagination to +subside, and the novelties of invention to grow familiar. He knew +that the mind is always enamoured of its own productions, and did +not trust his first fondness. He consulted his friends, and +listened with great willingness to criticism; and, what was of more +importance, he consulted himself, and let nothing pass against his +own judgment. He professed to have learned his poetry from Dryden, +whom, whenever an opportunity was presented, he praised through his +whole life with unvaried liberality; and perhaps his character may +receive some illustration if he be compared with his master. + +Integrity of understanding and nicety of discernment were not +allotted in a less proportion to Dryden than to Pope. The rectitude +of Dryden's mind was sufficiently shown by the dismission of his +poetical prejudices, and the rejection of unnatural thoughts and +rugged numbers. But Dryden never desired to apply all the judgment +that he had. He wrote, and professed to write, merely for the +people; and when he pleased others, he contented himself. He spent +no time in struggles to rouse latent powers; he never attempted to +make that better which was already good, nor often to mend what he +must have known to be faulty. He wrote, as he tells us, with very +little consideration; when occasion or necessity called upon him, he +poured out what the present moment happened to supply, and, when +once it had passed the press, ejected it from his mind; for, when he +had no pecuniary interest, he had no further solicitude. + +Pope was not content to satisfy; he desired to excel, and therefore +always endeavoured to do his best; he did not court the candour, but +dared the judgment of his reader, and, expecting no indulgence from +others, he showed none to himself. He examined lines and words with +minute and punctilious observation, and retouched every part with +indefatigable diligence, till he had left nothing to be forgiven. +For this reason he kept his pieces very long in his hands, while he +considered and reconsidered them. The only poems which can be +supposed to have been written with such regard to the times as might +hasten their publication, were the two satires of "Thirty-eight;" of +which Dodsley told me that they were brought to him by the author, +that they might be fairly copied. "Almost every line," he said, +"was then written twice over; I gave him a clean transcript, which +he sent some time afterwards to me for the press, with almost every +line written twice over a second time." His declaration, that his +care for his works ceased at their publication, was not strictly +true. His parental attention never abandoned them; what he found +amiss in the first edition, he silently corrected in those that +followed. He appears to have revised the "Iliad," and freed it from +some of its imperfections; and the "Essay on Criticism" received +many improvements after its first appearance. It will seldom be +found that he altered without adding clearness, elegance, or vigour. +Pope had perhaps the judgment of Dryden; but Dryden certainly wanted +the diligence of Pope. + +In acquired knowledge, the superiority must be allowed to Dryden, +whose education was more scholastic, and who before he became an +author had been allowed more time for study, with better means of +information. His mind has a larger range, and he collects his +images and illustrations from a more extensive circumference of +science. Dryden knew more of man in his general nature, and Pope in +his local manners. The notions of Dryden were formed by +comprehensive speculation, and those of Pope by minute attention. +There is more dignity in the knowledge of Dryden, and more certainty +in that of Pope. Poetry was not the sole praise of either; for both +excelled likewise in prose; but Pope did not borrow his prose from +his predecessor. The style of Dryden is capricious and varied; that +of Pope is cautious and uniform. Dryden observes the motions of his +own mind; Pope constrains his mind to his own rules of composition. +Dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid; Pope is always smooth, +uniform, and gentle. Dryden's page is a natural field, rising into +inequalities, and diversified by the varied exuberance of abundant +vegetation; Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe, and +levelled by the roller. + +Of genius, that power which constitutes a poet; that quality without +which judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert; that energy which +collects, combines, amplifies, and animates; the superiority must, +with some hesitation, be allowed to Dryden. It is not to be +inferred that of this poetical vigour Pope had only a little, +because Dryden had more; for every other writer since Milton must +give place to Pope; and even of Dryden it must be said that, if he +has brighter paragraphs, he has not better poems. Dryden's +performances were always hasty, either excited by some external +occasion, or extorted by domestic necessity; he composed without +consideration, and published without correction. What his mind +could supply at call, or gather in one excursion, was all that he +sought, and all that he gave. The dilatory caution of Pope enabled +him to condense his sentiments, to multiply his images, and to +accumulate all that study might produce or chance might supply. If +the flights of Dryden therefore are higher, Pope continues longer on +the wing. If of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the +heat is more regular and constant. Dryden often surpasses +expectation, and Pope never falls below it. Dryden is read with +frequent astonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight. This +parallel will, I hope, when it is well considered, be found just; +and if the reader should suspect me, as I suspect myself, of some +partial fondness for the memory of Dryden, let him not too hastily +condemn me; for meditation and inquiry may, perhaps, show him the +reasonableness of my determination. + +The Works of Pope are now to be distinctly examined, not so much +with attention to slight faults or petty beauties, as to the general +character and effect of each performance. + +It seems natural for a young poet to initiate himself by pastorals, +which, not professing to imitate real life, require no experience; +and, exhibiting only the simple operation of unmingled passions, +admit no subtle reasoning or deep inquiry. Pope's pastorals are +not, however, composed but with close thought; they have reference +to the times of the day, the seasons of the year, and the periods of +human life. The last, that which turns the attention upon age and +death, was the author's favourite. To tell of disappointment and +misery, to thicken the darkness of futurity and perplex the +labyrinth of uncertainty, has been always a delicious employment of +the poets. His preference was probably just. I wish, however, that +his fondness had not overlooked a line in which the Zephyrs are made +to lament in silence. To charge these pastorals with wane of +invention, is to require what was never intended. The imitations +are so ambitiously frequent, that the writer evidently means rather +to show his literature than his wit. It is surely sufficient for an +author of sixteen, not only to be able to copy the poems of +antiquity with judicious selection, but to have obtained sufficient +power of language, and skill in metre, to exhibit a series of +versification which had in English poetry no precedent, nor has +since had an imitation. + +The design of "Windsor Forest" is evidently derived from "Cooper's +Hill," with some attention to Waller's poem on "The Park;" but Pope +cannot be denied to excel his masters in variety and elegance, and +the art of interchanging description, narrative, and morality. The +objection made by Dennis is the want of plan, of a regular +subordination of parts terminating in the principal and original +design. There is this want in most descriptive poems, because as +the scenes, which they must exhibit successively, are all subsisting +at the same time, the order in which they are shown must by +necessity be arbitrary, and more is not to be expected from the last +part than from the first. The attention, therefore, which cannot be +detained by suspense, must be excited by diversity, such as this +poem offers to its reader. But the desire of diversity may be too +much indulged; the parts of "Windsor Forest" which deserve least +praise are those which were added to enliven the stillness of the +scene--the appearance of Father Thames, and the transformation of +Lodona. Addison had in his "Campaign" derided the rivers that "rise +from their oozy beds" to tell stories of heroes; and it is therefore +strange that Pope should adopt a fiction not only unnatural, but +lately censured. The story of Lodona is told with sweetness; but a +new metamorphosis is a ready and puerile expedient; nothing is +easier than to tell how a flower was once a blooming virgin, or a +rock an obdurate tyrant. + +The "Temple of Fame" has, as Steele warmly declared, a "thousand +beauties." Every part is splendid; there is great luxuriance of +ornaments; the original vision of Chaucer was never denied to be +much improved; the allegory is very skilfully continued, the imagery +is properly selected, and learnedly displayed; yet, with all this +comprehension of excellence, as its scene is laid in remote ages, +and its sentiments, if the concluding paragraph be excepted, have +little relation to general manners or common life, it never obtained +much notice, but is turned silently over, and seldom quoted or +mentioned with either praise or blame. + +That the "Messiah" excels the "Pollio" is no great praise, if it be +considered from what original the improvements are derived. + +The "Verses on the Unfortunate Lady" have drawn much attention by +the illaudable singularity of treating suicide with respect; and +they must be allowed to be written in some parts with vigorous +animation, and in others with gentle tenderness; nor has Pope +produced any poem in which the sense predominates more over the +diction. But the tale is not skilfully told; it is not easy to +discover the character of either the lady or her guardian. History +relates that she was about to disparage herself by a marriage with +an inferior; Pope praises her for the dignity of ambition, and yet +condemns the uncle to detestation for his pride; the ambitious love +of a niece may be opposed by the interest, malice, or envy of an +uncle, but never by his pride. On such an occasion a poet may be +allowed to be obscure, but inconsistency never can be right. + +The "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day" was undertaken at the desire of +Steele: in this the author is generally confessed to have +miscarried, yet he has miscarried only as compared with Dryden; for +he has far outgone other competitors. Dryden's plan is better +chosen; history will always take stronger hold of the attention than +fable: the passions excited by Dryden are the pleasures and pains +of real life, the scene of Pope is laid in imaginary existence; Pope +is read with calm acquiescence, Dryden with turbulent delight; Pope +hangs upon the ear, and Dryden finds the passes of the mind. Both +the odes want the essential constituent of metrical compositions, +the stated recurrence of settled numbers. It may be alleged that +Pindar is said by Horace to have written numeris lege solutis; but +as no such lax performances have been transmitted to us, the meaning +of that expression cannot be fixed; and perhaps the like return +might properly be made to a modern Pindarist as Mr. Cobb received +from Bentley, who, when he found his criticisms upon a Greek +exercise, which Cobb had presented, refuted one after another by +Pindar's authority, cried out at last, "Pindar was a bold fellow, +but thou art an impudent one." + +If Pope's ode be particularly inspected, it will be found that the +first stanza consists of sounds well chosen indeed, but only sounds. +The second consists of hyperbolical commonplaces, easily to be +found, and perhaps without much difficulty to be as well expressed. +In the third, however, there are numbers, images, harmony, and +rigour, not unworthy the antagonist of Dryden. Had all been like +this--but every part cannot be the best. The next stanzas place and +detain us in the dark and dismal regions of mythology, where neither +hope nor fear, neither joy nor sorrow can be found: the poet, +however, faithfully attends us; we have all that can be performed by +elegance of diction or sweetness of versification; but what can form +avail without better matter? The last stanza recurs again to +commonplaces. The conclusion is too evidently modelled by that of +Dryden; and it may be remarked that both end with the same fault; +the comparison of each is literal on one side and metaphorical on +the other. Poets do not always express their own thoughts: Pope, +with all this labour in the praise of music, was ignorant of its +principles and insensible of its effects. + +One of his greatest, though of his earliest works, is the "Essay on +Criticism," which, if he had written nothing else, would have placed +him among the first critics and the first poets, as it exhibits +every mode of excellence that can embellish or dignify didactic +composition, selection of matter, novelty of arrangement, justness +of precept, splendour of illustration, and propriety of digression. +I know not whether it be pleasing to consider that he produced this +piece at twenty, and never afterwards excelled it: he that delights +himself with observing that such powers may be soon attained, cannot +but grieve to think that life was ever after at a stand. + +To mention the particular beauties of the essay would be +unprofitably tedious: but I cannot forbear to observe that the +comparison of a student's progress in the sciences with the journey +of a traveller in the Alps is perhaps the best that English poetry +can show. A simile, to be perfect, must both illustrate and ennoble +the subject; must show it to the understanding in a clearer view, +and display it to the fancy with greater dignity; but either of +these qualities may be sufficient to recommend it. In didactic +poetry, of which the great purpose is instruction, a simile may be +praised which illustrates, though it does not ennoble; in heroics, +that may be admitted which ennobles, though it does not illustrate. +That it may be complete, it is required to exhibit, independently of +its references, a pleasing image; for a simile is said to be a short +episode. To this antiquity was so attentive, that circumstances +were sometimes added, which, having no parallels, served only to +fill the imagination, and produced what Perrault ludicrously called +"comparisons with a long tail." In their similes the greatest +writers have sometimes failed; the ship-race, compared with the +chariot-race, is neither illustrated nor aggrandised; land and water +make all the difference: when Apollo, running after Daphne, is +likened to a greyhound chasing a hare, there is nothing gained; the +ideas of pursuit and flight are too plain to be made plainer; and a +god and the daughter of a god are not represented much to their +advantage by a hare and dog. The simile of the Alps has no useless +parts, yet affords a striking picture by itself; it makes the +foregoing position better understood, and enables it to take faster +hold on the attention; it assists the apprehension and elevates the +fancy. Let me likewise dwell a little on the celebrated paragraph +in which it is directed that "the sound should seem an echo to the +sense;" a precept which Pope is allowed to have observed beyond any +other English poet. + +This notion of representative metre, and the desire of discovering +frequent adaptations of the sound to the sense, have produced, in my +opinion, many wild conceits and imaginary beauties. All that can +furnish this representation are the sounds of the words considered +singly and the time in which they are pronounced. Every language +has some words framed to exhibit the noises which they express, as +THUMP, RATTLE, GROWL, HISS. These, however, are but few, and the +poet cannot make them more, nor can they be of any use but when +sound is to be mentioned. The time of pronunciation was in the +dactylic measures of the learned languages capable of considerable +variety; but that variety could be accommodated only to motion or +duration, and different degrees of motion were perhaps expressed by +verses rapid or slow, without much attention of the writer, when the +image had full possession of his fancy: but our language having +little flexibility, our verses can differ very little in their +cadence. The fancied resemblances, I fear, arise sometimes merely +from the ambiguity of words; there is supposed to be some relation +between a SOFT line and SOFT couch, or between HEARD syllables and +HARD fortune. Motion, however, may be in some sort exemplified; and +yet it may be suspected that in such resemblances the mind often +governs the ear, and the sounds are estimated by their meaning. One +of their most successful attempts has been to describe the labour of +Sisyphus:- + + +"With many a weary step, and many a groan, +Up a high hill he heaves a huge round stone; +The huge round stone, resulting with a bound, +Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground." + + +Who does not perceive the stone to move slowly upward, and roll +violently back? But set the same numbers to another sense:- + + +"While many a merry tale, and many a song, +Cheered the rough road, we wished the rough road long. +The rough road, then, returning in a round, +Mocked our impatient steps, for all was fairy ground." + + +We have now surely lost much of the delay and much of the rapidity. +But, to show how little the greatest master of numbers can fix the +principles of representative harmony, it will be sufficient to +remark that the poet who tells us that - + + +"When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, +The line too labours, and the words move slow: +Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, +Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main;" + + +when he had enjoyed for about thirty years the praise of Camilla's +lightness of foot, he tried another experiment upon SOUND and TIME, +and produced this memorable triplet:- + + +"Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join +The varying verse, the full resounding line, +The long majestic march, and energy divine." + + +Here are the swiftness of the rapid race, and the march of slow- +paced majesty, exhibited by the same poet in the same sequence of +syllables, except that the exact prosodist will find the line of +SWIFTNESS by one time longer than that of TARDINESS. Beauties of +this kind are commonly fancied, and, when real, are technical and +nugatory, not to he rejected and not to be solicited. + +To the praises which have been accumulated on the "Rape of the Look" +by readers of every class, from the critic to the waiting-maid, it +is difficult to make any addition. Of that which is universally +allowed to be the most attractive of all ludicrous compositions, let +it rather be now inquired from what sources the power of pleasing is +derived. + +Dr. Warburton, who excelled in critical perspicacity, has remarked +that the preternatural agents are very happily adapted to the +purposes of the poem. The heathen deities can no longer gain +attention; we should have turned away from a contest between Venus +and Diana. The employment of allegorical persons always excites +conviction of its own absurdity; they may produce effects, but +cannot conduct actions; when the phantom is put in motion it +dissolves; thus Discord may raise a mutiny, but Discord cannot +conduct a march nor besiege a town. Pope brought in view a new race +of beings, with powers and passions proportionate to their +operation. The Sylphs and Gnomes act at the toilet and the tea- +table what more terrific and more powerful phantoms perform on the +stormy ocean or the field of battle: they give their proper help +and do their proper mischief. Pope is said, by an objector, not to +have been the inventor of this petty notion, a charge which might +with more justice have been brought against the author of the +"Iliad," who doubtless adopted the religious system of his country; +for what is there but the names of his agents which Pope has not +invented? Has he not assigned them characters and operations never +heard of before? Has he not, at least, given them their first +poetical existence? If this is not sufficient to denominate his +work original, nothing original ever can be written. + +In this work are exhibited in a very high degree the two most +engaging powers of an author. New things are made familiar, and +familiar things are made new. A race of aerial people never heard +of before is presented to us in a manner so clear and easy that the +reader seeks for no further information, but immediately mingles +with his new acquaintance, adopts their interests, and attends their +pursuits, loves a Sylph, and detests a Gnome. That familiar things +are made new every paragraph will prove. The subject of the poem is +an event below the common incidents of common life; nothing real is +introduced that is not seen so often as to be no longer regarded; +yet the whole detail of a female day is here brought before us, +invested with so much art of decoration that, though nothing is +disguised, everything is striking, and we feel all the appetite of +curiosity for that from which we have a thousand times turned +fastidiously away. + +The purpose of the poet is, as he tells us, to laugh at "the little +unguarded follies of the female sex." It is therefore without +justice that Dennis charges the "Rape of the Lock" with the want of +a moral, and for that reason sets it below the "Lutrin," which +exposes the pride and discord of the clergy. Perhaps neither Pope +nor Boileau has made the world much better than he found it; but if +they had both succeeded, it were easy to tell who would have +deserved most from public gratitude. The freaks, and humours, and +spleen, and vanity of women as they embroil families in discord, and +fill houses with disquiet, do more to obstruct the happiness of life +in a year than the ambition of the clergy in many centuries. It has +been well observed that the misery of man proceeds not from any +single crush of overwhelming evil, but from small vexatious +continually repeated. It is remarked by Dennis, likewise, that the +machinery is superfluous; that, by all the bustle of preternatural +operation, the main event is neither hastened nor retarded. To this +charge an efficacious answer is not easily made. The Sylphs cannot +be said to help or oppose; and it must be allowed to imply some want +of art that their power has not been sufficiently intermingled with +the action. Other parts may likewise be charged with want of +connection--the game at ombre might be spared; but if the lady had +lost her hair while she was intent upon her cards it might have been +inferred that those who are too fond of play will be in danger of +neglecting more important interests. Those, perhaps, are faults, +but what are such faults to so much excellence! + +The Epistle of "Eloise to Abelard" is one of the most happy +productions of human wit; the subject is so judiciously chosen that +it would be difficult in turning over the annals of the world to +find another which so many circumstances concur to recommend. We +regularly interest ourselves most in the fortune of those who most +deserve our notice. Abelard and Eloise were conspicuous in their +days for eminence of merit. The heart naturally loves truth. The +adventures and misfortunes of this illustrious pair are known from +undisputed history. Their fate does not leave the mind in hopeless +dejection, for they both found quiet and consolation in retirement +and piety. So new and so affecting is their story that it +supersedes invention, and imagination ranges at full liberty without +straggling into scenes of fable. The story thus skilfully adopted +has been diligently improved. Pope has left nothing behind him +which seems more the effect of studious perseverance and laborious +revisal. Here is particularly observable the curiosa felicitas, a +fruitful soil and careful cultivation. Here is no crudeness of +sense nor asperity of language. The sources from which sentiments +which have so much vigour and efficacy have been drawn are shown to +be the mystic writers by the learned author of the "Essays on the +Life and Writings of Pope," a book which teaches how the brow of +Criticism may be smoothed, and how she may be enabled, with all her +severity, to attract and to delight. + +The train of my disquisition has now conducted me to that poetical +wonder, the translation of the "Iliad," a performance which no age +or nation can pretend to equal. To the Greeks translation was +almost unknown; it was totally unknown to the inhabitants of Greece. +They had no recourse to the barbarians for poetical beauties, but +sought for everything in Homer, where, indeed, there is but little +which they might not find. The Italians have been very diligent +translators, but I can hear of no version, unless, perhaps, +Anguillara's "Ovid" may be excepted, which is read with eagerness. +The "Iliad" of Salvini every reader may discover to be punctiliously +exact; but it seems to be the work of a linguist skilfully pedantic; +and his countrymen, the proper judges of its power to please, reject +it with disgust. Their predecessors, the Romans, have left some +specimens of translation behind them, and that employment must have +had some credit in which Tully and Germanicus engaged; but unless we +suppose, what is perhaps true, that the plays of Terence were +versions of Menander, nothing translated seems ever to have risen to +high reputation. The French in the meridian hour of their learning +were very laudably industrious to enrich their own language with the +wisdom of the ancients; but found themselves reduced by whatever +necessity to turn the Greek and Roman poetry into prose. Whoever +could read an author could translate him. From such rivals little +can be feared. + +The chief help of Pope in this audacious undertaking was drawn from +the versions of Dryden. Virgil had borrowed much of his imagery +from Homer; and part of the debt was now paid by his translator. +Pope searched the pages of Dryden for happy combinations of heroic +diction, but it will not be denied that he added much to what he +found. He cultivated our language with so much diligence and art, +that he has left in his "Homer" a treasure of poetical elegances to +posterity. His version may be said to have tuned the English +tongue; for since its appearance no writer, however deficient in +other powers, has wanted melody. Such a series of lines, so +elaborately corrected, and so sweetly modulated, took possession of +the public ear; the vulgar was enamoured of the poem, and the +learned wondered at the translation. But in the most general +applause discordant voices will always be heard. It has been +objected by some who wish to be numbered among the sons of learning +that Pope's version of Homer is not Homerical; that it exhibits no +resemblance of the original and characteristic manner of the Father +of Poetry, as it wants his artless grandeur, his unaffected majesty. +This cannot be totally denied; but it must be remembered that +necessitas quod cogit defendit; that may be lawfully done which +cannot be forborne. Time and place will always enforce regard. In +estimating this translation, consideration must be had of the nature +of our language, the form of our metre, and, above all, of the +change which two thousand years have made in the modes of life and +the habits of thought. Virgil wrote in a language of the same +general fabric with that of Homer, in verses of the same measure, +and in an age nearer to Homer's time by eighteen hundred years; yet +he found even then the state of the world so much altered, and the +demand for elegance so much increased, that mere nature would be +endured no longer; and, perhaps, in the multitude of borrowed +passages, very few can be shown which he has not embellished. + +There is a time when nations, emerging from barbarity, and falling +into regular subordination, gain leisure to grow wise, and feel the +shame of ignorance and the craving pain of unsatisfied curiosity. +To this hunger of the mind plain sense is grateful; that which fills +the void removes uneasiness, and to be free from pain for a while is +pleasure; but repletion generates fastidiousness; a saturated +intellect soon becomes luxurious, and knowledge finds no willing +reception till it is recommended by artificial diction. Thus it +will be found, in the progress of learning, that in all nations the +first writers are simple, and that every age improves in elegance. +One refinement always makes way for another; and what was expedient +to Virgil was necessary to Pope. I suppose many readers of the +English "Iliad," when they have been touched with some unexpected +beauty of the lighter kind, have tried to enjoy it in the original, +where, alas! it was not to be found. Homer doubtless owes to his +translator many Ovidian graces not exactly suitable to his +character; but to have added can be no great crime, if nothing be +taken away. Elegance is surely to be desired, if it be not gained +at the expense of dignity. A hero would wish to be loved, as well +as to be reverenced. To a thousand cavils one answer is sufficient; +the purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would +destroy the power of pleasing must be blown aside. Pope wrote for +his own age and his own nation: he knew that it was necessary to +colour the images and point the sentiments of his author; he +therefore made him graceful, but lost him some of his sublimity. +The copious notes with which the version is accompanied, and by +which it is recommended to many readers, though they were +undoubtedly written to swell the volumes, ought not to pass without +praise: commentaries which attract the reader by the pleasure of +perusal have not often appeared; the notes of others are read to +clear difficulties; those of Pope to vary entertainment. It has, +however, been objected, with sufficient reason, that there is in the +commentary too much of unseasonable levity and affected gaiety; that +too many appeals are made to the ladies, and the ease which is so +carefully preserved is sometimes the ease of a trifler. Every art +has its terms, and every kind of instruction its proper style; the +gravity of common critics may be tedious, but is less despicable +than childish merriment. + +Of the "Odyssey" nothing remains to be observed; the same general +praise may be given to both translations, and a particular +examination of either would require a large volume. The notes were +written by Broome, who endeavoured, not unsuccessfully, to imitate +his master. + +Of the "Dunciad" the hint is confessedly taken from Dryden's "Mac +Flecknoe;" but the plan is so enlarged and diversified as justly to +claim the praise of an original, and affords the best specimen that +has yet appeared of personal satire ludicrously pompous. That the +design was moral, whatever the author might tell either his readers +or himself, I am not convinced. The first motive was the desire of +revenging the contempt with which Theobald had treated his +Shakspeare, and regaining the honour which he had lost, by crushing +his opponent. Theobald was not of bulk enough to fill a poem, and +therefore it was necessary to find other enemies with other names, +at whose expense he might divert the public. + +In this design there was petulance and malignity enough; but I +cannot think it very criminal. An author places himself uncalled +before the tribunal of criticism, and solicits fame at the hazard of +disgrace. Dulness or deformity are not culpable in themselves, but +may be very justly reproached when they pretend to the honour of wit +or the influence of beauty. If bad writers were to pass without +reprehension, what should restrain them? impune diem consumpserit +ingens Telephus; and upon bad writers only will censure have much +effect. The satire which brought Theobald and Moore into contempt +dropped impotent from Bentley, like the javelin of Priam. All truth +is valuable, and satirical criticism may be considered as useful +when it rectifies error and improves judgment; he that refines the +public taste is a public benefactor. The beauties of this poem are +well known; its chief fault is the grossness of its images. Pope +and Swift had an unnatural delight in ideas physically impure, such +as every other tongue utters with unwillingness, and of which every +ear shrinks from the mention. But even this fault, offensive as it +is, may be forgiven for the excellence of other passages; such as +the formation and dissolution of Moore, the account of the +Traveller, the misfortune of the Florist, and the crowded thoughts +and stately numbers which dignify the concluding paragraph. The +alterations which have been made in the "Dunciad," not always for +the better, require that it should be published, as in the present +collection, with all its variations. + +The "Essay on Man" was a work of great labour and long +consideration, but certainly not the happiest of Pope's +performances. The subject is perhaps not very proper for poetry; +and the poet was not sufficiently master of his subject; +metaphysical morality was to him a new study; he was proud of his +acquisitions, and, supposing himself master of great secrets, was in +haste to teach what he had not learned. Thus he tells us, in the +first Epistle, that from the nature of the Supreme Being may be +deduced an order of beings such as mankind, because infinite +excellence can do only what is best. He finds out that these beings +must be "somewhere;" and that "all the question is, whether man be +in a wrong place." Surely if, according to the poet's Leibnitzian +reasoning, we may infer that man ought to be, only because he is, we +may allow that his place is the right place, because he has it. +Supreme Wisdom is not less infallible in disposing than in creating. +But what is meant by SOMEWHERE, and PLACE, and WRONG PIECE, it had +been in vain to ask Pope, who probably had never asked himself. + +Having exalted himself into the chair of wisdom, he tells us much +that every man knows, and much that he does not know himself; that +we see but little, and that the order of the universe is beyond our +comprehension; an opinion not very uncommon; and that there is a +chain of subordinate beings "from infinite to nothing," of which +himself and his readers are equally ignorant. But he gives us one +comfort, which without his help he supposes unattainable, in the +position "that though we are fools, yet God is wise." + +This essay affords an egregious instance of the predominance of +genius, the dazzling splendour of imagery, and the seductive powers +of eloquence. Never was penury of knowledge and vulgarity of +sentiment so happily disguised. The reader feels his mind full, +though he learns nothing; and, when he meets it in its new array, no +longer knows the talk of his mother and his nurse. When these +wonder-working sounds sink into sense, and the doctrine of the +essay, disrobed of its ornaments, is left to the powers of its naked +excellence, what shall we discover? That we are, in comparison with +our Creator, very weak and ignorant; that we do not uphold the chain +of existence; and that we could not make one another with more skill +than we are made. We may learn yet more that the arts of human life +were copied from the instinctive operations of other animals; that +if the world be made for man, it may be said that man was made for +geese. To these profound principles of natural knowledge are added +some moral instructions equally new; that self-interest, well +understood, will produce social concord; that men are mutual gainers +by mutual benefits; that evil is sometimes balanced by good; that +human advantages are unstable and fallacious, of uncertain duration +and doubtful effect; that our true honour is not to have a great +part, but to act it well; that virtue only is our own; and that +happiness is always in our power. Surely a man of no very +comprehensive search may venture to say that he has heard all this +before; but it was never till now recommended by such a blaze of +embellishments, or such sweetness of melody. The vigorous +contraction of some thoughts, the luxuriant amplification of others, +the incidental illustrations, and sometimes the dignity, sometimes +the softness of the verses, enchain philosophy, suspend criticism, +and oppress judgment by overpowering pleasure. This is true of many +paragraphs; yet, if I had undertaken to exemplify Pope's felicity of +composition before a rigid critic, I should not select the "Essay on +Man;" for it contains more lines unsuccessfully laboured, more +harshness of diction, and more thoughts imperfectly expressed, more +levity without elegance, and more heaviness without strength, than +will easily be found in all his other works. + +The "Characters of Men and Women" are the product of diligent +speculation upon human life; much labour has been bestowed upon +them, and Pope very seldom laboured in vain. That his excellence +may be properly estimated, I recommend a comparison of his +"Characters of Women" with Boileau's Satire; it will then be seen +with how much more perspicacity female nature is investigated, and +female excellence selected; and he surely is no mean writer to whom +Boileau should be found inferior. The "Characters of Men," however, +are written with more, if not with deeper, thought, and exhibit many +passages exquisitely beautiful. The "Gem and the Flower" will not +easily be equalled. In the women's part are some defects; the +character of Atossa is not so neatly finished as that of Clodio, and +some of the female characters may be found, perhaps, more frequently +among men; what is said of Philomede was true of Prior. + +In the Epistles to Lord Bathurst and Lord Burlington, Dr. Warburton +has endeavoured to find a train of thought which was never in the +writer's head, and, to support his hypothesis, has printed that +first which was published last. In one the most valuable passage is +perhaps the Elegy on Good Sense, and the other the end of the Duke +of Buckingham. + +The Epistle to Arbuthnot, now arbitrarily called the "Prologue to +the Satires," is a performance consisting, as it seems, of many +fragments wrought into one design, which, by this union of scattered +beauties, contains more striking paragraphs than could probably have +been brought together into an occasional work. As there is no +stronger motive to exertion than self-defence, no part has more +elegance, spirit, or dignity, than the poet's vindication of his own +character. The meanest passage is the satire upon Sporus. + +Of the two poems which derived their names from the year, and which +are called the "Epilogue to the Satires," it was very justly +remarked by Savage that the second was in the whole more strongly +conceived, and more equally supported, but that it had no single +passages equal to the contention in the first for the dignity of +Vice and the celebration of the triumph of Corruption. + +The "Imitations of Horace" seem to have been written as relaxations +of his genius. This employment became his favourite by its +facility; the plan was ready to his hand, and nothing was required +but to accommodate as he could the sentiments of an old author to +recent facts or familiar images; but what is easy is seldom +excellent. Such imitations cannot give pleasure to common readers; +the man of learning may be sometimes surprised and delighted by an +unexpected parallel, but the comparison requires knowledge of the +original, which will likewise often detect strained applications. +Between Roman images and English manners there will be an +irreconcilable dissimilitude, and the works will be generally +uncouth and parti-coloured, neither original nor translated, neither +ancient nor modern. + +Pope had, in proportions very nicely adjusted to each other, all the +qualities that constitute genius. He had INTENTION, by which new +trains of events are formed and new scenes of imagery displayed, as +in the "Rape of the Lock," and by which extrinsic and adventitious +embellishments and illustrations are connected with a known subject, +as in the "Essay on Criticism." He had IMAGINATION, which strongly +impresses on the writer's mind, and enables him to convey to the +reader the various forms of nature, incidents of life, and energies +of passion, as in his "Eloisa," "Windsor Forest," and "Ethic +Epistles." He had JUDGMENT, which selects from life or Nature what +the present purpose requires, and by separating the essence of +things from its concomitants, often makes the representation more +powerful than the reality; and he had colours of language always +before him, ready to decorate his matter with every grace of elegant +expression, as when he accommodates his diction to the wonderful +multiplicity of Homer's sentiments and descriptions. + +Poetical expression includes sound as well as meaning. "Music," +says Dryden, "is inarticulate poetry;" among the excellences of +Pope, therefore, must be mentioned the melody of his metre. By +perusing the works of Dryden, he discovered the most perfect fabric +of English verse, and habituated himself to that only which he found +the best; in consequence of which restraint his poetry has been +censured as too uniformly musical, and as glutting the ear with +unvaried sweetness. I suspect this objection to be the cant of +those who judge by principles rather than perception, and who would +even themselves have less pleasure in his works if he had tried to +relieve attention by studied discords, or affected to break his +lines and vary his pauses. But though he was thus careful of his +versification, he did not oppress his powers with superfluous +rigour. He seems to have thought with Boileau that the practice of +writing might be refined till the difficulty should overbalance the +advantage. The construction of the language is not always strictly +grammatical; with those rhymes which prescription had conjoined he +contented himself, without regard to Swift's remonstrances, though +there was no striking consonance, nor was he very careful to vary +his terminations or to refuse admission, at a small distance, to the +same rhymes. To Swift's edict for the exclusion of alexandrines and +triplets he paid little regard; he admitted them, but, in the +opinion of Fenton, too rarely; he uses them more liberally in his +translation than his poems. He has a few double rhymes, and always, +I think, unsuccessfully, except once in the "Rape of the Lock." +Expletives he very early ejected from his verses, but he now and +then admits an epithet rather commodious than important. Each of +the six first lines of the "Iliad" might lose two syllables with +very little diminution of the meaning, and sometimes, after all his +art and labour, one verse seems to be made for the sake of another. +In his latter productions the diction is sometimes vitiated by +French idioms, with which Bolingbroke had perhaps infected him. + +I have been told that the couplet by which he declared his own ear +to be most gratified was this:- + + +"Lo, where Maeotis sleeps, and hardly flows +The freezing Tanais through a waste of snows." + + +But the reason of this preference I cannot discover. + +It is remarked by Watts that there is scarcely a happy combination +of words, or a phrase poetically elegant in the English language, +which Pope has not inserted into his version of Homer. How he +obtained possession of so many beauties of speech it were desirable +to know. That he gleaned from authors, obscure as well as eminent, +what he thought brilliant or useful, and preserved it all in a +regular collection, is not unlikely. When, in his last years, +Hall's "Satires" were shown him, he wished that he had seen them +sooner. New sentiments and new images others may produce; but to +attempt any further improvement of versification will be dangerous. +Art and diligence have now done their best, and what shall be added +will be the effort of tedious toil and needless curiosity. After +all this, it is surely superfluous to answer the question that has +once been asked, Whether Pope was a poet, otherwise than by asking +in return, If Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be found? To +circumscribe poetry by a definition will only show the narrowness of +the definer, though a definition which shall exclude Pope will not +easily be made. Let us look round upon the present time and back +upon the past; let us inquire to whom the voice of mankind has +decreed the wreath of poetry; let their productions be examined, and +their claims stated, and the pretensions of Pope will be no more +disputed. Had he given the world only his version, the name of poet +must have been allowed him: if the writer of the "Iliad" were to +class his successors he would assign a very high place to his +translator, without requiring any other evidence of genius. + +The following letter, of which the original is in the hands of Lord +Hardwicke, was communicated to me by the kindness of Mr. Jodrell:- + + +"To MR. BRIDGES, at the Bishop of London's, at Fulham. + +"SIR,--The favour of your letter, with your remarks, can never be +enough acknowledged, and the speed with which you discharged so +troublesome a task doubles the obligation. + +"I must own you have pleased me very much by the commendations so +ill bestowed upon me; but I assure you, much more by the frankness +of your censure, which I ought to take the more kindly of the two, +as it is more advantage to a scribbler to be improved in his +judgment than to be smoothed in his vanity. The greater part of +those deviations from the Greek which you have observed I was led +into by Chapman and Hobbes; who are, it seems, as much celebrated +for their knowledge of the original as they are decried for the +badness of their translations. Chapman pretends to have restored +the genuine sense of the author from the mistakes of all former +explainers in several hundred places; and the Cambridge editors of +the large Homer, in Greek and Latin, attributed so much to Hobbes, +that they confess they have corrected the old Latin interpretation +very often by his version. For my part, I generally took the +author's meaning to be as you have explained it; yet their +authority, joined to the knowledge of my own imperfectness in the +language, overruled me. However, sir, you may be confident, I think +you in the right, because you happen to be of my opinion; for men +(let them say what they will) never approve any other's sense but as +it squares with their own. But you have made me much more proud of +and positive in my judgment, since it is strengthened by yours. I +think your criticisms which regard the expression very just, and +shall make my profit of them; to give you some proof that I am in +earnest, I will alter three verses on your bare objection, though I +have Mr. Dryden's example for each of them. And this, I hope, you +will account no small piece of obedience, from one who values the +authority of one true poet above that of twenty critics or +commentators. But, though I speak thus of commentators, I will +continue to read carefully all I can procure, to make up that way +for my own want of critical understanding in the original beauties +of Homer. Though the greatest of them are certainly those of +invention and design, which are not at all confined to the language; +for the distinguishing excellences of Homer are (by the consent of +the best critics of all nations), first in the manners (which +include all the speeches, as being no other than the representations +of each person's manners by his words): and then in that rapture +and fire, which carries you away with him, with that wonderful +force, that no man who has a true poetical spirit is master of +himself while he reads him. Homer makes you interested and +concerned before you are aware, all at once, where Virgil does it by +soft degrees. This, I believe, is what a translator of Homer ought +principally to imitate; and it is very hard for any translator to +come up to it, because the chief reason why all translations fall +short of their originals is, that the very constraint they are +obliged to renders them heavy and dispirited. + +"The great beauty of Homer's language, as I take it, consists in +that noble simplicity which runs through all his works (and yet his +diction, contrary to what one would imagine consistent with +simplicity, is at the same time very copious). I don't know how I +have run into this pedantry in a letter, but I find I have said too +much, as well as spoken too inconsiderately; what farther thoughts I +have upon this subject I shall be glad to communicate to you (for my +own improvement) when we meet, which is a happiness I very earnestly +desire, as I do likewise some opportunity of proving how much I +think myself obliged to your friendship, and how truly I am, sir, + +"Your most faithful humble servant, + +"A. POPE." + + +The criticism upon Pope's Epitaphs, which was printed in "The +Universal Visitor," is placed here, being too minute and particular +to be inserted in the Life. + +Every art is best taught by example. Nothing contributes more to +the cultivation of propriety than remarks on the works of those who +have most excelled. I shall therefore endeavour at this VISIT to +entertain the young students in poetry with an examination of Pope's +Epitaphs. + +To define an epitaph is useless; every one knows that it is an +inscription on a tomb. An epitaph, therefore, implies no particular +character of writing, but may be composed in verse or prose. It is, +indeed, commonly panegyrical, because we are seldom distinguished +with a stone but by our friends; but it has no rule to restrain or +mollify it except this, that it ought not to be longer than common +beholders may be expected to have leisure and patience to peruse. + + +On CHARLES Earl of DORSET, in the church of Wythyham in Sussex. + + Dorset, the grace of courts, the Muse's pride, +Patron of arts, and judge of nature, died. +The scourge of pride, though sanctified or great, +Of fops in learning, and of knaves in state; +Yet soft in nature, though severe his lay, +His anger moral, and his wisdom gay. +Blest satirist! who touched the means so true, +As showed Vice had his hate and pity too. +Blest courtier! who could king and country please, +Yet sacred kept his friendship and his ease. +Blest peer! his great forefathers' every grace +Reflecting, and reflected on his race; +Where other Buckhursts, other Dorsets shine, +And patriots still, or pests, deck the line. + + +The first distich of this epitaph contains a kind of information +which few would want, that the man for whom the tomb was erected +DIED. There are indeed some qualities worthy of the praise ascribed +to the dead, but none that were likely to exempt him from the lot of +man, or incline us much to wonder that he should die. What is meant +by "judge of nature" is not easy to say. Nature is not the object +of human judgment; for it is in vain to judge where we cannot alter. +If by nature is meant what is commonly called NATURE by the critics, +a just representation of things really existing, and actions really +performed, nature cannot be properly opposed to ART; nature being, +in this sense, only the best effect of ART. + + +The scourge of pride - + + +Of this couplet the second line is not what is intended, an +illustration of the former. PRIDE in the GREAT, is indeed well +enough connected with knaves in state, though KNAVES is a word +rather too ludicrous and light; but the mention of SANCTIFIED pride +will not lead the thoughts to FOPS IN LEARNING, but rather to some +species of tyranny or oppression, something more gloomy and more +formidable than foppery. + + +Yet soft his nature - + + +This is a high compliment, but was not first bestowed on Dorset by +Pope. The next verse is extremely beautiful. + + +Blest satirist! - + + +In this distich is another line of which Pope was not the author. I +do not mean to blame these imitations with much harshness; in long +performances they are scarcely to be avoided, and in shorter they +may be indulged, because the train of the composition may naturally +involve them, or the scantiness of the subject allow little choice. +However, what is borrowed is not to be enjoyed as our own, and it is +the business of critical justice to give every bird of the Muses his +proper feather. + + +Blest courtier! - + + +Whether a courtier can properly be commended for keeping his EASE +SACRED, may perhaps be disputable. To please king and country +without sacrificing friendship to any change of times was a very +uncommon instance of prudence or felicity, and deserved to be kept +separate from so poor a commendation as care of his ease. I wish +our poets would attend a little more accurately to the use of the +word SACRED, which surely should never be applied in a serious +composition, but where some reference may be made to a higher Being, +or where some duty is exacted or implied. A man may keep his +friendship sacred, because promises of friendship are very awful +ties; but methinks he cannot, but in a burlesque sense, be said to +keep his ease SACRED. + + +Blest peer! - + + +The blessing ascribed to the PEER has no connection with his +peerage; they might happen to any other man whose posterity were +likely to be regarded. + +I know not whether this epitaph be worthy either of the writer or +the man entombed. + + +II. + +On Sir WILLIAM TRUMBULL, one of the principal Secretaries of State +to King WILLIAM III., who, having resigned his place, died in his +retirement at Easthamstead, in Berkshire, 1716. + + + A pleasing form, a firm, yet cautious mind, +Sincere, though prudent; constant, yet resigned; +Honour unchanged, a principle profest. +Fixed to one side, but moderate to the rest; +An honest courtier, yet a patriot too, +Just to his prince, and to his country true; +Filled with the sense of age, the fire of youth, +A scorn of wrangling, yet a zeal for truth; +A generous faith, from superstition free; +A love to peace, and hate of tyranny; +Such this man was; who new from earth removed +At length enjoys that liberty he loved. + + +In this epitaph, as in many others, there appears at the first view +a fault which I think scarcely any beauty can compensate. The name +is omitted. The end of an epitaph is to convey some account of the +dead; and to what purpose is anything told of him whose name is +concealed? An epitaph, and a history of a nameless hero, are +equally absurd, since the virtues and qualities so recounted in +either are scattered at the mercy of fortune to be appropriated by +guess. The name, it is true, may be read upon the stone; but what +obligation has it to the poet, whose verses wander over the earth +and leave their subject behind them, and who is forced, like an +unskilful painter, to make his purpose known by adventitious help? +This epitaph is wholly without elevation, and contains nothing +striking or particular; but the poet is not to be blamed for the +defect of his subject. He said perhaps the best that could be said. +There are, however, some defects which were not made necessary by +the character in which he was employed. There is no opposition +between an HONEST COURTIER and a PATRIOT; for an HONEST, COURTIER +cannot but be a PATRIOT. It was unsuitable to the nicety required +in short compositions to close his verse with the word TOO; every +rhyme should be a word of emphasis: nor can this rule be safely +neglected, except where the length of the poem makes slight +inaccuracies excusable, or allows room for beauties sufficient to +overpower the effects of petty faults. + +At the beginning of the seventh line the word FILLED is weak and +prosaic, having no particular adaptation to any of the words that +follow it. The thought in the last line is impertinent, having no +connection with the foregoing character, nor with the condition of +the man described. Had the epitaph been written on the poor +conspirator who died lately in prison, after a confinement of more +than forty years, without any crime proved against him, the +sentiment had been just and pathetical; but why should Trumbull be +congratulated upon his liberty who had never known restraint? + + +III. + +On the Hon. SIMON HARCOURT, only son of the Lord Chancellor +HARCOURT, at the Church of Stanton-Harcourt in Oxfordshire, 1720. + + + To this sad shrine, whoe'er thou art, draw near, +Here lies the friend most loved, the son most dear; +Who ne'er knew joy, but friendship might divide, +Or gave his father grief but when he died. + How vain is reason, eloquence how weak! +If Pope must tell what Harcourt cannot speak. +Oh let thy once-loved friend inscribe thy stone, +And with a father's sorrows mix his own! + + +This epitaph is principally remarkable for the artful introduction +of the name, which is inserted with a peculiar felicity, to which +chance must concur with genius, which no man can hope to attain +twice, and which cannot be copied but with servile imitation. I +cannot but wish that, of this inscription, the two last lines had +been omitted, as they take away from the energy what they do not add +to the sense. + + +IV. + +On JAMES CRAGGS, Esq., in Westminster Abbey. + +JACOBVS CRAGS, +REGI MAGNAE BRITANNIAE A SECRETIS +ET CONSILIIS SANCTIORIBVS, +PRINCIPIS PARITER AC POPVLI AMOR ET DELICIAE: +VIXIT TITLIS ET INVIDIA MAJOR +ANNOS HEV PAVCOS, XXXV. +OB. FEB. XVI. MDCCXX. + + Statesman, yet friend to truth; of soul sincere, +In action faithful, and in honour clear! +Who broke no premise, served no private end, +Who gained no title, and who lost no friend; +Ennobled by himself, by all approved, +Praised, wept, and honoured by the Muse he loved. + + +The lines on Craggs were not originally intended for an epitaph; and +therefore some faults are to be imputed to the violence with which +they are torn from the poems that first contained them. We may, +however, observe some defects. There is a redundancy of words in +the first couplet: it is superfluous to tell of him, who was +SINCERE, TRUE, and FAITHFUL, that he was IN HONOUR CLEAR. There +seems to be an opposition intended in the fourth line, which is not +very obvious: where is the relation between the two positions, that +he GAINED NO TITLE and LEST NO FRIEND? + +It may be proper here to remark the absurdity of joining in the same +inscription Latin and English or verse and prose. If either +language be preferable to the other, let that only be used; for no +reason can be given why part of the information should be given in +one tongue, and part in another on a tomb, more than in any other +place, or any other occasion; and to tell all that can be +conveniently told in verse, and then to call in the help of prose, +has always the appearance of a very artless expedient, or of an +attempt unaccomplished. Such an epitaph resembles the conversation +of a foreigner, who tells part of his meaning by words, and conveys +part by signs. + + +V. + +Intended for Mr. ROWE, in Westminster Abbey. + + + Thy reliques, Rowe, to this fair urn we trust, +And sacred, place by Dryden's awful dust; +Beneath a rude and nameless stone he lies, +To which thy tomb shall guide inquiring eyes. +Peace to thy gentle shade, and endless rest! +Blest in thy genius, in thy love too blest; +One grateful women to thy fame supplies +What a whole thankless land to his denies. + + +Of this inscription the chief fault is that it belongs less to Rowe, +for whom it was written, than to Dryden, who was buried near him; +and indeed gives very little information concerning either. + +To wish PEACE TO THY SHADE is too mythological to be admitted into a +Christian temple: the ancient worship has infected almost all our +other compositions, and might therefore be contented to spare our +epitaphs. Let fiction, at least, cease with life, and let us be +serious over the grave. + + +VI. + +On Mrs. CORBET, who died of a Cancer in her Breast. + + + Here rests a woman, good without pretence, +Blest with plain reason, and with sober sense; +No conquest she, but o'er herself, desired; +No arts essayed, but not to be admired. +Passion and pride were to her soul unknown, +Convinced that Virtue only is our own. +So unaffected, so composed a mind, +So firm, yet soft, so strong, yet so refined, +Heaven, as its purest gold, by tortures tried; +The saint sustained it, but the woman died. + + +I have always considered this as the most valuable of all Pope's +epitaphs; the subject of it is a character not discriminated by any +shining or eminent peculiarities; yet that which really makes, +though not the splendour, the felicity of life, and that which every +wise man will choose for his final and lasting companion in the +languor of age, in the quiet of privacy, when he departs weary and +disgusted from the ostentatious, the volatile, and the vain. Of +such a character, which the dull overlook and the gay despise, it +was fit that the value should be made known and the dignity +established. Domestic virtue, as it is exerted without great +occasions, or conspicuous consequences, in an even unnoted tenor, +required the genius of Pope to display it in such a manner as might +attract regard and enforce reverence. Who can forbear to lament +that this amiable woman has no name in the verses? If the +particular lines of this inscription be examined, it will appear +less faulty than the rest. There is scarce one line taken from +commonplaces, unless it be that in which ONLY VIRTUE is said to be +OUR OWN. I once heard a lady of great beauty and excellence object +to the fourth line that it contained an unnatural and incredible +panegyric. Of this let the ladies judge. + + +VII. + +On the Monument of the Hon. ROBERT DIGBY, and of his Sister MARY, +erected by their Father the Lord DIGBY in the church of Sherborne in +Dorsetshire, 1727 + + + Go! fair example of untainted youth, +Of modest wisdom, and pacific truth: +Composed in sufferings, and in joy sedate, +Good without noise, without pretension great +Just of thy word, in every thought sincere, +Who knew no wish but what the world might hear: +Of softest manners, unaffected mind, +Lover of peace, and friend of human kind: +Go, live! for heaven's eternal year is thine, +Go, and exalt thy mortal to divine. + And thou, blest maid! attendant on his doom. +Pensive hast followed to the silent tomb, +Steered the same course to the same quiet shore, +Not parted long, and now to part no more! +Go, then, where only bliss sincere is known! +Go, where to love and to enjoy are one! + Yet take these tears, Mortality's relief, +And, till we share your joys, forgive our grief: +These little rites a stone, a verse receive. +'Tis all a father, all a friend can give! + + +This epitaph contains of the brother only a general indiscriminate +character, and of the sister tells nothing but that she died. The +difficulty in writing epitaphs is to give a particular and +appropriate praise. This, however, is not always to be performed, +whatever be the diligence or ability of the writer; for the greater +part of mankind HAVE NO CHARACTER AT ALL, have little that +distinguishes them from others, equally good or bad, and therefore +nothing can be said of them which may not be applied with equal +propriety to a thousand more. It is indeed no great panegyric that +there is enclosed in this tomb one who was born in one year, and +died in another; yet many useful and amiable lives have been spent +which yet leave little materials for any other memorial. These are +however not the proper subjects of poetry; and whenever friendship, +or any other motive, obliges a poet to write on such subjects, he +must be forgiven if he sometimes wanders in generalities, and utters +the same praises over different tombs. + +The scantiness of human praises can scarcely be made more apparent +than by remarking how often Pope has, in the few epitaphs which he +composed, found it necessary to borrow from himself. The fourteen +epitaphs which he has written comprise about a hundred and forty +lines, in which there are more repetitions than will easily be found +in all the rest of his works. In the eight lines which make the +character of Digby there is scarce any thought or word which may not +be found in the other epitaphs. The ninth line, which is far the +strongest and most elegant, is borrowed from Dryden. The conclusion +is the same with that on Harcourt, but is here more elegant and +better connected. + + +VIII. + +On Sir GODFREY KNELLER, in Westminster Abbey, 1723. + + + Kneller, by Heaven, and not a master, taught, +Whose art was Nature, and whose pictures thought; +Now for two ages, having snatched from fate +Whate'er was beauteous, or whate'er was great, +Lies crowned with Princes, honours, Poets, lays, +Due to his merit, and brave thirst of praise. + Living, great Nature feared he might outvie +Her works; and dying, fears herself may die. + + +Of this epitaph the first couplet is good, the second not bad, the +third is deformed with a broken metaphor, the word crowned not being +applicable to the honours or the lays, and the fourth is not only +borrowed from the epitaph on Raphael, but of a very harsh +construction. + + +IX. + +On General HENRY WITHERS, in Westminster Abbey, 1729. + + + Here, Withers, rest! thou bravest, gentlest mind, +Thy country's friend, but more of human kind. +O born to arms! O worth in youth approved! +O soft humanity in age beloved! +For thee the hardy veteran drops a tear, +And the gay courtier feels the sigh sincere + Withers, adieu! yet not will thee remove +Thy martial spirit, or thy social love! +Amidst corruption, luxury, and rage, +Still leave some ancient virtues to our age: +Nor let us say (those English glories gone) +The last true Briton lies beneath this stone. + + +The epitaph on Withers affords another instance of commonplaces, +though somewhat diversified by mingled qualities, and the +peculiarity of a profession. The second couplet is abrupt, general, +and unpleasing; exclamation seldom succeeds in our language; and, I +think, it may be observed that the particle O! used at the beginning +of a sentence, always offends. The third couplet is more happy; the +value expressed for him, by different sorts of men, raises him to +esteem; there is yet something of the common cant of superficial +satirists, who suppose that the insincerity of a courtier destroys +all his sensations, and that he is equally a dissembler to the +living and the dead. At the third couplet I should wish the epitaph +to close, but that I should be unwilling to lose the two next lines, +which yet are dearly bought if they cannot be retained without the +four that follow them. + + +X. + +On Mr. ELIJAH FENTON, at Easthamstead in Berkshire, 1730. + + This modest stone, what few vain marbles can, +May truly say, Here lies an honest man: +A poet, blest beyond the poet's fate, +Whom Heaven kept sacred from the Proud and Great: +Foe to loud praise, and friend to learned ease, +Content with science in the vale of peace. +Calmly he looked on either life, and here +Saw nothing to regret or there to fear; +From Nature's temperate feast rose satisfied, +Thanked Heaven that he lived, and that he died. + + +The first couplet of this epitaph is borrowed from Crashaw. The +four next lines contain a species of praise peculiar, original, and +just. Here, therefore, the inscription should have ended, the +latter part containing nothing but what is common to every man who +is wise and good. The character of Fenton was so amiable, that I +cannot forbear to wish for some poet or biographer to display it +more fully for the advantage of posterity. If he did not stand in +the first rank of genius, he may claim a place in the second; and, +whatever criticism may object to his writings, censure could find +very little to blame in his life. + + +XI. + +On Mr. GAY, in Westminster Abbey, 1732. + + Of manners gentle, of affections mild; +In wit, a muse; simplicity, a child: +With native humour tempering virtuous rage, +Formed to delight at once and lash the age: +Above temptation, in a low estate, +And uncorrupted, ev'n among the Great: +A safe companion and an easy friend, +Unbiased through life, lamented in thy end, +These are thy honours! not that here thy bust +Is mixed with heroes, or with kings thy dust; +But that the worthy and the Good shall say, +Striking their pensive bosoms--Here lies GAY. + + +As Gay was the favourite of our author this epitaph was probably +written with an uncommon degree of attention, yet it is not more +successfully executed than the rest, for it will not always happen +that the success of a poet is proportionate to his labour. The same +observation may be extended to all works of imagination, which are +often influenced by causes wholly out of the performer's power, by +hints of which he perceives not the origin, by sudden elevations of +mind which he cannot produce in himself, and which sometimes rise +when he expects them least. The two parts of the first line are +only echoes of each other; GENTLE MANNERS and MILD AFFECTIONS, if +they mean anything, must mean the same. + +That Gay was a MAN IN WIT is a very frigid commendation; to have the +wit of a man is not much for a poet. The WIT OF MAN and the +SIMPLICITY OF A CHILD make a poor and vulgar contrast, and raise no +ideas of excellence, either intellectual or moral. + +In the next couplet RAGE is less properly introduced after the +mention of MILDNESS and GENTLENESS, which are made the constituents +of his character; for a man so MILD and GENTLE to TEMPER his RAGE +was not difficult. The next line is inharmonious in its sound, and +mean in its conception; the opposition is obvious, and the word LASH +used absolutely, and without any modification, is gross and +improper. To be ABOVE TEMPTATION in poverty and FREE FROM +CORRUPTION AMONG THE GREAT is indeed such a peculiarity as deserved +notice. But to be a SAFE COMPANION is a praise merely negative, +arising not from possession of virtue but the absence of vice, and +that one of the most odious. + +As little can be added to his character by asserting that he was +LAMENTED IN HIS END. Every man that dies is, at least by the writer +of his epitaph, supposed to be lamented, and therefore this general +lamentation does no honour to Gay. + +The first eight lines have no grammar; the adjectives are without +any substantive, and the epithets without a subject. The thought in +the last line, that Gay is buried in the bosoms of the WORTHY and +GOOD, who are distinguished only to lengthen the line, is so dark +that few understand it, and so harsh, when it is explained, that +still fewer approve. + + +XII. + +Intended for Sir ISAAC NEWTON, in Westminster Abbey. + + +ISAACUS NEWTONIUS: +Quem Immortalem +Testantur, Tempus, Natura, Coelum: +Mortalem hoc marmor fatetur. +Nature, and Nature's laws, lay hid in night: +God said, Let Newton be! And all was light. + + +On this epitaph, short as it is, the faults seem not to be very few. +Why part should be Latin and part English it is not easy to +discover. In the Latin the opposition of IMMORTALIS and MORTALIS is +a mere sound, or a mere quibble; he is not IMMORTAL in any sense +contrary to that in which he is MORTAL. In the verses the thought +is obvious, and the words NIGHT and LIGHT are too nearly allied. + + +XIII. + + +On EDMUND Duke of BUCKINGHAM, who died in the 19th Year of his Age, +1735. + + + If modest youth, with cool reflection crowned, +And every opening virtue blooming round, +Could save a parent's justest pride from fate, +Or add one patriot to a sinking state; +This weeping marble had not asked thy tear, +Or sadly told how many hopes lie here! +The living virtue now had shone approved, +The senate heard him, and his country loved. +Yet softer honours, and less noisy fame, +Attend the shade of gentle Buckingham: +In whom a race, for courage famed and art, +Ends in the milder merit of the heart; +And, chiefs or sages long to Britain given, +Pays the last tribute of a saint to heaven. + + +This epitaph Mr. Warburton prefers to the rest, but I know not for +what reason. To CROWN with REFLECTION is surely a mode of speech +approaching to nonsense. OPENING VIRTUES BLOOMING ROUND is +something like tautology; the six following lines are poor and +prosaic. ART is in another couplet used for ARTS, that a rhyme may +be had to HEART. The six last lines are the best, but not +excellent. + +The rest of his sepulchral performances hardly deserve the notice of +criticism. The contemptible dialogue between He and She should have +been suppressed for the author's sake. + +In his last epitaph on himself, in which he attempts to be jocular +upon one of the few things that make wise men serious, he confounds +the living man with the dead: + + +"Under this stone, or under this sill, +Or under this turf, &c." + + +When a man is once buried, the question, under what he is buried, is +easily decided. He forgot that though he wrote the epitaph in a +state of uncertainty, yet it could not be laid over him till his +grave was made. Such is the folly of wit when it is ill employed. + +The world has but little new, even this wretchedness seems to have +been borrowed from the following tuneless lines:- + + +"Ludovici Areosti humantur ossa +Sub hoc marmore, vel sub hac humo, seu +Sub quicquid voluit benignus haeres +Siv haerede benignior comes, seu +Opportunius incidens Viator: +Nam scire haud potuit futura, sed nec +Tanti erat vacuum sibi cadaver +Ut utnam cuperet parere vivens, +Vivens ista tamen sibi paravit. +Quae inscribi voluit suo sepulchro +Olim siquod haberetis sepulchrum." + + +Surely Ariosto did not venture to expect that his trifle would have +ever had such an illustrious imitator. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, LIVES OF THE ENGLISH POETS *** + +This file should be named lvpc10.txt or lvpc10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, lvpc11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, lvpc10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04 + +Or /etext03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + |