l/p-Z^>^ BOHN'S ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY. THE WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE. LIFE. THE LIFE ALEXANDER POPE. POPE'S TOWER, MArLEDlTRHAM. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GA.RDEN. MDCCCLVII. )t£t. THE, LIFE ALEXANDER POPE.- Ettclutimcj Extracts from ffis ©orrespontrence. BY . EOBERT CARRUTHERS. ii [ OF THc lUNIVERS SECOND EDITION, REVISED ANI r'TY'j ► CONSIDERABLY ENLARGED, WITH NUMEROUS ENCRAVINGS ON WOOD. LONDON : HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COYENT GARDEN. MDCCCLVII. 63) GENERAL PREFACE, This new edition of the Life of Pope, preliminary to -qp, reprint of his "Works, has been carefully revised. Con- siderable additions have been made, and a better ar- rangement of the materials attempted. Indeed, so many new facts illustrative of Pope's literary and personal cha- racter have been brought to light within the last four or five years, that any previous life of the poet would require to be almost wholly rewritten. The Editor has availed himself of this recent information — of course specifying the authority for each fact and illustration — and he has been enabled to make some additions from unpublished sources. Further extracts are given from the Mapledurham MSS., including a few letters from Pope, Mrs. Howard, Mallet, &c. The cor- respondent to whom Pope addressed the " Letters to a Lady," first published by Dodsley in 1769, has been traced and found (where it is pleasant to find a new poetical associa- tion) in the family of Cowper. The "Erinna" of Pope was the aunt of the author of "The Task." Some particulars 181583 VI PEEP ACE. have been gleaned from tlie "Wills in Doctors' Commons, and proof is adduced of Pope's connexion with the Grub- street Journal, as asserted by Curll. For the private details of the poet's life, the chief authority is Spence's Anecdotes. Johnson had the use of this work in manuscript when writing his life of Pope, and Malone made extracts from it for his life of Dryden. A complete edition, however, was not printed till 1819, when it was edited and published by Mr. Samuel Weller Singer. The anecdotes are interesting and valuable ; but Spence was inferior to Boswell in all the important requisites of industry, correctness, and dramatic talent in sketching character and reporting con- versation. "With the same opportunities as Spence, Bos- well would have cleared up all the doubtful and mysterious points in Pope's life and poetry, besides giving us a copious sprinkling of the table-talk at Twickenham and Dawley, and interior glimpses of Will's or Button's coffee-houses. In one respect, however, Spence is equal to the northern bio- grapher : he almost worshipped the object of his work, and unhesitatingly subscribed to the poet's opinions, literary and personal. All the editors of Pope have been misled in some material points by trusting to Memoirs of his Life and Writings, published in 1745, and written by William Ayre, Esq. The existence of "Squire Ayre" (as he has been called) was denied by one of his contemporaries, " J. H. ? " who asserted PEEFACE. Vll that the notorious Edmund Curll was author of the work ; and Miss Aikin, in her life of Addison, seems inclined to adopt the same conclusion. Ay re, however, was a veritable existing person. He had previously appeared as a commen- tator on Pope (" Truth, a Counterpart to Mr. Pope's Essay on Man, by Mr. Ayre," 1739; and "A Counterpart to Mr. Pope's Essay on Man, Epistle II., by Mr. Ayre," 1739), and had published some translations from the Erench and Italian. He put forth his Memoir of Pope with high pretensions, dedicated it to the poet's noble friends, Bolingbroke, Bur- lington, Marchmont, and Bathurst, and professed to have received large and valuable assistance. He took the precau- tion of securing the copyright of his work by letters patent under the royal signet. Yet, notwithstanding all this parade and assumption, a more careless and worthless book than that of Ayre never issued from the press. Of the seven hundred and more pages comprised in the two volumes, not fifty are original, the rest having been quoted or stolen from other authors, chiefly from Pope; and the whole work ex- hibits inextricable confusion, inaccuracy, and misrepresenta- tion. One error which runs through his narrative is assuming that Pope's correspondent, Edward Blount, was brother of the poet's female friends, Teresa and Martha Blount. This has been copied by every succeeding biographer, and forms the groundwork of various conjectures and discussions by Bowles and Eoscoe. The importance of this seemingly Vlll PREFACE. trifling mistake will be best seen by an example taken from Eoscoe's Pope, vol. viii., p. 383 : " Mr. Blount died in London the following year, 1726." — Pope. " Blount died of the small-pox ; and was attended during his ill- ness with the greatest affection and sorrow, by the lady whose name is so often mentioned in these volumes. Soon after his death, Pope was much more explicit than he had ever been before respecting the nature of his feelings towards Miss Martha." — Bowles. "By 'the lady whose name is so often mentioned in these volumes/ Mr. Bowles means Martha Blount, who attended her brother through the illness which terminated in his death, although she had not her- self had the disease. The assertion of Mr. Bowles, that after the death of Mr. Blount e Pope was much more explicit than he had ever been before respecting the nature of his feelings towards Miss Martha,' is only an additional proof of his earnestness to avail himself of every opportunity of attributing that attachment to an improper motive." — Roscoe. • Now, with the exception of Pope's simple statement of the fact of his friend's death, the whole of this explanation and crimination is a tissue of errors. Edward Blount did not die of the small-pox, but of gout and old age; be was not attended by Martha Blount, who in reality had bad the small-pox ; and Edward Blount's death bad no effect what- ever on Pope's attachment to his fair friend. The complica- tion of blunders (of which this is but one specimen) arose from two causes — the publication of some letters taken from an old translation of V oiture as genuine letters from Pope to Miss Blount, and the unfounded assertion that Edward Blount was the brother of the lady. The latter had a brother, Mr. Michael Blount, of Mapledurham, in Oxford- PREFACE. IX shire, who survived till 1739 ; but Edward Blount was an elderly gentleman, owner of the estate of Blagdon, in Devon- shire, whose second daughter afterwards became Duchess of Norfolk. It is obvious from the genuine correspondence that Ayre's statement cannot be correct; but it was im- plicitly adopted and continued without examination. "We may add, that from dependence on the same untrustworthy, guide, the quarrel between Pope and Addison has been mis- represented . Criticism on the poet's works has been exhausted: his position as an English classic has long been fixed. But his biography has been neglected ; and though the present work can be considered only as a contribution towards the history of Pope and his times, the Editor can honestly say that he has taken nothing upon trust which he had an opportunity of investigating, and that he has been anxious to show his sense of the public favour by increased attention and diligent inquiry. E. C. Inverness, July, 1857. CONTENTS. CHAPTER L— 1688— 1708. PAGE Pope's Birth, Family, and Education. His early Friends, Sir William Trumbull, Wycherley, Walsh, and Henry Cromwell ... 1 CHAPTER II.— 1709— 1712. Publication of the Pastorals and Essay on Criticism. Letters to Ad- dison and Steele. Acquaintance with Teresa and Martha Blount. The Elegy on an Unfortunate Lady 46 CHAPTER III.— 1713— 1715. Windsor Forest. Acquaintance with Swift, Arbuthnot, Parnell, etc. The Rape of the Lock. Commencement of the Translation of Homer. Quarrel with Addison 88 CHAPTER IV.— 1716— 1718. Removal from Binfield to Chiswick. Quarrels with Curll and Gibber. Death of Pope's Father, and Correspondence with Atterbury. Change of Residence to Twickenham 133 CHAPTER V.— 1719— 1722. Correspondence with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Completion of the Translation of the Iliad, and Gay's Congratulatory Poem. Ba- nishment of Atterbury 178 CHAPTER VI.— 1723— 1727. Letters to Judith Cowper. Return of Bolingbroke. Edition of Shak- speare, and Translation of the Odyssey. Swift visits England, and Publication bf the Miscellanies 216 Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIL— 1728— 1730. PAGE The Dunciad and Grub-street Journal. Correspondence with Aaron Hill 254 CHAPTER VIII.— 1731— 1735. , Epistles and Essay on Man. Death of Gay, of Pope's Mother, and of Arbuthnot. Publication by Curll of Pope's Correspondence. Last Visit to Lord Peterborough 289 CHAPTER IX.— 1736— 1740. The Genuine Edition of Pope's Letters. His Literary Friends. Imita- tions of Horace. Close of the Correspondence with Swift . . 332 CHAPTER X.— 1741— 1744. The New Dunciad. Gibber made Hero of the Poem. Pope's last Ill- ness and Death. The Duchess of Marlborough and Bolingbroke. Conclusion .... - 367 APPENDIX. I. Mapledurham Manuscripts. Case of Richard Savage. Letters of Teresa Blount, Mrs. Howard, Miss Ann Arbuthnot, Biddy Floyd, Mrs. Nelson, Hon. Robert Digby, David Mallet, Hugh Bethell, James Moore-Smythe, and Nathaniel Hooke . . . .419 II. Letters of Voiture's published as Pope's. Note by Douce, the antiquary. Extract from Grub-street Journal . . .441 III. Plan of Pope's Garden and Grotto, by J. Searle . . 445 IV. Pope's Will and Estate. Mrs. Rackett opposes the adminis- tration of the Will. Warburton's Remarks on Martha Blount. George Arbuthnot's Statement of Pope's Affairs, and Letters on the subject to Martha Blount. Account of the Rackett Family . .450 V. Relics of Pope. Seal Ring presented to Warburton. Snuff-box presented to the Rev. A. Pope. Drawing of the Prodigal Son by Pope in Ketley Parsonage 461 VI. The WQls of Pope's Father and Martha Blount . . .463 VII. Family of Mr. Edward Blount, Pope's Friend . .466 VIII. List of Pope's Works 469 IX. Lintot's Account-Book 472 Notes and Corrections 475 Index . 477 ILLUSTRATIONS. 1. Portrait op Horn— Frontispiece. page 2. Pope's Tower, Mapledurham— Title-page. 3. Portrait op Mrs. Pope Jl 4. Pope's House at Binfield 14 5. Pope (when young) pirst sees Dryden at Will's Coffee-house to face 22 6. Pope and Sir Joshua Reynolds in an Auction Room . 23 7. Portrait of Wycherley 31 8. Portrait of Walsh 34 9. Portrait of Tonson 47 10. Portrait of Dennis, by Hogarth 51 11. Mapledurham House 64 12. Portrait of Addison 91 13. Bushy Park 132 14. Portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu . . .134 15. Pope and Mary Lepell to face 135 16. Facsimile of Pope's Handwriting 161 17. Portrait of Atterbury 162 18. Pope's Villa 167 19. Pope's Sketch of his Grotto . . . . . . 175 20. Chapel, Stanton Harcourt . . . . . .185 21. Dawley, the Seat of Lord Bolingbroke . . . . 227 22. Portrait of Elijah Fenton 233 c XIV ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE 23. Crowd op Authors besieging the Publishers to pre- vent THE PUBLICATION OF THE DUNCIAD . toface 264 24. Portrait of Dr. T. Warton 299 25. Portrait of Arbuthnot 310 26. View in Bath 369 27. Pope at Lord Cobham's, at Stowe . . . toface 376 28. Pope on the Thames, at Twickenham . . toface 381 29. Pope surrounded by his Priends, a short time before his Death ....... toface 388 30. Portrait of Lord Lyttelton 402 31. Monument to Pope in Twickenham Church . . . 404 32. Pac-simile of the only Pull-length Portrait of Pope . 407 33. Bust of Pope by Roubiliac 417 34. Plan of Pope's Garden ....... 446 LIFE OF POPE. CHAPTEE I. [1688—1708.] pope's birth, family, and education, his EARLY FRIENDS, SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL, WYCHERLEY, WALSH, AND HENRY CROMWELL. The death of Dryden, on the 1st of May, 1700, left the poetical throne of England vacant, with no prospect of an immediate or adequate successor. His dominion had often "been disputed, and was assailed to the last ; but as every year strengthened his claims, and as the latter portion of his life was the most rich and glorious of his literary career, his ad- versaries ultimately withdrew or became powerless, and his supremacy was firmly established. The magnificent funeral of the poet, though a gaudy and ill-conducted pageant, had a moral that penetrated through the folds of ceremony — it was a public recognition of merits which every effort of envy, faction, and caprice, had been employed to thwart and con- temn. And posterity has amply ratified this acknowledgment of the services of the great national poet. Dryden inherited the faults and vices of his age, and he wanted the higher sensibilities, the purity of taste, and lofty moral feeling that dignify the poet's art. But even when sinning with his con- temporaries he soared far above them, and his English nature at length overcame his French tastes and the fashion of the Court. His sympathies had a wider and nobler range ; his •conceptions were clear and masculine ; and no one approached him in command of the stores of our language — whether 2 LIFE OF POPE. choice and secret or familiar and universal — or in that free, elastic, a,n£ ww/tdirig versification which has so large a compass qf rhythmical melody. He gave to the heroic couplet the Utmost variety of cadence, stateliness, and harmony of which £hat; measure .h susceptible; and his great Ode is still our finest specimen of lyric poetry. These native honours gained and tardily acknowledged, the venerable poet, when ap- proaching the close of his chequered life, bequeathed to Con- greve the care of his posthumous fame. He trusted that his friend would be kind to his remains, and defend him from "the insulting foe," shading those laurels which would descend to himself. The sacred bequest was not neglected ; but Dryden's laurels were destined to descend, not to the successful dramatist, but to one who should follow closely and reverently in his own footsteps, copying his subjects, his manner, and versification ; and adding to them original powers of wit, fancy, and tenderness, and a brilliancy, condensation, and correctness, which even his master did not reach, and which still remain unsurpassed. Alexander Pope was born in London in the memorable year of the Revolution, 1688. The belief in judicial astro- logy was then not utterly exploded, and the professors of this pretended science living in "Westminster — their ancient stronghold — used to exhibit a book of horoscopes of extra- ordinary men, among which was that of Pope. The planetary influences shown in the poet's horoscope proved, they said, that all the great events of his life, known or unknown to the world, were to happen in years of commotion and trouble. His birth was in the year of that revolution which drove the Stuarts into unregretted exile ; his publication of Homer commenced in the year of the Jacobite insurrection of 1715 ; and he died in the year 1744, when an invasion from Prance was attempted ; being the beginning of that struggle which terminated with the victory at Culloden. The old practising astrologers up to a late period boasted that Pope regularly consulted their predecessors. This tradition, however, may be discarded as an invention of the craft ; for probably no distinguished author, having "the vision and the faculty divine," was ever so free as Pope from all superstitious weak- ness or overpowering romance of sentiment. DATE OF POPE S BIRTH. 3 There are few circumstances connected with the history or character of Pope that have not been made the subject of eager discussion ; and we find the diversity of statement take its rise at the fountain-head. The date of his birth and the pedigree of his parents have been controverted. The former cannot be determined by an appeal to that record •where to be born and die Of rich and poor makes all the history." The parish register at that time took no cognizance of the baptism of the children of Roman Catholic parents. But Pope himself sanctioned the statement in Jacob's Poetical Register ( 1723) that he was born in Londou in the year 1688. Another contemporary account, published by Curll, professes to be more specific, adding that the poet was born in Cheap- side on the 8th of June, 1G88, " so that one week produced both Pope and the Pretender." Ayre, in his Memoirs, pub- lished the year after the poet's death, adopts this date, but silently drops Cheapside. A short and worthless Life of Pope, by W. H. Dilworth, 1759, follows Ayre. The next authority purporting to be original, and one which possesses strong claims to attention, is a Life of Pope published by Mr. Owen Ruffhead in 1769. Owen RufFhead was a plodding and prosaic lawyer, editor of the Statutes at Large ; but he obtained information and manuscripts concerning Pope from Bishop "Warburton, the poet's friend, commentator, and literary executor. Ruffhead states that Pope was born in Lombard-street on the 21st of May ; Spence in his Anecdotes gives the same date and place ; while Dr. Johnson — probably from mere inattention — mentions the 22nd of May, and "Warton follows Johnson. The question is still further perplexed by a passage in one of Pope's letters to his friend Gay — a passage worth, quoting for the fine lines it contains : " Mr. Congreve's death touches me nearly. It was twenty years and more that I have known him : every year carries away something dear with it, till we outlive all tendernesses, and become wretched individuals again as we began. Adieu ! This is my birthday, and this is my reflection upon it : " ' With added days if life give nothing new, But like a sieve, let every pleasure through ; b2 4 LIFE OF POPE. Some joy still lost, as each vain year runs o'er, And all we gain, some sad reflection more ! Is this a birthday ? — Tis, alas ! too clear 'Tis but the funeral of the former year.' " No date is given to this letter, but Congreve died on the 19th of January, 1728-9; and as Pope and Gay were in familiar and constant intercourse, it has been inferred that Pope's birthday was near the time of Congreve's death, in the latter end of January or beginning of February. This discrepancy, however, is removed by a simple explanation. In preparing his letters for the press, Pope was in the habit of altering and revising them, and sometimes of making one printed epistle out of two or more written ones. The lines we have quoted formed part of another poem ; and there is little doubt that the latter portion of the above extract was detached from some other letter, or had been added for the sake of the poetry and the sentiment. • The combined testi- mony of Euffhead and Spence is conclusive. The 21st of May, 1688, was Pope's birthday, and Lombard-street, the ancient Exchange of the City, where the merchants, and money-lenders, and sedate citizens, congregated so early as the days of our Edwards and Henries, and where Falstaff dined with Master Smooth, the silkman, possesses the dis- tinction of being his birthplace. With Chaucer, Spenser, Bacon, Milton, Pope, and Gray as her sons, the City of London, always rich and famous for merchandise and Eng- lish spirit, may well claim the honour of being rich also in great poetical and immortal memories. 1 In Lombard-street the poet's father carried on the busi- 1 Spence states that the house in which Pope was born was afterwards (in 1739) occupied by one Mr. Morgan, an apothecary. It would seem to have been continued as an apothecary's or druggist's shop. The fol- lowing particulars are obligingly communicated by Samuel Sharpe, Esq., author of " The History of Egypt," &c. " The house which, by the tradition of its inmates, claims the honour of being Pope's birth- place, is at the bottom of Plough Court, and faces you as you enter the passage from Lombard-street. It belonged to the well-known William Allen, and he succeeded a Mr. Bevan. The present owners say that Mr. Bevan used to relate that in his childhood the house was often visited by persons who came there out of curiosity to see the birthplace of the great poet. Mr. Bevan's memory, were he living, would reach back above a hun- dred years." FAMILY OF POPE. 5 ness of a linen merchant. " He was an honest merchant, and dealt in Hollands wholesale," as his widow informed Mr. Spence. His son claimed for him the honour of being sprung from gentle blood. When that silken baron, Lord Hervey, vice-chamberlain in the Court of George II., and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, disgraced themselves by in- diting the verses containing this couplet : " Whilst none thy crabbed numbers can endure, Hard as thy heart and as thy birth obscure :" Pope indignantly repelled the accusation as to his descent. " I am sorry (he said) to be obliged to such a presumption as to name my family in the same leaf with your lordship's ; but my father had the honour in one instance to resemble you, for he was a younsrer brother. He did not indeed think it a happiness to bury his elcfer brother, though he had one, who wanted some of those good qualities which yours possessed. How sincerely glad could I be, to pay to that young nobleman's memory the debt I owed to his friendship, whose early death deprived your family of as much wit and honour as he left behind him in any branch of it. But as to my father, I could assure you, my lord, that he was no mechanic (neither a hatter, nor, which might please your lordship yet better, a cobbler), but, in truth, of a very tolerable family ; and my mother of an ancient one, as well born and educated as that lady, whom your lordship made choice of to be the mother of your own children; whose merit, beauty, and vivacity (if transmitted to your posterity) will be a better present than even the noble blood they derive only from you. A mother, on whom I was never obliged so far to reflect as to say, she spoiled me ; and a father, who never found himself obliged to say of me, that he disapproved my conduct. In a word, my lord, I think it enough, that my parents, such as they were, never cost me a blush ; and that their son, such as he is, never cost them a tear." 2 In accordance with this representation, and written about the same time, an account of the poet's family was commu- nicated to Curll (signed " P. T.") 5 in which the poet's father is described as of " the younger branch . of a family in good 2 Letter to a Noble Lord. The elder brother of Lord Hervey alluded to was Carr Lord Hervey, son of the Earl of Bristol by his first marriage. The lady whom Pope's "noble lord" made choice of to be the mother of his children, was Miss or Mrs. (as it was then the custom to style unmarried ladies) Mary Lepell, daughter of Brigadier-General Nicholas Lepell, married to Lord Hervey in 1720. 6 LIFE OF POPE. repute in Ireland, and related to the Lord Downe ;" that he was a posthumous son and little provided for, his elder brother (who, it is added, studied and died at Oxford) having inherited what small estate was left, but that the poet's father being put to a merchant in Flanders, acquired a moderate fortune by merchandise. This communication we shall afterwards have occasion to notice in connexion with the publication of Pope's Letters in 1735. There is little doubt that it emanated from the poet himself, and was intended partly to mislead the credulous and inquisitive pub- lisher, and partly to invest Pope's family history with inte- rest and importance. Next year a more authoritative version was given. In a note on his Epistle to Arbuthnot, Pope states that his father was of a gentleman's family in Oxford- shire, the head of which was the Earl of Downe, whose sole heiress married the Earl of Lindsay. Next comes a dhTerent statement by Mr. Pottinger, a relation of the family, who informed Dr. Bolton, Dean of Carlisle, that the poet's grand- father was a clergyman of the Church of England in Hamp- shire, who had two sons, the younger of whom, Alexander, was sent to Lisbon to be placed in a mercantile establish- ment, and that while there he became a convert to the Eoman Catholic Church. 3 Erom these conflicting statements, it is impossible to tell whether the poet's family was of Ireland or of Oxfordshire, and whether his father had in his youth been placed under a merchant in Elanders or in Lisbon. It is probable, however, that the elder Pope had become a con- vert to the Catholic Church. The poet mentions, in one of his letters to Atterbury, that his father's library consisted wholly of books of controversial divinity (" a collection of all that had been written on both sides in the reign of King James II."), and in the case of a conscientious man, inquiry and study would precede the adoption of a new creed. To the same cause we may, perhaps, ascribe his rigid adherence to the Catholic Church, characteristic of a convert, which made the poet afraid to write verses or send profane letters in Holy Week under the eye of his father. Mr. Pottinger, 3 Warton's Essay on Pope, v. ii. p. 256 (edit, of 1806). Kichard Pottinger, M.P. for Heading, died in 1740. This may have been Pope's kinsman ; but his will contains no mention of the Pope family. FAMILY OF POPE. 7 however, repudiated the "fine pedigree" which his cousin the poet had made out for himself. "He wondered where he got it ; he had never heard anything himself of their being descended from the Earls of Downe, and an old maiden aunt, equally related [to Pope], a great genealogist, who was always talking of her family, never mentioned this circumstance, on which she certainly would not have been silent had she known anything of it." The Earl of Guilford (who in- herited the English estates of the Earls of Downe) had ex- amined the pedigrees and descents of that family, and was sure that there were none of the name of Pope left who could be descended from it. 4 The Heralds' Office, according to Mr. Bowles, is equally silent on the subject ; and the poet, it is probable, had been betrayed into a weakness not singular in the history of great names. Pope claimed to be descended from a lord that he might shame Lord Hervey and Lady Mary ; Shakspeare claimed to be descended from ancestors distinguished in the service of Henry VII., that he might obtain a grant of arms to flash in the face of Sir Thomas Lucy and the squires of "Warwickshire ; but both genealogies are pronounced spurious, and the poets had better have trusted to the underived honours of genius, or imitated the spirit of Pope's witty friend, Chesterfield, who, on purpose to ridicule assumptions of ancient and distinguished family descent, hung two old portraits on his wall, inscribed Adam de Stanhope and Eve de Stanhope. 5 No trace of the poet's grandfather, the reputed clergyman in Hampshire, has been obtained. The list of incumbents in 4 Communicated to Warton by John Loveday, of Caversham, Esq. " The Oxford antiquary [Wood's Athen. Oxon.] informs us that Thomas Pope, the young Earl of Downe, died in St. Mary's parish in Oxford, Dec. 28, 1660, aged thirty-eight years ; leaving behind him one only daughter, named Elizabeth, who was married to Henry Francis Lee, of Dichley, in Oxfordshire, and afterwards to Robert, Earl of Lindsey. The earldom of Downe went to Thomas Pope, Esq., his uncle, who likewise leaving no male issue, the estate went away among three daughters, the second of whom was married to Sir Prancis North, afterwards Lord North of Guilford. Both these Earls of Downe were buried at Wroxton, near Banbury, in Oxfordshire, with their ancestors." — Note io letter of P. T. in CurlVs edit, of Pope's Lit. Correspon- dence, vol. ii. 5 Walpole : letter to Sir Horace Mann, Sept. 1, 1750. "The ridicule is admirable," adds Walpole. $ LIFE OF POPE. the Archdeacons' Registry at "Winchester goes no farther back than 1660, and the name of Pope does not occur in it ; nor is there any will or grant of letters of administration in the Bishops' or Archdeacons' Registry of any person likely to be the grandfather of the poet. 6 Families of the name of Pope were at that time widely scattered over several of the counties of England, and in the registers of the Prerogative "Will Office in Doctors' Commons, at least a hundred persons of the name will be found between the years 1600 and 1700. 7 It is worthy of notice, that the name was also common at an early period in the north of Scotland, and that its possessors were remarkable for their adherence to the Roman Catholic Church, as well as for the prevalence amoogst them, through successive generations, of the Christian name of Alexander. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries there were Popes, traders of good account, in Scotland. In 1546, Alexander Pope appears in a deed of the prebendaries and chaplains of King's College, Aberdeen, and twenty years afterwards he was appointed one of the authorities for the suppression of the "rising heresy" then on the eve of resulting in the Reformation. In the MS. records of the College of Douay is the name of Alexander Pope, a priest, who died in 1596. After the Reformation, in 1622, Alexander and "William Pope, burgesses of Aberdeen, were cited before the Kirk Session as Romish recusants. Two other burgesses of that city, George and Gilbert Pope, were driven abroad by the' persecution of the Roman Catholics, and are found in Prance between the years 1630 and 1640 — Gilbert at Havre as a. trader, and George at Paris as " Garde de Marche," or one of the Scottish Guards of the King of Prance. 8 Another 6 Information communicated by Charles Wooldridge, Esq., Winchester, who kindly undertook a search for the purpose. 7 In Hampshire there was a succession of Popes possessors of Durley. The name is found in all the southern and midland counties, and in London. A, certain Richard Pope, scrivener, in St. Nicholas-lane, was law agent, and afterwards churchwarden of the united parishes of St. Edmund the King and St. Nicholas Aeons (in which Lombard-street is situated) from 1697 to 1702. 8 It was long remembered with pride in the families of these u Cavalieros of Fortune," that the Scotch Guard kept the French King company in his private apartments, and that in testimony of their loyalty twenty-six of the number wore white coats of a peculiar fashion, overlaid with lace : six of THE REV. A. POPE OF CAITHNESS. 9. branch of the Popes appeared in the county of Eoss in the sixteenth century, whence they spread to the neighbouring counties of Sutherland and Caithness. One of these. Hector Pope, Minister of Loth, was one of the last of the parish ministers of Scotland who retained the "prelatical" liturgy and ceremonial. His son, Alexander Pope, was the Presby- terian minister of Eeay, a rural parish in the county of Caithness. This northern Alexander Pope entertained a profound admiration for his illustrious namesake of Eng- land ; and it is a curious and well-ascertained fact, that the simple, enthusiastic clergyman, in the summer of 1732, rode on his pony all the way from Caithness to Twickenham in order to pay the poet a visit. The latter (according to a family, but not very probable, tradition) felt his dignity a little touched by the absence of the necessary " pomp and circumstance" with which the minister first presumed to ap- proach his domicile ; but after the ice of outward ceremony had melted, and their intellects had come in contact, the poet was interested in his visitor, and a friendly feeling was established between them. Several interviews took place, the minister dined with Pope and Bolingbroke, and the poet presented his good friend and namesake, the minister of Eeay, with a copy of the subscription edition of the Odyssey, in five volumes, quarto — a present which was highly valued, and is still preserved. An occasional correspondence was afterwards kept up between them, of which one letter re- mains : " Twickenham, April 28, 1738. " Sib, — I received yours, in which I think you pay me more than is due to me for the accidental advantage which it seems my name has brought you. Whatever that name be, it will prove of value and credit when an honest man bears it, and never else ; and therefore I will rather imagine your own good conduct has made it fortunate to you. It is certain I think myself obliged to those persons who do you service in my name, and I am always willing to correspond with you when it can be in any way beneficial to you, as you see by my these in turn stood next to the royal person on all occasions. Some Scottish antiquaries have attempted to trace the poet to these northern Popes ; but the extracts furnished us by Joseph Kobertson, Esq., of the Register House, Edinburgh — a zealous and obliging archaeologist — do not countenance the supposition. 10 LIFE OF POPE. speedy answer to your last. I should think it an impertinence to write my Lady Sutherland, or I would do so to thank her for the great distinction you tell me she shows me, who have no other merit than loving it wherever I find it, be it in persons of quality or pea- sants. I am not any altered from what you saw me only by some years, which give me less solicitude for myself (as I am going to want nothing ere it be long), than for others vho are to live after me in a world which is none of the best. I am, sincerely, your well-wisher and affectionate servant — A. Pope. " To Mr. Alexander Pope, at Thurso, in the county of Caithness, North Britain." 9 In the case of his maternal parent, Pope has stated that she was the daughter of William Turner, Esq., of York, who was married to Thomasine Newton. " She had three brothers, one of whom was killed ; another died in the ser- vice of King Charles [Charles I.] ; the eldest, following his fortunes, and becoming a general officer in Spain, left her what estate remained after the sequestrations and forfeitures of her family." 10 It is certain that in "Worsborough Dale, in Yorkshire, a house is still pointed out in which, according to tradition, Editha or Edith Turner was born. This antique mansion is called Marrow House, from the name of a subse- 9 From certified copy in the possession of W. Murray, Esq., of Geanies, Ross-shire. The original was in the hands of the late Joseph Gordon, "W.S., Edinburgh. Mr. Pope, the clergyman, was a good scholar and antiquary. He translated Torfceus's Orcades, and was author of the Description of the Shires of Caithness, Strathnaver, and Sutherland. (See Pennant's Tour, 1774.) Also, Description of the Dune of Dornadilla, Archaeologia, 1779. 10 Note on Epistle to Arbuthnot, and account of Mrs. Pope's death in Grub-street Journal, June 14, 1733. The latter was evidently written by the poet. In the biographical statement sent to Curll, signed " P. T." (which we assume to have been Pope's), it is also mentioned that his mother " was one of the seventeen children of William Turnor, Esq., formerly of Burfit Hall, in the * * * Riding of Yorkshire : two of her brothers were killed in the Civil Wars." In a letter to Swift, dated March 29, Pope says that the previous day was his mother's birthday. The poet's parents were apparently both of the same age, born in 1642, and consequently in their forty-sixth year at the time of Pope's birth. The latter states that his mother was ninety-three years of age at the period of her death, in 1733, but the entry in the register (her baptism following that of an elder sister) would seem to make her age only ninety-one. Swift had the same impres- sion. " I buried the famous General Meredith's father last night in my cathedral ; he was ninety-six years old, so that Mrs. Pope may live seven years longer." — Letter to Gat/, May 4, 1732. POPE S MOTHEE. 11 MRS. FOPE. quent owner of the property ; but its ancient name was Godscroft. The baptism of the poet's mother, together with that of three of her sisters, is recorded in the parish register of Worsborough, and is quoted by Mr. Hunter in his ac- count of the Deanery of Doncaster : 1641. Nov. 20, baptised Martha, daughter of Mr. William Turner. 1642. Jtme 18, baptised Edith, daughter of Mr. William Turner. 1643. Sept. 1, baptised Margaret, daughter of Mr. William Turner. 1645. Nov. 25, baptised Jane, daughter of Mr. William Turner. Neither Mr. Hunter nor a previous genealogist, Brooke, had been oble to trace this "William Turner's connexion with Worsborough (of which he was apparently not a native), or to bring to light any circumstances of his situation in life ; but the former concludes that the addition of " Mr." would not have been at that period given to his name if he had not been 12 LIFE OF POPE. regarded as something above the mere yeomanry of the time. 11 The same addition, it will be recollected, distinguishes Shak- speare's father, in the town records of Stratford-upon-Avon, from a certain John Shakspeare, a shoemaker, who long troubled and confused the antiquaries. Another sister of the poet's mother, named Christiana, was married to Samuel Cooper, the celebrated portrait-painter, to whom both Crom- well and Charles the Second sat, and whose widow is said to have enjoyed a pension from the French Court, in acknow- ledgment of similar services by her husband. Cooper was termed " Vandyke in miniature," and he was the friend of Butler, author of Hudibras — honourable distinctions to him both as an artist and a man. He died in London in 1672 ; there is no mention of the Popes in his will — the connexion was in all probability not then formed — but one of the witnesses to the will is "Thomasin Turner," no doubt the mother or an elder sister of Mrs. Cooper and Mrs. Pope. Mrs. Cooper survived till 1693, and from her will we learn something of other maternal relatives of the poet. She leaves small legacies to her sisters, Elizabeth Turner, Alice Mawhood, Mary Turner ; also to her sister Marc, and her sister Jane Smith ; and to her sister Pope is this bequest : "My necklace of pearl and a grinding -stone and muller, and my mother's picture in limning." To her brothers (brothers-in-law), Marc, Calvert, Pope, and Smith, she leaves each a broad piece of gold. The poet, then only five years of age, is not forgotten : " To my nephew and godson, Alexander Pope, my painted china dish, with a silver foot and a dish to set it in ; and, after my sister Elizabeth Turner's decease, I give him all my books, pictures, and medals set in gold or otherwise." The nephew, even in infancy, must have ex- hibited a fondness for books and pictures, and his personal deformity combined with this may have suggested that he should become an artist and inherit the " grinding-stone and muller" which his uncle- in-law had used with so much success. Mrs. Cooper, in her will, desires to be decently buried at the parish church of St. Pancras, " as near my dear husband as may be ;" and against the south wall of St. Pancras Church is a tablet, surmounted by a palette and 11 Hunter's Deanery of Doncaster, v. ii. p. 292. pope's pathek. 13 pencils, to the memory of Samuel Cooper: "the arms are those of Sir Edward Turner, Speaker of the House of Commons in the reign of Charles II., at whose expense it is probable the monument was erected." 13 He would seem at least to have been related to the family of Mrs. Cooper and Mrs. Pope. Of no less than fourteen sisters and three brothers Edith Pope came at last to be the sole survivor. She lived to a great age, and had the rare felicity of seeing her son — her only child — crowned with comparative wealth and the highest literary honours, the companion of nobles, and the first poet of his age ; and she experienced from him the most devoted attention and unbounded affection. " Friend ! may each domestic bliss be thine ! Be no unpleasing melancholy mine : Me, let the tender office long engage, To rock the cradle of reposing age, With lenient arts extend a mother's breath, Make languor smile, and smooth the bed of death, Explore the thought, explain the asking eye, And keep awhile one parent from the sky !" Epistle to Arbuthnot. The elder Pope had been successful in business. He had saved, according to the poet's friend, Martha Blount, about 1 0,000 1. His fortune was probably larger than this ; but he was unambitious and fond of the country ; and when the Revolution came, destroying the hopes and even endangering the lives and property of the Roman Catholics, he withdrew from the City. He was then only forty-six years of age ; but having only one son, and that one of delicate frame, and from the religion of his parents disqualified for any important civil employment, there was little in his case to tempt the further pursuit of fortune. He may not, however, have altogether abandoned trade when he retired from London, 13 and it is 12 Cunningham's Hand-book for London. The will of Mrs. Cooper is preserved in Doctors' Commons. It is dated May 16, 1693, and was proved on the 28th of August of the same year. The sole executor was her nephew, Samuel Mawhood, citizen and fishmonger of London. 13 Mr. Bowles was informed by a respectable inhabitant of Binfield (who had seen the document) that in the deed by which his estate, when sold, was conveyed, he was entitled " Alexander Pope, merchant of Kensington." 14 LIFE OP POPE. certain that he carried his careful business habits into the management of his property in the country. He retired to POPE S HOUSE AT EINFIELD. Binfield, in "Windsor Forest, about nine miles from the town And Dr. Wilson, a former rector of Binfield, stated to Lysons, the topo- grapher, that Pope, the poet, did not go to Binfield till he was six years of age. The father may have previously resided in Kensington, but Ave have no evidence of such residence. In his will made in February 1710-11, he styles himself " gentleman." Hearne, the antiquary, who had a grudge at the poet for the sarcastic notice of him in the Dunciad, has the following curious entry in his diary : " 1729, July 18, Mr. Alexander Pope, the poet's father, was a poor, ignorant man, a tanner at Binfield, in Berks. This Mr. Alexander Pope had a little house there, that he had from his father, but hath now sold it to one Mr. Tanner, an honest man. This Alexander Pope, though he be an English poet, yet he is but an indifferent scholar, mean at Latin, and can hardly read Greek. He is a very ill-natured man, and covetous, and excessively proud." — Reliquice Eearniana, Oxford, 1857. In another place, Hearne styles old Pope a " sort of broken merchant," but afterwards remarks that he left his son BOOL or 400/. a year. The poet, he says, was born at Binfield. This we do not believe, but the assertion that a Mr. Tanner, " an honest man," succeeded the Popes at Binfield, is supported by a note of Doncastle's, Hearne's Supp. Volume, p. 119. BINFIELD. 15 of Windsor, and two from the post-town of Oakingham or "Wokingham. In this skirt of the great forest, situated in the tract called the Royal Chase, the elder Pope purchased twenty- acres of land and a small house near the public road. Eco- nomy was necessary in the management of their moderate competency, especially as Catholics were then subjected to double taxes as well as penal statutes. The retired and cautious merchant is said to have put his money in a strong- box and lived upon the principal ; and this statement appearing in Ruffhead's Life, under the authority of War- burton, was continued by Johnson and all the subsequent biographers of Pope. In this, however, as in other instances, Warburton appears to have known little of the family history of the poet. Besides Binfield, the elder Pope possessed pro- perty at Windsham, or Windlesham, in the count}' of Surrey, and a yearly rent-charge upon the manor of Euston, in York- shire. He had also money invested for himself and his son on French securities, to all whicli father and son devoted prudent and zealous attention. 14 The family was comfortable — com- paratively rich in their own sphere of life, which shaded more into the high than the middle rank of provincial society. Pope, in one of his letters, has said " that he never had a sister." He had, however, a half-sister, Magdalen, the daughter apparently of his father by a previous marriage. 15 14 In June, 1713, Pope thus wrote to a friend, though the passage does not appear in any of the printed letters : " I have a kindness to beg of you — that you would please to engage either your son or some other correspondent you can depend upon at Paris, to take the trouble of looking himself into the books of the Hotel de Ville, to be satisfied if our name be there inserted for 3030 livres at ten per cent, life-rent on Sir Richard Cantilon's life, to begin Midsummer, 1705. And again in my father's name, for my life, for 5520 livres at ten per cent., to begin July, 1707." Again, apparently to the same correspondent : " We are all very much obliged to you for the care of our little affair abroad, which, I hope, you will have an account of, or else we may have great cause to complain of Mr. A.'s, or his correspondent's negligence, since he promised my father to write (as he pressed him to do) some time before your journey. He has received the fifth bill, but it seems the interest was agreed at 51. 10s. per cent, in the bond, which my father lays his commands upon me to mention as a thing he doubts not you forgot." — Athenceum, July 8, 1854. 15 In his will (see Appendix), Pope's father mentions, " My son-in-law, Charles Rackett, and my dear daughter Magdalen." We agree with Mr. Cunningham (Johnson's Lives, v. iii. p. 4) that this language indicates that 16 LIFE OF POPE. This lady was afterwards married to a Mr. Charles Rackett, of Staines, in Middlesex, by whom she had three sons, and her family was regarded with kindred affection by Pope, who assisted them liberally during his life, and made a pro- vision for them by his will. The utmost harmony seems to have subsisted between the two families. The burdens and privations consequent on adherence to the Romish Church appear to have been borne with patience by the elder Pope : " And certain laws, by sufferers thought unjust, Denied all posts of profit or of trust : Hopes after hopes of pious Papists fail'd, While mighty William's thundering arm prevail'd. For right hereditary tax'd and fin'd, He stuck to poverty with peace of mind ; And me the Muses help'd to undergo it, Convict a Papist he, and I a poet." Imit. of Horace, Ep. ii. b. ii. The laws against the Eoman Catholics, in spite of the efforts of " mighty "William," were marked by a Draco-like severity, but they were leniently administered. By the act of 1700, it appears that perpetual imprisonment was adjudged as the penalty for any priest exercising his clerical functions, with a premium of 100Z. to the informer. Every Catholic was required, on arriving at the age of eighteen, to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and to renounce transub- stantiation ; without which he could not purchase or inherit lands, and the inheritance passed to the next of kin being a Protestant. To keep a school, board youth, or even profess the woman was nearer related to him than the man. Yet the poet, in his will, styles Mrs. Rackett his sister-in-law. In some legal proceedings before the Prerogative Court, arising out of the administration of Pope's will, Mrs. Rackett is described as the sister and next of kin of the deceased, and such relationship is admitted by the executors. She must have been married while the family resided at Binfield, but as this was before the Marriage Act of 26th George II., the parties, being Catholics, were under no legal obli- gation to celebrate the marriage in the parish church, or according to the ritual of the Church of England. The Rev. Mr. Randal, of Binfield, was kind enough to examine the register of marriages from 1690 to 1720, but found no entry of the marriage of Magdalen Pope, or of any female bearing the Christian name of Magdalen. THE POPE MANSION AT BINEIELD. 17 Catholicism, was made a crime liable on conviction to a penalty of 1001. It is creditable to the national character that though our ancestors had the bigotry to pass such per- secuting laws, they had not the cruelty to carry them into effect in the same spirit. The Catholics, however, were a proscribed class, and had to submit to popular contumely and insult, which were still further aggravated after the in- surrection of 1715. No popular voice was raised in their favour. Bolingbroke was among the legislative persecutors, Garth subscribed money to burn effigies of the pope and cardinals, Swift's irony and indignation sought a different direction, and Pope consulted his ease and safety in silence. "With "bated breath and whispering humbleness," the Papists held on their way, and such nurture was ill-suited to the formation of an erect and manly spirit in the poet of Windsor Porest. The favourite occupation of the elder Pope was his garden : " Plants, cauliflowers, and boasts to rear The earliest melons of the year." And his success was not inconsiderable; for Sir "William Trumbull — a retired statesman, whose seat was about two miles distant — envied Mr. Pope's skill in gardening, and acknowledged that he could not grow such artichokes as those which the retired merchant of Binfield occasionally presented him with. The Pope mansion was described by the poet as " A little house, with trees a row, And like its master very low." It has since been raised and transformed into a handsome villa residence. Two of the trees, noble elms, still remain at the gate of the house, and the poet's study has been pre- served. On the lawn is a cypress-tree which Pope is said to have planted — a tradition common to all poetical residences. Milton has still an apple-tree at Horton and a mulberry-tree at Cambridge ; and Shakspeare's mulberry-tree, with the story of its ruthless and Gothic destruction, has a fame almost as universal as his dramas. The enthusiasm of poetical admira- tion seeks for such tangible objects as seeming to give us an c 18 LIFE OF POPE. earthly hold on immortal minds, and invests them with the interest of holy relics. Part of the forest of Windsor now bears the name of Pope's Wood, and among those tall, spreading beeches with smooth, grey, fluted trunks, he first met the Muse, and " lisped in numbers." 16 His country re- tirement and sylvan w T alks were highly important at this sus- ceptible period of life in the formation of Pope's poetical character. He soon ceased to be a descriptive poet, and, with a weakness observable on other subjects, he depreciated what he did not adopt or prefer. Description was with him synonymous with imbecility ; but the censure can only apply to weak versifiers and to bad description. No eminent poet of this class who has made nature his study confines himself wholly to external or inanimate phenomena. Thomson and Cowper link their descriptions to the natural emotions and finer sentiments of the heart, and to all the healthful and ex- hilarating occupations of rural life. They make the "world's tired denizens" breathe a fresher and purer existence ; they connect with national or local scenes historical and patriotic events ; or, taking a wider survey, they awaken those primary solemn and religious feelings with which men in all ages and countries have regarded the grander aspects of the visible universe. Pope's physical constitution, no doubt, helped to shape his mental habits ; but it was fortunate that he had this early taste of the country. His recollections of Windsor Porest, and of the mornings and sunsets he had enjoyed within its broad circumference of shade, or from the " stately brow" of its historic heights, may be tracked like the fresh green of spring along the fiery course of his satire, and 16 " There was a particular beech- tree under which Pope used to sit, and it is the tradition of the place, that under that tree he composed the Windsor Forest. The original tree being decayed, Lady Gower of Bill-hill had a memorial carved upon the bark of another immediately adjoining : ' Here Pope Sung.' During Lady Gower's life the letters were new cut every three or four years." — Bowles, 1806. This tree was destroyed by a storm about thirty years since ; but there is still a fine grove of beeches on the spot, which is elevated, and commands a rich and extensive view. There are no traditional accounts of Pope or of any of his friends extant about Binfield. The neighbourhood is a very changeable one, and no family, gentle or simple, has been there long enough to become the repository of an}* tra- dition of that period. pope's infancy. 19 through the mazes of his metaphysics. Milton, let us re- member, was familiar with the same scenery. Horton is within sight of Windsor, and the great poet must often have listened to the echoes of the royal chase in the forest. In his five years of retirement at Horton — a paradisiacal lustrum of unbroken tranquillity and study — Milton composed his Lycidas and Comus, and, probably, his Allegro and Pense- roso. There he inhaled that love of nature which never de- serted him, even when he could see it only with that " inward eye" that told " Of things invisible to mortal sight." Pope excelled all his contemporaries, and led the public taste in graceful and picturesque landscape gardening. He had an exquisite eye for dressed nature, nature trimmed by Kent, 17 the lawn, the grove, and parterre ; the variety of perspective, the multiplied walks, and bounded wilderness. But Milton's description of the garden of Eden shows how well the epic bard had imbibed in youth, and intensely appreciated, that true taste which makes art the handmaid of nature. Prom his infancy Pope was considered a prodigy. He had inherited from his father a crooked body, and from his mo- ther a sickly constitution, perpetually subject to severe head- aches ; and hence great care and tenderness were required in his nurture. His faithful nurse, Mary Beach, lived to see him a great man ; and when she died, in 1725, the poet erected a stone over her grave, at Twickenham, to tell that Alexander Pope, whom she nursed in infancy, and affec- tionately attended for twenty-eight years, was grateful for her services. He had nearly lost his life when a child, from a wild cow that threw him down, and with her horns wounded him in the neck. He charmed all the household by his gen- tleness and sensibility, and, in consequence of the sweet- 17 " Pleased let me own, in Esher's peaceful grove, Where Kent and Nature vie for Pelham's love." Ep. to Satires. "William Kent [born 1685, died 1748] was considered by Walpole the in- ventor of modern gardening : "he leaped the sunk fence and saw that all nature was a garden." Pope both instructed and was instructed by Kent. c2 20 LIFE OF POPE. ness of his voice, was called " the little nightingale." This distinction seems to have continued, for Lord Orrery men- tions that " honest Tom Southern," the dramatist, used, in advanced life, to apply to him the same musical appellation. He was taught his letters by an old aunt, and he taught himself to write by copying from printed books. This art he also retained through life, and often practised with sin- gular neatness and proficiency. Johnson remarks that his ordinary hand was not elegant. But this opinion must have been formed from a hasty survey of the Homer MSS. in the British Museum, which are carelessly written and crowded with interlineations. His letters to Henry Crom- well (the originals of many of which still exist), his letters to ladies and his inscriptions in books presented to his friends, are specimens of fine, clear, and scholar-like pen- Pope's first education was, as he informs Spence, " ex- tremely loose and disconcerted." The family priest, named Banister, taught him the accidence and first parts of gram- mar by adopting the method followed in the Jesuits' schools of teaching the rudiments of Latin and Greek together. He then attended two little schools, at which he learned nothing. The first of these, according to Spence, was the Catholic se- minary at Twyford, near Winchester, but it is as likely to have been at Twyford on the river Loddon, near Binfield. At Twyford he remained a twelvemonth, and wrote a lam- poon on his master for some faults he had discovered in him — so early had he assumed the characters of critic and satirist. He was flogged for the offence, and his indulgent father, in resentment, took him away, and placed him in a London school. This was kept by Thomas Deane, one of King James's converts in Oxford, who had been a Pellow of Uni- versity College, but declared " non-socius" after the Revolu- tion. Deane was a vain, restless controversialist, and had stood in the pillory in 1691, under the name of Thomas Pranks, for concealing the author of a libellous pamphlet against the Government. He is said to have been the author of "An Essay towards a Proposal for Catholic Communion," 1704, but this work seems above the pitch of his intellect. He was often in prison, and was all his life, as Pope said, " a POPE AT SCHOOL IN LONDON. 21 dupe to some project or other." 18 Deane had a school first at Marylebone, and afterwards at Hyde- Park-corner, at both of which Pope was under his charge. "I began writing verses," he says, "farther back than I can well remember." Ogilby's translation of Homer was one of the first large poems he read, and, in after life, he spoke of the rapture it afibrded him. " I was then about eight years old. This led me to Sandys' s Ovid, which I liked extremely, and so I did a translation of part of Statius by some very bad hand. "When I was about twelve, I wrote a kind of play, which I got to be acted by my schoolfellows. It was a number of speeches from the Iliad tacked together with verses of my own." Ruff head says the part of Ajax was performed by the mas- ter's gardener, who certainly would look the character, how- ever the poetry might suffer, better than his juvenile asso- ciates. Mr. Deane was a careless, remiss teacher, and what with studying plays and making verses, and attending the theatre in company with the older boys, Pope made so little progress, that on leaving school he was only able, he says, to construe a little of Tully's Offices. Pie was better acquainted with Dryden than with Cicero, and his boyish admiration and curiosity led him to obtain a sight of the living poet. He prevailed upon a friend, according to "Warburton, to accom- pany him to town and introduce him to "Will's coffee-house, the famous resort of wits, authors, actors, and play-goers, in Bow-street. Mr. Eoscoe conjectured that the friend alluded to was Sir Charles Wogan, who, in a letter to Swift, boasts that he had the honour of bringing Mr. Pope from his retreat in the Porest, to " dress a la mode and introduce at Will's coffee-house." Now, Pope was only twelve years of age when 18 Athenamm, July 15, 1854. Pope, in 1727, when Deane was again in prison, kindly offered to contribute towards a -small yearly pension to his old master. A correspondent of Curll's, " E. P." gives an account, as from per- sonal knowledge, of Pope having, before his twelfth year, attended a school in Devonshire-street, near Bloomsbury, taught by another convert to Popery, William Bromley. The incident of the satire and the whipping is transferred to this school. (Pope's Lit. Corresp., v. ii.) The narrative, we suspect, is fabulous — another of Pope's tricks on Curll. The importance of the poet is always kept up. The " late Duke of Norfolk" was at the Devonshire school along with " Mr. Alexander Pope." 22 LIFE OF POPE. Dry den died, and the" idea of a boy of twelve dressing a la mode and frequenting a coffee-house is preposterous. Sir Charles "Wogan must have referred to a later period. The youthful poet may have been taken to "Will's for the purpose of obtaining a sight of Dryden, but it is as likely that he had stolen away from his school at Hyde Park-corner to watch Dryden in Gerard-street, near his own door, or have seen him at the theatre or in Tonson's shop. " I saw Mr. Dryden," he said to Spence, "when I was about twelve years of age. I remember his face well, for I looked upon hiin even then with veneration, and observed him very particularly." He barely saw him, as he said to Wycherley — Virgilium tmi- tum vidi; but he remembered that he was plump, of a fresh colour, with a down look, and not very conversable — agreeing with Dryden' s own confession — " To learning bred, I knew not what to say." But in his highest mood of inspiration, as when composing his great Ode — sitting out the summer night in tremulous excitement, his grey locks waving in the early dawn — Dryden was a very different sort of person. Dr. Johnson finely re- marks, " "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?" Yet, considering the perils and uncertainty of a literary life, its precarious re- wards, feverish anxieties, mortifications, and disappointments, joined to the tyranny of the Tonsons and Lintots, and the malice and envy of dunces — all of which Dryden had long and bitterly experienced — the aged poet could hardly have looked on the delicate and deformed boy, whose preter- natural acuteness and sensibility were seen in his keen dark eyes, without a feeling approaching to grief, had he known that he was to fight a battle like that under which he was himself then sinking, even though the Temple of Fame should at length open its portals to receive him. 19 The die, 19 A similar act of homage, among many others, was paid to Pope him- self by a youth who also rose to eminence. Northcote, in his Life of Rey- nolds, mentions, that one day at a public auction, numerously attended, Pope unexpectedly made his appearance. The moment he was seen a whisper EAELY STUDIES. 23 however, was cast. "My next period," says Pope, "was in Windsor Forest, where I sat down with an earnest desire of reading, and applied as constantly as I could to it for some years. I was between twelve and thirteen when I went thi- ther, and I continued in this close pursuit of pleasure and languages till nineteen or twenty. Considering how very little I had, when I came from school, I think I may be said to have taught myself Latin as well as French and Greek, and TOPE AND SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS IN AN AUCTION ROOM. in all these my chief way of getting them was by translation." He afterwards said of himself, passed through the room, an avenue was formed to admit his free approach, every hand was stretched out to bid him welcome, and the future Sir Joshua Reynolds succeeded, by thrusting his hand under the arm of another person, to catch hold of that of the poet. 24 LIFE OF POPE. " Bred up at home, full early I begun To read in Greek the wrath of Pelus' son." No critical scholar, however, has given Pope credit for profi- ciency in the language of Homer, or pronounced his scheme of self-instruction to have been a successful experiment. He forced his way into the chambers of ancient literature, but he never obtained complete possession of the treasures with which they are stored. His case may be held to support the argument in favour of public schools ; but at the same time it affords an animating example to the young student who has been denied the inestimable advantages of early training and discipline. Classic studies were varied by attempts at original compo- sition. Pope's father used to set him when very young to make verses ; and, as his mother related to Spence, often sent him back to " new turn" them, saying, " ' These are not good rhymes,' for that was my husband's word for verses." The pupil, however, soon shot far ahead of his master. His Ode on Solitude was written, he says, when he was not twelve years old, and a Paraphrase on Thomas a Kempis, recently published, is also marked by the author as " done at twelve years old." The train of sentiment and imagery in these poems exhibits Pope in his most engaging mood — as the retired, pious boy, charming his parents by his poetical talents and affectionate sweetness, and delighting to contem- plate in his forest solitude a life of leisure and studj r . But this was only a part of bis nature. Other powers and pas- sions were developing themselves in secret. His proneness to satire was soon manifested, and some verses which he wrote, when only fourteen, on Elkanah Settle, the City poet, and the Doeg of Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, are highly characteristic as well as remarkable for their ability. Some of Pope's translations and imitations of the English poets go back to nearly the same period, and all evince great skill and command of versification. In this branch of his art, Pope unquestionably surpassed Milton, Cowley, or Chatterton, whose early productions, though more strongly imbued with poetical fancy and ambition (poor Chatterton at twelve or thirteen had all the " fine POETICAL LESSONS. 25 translunary madness" of the creative poet), are crude and defective in style. Pope as a versifier was never a boy. He was born to refine our numbers and to add the charm of finished elegance to our poetical literature, and he was ready for his mission at an age when most embryo poets are labour- ing at syntax, or struggling for expression. JSTor was it only his taste and fine ear for metrical harmony that were thus early developed. His power of condensing thought and em- bodying observation in language terse and appropriate, his critical judgment, the satirical bias of his mind, and a ten- dency, it must be confessed, to dwell on indelicate and dis- agreeable images, all are visible in these juvenile poems. Waller, Spenser, and Dry den were Pope's favourite poets, and when a boy, he said, he could distinguish the difference between softness and sweetness in their versification. On the same points, Dryden is found to be softer, "Waller sweeter ; and the same distinction prevails between Ovid and Virgil. The Eclogues of Yirgil he thought the sweetest poems in the world. Some further notices of Pope's boyish studies and predilections are given in Spence : u The epic poem, which I begun a little after I was twelve, was Alcander, Prince of Rhodes. There was an under-water scene in the first book ; it was in the Archipelago. I wrote four books toward it of about a thousand verses each ; and had the copy by me till I burnt it by the advice of the Bishop of Rochester, a little before he went abroad. I endeavoured (said he, smiling) in this poem to collect all the beauties of the great epic writers into one piece: there was Milton's style in one part, and Cowley's in another ; here the style of Spenser imitated, and there of Statius ; here Homer and Virgil, and there Ovid and Claudian." It was an imitative poem, then, as your other exercises were imitations of this or that story ? " Just that. 3 ' Mr. Pope wrote verses imitative of sounds so early as in this epic poem. " ' Shields, helms, and swords all jangle as they hang, And sound formidinous with angry clang.' " There were also some couplets in it which I have since inserted in some of my other poems without any alteration. As in the Essay on Criticism : 2§ LIFE OF POPE. " ' Whose honours with increase of ages grow, As streams roll ckwn enlarging as they flow.' " Another couplet in the Dunciad : " ' As man's meanders to the vital spring Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring.' " Iii the scattered lessons I used to set myself about that time I translated above a quarter of the Metamorphoses, and that part of Statius which was afterwards printed with the corrections of Walsh. My next work after my epic was my Pastorals, so that I did exactly what Virgil says of himself : " ' Cum canerem reges et prcelia, Cynthius aurem Vellit, et admonuit ; pastorem, Tityre, pingues Pascere oportet oves ; deductum dicere carmen.' — Eclog. vi. 3. [" ' I first transferred to Rome Sicilian strains ; Nor blush'd the Doric Muse to dwell on Mantuan plains. But when I tried her tender voice, too young, And fighting kings and bloody battles sung, Apollo check'd my pride, and bade me feed My fattening flocks, nor dare beyond the reed.' — Dryden.~] "I translated Tully's piece De Senectute in this early period, and there is a copy of it in Lord Oxford's library. My first taking to imitating was not out of vanity but humility. I saw how defective my own things were, and endeavoured to mend my manner by copy- ing good strokes from others. My epic was about two years in hand, from thirteen to fifteen." These citations exhibit the early tastes and indefatigable application of Pope. There are errors, however, in Spence's statement, which forbid implicit reliance on all his reve- lations, 20 and it should be borne in mind that none of Pope's 20 Atterbury, for example, did not advise the burning of the epic poem. In a letter to Pope, Feb. 18, 1717, he says, "I am not sorry your Alcander is burnt ; had I known your intentions I would have interceded for the first page, and put it, with your leave, among my curiosities." This was six years before Atterbury went abroad. There is no evidence of Walsh having corrected the Statius ; Cromwell was the party, though AValsh corrected the Pastorals. Spence also makes Pope say, that he submitted the Essay on Criticism to Walsh in the year 1706, whereas it was not written till 1709, a year after Walsh's death. GREAT READING PERIOD. 27 juvenile poems were published before he was in his twen- tieth year, and it is probable that all underwent careful correction. Even after their publication many (including the Ode on Solitude) were retouched. He was too critical, and too jealous of his reputation, to suffer any gross verbal inaccuracies or puerilities to remain even in his specimens of youthful composition. He never tired of correcting, and the lima labor was seldom misplaced. The system of self-tuition by which Pope endeavoured to acquire the Latin and Greek was unsuited to modern lan- guages, in which pronunciation forms so essential a part. He therefore, in his fifteenth year, went to London to learn French and Italian. In the family at Binfield this was looked upon as "a wildish sort of resolution," for as his health would not permit him to travel, they could not see any reason for it. Mrs. Eackett said her brother " had a maddish way with him," and "Rag Smith" (Edmund Smith, the dra- matic poet), after being in Pope's company when he was about fourteen, pronounced the oracular opinion that the young fellow would " either be a madman or make a very great poet." 21 Pope never wanted the golden curb of prudence in forming literary plans and decisions on men or books ; but his eager thirst for knowledge, his incessant studies, im- patience, and irritability must often have made him appear wayward and capricious in the family circle, though his talents and affectionate disposition rendered him an object of all but idolatry. He did not make much progress with his Erench and Italian in London. Voltaire said Pope knew nothing of Erench, but it is evident he could read it. 23 "With Italian literature he never evinced any acquaintance ; and after a few months' stay in the metropolis, the impatient poet aban- 21 Spence, Singer's edit. p. 25. Most of the details of Pope's early life are drawn from this popular work. 22 Illustrations of this occur in the early letters to Cromwell. He read Voiture. He had also sent his friend some " love verses" for correction, and on receiving Cromwell's strictures he replies, " Your judgment of 'em, which you give in French, is (I think) very right." The words in italics are in the original, not in the printed copies. Yet we find Pope using the following forms of superscription: "A Mademoiselles Therese and Marth. Blount." 4 Au Mademoiselles, Mademoiselles de Mapledurham." 28 LIFE OF POPE. doued the aid of masters, and was again alone at his studies in the Forest. He had then what he termed his great reading period of several years. " I followed everywhere as my fancy led me, and was like a boy gathering flowers in the fields and woods, just as they fall in his way." The five or six years spent in this way he looked back upon as the happiest part of his life, though he also told Spence that he was seven years (from the age of twenty to twenty-seven) unlearning what he had then acquired. We question whether he could have followed a better plan; but his constant application at length told on his health and spirits. Medical assistance proved fruitless — for his imagination was no doubt half the disease — and in despondency he lay down prepared to die. He sent farewells to his friends, and amongst these was a priest, Thomas Southcote, who, on receiving Pope's vale- dictory communication, went immediately to consult Dr. Eadcliffe, the eccentric but able physician. Eadcliffe's pre- scription was a very simple one — the young man was to study less and ride on horseback every day. With this recipe the Father posted to Binfield, and Pope, having the good sense to follow the prescribed course, speedily got well. Southcote' s timely aid was not forgotten. Twenty years afterwards the poet, hearing of a vacant abbacy at Avignon, wrote immediately to Sir Eobert Walpole, requesting his influence with Cardinal Fleury to obtain the appointment for his friend. Walpole applied to his brother Horace, then British Ambassador to the French Court, and Southcote was made Abbot. The incident is a pleasing one, and honourable to all parties. Pope in his sixteenth year was engaged on his Pastorals. Dreams of the golden age and of rural innocence, which have long since faded even from our poetry, were congenial to the young classic student in Windsor Forest. The ideas and images he found in Theocritus, Virgil, and Spenser, " whose works," he says, " as I had leisure to study, so I hope I have not wanted care to imitate." The versification was his chief object, and he elaborated it with such attention to the sweet- ness he prized in Yirgil and Waller, and with such exactness and nicety in the construction of his lines, that even in advanced life, when poetry had long been his study, he con- - WYCHERLEY. 29 ered the Pastorals the most correct and musical of all his orks. The manuscript was submitted to the perusal of his neighbour, Sir William Trumbull, who may be considered as Pope's earliest patron, though in his case patronage never degenerated into dependence or servility. The paternal cell and limited fortune at Binfield secured independence. Sir William Trumbull was a benevolent and accomplished man. After long public and diplomatic service, first as Ambassador at the Ottoman Porte, and subsequently as Secretary of State to King William III., he retired in the year 1697 to his native village of Easthampstead, and formed an acquaintance with the Popes at Binfield. He read the manuscript of the Pastorals in the year 1704 ; and notwithstanding the disparity in age and circumstances, the acquaintance between the travelled knight and the retired young poet soon ripened into a cordial intimacy. They rode out together almost daily, read their favourite classic authors together, and when absent kept up a correspondence. Sir William was the first to suggest to Pope that he should undertake a^ransiatTtnr of~the Iliad. Some years later, when the i.you.ng..po£t had been drawn into the vortex of gay and not very select society, the old .states- man, with paternal anxiety, wrote to him, earnestly beseech- ing that he would get out of aTTtavern company, and fly away tanquam ex vncenMo. ""Wliat a "misery -is-it for you to be destroyed by the foolish kindness (it is all one whether real or pretended) of those who are able to bear the poison of bad "une, and to engage you in so unequal a combat !" The first of Pope's " poet friends" was Wycherley, the " earliest of the chiefs of our prose drama," as his latest and best editor, Mr. Leigh Hunt, terms him, and whom the weight of sixty-four years, and a life as careless and as strangely diversified as that of any of the fine gentlemen in his comedies, had neither sobered nor depressed. He had what Pope called " the nobleman look ;" he was still a wit and beau, but in ruins. As the author of the Plain Dealer, the friend of Dryden, and the once-fashionable and irre- sistible courtier, Wycherley had powerful attractions for young Pope. In town, he says, he " ran after him like a dog," and in his letters, he overflowed with elaborate expres- sions of humility and gratitude. His first glimpses of town 30 LIFE OF POPE. life and coffee-house society were opened up by this acquaint- ance. "Wycherley, in his turn, was willing to profit by the literary talents of his new friend. " I am," said the dra- matist, "like an old rook who is ruined by gaming, and forced to live on the good fortune of the pusning young men whose fancies are so vigorous that they ensure their success in their adventures with the Muses." And acting in the spirit of this self-abasing declaration, he submitted his poems to his pushing young friend for correction. Gil Bias was not then written, and Pope undertook the perilous office. At first he appears to have succeeded to the satisfaction of "Wycherley, who longed to reap a fresh harvest of poetical honours. "You have," he said, "pruned my fading laurels of some superfluous, sapless, and dead branches, to make the remainder live the longer ; and thus, like your master Apollo, you are at once a poet and a physician." The next applica- tion was of a sharper and less palatable description. Pope said he had contracted some of the pieces, " as we do sun- beams, to improve their energy and force;" some he took quite away, " as we take branches from a tree to add to the fruit ;" and others he " entirely new expressed and turned more into poetry." And he adds, " Donne, like one of his successors, had infinitely more wit than he wanted versifica- tion ; for the great dealers of wit, like those in trade, take least pains to set off their goods ; while the haberdashers of small wit spare for no decorations or ornaments. You have commissioned me to paint your shop, and I have done my best to brush you up like your neighbours." The somewhat mortified wit grumbled forth thanks. As to the verses, he said, "let them undergo your purgatory;" and, by way of sedative, he threw out a hope that his critic's "great, vigorous, and active mind would not be able to destroy his little, tender, and crazy carcase." The "infallible Pope" proceeded, and letters were interchanged full of forced wit and hollow professions of great regard. In private "Wycherley is reported to have said that Pope was " not able to make a suit of clothes, but could perhaps turn an old coat." Pope said that "Wycherley's memory was gone, so that he was constantly repeating the same thoughts and expressions. At length the young critic boldly suggested, that with regard to some of the pieces, it would be better to de- POPE COEEECTS WTCHEELEY S POEMS. 31 stroy the whole frame, and reduce them into single thoughts in prose, in the maimer of Eochefoucault's Maxims. This staggered Wycherley, and brought the farce of poet and critic to an end. The unfortunate manuscripts were re- called, and Pope about the same time wrote to say, that as merely marking the repetitions on the margin would not get rid of those repetitions, nor rectify the method, connect the matter, or im- prove the poetry, it was his opinion and desire, that his friend should take the papers out of his hands ! There is a dash of petulance in this closing epistle, and Mr. Leigh Hunt's summing up is the correct one : " Of the two, Wycherley appears to have been less in the wrong, but then his experience left him the smaller excuse for not foreseeing the result." The correctness of Pope's judgment was fully verified by the posthumous publication of Wycherley 's poems, which were given to the world in 1728, edited by Theobald. The pieces are wholly unworthy the author of the Plain Dealer ; but the " Maxims and Moral Reflections" in prose — three hundred and eight in number, and filling sixty-eight pages — bear traces of acute observation and correct thought, and could not all have been reduced from the anile verses. In the poetry, Pope's corrected or contributed lines are easily discernible — especially in the first piece on " The Various WYCHERLEY. 32 LIFE OF POPE. Mixed Life." He brought the skill of the artist to the ob- servation and wit of the nianof the world, who, even in his dotage, was no ordinary thinker. The dramatist lived five years after the close of this correspondence. By the help of common friends a reconciliation was effected, and Pope visited Wycherley in his last illness. Of this serio-comic scene he has given a description in one of his letters to Mr. Edward Blount : " Jan. 21, 1715-16. " I know of nothing that will be so interesting to you at present, as some circumstances of the last act of that eminent comic poet, and our friend, Wycherley. He had often told me, as I doubt not he did all his acquaintance, that he would marry as soon as his life was de- spaired of. Accordingly, a few days before his death, he underwent the ceremony; and joined together those two sacraments, which, wise men say, should be the last we receive ; for, if you observe, matri- mony is placed after extreme unction in our catechism, as a kind of hint of the order of time in which they are to be taken. The old man then lay down, satisfied in the conscience of having by this one act paid his just debts, obliged a woman, who (he was told) had merit, and shown an heroic resentment of the ill-usage of his next heir. Some hundred pounds which he had with the lady discharged those debts ; a jointure of four hundred a year made her a recompense ; and the nephew he left to comfort himself as well as he could, with the miserable remains of a mortgaged estate. I saw our friend twice after this was done, less peevish in his sickness than he used to be in his health ; neither much afraid of dying, nor (which in him had been more likely) much ashamed of marrying. The evening before he ex- pired, he called his young wife to the bedside, and earnestly entreated her not to deny him one request, the last he should make. Upon her assurances of consenting to it, he told her, ' My dear, it is only this, that you will never marry an old man again.' I cannot help remark- ing, that sickness, which often destroys both wit and wisdom, yet seldom has power to remove that talent which we call humour. Mr. Wycherley showed his, even in this last compliment ; though I think his request a little hard, for why should he bar her from doubling her jointure on the same easy terms ? " So trivial as these circumstances are, I should not be displeased myself to know such trifles, when they concern or characterise any eminent person. The wisest and wittiest of men are seldom wiser or wittier than others in these sober moments. At least, our friend ended much in the character he had lived in : and Horace's rule for a play may as well be applied to him as a play-wright, WALSH. 33 " ' Servetur ad imum Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet.' " [" From his first entrance to the closing scene, Let him one equal character maintain." — Francis.'] Wycherlevjsuhmitted the Pa^tcjalajx), Walsh, whose poems are still piinUd-,-- thxy&gh very rareJyLf e«c?, in our collections of th&- En glish p oet&r- HiTname then stood high as a scholar and critic ; he dressed well, as Dennis has recorded, was knight of the shire in Parliament, and lived in ease at his seat of Abberley, in Worcestershire. Prom admiration of the pastoral poet, Walsh invited him to the country ; and Pope passed part of the summer of 1705 at Abberley. This notice was highly gratifying to him. Wa&h'g ji am e„would ngknow "raise ..ajgnrit^but there can be no question that his praise, encouragement^jind correspondence, did much at this-.time far Pope. ~"TEey discussed the art of poetry and the principles of versification ; ^nd Wnlsh prp Vft fom one advice which was too congenial to be ever forgotten. He told himrf.lifl f thm - ynr^l^Wliy Ml ^r PrF ^^^ ^ had^^r several great poets," he said , " but we never had one great )f poet that was^-eogfeet ; and ke-ftefrisetPme to make that my sty^y an4~ftH»r' Walsh could not mean that Milton was not a correct poet. Shakspeare he probably set down as a wild, irregular genius, not reducible to rule. Even Addison, in his account of the greatest English poets, written in 1694, wholly omits Shakspeare, and passes from Spenser to Cowley. It was the fashion of the critics of that day — in some measure sanctioned by the example of Dryden — to restrict their notions of correctness to the dramatic unities, and to mere rhymes and expressions. The true and great correctness which allies fiction to truth, and makes poetry the exponent of nature, was disregarded. Pope was formed and fashioned to become a moral, a reasoning, and satirical poet ; but it would have been wiser in Walsh to have counselled him to enlarge his views, and to seek for subjects of permanent and universal interest — to launch out into invention — to delineate passions instead of painting manners and ridiculing follies; and thus, by touching our higher feelings, and ministering to the nobler wants of our intellectual and spiritual nature, " rule over the wilderness D 34 LIFE OF POPE. of free minds." Such an elevation was unattainable by Pope ; but if a high standard of excellence and originality had been ever before him, we might have had more poetry of the stamp of the Elegy on an "Unfortunate Lady and the Epistle of Eloisa, and less satire of the Curlls, Theobalds, and Cibbers. / Among the other /early and distinguished [ friends of the poet were \ Garth, Lansdowne, and ^Gongreve. The young- est of these was eigh- teen years his senior; all had accomplished the works on which their fame rests, and all were men of mark and consideration in so- ciety. Their acquaint- ance wagttn h onour to Pope,irut it conferred no real advantage. — H&Jmil nothing, to legrn^Trnrri them 4 n poetry , He already excelled them all in versification, and the dramatic art and witty dialogue of Congreve were not within the sphere of his ambition. Garth was a good, easy man, social and generous. He was a Christian with- out knowing it, said Pope ; and in his last illness he is reported to have sent to Addison to know if the Chris- tian religion was true. He got tired of life — tired, he said, of having his shoes pulled off and on every day! At this time, however, he had not sunk into the careless and jaded voluptuary. He was a zealous Whig and mem- ber of the Kit-cat Club, a bustling and benevolent man, whose encouragement of Pope was active and disinterested. His Dispensary is one of the best poems of the day ; the sixth canto exhibits considerable power as well as fancy, and LA^SDOWNE, CONGREVE, AND HEITBT CROMAVELL. 35 passages in Pope's Dunciad attest Lis study of the work of the friendly and accomplished physician. Granville — he had not then received the dignity of Baron Lansdowne of Eideford — was of the opposite faction in politics. He was wealthy, pre-eminently "polite," magnificent and profuse in his tastes and expenditure, a favourite with the Queen and the public. His plays are dull performances, and his verses, even when dedicated to the charms of his Mira, are feeble and inelegant. Congreve, of course, stood on far higher ground. He was a man of genuine wit and brilliancy ; his laurels were early acquired, and, rich with four good sinecure appointments, he reposed on his fame, with no enemy but the gout. Had he been poorer and less caressed by the great, he would probably have written more and better, for his comedies are the work of a full Tnind, a fertile imagination, and finely cultivated intellect. The weakness imputed to him of wishing to be considered, not as an author, but simply as a gentleman, rests upon one reported conversation with Voltaire, but Congreve, like Pope, may have suspected that his visitor was a spy, besides being somewhat lax in morals and manners. At all events, we see nothing of such super-refined gentility in Congreve's inter- course with Pope, Swift, and his other contemporaries. He was the most delightful as he was the most witty of com- panions. Another of Pope's associates before the grand era of his appearing in print was Mr. Henry Cromwell, a gentleman of fortune, one of the numerous cousinry of the Protector's family, the common ancestor of both being Sir Henry Crom- well, of Hinchingbrobk, Huntingdonshire, the " Golden Knight " of Queen Elizabeth's days. Pope's friend was the son of Henry Cromwell of Eamsey, and was born on the 15th of January, 1658-9. He succeeded to the patrimonial lands, but at this time lie seems to have only possessed the estate of Beesby, in Lincolnshire. He was a bachelor, and spent most of his time in London, being ambitious of the character of a man of gallantry and taste. He had some pretensions to scholarship and literature, having translated several of Ovid's Elegies for Tonson's Miscellany, and revised Pope's translation of Statius. He could also track Pope into the light literature of Prance, when the young poet poached upon the manor of Voiture. "With Wyeherley, Gay, Dennis, 3)2 Sb LIFE OF POPE. the popular actors and actresses of the day, and with all the frequenters of Will's coffee-house, Cromwell was familiar. He had done more than take a pinch out of Dry den's snuff- box, which was a point of high ambition and honour at "Will's ; he had inscribed to him one of his translations from Ovid. Gay characterised this literary and eccentric squire as "honest, hatless Cromwell, with red breeches," and Dr. Johnson could learn nothing particular of him, excepting that he used to ride a-hunting in a tie-wig. The epithet "hatless" may, as Mr. De Quincey suggests, 23 refer to Crom- well's desire to be considered a fine gentleman devoted to the ladies ; for it was then the custom for such gallant persons, when walking with ladies, to carry their hats in their hand. The fashion was a Continental one, prevalent at the Courts of Louis XIV. and XV. (the former rode un- covered by the side of Madame de Maintenon's sedan-chair) ; and in the present day Grerman princes may be seen walking hat in hand through their village capitals, — a circumstance which provoked this anathema from a Turk : " May thy soul find no more rest in paradise than the hat of a German prince!" What with ladies and literature, rehearsals and reviews (though he was somewhat deaf), and critical attention to the quality of his coffee and Brazil snuff — the latter then a somewhat costly luxury only to be obtained at three shillings an ounce — Henry Cromwell's time was fully occupied. Here is one of his gallant effusions, written at Bath, and preserved among the Bodleian MSS. : VENUS AT BATH. — BY MB. CROMWELL. " The sportive mistress of the Paphian Court, Leaving loved Cyprus, did to Bath resort. Think not, Adonis, to avoid her love, For Venus has as many shapes as Jove : At church she takes a Fowler's face to charm ; Or walks, salutes in Wentworth's graceful form ; Her shape is Morris ; Abingdon's her air, And then she kills with Scurlock's eyes and hair. She baulks a Worsley, raffles a Fingal ; She's Balam at the bath, and Greville at the ball." Most of Pope's letters to his friend are addressed to him at M Encyclopaedia Britannica, Seventh Edit., Article " Pope." POETICAL EPISTLE TO CROMWELL. 37 the Blue Ball, in Great "Wild-street, near Drury-lane, and others to " Widow Hambleton's coffee-house, at the end of Princes-street, near Drury-lane, London." Cromwell was a dangerous acquaintance for Pope at the age of sixteen or seventeen, but he was a very agreeable one. The earliest instance of their correspondence (which evinces their previous intimacy) is a rhyming epistle addressed by Pope to Crom- well, which, from its allusion to the siege of Toulon, must have been written in 1707. This piece is found only in the surreptitious editions, and was never included by Pope in his works. Its poetical merit is small, but it possesses some biographical interest. He seems then to have felt what he specially guarded against in after years by means of rigid prudence and careful management — a want of money. * I had to see you some intent, But for a curst impediment, Which spoils full many a good design, That is to say, the want of coin. For which I had resolved almost To raise Tiberius Gracchus' ghost ; To get once more by murdering Caius As much as did Septimuleius ; But who so dear will buy the lead That lies within a poet's head, As that which in the hero's pate Deserved of gold an equal weight ?" Other satirical touches mark the latent vein — and here also Cromwell might have traced his young friend to Voi- ture: " When was it known one bard did follow Whig maxims and abjure Apollo ? Sooner shall Major-General cease To talk of war and live in peace, Yourself for goose reject crow quill, And for plain Spanish quit Brazil ; Sooner shall Rowe lampoon the Union, Tydcombe take oaths on the communion : The Granvilles write their name plain Greenfield, Nay, Mr. Wycherley see B infield. You have no cause to take offence, sir, Zounds you're as sour as Cato censor ! Ten times more like him I profess, Than I'm like Aristophanes. 38 LIFE OF POPE. To end with news, the hest I know Is, I've been well a week or so. The season of green peas is fled, And artichokes reign in their stead. The allies to bomb Toulon prepare — God save the pretty ladies there ! One of our dogs is dead and gone, And I, unhappy, left alone." The [allusion to Whig maxims and the Major-General would seem to indicate that even then Pope had taken his side in politics. He had friends of both parties, and was too much absorbed in literature ever to become a keen partisan ; but his leanings were towards the Tories, and his subsequent acquaintance with Swift, Bolingbroke, Harley, and Arbuth- not, strengthened the connexion. F rom being jn his youth so mu(^^"~tbe--«o njpany of .old men. Pope said he had contracted some troublesome habits. He had pr ematurely hennmp n mn/n n f the worlc La nd the j one^of public feeling and morality was then low. There would seem FoTTave been little about men like Wycherley, Cromwell, and Tydcombe to conciliate the regard of a young poet, but they must have appeared to him as studies in a new field of observation. They occupied a considerable place 'in society, and their attentions would thus have the grace of condesceusion as well as the attraction of novelty. Many of the deferential expressions addressed to Cromwell were omitted by Pope on the republication of his letters, along with numerous indications of his anxiety to stand well with Wycherley. Next year Pope accomplished another visit to London, and on his return thus wrote to Cromwell : " March 18, 1708. " Sir, — I believe it was with me when I left the town, as it is with a great many honest men when they leave the world, whose loss itself they do not so much regret, as that of their friends whom they leave behind in it. For I do not know one thing for which I can envy Lon- don, but for your continuing there. Yet I guess you will expect me to recant this expression, when I tell you that Sappho (by which heathenish name you have christened a very orthodox lady) did not accompany me into the country. Well, you have your lady in the town still, and I have my heart in the country still, which being wholly unemployed as yet, has the more room in it for my friends, HOW POPE LIVES IN THE COTJNTKY. 39 and does not want a corner at your service. You have extremely obliged me by your frankness and kindness ; and if I have abused it by too much freedom on my part, I hope you will attribute it to the natural openness of my temper, which hardly knows how to show respect, where it feels affection. I would love my friend, as my mis- tress, without ceremony; and hope a little rough usage sometimes may not be more displeasing to the one, than it is to the other. "If you have any curiosity to know in what manner I live, or rather lose a life, Martial will inform you in one line : " ' Prandeo, poto, cano, ludo, lego, coeno, quiesco.' " Every day with me is literally another yesterday, for it is exactly the same: it has the same business, which is poetry: and the same pleasure, which is idleness. A man might indeed pass his time much better, but I question if any man could pass it much easier. Human life, as Plutarch has just now told me, is like a game at tables, where every one may wish for the best cast, but after all he is to make his best of that which happens, and go on contentedly. If you will visit our shades this spring, which I very much desire, you may perhaps instruct me to manage my game more wisely ; but at present I am satisfied to trifle away my time any way, rather than let it stick by me ; as shopkeepers are glad to get rid of those goods at any rate, which would otherwise always be lying on their hands. " Sir, if you will favour me sometimes with your letters, it will be a great satisfaction to me on several accounts ; and on this in parti- cular, that it will show me (to my comfort) that even a wise man is sometimes very idle ; for so you needs must be when you can find leisure to write to such a fellow as, sir, your most faithful and obliged servant, — A. Pope. "P.S. Pray do not put an anachronism again upon me, for my game at tables out of Plutarch. I gave your service to Mr. Wycherley yes- terday, and desire you to give mine to — let me see — Mr. Tidcombe."-* Of this early friend, Tidcombe or Tydcombe, we have not been able to find any particulars. His name occurs occasion- ally in the poet's correspondence, and he is one of the friends whom Gay introduces into his "Welcome from Greece," congratulating Pope on the completion of his Homer. There was a certain Colonel Tidcombe, a bon vivant and member of 24 Printed Correspondence, collated with the original. The passages which we have given in italics, were omitted by Pope. He had trans- ferred the remark about Plutarch and the tables, to a letter printed as ad- dressed to Steele, June 18, 1712. 4)0 LIEE OF POPE. the Kit-cat Club, but lie died in 1713. The scattered notices of Pope's friend in the printed correspondence, and in one of Warton's notes to Dry den, represent him as a careless, jovial person, very free in his sentiments on religious sub- jects. The Sappho of the above letter was, we suspect, a Eoman Catholic lady of Berkshire, Mrs. Nelson, who wrote verses, corresponded with Teresa Blount, of Mapledurham, and indeed was intimate with most of the poet's country friends. We have not met with any of her acknowledged poetry — ladies were then averse to appearing in print — but a complimentary effusion addressed to Pope, following the lines of Wycherley in Tonson's Miscellany of 1709 (evidently written by some personal friend), is probably of her composi- tion. Pope did not republish the piece among the other en- comiastic verses prefixed to his works in 1717, but he had then quarrelled with Mrs. Nelson. The correspondence with Cromwell was for some time steadily maintained, Pope appearing to delight in the careless ease of Ins friend's tone and manner : "Sir, "April 25, 1708. This letter greets you from the shades ; (Not those which thin unbodied shadows fill, That glide along th' Elysian glades, Or skim the flowery meads of Asphodill :) But those, in which a learned author said, Strong drink was drunk, and gambols play'd, And two substantial meals a day were made. The business of it is t' express, From me and from my holiness, To you and to your gentleness, How much I wish you health and happiness, &c. " I made no question but the news of Sappho's staying behind me in the town would surprise you. But she has since come into the country, and, to surprise yon more, I will inform you, that the first person she named, when I waited on her, was one Mr. Cromwell. What an ascendant have you over all the sex, who could gain the fail- one's heart by appearing before her in a long, black, unpowdered peri- wig ; nay, without so much as the very extremities of clean linen in neckcloth and cuffs ! I guess that your friend Vertumnus, among all the forms he assumed to win the good graces of Pomona, never took upon him that of a slovenly beau. Well, sir, I leave you to your meditations, on this occasion, and to languish imactive (as you call it)." \ FAME AND THE GEEAT MEN OE ANTIQUITY. f 41 ) The following is more worthy of Pope's reputation : 11 May 10, 1708. "You talk of fame and glory, and of the great men of antiquity; pray tell me, what are all your great dead men, but so many little living letters ? What a vast reward is here for all the ink wasted by writers, and all the blood spilt by princes ? There was in old time one Severus, a Roman emperor. I dare say you never called him by any other name in your life: and yet in his days he was styled Lucius, Septimius, Severus, Pius, Pertinax, Augustus, Parthicus, Adiabenicus, Arabicus, Maximus, and what not ? What a prodigious waste of letters has time made ! what a number have here dropped off, and left the poor surviving seven unattended ! For nr$r own part, four are all I have to care for ; and I'll be judged by you if any man could live in less compass ? Well, for the future I'll drown all high thoughts in the Lethe of cowslip-wine ; as for fame, renown, reputa- tion, take 'em, critics !" Byron has versified the same sentiment, and much in the style of Pope : " What is the end of Fame ? 'Tis but to fill A certain portion of uncertain paper ; Some liken it to climbing up a hill, Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour ; For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill, And bards burn what they call their midnight taper, To have, when the original is dust, A name, a wretched picture, and worse bust." Yet no two poets ever longed more ardently or laboured more incessantly for fame than Pope and Byron. In mo- ments of languor the above sentiment must have occurred to them, but their destiny impelled them onwards, and despondency was not an abiding sensation with either. The extreme molility or versatility of the poetical temperament was strikingly displayed in both, and also in a third poet, Burns, whose feelings and emotions, reflected in his poetry, but more capriciously exhibited in his correspondence, changed with such rapidity. In Pope there was always an under-current that be strove to conceal, and which, when discovered, is sometimes strangely at variance with his public and stately appearances. Cromwell made one visit to Binfield. " Pray," said the 42 LIFE OF POPE. poet, " bring a very considerable number of pint-bottles with, you. This might seem a strange request, if you had not told me you would stay but as many days as you brought bottles, therefore you can't bring too many, though here we are no drunkards." On Cromwell's return to London Pope wrote to him : "All you saw in this country charge me to assure you of their humble service, and the ladies in particular, who look upon us as but plain country fellows since they saw you, and heard more civil things in a fortnight than they expect from the whole shire of us in an age. The trophy you bore away from one of them in your snuff-box will doubtless preserve her memory, and be a testimony of your approba- tion for ever. " ' As long as Mocha's happy tree shall grow, While berries crackle, or while mills shall go ; While smoking streams from silver spouts shall glide, Or China's earth receive the sable tide, While coffee shall to British nymphs be dear, While fragrant steams the bended head shall cheer ; Or grateful bitters shall delight the taste, So long her honours, name, and praise shall last.' " Cromwell, of course, contrasted favourably with the rural magnates of Berkshire, who appear, from Pope's description of them, to have been of the race of Addison's fox-hunter and Fielding's Squire Western. He writes to his town friend : " Sir, — I had written to you sooner, but that I made some scruple of sending profane things to you in Holy Week. Besides, our family would have been scandalised to see me write, who take it for granted I write nothing but ungodly verses ; and they say here so many prayers that I can make but few 'poems. For in this point of praying I am an occasional conformist. So, just as I am drunk or scandalous in toicn according to my company, I am for the same reason good and godly here. I assure you, I am looked upon in the neighbourhood for a very sober, well-disposed person ; no great hunter, indeed, but a great esteemer of the noble sport, and only unhappy in my want of consti- tution for that and drinking. They all say, 'tis pity I am so sickly, and I think 'tis pity they are so healthy. But I say nothing that may destroy their good opinion of me : I have not quoted one Latin author since I came down, but have learned without book a song of Mr. Thomas Durfey's, who is your only poet of tolerable reputatiou in this country. He makes all the merriment in our entertainments, and, but for him, there would be so miserable a dearth of catches, pope's beekshiee feiends. 43 that, I fear, they would (sans ceremonie) put either the parson or me upon making some for 'em. Any man, of any quality, is heartily welcome to the best toping-table of our gentry, who can roundly hum out some fragments or rhapsodies of his works : so that in the same manner as it was said of Homer to his detractors : What ! dares any man speak against liim who has given so many men to eat ? (meaning the rhapsodists who lived by repeating his verses) so may it be said of Mr. Durfey to his detractors : Dares any one despise him, who has made so many men drink ? Alas, sir ! this is a glory which neither you nor I must ever pretend to. Neither you with your Ovid, nor I with my Statius, can amuse a board of justices and extraordinary 'squires," or gain one hum of approbation, or laugh of admiration. These things (they would say) are too studious, they may do well enough with such as love reading, but give us your ancient poet, Mr. Durfey ! ****** " April 10, 1710." 2S This is a caricature in the style of the " men upon town," though the difficulty of communication at that time, owing to bad roads and the want of public conveyances, checked the intercourse between different classes, and helped to give an air of strong rusticity to the character of the country gentle- man. Pope's Berkshire friends did not, it appears, even read the Spectator. As to Tom Durfey's catches, they possess a good deal of farcical humour and broad mirth, but they contain still more ribaldry and licentiousness. Durfey used to go with a fishing party every summer to "Wiltshire, and would probably spend a night by the way with his roystering admirers in the Forest. 26 There was much real though coarse enjoyment in these rural gatherings and merry nights in the olden time. Pope said to Spence that his letters to Cromwell were 25 Pope struck out the characteristic passage in italics, which gives a glimpse of the interior of Binfield. 26 "By long experience Durfey may, no doubt, Ensnare a gudgeon or sometimes a trout ; Yet Dryden once exclaim'd in partial spite, He fish 1 because the man attempts to write." Fentoris Ep. to Lambard. Thomson the poet being told that Glover, the author of Leonidas, medi- tated an epic poem, exclaimed, " He write an epic, who never saw a moun- tain !" He might have said the same of Pope, who contemplated an epic with Brutus for its hero. 44 LIFE OF POPE. written with a design that does not appear : they were not written in sober sadness. To Aaron Hill he said they were written with unguarded friendliness and freedom. The one remark contradicts the other ; and it is impossible to trace any occult motive in these harmless companionable epistles. If any concealment or stratagem may be detected, it consists in Pope representing himself as gay, careless, and indolent, when he was devoted to intense study, and was diligently repairing the deficiencies of his early education. One rather long piece of criticism in a letter to Cromwell Pope printed as if addressed to Walsh. In the letters there is some trifling criticism on the part of Cromwell, and some rather unwarrantable levity on the part of Pope, but much kind- liness and respect on both sides. The result, however, was unsatisfactory. After three years of intercourse, oral and epistolary, Cromwell was silent for a twelvemonth. Pope's jocularities and sarcasms had chafed the temper of the old pedantic beau, who began to perceive that the sickly retired lad in the Porest was becoming a decidedly formidable per- sonage. The correspondence accordingly dropped, and was not renewed excepting on one unpleasant occasion. Long after this time, in 1726, Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, a frail poetess and the Sappho of Cromwell, falling into distressed circumstances, sold to Edmund Curll, the publisher, the original letters of Pope to Cromwell, which she had obtained from the latter. " All persons of taste and judgment," she said, " would be pleased with so agreeable an amusement. Mr. Cromwell could not be angry, since it was but justice to his merit to publish the solemn and private professions of love, gratitude, and veneration, made him by so celebrated an author; and, sincerely, Mr. Pope ought not to resent the publication, since the early pregnancy of his genius was no dishonour to his character. And yet (she adds) had either of you been asked, common modesty would have obliged you to refuse what you would not be displeased with if done with- out your knowledge" — a shrewd observation, which evinces Sappho's knowledge of both the parties concerned. Crom- well, she said, had made her a free gift of the letters, to do what she liked with them. This he denied, though faintly, but he appears to have been vexed and annoyed by his own indiscretion in putting the correspondence into the hands of DEATH OF HENRY CROMWELL. 45 this precieuse. He addressed Pope in the following penitential style : " The great value she expresses for all you. write, and her passion for having them, I believe, was what prevailed upon me to let her keep them. By the interval of twelve years at least, from her pos- session to the time of printing them, 'tis manifest that I had not the least ground to apprehend such a design: but as people in great straits bring forth their hoards of old gold and most valued jewels, so Sappho had recourse to her hid treasure of letters, and played off not only yours to me, but all those to herself (as the lady's last stake) into the press. — As for me, I hope, when you shall coolly consider the many thousand instances of our being deluded by the females, since that great original of Adam by Eve, you will have a more favourable thought of the undesigning error of, your faithful friend, &c." This must have been about the last instance of female delusion that Mr. Cromwell had to encounter, for he died in the following year, 1728. He was then in London, in the parish of St. Giles in the Melds. He had made his will eleven years before, leaving his estate of Beesby to a second cousin, the Eev. Henry Greene, and forty pounds a year to his "faithful and ancient" servant, Mrs. Isabel Perez — the " Lady Isabella" of Pope's letters. There is no mention of Pope in the will, and Sappho was also neglected by her Phaon. Mr. Henry Greene was enjoined not to part with the valu- able picture of the testator's " dear father;" and Cromwell directed that his body should be decently interred, suitable to his birth, in the parish church of St. Clement Danes, " which church," he adds, "I have most frequented." The old wit, then, had some grace. Dr. Johnson, it is well known, eulogised one of his acquaintances as good and pious ; for though he had not been in the inside of a church for many years, he never passed a church without pulling off his hat, which showed that he had good principles. Beau Cromwell was better in his practice, if not in his principles, than Johnson's good and pious man. 46 LIFE OF POPE. CHAPTER II. [1709—1712.] PUBLICATION OF THE TASTORALS AND ESSAY ON CRITICISM. LETTERS TO ADDISON AND STEELE. ACQUAINTANCE WITH TERESA AND MARTHA BLOUNT. THE ELEGY ON AN UNFORTUNATE LADY. In 1709, Pope, by the publication of his Pastorals, took his place among the poets of the English Augustan age. The age wa3 Augustan only in the patronage it extended to authors, which, for extent and liberality, was unexampled in this country. Addison, Steele, Congreve, Prior, Gray, Rowe, Tickell, Ambrose Philips, and poets humbler even than the humblest of these, held public offices, or enjoyed the patronage of the great, and lived in comparative opulence. Swift was shut out of a bishopric by the supposed irreligion of his cha- racter — an opinion carefully instilled into the mind of Queen Anne — and by the daring irreverence and dangerous wit of the Tale of a Tub ; but the deanery of St. Patrick's was no very poor or inglorious provision. Pope's religion disqualified him for government employment, and it is to his honour that he adhered to it with undeviating fidelity, and was proof against both obloquy and temptation. A pension, however, was offered him by Halifax, and Addison, when in power, was desirous of benefiting him. Craggs also offered money from the Treasury ; but all of these he declined. He relied on literature and on his limited patrimony, and the patronage extended to his Homer justified his choice, at the same time that it displayed the taste and munificence of the age. TONSON S MISCELLANY. 47 The Pastorals appeared in a Poetical Miscellany or An- nual issued by Tonson. Pour parts or yearly volumes of this Miscellany had been edited by Dryden. A fifth was collected af- ter his death ; and now Tonson, with the help of Pope's contribu- tions, ventured on a sixth vo- lume. The pub- lisher's note to Pope, offering his assistance, is cha- racteristic of the keen old man of business whom Dryden found so hard a task- tonson. master : " Sir, — I have lately seen a Pastoral of yours in Mr. Walsh's and Congreve's hand, which is extremely fine, and is approved by the best judges in poetry. I remember I have formerly seen you in my shop, and am sorry I did not improve my acquaintance with you. If you design your poem for the press, no one shall be more careful in printing it, nor no one can give greater encouragement to it than, sir, your most obedient humble servant, "Jacob Tonson. " Gray's Inn Gate, April 20, 1706." The offer of " left-legged Jacob" could not be resisted. The Pastorals, when completed and revised, were sent to the press, and, as "Wycherley profanely observed, Jacob's ladder raised Pope to immortality ! The Miscellany opened with the Pastorals of Ambrose Philips, and closed with those of Pope — a seeming rivalry which afterwards proved a source 48 LIFE OE POPE. of lasting enmity between the Bucolic poets. Pope also con- tributed his version of Chaucer's January and May, and a translation of the Epistle of Sarpedon from the Iliad. The volume contained verses by the Marquis of Normanby, the Duke, of Buckingham, and Garth, and a translation of part of Lucan by Eowe. The "Windsor poet, therefore, appeared in good company, and "Wycherley acted as gentleman usher by inserting a copy of complimentary verses, entitled, " To my friend Mr. Pope on his Pastorals." This piece is cor- rectly and pleasingly written, and concludes with a prediction that the young poet's muse would soon, like Virgil's, take a higher flight. " So larks, which first from lowly fields arise, Mount by degrees, and reach at last the skies." Pope was charged by some malicious critics with writings or at least correcting these verses on himself, and one might almost swear to this concluding simile being his composition. He had unquestionably added, as on former occasions, a few graceful touches to the faltering muse of the Plain Dealer. The correctness and elegance of style and versification dis- played in these juvenile Pastorals astonished Wycherley and Walsh. Both were veteran poets, and one was a judicious classical critic, yet the self-taught youth of sixteen, in the shades of Windsor Forest, had at one bound placed himself above them, and, indeed, above all the poets of that period. " The preface is very judicious and very learned," says Walsh, in a letter to Wycherley, April 20, 1705 ; " the author seems to have a particular genius for that kind of poetry, and a judgment that much exceeds the years you told me he w r as of." Again, " It is no flattery at all to say that Virgil had written nothing so good at his age." With what enthusiastic delight this praise, through the friendly medium of Wycherley, would be received by Pope it is easy to conceive. He was now a poet for life ! Walsh died in 1708, before any of his young friend's works had been published, but in the con- clusion of his Essay on Criticism, Pope has paid a tribute to the taste and talents of his first learned and complimentary critic. All Pastorals, from Theocritus down to Pope and Ambrose Philips, are essentially the same in subject and imagery. PASTORALS AND ESSAY ON CRITICISM. 49 They have no foundation in nature, and the most juvenile rhymester would not now dream of rivalling the classics in sucli a field. With respect to Pope's success, apart from his melodious numbers, Warton has thrown out some remarks. " A mixture of British and Grecian ideas," he says, " may justly be deemed a blemish in these Pastorals ; and propriety is certainly violated when he couples Pactolus with Thames, and Windsor with Hybla. Complaints of immoderate heat, and wishes to be conveyed to cooling caverns, when uttered by the inhabitants of Greece, have a decorum and consistency which they totally lose in the character of a British shepherd ; and Theocritus, during the ardours of Sirius, must have heard the murmurings of a brook, and the whispers of a pine, with more heartfelt pleasure than Pope could possibly expe- rience on the same occasion." Pope, however, avoided the error of Spenser, in introducing wolves into England, and showed his judgment in substituting for the laurels appro- priated to Eurotas, the willows native to the Thames. As to the clustering grapes, the pipe of reeds, and the sacrifice of lambs, they are no doubt inappropriate to English rural life, but they seem inseparable from the idea of a Pastoral. Pope retained this stock classic property not through inad- vertence, but because he believed it to be indispensable. The Essay on Criticism was next begun, though not pub- lished till 1711. Didactic poetry was then popular. The authors of the day had discarded the grosser impurities of the former period, and reformed the drama. A considerable sediment, however, was left, and there were no aspirations after high invention, imagination, or passion — no return to the fountains of nature, of romance, or of heroism in Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakspeare. To extol contemporary events, to panegyrise living individuals, to paint smooth enamel word- miniatures," and to reason or criticise in decent verse, filled the measure of the poet's ambition. Addison was agreeably descriptive, but feeble, in his Letter from Italy, and Prior had given forth some runnings of his sprightly vein, but there was a character of tameness and littleness in the poetical literature of the period ; and the Essay on Criticism was entitled to a high pre-eminence. Pope was probably led to his subject by the Essays on Satire, Translated Yerse, and Poetry by Sheffield and Boscommon. Boileau's Art of E 50 LIFE OF POPE. Poetry had been translated by Sir "William Soame, and re- vised by Dry den, who applied the poem to English writers. This work was evidently in Pope's hands. He did not, how- ever, adopt the methodical system of Boileau, which Sheffield followed. 1 He did not classify criticism as Boilean classified poetry, nnder its different forms of Pastoral, Elegy, Ode, Satire, &c. He selected Horace as his model, but both in Horace and Pope there is a certain order and connexion, without which their precepts would have wanted perspicuity as well as force. This would seem to be all that either the Roman or English poet aimed at, though "Warburton endea- voured by a laboured commentary to show that Pope's Essay was a complete treatise both of the art of criticism and the art of poetry. " You remember," said Pope to Wycherley, " a simile Mr. Dryden used in conversation, of feathers in the crowns of the wild Indians, which they not only choose for the beauty of their colours, but place them in such a manner as to reflect a lustre on each other." Such we be- lieve to have been the art adopted by Pope in stringing to- gether the maxims contained in the Essay on Criticism, and the beautiful illustrations with which it is embellished. The poet did not at first affix his name to the Essay, and the sale was slow. 2 It was attacked by Dennis, the most conspicu- ous critic of that period, but an unsuccessful poet and drama- 1 Some of the lines in Sheffield's Essay on Poetry are vigorous and correct : " Figures of speech, which poets think so fine — Art's needless varnish to make nature shine — All are hut paint upon a beauteous face, And in description only claim a place ; But to make rage declaim and grief discourse, From lovers in despair fine things to force, Must needs succeed, for who can choose but pity A dying hero miserably witty ? But, oh ! the dialogue where jest and mock Is held up like a rest at shuttlecock ; Or else like bells eternally they chime, They sigh in simile, and die in rhyme !" 2 So Lewis, publisher of the poem, informed Warton. To render the work better known, Pope, about a month after the appearance of the Essay, went to Lewis's shop, and addressed twenty copies to persons whom he con- sidered the best judges of poetry, including Lord Lansdowne and the Duke of Buckingham ; and this scheme, it is added, was completely successful. Pope, in a letter to Caryll, states that the first edition consisted of 1000 copies. A second was called for in 1713. The poem was translated into DENNIS THE CRITIC. 51 tist. Pope had dared to throw down the gauntlet to this still formidable aristarch. When treating of critics he said : " But Appius reddens at each word you speak, And stares tremendous with a threatening eye, Like some fierce tyrant in old tapestry." Dennis had written a tragedy on the story of Appius and Virginia (produced in 1708), and was well known to be irri- table and violent both in his criticism and his character. The satirical portrait was at once recognised, and the enraged critic lost no time in retaliating in a pamphlet, which his egregious vanity no doubt led him to believe would bring his puny assailant to his feet in submission, or annihilate him for ever. His remarks on the Essay are replete with per- sonal abuse, part of which will be found quoted by Pope, in justification of his severity, in his notes to the Dunciad ; but they contain also a few just observa- tions, by which the poet profited. Den- nis was a man of acuteness and learn- ing ; he had been noticed by Dry- den, Congreve, and Steele ; but his tem- per, naturally vio- lent and vindictive, had been soured by disappointment and intemperance, and his vanity and ca- price distorted his judgment. His in- dignation at this time was specially roused by the circumstance French by Anthony Hamilton, author of Memoires de Grammont, an honour which Pope gratefully and warmly acknowledged. This version was never printed, but two French translations subsequently appeared. E2 1 W r D * i —I. .^gllte fr'ftc/ 1 i^llSsr "^a. : '^^^^fe^ ^^^^^m°- n i 1 W^^^^MC I 1 l ^\ l ^m^mL J^ilSm^^k -j lissa zSmm^^: DENNIS, BY HOGARTH. 52 LIFE OP POPE. that Pope had previously sought his acquaintance. " At his first coming to town," he says, " he was importunate with Mr. Cromwell to introduce him to me. The recommendation en- gaged me to be about thrice in company with him ; after which I went to the country, till I found myself most insolently at- tacked in his very superficial Essay on Criticism, by which he endeavoured to destroy the reputation of a man who had pub- lished pieces of criticism, and to set up his own." Dennis, it was obvious, could bear no brother near his critical throne ; and Pope's predilection for satire was overpowering his youth- ful diffidence and caution. The enraged critic found few to sympathise with him. The Essay was too excellent to be cried down ; and many of the scribblers of that day must have rejoiced to see the furious Goliath of criticism struck on the forehead, though not felled to the ground, by a smooth stone from the sling of a stripling. There was another class of objectors to the Essay on Criti- cism. The poet's liberal and tolerant sentiments on the sub- ject of religion, with his praise of Erasmus and his censure of the monks, provoked the holy Yandals of his own Church. Their complaints were forwarded to him through the medium of "the Hon. J. C," or John Caryll, of West Grinsted, a member of a Soman Catholic family of long standing, wealth, and influence in the county of Sussex. The modern head of this house was an historical personage — John Caryll, the English Envoy at the Court of E-ome, who, proving " too timid for the high Catholic party," as Dr. Lingard has stated, or, more probably, too moderate and prudent for his royal master James, was recalled to England and appointed Secre- tary and Master of Bequests to the Queen. On the abdica- tion of James, Caryll accompanied him abroad, became one of the Ministers of the exiled Court, and was created a peer. He died in 1711, aged about eighty. As Lord or Secretary Caryll was a man of literary tastes, as well as rank and for- tune (author of a comedy, " Sir Solomon ; or, the Cautious Coxcomb, from L'JEcole des Femmes" 1671, and of several translations in Dryden's Miscellanies), Warburton, ignorant of the history of the family, assumed that he was the person of that name who proposed the subject of the Rape of the Lock. The poet's friend, however, was a nephew of the Secretary, who possessed an ample estate, was liberal, tole- pope's hateed oe intolerance. • 53 rant, and accomplished. Pope sedulously cultivated his friendship, and as their intimacy ripened, made him the de- positary of his private feuds, griefs, and disappointments. 3 To this trusted friend Pope wrote in defence of his Essay: " I have ever believed the best piece of service one could do to our religion, was openly to express our detestation and scorn of all those mean artifices and pice fraudes, which it stands so little in need of, and which have laid it under so great a scandal among its enemies. "Nothing has been so much a scarecrow to them, as that too peremptory and uncharitable assertion of an utter impossibility of sal- vation to all but ourselves : invincible ignorance excepted, which, in- deed, some people define under so great limitations, and with such exclusions, that it seems as if that word were rather invented as a salvo, or expedient, not to be thought too bold with the thunderbolts of God (which are hurled about so freely on almost all mankind by the hands of ecclesiastics), than as a real exception to almost uni- versal damnation. Por besides the small number of the truly faithful in our Church, we must again subdivide ; the Jansenist is damned by the Jesuit, the Jesuit by the Jansenist, the Scotist by the Thomist, and so forth. " There may be errors, I grant, but I can't think them of such con- sequence as to destroy utterly the charity of mankind; the very greatest bond in which we are engaged by God to one another : there- fore, I own to you, I was glad of any opportunity to express my dis- like of so shocking a sentiment as those of the religion I profess are 3 We owe all this concerning the Carylls to a writer in the Athenaeum, who appears to have had access to the family papers. He states that " the extent of Pope's intimacy and correspondence with the Carylls cannot even be inferred from the published letters. Pope studiously avoided to take rank before the public with the Catholics ; and when, later in life, he went into open opposition, it was as one of a political not of a religious party." We may add that Pope, so early as 1714, appears to have been shy of public intercourse with his Catholic brethren. In the original letter to Martha Blount, on the subject of Arabella Fermor's marriage, he says, " My acquaintance runs so much in an anti-Catholic channel, that it was but the other day I heard of Mrs. Fermor's being actually, directly, and consumma- fively married." In another letter entitled " To a Lady in the name of her Brother," a certain priest, Sir William Kennedy, is in the printed letter trans- formed to " The Rev. Mr. ." The Aihenamm adds, concerning Secre- tary Caryll, " In 1695 he was outlawed, and his estate granted to Lord Cutts. As the principal estate was entailed, the forfeiture and grant could only extend to his life interest, and this was repurchased by the family for 65007." From the same notice we learn that Pope's friend died in 1736, and that the estate passed to and from his grandson. 54 * LIFE OF POPE. commonly charged with ; and I hoped a slight insinuation, introduced so easily by a casual similitude only, could never have given offence, but on the contrary must needs have done good in a nation and time wherein we are the smaller party, and consequently most misrepre- sented, and most in need of vindication. " Tor the same reason, I took occasion to mention the superstition of some ages after the subversion of the Roman Empire, which is too manifest a truth to be denied, and does in no sort reflect upon the present professors of our faith, who are free from it. Our silence in these points may, with some reason, make our adversaries think we allow and persist in those bigotries ; which yet in reality all good and sensible men despise, though they are persuaded not to speak against them. I can't tell why, since now 'tis no way the interest even of the worst of our priesthood (as it might have been then) to have them smothered in silence : for, as the opposite sects are now pre- vailing, 'tis too late to hinder our Church from being slander' d ; 'tis our business now to vindicate ourselves from being thought abettors of what they charge us with. This can't so well be brought about with serious faces ; we must laugh with them at what deserves it, or be content to be laughed at, with such as deserve it." These sentiments lie always entertained ; placing " all his glory" both in politics and religion in "moderation." Fire and sword, and fire and fagot, were equally his aversion. As years rolled on he became a decided opponent of the Court, for his religion and connexions threw him among the Jacobites and disappointed politicians ; but the Church seems at no time to have had a strong hold on his affections. Most of his friends were tinged with infidelity, and Lyttel- ton, when of this class, conceived Pope to be like himself. Chesterfield claimed him as a Deist. The eloquent Charac- teristics of Shaftesbury, published in 1713, w r ere much read, and Pope told "Warburton that this work had, to his know- ledge, done great harm to revealed religion. It was the too general fashion of the day to laugh at all serious and solemn impressions, and the young poet could hardly be more grave than his seniors and associates. In a lively letter to Martha Blount he says, " Every one values Mr. Pope, but every one for a different reason ; one for his adherence to the Catholic faith ; another for his neglect of Popish superstition ; one for his grave behaviour ; another for his whimsicalness ; Mr. Tidcombe for his pretty atheistical jests ; Mr. Caryll for his moral and Christian sentences," &c. When fairly embarked ADDISON COMMENDS THE ESSAY ON CRITICISM. 55 in his Homer he would probably have said he belonged to the Greek Church ! At all times, however, it was a point of honour to adhere nominally to the Church in which he was baptised, persecuted and reviled as it was ; 4 and he knew that any renunciation of the ancient faith would have broken the hearts of his aged and doting parents. To console the poet for the enmity of Dennis and the monks, he had Addison's commendation of the Essay in the Spectator. The great critic, or rather essayist, quoted pas- sages from the work, pronouncing it to be " a very fine 4 The vulgar animosity against the Catholics frequently led to such scenes as the following, which Ave copy from the newspapers of the day : " On the 17th of November [1711], there was a Procession against Popish Villany. 1. Marched six Whifflers in Pinner's Caps and Red Waistcoats. 2. A Bellman Ringing his Bell, and with a dolesome Voice, crying all the way (from Moregate to Temple Bar) ' Remember Justice Godfrey.' 3. A Dead Body representing Justice Godfrey, in the Habit he usually Wore, and the Cravat wherewith he was Murthered about his neck, with Spots of Blood on his Wrists, Breast, and Shirt, and White Gloves on his Hands ; his Face Pale and Wan, riding upon a White Horse, and one of his Murderers behind him to keep him from Falling, in the same manner as he was carried to Prim- rose Hill. 4. A Priest in a Surplice and a Cape Embroidered.with Dead Men's Sculls, and Bones and Skeletons, who gave out Pardons very plentifully, to all that would Murder Protestants, and proclaiming it Meritorious. 8. Six Jesuits carrying Bloody Daggers. 13. The Pope's Chief Physician, with Jesuits' Powder in one Hand, and a Urinal in the other. 14. The Pope and the Devil, Hugging and Whispering A very great Bonfire was prepared at Inner Temple Gate, and his Holiness, after some Compliments and Reluctances, was decently tumbled into the Flames, the Devil who till then accompanied him, left him in the Lurch, and laughing gave him up to his deserved Fate. This last Act of his Holiness's Tragedy was attended with a prodigious Shout from the joyful Spectators." — The Protestant Post Boy, Nov. 17 to 20, 1711. " Warning to Papists. — The Churchwardens of London and Westminster being ordered to enquire after Papists, who lurk in and about these Citys, and some of them performing it as if they were not willing, or did not understand, how to go about it ; Qu. Whether the Reverend Clergy, whose Character commands respect to their Persons, should not assist in such En- quiries after Popish and Jacobite House Keepers, Inmates, Lodgers, &c. ? . . . . This, with a Proclamation, commanding all Papists to remove from London and Westminster, would seem to be a much more effectual Method than for a few Men only to go about, and ask a superficial Question, whether House- keepers be Papists, or have. Popish Lodgers and Inmates, to which, for the most part, they have very slight Answers returned, and so the End of Enquiry and Law is eluded." — The Flying Post, March 14 to 17, 1712. 56 LIFE OF POPE. poem," and " a masterpiece of its kind ;" but regretting that the author had admitted into it " some strokes" of a nature detracting from modern genius. The only moderns alluded to in a depreciatory style are Dennis, Blackmore, and Mil- bourne — the two last in connexion with the attacks on Dryden : " New Blackmores and new Milbournes must arise." And it would be a great stretch of complacency to apply the term " genius" to the works of any of this triumvirate, how- ever moral was the muse of Blackmore. Pope was grateful for the critique. He addressed to Addison the following ac- knowledgment, first published by Miss Lucy Aikin in 1843 in her Life of Addison : [January, 1711-12.] "Sir, — I have passed part of this Christmas with some honest country gentlemen who have wit enough to be good natured, but no manner of relish for criticism or polite writing, as you may easily con- clude, when I tell you they never read the Spectator. This was the reason I did not see that of the 28th [the 20th of December] till yesterday, at my return home, wherein, though it be the highest satisfaction to find myself commended by a person whom all the world commends, yet I am not more obliged to you for that than for your candour and frankness in acquainting me with the error I have been guilty of in speaking too freely of my brother moderns. 'Tis, indeed, the common method of all counterfeits in wit, as well as in physic, to begin with warning us of others' cheats, in order to make the more way for their own. But if ever this essay be thought worthy a second edition, I shall be very glad to strike out all such strokes which you shall be so good as to point out to me. I shall really be proud of being corrected, for I believe 'tis with the errors of the mind as with the weeds of a field, which, if they are consumed upon the place, enrich and improve it more than if none had ever grown there. Some of the faults of that book I myself have found, and more (I am confident) others have — enough, at least, to have made me very humble, had not you given this public approbation of it, which I can look upon only as the effect of that benevolence you have been ever ready to show to any who but make it their endeavour to do well. But as a little rain revives a flower which too much sur- charges and depresses, so moderate praise encourages a young writer, 5 8 This simile Pope again employs in one of his letters to Wycherley, March 25, 1705. The fine use which Cowper has made of the same image in his little poem, "The Rose," will occur to most readers. POPE DESIROUS OF ADDISOlSf'S FRIENDSHIP. 57 but a great deal may injure him ; and you have been so lavish on that point, that I almost hope (not to call in question your judgment in the piece) that 'twas some particular inclination to the author which carried you so far. This would please me more than I can express, for I should in good earnest be fonder of your friendship than the world's applause. I might hope, too, to deserve it better, since a man may more easily answer for his own sincerity than his own wit. And if the highest esteem, built on the justest ground on the world, together with gratitude for an obligation so unexpectedly conferred, can oblige a man to be ever yours, I beg you to believe no one is more so than, sir, your most faithful and obedient humble servant, "A. Pope." The quick eye of Pope had at once recognised the hand of Addison in the Spectator, and he wrote to him, as we have seen, the day after he perused the criticism. The same shrewdness, however, suggested that Steele might wish to be considered the author, and he then penned a second letter of acknowledgment. Steele replied, in his usual frank and cordial strain : " January, 20, 1711. " Dear Sir, — I have received your very kind letter. That part of it which is grounded upon your belief that I have much affection and friendship lor you, I receive with great pleasure. That which ac- knowledges the honour done to your Essay I have no pretence to. It was- written by one whom I will make you acquainted with, which is the best return I can make to you for your favour to, sir, your most obliged humble servant, "Richard Steele." 6 In his carefully-composed letter we see the eager desire of Pope to cultivate the friendship of Addison, to whom he naturally looked with high and deferential respect. The great in literature had always his warmest homage. It does not appear, however, that Addison at this time made any approach to personal intimacy. He wrote Spectators, not letters, and reserved his familiar intercourse for a few friends, or for the social evening in the coffee-house. As yet Button's had not attained its celebrity ; but towards the close of the year, and throughout 1713, Pope and Addison frequently met in this famous rendezvous of the wits, which has in- 6 Pope's Homer MSS. in British Museum ; and Roscoe, viii. 181. 58 LIFE OF POPE. vested Kussell-street, Covent-garden, with so many pleasant associations. Pope's acquaintance with Gay — the most congenial and best-beloved of his literary associates — seems to have com- menced in 1711, or earlier. Gay was of the same age as himself— easy, indolent, and disposed to regard Pope with profound respect. " Gay," he says, " they would call one of my Sieves." This simple, helpless, lovable poet escaped from behind the silk-mercer's counter, to which he was early con- demned, and commenced author. In his twenty-fourth year, to the great joy of his friends, he was taken into the house- hold of the Duchess of Monmouth as secretary. " By quitting a shop for such service," says Johnson, " he might gain leisure, but he certainly advanced little in the boast of inde- pendence." He had left the shop some years before ; but he gained by the new appointment what he valued with all the eagerness and delight of a boy — fine clothes and a good table. Congreve said, as the French philosopher used to prove his existence by cogito ergo sum, the greatest proof of Gay's existence was edi ergo est. Pope also alludes to Gay's epicurean habits. His love of finery afforded amusement both to himself and his friends. When he got his appoint- ment as secretary to the embassy to Hanover, he solicited the bounty of the Lord Treasurer for an outfit, and hinted his wants in verse : " I'm no more to converse with the swains, But go where fine people resort ; One can live without money on plains, But never without it at Court. If when with the swains I did gambol, I array'd me in silver and blue, When abroad and in Courts I shall ramble, Pray, my Lord, how much money will do ?" Such was " Johnny Gay." The death of the queen clouded his rising prospects ; and he was always sighing for Court preferment, and dangling after Mrs. Howard, the favourite lady of the bedchamber, who was sincerely attached to him, but had no power. He was doomed to disappointment, till his Beggar's Opera, and its supplement, Polly, enabled him to shine in " silver loops and garment blue," and he found a luxurious home in the house of the Duke of Queensberry. ACQUAINTANCE WITH OAY. 59 The kind and eccentric duchess doted upon the simple poet, and the duke undertook the management of his money, giving it to him as he wanted it — a singular and felicitous destiny for a lazy man of genius ! He had dropped into the only niche he was qualified to fill. It is impossible not to regret that another helpless, unworldly, and fine-dressing poet — the amiable Goldsmith — was not so fortunate. His clothes and luxuries made him die 2000Z. in debt, while, Gray's estate realised for his sisters a sum of about GOOQl^s Gay had appeared as a poet before his friend Pope. In 1708 he had sung the charms of " Wine," and commemorated the Devil Tavern in blank verse; but his friendship with Pope was cemented by his Eural Sports, published in 1713, and inscribed to his friend : " You who the sweets of rural life have known, Despise th' ungrateful hurry of the town ; In Windsor groves your easy hours employ, And undisturb'd yourself and Muse enjoy. Thames listens to thy strain, and silent flows, And no rude wind through rustling osiers blows ; While all his wondering nymphs around thee throng, To hear the Syrens warble in thy song. But I, who ne'er was bless'd by Fortune's hand, Nor brighten'd ploughshares in paternal land, Long in the noisy town have been immured, Kespired its smoke, and all its cares endured." The rest of the poem is of the same pitch — smooth de- scription, with the stock images of pastoral or rural verse, but containing indications of that close observation and general poetical power which Gay afterwards displayed, and which formed a contrast to his personal character and habits. His Trivia, and the Birth of the Squire, are admirable for their Hogarthian painting and broad humour; but like most of Gay's works, they are indelicate. Steele, aware of the genius of his young friend, cultivated his acquaintance. The Essay on Criticism mnst, indeed, have given Pope the command of any literary society in the metropolis to which he aspired; and shortly afterwards, July 26, 1711, we find Steele soliciting him to contribute some words for music. The result was the Ode on St. Ce- cilia's Day — certainly not one of his happiest productions, 60 LIFE OF POPE. and which Dryden's Alexander's Feast should have deterred him from undertaking. Fortunately, Steele did more than this ; he procured from Pope for the Spectator his Messiah : a Sacred Eclogue, and The Dying Christian to his Soul. The former appeared in the Spectator for May 14, 1712, and was prefaced with a few lines from the editor, in which he said he would make no apology for entertaining his readers with a poem, " written," he adds, " by a great genius, a friend of mine in the country, who is not ashamed to employ his wit in the praise of his Maker." This was scanty praise ; but in a private letter the critic assured the poet that the Messiah was better than the Pollio of Virgil. It is perhaps the most elevated of all Pope's poems, especially towards the con- clusion, where the long race of sons and daughters unborn crowd forward in prophetic vision, " Demanding life, impatient for the skies." Pope has nowhere else a more strikingly figurative or sub- lime passage ; his lips were truly touched with hallowed fire from the altar. The Dying Christian is in the same style of rapt devotional sublimity, conveyed in language the most musical and harmonious. Steele, it appears, was, during the summer of this year, living in a house between London and Hampstead — a cottage on Haverstock Hill — and Pope has published two of his most sentimental letters, addressed to the retired wit, which contrast curiously with the letters ad- dressed to Henry Cromwell. We subjoin the most poetical of these studied epistles, which was greatly admired by a former generation of readers, and must have cost the writer as much trouble as an equal number of lines in verse : " July 15, 1712. " You formerly observed to me, that nothing made a more ridiculous figure in a man's life, than the disparity we often find in him sick and well ; thus, one of an unfortunate constitution is perpetually exhibit- ing a miserable example of the weakness of his mind, and of his body, in their turns. I have had frequent opportunities of late to consider myself in these different views, and, I hope, have received some ad- vantage by it, if what Waller says be true, that " ' The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay 'd, Lets in new light through chinks that time has made.' LETTEB, TO STEELE. 61 " Then surely sickness, contributing no less than old age to the shaking down this scaffolding of the body, may discover the inward structure more plainly. Sickness is a sort of early old age : it teaches us a diffidence in our earthly state, and inspires us with the thoughts of a future, better than a thousand volumes of philosophers and divines. It gives so warning a concussion to those props of our vanity, our strength, and youth, that we think of fortifying ourselves within, when there is so little dependence upon our outworks. Youth at the very best is but a betrayer of human life in a gentler and smoother manner than age : 'tis like a stream that nourishes a plant upon a bank, and causes it to nourish and blossom to the sight, but at the same time is undermining it at the root in secret. My youth has dealt more fairly and openly with me ; it has afforded several prospects of my danger, and given me an advantage not very common to young men, that the attractions of the world have not dazzled me very much ; and I begin, where most people end, with a full con- viction of the emptiness of all sorts of ambition, and the unsatis- factory nature of all human pleasures. When a smart fit of sickness tells me this scurvy tenement of my body will fall in a little time, I am e'en as unconcerned as was that honest Hibernian, who being in bed in the great storm some years ago, and told the house would tumble over his head, made answer, * What care I for the house ? I am only a lodger.' I fancy 'tis the best time to die when one is in the best humour ; and so excessively weak as I now am, I may say with conscience, that I am not at all uneasy at the thought, that many men, whom I never had any esteem for, are likely to enjoy this world after me. When I reflect what an inconsiderable little atom every single man is, with respect to the whole creation, methinks 'tis a shame to be concerned at the removal of such a trivial animal as I am. The morning after my exit, the sun will rise as bright as ever, the flowers smell as sweet, the plants spring as green, the world will proceed in its old course, people will laugh as heartily, and marry as fast, as they were used to do. The memory of man (as it is elegantly expressed in the Book of Wisdom) passeth away as the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but one day. There are reasons enough, in the fourth chapter of the same book, to make any young man con- tented with the prospect of death. * For honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time, or is measured by number of years. But wisdom is the grey hair to men, and an unspotted life is old age. He was taken away speedily, lest wickedness should alter his under- standing, or deceit beguile his soul,' &c. " I am yours, &c." We may conceive this letter read to the family circle at Binfield before it was despatched, and the joy and exultation with which the elder Pope would listen to the pious strain 62 LIFE OF POPE. of sentiment it breathes, and to the choice and elegant lan- guage in which it is expressed. But, after all, we suspect it was a mere literary exercise, to which Steele's name was not attached until long afterwards ; had he received it, he would have put it in the Spectator. The success of Tonson's volumes of Miscellanies induced a brother bibliopole, Bernard Lintot, to venture on a work of the same description. He engaged the services of Pope, and in 1712 appeared his collection of Miscellaneous Poems and Translations, to which Pope contributed the first sketch of his Rape of the Lock, translations from Statius and Ovid, and some smaller original pieces. 7 In the same volume were published Chaucer's Characters ; or, the Introduction to the Canterbury Tales, by Mr. Thomas Betterton. This famous tragedian had died two years before, and Pope, who knew and esteemed him, is said to have written these Characters him- self, and published them in Betterton' s name for the benefit of the deceased actor's family. The Rape of the Lock is the most important of the Pope contributions, though it was but a fragment or skeleton of what the poem was afterwards to become. The Miscellany was noticed by Addison in the Spectator. He had read over, he said, with great pleasure, "the late Miscellany published by Mr. Pope, in which there are many excellent compositions of that ingenious gentle- man." In the same essay, Addison praised a poem of Tickell's on the Prospect of Peace, and recommended the Pastorals of Philips. Of the latter, he observed : " One would have thought it impossible for this kind of poetry to have sub- sisted without fauns and satyrs, wood nymphs and water nymphs, with all the tribe of rural deities ; but we see lie has given a new life and a more natural beauty to this way of writing, by substituting, in the place of these antiquated fables, the superstitious mythology which prevails among the shepherds of our country." To Pope was awarded " faint praise" — the merest adumbration, while Tickell and Ambrose Philips received cordial and hearty commendation. Nay, the critic's eulogy on Philips's Pastorals is an oblique satire on 7 This Miscellany was reprinted in 1714, Pope's name being displayed conspicuously on the title-page, and all the pieces from his pen enumerated. Hence it has been called " Pope's Miscellany." He had probably acted as editor. THE BLOUNTS OF MAPLEDTTBHAM. bd Pope's, for Pope used the classic mythology to illustrate his poem. One piece in this Miscellany, entitled, " To a Young Lady, with the Works of Voiture," is connected with an interesting portion of the poet's personal history. "We have seen the keen relish with which Pope entered into society and courted the correspondence of the town wits and coffee-house critics. In the country, however, he was not destitute of other attractions than his books and verses. The circumstance of his being a Roman Catholic, though publicly disadvantageous, had this private compensation, that it introduced him more readily into the company of opulent families of that creed, who clung all the more closely toge- ther in consequence of their proscription by the State, and who were proud to hail as one of their body a young poet of pre-eminent excellence and promise. "With the Carylls of Sussex he had already established a close intimacy; and among the Catholic families at that time resident in Berks and Oxfordshire, were Englefield of "Whiteknights, Tatters- hall of Pinchampstead, Perkins of Ufton, Sir George Brown of Keddington, Stonor of Stonor Park, Permor of Tusmore, Blount of Mapledurham, &c. The families of Le Blount were of great antiquity, and could trace their descent from two brothers who accompanied "William the Norman to England. Sir John Blount, in the reign of Edward III., was married to Isolda Mountjoy, and from this union is descended the family of Blount of Soding- ton, conspicuous in history, partly as Lords Mountjoy (Charles Blount, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth, will occur to the recollection of most readers), and now represented by Sir Edward Blount. Sir John Blount had a son who married Sancha de Ayala, of the house of Castile, and from him de- scended the Blounts of Oxfordshire. Sir "Walter Blount of history and of Shakspeare, who fell at the battle of Shrews- bury, was of this family. In the following century, Sir Mi- chael Blount, Lieutenant of the Tower, purchased the manor of Mapledurham, on the Oxfordshire side of the Thames, near Beading, and erected the large and venerable mansion which still remains in the possession of his descendants. It was subjected to an assault during the civil war (when it was courageously defended in aid of the royal cause by Sir 64 LIFE OF POPE. Charles Blount), but it continues in tlie most perfect state, with its fine avenue of elms and spacious lawn, and forms one of our best specimens of Elizabethan architecture, un- spoiled by innovation. MAPLEDURHAjM house. In the time of Pope's youth this ancient and distinguished royalist family was represented by Mr. Lister Blount, who had one son, Michael, his successor, and two daughters, Teresa and Martha Blount — names which will for ever be associated with that of Pope, as Stella and Yanessa are with the name and history of Swift. Happily the Pope con- nexion was less painfully interesting and less tragical in its results than that of Swift ; but in both cases a mystery was preserved which still baffles investigation. Swift, cold and stern, had no sympathy with "killing eyes or bleeding hearts." " His conduct might have made him styled A father, and the nymph his child." TERESA AKD MARTHA BLOTJKT. 65 But lie proved a stepfather — crushing the hopes he had excited — the only hopes that blossomed in that desert of existence — and ultimately breaking the hearts of the very beings whom he loved most on earth. Pope was more sus- ceptible ; there was passion enough in his intercourse with the sisters — especially with the eldest, Teresa — but his af- fections were finally and irrevocably centred in Martha. 8 His acquaintance with the ladies gradually proceeded to in- timacy, then a warmer feeling and some extravagant gal- lantry succeeded, after which friendship again took its place, and, in the case of Martha, being founded, as he said, on "unalterable principles," it was never dissolved. Even in this first poetical offering to Teresa, published in 1712, the lines have nothing of an amatory character. The poet com- memorates the power, not of love raised on beauty, but of " nature, which alone, he says, " teaches charms to last, Still makes new conquests, and maintains the past." And he transmitted the volume containing this epistle to Teresa's sister, Martha, with the following letter: " May y e 25, 1712. " Madam, — At last I do myself the honour to send you the Rape of the Lock, which has been so long coming out, that the lady's 8 Teresa (who was baptised Teresa-Maria) was born at Paris, October 15, 1688. Martha was born June 15, 1690. They were partly educated at a ladies' school at Hammersmith, and were afterwards placed at an establish- ment in Paris in the Rue Boulanger. By the will of Lister Blount, the father, dated May 15, 1710 (he died 25th June of the same year), it was directed that if his son Michael should die without issue, Martha was to in- herit Mapledurham, and her eldest sister Teresa, being born an alien, was to have a sum of 12,000?. The French education of the young ladies im- parted a certain polish and vivacity to their manners, and Teresa is de- scribed as a person of remarkable talents. Pope's letters — at least such as remain — are preserved at Mapledurham, bound up with others addressed to the young ladies ; and there is also an interesting pedigree of the family, drawn up by the Rev. C. Lefebvre. These MSS. were made use of by Sir Alexander Croke in his Genealogical History of the Croke Family (originally Le Blount), a work printed but not published. Michael Blount, the brother of Teresa and Martha, married, in 1715, Mary- Agnes, daughter and co-heir of Sir J. Tichborne, of Tichborne, Hants, by whom he had a numerous family; the present proprietor of Mapledurham, Michael-Henry-Mary Blount, being his great grandson. To this gentleman t£e present edition of Pope is largely indebted. F d6 LIFE OE POPE. charms might have been half decayed, while the poet was celebrating them, and the printer publishing them. But yourself and your fair sister must needs have been surfeited already with this trifle ; and, therefore, you have no hopes of entertainment but from the rest of this book, wherein (they tell me) are some things that may be dan- gerous to be looked upon : however, I think you may venture, though you should blush for it, since blushing becomes you the best of any iady in England, and then the most dangerous thing to be looked upon is yourself. Indeed, madam, not to flatter you, our virtue will sooner be overthrown by one glance of yours, than by all the wicked poets can write in an age, as has been too dearly experienced by the wickedest of 'em all, that is to say by, madam, your most obedient humble servant — A. Pope." 9 Gray has described the sisters, as " The fair-hair'd Martha and Teresa brown;" and their portraits at Mapledurham attest the truth of the brief description, while also displaying the mingled frankness, grace, and intelligence of the elder sister, and Martha's fine complexion and blue eyes, which Pope loved to celebrate. A large picture in the family mansion represents the sisters as gathering flowers, Martha preceding Teresa, who has hold of her arm, and the expression of both is highly pleasing and animated. 10 The friendship of two young ladies, members of a distin- 9 First printed in Bowles's edit, of Pope. Mr. A. Chalmers, who added the notes to the letters (signed " C"), supposed that the book sent by Pope was the enlarged edition of the Rape of the Lock, but this was not printed till 1714. The book referred to was undoubtedly a copy of Lintot's Miscel- lany. It is strange that there is no mention in the letter of the lines to Teresa in the same volume. Could they have been originally addressed to some other lady, or did they form a fancy picture unappropriated ? Their first title, as we have seen, was merely " To a Young Lady," &c, and they bear the same in the Works, v. i., published in 1717, though subsequently headed by Pope u To Miss Blount." 10 The family tradition is, that this picture is by Kneller, but it is more likely to be the one thus alluded to by Jervas, in a letter written by the artist to Parnell : "I have just [1716] set the last hand to a couplet, for so I may call two nymphs in one piece. They are Pope's favourites ; and though few, you will guess, have cost me more pains— [more] than any nymphs can be worth — he is so unreasonable as to expect that I should have made them as beautiful upon canvas as he has done upon paper." Copies from this " couplet" were drawn and engraved for Mr. Bowles's Pope, but the effect is much injured by the likenesses being made into two separate portraits. n DATE OP POPE'S INTIMACY WITH THE MISS BLOTJNTS. 67 guished family, and possessing all the accomplishments of the period, aided by education and residence in Prance, must have nattered the budding vanity and importance of Pope, and we may conceive the delight with which he occasionally left his studies and humble retreat at Binfield, to ride to "Whiteknights, seven miles distant, or three miles further, by the pleasant town of Beading, to that picturesque old royalist mansion, in which his genius and rising fame ensured him a cordial welcome. If he was not a lover of the enthusiastic stamp, " Lone sitting by the shores of old Romance," he was a poet, bright with hope and fancy, and eager to re- ceive and to bestow admiration. The exact date at which Pope's intimacy with these ladies commenced has not been ascertained. Spence records a con- versation with Martha on the subject, but it is evidently a vague, general recollection, made after the lapse of thirty or more years. " My grandfather, Englefield of "Whiteknights," she said, " was a great lover of poetry and poets. He was acquainted with Mr. Pope, and admired him highly. It was at his house that I first used to see Mr. Pope. ' It was after his Essay on Criticism was published ?' Oh, yes, sir. I was then a very little girl. [She was twenty-one when the Essay on Criticism was published.] My uncle used to say much of him, but I did not attend to it at that time." And in another of Spence's gleanings, Miss Blount is made to say that her first acquaintance with Pope was after he had begun the Iliad, which was not till 1713, and Pope, we have seen, had been intimate with her at least a year previous. Erom a letter of Pope's mother (printed in the " Additions to Pope's "Works," and given in our Appendix), the acquaintance would seem to have begun before the summer of 1710. In the printed correspondence is a letter evidently meant to apply to the Mapledurham ladies, which gives us an earlier date : " Bath, 1714. ° You are to understand, madam, that my passion for your fair self and your sister has been divided with the most wonderful regularity in the world. Even from my infancy, I have been in love with one after the other of you, week by week, and my journey to Bath fell out p2 68 LIFE OF POPE. in the three hundred seventy-sixth week of the reign of my sovereign lady Sylvia. At the present writing hereof it is the three hundred eighty-ninth week of the reign of your most serene majesty, in whose service I was listed some weeks before I beheld your sister. This information will account for my writing to either of you hereafter, as either shall happen to be queen-regent at that time." On applying the vulgar touchstone of arithmetic to this poetical declaration, we find that the attachment must have begun in the year 1707, when Teresa and Pope were in their nineteenth year, and Martha was seventeen. But neither Pope nor Warburton print this letter as addressed to Teresa or Martha ; the former excluded it from what he termed the genuine edition of his letters, and it is, perhaps, only a fanci- ful display of epistolary gallantry, no more to be relied upon than the bead-roll of beauties in Horace's lyrics or Cowley's "Chronicle." 11 Although the earliest of the existing letters bearing a date belongs to 1712, it is evident that the poet had then fre- quently met his fair correspondent and her sister; and, judging from the handwriting, at least two other commu- nications are of older date. The following fragment, un- dated and unsigned, is in Pope's youthful hand : " But I assure you, as long as I have any memory, I shall never forget that piece of humanity in you. I must own I should never have looked for sincerity in your sex ; and nothing was so surprising as to find it, not only in your sex, but in two of the youngest and ' fairest of it. If it be possible for you to pardon this last folly of v mine, 'twill be a greater strain of goodness than I expect even from yourselves. But whether you can pardon it or not, I think myself obliged to give you this testimony under my hand, that I must ever have that value for your characters as to express it for the future on all occasions, and in ah the ways I am capable of. " That gentleman who is so happy as to have you both his friends is above all other friendship ; but if he pleases to accept of mine he may (in spite of all calumny) be assured of it. The same method that is used to make him doubt of my honesty has been practised formerly to 11 In the former edition, after the mention of "Lady Sylvia," was added between brackets " Martha in the original." On a more careful examina- tion of the Mapledurham MSS., the editor was surprised at not being able to find this letter, and is convinced that in the hurry with which the first edition was got up, he had mistaken the purport of some entry in his note- book. He can only express his regret for this error. In the Appendix will be found a list of all the Pope letters remaining at Mapledurham. LETTEE TO TEEESA BLOUNT. 09 cause my distrust of his, and by the same persons. And he may be confident that nothing but the value I have for his " 12 And this touching and beautiful letter, often printed, is in the same careful and seemingly youthful hand. It is the only one in which the name is misspelt " Blunt," though cor- rectly given on the address outside. The date seems to have been torn off: " Madam, — The chief cause I have to repent my leaving the town, is the uncertainty I am in every day of your sister's state of health. I really expected by every post to have heard of her recovery, but, on the contrary, each letter has been a new awakening to my appre- hensions, and I have ever since suffered alarms upon alarms on her account. A month ago I should have laughed at any one who had told me my heart would be perpetually beating for a lady that was thirty miles off from me ; and, indeed, 1 never imagined my concern would be half so great for any young woman whom I have been no more obliged to than to so innocent an one as she. But, madam, it is with the utmost seriousness I assure you, no relation you have can be more sensibly touched at this than I, nor any danger, if any I have, could affect me with more uneasiness (though as I never had a sister, I can't be quite so good a judge as you how far human nature would carry me). I have felt some weaknesses of a tender kind, which I would not be free from ; and I am glad to find my value for people so rightly placed as to perceive them on this occasion. " I cannot be so good a Christian as to be willing to resign my own happiness here for hers in another life. I do more than wish for her safety, for every wish I make I find immediately changed into a prayer, and a more fervent one than I had learned to make till now. " May her life be longer and happier than perhaps herself may de- sire, that is, as long and as happy as you can wish : may her beauty be as great as possible, that is, as it always was, or as yours is. But whatever ravages a merciless distemper may commit, I dare promise her boldly, what few (if any) of her makers of visits and compliments dare to do : she shall have one man as much her admirer as ever. As for your part, madam, you have me so more than ever, since I have been a witness to the generous tenderness you have shown upon this occasion. " I beg Mrs. Blount and Mr. Blount to believe me very faithfully their servant, and that your good mother will accept of a thousand thanks for the favour of her maid's letters, and oblige me with the continuance of them every post. I entreat her pardon that I did not 12 Mapledurham MSS. 70 LIFE OE POPE. take my leave of her ; for when I parted from you I was under some confusion, which I believe you might perceive. I thought at that moment to have snatched a minute or two more to have called again that night. But when I know I act uprightly, I depend upon for- giveness from such as I think you are. I hope you will always be just, and that is, always look upon me as, madam, your most obe- dient, faithful, and humble servant, "A. Pope. " To Mrs. Teresa Blount, next door to my Lord Salisbury's, in King-street, by St. James's-square." The calm good sense, kind consideration, and propriety of this letter, need not be pointed ont. If we be right in our conjecture that this is one of the earliest of the Mapledurham letters, it must have been written before the death of Mr. Lister Blount, in June, 1710. The young ladies of Mapledurham had another poetical attendant and correspondent. This was James Moore (after- wards James Moore Smythe), the son of Arthur Moore, a conspicuous politician in the time of Queen Anne, and asso- ciated; wuth Bolingbroke and Prior in the negotiations for effecting the treaty of commerce between Great Britain and Spain. Arthur Moore, as a politician, was deeply tainted with the venality and corruption of the times ; but he had admirable talents for public business, and had raised himself from the humblest condition to a leading position in the government. 13 At this time he was one of the Commissioners of Trade, a Controller of Army Accounts, a Director of the South Sea Company, and M.P. for Great Grimsby. His son James — the " Phantom" of the Dunciad, and the object of Pope's implacable hatred — was a Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, and held, conjointly with an elder brother, the office of Paymaster of the Band of Gentlemen Pensioners. 13 In the Whig lampoons of the day, he is said to have been the son of the gaoler at Monaghan in Ireland, " born at the paternal seat of his family — the tap-house at the prison-gate." Pope, as we shall afterwards see, re- presents him as having been (like another member of the Administration, the elder Craggs) a footman. " This old Craggs," says Horace Walpole, " was angry with Arthur Moore, who had worn a livery too, and who was getting into a coach with him, he turned about and said, ' Why, Arthur, I am always going to get up behind ; are not you ?' " — Letter to Mann, Sept. 1, 1750. JAMES MOOEE S3IYTHE. 71 He wrote a comedy called the Rival Modes, and some small poetical pieces ; but his productions are known only by name, preserved like the poet's straws in amber, in the satire of Pope. Moore, in his correspondence, took the name of Alexis ; Teresa Blount was Zephalinda, and Martha, Parthe- nissa. These " sentimental fopperies," as Mr. Bowles styles them, and justly, though the masculine mind of Burns stooped to the romantic folly of becoming Sylvander to a Clarinda, were continued throughout the year 1713 ; at least most of the existing letters are of this period, but a few are undated. Moore also celebrated in verse the charms of Teresa. His letters contain the lighter news of the day — notices of balls, masquerades, and fashionable movements, interspersed with professions of attachment and extravagant compliments. At this time there was no indication of jealousy or hostile feel- ing between the real and the assumed Alexis. The only mention of Pope by Moore is a casual one, under the date of July 30, 1713 : " I was some hours with Mr. Pope yesterday, who has, to use his own words, a mighty respect for the two Miss Blounts." That respect was in the following year evinced in a manner in which Pope had no rival. Teresa had been in London to witness the coronation of George I. in September, 1714, and Pope addressed to her a poetical epistle, in which he pictures the contrast experienced on her return to the country : " Thus from the world fair Zephalinda flew, Saw others happy, and with sighs withdrew ; Not that their pleasures caused her discontent, She sigh'd not that they stay'd, but that she went. She went to plain- work, and to purling brooks, Old-fashion'd halls, dull aunts, and croaking rooks. She went from opera, park, assembly, play, To morning- walks, and prayers three hours a-day ; To part her time 'twixt reading and bohea, To muse, and spill her solitary tea, Or o'er cold coffee trifle with the spoon, Count the slow clock, and dine exact at noon ; Divert her eyes with pictures in the fire, Hum half a tune, tell stories to the squire ; Up to her godly garret after seven, There starve and pray, for that's the way to heav'n." A graphic sketch, quite dramatic in its contrasts, but one /2 LIFE OF POPE. not likely to be highly esteemed by the Squire at Maple- durham or Whiteknights, or by the aunts in the old hall. In this poem the game of whist is alluded to, and Pope is said to have been the first poet who mentioned the game. He calls it " whisk," the common appellation at that time and loug afterwards, but one less expressive than the present, which indicates the silence and attention required by the player. Martha was not at the coronation, but she had written to the poet in a strain that called forth special joy and congratulation : " Most Divine !— 'Tis some proof of my sincerity towards you that I write when I am prepared by drinking to speak truth ; and sure a letter after twelve at night must abound with that noble ingredient. That heart must have abundance of flames, which is at once warmed bv wine and you. Wine awakens and refreshes the lurking passions of the mind, as varnish does the colours that are sunk in a picture, and brings them out in all their natural glo wings. " My good qualities have been so frozen and locked up in a dull constitution at all my former sober hours, that it is very astonishing to me, now I am drunk, to find so much virtue in me. In these overflowings of my heart I pay you my thanks for those two obliging letters you favoured me with of the 18th and 24th instant. That which begins with * Dear creature !' and ' My charming Mr. Pope !' was a delight to me beyond all expression. You have at last" entirely gained the conquest over your fair sister. 'Tis true you are not handsome, for you are a woman, and think you are not. But this good humour and tenderness for me has a charm that cannot be resisted. That face must needs be irresistible which was adorned with smiles, even when it could not see the coronation. I must own I have long been shocked at your sister on several accounts, but above all things at her prudery. I am resolved to break with her for ever, and therefore tell her I shall take the first opportunity of sending back all her letters." M Teresa probably appealed from Philip drunk to Philip sober. At least they were friends for several years after- wards. In 1715 the brother of the young ladies (now, by the death of his father, proprietor of the patrimonial estate) married, and the ladies, with their mother, had to choose another residence. They lived chiefly in London — first in Bolton-street and afterwards in Welbeck-street, but passed 14 Roscoe, v. viii. p. 390, collated with the original. LETTER TO THE MISS BLOU^TS. 73 many of the summer months in the country, among their relatives and friends on the banks of the Thames. From this time Pope's correspondence with the sisters became frequent and confidential. " You will both injure me very much," he writes to them, " if you do not think me a truer friend than ever any romantic lover or any imitator of their style could be. The days of beauty are as the days of greatness, and as long as your eyes make their sunshine, all the world are your adorers. I am one of those unambitious people who will love you forty years hence, when your eyes begin to twinkle in a retirement, for your own sakes, and without the vanity which every one will now take to be thought your admirer and humble servant." 15 There are gross things in these epistles — the grossest always in the finest letters — but the following, with a slight omission, is liable to no such objection ; and, as it still further explains the connexion between the poet and his fair friends, it is worthy of publication : " Deah Ladies, — I think myself obliged to desire you would not put off any diversion you may find in the prospect of seeing me on Saturday, which is very uncertain. I take this occasion to tell you once for all that I design no longer to be a constant companion when I have ceased to be an agreeable one. You only have had, as my friends, the privilege of knowing my unhappiness, and are therefore the only people whom my company must necessarily make melancholy. I will not bring myself to you at all hours, like a skeleton, to come across your diversions and dash your pleasures. Nothing can be more shocking than to be perpetually meeting the ghost of an old acquaint- ance, which is all you can ever see of me. " You must not imagine this to proceed from any coldness, or the least decrease of friendship to you. If you had any love for me, I should be always glad to gratify you with an object that you thought agreeable. But as your regard is friendship and esteem, those are things that are as well — perhaps better — preserved absent than pre- sent. A man that loves you is a joy to your eyes at all times. A man that you esteem is a solemn kind of thing, like a priest, only wanted at a certain hour, to do his office. J Tis like oil in a salad, ne- cessary, but of no manner of taste. " And you may depend upon it I will wait upon you on every occa- sion at the first summons as long as I live. Let me open my whole heart to you. I have sometimes found myself inclined to be in love 15 Printed Correspondence, collated with the original. 74 LIFE 'of pope. with you, and as I have reason to know, from your temper and con- duct, how miserably I should be used in that circumstance, it is worth my while to avoid it. It is enough to be disagreeable without adding fool to it by constant slavery. I have heard, indeed, of women that have had a kindness for men of my make I love you so well that I tell you the truth, and that has made me write this letter. I will see you less frequently this winter, as you'll less want company. When the gay part of the world is gone I'll be ready to stop the gap of a vacant hour whenever you please. Till then I'll converse with those who are more indifferent to me, as you will with those who are more entertaining. I wish you every pleasure God and man can pour upon ye, and I faithfully promise you all the good I can do you, which is the service of a friend, who will ever be, Ladies, entirely yours. (No signature.) " To the Young Ladies, Bolton-street." 16 The poet was evidently struggling with a deeper feeling of attachment than he was willing to acknowledge. In other short communications of the same kind he implores forgive- ness for his " disagreeable carriage," and for being " so resentful ;" and on one occasion, when Teresa had misunder- stood him and had apologised for her error, he generously writes : " As for forgiveness, I am approaching, I hope, to that time and condition in which everybody ought to give it, and to ask it of all the world. I sincerely do so with regard to you ; and beg pardon, also, for that very fault of which I taxed others, my vanity, which made me so resenting. We are too apt to resent tilings too highly till we come to know, by some great misfortune or other, how much we are born to endure" 17 The delicacy with which he relieves the lady from embarrassment or uneasiness, by more than sharing the blame, and the truth of the concluding sentiment, must strike every reader. There is something strangely solemn, as well as humiliating, in a letter like the following, written by a great and popular poet : " Thursday Morn. " Ladies, — Pray think me sensible of your civility and good mean- ing in asking me to come to you. 16 Mapledurham MSS. 17 Roscoe, v. viii. p. 457, collated with the original. WARMTH OF POPE'S FRIENDSHIP. 75 " You will please to consider that my coming or not is a thing in- different to both of you. But God knows it is far otherwise to me with respect to one of you. " I scarce ever come but one of two things happens, which equally affects me to the soul : either I make her [Teresa ?"| uneasy, or I see her unkind. " If she has any tenderness, I can only give her every day trouble and melancholy. If she has none, the daily sight of so undeserved a coldness must wound her to death. " It is forcing one of us to do a very hard and very unjust thing to the other. " My continuing to see you will, by turns, tease all of us. My stay- ing away can at worst be of ill consequence only to myself. " And, as one of us is to be sacrificed, I believe we are all agreed who shall be the person." 1S (No signature.) He tells Teresa that his friendship is " too warm and sin- cere to be trifled with," and he thus upbraids her: " You told me, if such a thing was the secret of my heart, you should entirely forgive, and think well of me. I told it, and find the contrary. You pretended so much generosity as to offer your service in my behalf. The minute after, you did me as ill an office as you could, in telling the party concerned [Martha ?] it was all but an amusement occasioned by my loss of another lady." l9 18 Bowles, viii. 441. Mr. Bowles remarks : " This letter is affecting. It breathes the language of a wounded spirit. The periods are divided by a solemnity of pause unusual to our author. It was followed, however, by a reconciliation with one at least of the sisters." We have no doubt with both. At least Pope is found writing in the old strain to Teresa in Decem- ber, 1720. Mr. Bowles published a note written by Martha Blount which, he says, is " short but very much to the purpose ;" a comment which Mr. Koscoe indignantly and justly disclaims, as containing an insinuation that will be rejected by every candid mind. The note is as follows, correctly copied from the original in the British Museum : " Sir, — My sister and I shall be at home all day, if any company comes that you don't like, I'll go up into my room with you. I hope we shall see you. u Yours, " Sunday morning." " M. Addressed to " Mr. Pope, at Mr. Jervasses, Clee viand-court." Pope evidently saw nothing in the note requiring concealment, for he has written some of the lines of his Homer on the back of the paper, and it was kept among his other manuscripts, passing into the hands of the transcriber. 19 Roscoe, v. viii. p. 456 76 LIFE OF POPE. "We add another note, addressed to Teresa, in Bolton- street : " Chiswick, 4 o'clock, Tuesday, Dec. 31 [1717]. " Dear Madam, — 'Tis really a great concern to me, that yon mis- took me so much this morning. I have sincerely an extreme esteem for you ; and as you know I am distracted in one respect, for God's sake don't judge and try me by the methods of unreasonable people. Upon the faith of a man who thinks himself not dishonest, I meant no disrespect to you. _ I have been ever since so troubled at it, that I could not help writing the minute I got home. Believe me, much more than I am my own, "Yours, A. Pope." 20 Previous to this, March 10th, 1717, Pope executed a deed by which he settled upon Teresa an annuity of forty pounds a year for six years, on condition that she should not be mar- ried during that term. We were at first disposed to consider this an unnatural and selfish restriction, but it was probably only a delicate mode of assisting Teresa in her altered and limited fortunes. In an unpublished note, without date, he says to her, " You prefer three hundred pounds to two true lovers," but no explanation of the circumstances is given. Other communications addressed by Pope to his fair friends will appear in the course of our narrative. In some of the letters there are profane allusions and an affectation on the part of the poet (which Byron also possessed) of wishing to appear desperately wild and wicked — a Don Juan in miniature. He begs Teresa not to pray for him ! Yet he writes to Martha, " Mrs. Teresa has honestly assured me, that but for some whims of that kind which she can't entirely conquer, she would go a-raking with me in man's clothes." All this must be taken as mere braggadocio. Sir Alexander Croke is at great pains to vindicate the purity of Pope's con- nexion with his sisters. Martha Blount enjoyed, he says, not only the favour of her own family, but was honoured with the friendship and intimacy of persons of rank and respectability till her death ; and among these he mentions Pope's friends, Lyttelton, Lord Cornbury, Judge Fortescue, the Duchess of Queensberry, Lady Cobham, Lady Gerard, the Countess of Suffolk, &c. " "Without stronger proof than 20 Roscoe, v. viii. p. 444. LATHEE OF POPE'S ATTACHMENT. 77 lias yet been brought, can it be believed that a man of honour, and moral character, would so dishonourably have corrupted the daughters of a family with which he was living in such habits of friendship ; or that young ladies of such respectable connexions, and so highly educated, would have so completely disgraced themselves, by becoming, as they have been lately called, the cheres amies (so called by Bowles) of a poet ? Especially when the gallant Lothario, the gay seducer, was a little miserable object, so weak that he could not hold himself upright without stays, so sickly that his whole life was a con- tinued illness, and of such illness and of such frail materials that he could scarcely be kept alive without constant care and attention ?" This is to represent Pope as he was in advanced life — not as he was up to his fortieth year. His connexion with the sisters, particularly Martha, was undoubtedly inju- rious to their reputation, but we have no doubt as to its innocence. The manners of the age allowed great latitude in expression, and the licence in which Pope occasionally in- dulged, would be the more readily tolerated, or at least for- given, on account equally of his genius and his person. His favourite, Teresa, appears to have forfeited her poet's regard about the year 1722, or earlier, when her name disappears from the correspondence, and she was not remembered in his will. She was either too good or too gay. Pope, we have seen, spoke of her prudery, and Swift afterwards calls her "the sanctified sister." 21 She was evidently fond of a town life — a flattered beauty, much admired at drawing-rooms and on other public appearances, while her sister, less robust in health, and less expensive in her tastes, preferred the coun- try. Pope objected to the mode of life in London. He was desirous that Martha should live apart and enjoy more quiet 21 Lady Worsley, in a letter to Swift, had playfully alluded to his co- quetting with flirting girls, adding, " I will not yield even to dirty Patty, whom I was the most jealous of when you were last here." In his reply, Nov. 4, 1732, Swift says : " As to Patty Blount, you wrong her very much. She was a neighbour's child, a good Catholic, an honest girl, and a tolerable courtier at Richmond. I deny she was dirty, but a little careless, and sometimes wore a ragged gown, when she and I took long walks. She saved her money in summer only to be able to keep a chair at London in winter. This is the worst you can say ; and she might have a whole coat to her back if her good nature did not make her a fool to her mother and sanctified sister Teresa." — Notes and Queries, v. iv. p. 220. 78 LIFE OF POPE. than could be obtained in such a family, and this he deemed necessary both for her health and her happiness. The poet's impressions may have been wrong — mere clouds of suspicion and jealousy, or morbid sensitiveness ; and it does not appear that the sisters were ever permanently separated, even after Pope had come to believe that some popular scandals con- cerning his connexion with Martha had originated with her own family. After the death of the poet, we find Martha seeking to introduce her sister into the society of the Duchess of Queensberry, and this may be held as virtually a refutation of Pope's suspicions. Martha continued his confidante to the last. He took much trouble in the management of her pecu- niary affairs, introduced her into the nouses of his noble and distinguished friends, was constant in his correspondence with her wherever he went, and finally left her the bulk of his fortune. She is unfavourably represented by Lady Hervey, the Aliens, of Prior Park, and "Warburton. But on the other hand she conciliated, as Sir Alexander Croke has ob- served, the regard of many persons in high life. Mrs. Howard solicited her friendship and correspondence, and she was re- spected by her own family, by her intimate friends and relatives, the Carylls, and by some Catholic clergymen, who knew and esteemed her till her death. The poet'sconfidence was never abated. The force of habit was added to the ties of affection; his infirmities rendered female attentions and kindness peculiarly soothing and gratifying; and he may have clung to her, as Byron in vivid and pathetic expressions remarks, " in the desolation of his latter days, not knowing whither to turn, as he drew towards his premature old age, childless and lonely — like the needle which, approaching within a certain distance of the pole, becomes helpless and useless, and, ceasing to tremble, rusts." 22 In the same month that Pope had addressed Martha 22 Letter to John Murray on the Rev. W. L. Bowles's Strictures, &c. Two letters from Mrs. Howard to Martha Blount will be found in the Ap- pendix. In Eogers's "Table Talk," the following interesting trait is men- tioned : " Lawless (shopman of Messrs. Cadell and Davies the booksellers) told me that he had been intimate with the waiting-maid of Pope's beloved Martha Blount. According to the maid's account, her mistress was one of the best-natured and kindest persons possible ; she would take her out in the carriage to see sights," &c. &c. MES. W., THE " TJXFOET'U^ATE LADY." 79 Blount, presenting her with a copy of the highly-prized Miscellany — in May, 1712 — we find, from the printed cor- respondence, that he was interested in the fortunes of another fair friend, a " Mrs. "W.," supposed to he the object of that most paiJietic^nd^beautiful of all the creations of his genius, the Elegy to the 'Memory of an Unfortunate Lady. The Elegy, however, was not published until 1717. During the poet's life no clue was given to the mystery involved in the poem. "Whether the incidents were real or fictitious, Pope appears to have been reluctant to satisfy inquirers. His friend, Caryll, in the published letters, twice asks the name of the lady, but no answer is given. Allusion was made to the story by Welsted and James Moore Smythe in the " One Epistle" (1730), but we learn nothing from the heroine being there designated " Cloris," whom Pope is charged with sending to the skies ! Welsted afterwards gave a name, but his accusation against the poet on this occasion is rather one of scandal than of death. He writes of Pope : " Immured whilst young in convents hadst thou been, Victoria still with rapture we had seen ; But now our wishes by the Fates are cross'd, We've gain'd a Thersite and an Helen lost : The envious planet has deceiv'd our hope — We've lost a St. Leger and gain'd a Pope." And in the sublime fury or fustian with which Welsted assailed Pope, he represents this Victoria as drooping in the vales of Eichmond. 23 " He had the impudence," says Pope 23 " So long shall Thames through all his coasts proclaim, Victoria's grief and Pollio's injur'd fame. Ye vales of Eichmond, fraught with wasting thyme ! Ye beds of lilies, and ye groves of lime ! Say where is she that made those lilies bright — The scribbler's shame who was the swains' delight ? Behold the charmer, wasting to decay ; Like Autumn faded in her virgin May ! To pore o'er curs'd translation, rest she flies, And dims by midnight, lamps her beamless eyes ; With Iliads travestied, to age she stoops, In fustian withers and o'er crambo droops. No conquest now, Victoria, shalt thou boast, The second victim to Achilles' ghost ! 80 LIFE OF POPE. " to tell in print that Mr. Pope had occasioned a lady's death, and to name a person he never heard of" — and, using the poetic licence as to time, Pope hurled at his assailant the memorable couplet, " Full ten years slander'd did he once reply ? Three thousand suns went down on Welsted's lie." 24 The ancient and honourable name of St. Leger was widely- spread both in England and Ireland, but it would be assign- ing too much importance to "Welsted's rant to seek in any of the pedigrees for the " Unfortunate Lady." Ayre professed to know the mysterious story. The lady, he said, had formed an attachment to a young gentleman of inferior rank, and refused a match proposed to her by her uncle; that her uncle then forced her abroad, where she languished for some time in strict seclusion ; and that, at last, wearied out and despairing, she put an end to her own life, having bribed a woman servant to procure her a sword. Ayre's narrative of the event is evidently no more than an imaginary history formed out of the poem, though deviating from it in some particulars ; and one of his contemporaries charged him with manufacturing the story. "With what pleasure," says this anonymous writer, " should we have read after his (Pope's) death, what it was impossible for us to know in his lifetime, the real history, with all its melancholy circumstances, of that unfortunate lady, whose death furnished occasion for j perhaps the most finished poem he has left behind him. The little I learned of that story from the hints I have heard accidentally dropped in the few hours of conversation I have been so happy as to have with Mr. Pope, makes me speak with more certainty of the satisfaction it would have been to Yet fair, though fallen ! a star with feebler fire, The more we pity while we less admire : The spell of nonsense, guiltless injur'd dame, Thy charms that blasted, shall not blast thy fame ; Thy fame, thy wrong, shall go to future times ; While Pope damns Sheffield with his bellman's rhymes." OfDuIness and Scandal, 1732. 24 Epistle to Arbuthnot. The "lie" might be Welsted's attack on Tope in 1717, in his Paloemon and Cselia, which would make the "three thousand suns" a closer approximation to fact. WARBTTKTON's XOTE OX THE LADY. 81 the world to have been made fully acquainted with it. And I can speak with certainty of at least one person to whom Mr. Pope had trusted it with all its affecting circumstances." 25 Six years afterwards (1751), in Warburton's edition of Pope's "Works, the following note, purporting to be written by Pope himself, was appended to the Elegy : " See tlie Duke of Buckingham 's Verses to a Lady designing to retire into a Monastery \ compared with Mr. Pope's 'Letters to Several Ladies, 1 page 206. She seems to be the same person whose un- fortunate death is the subject of the poem. — P." If this note was written by Pope (of which we have strong doubts), it must have been written purely for mystification and decep- tion. Turning to the " Letters to Several Ladies," page 206 in Warburton's edition (vol. vii.), we find one of Pope's Letters to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. ""We never meet," writes the poet, " but we lament over you ; we pay a kind of weekly rites to your memory, where we strow flowers of rhetoric and offer such libations to your name as it would be profane to call toasting. The Duke of B m is some- times the high priest of your praises." Warburton did not know that this letter was addressed to Lady Mary, for Pope had suppressed the name. He saw that it was addressed to some lady whose absence was lamented, and the reference to the "Duke of B m" misled him into the supposition (which, however, he has doubtfully expressed) that the same lady, celebrated for her charms and her misfortunes, had in- spired both Buckingham and Pope. The Duke's verses were first published in Tonson's Miscellany for 1709, when he was in his sixtieth year and married to his third wife ! They were, most likely, a much earlier production, and this renders it in the highest degree improbable that the same lady should also have been commemorated by Pope, who was thirty-seven years younger than his friend. If such had been the case, we might well give a literal and prosaic inter- pretation to the apostrophe, " Oh, ever beauteous, ever friendly!" The difficulties and contradictions involved in the common story, added to Pope's significant silence, led 25 Remarks on Squire Ayre's Memoirs: London, M. Cooper, 1745. So little reliance is to be placed on the pamphleteers of that day, that the statements of this writer are perhaps as purely an invention as Ayre's nar- rative. a 82 LIFE OP POPE. the late Mr. Rogers to believe that the Elegy was a mere fancy-piece, written by Pope to embody poetical conceptions, and to show how much better he could write than the Duke of Buckingham. The mistaken or deceptive note by "Warburton led the editors and biographers astray. Johnson followed the story of Ayre, which had been continued in Euffhead's Life, but sought the lady's name and adventures with fruitless in- quiry. "Warton also made "many and wide inquiries," and was informed that the lady's name was "Wainsbury ; that she was as ill-shaped and deformed as Pope himself, and that her death was not by a sword, but — what would less bear to be told poetically — she hanged herself. Hawkins gives a similar account on the authority of a " lady of quality," but says the name was Withinbury, corruptly pronounced Winbury. Mr. Bowles revived the romance of the tale by stating, on the authority of Voltaire, communicated to Condorcet, that the lady's attachment was to a young French prince, Emanuel, Duke of Berry, whom, in her early youth, she had met at the Court of Prance. Mr. Eoscoe followed the track pointed out by the reference to the printed letters, but added nothing to the previous information. Those letters, described by Pope in the table of contents as relating to an " Unfortunate Lady," introduce us to a Mrs. W., niece to a Lady A. ; and they tell us that in 1712 the lady went on a visit to her aunt, after enduring a series of hardships and misfortunes, of the nature of which we are not informed. We learn also that Mrs. W. had a brother who exerted him- self on her behalf. Thus, if the initial letters were held to be genuine, the search was restricted to certain Eoman Catholic families of that day having a " Mrs. W." who had encountered misfortune, who had a brother, and also an aunt, the last answering to " Lady A." After the lapse of more than a century, the veil has been withdrawn from the mysterious niece and aunt, and the history of at least one " Unfortunate Lady " has been traced with clearness and certainty. "We may not yet have got the heroine of the Elegy, but we have obtained an explanation of the allusions in the correspondence, and the knowledge of an interesting passage in Pope's life. The original letters addressed by the poet to his friend Mr. Caryll falling into the hands of MES. WESTON. 83 an acute and critical inquirer, the following- particulars (all supported by proofs) have been elicited : "The 'Mrs. W.' of Pope's letters was Mrs. Weston. She was Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Joseph Gage (son of Sir Thomas, of Eirle), who inherited Sherborne Castle in right of his mother, and ultimately the large property of the Penruddocks in right of his wife. She was sister to Thomas, who succeeded as eighth Baronet and was first Viscount, and to Joseph, mentioned by Pope in the Epistle to Bathurst : " ' The crown of Poland, venal twice an age, To just three millions stinted modest Gage' — an allusion to his enormous gains, subsequently lost by speculations in the Mississippi scheme ; when, as reported, he offered to buy the crown of Poland and the island of Sardinia, and to attach the latter to the former as a kitchen-garden — a man whose whole life was a romance, and who ended his career as a grandee of Spain of the first class ! Her father died in 1700, and left Sir W. Goring, of Burton in Sussex, executor and guardian of his children. Her aunt, Catharine Gage, became the second wife of Walter Lord Aston. Mrs. Eliza- beth, the lady in question, married John Weston, of Sutton in the county of Surrey. They lived unhappily, were soon separated, had only one child (or only one who survived), a daughter, Melior, who died unmarried in June, 1782, aged seventy-nine." 26 The case of Mrs. "Weston was taken up warmly by the poet. At his request, Mr. Caryll interceded on her behalf with her guardian, Sir William Goring, and also wrote to her husband and aunt. When Mr. Weston, " the tyrant," determined to remove his daughter from her mother, Pope wrote to Caryll : " I wish to God it could be put off by Sir W. Gr.'s mediation, for I am heartily afraid 'twill prove of very ill consequence to her." Of this Sir William Goring he had a very unfavourable opinion. " God grant," he ex- claims, " he may never be my friend, and guard all my friends from such a guardian !" This is in the spirit of the Elegy : " But thou false guardian of a charge too good." The quarrel was adjusted, and the lady again returned to her husband. Pope's exertions on her behalf, instead of being applauded, were then, as is not unusual in such cases, made 26 Athenceum, July 15, 1854. g2 (2 LIFE OF POPE. the ground of censure and scandal. His own relations, the Racketts, were opposed to him ; the Englefields, of "White- knights, Mrs. Nelson, and others, looked coldly upon him ; and even Mrs. "Weston was led to join in the prejudice against the too zealous poet. "With affected philosophical indifference, he wrote to Caryll — into whose friendly ear all his petty griefs and chagrins seem to have been poured — " I shall fairly let them fall, and suffer them to be deceived for their credulity. "When flattery and lying are joined and carried as far as they will go, I drop my arms of defence, which are of another kind, and of no force against such unlawful weapons. A plain man encounters them at a great disadvantage, as the poor naked Indians do our fire-arms. Virtute mea me involvo, as Horace expresses it. I wrap myself up in the conscience of my integrity, and sleep upon it as soundly as I can." 27 iThis was in 1712. The lady sur- vived till 1724 (she must then have been still young), and died not by the " visionary sword," or in a foreign land, but at her husband's residence of Sutton-place. The husband Pope always regarded with aversion, and shunned his society. 25 27 Athenaeum, July 15, 1854. 28 An indication of this is afforded in a letter addressed to Teresa and Martha Blount ; and we extract part as serving also to illustrate the manner in which Pope altered and prepared his letters for publication. The name of Mr. Weston had been crossed over, but may still be read. In the printed correspondence we read : " I was heartily tired, and posted to Park : there we had an ex- cellent discourse of quackery ; Dr. S * * * was mentioned with honour. Lady * * * walked a whole hour abroad without dying after it, at least in the time I stayed, though she seemed to be fainting, and had convulsive motions several times in her head. I arrived in the forest by Tuesday noon, having fled from the face (I wish I could say the horned face) of Moses B- , who dined in the midway thither. I passed the rest of the day in those woods where I have so often enjoyed a book and a friend ; I made a hymn as I passed through, which ended with a sigh, that I will not tell you the meaning of." In the original (dated September 13, 1717) the passage runs thus : " I was heartily tired, and glad to be gone by eight o'clock next morning j hired two d d horses ; . . . . galloped to Staines ; kept Miss Griffin from church all the Sunday, and lay at my brother's, near Bagshot, that night. Colonel Butler (who is as well known by the name of Fair Butler as ever Fair Helen was) came to complain of me to my Lady Arran. That gentleman chanced to keep his word in calling at Hampton Court, but I was MES. WESTON. 85 Of the lady we do not hear again (unless it be to her that Pope alludes in a letter to Martha Blount, September 7, 1733, in which he mentions that he had dreamt all night of a lady who dwelt " a little more than, perhaps, was right" on his spirits, and who had been ill-used by her sister) ; but it is possible that her story, idealised by poetic fancy, and elevated by the addition of fictitious circumstances, formed the chief, if not the only actual model for his immortal Elegy. Buckingham's lines suggested the outline of the picture, Mrs. too quick by an hour or two. I met him here, and there ensued an excel- lent discourse of quackery : Dr. Shadwell was mentioned with honour, and we had a word or two in private Lady Arran walked a whole hour abroad without dying after it, at least in the time I stayed, though she seemed to be fainting, and had convulsive motions in her head several times. This day my father took a great deal of care to send after me a letter which contained certain advices from my friend [name effaced] where [effaced] to be met with in a civil house at Oxford. I defy them and all their arts. I love no meat but ortolans, and no women but you — though, indeed, that's no proper comparison but for fat duchesses ; for to love you is as if one should wish to eat angels or drink cherubim broth. I arrived at Mr. Doncastle's by Tuesday noon, having fled from the face (I wish I coidd say the horned face) of Mr. Weston, who dined that day at my brother's. I have seen my farmer and the gold ring, which I forgot, on his finger. I have sent to Sir W. Compton, and passed the rest of the day in those woods where I have so often enjoyed an author and a book ; and begot such sons upon the Muses as I hope will live to see their father, what he never was yet, an old and a good man. I made a hymn as I passed through these groves ; it ended with a deep sigh which 1 will not tell you the meaning of. " All hail ! once pleasing, once inspiring shade, Scene of my youthful loves, and happier hours ! Where the kind Muses met me, as I stray'd, And gently press'd my hand, and said, Be ours. Take all thou e'er shalt have, a constant Muse : At court thou may'st be liked, but nothing gain ; Stocks thou may'st buy and sell, but always lose ; And love the brightest eyes, but love in vain. " On Thursday I went to Stonor, which I have long had a mind to see since the romantic description you gave me of it. The melancholy which my wood and this place have spread over me, will go near to cast a cloud upon the rest of my letter, if I don't make haste to conclude it here. * I know you wish my happiness so much, that I would not have you think I have any other reason to be melancholy ; and after all, he must be a beast that is so, with two such fine women for his friends. 'Tis enough to make any creature easy, even such an one as your humble servant." — (No sig- nature.) We wonder Pope had the heart to leave out the fine verses. 86 LIFE OF POPE. "Weston's misfortunes and the poet's admiration of her gave it life and warmth, and imagination did the rest. Mrs. Weston, of Suttorj, then, was the "Unfortunate Lady*' of the printed correspondence. Her history was purposely left in obscurity — shrouded by Pope in poetical mystery and indistinctness, whether or not intended by him to be asso- ciated with his Elegy. But in the correspondence we have also an " Unhappy Lady" — so styled by Pope in the table of contents — and of her we learn something from the same source, to which we are indebted for our knowledge of the former. The " Unhappy Lady" was a relation of the Carylls, a Mrs. Cope, whose husband, an officer in the army, had basely deserted his wife, and left her destitute. Pope first met the lady in 1712, and was charmed with her conversation. "When her evil days came, he proved a warm and generous friend. He interested Caryll and others in her behalf, and when ultimately she settled in Prance, in poverty and dis- tress, he made an allowance to her of 20Z. a year. The lady died, after acute suffering, from cancer in the breast, in 1728, and the poet then stood engaged to the Abbe Southcote, his early friend, for a sum of 201., due for surgeons and neces- saries in the last days of .Mrs. Cope's illness. " This sum," he says, " is all I think myself a loser by, because it does her no good." 29 Pope had been misinformed with respect to Mr. Caryll's conduct towards this lady, and wrote to him the letter which he entitled, " To Mr. C , expostulatory on the hardships done an unhappy lady," &c. Mr. Caryll explained to the entire satisfaction of the poet : he had, in fact, like his friend, allowed the lady 201. a year ; and Pope expressed his joy that the " little shadow of misconstruction" between them had been removed. One circumstance only was wanting to complete and crown the honour due to him from this transaction. As he had resolved on publishing his remonstrance to Caryll, he should also have printed his sub- sequent letter, in which he acknowledged his error and acquitted his old friend of all blame. Justice to the memory of Mr. Caryll, then recently deceased, and, still more, regard for the feelings of his widow and children, demanded that such an explanation should be given ; but it would almost 29 Athenaeum, July 22, 1854. MES. COPE. 87 seem that no material act of Pope's life, and no publication from his pen, could be free from misconception or stratagem. To have published Mr. Caryll's explanation would have shown himself to be in error; to have withheld his own expostulatory letter would have deprived him of an oppor- tunity of displaying bis superior benevolence ; and against both of these vanity protested. Such instances of active and disinterested sympathy as the cases of the ladies afford, are, however, highly honourable to Pope. Amidst all the levities of youth and the eager thirst for distinction, he cherished generous feelings, which were developed in acts of true kind- ness and substantial assistance. 88 life or POPE. CHAPTEE III. [1713—1715.] WINDSOR FOREST. ACQUAINTANCE WITH SWIFT, ARBUTHNOT, PARNELL, ETC. THE RAPE OF THE LOCK. COMMENCEMENT OF THE TRANSLATION OF HOMER. QUARREL WITH ADDISON. The measured harmony and correctness of Pope's numbers would seem to infer a kindred taste for music, and he nattered himself that he had a " good ear." It does not appear, how- ever, that he had any knowledge of the principles or science of music ; and if the statement be correct that he inquired of Arbuthnot whether the applause bestowed on Handel was really deserved, his taste must also have been defective. He had not, like Milton or Gray, a key to the higher powers and charms of musical combination and proportions. A delicate and acute perception of metrical harmony often exists where there is none for musical harmony. It is more allied to cul- tivated taste and intellect than to the ear ; arid the name of Pope must be added to the list of poets (including Scott and Byron) who derived none of their inspiration from this most elevating and unsensual of the fine arts. He had, however, from his earliest days, evinced a taste for drawing. His childish imitation of the printed characters in books may be considered an indication of this predilection ; and he after- wards proceeded to sketches in India ink, some of which still remain. His father (as we are told by Davies in his Life of Garrick) intended that Pope should become an artist; the study of medicine was also proposed ; but painting must have been more congenial ; and no doubt the example of Samuel Cooper, who had risen by his art to be the favourite of princes, would be often talked of at Binfield, On the POPE STUDIES DKAWUN-G. 89 walls of the house were some of Cooper's works; even the " grinding-stone and muller," bequeathed by the artist's widow, were suggestive. The experiment was now to be tried. About the beginning of 1713 apparently Pope placed himself under Charles Jervas, better known as the friend of Pope, Steele, and Swift, and as the translator of Don Quixote, than for talent or originality as a painter. Kneller, under whom Jervas had studied, stood higher as an artist ; the su- periority is undoubted ; but Sir Godfrey's vanity and ab- surdity, and the extent of his engagements, forbade any very close association or companionship. Jervas was scarcely less vain ; but he seems to have been friendly, good-hearted, and, in the main, judicious. He was also popular and fashionable —recommendations no less prized in the Porest than in the neighbourhood of St. James's. Jervas gave the poet " daily instructions and examples" for about a year and a half. The mornings, he said, were employed in painting ; the even- ings in conversation ; and we may owe some of the artistic effects in the Epistle of Eloisa, and other poems, to these morning lessons in the management of light, and shade, and colour. It is pleasing to contemplate the picture drawn by Pope in his Epistle to Jervas, of their mutual labours and congenial studies — poetry, however, being decidedly the am- bition of the one as art was of the other. Indeed, the year 1713 was one of the busiest of Pope's literary periods, and painting could only have had a subordinate share of his time and attention. We find him thus writing to Gay, August 23, 1713: " I have been near a -week in London, where I am like to remain till I become, by Mr. Jervas' s help, eleqans formarum spectator. I begin to discover beauties that were till now imperceptible to me. Every corner of an eye, or turn of a nose or ear, the smallest degree of light or shade on a cheek or in a dimple, have charms to distract me. I no longer look upon Lord Plausible as ridiculous for admiring a lady's fine tip of an ear and pretty elbow, as the 'Plain Dealer' has it ; but I am in some danger even from the ugly and disagreeable, since they may have their retired beauties in one part or other about them. You may guess in how uneasy a state I am, when every day the performances of others appear more beautiful and excellent, ana my own more despicable. I have thrown away three Dr. Swifts, each of which was once my vanity, two Lady Bridgewaters, a Duchess of Montague, half a dozen earls, and one Knight of the Garter." ^ 90 LIFE OF POPE. These were copies ; and he finished a portrait of Betterton, copied from Kneller, which was in the collection of his friend Murray, Lord Mansfield, and still exists. An original speci- men of the poet's artistic powers — a pictorial satire — is pre- served in Ketley parsonage, Wellington, Salop. This is a pic- ture in water colours, about three feet by four feet in size, representing the Prodigal Son, with other allegorical designs and inscriptions, as a death's-head crowned with laurel, a phi- losopher blowing bubbles in the air, a fallen statue, ruined columns, &c. An engraving was made from this picture, though not containing all the figures, as a frontispiece to an edition of the Essay on Man, with Warburton's Commentary, published by the Knaptons in 1748. The original has long been in the family of its present owner, the Rev. Thompson Stoneham, who is fully sensible of the value of this curious and interesting relic. One defect Pope laboured under, which must have been fatal to success as a painter — he was near-sighted and had weak eyes. He therefore entered all the more earnestly into those studies to which nature and destiny impelled him. " Windsor Forest" was published in March, 1712-3. The earlier portion of the poem was written several years before, and it was evidently suggested by Denham's Cooper's Hill, which was then the most popular descriptive poem in the language. Pope was allegorical as well as descriptive. He introduced Diana, Lodona, and Father Thames ; but little in- terest attaches to these mythological creations, which appear faint after the rich and glowing allegories of Spenser, or those of Ben Jonson in his gorgeous Masques, or of Milton in his Comus. The descriptive passages also seem tame and meagre kl after the woodland and river scenes of Thomson, Cowper, 4 and Shelley. In his poem of Alastor — written under the oak shades of Windsor Great Park — Shelley has painted forest scenery with a beauty and magnificence certainly not surpassed in the whole compass of our poetry. Pope's are literal and miniature descriptions — poor in comparison, but | touched occasionally with simple grace, and even pathos. All have admired his pictures of the death of the pheasant, the netting of partridges in the new-shorn fields, and the fowler in winter among the lonely woodcocks and clamorous lap- wings. The conclusion of the poem is historical, and of a POPE INTRODUCED TO ADDISOX. 91 higher order of poetry than the first part. In this portion, too, the poet avowed his political partisanship by eulogising the peace shortly afterwards consummated by the treaty of Utrecht — a treaty that destroyed the effect of Marlborough's glorious campaigns, and granted to France more than she had demanded, and we had refused, three years before. Steele had introduced Pope to his important and distin- guished friend Addison, then unquestionably the most popular man in England. " If he had a mind to be chosen king," said Swift, " he would hardly be refused." Unfortunately, a shade of suspicion and dislike mingled with Pope's admi- ration of that great man. In commending the Essay on Criticism, Addison, as we have seen, qualified his praise in allusion to the attacks on Dennis and Blackmore. Pope had com- municated to Addison his happy conception of raising the Rape of the Lock into a mock epic by adding the machinery of the Eosicru- cian system ; but Addison advised him against any al- teration, for that the poem in its original state was a delicious little thing, and, as he expressed it, merum sal. " Mr. Pope," we are told, " was shocked for his friend, and then first began to open his eyes to his character." This is related addison. by Warburton ; but Spence records no such impression on the part of Pope. If Addison gave the advice, it was doubtless given in all sincerity, for no one could have pre- dicted that Pope's invention was to be crowned with such brilliant results. Addison was strongly averse to altering his own productions after they were published, and he was likely to counsel the young poet against making any such LirE or pope. sweeping alteration as that which he contemplated. If there was treachery in Addison's advice, Pope himself, as all his critics and biographers admit, was open to the same charge ; .or, on the tragedy of Cato being submitted to him in manu- script, he gave an opinion that it had better not be acted, not being theatrical enough, and that Addison would gain sufficient reputation by only printing it. Here the circum- stances were exactly parallel ; but Addison, we dare say, as little dreamed of charging Pope with treachery as of making Sir Eoger de Coverley plot treason. Warburton, we are williDg to believe, misrepresented the feeling of Pope on this occasion ; and accordingly we find the latter anxious for the success of the tragedy, writing for it the prologue, which forms one of the loftiest and most finished of his smaller poems, and attending the theatre on the first representation of the drama. Of this scene he gives a lively account in a letter dated April 30, 1713 : " Cato was not so much the wonder of Home in his days as he is of Britain in onrs ; and though all the foolish industry possible has been used to make it thought a party-play, yet what the author once said of another may the most properly in the world be applied to him on this occasion : " ' Envy itself is dumb, in wonder lost, And factions strive, who shall applaud him most.' " The numerous and violent claps of the Whig party on the one side of the theatre were echoed back by the Tories on the other ; while the author sweated behind the scenes with concern to find their applause proceeding more from the hand than the head. This was the case, too, of the prologue- writer, who was clapped into a staunch Whig, sore against my will, at almost every two lines. _ I believe you have heard, that after all the applauses of the opposite faction, my Lord Bolingbroke sent for Booth, who played Cato, into the box, between one of the acts, and presented him with fifty guineas, in ac- knowledgment (as he expressed it) for defending the cause of liberty so well against a perpetual dictator. The Whigs are unwilling to be distanced this way, and therefore design a present to the same Cato very speedily ; in the mean time, they are getting ready as good a sentence as the former on their side ; so betwixt them, it is probable that Cato (as Dr. Garth expressed it) may have something to live upon after he dies." 1 1 Pope's Letters to Sir W. Trumbull. It appears from the Caryll papers in the Athenaeum, that the original or a copy of this letter was sent to Mr. RIDICULE OF PHILIPS S PASTORALS. 93 The first performance of Cato took place on the 14th of April. Addison's anxiety was at an end, and Pope's noble prologue, not less popular, was on the 18th printed in the Guardian — the successor of the Spectator — accompanied by a few words of happy and discriminating praise from Steele. In the same journal, however, had shortly before appeared, a series of papers from the pen of Tickeli, reviewing the pas- toral poets from Theocritus downwards, in which Philips was largely quoted and pronounced to be the legitimate successor of Spenser. This exaggerated praise, dictated by friendship, was galling to Pope, though he had himself, in a letter to Cromwell, in 1710, concurred in the opinion expressed in the Tatler, and now repeated in the Guardian, that there were no better eclogues in our language than those of Philips. What might seem generosity with him was implied censure and unfair criticism on the part of Tickeli, and Pope in- geniously turned the whole into ridicule by sending to the Guardian an additional essay on the pastoral writers, in which he institutes a comparison between himself and Phi- lips, awarding the palm to Philips, but quoting all his worst passages as his best, and placing by the side of them his own finest lines, which he says want rusticity, and deviate into downright poetry ! The grave irony of this piece is conducted with the utmost skill and humour. Philips is eulogised for his "great judgment" in describing wolves in England; and for not confining himself, " as Mr. Pope hath done," to one particular season of the year, one certain time of the day, or one unbroken scene in each eclogue. By a poetical creation Philips is said to have raised up finer beds of flowers than the most industrious gardener, and his roses, his endives, lilies, kingcups, and daffodils, blow all in the same season! His dialect is also said to prove him to be the eldest born of Caryll, containing the words printed in italics. To his Catholic and Jaco- bite friend the poet's disavowal of Whiggism would be welcome, but it would not have suited the ex-secretary of William III. Pope, when he published the letter, may have put Trumbull's name to it, without ever having sent it to his old friend in the Forest, but it is as likely that he ad- dressed copies to both Sir William and Mr. Caryll : the incident, he knew, would gratify both as an article of intelligence. Bolingbroke's allusion to the " perpetual dictator" was, of course, directed against Marlborough, who had endeavoured, it was said, to obtain a patent appointing him for life Captain-General of the army. 94 LIFE OF POPE. Spenser, and our only true Arcadian : in illustration of which Pope quotes from a pretended old pastoral ballad (in the style of G-ay's Shepherd's Week, then unpublished) a description in the Somersetshire dialect, which he considers a perfect pastoral. " At the conclusion of this piece," he says, " the author reconciles the lovers, and ends the eclogue the most simply in the world. " ' So Roger parted vor to vetch tha kee, And vor her bucket in went Cicely.' " I am loth," he adds, " to show my fondness for antiquity, so far as to prefer this ancient British author to our present English writers of pastoral; but I cannot avoid making this obvious remark, that Philips hath hit into the same road with this old west-country bard of ours." Steele, either through inadvertence, or not wishing to dis- oblige Pope, inserted this ironical paper, and Gay continued the ridicule by publishing his mock Pastorals, which are so excellent for low humour and nature, that they are still admired without reference to their satirical origin. Philips was naturally much incensed at Pope. He threatened per- sonal violence, and, according to various contemporary ac- counts, procured a rod and stuck it up in Button's coffee- house, in the public room, vowing to exercise it upon Pope whenever he should meet him there. 2 ' Ayre's Life of Pope, Cibber's Letter to Pope, &c. Ayrewas imj upon by Pope's ironical comparison of himself with Philips. He says, " The performances are very different, but Sir Richard Steele has pretended to compare them." And after quoting the essay, he adds, with amusing simplicity, " It was no small matter to be brought into the lists at sixteen years of age with Mr. Philips, who was then (not without very good reason) much applauded by the town and by Mr. Steele, who had a great partiality and personal friendship for Mr. Philips." In Ayre's Me- moir is a dissertation on pastoral poetry, hi which he introduces long quota- tions from Tasso, Guarini, and Allan Ramsay. He says Pope admired the pastoral of the Gentle Shepherd, and pointed out to a gentleman two fa- vourite passages in it, one on the married life beginning, " But we'll grow auld together, and ne'er find The loss of youth when love grows on the mind." And the other where the shepherd and his mistress exchange vows — " Speak on ! speak ever thus, and still my grief." Gay met Allan Ramsay when he attended the Duke and Duchess of Queens- berry to Scotland, and he had probably made Tope acquainted with the Gentle Shepherd. SATIEE ON DENKLS. 95 Another and an important difference with the "Whig party soon occurred. Shortly after the publication of Cato, Dennis attacked it in a furious and elaborate critique, his friends having, he said, been urging him for some weeks to make remarks on the tragedy. The "Kemarks" are charac- teristic of their author — coarse and dogmatic, but often shrewd and just. Pope now came forward to revenge him- self on his former antagonist. He wrote a satire on Dennis, entitled The Narrative of Dr. Robert Norris on the Frenzy of J. D. Norris was an apothecary or quack in Hatton- gnrden, where he displayed his sign of the Golden Pestle and Mortar, and professed to have had thirty years' experience in the expeditious cure of lunatics. Swift, in his satire on Partridge, the almanack-maker, had taught Pope the advan- tage of seizing on a known name. This ridicule of Dennis is, however, a bitter and merciless narrative, with some passages of broad humour, but with more that is indefensibly coarse and cruel ; and not one of the objections which Dennis urged against the play is controverted. The description of Dennis's apartment is the best passage in the satire, and is worthy of Scriblerus : " I observed his room was hung with old tapestry, which had several holes in it, caused, as the old woman informed me, by his having cut out of it the heads of divers tyrants, the fierceness of whose visages had much provoked him. On all sides of his room were pinned a great many sheets of a tragedy called Cato, with notes on the margin with his own hand. The words absurd, monstrous, execrable, were everywhere written in such large characters that I could read them without my spectacles. By the fireside lay three farthings' worth of small coal in a Spectator, and behind the door huge heaps of papers of the same title, which his nurse informed me she had conveyed thither out of his sight, believing they were books of the black art, for her master never read in them but he was either quite moped, or in raving fits. There was nothing neat in the whole room, except some books on his shelves, very well bound and gilded, whose names I had never before heard of, nor I believe were anywhere else to be found ; such as Gibraltar, a comedy; Remarks on Prince Arthur; The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry ; An Essay on Public Spirit. The only one I had any knowledge of was a Paradise Lost interleaved. The whole floor was covered with manuscripts, as thick as a pastry- cook's shop on a Christmas-eve. On his table were some ends of verse and of candles ; a gallipot of ink with a yellow pen in it, and a pot of half-dead ale covered with a Longinus." 96 LIFE OF POPE. Addison was not likely to approve of this mode of treating a critic, but he stepped out of his way to mark his disappro- bation, by causing Steele to write a letter to Lintot, the pub- lisher of Pope's narrative : " August 4, 1713. " Mb. Lintot, — Mr. Addison desired me to tell you, he wholly disapproves the manner of treating Mr. Dennis in a little pamphlet by way of Dr. Norris's account. "When he thinks fit to take notice of ]\ir. Dennis's objections to his writings he will do it in a way Mr. Dennis shall have no just reason to complain of; but when the papers above mentioned were offered to be communicated to him, he said he could not, either in honour or conscience, be privy to such a treat- ment, and was sorry to hear of it. — I am, sir, your very humble ser- vant, — Richakd Steele." Steele was often careless and inexact in expression, but the obvious meaning of this note is, that Pope or some one else had offered to communicate the manuscript or "papers" of the satire to Addison before publication. Dennis's testimony on the point is contradictory. His first statement is to this effect : " In the height of his (Pope's) professions of friend- ship for Mr. Addison, he could not bear the success of Cato, but prevails upon B. L. [Bernard Lintot] to engage me to write and publish remarks upon that tragedy ; which, after I bad done, A. P — E, the better to conceal himself from Mr. Addison and his friends, writes and publishes a scandalous pamphlet, equally foolish and villanous, in which he pretends that I was in the hands of a quack who cures madmen. So weak is the capacity of this little gentleman, that he did not know he had done an odious thing, an action detested even by those whom he fondly designed to oblige by it. For Mr. Addison was so far from approving of it that he engaged Sir Bichard Steele to write to me, and to assure me that he knew nothing of that pamphlet till lie saw it in 'print, that he was very sorry to see it," &c. 3 Dennis's second statement, made the following year, runs thus : " The manuscript of this pamphlet he (Pope) offered to show to Mr. Addison before it ivas printed, who had too much honour and too much good sense to approve of so black a proceeding : ... he im- mediately engaged Sir Bichard Steele to write the following letter to Lintot. [Here the letter is given as above.] This letter 3 Preface to Dennis's Remarks on the Eape of the Lock, 1728. addison's censure of pope's satire. 97 was sent by Sir Kichard Steele to Mr. Lintot, and by the latter transmitted to me." 4 Our own belief is, that the manuscript of the pamphlet was offered to Addison, and that he knew it to be written by Pope ; that he disapproved of the manner in which Pope had previously ridiculed his friend Philips, and still more strongly condemued his treatment of Dennis, and that in his over-anxious desire to disavow all connexion with such personal satire, he had dictated his letter to Steele im- mediately on the publication of the pamphlet. Though not printed till sixteen years after it was written, Steele's letter would in all probability be shown to Pope by Lintot, and must have irritated and offended him in no small degree. He had only four months before contributed his prologue to Addison's Cato, he had enriched the Spectator with his poem of the Messiah, had assisted Steele by writing several papers in the Guardian, and now had employed his pen in reply to Dennis's criticism — a reply which must be charac- terised as friendly, whatever was the value of the perform- ance. Under these circumstances for Addison so officiously to disclaim all sympathy with the manner in which Pope treated Dennis, and to forget the obligation conferred upon him so recently by the younger poet, in writing for his play the finest prologue in the language, implies ingratitude, or, at least, cold superciliousness, on the part of him whom " all the world commended." It was at once insulting Pope and affording Dennis a triumph at the expense of a man of genius, who had come forward, if not in defence of Addison, at least in ridicule of Addison's unfair and malignant critic. In the printed correspondence is a letter which, if genuine, puts Addison still more completely in the wrong. This letter is dated July 20, ten days before the date affixed by Pope to his attack on Dennis, and about a fortnight before Steele had by Addison's desire written to Lintot. In this communi- cation, Pope expresses the utmost joy at Addison's return (where from is not stated), and remarks that when he offered his pen in reply to Dennis, it was only in the way of raillery and contempt, and that he felt more warmth in the case of Addison, than he did when Dennis attacked himself. This could not have been sincere, but such an offer made in such * Dennis's Remarks on the Preliminaries to the Dunciad, 1729. H 98 LIFE OE POPE. terms unquestionably renders Addison's subsequent conduct more harsh and indefensible. It is a significant fact, how- ever, that this letter, printed as addressed to Addison, was originally not written to Addison at all. It was written and sent eight months before (Nov. 19, 1712), on a totally dif- ferent occasion, and to a less distinguished acquaintance — apparently to Mr. Caryll. The poet might have kept a copy of his first letter, and used it in writing to Addison, but we fear the true inference is, that the published letter was con- cocted long afterwards, when Dennis had printed the note dictated by Addison to Steele, and when Pope felt that he required to justify the poetical satire by which he cast a shade on the memory of his illustrious contemporary. 5 5 It is suspicious, too, that Pope altered the date of this letter. In the early editions of the correspondence it is dated July 30, the same date ap- pended to Pope's pamphlet. He afterwards altered it to June 20, by which apparent time was afforded for Addison to receive Pope's alleged offer of his pen before the publication of the satire. The original and published letters are both printed at length in the Athenceum of July 8, 1854. We subjoin the commencement of each : " Binfield, Nov. 19, 1712. " Dear Sir, — I am more joy'd at your return and nearer approach to us than I could be at that of the sun, so much as I wish him this melancholy season ; and though he brings along with him all the pleasures and bless- ings of nature. But 'tis his fate, too, like yours, to be displeasing to owls and obscene animals, who cannot bear his lustre. What puts me in mind of these night-birds was that jail-bird, the Flying Post, whom I think you are best revenged upon, as the sun in the fable was upon those bats and beastly birds above mentioned only by shining on, by being honest and doing good. I am so far from deeming it any misfortune to be impotently slandered, that I congratulate you upon having your share in that which all the great men, and all the good men that ever lived, have had their part of — envy and calumny. To be uncensured and to be obscure is the same thing. You may conclude from what I here say, that it was never in my thoughts to offer you my poor pen in any direct reply to such a scoundrel (who, like Hudibras, needs fear no blows but such as bruise), but only in some little raillery." The published letter is as follows : To Mr. Addison. " July 20, 1713. " I am more joy'd at your return than I should be at that of the sun, so much as I wish for him this melancholy wet season ; but 'tis his fate too, like yours, to be displeasing to owls and obscene animals, who cannot bear his lustre. What put me in mind of these night-birds was John Dennis, whom 1 think you are best revenged upon, as the sun was in the fable upon those bats and beastly birds above mentioned only by shining on. I am so SWIFT. 99 The publication of" Windsor Forest" seems to have led to Pope's acquaintance with Swift. A few weeks previous to its appearance, Swift said Parnell outdid all the poets in London " a bar's length," but the new work of the English poet he recommended to Stella as "a fine poem," and he soon became zealous in behalf of its author. Swift had arrived in England in September, 1710, and he re- mained till June, 1713. The ostensible objectof his journey was to obtain a remission of the first-fruits and twentieths pay- able by the Irish clergy to the Crown ; but he was still more anxious to get some good benefice that would secure him the enjoyment of literary and refined society, which he so much coveted. He had the year before (1709) urgently entreated the Earl of Halifax for preferment, specifying particularly the reversion of Dr. South's prebend at Westminster. " Pray, my lord," he said, " desire Dr. South to die about the fall of the leaf." The leaves fell, but Dr. South remained, and in November, Swift again wrote to Halifax, soliciting his oifices with the Lord President, that if the " gentle winter" did not carry off South, he might have the bishopric of Cork, which would soon be vacant, as the incumbent was then under the spotted fever. The spotted fever did its work as anticipated, but the bishopric was given, not to Swift, but to the Provost of Dublin College. Prom this moment maybe dated Swift's hostility to Halifax and the Whigs. He threw himself into the arms of Harley and Bolingbroke, and became one of the far from esteeming it any misfortune, that I congratulate you upon having your share in that which all the great and all the good men that ever lived have had their part of — envy and calumny. To be uncensured and obscure is the same thing. You may conclude from what I here say, that 'twas never in my thoughts to have offered you my pen in any direct reply to such a critic, but only in some little raillery, not in defence of you, but in con- tempt of him." A note on the last sentence tells the reader : " This relates to the paper occasioned by Dennis's Remarks upon Cato, called Dr. Norris's Narrative of the Frenzy of John Dennis." Another part of the ingenious adaptation is noticeable. Pope informs his friend that Mr. Thomas iSouthcote is zealous on his behalf: when he printed the letter as addressed to Addison, the name was at first left blank ; then filled up with " Mr. Gay." As to Addison's "return," it is almost certain that he was then either in London or at his seat at Bilston, the Parliamentary Session having closed on the 16th of July. Pope was in London on the 30th of July. (See ante, p. 71.) h2 100 LIFE OF POPE. sixteen brothers who dined weekly at each other's houses to keep alive the Tory spirit, which was then gaining the as- cendancy. Swift was an invaluable ally, but his preferment was still deferred. The Tale of a Tub, which was the chief source of his fame, was an insuperable obstacle to his ad- vancement ; and after having cast off the Whigs and mate- rially aided in reinstating the Tories in power — conferring also many acts of kindness and favour on literary men — Swift was forced to return to what he considered his banish- ment in Ireland, with only that title which he has made im- mortal, the Dean of St. Patrick's. In about three months he was recalled to England to arbitrate between Harley and Bolingbroke, then at open variance, and threatening to break up the recently formed Ministry. He met Pope ; their cor- respondence commenced at the close of 1713, and was con- tinued without interruption for twenty-six years. Pope was then twenty- five ; Swift forty-six. One was barely struggling into the notice of the great ; the other had by his talents, and his unscrupulous use of them in political warfare, placed himself in a position to dictate to the proudest peers, and almost solely to pull down one government and set up another. Pope, however, evinced his sagacity and penetra- tion in his first letter to Swift. He saw how completely his new friend sunk the divine in the wit, how keenly he relished a stroke of satire at the superior clergy and great politicians, and how accessible he was to that deferential style of flattery which seemed equally to elevate his character, talents, and influence : " Binfield, Dec. 8, 1713. " Sir, — Not to trouble you at present with a recital of all my obli- gations to you, I shall only mention two things, which I take par- ticularly kind of you : your desire that I should write to you ; and your proposal of giving me twenty guineas to change my religion ; which last you must give me leave to make the subject of "this letter. " Sure no clergyman ever offered so much out of his own purse for the sake of any religion. It is almost as many pieces of gold as au Apostle could get of silver from the priests of old, on a much more valuable consideration. I believe it will be better worth my while to propose a change of my faith by subscription than a translation of Homer. And to convince you how well disposed I am to the re- formation, I shall be content if you can prevail with my Lord Trea- surer and the Ministry, to rise to the same sum each of them, on this pope's first letter to swift. 101 pious account, as my Lord Halifax has done on the profane one. I am afraid there is no being at once a poet and a goed; Ohnstirm ; an£" I am very much straitened between the two, while the' Whigs seem willing to contribute as much to continue me the* one, as you wordd to make me the other. But if you can move fcveyy^rnanmitlicgo-. vernment who has above ten thousand pounds a year, to subscribe as much as yourself, I shall become a convert, as most men do, when the Lord turns it to my interest. I know they have the truth of religion so much at heart, that they would certainly give more to have one good subject translated from Popery to the Church of England, than twenty heathenish authors out of any unknown tongue into ours. I therefore commission you, Mr. Dean, with full authority, to transact this affair in my name, and to propose as follows : First, that as to the head of our Church, the Pope, I may engage to renounce his power, whensoever I shall receive any particular indulgences from the head of your Church, the Queen. * As to the communion in one kind, I shall also promise to change it for communion in both, as soon as the ministry will allow me. For invocations to saints, mine shall be turned to dedications to sinners, when I shall find the great ones of this world as willing to do me any good, as I believe those of the other are. You see I shall not be obstinate in the main points. But there is one article I must reserve, and which you seemed not unwilling to allow me, prayer for the dead. There are people to whose souls I wish as well as to my own ; and I must crave leave humbly to lay before them, that though the sub- scriptions above mentioned will suffice for myself, there are necessary perquisites and additions, which I must demand on the score of this charitable article. It is also to be considered, that the greater part of those whose souls I am most concerned for, were unfor- tunately heretics, schismatics, poets, painters, or persons of such lives and manners, as few or no churches are willing to save. The expense will therefore be the greater to make an effectual provision for the said souls. "Old Dryden, though a Roman Catholic, was a poet; and it is revealed in the visions of some ancient saints, that no poet was ever saved under some hundred of masses. I cannot set his delivery from purgatory at less than fifty pounds sterling. Walsh was not only a Socinian., but (what you will own is harderto be saved) a Whig. He cannot modestly be rated at less than a hundred. L'Estrange, being a Tory, we compute him but at twenty pounds ; which I hope no friend of the party can deny to give, to keep him from damning in the next life, considering they never gave him sixpence to keep him from starving in this. All this together amounts to one hundred and seventy pounds. " In the next place, I must desire you to represent, that there are several of my friends yet living, whom I design, God willing, to outlive, 102 LIFE OF POPE. in consideration of legacies ; ont of which it is a doctrine in the re- formed church, , that not a farthing shall be allowed to save their souls who gave thein. ' There is one * * * who will die within these few months,,, with * w* * one* Mr. Jervas, who hath grievously offended in making the •iikepe.sa'jDf,, almost all things in heaven above and earth below ;" and one Mr. Gay, an unhappy youth, who writes pastorals during the time of divine service ; whose case is the more deplorable, as he hath miserably lavished away all that silver he should have re- served for his soul's health, in buttons and loops for his coat. " I cannot pretend to have these people honestly saved under some hundred pounds, whether you consider the difficulty of such a work, or the extreme love and tenderness I bear them, which will infallibly make me push this charity as far as I am able. There is but one more whose salvation I insist upon, and then I have done. But indeed it may prove of so much greater charge than all the rest, that I will only lay the case before you and the ministry, and leave to their prudence and generosity what sum they shall think fit to bestow upon it. "The person I mean is Dr. Swift, a dignified clergyman, but one who, by his own confession, has composed more libels than ser- mons. If it be true, what I have heard often affirmed by innocent people, that too much wit is dangerous to salvation, this unfortunate gentleman must certainly be damned to all eternity. But I hope his long experience in the world, and frequent conversation with great men, will cause him (as it has some others) to have less and less wit every day. Be it as it will, I should not think my own soul deserved to be saved, if I did not endeavour ^to save his ; for I have all the obligations in nature to him. He has brought me into better com- pany than I cared for, made me merrier when I was sick than I had a mind to be, and put me upon making poems, on purpose that he might alter them, &c. " I once thought I could never have discharged my debt to his kindness ; but have lately been informed, to my unspeakable comfort, that I have more than paid it all. For Mons. de Montaigne has assured me, 'that the person who receives a benefit, obliges the giver :' for since the chief endeavour of one friend is to do good to the other, he who administers both the matter and occasion, is the man who is liberal. At this rate it is impossible Dr. Swift should be ever out of my debt, as matters stand already. And for the future, he may expect daily more obligations from his most faithful, affectionate, humble servant, " A. Pope. "I have finished the Rape of the Lock ; but I believe I may stay here till Christmas without hindrance of business." The obligations so warmly acknowledged were introductions TEANSLATION OP HOMER PROPOSED. 103 to the Earl of Oxford, Bohngbroke, Harcourt, and the other leading Tories ; and Swift's success in procuring subscrip- tions for the translation of the Iliad, for which proposals had been issued in October. It must soon have become evident to Pope that painting was not to be his profession. It was necessary, however, to do something ; for all his poetry, hitherto, had not brought him a hundred pounds. Trans- lation was the poet's resource ; he circulated his subscription papers for an English Homer, and plunged into the siege of Troy. The work was to be a costly one — six volumes, at a guinea each ; but his friends were numerous and zealous, and even then Pope's name stood high. The chiefs of both parties hastened to his support. Addison, he said, was the first whose advice determined him to undertake the task, saying that he knew none of that age who was equal to it but Pope himself. 6 A "Whig bishop, Dr. Kennet, gives an amusing account of Swift's importunities with his friends, and of his somewhat arrogant demeanour when he was high in Court favour. The picture is evidently drawn from the life, though by no very friendly hand. tTnder the date of November, 1713, Kennet writes in his diary : " Dr. Swift came into the coffee-house, and had a bow from every- body but me. When I came to the ante-chamber to wait before prayers, Dr. Swift was the principal man of talk and business, and acted as a Master of Requests. He was soliciting the Earl of Arran to speak to his brother, the Duke of Ormond, to get a chaplain's place established hi the garrison of Hull for a clergyman in that neighbourhood who had been lately in jail, and published sermons to pay fees. He was promising Mr. Thorold to undertake with my Lord Treasurer that, according to his petition, he should obtain a salary of 200/. per annum as minister of the English Church at Rotterdam. He stopped E. Gwynne, Esq., going in with the red bag to the Queen, and told him aloud he had something to say to him from the Lord Treasurer. He talked to the son of Dr. Davenant, to be sent abroad, and took out his pocket-book and wrote down several things as memo- randa for him to do. He turned to the fire and took out his gold watch, and, telling him the time of the day, complained it was very late. A gentleman said he was too fast. ' How can I help it, 5 said the Doctor, 'if the courtiers give me a watch. that won't go right ?' Then he instructed a young nobleman that the best poet in England 6 Printed Correspondence, Oct. 26, 1713. 104 LIEE 0E POPE. 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/ Lord Treasurer, after leaving the Queen, came through the room, beckoning Dr. Swift to follow him. Both went off just before prayers" Swi ft introduced Pope to .A rhiithnnt, saying t^t the Do ctor- was n, man who could do everything bu t walk ! He was himself a great pedestrian, whereas Arbuthnot was indo- lent and shuffling in his gait. The two wits were about the same age, Arbuthnot having been born in April, and Swift in November, 1667. The son of a nonjuring Scottish clergy- man, John Arbuthnot carried with him to England high Tory principles and ample learning, both classical and mathema- tical. He had studied medicine, and, by a lucky accident, his skill recommended him to Court favour. Prince George was suddenly taken ill at Epsom; Arbuthnot happened to be there, and being called in, effected a cure. This led to his being^appointed one of the physicians in ordinary to the Queen. LArbuthnot's friendship with Swift, Prior, Pope, and Gay, is the distinguishing feature of his life and history^ To it we owe the fruits of his peculiar wit and humour, and our knowledge of his fine manly character — so humane, so just and truthful, so sweet-tempered and unassuming, yet so impa- tient of vice and folly, and so sternly independent. Swift said of him, " He has more wit than we all have, and more humanity than wit." If tho world contained tw elve Arbuth- not s^_SwiiL^aijLJie__wouM In some in- stances, however, Arbuthnot' s wit was too recondite and scholastic to produce equal effect with the Dean's. The follies which he satirised, like the humours of Ben Jonson, were so far removed from ordinary life, that they appeared to be only the creations of a fertile and ingenious brain. There was little that was palpable or real in their oddities and absurdities. In. political .allegory lie was happy — his history of John Bull and parts" of Scribluiiu, arc infill unsurpassed. The Memoirs of Scriblerus, 'written in conjunction with Pope and Parnell, formed part of a large design — a design to ridicule all the false tastes in learning, under the character of a man of some capacity, who had dipped into every art and THE SCRIBLERTJS CLUB. 105 science, but injudiciously in all. Pope informed Spence that this scheme was projected by a club of some of the greatest wits of the age, as Lord Oxford, the Bishop of Kochester (Atterbury), Congreve, Arbuthnot, Swift, and others. Gay often held the pen, and Addison liked the scheme. Swift took from a part of the Scriblerus Memoirs the first hint of Gulliver, as there were pigmies in Schreibler's Travels, and also the projects of Laputa. The design of the club was carried on much further than appears in print. It was stopped, by the dispersion of its members, about the year 1715 ; but we question if it could ever have produced any- thing else so unique and original as Gulliver. Pope was indebted to. Arbuthnot for many of his quaint illustrations and ludicrous images. The Doctor had both more learning and more wit than the poet, and was careless of his writings and his reputation as an author. In literature as in medicine, he realised Swift's saying, " He knew his art, but not his trade." Another of the Scriblerus wits was Parnell, whom Swift had carried over to the Tory camp. His scholarship and genius promised much ; he was born to an estate, and had good church preferment ; he was gentle and generous in his disposition and temper, and much beloved by his brothers of the Club. The money received for his few publications he gave to Gay. Though his position as a poet was never high, it has been well maintained. The refined simplicity and pensive tenderness of his verse are still appreciated. Early disappointment or grief for the loss of his young wife preyed upon Parnell's mind ; he sunk into habits of intemperance, and died in his thirty-ninth year, while his associates were still rising in fame. His death was a loss to literature, and peculiarly a loss to Pope, who trusted much to Parnell's classic knowledge and to his active friendship. The Eape of the Lock, in its amended form, was finished, as we have seen, in December, 1713, and it was published early in the following year, accompanied with engravings after Du Guernier, by Du Bosc, which, in the present state of art, would be held as no recommendation to the poem. The additions made to the work by Pope constitute the most striking and felicitous of all his labours. True heroic creations must, of course, stand higher in the scale of poetry than mock-heroic, and Pope's celestial agents are in- 106 LIFE OF POPE. ferior to the conceptions of Shakspeare or Spenser. It is sufficient that a French romance furnished the hint of his machinery. 7 Yet what a world of beauty, fancy, wit, and fine satire has his invention created ! The poet himself con- sidered this enlargement of the poem, making the machinery and the part previously written hit so ivell together, the greatest proof of judgment he had ever displayed. The exer- cise of judgment, however, was but a small part of the triumph he achieved. The invention and employment of the machinery were his highest effort in the regions of poetical imagination, and the skill and delicacy with which he made his aerial divinities work together with his belles and beaux — at once illustrating and satirising the frivolities of high life — were the result of a matchless combination of genius and tact. His powers of description are no less finely brought out in the fairy scenes of this miniature epic, whether the subject be the beauty of Belinda or the articles of her toilette — the gliding of the painted barge on the Thames amidst melting music and trembling sunbeams — or the figures on a pack of cards and the details of a game at ombre. The last he copied from Vida's " G-ame at Chess ;" and this is not the only honour which has been paid to the Latin original by English genius and in English heroic verse. Goldsmith, as appears from Mr. Eorster's interesting biography, translated Yida's poem. The numerous parodies scattered through the Rape of the Lock also aid the light 7 Le Comte de Gabalis, by the Abbe Villars. Warton quotes from " an entertaining writer," an account of this imaginative but unfortunate ecclesi- astic. " The Abbd Villars, who came from Thoulouse to Paris, to make his fortune by preaching, is the author of this diverting work. The five dia- logues of which it consists are the result of those gay conversations in which the Abbe* was engaged with a small circle of men of fine wit and humour like himself. When this book first appeared, it was universally read as in- nocent and amusing. But, at length, its consequences were perceived, and reckoned dangerous, at a time when this sort of curiosities began to gain credit. Our devout preacher was denied the chair, and his book forbidden to be read. It was not clear whether the author intended to be ironical, or spoke all seriously. The second volume, which he promised, would have de- cided this question ; but the unfortunate Abbe* was soon afterwards assassi- nated by ruffians on the road to Lyons. The laughers gave out that the gnomes and sylphs, disguised like ruffians, had shot him, as a punishment for revealing the secrets of the calaba ; a crime not to be pardoned by those jealous spirits, as Villars himself has declared in his book." THE RAPE OE THE LOCK. 107 pleasantry or the mock majesty and ludicrous effect of tlie different scenes. If a poetical reader were disposed, amidst the beauty and fascination of Pope's epic, to interpose a shade of censure, it would be in noticing the employment assigned to Ariel in the action of the piece. Undoubtedly this potent spirit should, as was remarked by Dennis, have had a more important office to discharge — he should have had the tendance of the immortal lock. The name itself conjures up poetical images and associations. "We think of Shakspeare's Ariel treading the ooze of the salt deep, riding on the curled clouds, sucking honey with the bee from the bell of the cowslip, and living merrily " under the blossom that hangs on the bough." "We turn to Pope, and we find the peculiar duty of his Ariel is to protect Belinda's lap-dog ! He is the guard of Shock ! — " only the keeper of a vile Ice- land cur," says the unpoetical John Dennis ! !No doubt this % is mock-heroic, but the true poetical comes out against it in ! bold relief and overpowers the satirical imitation. The subject of the Rape of the Lock is slight and trivial, like that of Boileau's mock-heroic, the Lutrin, which com- memorates a quarrel between two zealous churchmen about placing a reading-desk. Pope's Baron, Lord Petre — a youth of twenty — had, in familiar gallantry, cut off a lock of the hair of Arabella Fermor, daughter of Mr. Fermor of Tusmore, one of the beauties of the day, whose charms were also sung by Parnell. The lady resented the liberty, and a quarrel arose between the families. To compose this unseemly and ridiculous difference, Mr. Caryll proposed that Pope should write a poem on the subject. He complied, and sent his production to the lady, who was, he says, pleased with it, and gave about copies. The family, however, seems to have been doubtful of the poetical celebration, and it does not appear that Arabella or her husband ever corresponded with Pope. The fair heroine was, in 1714, married to Francis Perkins, Esq., of Ufton Court, Berkshire, " where," says Miss Mitford, " she reared four goodly sons, became a widow, and was finally buried in the little village church. There her monument may still be seen amongst many others of her husband's family." 8 The last of Arabella's sons died with- 8 Recollections of a Literary Life, v. viii. p. 96. Miss Mitford gives an 108 LIFE OF POPE. out issue in 1769, and the estate passed into another family. The Termors also are extinct. The last of the name devised Tusmore with other estates in trust for Maria, wife of Cap- tain John Turner Bamsay, but the portrait of Arabella is still preserved at Tusmore, and on the frame is inscribed a line from the poem which has given an undying celebrity to her name. We may here notice that in order to draw attention to his poem, and also to ridicule those critics who " have light where better eyes are blind," Pope wrote a "Key to the Lock, or a Treatise proving beyond all contradiction the dangerous tendency of a late poem entitled ' The Rape of the Lock,' to government and religion." This ironical treatise was said to be by " Esdras Barnevelt, Apoth." It was not published till 1715. The humour of the piece is somewhat laboured though ingenious. The Lock is considered the Barrier Treaty, and this postulatum granted, the latent meanings are unfolded. Belinda is Queen Anne ; the baron who cuts off the lock, or barrier treaty, the Earl of Oxford ; Clarissa, Lady Masham ; Thalestris, "the Duchess of Marl- borough ; and Sir Plume, Prince Eugene. The identification of Belinda with Queen Anne is shown by the line, " On her white breast a sparkling cross she bore," which alludes, as the learned Esdras opines, to the ancient name of Albion, from her white cliffs, and to the cross, which is the ensign of England ! interesting account of Ufton Court, the seat of the Perkinses. The house is an old Elizabethan mansion, with tall, narrow windows and door of heaviest oak, studded with prodigious nails. " The two lower floors offer nothing to view beyond the black and white marble pavement, the decorated ceilings, and the carved oaken panels proper to a large manorial residence of the times of the Tudors. But on ascending the broad staircase to the third story, we find at every step traces of the shifts to which the unhappy into- lerance of the times subjected those who adhered firmly to the proscribed faith, as during two centuries, and until the race was extinct, was the proud distinction of the family of Perkins. The walls are evidently pierced throughout by a concealed passage, or very probably passages, leading, it is presumed, to a shaft in the cellar, still visible, from whence another passage led xmder the terrace in the garden, and through that to the woods, where, doubtless, places of refuge or means of escape were held ready for the fugitives." POLITICAL AGITATION. 109 In 1714, Pope's "Wife of Bath," with two translations from the Odyssey (the arrival of Ulysses in Ithaca and the Garden of Alcinous), were published in a volume of Poetical Miscel- lanies, edited by Steele. To this miscellany, Hughes, the author of the Siege of Damascus, and a considerable con- tributor to the Tatler and Spectator, sent several pieces, but finding, before publication, that Pope's Wife of Bath and some other pieces, which were inconsistent with his ideas of decency and decorum, had been admitted, he immediately withdrew most of his own, and allowed only two small poems, and those without his name, to appear. Pope could then have afforded to throw his early imitation into the fire, as it was exceptionable on the score of its indecency, and his repu- tation as a poet was sufficiently established. The nation was at this time agitated with political strife, and the Tory Government, which Swift had laboured so assiduously to establish, was tottering to its fall. It was doomed by the unpopularity of its measures — as the arbi- trary proceedings against the press, and the Schism Act, directed against the Dissenters — and it was torn with intes- tine divisions. Oxford was feeble and procrastinating. His colleague said of him that he was a man whom Nature had meant to make a spy, or at most a captain of miners, and whom fortune, in one of her whimsical moods, had made a general. He was, however, the honester man of the two. Bolingbroke's character was a strange compound of ambi- tion, genius, and profligacy. Marlborough's sordid avarice in connexion with his intellect and the grandeur of his designs is not more extraordinary than Bolingbroke's elo- quence, philosophical studies, and professions of friendship, when contrasted with his habitual insincerity, his double treachery, and love of pleasure. Swift tried in vain to recon- cile the jarring ministers, but finding the task hopeless, and the Government sinking daily in public favour, he retreated to a village in Berkshire — Upper Letcombe — where he lived with a clergyman, to whom, he says, he gave a guinea a week for his board, dining between twelve and one, supping on bread and butter and a glass of ale, and going to bed at ten ! Pope, Arbuthnot, and some of his other friends found out the Dean's retreat, and occasionally wrote to him. Pope and Parnell paid him a visit. In his retirement, Swift wrote 110 LIFE OF POPE. his political tract, " Free Thoughts on the Present State of Affairs," and was still meditating political activity; but a great change was at hand. The Queen died August 1, 1714. The Whigs had prepared Prince George of Hanover for the expected event, and George took possession of the throne of England without a shadow of opposition. Only one man, Atterbury, offered to proclaim the Pretender. He proposed to go to the Exchange in his lawn sleeves, to make the pro- clamation, but none of his Jacobite friends would second him. Bolingbroke was bewildered. ""What a world is this," he said, " and how fortune does banter us !" The now triumphant Hanoverians displaced the former ministry ; Bolingbroke and the Duke of Ormond fled to Prance, and Oxford, Wyndham, and Prior were committed to the Tower. Swift left his Berkshire retreat and returned to Ireland. " He keeps up his noble spirit," said Arbuthnot, " and though like a man knocked down, you may behold him still with a stern countenance, and aiming a blow at his adversaries." The Gladiator Pugnans! He was now to signalise himself among curates and vicars, and to correct all corruptions relating to the weight of bread and butter through the dominions of St. Patrick's — and he was also to write Gulliver's Travels, The new Whig ministers put forth proposals to Pope. The Earl of Halifax seems to have offered substantial pa- tronage, but it was declined. " I distrust neither your will nor your memory when it is to do good," replied the poet ; " and if ever I become troublesome or solicitous, it must not be out of expectation, but out of gratitude. Your Lordship may either cause me to live agreeably in the town or con- tentedly in the country, which is really all the difference 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 be a better reason." He was net too much dipped in Toryism. Halifax, however, died in less than six months after Pope's mild rejection of the offer. Craggs next pro- posed a pension of 300Z. out of the secret service money, which was under his charge, but this also was declined. In POPE ENGAGED ON HOMEK. Ill consequence, however, of the poet's belief in the heartiness and sincerity of Craggs's friendship — a confidence apparently well merited — he said that if he should want money he could go to him for 1001. or even 500Z., if his wants ran so high. It does not appear that any application of the kind was ever made. Such an obligation would, to a certain extent, have bound him to a party with which he had no real sympathy, and he was resolved to stand aloof from all strong party ties and favours. Tickell, Ambrose Philips, and Budgell might bask in the ministerial sunshine, but it was better to be with Swift and Bolingbroke in the shade. In the beginning of 1715 was published The Temple of Fame, a Vision, after Chaucer, which had been written so early at 1711. If not calculated to extend, it did not lessen the poet's reputation. Pope by this time was deep in Homer. That the poet of artificial life and manners, the polished and glittering versi- fier, should at first have felt strange among the scenes and characters of the simple old heroic Grecian, might have been predicted. But he had another cause for anxiety — he was no master of Greek. He had such "terrible moments" at the beginning of his task, that he wished a hundred times that somebody would hang him ! It sat so heavily on his mind that he used often to dream of it, as if he were engaged in a long journey, puzzled which way to take, and full of fears that he should never get to the end of it. These dreams haunted him for years, but the work went on. He fell into the method of translating thirty or forty verses before he got out of bed, and continued it during the rest of the morning ; and in a short time the task became easy, and he did the rest with pleasure. When his knowledge of the language failed he had literal translations at hand,' and he had the occasional assistance of Parneli. "If more help was wanting," says Johnson, "he had the poetical translation of Eobanus Hes- sius, an unwearied writer of Latin verses ; he had the French Homers of La Valterie and Dacier, and the English of Chap- man, 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, indeed, he has been sometimes 112 LIFE or POPE. suspected of using instead of the original." Pope himself stated that his usual method in translating both the Iliad and the Odyssey was to take advantage of the first heat, and then to correct each book, first by the original text, then by other translations, and lastly to give it a reading for the versification only. These repeated corrections obliterated nearly every trace of the first heat. The original copy of the translation descended to Bolingbroke, and from him to Mallet, by whose widow it was in 1766 presented to the British Museum. Prom these stray leaves (now bound together) another copy had been made for the printer by the poet's friend and neigh- bour, Mr. Doncastle, of Binfield. The first copy is interest- ing, as showing the author's repeated corrections, and also as being written on the backs of letters addressed to the poet, or to " Mr. A. Pope, senior," and franked by Addison, Steele, and others. Occasionally the poet used his ordinary house- bills for the purposes of his translation, and also fragments of paper on which he had drawn architectural sketches and plans, when he dreamt of embellishing his Tusculum on the Thames with porticos and pilasters. Pope's economy of paper has been happily alluded to by Swift in his advice to the Grub-street writers : " Get all your verses printed fair, Then let them well be dried ; And Curll must have a special care To leave the margin wide. Send these to paper-sparing Pope ; And when he sets to write, No letter with an envelope Could give him more delight." Another instance occurs in Pope's correspondence with the Miss Blounts : " Dear Ladies, — You have here all the fruit Mr.Doncastle's garden affords, that I could find in any degree of ripeness. They were on the trees at eleven o'clock this morning, and I hope will be with you before night. Pray return, sealed up, oy the bearer, every single bit of paper that wraps them up ; for they are the only copies of this part of Homer. If the fruit is not so good as I wish, let the gallantry of this wrapping paper make up for it. — I am, yours." 9 (No signa- ture.) 9 Roscoe, v. viii. p. 403, collated with the original. Pope's paper-sparing JOTTENEY TO OXFOKD. 113 As his work proceeded, the translator saw the advantage of enlarging the design of his notes, and of attending to the geography of ancient Greece. For this purpose he pro- ceeded, in the autumn of 1714, to Oxford, where every faci- lity was afforded him for consulting books and maps. He makes humorous allusion in his correspondence with Edward Blount to the orders which he issued to his engraver, remov- ing mountains, altering the course of rivers, placing a city on one coast, and razing another ; yet, after all, as appears from Wood's Essay on Homer, his map presented some egregious errors ; as that of discharging the Scainander into the iEgean Sea, instead of the Hellespont. He thus glances at the politics of the day : " I could not but take a trip to London on the death of the Queen, moved by the common curiosity of mankind, who leave their own business to be looking after other men's. I thank God that as for myself I am below all the accidents of State changes by my circumstances, and above them by my philosophy. Common charity of man to man, and universal good will to all, are the points I have most at heart ; and I am sure those are not to be broken for the sake of any governors or govern- ment. I am willing to hope the best, and what I more wish than my own or any particular man's advancement is, that this turn may put an end entirely to the divisions of "Whig and Tory, that the parties may love each other as well as I love them both, or at least hurt each other as little as I would either ; and that our own people [the Eoman Catho- lics] may live as quietly as we shall certainly let theirs ; that is to say, that want of power itself in us may not be a surer prevention of harm, than want of will in them." The Jaco- bite insurrection in the following year affords a curious com- mentary on these expressions. The first volume of Homer was issued to subscribers in June, 1715. It contained the first four books of the Iliad, with Preface, Essay, and Observations. Bernard Lintot was the publisher, and his agreement with Pope is a remarkable habit even led him to be shabby. He writes to Fortescue, Master of the Rolls : " Pray send me some paper ; it is all I can get by you men in place." I 114 LIFE OF POPE. instance of enterprise and liberality. He stipulated to give 2001. a volume, and all the copies for subscribers and for presents to the author's friends. Dr. Johnson (who had probably obtained his information from Lintot's son) states that the number of subscribers was five hundred and seventy- five ; but, as some had subscribed for more than one copy, the copies for which subscriptions were given were six hun- dred and fifty-four, and six hundred and sixty were printed. Por these copies Pope had nothing to pay, and he received for the Iliad, when completed in six volumes, including the publisher's 200/. a volume, the sum of 53201. 4s. Some de- duction must be made for literary assistance. Broome and Jortin, and a third party, not named, were engaged in con- sulting Eustathius, and supplying information for the notes. ParnelL contributed the life of Homer, which Pope said cost him more pains in correcting than the writing of it would have done. But as a set-off to this deduction, we may place the larger sums given by the Boyal Family (200/. by his Majesty and 1001. by the Prince) and by the poet's noble friends, for their subscriptions ; and altogether Pope received between 5000/. and 6000/. for his translation of the Iliad. ]STo such encouragement to literature had ever before been manifested. Dryden made only about 1200/. or 1300/. by his Virgil ; and his admirable Pables were furnished at the rate of ten thousand verses for two hundred and fifty guineas. In fifteen years the number of readers in England had greatly advanced ; and though Lintot was likely to be defrauded by a Dutch piracy of the Iliad, he boldly issued a cheap duode- cimo edition, of which no fewer than seven thousand five hun- dred were printed. Contemporaneous with the first volume of Pope's Homer, in the same week, appeared Tickell's translation of the Pirst Book of the Iliad. On the 10th of June, Lintot writes that he had delivered upwards of four hundred of the former to subscribers, and in the same letter he informs Pope that he has sent Tickell's book to divert an hour. " It is already condemned here," adds the ' lofty Lintot,' " and the malice and juggle at Button's is the conversation of those who have spare moments from politics." Pope himself said, that the nation was not more divided about Whig and Tory than " the OPENING VEESES OF THE ILIAD. 115 idle fellows of the feather" were about the two translations. We may conceive the eagerness with which the rival volumes were opened, and the brief majestic exordium scanned in the English versions. Thus Pope — " Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring Of woes unnumher'd, heavenly goddess sing ! That wrath which hurl'd to Pluto's gloomy reign The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain ; 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 ! Declare, Muse ! in what ill-fated hour Sprung the fierce strife, from what offended power. Latona's son a dire contagion spread, And heap'd the camp with mountains of the dead ; The king of men his reverend priest defied, And for the king's offence the people died." And Tickell— " Achilles' fatal wrath, whence discord rose That brought the sons of Greece unnumher'd woes, goddess sing ! Full many a hero's ghost Was driven untimely to th' infernal coast, While in promiscuous heaps their bodies lay, A feast for dogs and every bird of prey. So did the sire of gods and men fulfil His steadfast purpose and almighty will, What time the haughty chiefs their jars begun, Atrides, king of men, and Peleus' godlike son. What god in strife the princes did engage ? Apollo burning with vindictive rage Against the scornful king, whose impious pride His priest dishonour'd and his power defied ; Hence swift contagion by the god's commands Swept through the camp and thinn'd the Grecian bands." Pope, as might have been expected, is more polished, com- pact, and musical, but Tickell' s numbers have something of Dry den's flow and sweep of versification. The conclusion of the first book is also favourable for comparison; and here Pope shows to great advantage by the side of his rival : " He said, and to her hands the goblet heaved, Which, with a smile, the white-arm'd queen received ; i2 \ 116 LIFE OF POPE. Then, to the rest he fill'd ; and in his turn, Each to his lips applied the nectar'd urn. Vulcan with awkward grace his office plies, And unextinguished laughter shakes the skies. Thus the blest gods the genial day prolong, In feasts ambrosial, and celestial song. Apollo tuned the lyre : the Muses round With voice alternate aid the silver sound. Meantime the radiant sun to mortal sight Descending swift, roll'd down the rapid light : Then to their starry domes the gods depart, The shining monuments of Vulcan's art : Jove on his couch reclined his awful head, And Juno slumber'd on the golden bed." Tickell's version is as follows : " She smiled, and smiling her white arm display'd To reach the bowl her awkward son convey'd ; From right to left the generous bowl he crown'd, And dealt the rosy nectar fairly round. The gods laugh'd out unwearied as they spied The busy skinker hop from side to side. Thus feasting to the full they pass'd away In blissful banquets all the livelong day ; Nor wanted melody : with heavenly art The Muses sung ; each Muse performed her part, Alternate warbling ; while the golden lyre Touch'd by Apollo, led the vocal choir. The sun at length declined, when every guest Sought his bright palace and withdrew to rest. Each had his palace on th' Olympian hill, A masterpiece of Vulcan's matchless skill ; Even he, the god who heaven's great sceptre sways, And frowns amid the lightning's dreadful blaze, His bed of state ascending lay composed ; His eyes a sweet refreshing slumber closed ; And at his side, all glorious to behold, Was Juno, lodged in her alcove of gold." 10 10 The reader will perhaps agree with us in thinking that this passage is rendered with more grace and beauty in Cowper's blank verse than in the couplets of either Pope or Tickell : " So he ; then Juno smiled, goddess white arm'd, And smiling still, from his unwonted hand Received the goblet. He from right to left Rich nectar from the beaker drawn, alert Distributed to all the powers divine. Heaven rang with laughter inextinguishable, OPINIONS ON THE RIVAL TRANSLATIONS. 117 Pope's friends were enthusiastic in their congratulations. On the 8th of July, Gay writes that he had just set down Sir Samuel Garth at the Opera, and that Sir Samuel had stated that everybody was pleased with Pope's translation, but a few at Button's ; and that Sir Richard Steele told him, that Mr. Addison said Tickell's translation was the best that ever was in any language. "I am informed," adds Gay, "that at Button's your character is made very free with as to Peal after peal, such pleasures all conceived At sight of Vulcan in his new employ. So spent they in festivity the day. And all were cheered ; nor was Apollo's harp Silent, nor did the Muses spare to add Responsive melody of vocal sweets. But when the sun's bright orb had now declined, Each to his mansion, wheresoever built By the lame matchless architect, withdrew. Jove also, kindler of the fires of heaven, His couch ascending as at other times When gentle sleep approach'd him, slept serene ; With golden-sceptred Juno by his side." Macpherson's attempt to translate Homer into the Ossianic style and diction is now only remembered in consequence of the ridicule attached to it by Johnson and Goldsmith ; yet it is a remarkable fact that Robertson the historian, in a letter to Macpherson, which we have seen, terms it the best of all the English versions of Homer, and the one which would be read by posterity ! Lord Byron asks, " Who can ever read Cowper, and who will ever lay down Po"pej except for the original ? As a child I first read Pope's Homer, with a rapture which no subsequent work could ever afford ; and children are not the meanest judges of their own language." And the Earl of Carlisle, in his Lecture on Pope, remarks : " It is no mean praise that it is the channel which has conveyed the knowledge of Homer to the general English public. Though it is less far to the purpose how I felt about this as a child, than how Lord Byron felt, I too remember the days (I fear, in- deed, that the anecdote will savour of egotism, but I must not mind the im- putation of egotism if it illustrates my author) when I used to learn Pope's Iliad by heart behind a screen, while I was supposed to be engaged in lessons of more direct usefulness. I do not mention this as a profitable ex- ample, but in order to show the degree in which this translation was calcu- lated to gain mastery over the youthful mind." Hundreds of parallel cases might be adduced ; yet Cowper's translation of the Odyssey — especially in the quiet domestic scenes — is more interesting than that of Pope. The pomp of verse — the animation of rhyme — seems necessary to sustain the great length of the Iliad — and Pope's verse is matchless — but this is not required for the Odyssey. 118 LIFE OF POPE. morals, &c. ; and Mr. Addison says that your translation and Tickell's are both well done, but that the latter has more of Homer." Arbuthnot, Parnell, Swift, and Berkeley poured in their tributes of approbation to Pope. The town joined in the applause, and as Johnson observes, " while Pope was meditating defence or revenge, his adversary sunk before him without a blow." Tickell had deprecated all intention of ri- valry by prefixing to his volume a short address to the reader, in which he stated that when he began the translation of the first book, he had some thought of translating the whole Iliad, " but had the pleasure of being diverted from that de- sign by finding the work had fallen into a much abler hand." His only view, he said, in publishing that small specimen was, to bespeak the favour of the public to a translation of the Odyssey. Tickell, as Pope afterwards acknowledged, was "a fair and worthy man." It is to be regretted, however, that he ventured his translation at the precise time when Pope's was ready for delivery, as the simultaneous appear- ance of the two works inevitably led to the conclusion that rivalry was designed, and that Pope's hopes of a competence for life were placed in jeopardy. One word from Addison would have made Tickell withhold his translation, but that word was not spoken. He had not, indeed, urged a sub- scription for his friend's work, which, if opened in time, might have proved seriously injurious to Pope ; but the pub- lication of Tickell's volume, with the praises of Addison, echoed by all the Whigs at Button's, betrayed indifference to Pope's interests and feelings, and might justly inspire a poet so sensitive with suspicion and resentment. Addison had thrice before, as Pope conceived, done him disservice. ; He had censured the " strokes of ill-nature" in his Essay on i Criticism ; he had indirectly preferred Philips' s Pastorals, and he had employed Steele to write a gratuitous and insult- ing letter, condemning the satire on Dennis. To these were now added his supposed connivance with Tickell in under- mining that source from which all his hopes of fortune and : independence were to be derived — that bold yet toilsome and anxious undertaking, which was to crown him with unfading laurels, or blight his rising and envied reputation. Within one month after the publication of his first volume Pope's resentment burst forth against Addison. On the 15th TIEST DEAET OF THE SATIRE (Xtf ADDISON. 119 of July, according to the printed correspondence, he wrote to Craggs inveighing against the "little senate of Cato," and stating that Tickell, the " humblest slave" that Addison had, translated Homer to gratify the inordinate desires of one man only, that man " a great Turk in poetry, who can never bear a brother on the throne," and who had a set of mutes, nodders, winkers, and whisperers, whose business it was to strangle all other offsprings of wit in their birth ! The sen- timents and imagery in this letter were embodied in that famous satire, the character of Atticus, or Addison, immortal as the English language, which appears to have been first printed in 1723, then included by Pope in the Miscellanies of 1727, and finally, after undergoing revision, engrafted into the Epistle to Arbuthnot, published in 1735. We give it in its first printed form : " If Dennis writes and rails in furious pet, I'll answer Dennis Avhen I am in debt. If meagre Gildon draws his meaner quill, I wish the man a dinner and sit still. But shoidd there One whose better stars conspire To form a bard and raise a genius higher, Blest with each talent and each art to please, And born to live, converse, and write with ease ; Should such a one, resolv'd to reign alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne. View him with jealous yet with scornful eyes, Hate him for arts that caus'd himself to rise, Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering teach the rest to sneer. Alike reserv'd to blame or to commend, A timorous foe and a suspicious friend, Fearing ev'n fools by flatterers besieg'd, And so obliging that he ne'er obliged ; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hit the fault and hesitate dislike, "Who when "two wits on rival themes contest, Approves of both but likes the worse the best : Like Cato, give his little senate laws, And sits attentive to his own applause ; While wits and templars every sentence raise : And wonder with a foolish face of praise : Who would not laugh, if such a man there be ? Who would not weep if Addison were he ?" 12 11 Pope and Tickell. 12 Cythereia, or New Poems upon Love, Intrigue, &c. : London, printed for 120 LIFE OF POPE. Atterbury had seen these lines about a twelvemonth before their publication. On the*26th of February, 1721-2, the bishop writes to Pope, requesting a complete copy of the verses on Mr. Addison. " No small piece of your writing," he says, " has ever been sought after so much. It has pleased every man, without exception, to whom it has been read. Since you now, therefore, know where your real strength lies, I hope you will not suffer that talent to lie unem- ployed." An advice not very consonant with Atterbury 's character as a divine ! But the bishop was a controversialist himself, and could make large allowance when a Whig and Low Churchman was attacked. Of the quarrel between Pope and Addison, our information is derived solely from the former. Until the appearance of the poetical satire, the public could not have imagined that a single shade of distrust or jealousy had come between the two most popular authors of their age, whose latest mention of each other, in the lifetime of Addison, had been in the language of friendship and panegyric. For an explanation of this painful fact in literary history, we naturally turn to the correspondence and conversation of Pope, the former published by himself, and the latter by his faithful friend, Spence. "Warburton took part in the discussion, but per- sonally he knew nothing of the matter : when Addison died, "Warburton had not emerged from the attorney's office in Newark. The unfortunate missive to Lintot seems to have made no visible breach in the intimacy between Addison and Pope. The former entered warmly into the scheme for publishing E. Curll and T. Payne, 1723. In an advertisement prefixed to the volume, it is stated that none of the pieces were ever before published. In this col- lection the lines of Pope are entitled " Satire upon Mr. Addison, by Mr. Pope," and immediately following is an "Answer to Mr. Pope, by Mr. Mark- land, of St. Peter's College, Cambridge. Presented to the Countess of War- wick." The answer is wholly destitute either of biographical interest or literary merit. Curll reprinted the satire in an edition of the Court Poems, 1725, and at the end of Pope's Letters to Cromwell, 1727. Warton and Nichols supposed that " Mr. Markland" was Jeremiah Markland, the emi- nent critic and scholar, whose productions were neither poetical nor amatory, but in the same year (1723) the same publisher, Payne, advertises "An Ode on the Birth of the Young Princess, by John Markland of St. Peter's College, Cambridge." CORRESPONDENCE OF POPE AND ADDISON. 121 the Iliad by subscription, and in writing to this effect, No- vember 2nd, 1713, he added a word of advice: "You gave me leave once to take the liberty of a friend, in advising you not to content yourself with one half of the nation for your admirers, when you might command them all. If I might take the freedom to repeat it, I would on this occasion. I think you are very happy that you are out of the fray, and I hope all your undertakings will turn to the better account for it. You see how I presume on your friendship in talcing all this freedom with you ; out I already fancy that we have lived many years together in an unreserved conversation, and that we may do many more, is the sincere wish of" &c. The latter part, here printed in italics, is scarcely consistent with Addison's usual reserved manner, but he was sometimes in his letters lavish of the complimentary coin then current in society. He was at this time residing at Bilston. The next letter in Pope's collection appears to be an answer to one from Addison not published, and is without date. It begins : " Your last is the more obliging, as it hints at some little niceties in my conduct, which your candour and affection prompts you to re- commend to me. . . . As I hope and would natter myself, that you know me and my thoughts so entirely as never to be mistaken in either, so it is a pleasure to me that you guessed so right in regard to the author of the Guardian you mentioned. But I am sorry to find it has taken air that I have some hand in those papers, because I write so very few as neither to deserve the credit of such a report with some people, nor the disrepute of it with others. An honest Jacobite spoke to me the sense or nonsense of the weak part of his party very fairly, that the good people took it ill of me that I writ with Steele, though upon never so indifferent subjects. This I know you will laugh at as well as I do, yet I doubt not but many little calumniators and persons of sour dispositions will take occasion hence to bespatter me. I confess I scorn narrow souls of all parties ; and if I renounce my reason in religious matters, I'll hardly do it in any other. . . . The true reason that Mr. Steele laid down the paper was a quarrel between him and Jacob Tonson. He stood engaged to his bookseller in articles of penalty for all the Guardians ; and by desist- ing two days and altering the title of the paper to that of the English- man, was quit of the obligation; these papers being printed by Buckley." This last statement (omitted by Pope in all but the early 122 LIFE OF POPE. editions) enables us to ascertain something like the date of his communication to Addison. The Gruardian was discon- tinued on the 1st of October, and the letter must have been written in that or the following month. Now, as we have another letter from Addison, bearing the date of October 26, it seems improbable that he should have so soon written again to Pope from Bilston, and that he should only then have adverted to the Guardian and to Pope's papers. It may fairly be presumed that on all matters relating to Steele and his publications, his friend Addison could not but be well informed. But whether genuine or manufactured, this letter bears no trace of suspicion or unkind feeling. The next, dated December 14, is in an extravagant strain of fancy and of compliment : " I am conscious that I write with more unreservedness than ever man wrote, or, perhaps, talked to another. I trust your good nature with the whole range of my follies, and really love you so well, that I would rather you should pardon me than esteem me, since one is an act of goodness and benevolence, the other a kind of constrained de- ference. " Every hour of my life my mind is strangely divided ; this minute, perhaps, 1 am above the stars, with a thousand systems round about me, looking forward into a vast abyss, and losing my whole compre- hension in the boundless space of creation, in dialogues with Whiston and the astronomers ; the next moment I am below all trifles, grovel- ling with T. in the very centre of nonsense. Now I am recreated with the brisk sallies and turns of wit which Mr. Steele, in his live- liest and freest humours, darts about him; and now levelling my application to the insignificant observations and quirks of grammar of C. and D. Good God, what an incongruous animal is man ! How unsettled in his best part — his soul ; and how changeable and variable in his frame of body," &c. It is scarce possible to believe that Pope, then busy with his Homer at Binfield, could have written in such a style, or so addressed the grave and dignified Addison. He may have designed the letter as an imitation of the Spectator, as he informed Spence ; but was it sent ? The next of these communications to Addison, following each other so quickly, is dated about a month afterwards, January 30, 1713-4, and it is no less friendly and confidential in tone : " "While I am engaged in the fight [in his translation], I find you are con- ADDISON WISHES TO SEEVE POPE. 123 cerned how I shall be paid ;" a proof that Addison had ex- pressed anxiety as to the success of his subscription. But now comes a change in the style of intercourse and address between the two friends. A blank of half a year intervenes, and Addison then forms the subject of a letter, written by Jervas to Pope. The Queen had died, the "Whigs were again in power, and Addison was secretary to the Lords Justices, who discharged the duties of the Crown until the arrival of George I. from Hanover. In office he was desirous of being serviceable to Pope. He met Jervas on the 20fch of August, 1714, and they had a conversation relative to the poet, then at Oxford. Addison was afraid that Swift might have carried Pope too far among " the enemy" during the political struggle ; but now he considered that all was safe, and he promised to use his interest at Court in his favour. Pope received the information coldly. In replying to Jervas, 13 he spoke of his regard for Addison's character, but said he expected nothing but civility from him, how much soever he wished for his friendship. Philips he charged with " scandalous meanness" in exciting suspicions in the mind of Addison against him ; and with respect to Swift, the engagements he had with him were only such as were due to him for the actual services rendered by the Dean in connexion with the subscription for Homer. To Addison himself Pope wrote on the 10th of October. He expresses a hope that " some late malevolences had lost their effect," and states that he was only to get from the Whigs as much as he got from the Tories — that was civility, " being neither so proud as to be insensible of any good office, nor so humble as not to dare heartily to despise any man who does me an injustice." He could never be- lieve, he said, that the author of Cato could speak one thing and think another ; and, as a proof that he accounted him sincere, he begged that he would look over the first two 13 August 27, 1714. But here occurs one of those discrepancies, or blun- ders as to dates, which perplex all inquiries relative to Pope's correspond- ence. He writes to Jervas : "I am just arrived from Oxford.'''' To Ed- ward Blount, on the same day, he writes : " The necessity of consulting a number of books has carried me to Oxford ; but I fear, through my Lord Harcourt's and Dr. Clarke's means, I shall be more conversant with the pleasures and company of the place, than with the books and manuscripts of it." 124 LIFE OF POPE. books of his translation of Homer, which were then in Lord Halifax's hands ; and also that he would point out the " strokes of ill-nature " in the Essay on Criticism, to which Addison had alluded in his critique in the Spectator. The Essay was going to be reprinted, and Pope said the passages objected to would, when pointed out to him, be treated with- out mercy. To this letter no answer appears in the printed correspondence ; a verbal communication on the subject was made by Addison. This Pope reported to Spence : " There had been a coldness between Mr. Addison and me for some time, and we had not been in company together for a good while any- where but at Button's coffee-house, where I used to see him almost every day. On his meeting me there one day in particular, he took me aside, and said he should be glad to dine with me at such a tavern, if I would stay till those people (Budgell and Philips) were gone. We went accordingly, and after dinner Mr. Addison said that he had wanted for some time to talk with me ; that his friend Tickell had formerly, whilst at Oxford, translated the first book of the Iliad ; that he now designed to print it, and had desired him to look it over ; he must, therefore, beg that I would not desire him to look over my first book, because, if he did, it would have the air of double dealing. I assured him that I did not at all take it ill of Mr. Tickell that he was going to publish his translation ; that he certainly had as much right to translate any author as myself ; and that publishing both was entering on a fair stage. I then added, that I would not desire him to look over my first book of the Iliad, because he had looked over Mr. Tickell's, but could wish to have the benefit of his observations on my second, which I had then finished, and which Mr. Tickell had not touched upon. Accordingly, I sent him the second book the next morning, and in a few days he returned it with high com- mendation." And in the following year (April 7, 1715) Gay writes to Congreve that Pope had gone to Jervas's, where Addison was sitting for his portrait ; and Pope states that he at the same period addressed to Addison his epistle on the Dialogues on Medals, in which he compliments his great contemporary in his usual unrivalled strain of elegant panegyric. "Whatever was the origin or the precise extent of the " coldness," it was not suffered to appear in print. The conduct of Addison, as regards the rival translations, was candid and open. But though he declined to read the HALIFAX A PKETEXDER TO TASTE. 125 manuscript of Pope's first book, he seems to have had an opportunity of hearing it read. Lord Halifax desired to have the pleasure of hearing the first two or three books read at his house. Pope complied ; and Addison, Cougreve, and Garth were present. The noble lord hinted objections to certain passages, and Pope was perplexed how to act upon such loose and general observations. Garth laughed at his embarrassment. " Leave them just as they are," he said ; " call on Lord Halifax two or three months hence, thank him for his amendments, and then read the passages, as if you had altered them." Pope made the experiment with com- plete success. " Ay, now, Mr. Pope, they are perfectly right ! nothing can be better." Halifax must, indeed, have been only a "pretender to taste," as Pope said, if this anecdote be true ; but it seems like an after-dinner story, which Spence may have misunderstood. 14 In the satire on Addison, which we have quoted, are two lines afterwards omitted : " Who, if two wits on rival themes contest, Approves of each, but likes the worst the best." In the Miscellanies this couplet was retained, and we must therefore suppose that, up to 1727, Pope believed, whatever casual suspicions he might throw out to the contrary, that Tickell was really the author of the translation that bore his name. How he came afterwards to adopt the opinion that the translation was Addison's, is imperfectly explained in the poet's conversations with Spence. Dr. Young had expressed his surprise that Tickell could have made a translation of the first book of the Iliad at Oxford (where, according to Pope, Addison said it was executed) without his being aware of the fact, as they used to communicate to each other whatever 11 Spence, p. 134. In the original letter to Halifax, thanking him for his patronage, Pope said : " I beg you will not forget Homer if you can spare an hour to attend to his cause, i" leave him with you in that hope." Pope omitted this passage in publishing the letter. It is dated December 3, 1714. (Original in British Museum, and Cunningham's edition of Johnson's Lives.) In the preface to the Iliad, Pope said : " The Earl of Halifax was one of the first to favour me ; of whom it is hard to say whether the advancement of the polite arts is more owing to his generosity or his example." The words of such complimentary addresses to the great must not be weighed too nicelv. 126 LIFE or POPE. verses they wrote, even to the least trifles, and Tickell could not have been busied in so long a work there, without his knowing something of the matter. Steele also, after he quarrelled with Tickell, expressed his belief that Addison was the translator ; and this surprise of Young, and the statement by Steele, made it highly probable to Pope that there was some underhand dealing. Spence adds, that " when the subject was introduced in conversation between Mr. Tickell and Mr. Pope by a third person, Tickell did not deny it, which, considering his honour, and zeal for his de- parted friend, was the same as owning it." Spence was in- capable of wilful misrepresentation, but he must be wrong in his conclusion. Tickell, knowing Pope's feelings on the subject, and the excessive irritability of his temper on all questions affecting his literary character, may have evaded the question or remained silent ; but it is impossible that he could ever have assented to a statement so personally de- grading and so dishonourable, both to himself and to Addi- son. The papers of the Tickell family, still existing, prove that the version of the first Iliad was Tickell' s own, and was so considered by his friends at the time ; and that he had entered into an agreement with a bookseller for the trans- lation of the whole poem, in anticipation of which he had prepared remarks on the poetry of Homer, to be prefixed as a preface to the work. 15 The splendid success of Pope de- terred him from prosecuting either the Iliad or the Odyssey. Spence records the following statement made by Pope re- garding the misunderstanding with Addison : "Philips seems to have been encouraged to abuse me in coffee- houses and conversations : Gildon wrote a thing about Wyckerley, 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 15 Memoirs of Addison, by Lucy Aikin. QUARKEL WITH ADDISON. 127 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 fairly of his faults, and allow his good qualities; and that it should be something in the following manner. I then subjoined the first sketch of what has since been called my satire on Addison. He used me very civilly ever after ; and never did me any injustice that I know of from that time to his death, which was about three years after." l6 A different account of the origin of the satire is given by Ayre, in his Memoir of Pope. Ayre relates, "with, circum- stantial detail, the particulars of a conference which he says took place some years after 1714, between Addison and Pope, at the instance of Sir Bichard Steele, at which Gray also was present. As all the biographers of the poet place confidence in this description, we shall quote it : " Sir Richard Steele begged him (Addison) to perform his promise in making np the breach with Mr. Pope, and Mr. Pope desired the same, as well as to be made sensible how he had offended ; said the translation of Homer, if that was the great crime, was at the request and almost command of Sir Richard Steele ; and entreated Mr. Addison to speak candidly and friendly, though it might be with ever so much 16 Spence, p. 149. Wycherley died in December, 1715, and Gildon's life of him would be published immediately afterwards, while the death of the comic dramatist was recent. In support of the charge against Gildon, Pope altered the epithet " meaner quill" to " venal quill," but this alteration was not made till many years after Addison's death, and Gildon also was dead before it appeared. Pope cites the authority of Lord Burlington, and Spence that of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Dr. Trapp, in proof of his asser- tion that the satire was written in Addison's lifetime. Lady Mary, however, in one of her letters to the Countess of Bute (July 20, 1755) mentions her disgust at seeing Addison "lampooned after Ms death, by the same man who paid servile court to him while he lived." Pope's positive assertion and his appeal to Lord Burlington ought to outweigh this testimony. It is never- theless singular that we should not hear of the verses written in 1716 before 1722 — that neither Pope nor Addison should have shown them — and that they should have remained so long in the poet's hands without under- going the revision afterwards bestowed upon them. As first published, they have the appearance, not of lines written against Addison in the heat of re- sentment, after a recent injury, but of what they were entitled in the Mis- cellanies, a fragment of a satire. Of all that Pope says he wrote and ad- dressed to Addison, only one letter (which Pope did not publish, ante, p. 56) seems to have been found among Addison's papers as preserved by Tickell. 128 LIFE OF POPE. severity, rather than by keeping up any forms of complaisance to cor- reet any of his faults. This Mr. Pope spoke in such a manner as plainly showed he thought Mr. Addison the aggressor, and expected him to condescend and own himself the cause of the breach between them. But he was deceived ; for Mr. Addison, without appearing to be in anger, though quite overcome with it, began a formal speech, said that he had always wished him well, and often had endeavoured to be his friend, and as such advised him, if Ins nature was capable of it, to divest himself of part of his vanity, which was too great for his merit ; said that he had not arrived yet to that pitch of excellence he might imagine, or think his most partial readers imagined ; said when he and Sir Richard Steele corrected his verses they had a different air ; he reminded Mr. Pope of the amendments of a line in the poem called Messiah, by Sir Richard Steele. [See note to the Messiah.] He proceeded to lay before him all the mistakes and inaccuracies hinted at by the crowd of scribblers and writers, some good, some bad, who had attacked Mr. Pope, and added many things which he himself objected to ; speaking of Mr. Pope's Homer, he said to be sure he was not to blame to get so large a sum of money, but it was an ill-executed thing, and not equal to Tickell's, who had all the spirit of Homer. This afterwards appeared to be wrote by Mr. Addison, though Tickell's name was made use of. Mr. Addison concluded, still in a low hollow voice of feigned temper, that he was not soli- citous about his own fame as a poet, but of truth; that he had quitted the Muses to enter into the business of the public ; and all that he spoke was through friendship and a desire that Mr. Pope, as he would do if he was much humbler, might look better to the world. Mr. Gay spoke a few words in answer before Mr. Pope, but his expec- tations from the Court made him very cautious. It was not so with our poet : he told Mr. Addison he appealed from his judgment, did not esteem him able to correct him, and that he had long known him too well to expect any friendship ; upbraided him with being a pen- sioner from his youth, sacrificing the very learning that was purchased with the public money to a mean thirst of power ; that he was sent abroad to encourage literature, and had always endeavoured to cuff down new-fledged merit. At last the contest grew so warm, that they parted without any ceremony, and Mr. Pope immediately wrote those verses which are not thought by all to be a very false character of Mr. Addison." We have no hesitation in setting this down as an " Imagi- nary Dialogue," though one not quite in the style of Mr. "Walter Savage Landor. Ayre's work contains several of a kindred description, in which the biographer compounds scenes and characters out of fragments of Pope's poetry and MISREPRESENTATIONS IN AYRE's MEMOIR. 129 correspondence, 17 sometimes hitting upon a sort of blundering likeness, but generally running into the most puerile extra- vagance and absurdity. Every circumstance in the narrative we have quoted is at variance either with fact or with proba- bility. The whole is, in the first place, contrary to Pope's own statement of the circumstances ; secondly, it is untrue that Pope undertook his translation at the request or com- mand of Sir Richard Steele, and he never could have made such a declaration ; thirdly, the style and language of Addi- son's " formal speech" is ridiculously opposed to his well- known character and habits ; and lastly, at the time of the 17 Some of these are very ludicrous and absurd. In one letter, for ex- ample, Pope rallies his fair correspondent, Teresa Blount, on her delight in war, the insurrection of 1715 having then excited all classes. He tells her, in raillery, that she may soon see gallant armies, encampments, standards waving over her brother's corn-fields, and the windings of the Thames about Mapledurham stained with the blood of men. Ayre takes this literally, and believing it to be addressed to Martha, not Teresa Blount (of whose exist- ence he was apparently not aware), he says, " Mrs. Blount had always a very gallant spirit ; she would often wish to see such sights as armies, encamp- ments, and standards waving over her brother's grounds and fields, and would talk of battles and bloodshed as familiar as if she was noways afraid of them, which some other ladies used to call barbarity, and wonder how she could talk or even think of such cruel things without tears and aching heart. ' Oh,' she would make answer, ' it would be a glorious sight ; so many fine officers, fine gentlemen, fine soldiers, fine colours, fine horses, 'twould be a prodigious pleasure to see !' " Pope also eulogises the conduct of the Earl of Oxford, saying he might seem above man, if he had not just now voided a stone to prove him subject to human infirmities. "The utmost weight of affliction from ministerial power and popular hatred were almost worth bearing for the glory of such a dauntless conduct as he has shown under it." Ayre again transfers this from the poet to Martha Blount. " She was particularly concerned at the fall of the late Earl of Oxford, for whom she had the greatest respect and veneration imaginable, and suffered very much with him, when he had the great weight of affliction to bear, both from princely power and popular hatred ; nothing comforted her but the dauntless conduct he showed under it, though he then laboured with the racking pains of the stone, one of which, a very considerable one, he at that time voided." In the same manner Ayre prattles about Pope's " Unfortu- nate Lady," as if he knew the whole of the mysterious story, and adds to it his usual garnishing of small facts invented for the occasion. Several other cases might be cited, in which Pope's letters and notes to his poems have undergone the same curious transformation. The fable of Addison's con- ference with Pope is chiefly manufactured out of the letters of Pope and Jervas, August, 1714. Z 130 LIFE OF POPE. supposed interview, Steele and Addison were estranged fron each other, and had ceased to meet as friends. " I ask n( favours of Mr. Secretary Addison," writes Steele proudly tc his wife in 17 17 ; and certainly he would not officiously have intruded on him to request him to meet Pope, in order thai he might be "cuffed down" in the mock-heroic manner de^ scribed by Ayre. Dismissing the biographical figment (whicl is only worthy of notice because Johnson has grafted it intc his masterly memoir of the poet, and Mr. Eoscoe has at- tached importance to it), there still remains the statement oJ Spence. " Philips seems to have been encouraged to abuse me' ir coffee-houses and conversation," says Pope. By whom was he encouraged ? Not by Addison, for Pope had previouslj said that Philips set Addison against him, and it was nol likely that the patron and the 'protege had changed places ir the conspiracy. In truth, Philips had a very good case oi his own. Pope had heaped the most provoking ridicule on his Pastorals, and had incited Gray to do the same, besides evincing towards him the most marked contempt. But it is added : " Gildon wrote a thing about "Wycherley [in the notes to the Dunciad termed a Life of Wycherley] in which he abused both me and my relations very grossly," and Lord Warwick " assured me that Addison encouraged Gildon to publish those scandals, and had given him ten guineas after they were published." No copy of this pamphlet, nor any reference to it in any of the publications of the day, can be found. 18 It is highly improbable that Addison knew Gildon, who was a wretched hack-scribbler ; but that he should not only know him, but [should bribe him to publish scandals against Pope and his relations, and, after having perpetrated this crime, should entrust the secret to a dissolute, unprin- 18 It is certain, however, that Gildon published some work or observations on Wycherley before August 11, 1721. In a letter of that date to Dennis he says, "I am sorry I have not pleased you in what I have said of Mr. Wycherley, because I am sensible that by not pleasing you, I am so far in the wrong." — Dennis's Eemarlcs on the Dunciad, 1729. In 1718 Curll pub- lished a short memoir of Wycherley, by Major Pack, to which Dennis made an interesting supplement in a letter to Pack, dated Whitehall, Septem- ber 1, 1720; but in neither of these is there any allusion to Pope. ADDISON PRAISES POPE'S HOMEE. 131 cipled youth of eighteen — all this is so foreign to Addison's character, and evinces such extreme malice and folly, that the tale is utterly incredible. The resentment of Pope, brooded over for years, had conjured up phantoms as visionary as those in his own Cave of Spleen ; or, what is as probable, the young Earl of Warwick, hating Addison for his approach- ing marriage with his mother, the Countess, and eager, in his senseless rage, to blacken the character of one who threw a lustre on his family, had condescended to the office of a spy, and become the retailer of false and malignant fables. In all our literature, as Pope himself afterwards wrote, " no whiter page than Addison remains ;" and the object of his writings was to " set the passions on the side of truth." We must not, therefore, suffer his moral purity to be stained by an imputation so foul and improbable. If in the course of his criticism, while intent on serving his friends, Philips and Tickell, he evinced coldness and neglect with regard to the superior claims of Pope, he took an early opportunity of making reparation. Pope's satire on Addison must, accord- ing to the statement in Spence, have been written and sent to him early in 1716, and Addison's only reply was contained in a paper in the Freeholder of May 7, praising the trans- lation of Homer : " When I consider myself as a British freeholder," he said, " I am in a particular manner pleased with the labours of those who have improved our language with the translation of old Latin and Greek authors, and by that means let us into the knowledge of what passed in the famous Governments of Greece and Borne. We have already most of their historians in our own tongue, and what is still more for the honour of our language, it has been taught to express with elegance the greatest of their poets in each nation. The illiterate among our countrymen may learn to judge from Dryden's Virgil of the most perfeet epic per- formance ; and those parts of Homer which have already been published by Mr. Pope, give us reason to think that the Iliad will appear in English with as little disadvantage to that im- mortal poem." Addison had thus the last word in the con- test, and it must be admitted that his last word was charac- teristic of the man. The unintentional injury was atoned . k2 132 LIFE OF POPE. for, and the unmerited reproaches of the satirist, though perhaps felt keenly, were unanswered, and we may be sure forgiven, amidst higher cares and public duties. §tettr* pope's gay life. 133 CHAPTER IV. [1716—1718.] REMOVAL FROM BINFIELD TO CHISWICK. QUARREL WITH CURLL AND CIBBER. DEATH OF POPE'S FATHER, AND CORRESPONDENCE WITH ATTERBURY. CHANGE OF RESIDENCE TO TWICKENHAM. The Homer subscription had brought the poet honour, wealth, and troops of friends. The year 1714 may be con- sidered as marking the commencement of the gayest period of Pope's life. It was the beginning of a decade of prosperous years, in which, through all circumstances, his spirit was sanguine, exultant, and defiant. He had not yet assumed the philosopher's robe, or hardened down into severe satire and ethics. His wit was sportive ; and his enemies — for he always supposed himself to be surrounded by a cloud of enemies — he could afford to smile at. His pen was the sword with which he had cut his way through the world, and it was bright and trenchant, ready for any service. At first his good fortune seems to have transported him into excesses foreign to his real character. He set up for a bon-vivant and rake — frequented the October Club and gaming-houses, boasted of sitting till two in the morning over burgundy and champagne, and grew ashamed of business. Poor authors, of course, were his special aversion. He sketched plans and architectural designs with Lord Burlington ; lounged in the library of Lord Oxford ; breakfasted with Craggs ; drove about Bushy Park with Lord Halifax ; talked of the Spanish war with the chivalrous Mordaunt, Lord Peterborough, the English Amadis ; or, in the evening, joined in the learned raillery of Arbuthnot. With young Lord "Warwick and 134 LIFE OF POPE. other beaux e sprits he had delicious lobster-nights and tavern gaieties. How different from life in Windsor Forest! At the country seats of Lords Harcourt, Bathurst, and Cobham, he was a frequent visitor — criticising groves, walks, glades, gardens, and porticos ; and he may claim the merit of having done more than any other poet to render English scenes classic ground — a distinction in which he was followed by Gray and Walpole, the latter acting as historian of patri- cian improvement and rural beauty. In the society of ladies of rank and fashion the diminutive figure of the poet might be seen in his suit of black velvet, with tie-wig and small sw r ord, discoursing on topics of wit and gallantry, his fine eye and handsome, in- tellectual face soon making the defects of his person for- gotten ; for in com- pany entirely to his mind, Pope pos- sessed the art and gaiety that could "laugh down many a summer sun." The accomplished Lady Mary "Wortley Mon- tagu had recently quitted her retire- lady mary wortley montagu. ment at Wharncliffe, and shone " a bright particular star " in the brilliant circles of the capital. Pope was often by her side, whispering flatteries that were afterwards to be changed to curses. The Duchesses of Queensberry, Hamilton, and Kingston smiled graciously on the laurelled poet, and carried him to their concerts and V OF THE o^ TOrE AND MARY LEI'ELL. f rage 13ft. THE MAIDS OF HONOUR AT HAMPTON" COURT. 135 pleasure-parties on the Thames. 1 The Maids of Honour in the court of the Princess Caroline — the beautiful Mary Bellenden, Mary Lepell, Miss Griffin, and Miss Howe, with the favourite bedchamber woman, Mrs. Howard, ad- mitted him to their confidence — " took him into their pro- tection, contrary to the laws against harbouring Papists" — and instructed him in the tracasseries of the Court, or joined him in ridiculing pompous Ministers of State and sage Doctors of Divinity. They had also their own grievances to pour into the poet's ear ; for the life of a Maid of Honour was little better at Hampton Court or Richmond Lodge, under the philosophical Caroline, than Panny Burney found it at Kew or "Windsor under Queen Charlotte and George III. " To eat "Westphalia ham in a morning, ride over hedges and ditches (hunting in Windsor Porest), come home in the heat of the day with a fever and a red mark on the forehead from a beaver hat (sic) ; simper an hour and catch cold in the Princess's apartment ; thence to dinner with what appetite they may ; and after that, till midnight, walk, work, or think, which they please." Such is Pope's catalogue of evils (none of them very formidable), " and I can easily believe," he says, rising with his subject, "that no lone house in Wales, with a mountain and a rookery, is more contemplative than this court." He then adds, with a touch of pride, to make Teresa Blount jealous, " Mrs. Lepell walked with me three or four hours by moon- 1 From one of these lively duchesses he received the folloAving invitation, the original of which is in the British Museum. It is addressed to " Alex. Pope, Esq., at Mr. Jervas's House in Cleveland Court." " Sir, — My lady duchess being drunk at this present, so not able to write herself, has commanded me to acquaint you, that there is to be music on the water on Thursday next ; therefore desires you to be that evening at her house in Bond-street, by six o'clock at farthest ; and her grace will call of you there to take you to her barge, which she ordered to be ready at that time at Whitehall, with provisions, and shall land you on the wished-for shore. I am, sir, your most humble servant, " G. Maddisox. " East Acton, Tuesday night." (In another hand.) " Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. So Pope is the word; a disappointment is not to be endured." Acton, near London, was the residence of the Pierrepoint family, and Pope's acquaintance must have been Isabella Bentinck — a celebrated beauty — then recently married to the first Duke of Kingston, father of Lady Mary W. Montagu. 136 LIFE OF POPE. light, and we met no creature of any quality but the King, •who gave audience to the Vice- Chamberlain all alone under the garden wall." The poor king ! For true unostentatious satisfaction and delight, Pope had the cordial society of his painter -friend Jervas (whose house was his town residence), the witty Arbuthnot, the gentle and learned Parnell, Eowe — who laughed everywhere but in his tragedies — the simple, admiring John Gay, the hospitable General Withers, Colonel Disney, a clever man of the world, who had seen service and reaped his opima spolia, and two excellent Devonshire worthies, learned in the law, Eortescue and Biekford. Eortescue had been the playfellow and asso- ciate of Gay at the grammar-school of Barnstaple, and it was no doubt to Gay that Pope owed his acquaintance with the future Master of the Bolls, his unfee'd counsel and steady friend. There was also Mr. Eckershall, Clerk of the Kitchen to Queen Anne — "honest Jemmy Eckershall," with whom Swift occasionally dined in town, and who had a handsome country house to lodge a friend, at Drayton, in Middlesex. 3 Country excursions on horseback were occasionally adven- tured upon by this light-hearted brotherhood, and Jervas's notes — short notes, full of sense, business, and kindness — let us see how they managed the details. Arbuthnot, as the oldest and gravest of the party, laid down rules, and was in- flexible in cutting oft' all superfluities and impediments. "The Doctor proposes," says Jervas, "that himself or his man ride my spare horse, and that I leave all equipage to be sent by the carrier, with your portmanteau. The Doctor says he will allow none of his friends so much as a night- gown or slippers for the road, so a shirt and cravat in your pocket is all you must think of in his new scheme. His servant may be bribed to make room for that. You shall "have a shorter and less bridle sent down on Saturday, and the other shall be returned in due time. The tailor shall be chastised if it is really negligence on his part, but if it is only vapours, you must beg pardon. Your old sword went with 2 Mr. Eckershall seems to have held other appointments about the Court than the savoury one mentioned by Swift. He was at one time Gentleman Usher, and the Queen stood sponsor at the baptism of his son. Pope pre- sented him with a copy of his Homer (still in the family), enriching it with a page of the translation written out in Pope's neat hand. VISITS TO BATH. 137 the carrier, and was tied to the other things with a cord, and my folks say very fast. You must make the carrier respon- sible ; mine will swear to the delivery." 3 A particular man, the poet, and somewhat troublesome ! The theatre was a fashionable town resort. Pope probably retained something of that love of the stage which he had manifested at Deane's school — a fascination not easily relin- quished — and his friends, Congreve and Steele, were deeply interested in it. Betterton he was early acquainted with, and he lived to grace the triumph of Garrick. Such actors as Booth, Wilks, and Mrs. Oldfield must always have been wit- nessed with delight, while Addison's tragedy and Gay's co- medies brought the poet into the society of the green-room. Gay mentions among his friends Mrs. Santlow, the celebrated dancer, and two other actresses, " the frolic Bickneli and her sister young," or Mrs. Younger. These sisters claimed to be near relatives of Keith, Earl Marshal of Scotland. Their father, they said, served in Flanders as one of King William's troopers — perhaps rode by the side of Steele, whence Steele's interest in Mrs. Bickneli, whom he praises in the Tatler and Spectator. The "sister young" was on the stage from a child, and she retained charms enough when near forty to get a husband out of the ranks of the nobility, a brother of the Earl of "Winchelsea. Pope's mention of these ladies is rather in the way of "light-o'-loves," not dignified enough for grave verse or printed correspondence. Visits to Bath were then a favourite summer recreation, and the Abbey bells often rang in Pope and his friends. Bath had become popular after the visit of Queen Anne to the city, and Goldsmith has described to us the amusements of the day. "The hours for bathing," he says, "are com- monly between six and nine in the morning. The lady is brought in a chair, dressed in her bathing clothes, to the bath, and being in the water, the woman who attends presents her with a little floating dish like a basin ; into which the lady puts a handkerchief, a snuif-box, and a nosegay. She then traverses the bath ; if a novice with a guide, if otherwise by herself; and having amused herself thus while she thinks proper, calls for her chair, and returns to her lodgings. The 1 Koscoe, viii. 529 and 533. 138 LIFE OF POPE. amusement of bathing is succeeded by a general assembly of the people at the pump-room, some for pleasure, and some to drink the hot waters. Three glasses at three different times is the usual portion, and the intervals between every glass are enlivened by the small band of music, as well as by the conversation of the gay, the witty, or the forward. Prom the pump-room the ladies from time to time withdraw to a fe- male coffee-house, and from thence return to their lodgings to breakfast. The gentlemen withdraw to their coffee-houses, to read the papers or converse on the news of the day." And with equal minuteness Goldsmith goes over the whole day, till the round is closed by evening prayers in the pump-room, and by nightly balls, plays, or visits. When Frederick Prince of Wales visited Bath in 1738, Beau Nash commemorated the event by erecting an obelisk, and he wrote to Pope request- ing an inscription. Pope replied that he had received so few favours from the great, that he was utterly unacquainted with what kind of thanks they liked best. "Whether," he said, " the Prince most loves poetry or prose I protest I do not know ; but this I dare venture to affirm, that you can give him as much satisfaction in either as I can." Nash perse- vered in his request, and Pope sent a brief prose inscription : " In memory of honours bestowed, and in gratitude for bene- fits conferred on this city by his Eoyal Highness Frederick Prince of Wales, and his royal consort, in the year 1738, this obelisk is erected by Bichard Nash, Esq." Goldsmith's com- ment on this affair is the most amusing part of the business : * I dare venture to say there was scarce a common council- man in the corporation of Bath but could have done this as well. Nothing can be more frigid, though the subject ivas worthy of the utmost exertions of genius." 4 Pope relished the amusements of the place, thus regulated and presided over by the redoubted Beau Nash, and spent the day pleasantly among the pump assemblies, the walks, the chocolate-houses, raffling- shops, plays, and medleys. He even thought the appearance of the ladies in the bath, encased in buckram, and moving about in common with the men, between swimming and walking, a spectacle worthy of 4 Life of Beau Nash in Prior's and Cunningham's editions of Goldsmith's works. pope's acquaintance with the great. 139 female applause and imitation ! The barbarity of the prac- tice shocked Dr. Johnson, and it affords a curious illustration of the taste and manners of the period. Occasionally a meteor like Lord Peterborough appeared at "the Bath," as the city was termed, and astonished visitors by wearing boots (which were then used only in travelling), and by his disregard of Beau Nash and personal dignity. " It is a comical sight to see him," says Lady Hervey, "with his blue ribbon and star, and a cabbage under each arm, or a chicken in his hand, which, after he himself has purchased at market, he carries home for his dinner." After this we need not wonder to find Peterborough, with the spade or pruning- knife, assisting Pope in his garden at Twickenham. But the poet himself would be guilty of no such solecism at Bath. He wished to be esteemed a man of vivacity and spirit, or as he has said, " The gayest valet udinaire, Most thinking rake alive !" And whether in town or country his company was courted. Without fortune, without the advantages of high birth or connexions, without personal graces or fashionable accom- plishments, he had by his genius and management raised himself to social eminence and unrivalled literary celebrity. Dryden, better descended, and with good family alliances, failed to accomplish as much. There was no inferiority of talent or of moral worth — and of these, in his latter days, the world made cheerful recognition — but the elder bard, diffident and retiring — "not a genteel man," as Pope said — could not command the arts which permanently please and attract in high society. He could flatter the great, but wanted skill to court them. Shortly after the delivery of the first volume of his Homer, Pope made a journey to Oxford on horseback, having bor- rowed his steed from the Earl of Burlington. When in Windsor Porest, on his way, he was overtaken by Bernard Lintot, who had heard that the poet designed to go to Oxford, " the seat of the Muses," and who, as his bookseller, would by all means accompany him. Pope, on arriving at Oxford, wrote to Lord Burlington an account of his journey and adventures on the road, in which Lintot figures largely, 140 LIFE OF POPE. describing both himself and the "eminent hands" who worked for him, as translators and critics. The letter is one of Pope's most humorous prose sketches, evidently intended for publication. Smollett, in his Humphry Clinker, describes a meeting of Grub-street authors in his house at Chelsea, which bears some resemblance to Pope's lively caricature, and shows that fifty years had wrought little alteration in this class. " I asked him where he got his horse ? He answered, he got it of his publisher : ' For that rogue my printer (said he) disappointed me : I hoped to put him in good humour by a treat at the tavern, of a brown fricassee of rabbits, which cost two shillings, with two quarts of wine, besides my conversation. I thought myself cocksure of his horse, which he readily promised me, but said that Mr. Tonson had just such another design of going to Cambridge, expecting there the copy of a new kind of Horace from Dr. , and if Mr. Tonson went, he was pre-engaged to attend him, being to have the printing of the said C0 Py* " ' So in short I borrowed this horse of my publisher, which he had of Mr. Oldmixon for a debt ; he lent me, too, the pretty boy you see after me. He was a smutty dog yesterday, and cost me near two hours to wash the ink off his face : but the devil is a fair-conditioned devil, and very forward in his catechise : if you have any more bags, he shall carry them.' " I thought Mr. Lintot's civility not to be neglected, so gave the boy a small bag, containing three shirts, and an Elzevir Virgil ; and mounting in an instant, proceeded on the road, with my man before, my courteous stationer beside, and the aforesaid devil behind. " Mr. Lintot began in this manner : ' Now, damn them ! what if they should put it into the newspaper, how you and I went together to Oxford ? what would I care ? If I should go down into Sussex, they would say I was gone to the Speaker. But what of that ? If my son were big enough to go on with the business, by G-d I would keep as good company as old Jacob.' Hereupon I inquired of his son. ' The lad (says he) has fine parts, but is somewhat sickly, much as you are. I spare for nothing in his education at Westminster. Pray, don't you think Westminster to be the best school in England? Most of the late ministry came out of it, so did many of this ministry. I hope the boy will make his fortune.' ' Do not you design to let him pass a year at Oxford ?' ■ To what purpose ? (said he). The uni- versities do but make pedants, and I intend to breed him a man of business.' " As Mr. Lintot was talking, I observed he sat uneasy on his saddle, for which I expressed some sohcitude. ' Nothing,' says he : 'I can bear VISIT TO OXFORD WITH LINTOT. 141 it well enough ; but since we have the day before us, methinks it would be very pleasant for you to rest awhile under the woods/ When we were alighted, ' See here, what a mighty pretty Horace I have in my pocket ! what if you amused yourself in turning an ode till we mount again ? Lord ! if you pleased, what a clever miscellany might you make at leisure hours !' ' Perhaps I may,' said I, ' if we ride on ; the motion is an aid to my fancy, a round trot very much awakens my spirits : then jog on apace, and I will think as hard as I can.' " Silence ensued for a full hour : after which Mr. Lintot lugged the reins, stopped short, and broke out, ' Well, sir, how far have you gone ?' I answered, ' Seven miles.' ■ Z — ds, sir,' said Lintot, ' I thought you had done seven stanzas. Oldsworth, in a ramble round Wimbleton-hill, would translate a whole ode in half this time. I will say that for Oldsworth (though I lost by his Timothys), 3 he trans- lates an ode of Horace the quickest of any man in England. I re- member Dr. King would write verses in a tavern three hours after he could not speak; and there is Sir Richard, in that rumbling old chariot of his, between Eleet-ditch and St. Giles's pond, shall make you half a Job.' * ' Pray, Mr. Lintot (said I), now you talk of translators, what is your method of managing them ?' 'Sir (replied he), those are the saddest pack of rogues in the world ; in a hungry fit they will swear they understand all the languages in the universe. I have known one of them take down a Greek book upon my counter, and cry, " Ah, this is Hebrew, I must read it from the latter end." By the Lord, I can never be sure in these fellows, for I neither understand Greek, Latin, French, nor Italian myself. But this is my way : I agree with them for ten shillings per sheet, with a proviso, that I will have their doings cor- rected by whom I please ; so by one or other they are led at last to the true sense of an author ; my judgment giving the negative to all my translators.' ' But how are you secure those correctors may not impose upon \ou?' ' Why, I get any civil gentleman (especially any Scotsman), that comes into my shop, to read the original to me in English ; by this I know whether my first translator be deficient, and whether my corrector merits his money or not. I'll tell you what happened to me last month : I bargained with S for a new version of Lucretius to publish against Tonson's, agreeing to pay the author so many shillings at his producing so many lines. He made a great progress in a very short time, and I gave it to the corrector to com- pare with the Latin; but he went directly to Creech's translation, and found it the same, word for word, all but the first page. Now, what 5 This alludes to " A Dialogue between Timothy and Philatheus, &c," written against the rights of the Church. — CurlVs Key. The " S ," afterwards mentioned, was George Sewel, a miscellaneous writer and translator, who died in 1726. 142 LIFE OF POPE. d'ye think I did ? I arrested the translator for a cheat ; nay, and I stopped the corrector's pay too, upon this proof that he had made use of Creech instead of the original.' " ' Pray tell me next how yon deal with the critics ?' c Sir (said he), nothing more easy. I can silence the most formidable of them : the rich ones for a sheet apiece of the blotted manuscript, which costs me nothing ; they'll go about with it to their acquaintance, and pretend they had it from the author, who submitted to their correction. This has given some of them such an air, that in time they come to be consulted with, and dedicated to, as the top critics of the town. As for the poor critics, I'll give you one instance of my management, by which you may guess at the rest. A lean man, that looked like a very good scholar, came to me t'other day; he turned over your Homer, shook his head, shrugged up his shoulders, and pished at every line of it. " One would wonder (says he) at the strange presumption of some men ; Homer is no such easy task, that every stripling, every versifier" He was going on when my wife called to dinner ; " Sir," said I, " will you please to eat a piece of beef with me ?" " Mr. Lintot," said he, " I am sorry you should be at the expense of this great book, I am really concerned on your account" " Sir, I am much obliged to you. If you can dine upon a piece of beef, to- gether with a slice of pudding" " Mr. Lintot, I do not say but Mr. Pope, if he would condescend to advise with men of learning" " Sir, the pudding is upon the table, if you please to go in." My critic complies, he comes to a taste of your poetry, and tells me in the same breath, that the book is commendable, and the pudding excellent. " ' Now, sir (concluded Mr. Lintot), in return to the frankness I have shown, pray tell me, is it the opinion of your friends at court that my Lord Lansdowne will be brought to the bar or not ?' I told him I heard he would not, and I hoped it, my Lord being one I had particular obligations to. ' That may be (replied Mr. Lintot), but if he is not, I shall lose the printing of a very good trial.' " 6 " These, my Lord, are a few traits by which you may discern the fenius of Mr. Lintot, which I have chosen for the subject of a letter, dropt him as soon as I got to Oxford, and paid a visit to my Lord Carlton at Middleton." 7 To the young ladies at Mapledurham he transmitted an account of his visit to Oxford, which we insert as written, not as printed by Pope : " Ladies,— I came from Stonor (its master not being at home) to Oxford the same night. Nothing could have more of that melancholy 6 Lansdowne was committed to the Tower in September, 1715, and re- leased in February, 1716-7. 7 Letters of Mr. A. Pope : London, 1737. STUDIOUS LIFE AT OXFORD. 143 which once used to please me, than my last day's journey ; for after having passed through my favourite woods in the forest, with a thou- sand reveries of past pleasures, I rid over hanging hills, whose tops were edged with groves, and whose feet watered with winding rivers, listening to the falls of cataracts below, and the murmuring of the winds above : the gloomy verdure of Stonor succeeded to these ; and then the shades of the evening overtook me. The moon rose in the clearest sky I ever saw, by whose solemn light I paced on slowly, without company, or any interruption to the range of my thoughts. About a mile before I reached Oxford, all the night bells tolled in different notes ; the clocks of every college answered one another, and told me (some in a deeper, some in a softer voice) that it was eleven o'clock. All this was no ill preparation to the life I have led since, among those old walls, venerable galleries, stone porticos, studious walks, and solitary scenes of the University. I wanted nothing but a black gown and a salary, to be as mere a bookworm as any there. I conformed myself to the college hours, was rolled up in books, wrapt in meditations, lay in one of the most ancient, dusky parts of the University, and was as dead to the world as any hermit of the desert. If anything was awake or alive in me it was a little vanity, such as even those good men used to entertain, when the monks of their own order extolled their piety and abstractedness. For I found myself received with a sort of respect, which this idle part of mankind, the learned, pay to their own species ; who are as considerable here as the busy, the gay, and the ambitious are in your world. " Indeed, I was so treated that I could not but ask myself in my mind, what college I was founder of, or what library I had built ? Methinks I do very ill to return to the world again, to leave the only place where I make a good figure, and from seemg myself seated with dignity on the most conspicuous shelves of a library, go to contem- plate this wretched person in the abject condition of lying at a lady's feet in Bolton-street. "I will not deny but that, like Alexander, in the midst of my glory I am wounded, and find myself a. mere man. To tell you from whence the dart comes is to no purpose, since neither of you will take the tender care to draw it out of my heart, and suck the poison with your Hps " Here, at my Lord Harcourt's, I see a creature nearer an angel than a woman (though a woman be very near as good as an angel). I think you have formerly heard me mention Mrs. Jennings as a credit to the maker of angels ; she is a relation of his Lordship's, and he gravely proposed her to me for a wife. Being tender of her interests, and knowing (what is a shame to Providence) that she is less indebted to fortune than I, I told him, it was what he never could have thought of, if it had not been his misfortune of being blind, and that I never could till I was so ; but that, as matters now were, I did not care to 144 LIFE OF POPE. force so fine a woman to give the finishing stroke to all my defor- mities, by the last mark of a beast, horns. " Now I am talking of beauty, I shall see my Lady Jane Hyde to- morrow at Cornbury. 8 I shall pass a day and night at Blenheim Park, and will then hasten home, taking Reading in my way. I have everywhere made inquiry if it be possible to get any ammities on sound security. It would really be an inexpressible joy to me if I could serve you, and I will always do my utmost to give myself pleasure. " I beg you both to think as well of me — that is, to think me as much yours as any one else. What degree of friendship and tender- ness I feel for you I must be content with, being sure of myself; but I shall be glad if you believe it in any degree. Allow me as much as you can, and think as well of me as you are able of one whose imper- fections are so manifest, and who thinks so little of himself as to think ten times more of either of you." (No signature.) He visited Blenheim, the magnificent seat of the Duke of Marlborough, but he does injustice to the architecture of Vanbrugh, who in all his works attended, as Sir Joshua Rey- nolds observes, to "painter-like effects." The house is a stupendous pile, perhaps too low for its massive proportions ; but the general appearance is striking and princely, and, viewed in connexion with the gardens, the water, the plea- sure-grounds, and the park — a gorgeous verdant amphi- theatre of twelve miles — Blenheim is a trophy well worthy of being presented by England to her then greatest military hero : " I will not describe Blenheim in particular, not to forestal your expectations before you see it ; only take a short account, which, I will hazard my little credit, is no unjust one. I never saw so great a thing with so much littleness in it. I think the architect built it entirely in complaisance to the taste of its owners ; for it is the most inhospitable thing imaginable, and the most selfish : it has, like their own hearts, no room for strangers, and no reception for any person of superior quality to themselves. There are but just two apartments, for the master and mistress, below, and but two apartments above (very much inferior to them), in the whole house. When you look upon the outside, you'd think it large enough for a prince ; when you see the inside, it is too little for a subject, and has not conveniency to 8 Daughter of Henry fourth Earl of Clarendon, and afterwards Countess of Essex. Gay, in his Prologue to the Shepherd's Week, mentions, " Blooming Hyde, with eyes so rare." BLENHEIM. 145 lodge a common family. It is a house of entries and passages, among which there are three vistas through the whole, very uselessly hand- some. There is what might have been a fine gallery, but spoiled by two arches towards the end of it, which take away the sight of several of the windows. There are two ordinary staircases instead of one great one. The best things within the house are the hall — which is, indeed, noble and well-proportioned — and the cellars and offices underground, which are the most commodious, and the best contrived of the whole. At the top of the building are several cupolas and little turrets, that have but an ill effect, and make the building look at once finical and heavy. What seems of the best taste is that front towards the gardens, which is not yet loaded with these turrets. The two sides of the building are entirely spoiled by two monstrous bow- windows, which stand just in the middle, instead of doors : and, as if it were fatal that some trifling littleness should everywhere destroy the grandeur, there are in the chief front two semicircles of a lower structure than the rest, that cut off the angles, and look as if they were purposely designed to hide a loftier and nobler piece of building, the top of which appears above them. In a word, the whole is a most expensive absurdity ; and the Duke of Shrewsbury gave a true cha- racter of it, when he said it was a great quarry of stones above ground. "We paid a visit to the spring where Rosamond bathed herself; on a hill, where remains only a piece of a wall of the old palace of Henry II. We toasted her shade in the cold water, not without a thought or two, scarce so cold as the liquor we drank it in." 9 The Stuart insurrection of 1715-6 had little effect in dis- turbing Pope in his town haunts or Forest retreat. The Tories of Oxford drank King James's health, and talked bravely over their flowing cups ; there was also a Jacobite riot in the city, and some meeting-houses were pulled down ; but the appearance of a squadron of horse and the seizure of a few suspected persons instantly reduced Alma Mater to silence and obedience. None of the Catholic families in the county were implicated. Pope's friends were all safe ; and as for himself, he was by no means disposed to become a martyr, either for the Church or the Chevalier. There was one friend, however, who seems to have sympa- thised deeply with the insurgents, and to have keenly lamented the misery occasioned by the rash enterprise. This was Mr. Edward Blount, a Devonshire gentleman, 9 Curll's edit, of Correspondence, and other editions of 1735. L 146 life or POPE. related to the Blounts of Oxfordshire. "What a dismal scene has there been opened in the north!" exclaims Mr. Blount. " What ruin have those unfortunate rash gentle- men drawn upon themselves and their miserable followers — and perchance upon many others, too, who upon no account would be their followers." In this number Mr. Blount him- self is supposed to have been included. A conspiracy had been formed in the west of England, and the Duke of Ormond was expected to land in Devonshire. Numerous arrests took place, and though Mr. Blount was probably wholly innocent, as a Catholic gentleman of wealth and in- fluence he was suspected, and he resolved to quit the country. " Our homes," he wrote to Pope, "must either be left or be made too narrow for us to turn in." He exhorted the poet to leave laziness and the elms in St. James's Park, and, joining safety with friendship, go with him where war would not reach them, nor paltry constables summon them to vestries. At this time Pope was much in London. Jervas had gone on a visit to Ireland, his native country, and the bachelor establishment in Cleveland-court was at the entire command of the poet. "As to your inquiry about your house," he writes to Jervas, " when I came within the walls, they put me in mind of those of Carthage, where you find, like the wandering Trojan, animum picturd pascit inani ; for the spacious mansion, like a Turkish caravansera, entertains the vagabonds with bare lodgings. I rule the family very ill, keep bad hours, and lend out your pictures about the town. See what it is to keep a poet in your house ! Prank, indeed, does all he can in such circumstances; for, considering he has a wild beast in it, he constantly keeps the door chained. Every time it opens the links rattle, the rusty hinges roar. The house seems so sensible that you are all its support, it is ready to drop in your absence ; but I still trust myself under its roof, as depending that Providence will preserve so many Raphaels, Titians, and Gruidos as are lodged in your cabinet. Surely the sins of one poet can hardly be so heavy as to bring an old house over the heads of so many painters. In a word, your house is falling ; but what of that ? I am only a lodger." Such badinage would amuse Pope while writing it, and still more Jervas and Swift while reading and discussing it over REMOVAL TO CHISWICK. 147 their wine, in the spacious and gaunt deanery of St. Patrick's. Thus amused, and busy with Homer and pleasure, Pope was not disposed to avail himself of Blount's offer to accompany him abroad. He made a removal, however, nearer London, and exchanged Binfield for Chiswiek. "My father and mother," writes the poet, "having dis- posed of their small estate at Binfield, I was concerned to find out some asylum for their old age ; and these cares of settling and furnishing a house have employed me till yester- day (April 19, 1716), when we fixed at Chiswiek, under the wing of my Lord Burlington." 10 The residence at Chiswiek was one of a row of lofty houses, then recently erected, and called " Mawson's New Buildings." They still remain, with pollard elms in front, and are situated close to the river, but at the common landing-place, surrounded by meaner houses and a closely-inhabited neighbourhood. In Pope's time the situation may have been more secluded and agreeable. Be- fore removing, he went to bid his friends in the Forest fare- well, "parting," he says, "from honest Mr. Doncastle with tenderness, and from old Sir "William Trumbull as from a venerable prophet, foretelling, with lifted hands, the miseries to come, from which he is fast going to be removed himself." And Sir "William died shortly afterwards. He again writes to his friend Blount on the subject of his removal : " Though the change of my scene of life from Windsor Eorest to the water-side at Chiswiek be one of the grand eras of my days, and may be called a notable period in so inconsiderable a history, yet you can scarce image any hero passing from one stage of life to another with so much tranquillity, so easy a transition, and so laudable a be- haviour. I am become so truly a citizen of the world (according to Plato's expression), that I look with equal indifference on what I have left and on what I have gained. The times and amusements past are not more like a dream to me than those which are present. I lie in a refreshing kind of inaction ; and have one comfort at least from ob- scurity — that the darkness helps me to sleep the better. I now and then reflect upon the enjoyment of my friends, whom, I fancy, I re- member much as separate spirits do us, at tender intervals — neither interrupting their own employments, nor altogether careless of ours ; but in general constantly wishing us well, and hoping to have us one day in their company." " J" Athenaeum, July 15, 1854. 11 Roscoe, viii. 365, corrected from the Athenaeum papers on Pope. l2 148 LIFE OF POPE. The poet was willing to forget his residence at Chiswick, as forming an undignified episode between Binfield and Twickenham. He omitted all reference to it in his printed letters, and seems never to have mentioned it to Spence or Warburton. Dennis does not fail to acquaint him that he may have learned the language of the watermen or scullers from having lived at Chiswick as well as Twickenham ; 12 but other writers were ignorant of the fact. In the "Works of Lady- Mary Wortley Montagu are two letters which countenance the common error that Pope removed directly from Binfield to Twickenham. The first is dated " Twick'nam, Aug. 18, 1716" (but does not imply residence there) ; the second is dated Sept. 1, 1717, and in this Lady Mary is made to say : • By making the Iliad pass through your poetical crucible into an English form, without losing aught of its original beauty, you have drawn the golden current of Pactolus to Twickenham" This we believe to be a forgery. It is one of those first printed in the additional volume of Lady Mary's Letters, published by Becket in 1767, which Dallaway re- jected as spurious, and is most likely the composition of John Cleland, who was an adept in literary fraud, and dis- reputably connected with the original publication of Lady Mary's correspondence. The style of this letter, and the allusions it contains to the seraglio and to Pope's dissatis- faction with Addison, clearly indicate its spurious origin. Some other letters in the same volume, though adopted as genuine by Lord "Wharncliife, we have little doubt were fabrications by Cleland. One, addressed to a Countess of , dated from Florence, and describing the Venus and the Antinous, was assuredly never written by Lady Mary. Two others (" To the Abbot of " and " To the Count ") are evidently from the same mint, which, as Cleland had resided in Turkey, and travelled widely, and was besides a man of talent and imagination, was capable of producing a base coinage little inferior to the genuine metal. John Cle- land, perhaps, thought that he was only repaying Pope for the fabricated use of the name of his father, William Cleland ! ! Chiswick, though until recently overlooked or neglected in the poet's biography, was the scene of some of his most | anxious and brilliant intellectual labours. Here he wrought : 12 Remarks on the Dunciad. EDMUND CURLL. 149 at Homer ; carried on one of the most interesting portions of his correspondence ; wrote in part, if not wholly, the Epistle of Eloisa, and perhaps the Elegy to the Memory of an Un- fortunate Lady ; commenced his war with Curll and Cibber — more protracted than the siege of Troy — and superintended the first collected edition of his works. The following note to Martha Blount, without date or signature, seems to belong to this period : " Madam, — I am here studying ten hours a day, but thinking of you in spite of all the learned. The Epistle of Eloise grows warm, and begins to have some breathings of the heart in it, which may make posterity think I was in love. I can scarce find in my heart to leave out the conclusion I once intended for it. I am to pass three or four days in high luxury with some company at my Lord Burling- ton's. We are to walk, ride, ramble, dine, drink, and lie together. His gardens are delightful, his music ravishing ; yet I shall now and then cast a thought on Charles-street. May you have all possible suc- cess both in your devotions this week, and your masquerade the next. Whether you repent or sin, may you do all you wish ; and when you think of me, either laugh at me or pray for me, which you please." 13 In the spring of 1716, Pope had his first and only meeting with Curll. Edmund Curll was the most unscrupulous pub- lisher of those unscrupulous times. He had commenced business before 1708, and soon became notorious for offences in print against decency and propriety — for publishing private letters,] libels, and lampoons ; and from his practice of issuing miserable catchpenny lives of every eminent person immediately after his decease, Arbuthnot wittily styled him, "one of the new terrors of death." The appearance of Curll must have been as outre as some of his performances. A contemporary, John Buncle, describes him as tall, thin, ungainly, and white-faced ; " his eyes were a light grey, large, projecting, goggle, and purblind; he was splay-footed and baker-knee' d;" though this last peculiarity is not very intelligible. To such a ludi- crous outward man Curll added the utmost effrontery and conceit, and a certain amount of absurd cleverness, which dis- played itself in rhyming couplets and grandiloquent adver- tisements. He considered himself quite a match for Pope in prose, though he admitted that his adversary had a knack in 15 Koscoe, viii. 423, collated with the original. 150 LIFE OF POPE. versifying. Mr. Pope, he said, was no more a gentleman, nor more eminent as a poet, than Mr. Curll was as a book- seller; and with respect to acquaintance with the great, "where Pope has one lord," said Curll, "I have twenty." Such a man was not to he reached by the shafts of wit or satire. In the course of his publishing career he had been fined, imprisoned, pilloried, pumped upon, and tossed in a blanket; but he was still "dauntless Curll," as Pope styled him, and his motto to the last was the Scottish legend, Nemo me impune lacessit. In February or March appeared " The Court Poems ;" or, three of the Town Eclogues, by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, said to be " published faithfully, as they were found in a pocket-book taken up in Westminster Hall, the last day of LordWinton's trial." Curll was not the sole publisher. They proceeded from a certain J. Eoberts, in Warwick- street, who states, in an advertisement prefixed to the pamphlet, that, upon reading the poems over, at St. James's Coffee-house, they were attributed by the general voice to be the produc- tion of a lady of quality ; but at Button's, the poetical jury pronounced Mr. Gray to be the man, while a " gentleman of distinguished merit, living at Chelsea, said they could come from no other hand than the judicious translator of Homer." On the appearance of this brochure, Pope had an interview with Curll. He sent for him to the Swan Tavern in Pleet- street, in company with Lintot, to inquire after the publica- tion of the Court Poems. Curll said they were published by Oldmixon (afterwards satirised in the Dunciad), to whom they were given by one Jacobs, a dissenting teacher ; and that he (Curll) and another bookseller named Pemberton had shares in the work with Oldmixon. 14 Then comes the 14 Oldmixon denied this, and made Curll a witness to his denial : " Whereas Mr. Lintot or Mr. Pope has published a false and ridiculous libel, reflecting on several gentlemen, particularly on myself ; and it is said therein that I was the publisher of certain verses, called Court Poems, and that I wrote the preface ; I hereby declare that I never saw a great part of those verses, nor ever saw or heard of the title or preface to them till after the poems were published. " J. Oldmixon. " Witness, E. Curll." Flying Post, April 3, 1716. The libel alluded to by Oldmixon was no doubt Pope's pamphlet, pub- THE POISONING OF EDMUND CUELL. 151 ridiculous part of the story, implying a charge against Pope which Dennis characterised as " so black, so double, and so perfidious, that perhaps a villain who is capable of breaking open a house is not capable of that !" This is the poisoning case. " My brother Lintot," said Curll, " drank his half-pint of old hock, Mr. Pope his half-pint of sack, and I the same quantity of an emetic potion, but no threatenings passed. Mr. Pope said, ' Satire should not be printed,' though he has now changed his mind. I said, ' They should not be wrote, for if they were they would be printed.' He replied, ' Mr. Gay's interest at Court would be greatly hurt by publishing these pieces.' This is all that passed in our triumvirate. We then parted. Pope and my brother Lintot went together to his shop, and I went home and vomited heartily." Curll after- wards improved upon this statement, and said that Pope de- served the stab for the emetic effects of the poisoned half-pint of canary. The poet accounts for his visit by stating (in the notes to the Dunciad) that Curll meant to publish the Court Poems as the work of the true writer, "a Lady of Quality," but being first threatened, and afterwards punished for it by Mr. Pope, he generously transferred it from her to him, and ever since printed it in his name. What was the punishment ? — not, surely, the emetic. Curll' s ludicrous tale of horror was eagerly seized upon by the wits, and Pope wrote " A full and true Account of a horrid and barbarous revenge by poison, on the body of Mr. Edmund Curll, bookseller, with a faithful copy of his last will and testament." This was afterwards followed by "A further Account of the most deplorable Condition of Mr. Edmund Curll, bookseller," and " A strange, but true, Kela- tion, how Mr. Edmund Curll, of Fleet-street, stationer, out of an extraordinary desire of lucre, went into Change-alley, and was converted from the Christian religion, by certain eminent Jews," &c. These works are intolerably coarse. The warfare never ceased. Curll published every scrap which he could rake out of the sinks of literature against lished anonymously, on the Poisoning of Curll, in which Lintot is made to declare that Oldmixon gave the Court Poems to the press, and wrote the preface. 152 LIFE OF POPE. Pope and his friends, and Pope assigned to Curll a con- spicuous and degrading position in the Miscellanies and Dunciad. The bookseller was nattered by the notoriety thus given to his name. Pope and Swift against Curll formed an unequal match, but it was enough, as was afterwards re- marked, to gladden the heart of the bookseller, that he was satirised by the same pens which had been employed against the Duke of Marlborough and Mr. Addison. What Lady Mary thought of the piracy is not stated. She did not leave England until the month of August — four or five months after the publication of the Court Poems — and she could not have remained ignorant of what had occasioned so much speculation and controversy. Yet it is curious to find Pope writing to her at Constantinople respecting these pieces. " Your Eclogues," he says, " lie enclosed in a monu- ment of Turkey, written in my fairest hand; the gilded leaves are opened with no less veneration than the pages of the Sibyls ; like them locked up and concealed from all pro- fane eyes, none but my own have beheld these sacred re- mains of yourself; and I should think it as great wickedness to divulge them as to scatter abroad the ashes of my an- cestors." This declaration may have referred to the three Eclogues, then unpublished ; but in the matter of the first publication, we suspect Pope or Gray was the delinquent. The Eclogues have no claim to be included among the works of Pope. Dennis was also one of the assailants in this controver- sial year of 1716. He published A Character of Mr. Pope, dated May 7, in reply to a libel which he attributed to the poet. He had not been able, he said, before that day, to borrow Pope's Homer, but he designed to read it next day ! In the mean time he attacked an Imitation of Horace, which he characterised as more execrable than all Pope's other works. We have no account of any Imitation of Horace by Pope at this early period. He denies Dennis's accusation (in the notes to the Dunciad), and either ignorant, or pre- tending to be ignorant, of what Dennis meant, taunted him with not mentioning the title of the work. Dennis said the libel was ridiculously called an Imitation of Horace, and the author of it was in every respect the reverse of Horace, " in honour, in discernment, in genius," &c. Swift was in the DENNIS AND BLACKMORE ATTACK POPE.' 153 habit of throwing off short imitations of the Eoman poet, which were published anonymously. Two of these ridiculed Steele and Dennis, namely, " John Dennis the Sheltering Poet's invitation to E. Steele, the excluded Party Writer," &c, and the "First Ode of the Second Book of Horace." These satires, however, were published in 1714, and Dennis speaks of the imputed libel of 1716 as having been sent to him only a few days before by two of his friends. It is im- probable that copies of the Imitation of Horace published in 1714 should have been transmitted to him for the first time in 1716; the most reasonable conclusion is, that this satire was an attack upon Dennis in continuation of those of Swift, and was never printed. It was then common to hand about manuscript libels and lampoons, and the two friends of Dennis, if such existed, were probably traitors in the camp of Pope, of the class who Slander help about, Who write a libel, or who copy out." This supposition would explain why no copy of any imitation of Horace by Pope in 1716, or any advertisement of such a work, has been met with, and also Pope's triumphant denial made afterwards in the Dunciad. About this time appeared the verses on Moore, " author of the celebrated Worm Powder." They enjoyed great popu- larity, and were advertised by several booksellers — "The "Worms, a Satyr, by Mr. Pope, price Twopence" — while the Weekly Journal of May 5th, 1716, transferred them entire to its columns. One indecent verse in the poem (afterwards struck out) afforded fresh occasion for railing and accusation against its author ; and these were further increased by a still more objectionable piece ascribed to him, a parody on the Pirst Psalm, which was also extensively advertised. 15 Sir Richard Blackmore, in one of his Essays, stigmatised this burlesque as the production of a " godless author," but did not name Pope. The poet made no distinct denial of the charge, but, as Curll states, put an advertisement into the 15 A Roman Catholic Version of the First Psalm, for the use of a Young Lady. By Mr. Pope. Price 2d. Printed for R. Burleigh in Amen Corner. — Daily Courant and Flying Post, June 30, 1716. 154 LIFE OF POPE. Postman, offering a reward of three guineas to whoever should discover the person that sent the poem to the press. The original copy, Curll adds, remained with the publisher, Burleigh, and was in Pope's handwriting. There is not a copy of this number of the Postman, or Postboy, in the British Museum, and Curll' s assertion is no warrant ; but it is, per- haps, to the same affair that Pope alludes in a letter to Martha Blount, dated August 7th, 1716 : " If you have seen a late advertisement, you will know that I have not told a lie (which we both abominate), but equivocated pretty genteelly. You may be confident it was not done without leave from my spiri- tual director." 16 This would scarcely have satisfied Martha's father confessor. Many years afterwards, "Welsted and James Moore Smythe revived against Pope the charge of having written this burlesque of the First Psalm. To all the other accusations which they then made against him in their " One Epistle" he replied in the Grub-street Journal, but on this subject he was silent. In July, 1716, Pope's Epistle to Jervas was published by Lintot. It was more than an equivalent for all the lessons that the painter had given the poet ! In the autumn the latter set off on one of his country visits, giving the " dear ladies" at Mapledurham a note of his thoughts and observa- tions. " I am with Lord Bathurst at my bower, in whose groves we had yesterday (October 7) a dry walk of three hours. It is the place that of all others I fancy, and I am not yet out of humour with it, though I have had it some months. It does not cease to be agreeable to me so late in the season ; the very dying of the leaves adds a variety of colours that is not unpleasant. I look upon it as upon a beauty I once loved, whom I should preserve a respect for in her decay ; and as we should look upon a friend, with re- membrance how he pleased us once, though now declined from his former gay and flourishing condition." 17 A touch of pathos as well as poetry. Among the light tasks which filled up the intervals be- tween the publication of the successive volumes of the Iliad may be mentioned the assistance given to Q-ay in some dra- 18 Roscoe, viii. 430, collated with the original. 17 Ibid. viii. 432, collated with the original. gay's comedies. 155 matic pieces. Gay had, in 1715, produced what he termed a " tragi-comi-pastoral farce," entitled What d'ye Call It? This was looked upon as a satire on the tragic poets, being a travesty of the style of the lofty buskin, and is mostly in rhyming couplets. "We can trace Pope in none of the scenes, but he may have helped Gay in that beautiful ballad which begins, " 'Twas when the seas were roaring, With hollow blasts of wind, A damsel lay deploring, All on a rock reclined." Cowper, the poet, had heard that Swift, Arbuthnot, Pope, and Gay were all concerned in the composition of this ballad ; but the author of Black-eyed Susan could scarcely have required such assistance, and Swift was then in Ireland. "We fancy, however, that Pope's hand may be seen in A Complete Key to the last new Farce, the What d'ye Call It? though he ascribes it, in the notes to the Dunciad, as writ- ten " by Griffin, a player, supervised by Mr. Th " (Theobald). Pope may have used these names, as he did that of Norris, the apothecary; and unquestionably the design of this Key was to excite curiosity about Gay's farce, and recommend it to the notice of the public. All the allu- sions are traced, and the passages travestied are quoted. It is no objection to this theory that Gay says, in a letter to Congreve, that the writer of the Key calls him (Gay) a blockhead, and Mr. Pope a knave — such occasional attacks were necessary to the mystification and the success of the project. In January, 1716-7, Gay's comedy of Three Hours after Marriage was brought on the stage. Both Pope and Ar- buthnot had joined in the composition of this play, which was a most unsuccessful one. The whole action of the piece turns upon a low intrigue, and the incidents are forced and unnatural. Possile, the husband, was designed to ridicule Dr. "Woodward, and we may suppose was sketched by Arbuthnot. Sir Tremendous, " the greatest critic of the age," was Dennis, drawn by Pope. Phoebe Clinket was said to represent the Countess of "Winchelsea, but is more likely to have been Mrs. Centlivre; and Gay's early patroness, 156 LIFE OF POPE. the Duchess of Monmouth, was believed to be satirised under the name of the Countess of Hippokekoana. The audience had with difficulty borne with some scenes of this heavy pleasantry and indecency; but when, in the course of the intrigue, two of the characters were introduced, one as a mummy and the other as a crocodile (an allusion to Dr. "Woodward's passion for natural history and antiquities), the house rose and hissed the performance. It had, however, a run of seven nights, and Gray printed it, exactly, he said, as it was acted. At the same time, in the preface to the play, he acknowledged that he had received assistance from two friends — a circumstance they would very gladly have buried in oblivion. So much personal satire, with contemptuous allusions to authors and critics, was sure to give offenee, and the piece called forth several attacks and replies. One of these was a farce, in rhyme, called The Confederates, by Mr. Joseph Gray, or, as Pope said, by Captain Breval, a dra- matic and miscellaneous writer. This is a very poor produc- tion, its chief recommendation being a caricature frontispiece, representing Pope, Gay, and Arbuthnot, the last in the Highland dress, under which is the following inscription : " These are the wags who boldly did adventure, To club a farce by tripartite indenture ! But let 'em share their dividend of praise, And wear their own fool's-cap instead of bays." Another of these pieces was entitled, A complete Key to the new Farce, called Three Hours after Marriage, with an Ac- count of the Authors, by U. Parker, Philomath. This is a real, not a pretended satire on the play. The trio of wits are called " stage buffoons," and the writer says Pope and Arbuthnot constantly attended the rehearsals of the play. Gay, he thinks, justly deserved a cudgel for abusing a lady who took him in when he was destitute ; and he tells us that Gay was amanuensis to Aaron Hill, next in the service of the Duchess of M., and afterwards Pope took him " to learn the art of rhyming, and Gay is now named the Jabberer." Such was the style of criticism in this polite age ; and the wits, it must be admitted, were as coarse as the dunces. Leonard "Welsted, a poet of some talent, though COMMENCEMENT OF QUAKKEL WITH CTBBEK. 157 florid and bombastic, attacked Gay's comedy in his Palcemon to Ccelia, a poetical epistle, in which he also glanced at the poisoning of Curll, with which he connected Arbuthnot — " the quack prescribed the purge the poet gave" — and Wel- sted, with others, was reserved for vengeance in the Dunciad. But the most important result of this unfortunate play was the fact that it led to the quarrel and enmity between Pope and Colley Cibber, only extinguished by Pope's death, and which fills so large a space in his satires. Cibber, in account- ing for the poet's persevering hostility, states, that when the play of the Rehearsal was revived, by command of the Prince of Wales, the part of Bayes fell to his share. " To this cha- racter there had always been allowed such ludicrous liberties of observation upon anything new or remarkable in the state of the stage as Mr. Bayes might think proper to make." Accordingly when the two kings of Brentford descend from the clouds to the throne, Colley, instead of delivering what his part directed him to say, made use of these words: " Now, sir, this revolution I had some thought of introducing by a quite different contrivance ; but my design taking air, some of your sharp wits, I found, had made use of it before me ; otherwise I intended to have stolen one of them in, in the shape of a mummy, and t'other in that of a crocodile." The audience greeted the satirical sally with a roar of applause ; but Pope, who was present, was enraged at the actor's impu- dence. " In the swelling of his heart (says Cibber), after the play was over he came behind the scenes, with his lips pale, and his voice trembling, to call me to account for the insult ; and accordingly fell upon me with all the foul language that a wit out of his senses could be capa- ble of. c How durst I have the impudence to treat any gentleman in that manner ?' &c. Now let the reader judge by this concern who was the true mother of the child ! When he was almost choked with the foam of his passion, I was enough recovered from my amazement to make him (as near as I can remember) this reply : ' Mr. Pope, you are so particular a man, that I must be ashamed to return your lan- guage as I ought to do ; but since you have attacked me in so mon- strous a manner, this you may depend upon, that as long as the play continues to be acted, I will never fail to repeat the same words over and over again.' Now, as he accordingly found I kept my word for several days following, I am afraid he has since thought that his pen was a sharper weapon than his tongue to trust his revenge with ; and 158 LIFE OF POPE. % however just cause this may be for his so doing, it is, at least, the only cause my conscience can charge me with." 18 There was soon another cause for the poet's enmity. Cibber's play of the Nonjuror, produced in the winter of 1717, was expressly designed to satirise the Eoman Catholics and Non- jurors who had been concerned in the insurrection of 1715. He turned the Tartuffe of Moliere into a modern nonjuror. " Upon the hypocrisy of the French character," he says, " I engrafted a stronger wickedness, that of an English Popish priest, lurking under the doctrine of our own church, to raise his fortune upon the ruin of a worthy gentleman whom his dissembled sanctity had seduced into the treasonable cause of a Koman Catholic outlaw." The play was highly successful ; it had a great run, Lintot gave a hundred guineas for the copyright, and it procured Cibber a donation of 200Z. from the King, besides paving the way for his appointment as Poet Laureate. "While Cibber's comedy was filling the theatre and en- grossing attention, a satire on it appeared in the now familiar form of A Complete Key, explaining the characters in the play, with observations on it by " Mr. Joseph Gay." This " odd piece of wit," as Cibber terms it, resembling Pope's Key to the Eape of the Lock, he believed to be from the same pen, and there can be no doubt that Pope was the author. It is one of the best of his under-ground works, and opens with some clever remarks on a subject which Pope well understood — the use of wit and satire : " The late Earl of Shaftesbury, in Ms Essay upon Enthusiasm, has a very whimsical thought concerning the methods made use of to oppose Christianity in its infancy, and thinks he could have corrected the polities of the Pagan priesthood, and defeated the purposes of the Gospel, by a more sure and certain engine than any made use of by the ancients. Whips and racks, fines and imprisonment, nay, even fire and martyrdom were, in his opinion, poor instruments for de- stroying that growing sect : wit ana satire, farce and* ridicule, play- house and puppet-show had done the business, and answered the end of the persecutors. Thus, instead of flaying St. Bartholomew alive, had they but tossed him in a blanket before a mob audience in a theatre, that saint, according to him, might have wanted a place in 19 Cibber's Letter to Mr. Pope, edit of 1777, p. 10. KEY TO THE S"OSTJTJBOR. 159 the Christian calendar. I take the liberty to observe, before I come to Mr. Cibber, that the Earl's project was nsed with mnch more wit and invention than any moderns, though never so arrogant in their pretensions, can presume to be masters of. There was a Lucian and a Julian in those days, wits of another stamp and superior parts to the Durfeys and Cibbers, the religious comic writers of our times. The reason why I take notice of this observation is, that our friend Colley seems to act upon the foregoing principle, and thinks burlesque and drollery proper weapons to encounter those formidable enemies the Nonjurors." Cibber's adaptation of Moliere's characters — not announced during the representation of the play — is pointed out : " Here is Moliere's true sterling dipt by the hands of the ingenious Cibber ; a few letters erased, but yet the original stamp so plain 'tis easy to see to whom the impression belongs." Another characteristic sentence is this : " I am here tempted to draw a parallel between the two incom- parable poets (Shakspeare and Cibber), but Shakspeare is dead, and can receive no benefit from it, and Mr. Cibber's living modesty will not allow me to shock him with his own praise. But I had forgot that he had borrowed all this play, and, therefore, recommend that task to himself, since, as Sir Samuel Tuke said, upon his translation of the Adventures of Eive Hours, a modest man may commend what is not Ins own." This observation of Sir Samuel's, Pope afterwards turned into an epigram against James Moore Smythe. After a good deal of criticism and badinage, the satirist gives a list of the persons meant by the characters in the play — names indicated by initials 19 — and concludes with a Postscript manifesting 19 As — " Sir John Woodvil is generally attributed to Mr. H — y, of C — be. The colonel is Mr. H., a certain Whig relation of his. Mr. Heartly, a certain writing knight [Blackmore]. Dr. Wolf, either Paul who was hanged, Wilton who lost his living, or Howell in Newgate. Charles is supposed to be a young nobleman, son to the Duke of A — 1. Lady Woodvil, Lady Betty C . Maria is said to be Miss H — w [Sophia Howe], on whom a late famous ballad was made by an eminent hand, called Flirtation. The good old Countess of Night and Day, the Lady B — 1," &c. &c. Cibber says, " the given name" of the author of this satire was Barnevelt; but his memory had misled him. " Joseph Gay " was the assumed name. Colley relates that he had not long before been a subscriber to Pope's Homer ; " and now," he adds, addressing Pope, " to make up our poetical accounts, as you 160 LIFE OF POPE. wounded and indignant feeling. " Mr. Cibber is desired in the next edition of his play to leave out the following sen- tence : " It is a hard thing to be forced to petition for that which might have been one's biethright." Pope at length emerged from these " sable streams" by publishing a collected edition of his poems, with the addition I of his two most exquisite and passionate productions — the Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, and the Epistle offfloisa. The volume is a very handsome one, em- bellished with a large portrait of the author, engraved by Vertue from a painting by Jervas, and which had previously been issued in a separate form ; 20 also with a number of vignettes and allegorical designs by G-ribelin. The publisher, Lintot, displays on the title-page his rubric style of red and black lines alluded to in the Dunciad. The effect of this publication in increasing the popularity of the poet, and es- tablishing his fame, was great. Thus collected, the public saw the numerous original contributions made to our litera- ture by a poet still under his thirtieth year ; while the two new poems, the Elegy and Epistle, for their combination of picturesqueness, melody, and pathos, transcend all he had previously written. This collection was the last of the poet's publications which his father was destined to see. The old man had reached the age of seventy-five ; but healthy, by temperance and exercise, " His life, though long, to sickness pass'd unknown, His death was instant, and without a groan." Epistle to Arbuthnot. He died at Chiswick, on the 23rd of October, 1717, and was buried there on the 26th. 21 " He had lived to experience," called it, you sent me a note with four guineas enclosed for four tickets for the author's day of such a play as the Nonjuror." 20 On Tuesday next will be published a print of Mr. Alexander Pope, done from the original painting of Mr. Jervas by Mr. Vertue. Printed for Bernard Lintot, between the Temple Gates, where his translation of Homer, and all his other pieces, may be had. — Daily Courant, Aug. 20, 1715. 21 On Wednesday, Oct. 23rd, died Mr. Pope at Chiswick, father of Mr. Pope, the famous poet. He passed twenty-nine years in privacy. — Weekly Journal. DEATH OF POPE'S EATHEK. 161 as Mr. Bowles has observed, "the greatest happiness an aged parent can receive, in witnessing the fame and prosperity of a son, whose natural infirmities had led him to forebode a far different fate. He died with the feelings so beautifully and pathetically described by Dr. Morell : " ' Tears, such as tender fathers shed, Warm from my aged eyes descend, For joy to think when I am dead My son shall have mankind his friend !' " 2a Pope addressed to Martha Blount a brief note, written on a small scrap of paper, announcing the event in words which seem to breathe the quintessence of grief and love. " My poor father died last night. Believe, since I don't forget you this moment, I never shall. A. Pope." 23 ■fafl* /fit/ft^,. FAC-SIMLE OF POPE'S HANDWRITING. This domestic calamity brought into prominence one of Pope's Mends and correspondents, Bishop Atterbury. They 22 Bowles's Pope, vol. i. p. lviii. 23 Mr. Bowles first published this interesting note (the original of which is now lost), and had a fac-simile of it engraved for his work, of which a copy is given above. 162 LIFE OP POPE. mixed in the same society. Atterbury had been in opposi- tion to the Government since the death of Queen Anne, and he had refused to sign a declaration agreed to by all the other pre- lates, condemning the rebellion of 1715, and exhorting the people to loyalty. He was thus a conspicuous member of the Opposition, and his talents, energy, and am- bition made him both feared and respected. He enjoyed consider- able reputation as a cri- tic and controversialist, which, joined to his clas- sical and poetical tastes, cemented the friendship between him and Pope. The latter had sub- mitted to him the ma- nuscript of his Preface to the collected edition of his poetical works ; and on the death of the elder Pope, the Bishop thus condoled with his friend : " When you have paid the debt of tenderness you owe to the memory of a father, I donbt not but yon will turn your thoughts to- wards improving that accident to your own ease and happiness. You have it now in your power to pursue that method of thinking and living which you like best. Give me leave, if I am not a little too early in my applications of this kind, to congratulate you upon it ; and to assure you, that there is no man living who wishes you better, or would be more pleased to contribute anywise to your satisfaction or service." ATTERBURY. Pope understood the Bishop's delicate allusion to his re- ligious opinions, and replied in a calm and well-considered letter : "Nov. 20, 1717. " My Lord,— I am truly obliged by your kind condolence on my LETTER TO BISHOP ATTERBUEY. 163 father's death, and the desire you express that I should improve this incident to my advantage. I know your Lordship's friendship to me is so extensive, that you include in that wish both my spiritual and my temporal advantage ; and it is what I owe to that friendship, to open my mind unreservedly to you on this head. It is true, I have lost a parent for whom no gains I could make would be any equivalent. But that was not my only tie : I thank God, another still remains (and long may it remain) of the same tender nature : Genitrix est mild — and excuse me if I say with Euryalus, nequeam lacrymas perferre parentis. [My soul so sad a farewell could not bear. — Dryden.~] A rigid divine may call it a carnal tie, but sure it is a virtuous one : at least I am more certain that it is a duty of nature to preserve a good parent's life and happiness, than I am of any speculative point whatever. Ignaram hujus quodcunque pericli Hanc ego, nunc, linquam ? [Ignorant of this, Whatever danger, neither parting kiss, Nor pious blessing taken, her I leave. — Dryden.~] Eor she, my Lord, would think this separation more grievous than any other ; and I, for my part, know as little as poor Euryalus did of the success of such an adventure (for an adventure it is, and no small one, in spite of the most positive divinity). Whether the change would be to my spiritual advantage, God only knows. This I know, that I mean as well in the religion I now profess, as I can possibly ever do in another. Can a man who thinks so justify a change, even if he thought both equally good ? To such an one, the part of joining with any one body of Christians might perhaps be easy : but I think it would not be so to renounce the other. "Your Lordship has formerly advised me to read the best con- troversies between the churches. Shall I tell you a secret ? I did so at fourteen years old (for I loved reading, and my father had no other books) : there was a collection of all that had been written on both sides in the reign of King James II. I warmed my head with them ; and the consequence was, that I found myself a rapist and a Pro- testant by turns, according to the last book I read. I am afraid most seekers are in the same case ; and when they stop, they are not so properly converted, as outwitted. You see how little glory you would gain by my conversion. And after all, I verily believe your Lordship and I arc both of the same religion, if we were thoroughly understood by one another, and that all honest and reasonable Christians would be so, if they did but talk enough together every day; and had M 2 164 LIFE OF POPE. nothing to do together, but to serve God, and live in peace with their neighbour. "As to the temporal side of the question, I can have no dispute with you. It is certain, all the beneficial circumstances of life, and all the shining ones, lie on the part you would invite me to. But if I could bring myself to fancy, what I think you do but fancy, that I have any talents for active life, I want health for it ; and besides it is a real truth, I have less inclination (if possible) than ability. Contemplative life is not only my scene, but it is my habit too. I began my life where most people end theirs, with" a disrelish of all that the world calls ambition. I do not know why it is called so ; for to me it always seemed to be rather stooping than climbing. I will tell you my politic and religious sentiments in a few words. In my politics, I think no further than how to prefer the peace of my life, in any government under which I live ; nor in my religion, than to preserve the peace of my conscience in any church with which I communicate. I hope ali churches and all governments are so far of God, as they are rightly understood, and rightly administered : and where they err, or may be wrong, I leave it to God alone to mend or reform them ; which, whenever he does, it must be by greater instruments than I am. I am not a Papist, for I renounce the temporal invasions of the Papal power, and detest their arrogated authority over Princes and States. I am a Catholic in the strictest sense of the word. If I was born under an absolute Prince, I would be a quiet subject ; but I thank God I was not. I have a due sense of the excellence of the British constitution. In a word, the things I have always wished to see are, not a Roman Catholic, or a French Catholic, or a Spanish Catholic, but a true Catholic ; and not a King of Whigs, or a King of Tories, but a King of England. Which God of his mercy grant his present Majesty may be, and all future Majesties ! You see, my Lord, I end like a preacher. This is sermo ad clertim, not ad populum. Believe me, with infinite obligation and sincere thanks, ever your," &c. 24 This is somewhat too lax in principle to have satisfied a zealous churchman like Atterbury ; but its decided tone pre- vented any formal renewal of the subject ; and the political liberality evinced by Pope, with his loyal wishes for the reigning sovereign, must have been felt as a check or tacit reproof by the plotting bishop, who was then in actual corre- spondence with the exiled family. To his friend Edward Blount Pope wrote : 24 Letters of Mr. Alexander Pope, 1737. LETTERS ON THE DEATH OE HIS EATHER. 165 " Nov. 27, 1717. " The question yon proposed to me is what at present I am the most unfit man in the world to answer by my loss of one of the best of fathers. " He had lived in such a course of temperance as was enough to make the longest life agreeable to him, and in such a course of piety as sufficed to make the most sudden death so also. Sudden, indeed, it was ; however, I heartily beg of God to give me such a one, pro- vided I can lead such a life. I leave him to the mercy of God, and to the piety of a religion tkat extends beyond the grave : Si' qua est ea cum, &c. " He has left me to the ticklish management of so narrow a fortune, that any one false step would be fatal. My mother is in that dispirited state of resignation, which is the effect of long life, and the loss of what is dear to us. We are really each of us in want of a friend of such an humane turn as yourself, to make almost anything desirable to us. I feel your absence more than ever, at the same time I can less express my regards to you than ever ; and shall make this, which is the most sincere letter I ever writ to you, the shortest and faintest, perhaps, of any you have received. 'Tis enough if you reflect, that barely to remember any person when one's mind is taken up with a sensible sorrow is a great degree of friendship. I can say no more but that I love you, and all that are yours ; and that I wish it may be very long before any of yours shall feel for you what I now feel for my father. Adieu !" 25 It is to this period that we may perhaps refer the follow- ing fragment of a letter addressed to Mr. John Caryll, junior, at Ladyholt, in Sussex, a copy of which we obtained from the late Mr. Rogers : w What new scenes of life I may enter into are uncertain ; but wherever I may be, or however engaged, I hope Mr. Caryll and your- self will ever be so just as to believe my whole heart at your service. That must still be left at my own disposal, and while it is so must be entirely yours. Be pleased, dear sir, to continue the favour you have always shown to me, and use your interest with your good father, that he may do the same ; the best testimony of which will be the satisfaction you will both sometimes give me of hearing from you, that you have not forgot that there is such an one in the world as, sir, your most faithful and affectionate, humble servant, "A. Pope." 25 Letters of Mr. Alexander Pope, 1737. 166 LIFE OF POPE. The Carylls were home friends, associated with all Pope's domestic feelings and affections. Of the narrow fortune left the poet by bis father there are no certain accounts. Martha Blount said it was about three or four thousand pounds. But he had been secured in an annuity, and had investments on life-rents and lands. Immediately after his father's death he is found ready to advance one, two, or three thousand pounds for another life annuity. 26 The poet's ideas had expanded with his circumstances. "What would have seemed opulence in the early days of Binfield, when he sighed for money to purchase books, appeared a narrow fortune when the Homer subscription and the patrimonial stores had enriched his cof- fers. But the inheritance, had it been ten times more in amount, was well earned, and would have been well spent. Taste and hospitality, and years of still further filial duty, were to characterise the poet's limited household. The death of his father, however, suggested another change of residence ; and after about two busy years spent at Chis- wick, Pope removed further np the Thames to Twickenham, to that celebrated spot where he was to spend the remainder of his life, and to embellish which was his favourite occu- pation and supreme delight. He took a long lease of a house and five acres of land at Twickenham, and immediately set about the work of improvement. After a twelvemonth's residence he wrote to his friend Jervas, then in Ireland : " The history of my transplantation and settlement would require a volume, were I to enumerate the many projects, difficulties, vicissi- tudes, and various fates attending that important part of my life ; much more should I describe the many draughts, elevations, profiles, perspectives, &c, of every palace and garden proposed, intended, and happily raised by the strength of that faculty wherein all great geniuses excel— imagination. At last the gods and fate have fixed me on the borders of the Thames, in the districts of Richmond and Twickenham. It is here I have passed an entire year of my life, without any fixed abode in London, or more than casting a transitory glance — for a dirt or two at most in a month — on the pomps of the town. It is here I hope to receive you, sir, returned from eternising the Ireland of this age. For you my structures rise ; for you my colonnades extend their wings ; for you my groves aspire and roses bloom." 26 Athenaeum, July 8, 1854. KEMOVAL TO TWICKENHAM. 167 This letter is dated December 12, 1718, but the date must be erroneous. Mention is made in the letter of the death of Garth, and Pope assumes that Jervas must have heard many tales on the subject ; but Garth did not die until a month after this time, January 18, 1718-9. Twickenham, or " Twitenham," as he preferred to write it, was, in its general character and situation, precisely such a spot as Pope loved and desired. It was suburban and quiet, easy of access, and near to London, from which he never could be long absent. It was in a richly cultivated neighbourhood, presenting the finest parks and the greenest verdure, with shady walks on all sides, and his favourite river flowing past his house and garden, a " broad mirror," that imaged his sloping lawn, or green plat, with its one willow-tree planted by his own hand, his flowers and grotto. POPE S VILLA. The house was but an ordinary habitation, and received little embellishment, though the poet delighted to spread architectural designs over backs of letters and stray scraps of rejected poetry and paper. 27 He eschewed the temptation The old prints represent the villa as having several mean, low houses 168 LIFE OE POPE. into which a greater genius fell, of building a romance in stone and lime. "A new building," he said, "is like a new church ; when once it is set up you must maintain it in all the forms, and with all the inconveniences ; then cease the pleasant luminous days of inspiration, and there is an end of miracles at once !" The limited extent of his grounds, and their level uniformity, equally protected him from Shenstone's error of wasting his fortune on hill and dale, lawn and thicket. He had no blue hills, or gleaming lakes, or tum- bling waterfalls. His little domain was easily cultivated, yet it became, under his hands, like Shenstone's Leasowes, " the envy of the great, and the admiration of the skilful." The Twickenham mansion is described as consisting of a small " body," with a small hall, paved with stone, and two small parlours on each side ; the upper story being disposed on the same plan. The wings at the sides, which figure in most of the engravings, and which contained handsome rooms, with bay-windows, were added after Pope's death, by his successor in the villa, Sir William Stanhope, brother of the Earl of Chesterfield. 28 It was in planting and laying out his grounds, in its neighbourhood, close to the river ; and an epigram on the poet's com- mentator, Warburton, says : " Close to the grotto of the Twickenham bard — Too close — adjoins a tanner's yard. So verse and prose are to each other tied, So Warburton and Pope allied." 38 Sir William likewise added four acres to the pleasure-grounds. Nine acres were then, according to Mr. Bowles (1806), kept " levelled with the scythe," and having " eternal serpentine walks, interspersed with, here and there, an urn and some fine cedars." From Sir William Stanhope the villa descended to his son-in-law, Wellebore Ellis, Lord Mendip, who died in 1802. It was entailed by Sir William Stanhope on whoever should be Earl of Chesterfield. The earl who obtained it had little poetry or wanted money, and he sold it by auction. In 1807 it came by purchase into the possession of the Baroness Howe — a lady who married Mr. Phipps, the oculist, after- wards Sir Wathen Waller — and the Pope mansion was razed to the ground, Lady Howe constructing another house about a hundred yards from the site of Pope's residence. This Vandalism gave rise to some bitter epigrams which might have soothed the insulted shade of Pope. Mr. Rogers, the poet, we believe, had an intention of purchasing the villa, but was deterred by a report that, from its classic associations, it was sure to fetch a very large sum. In reality, the' villa did not produce one-half of what was ex- pected. Who but must regret that the poetical mansion, which, in the IMPKOVEMENT OE THE HOUSE AND GROUNDS. 169 and ill the construction and decoration of his grotto and mi- niature embellishments, that the poet exercised his ingenuity, and carried out his principles of landscape gardening. This had long been a favourite study with him. In 1713 he wrote an essay on the subject for the Guardian, in which he hap- pily ridiculed the modern practice of substituting fantastical operations of art for the simplicity and variety of nature. " A citizen," he said, " is no sooner proprietor of a couple of yews, but he entertains the thought of erecting them into giants, hands of Mr. Rogers, would have continued a temple of the Muses, and thrown open its door to every pilgrim of taste and refinement, was doomed to early and complete destruction? One instance of veneration for the poet's memory in connexion with this villa is mentioned by Mr. Bowles. Sir William Stanhope sent cuttings of his willow (which fell to the ground about 1801) into various parts of Europe, and in particular to the Empress of Russia, in 1789. The Twickenham willow was said to be the original of all the weeping willows in our gardens, having been brought from the Eu- phrates by Mr. Vernon, a Turkey merchant. In the Hortus Kewensis, however, the weeping willow is stated to have been cultivated at Hampton Court in 1692. (See Loudon's Arboretum.) Pope's grotto still exists, though divested of the glittering spars and mirrors with which he had decorated it. The spring for which the poet desired a guardian nymph in sculpture had for years disappeared, when about 1842 it was discovered ^ and made to flow into a stone cistern. Two lofty cedars raise their proud I tops in the Northern garden, doubtless remains of his wilderness. (Gent. */ Mag. 1842.) Mr. William Howitt also mentions the existence of many of those trees which Pope planted for posterity — Spanish chesnuts, elms, and cedars, which still ornament the grounds, though the walks and shrubberies have been broken up. Indeed, the alterations made by Sir William Stan- hope, before the work of ruthless spoliation commenced, destroyed in a great measure the interest and character of Pope's villa. So early as 1760 we find Horace Walpole lamenting what he calls "the private woe" in his neigh- bourhood. " Sir William Stanhope," he says, " bought Pope's house and garden. The former was so small and bad, one could not avoid pardoning his hollowing out that fragment of the rock Parnassus into habitable cham- bers — but would you believe it, he has cut down the sacred groves them- selves ! In short, it was a little bit of ground of five acres, enclosed with three lanes ; and seeing nothing. Pope had twisted and twirled, and rhymed and harmonised this, till it appeared two or three sweet little lawns opening and opening beyond one another, and the whole surrounded with thick, impenetrable woods. Sir William, by advice of his son-in-law, Mr. Ellis, has hacked and hewed these groves, wriggled a winding gravel walk through them with an edging of shrubs, in what they call the modern taste, and, in short, has desired the three lanes to walk in again — and now is forced to shut them out again by a wall, for there was not a Muse could walk there but she was spied by every country fellow that went by with a pipe in his mouth." — Walpole to Sir Horace Mann, June 20, 1760. 170 LIFE OF POPE. like those of Guildhall. I know an eminent cook who beau- tified his country-seat with a coronation dinner in greens, where you see the champion flourishing on horseback at one end of the table, and the queen in perpetual youth at the other." In the manner of Addison, he gave a humorous catalogue of these monstrosities — such as Adam and Eve in yew, Noah's Ark in holly, St. George in box, the Black Prince in cypress, &c. Even where such ridiculous violations of taste and propriety were not attempted, the stiff and formal style of the French, Dutch, and Italian gardeners was gene- rally adopted ; and Pope was among the first to perceive and point out its defects. The rules of ornamental gardening he has expressed in one of his terse couplets : " He gains all ends, who pleasingly confounds, Surprises, varies, and conceals the bounds." Clumps of trees he compared to groups in pictures. Dis- tance was given by darkening them, and by narrowing the plantation towards the end, as is done in painting ; and this study of picturesqueness gradually gained ground. Bridg- man had commenced his improvements in Stowe Gardens, and Kent succeeded Bridgman, with his effects of perspective, light, and shade. " Groups of trees broke too uniform or too extensive a lawn ; evergreens and woods were opposed to the glare of the champaign ; and, where the view was less fortu- nate, or so much exposed as to be beheld at once, he blotted out some parts by thick shades, to divide it into variety, or to make the richest scene more enchanting by reserving it for a further advance of the spectator." This description, by Walpole, of the principles on which Kent worked — though he often failed in realising them — harmonised exactly with the views of Pope, The scene of the poet's operations was indeed small, not much larger than his favourite model, the garden of Alcinous, which comprised four acres ; but Pope and Kent were at least a match for Homer in ornamental gardening, and the Twickenham, five acres ultimately boasted, amidst their winding walks and recesses, a shell temple, a large mount (the work of Kent), a vineyard, two small mounts, a bowling-green, a wilderness, a grove, an orangery, a garden- house, and kitchen-garden. Amidst these the poet loved to plant and replant, pull down and build up, assisted some- THE GROTTO. 171 times by his distinguished visitors, including the gallant Peterborough. " And he whose lightning pierced th' Iberian lines, Now forms my quincunx and now ranks my vines ; Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain, Almost as quickly as he conquer'd Spain." Imit. of Hor. Sat. i. The grotto was in some measure a work of necessity. His grounds were divided by the public highway leading from Hampton Court to London ; and to obviate the necessity and unpleasantness of crossing the road to reach the larger por- tion of his ornamental grounds, the poet constructed what honest John Searle, his gardener, in his plan, calls " The Under-ground Passage," but which his poetical master dig- nified with the name of " The Grotto." The best description of this highly-prized work of art (on which Martha Blount says he expended above 1000Z. ; while Searle, as reported by Curll, says the poet spent on his gardens and other improve- ments about 5000?.) is contained in one of Pope's letters to Edward Blount. The daughters of his friend had been visiting in Twickenham, and were often in the poet's garden, teach- ing him how he could best run up and down his mount and thread his walks : " Twick'nam, June 2, 1725. "Let the young ladies be assured I make nothing new in my gardens without wishing to see the print of their fairy steps in every Eart of them. I have put the last hand to my works of this kind, in appily finishing the subterraneous way and grotto. I there found a spring of the clearest water, which falls in a perpetual rill, that echoes thro' the cavern day and night. Prom the river Thames, you see thro' my arch up a walk of the wilderness, to a kind of open temple, wholly compos'd of shells in the rustic manner ; and from that distance under the temple you look down thro' a sloping arcade of trees, and see the sails on the river passing suddenly and vanishing, as thro' a perspective glass. When you shut the doors of this grotto, it becomes on the instant, from a luminous room, a camera obscura ; on the walls of which all objects of the river, hills, woods, and boats, are forming a moving picture in their visible radiations ; and when you have a mind to light it up, it affords you a very different scene. It is finished w r ith shells interspersed with pieces of looking-glass in angular forms ; and in the ceiling is a star of the same material, at which, w r hen a lamp (of an orbicular figure of thin alabaster) is hung 172 EIEE OF POPE. in the middle, a thousand pointed rays glitter, and are reflected over the place. " There are connected to this grotto, by a narrower passage, two porches : one towards the river, of smooth stones Ml of light, and open ; the other toward the garden, shadowed with trees, rough with shells, flints, and iron ore. The bottom is paved with simple pebble, as is also the adjoining walk up the wilderness to the temple, in the natural taste, agreeing not ill with the little dripping murmur, and the aquatic idea of the whole place. It wants nothing to complete it but a good statue, with an inscription, like that beautiful antique one which you know 'I am so fond of. 11 Hujus Nympha loci, sacri custodia fontis, Dormio, dum blandse sentio murmur aquae. Parce meum, quisquis tangis cava marmora, somnum Eumpere ; sive bibas, sive lavere, tace. " Nymph of the grot, these sacred springs I keep, And to the murmur of these waters sleep ; Ah, spare my slumbers, gently tread the cave ! And drink in silence, or in silence lave ! " You'll think I have been very poetical in this description, but it is pretty near the truth. I wish you were here to bear testimony how little it owes to art, either the place itself, or the image I give of it." 29 There appears an excess of decoration here — shells, spars, pieces of looking-glass, star ceiling, camera obscura, &c. — which must have made the grotto appear out of keeping with the chaster style of the garden and ornamental grounds. The general effect, however, may have been pleasing, and some degree of embellishment was necessary to relieve the gloom and blankness of a subterranean passage. The kind- ness of friends may also have added more than the poet desired, but could not well reject. One of his most liberal contributors was the Dowager Duchess of Cleveland, of Baby Castle, who sent clumps of amethyst and pieces of spar. Dr. Borlase, the Cornish antiquary, contributed largely of his native diamonds, ores, and various-coloured mundic; Lyttelton procured red spar from lead mines; Spence gave pieces of lava brought from Mount Vesuvius, and a fragment of marble from the grotto of Egeria ; Gilbert 29 Letters of Mr. Alexander Pope, 1737. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE GROTTO. 173 "West sent petrifactions ; and from various other parties were collected fossils from the petrifying spring at Knaresborough, verd antique from Egypt, marble from Plymouth, Kerry stones and Bristol stones, gold ore from the Peruvian mines, silver ore from Old Spain, Brazil pebbles, coral and petrified moss from the West Indies, humming-birds and their nests, crystals from the Hartz mines, &c. Among the latest con- tributions were incrustations from Mr. Allen, Bath, and a mass of curious stones to form an imitation of a ruin at the entrance to the grotto, and some stones from the Giant's Causeway (as yet Staffa and its basaltic columns were unex- plored by the scientific), which were presented by Sir Hans Sloane. At the entrance to the grotto was inscribed on a stone the line from Horace : Secretum iter et fallentis semita vitae. [Or down through life unknown to stray, Where lonely leads the silent way. — Francis."] To the close of his life the poet continued to make addi- tions to the grotto and grounds ; and the following hitherto unpublished correspondence with Dr. Oliver, Bath, is in the possession of the publisher, Mr. Henry Gr. Bohn : " Oct. 8th, 1740. " Sir, — I am ashamed not to have written to you so long, ashamed not to have written to your friends, Mr. Borlase and Mr. Cooper, more than once, to each, when their favours to me have been repeated in the most valuable and most durable presents of gems and marble. But I have been studying by what means to give them some tokens of my reconnissance ; and you, Sir, in helping me to do this, will oblige me yet more, than in your assistance to procure the materials themselves of all my present pride and my pleasure. The work is executed in a manner that I think would please them ; and I only wish I may ever have an opportunity of asking their approbation upon a sight of it. Something I would send them, if you could tell me what ; something that might please them but the twentieth part as much as they have pleased me. In the mean time, pray write and tell them that I am placing two marble inscriptions, one over the grotto, which is spar and mineral, and one over the porch, which is marble, giving their names to each of those parts to which they have respectively been contributors. And I design you a Bath (which is the honour of 174 LIFE OF POPE. a physician) to go by yours with a perennial Spring, by Mr. Allen's. I have entirely finished all except the outward facade, which my Lord Burlington opiniates should be of the same materials— Plymouth marbles and spars. But here my stores fail : I have not a stone, nor a diamond or mineral left. I expect a few from Wales, but not this autumn, and perhaps by next year I may be under the earth, but not in my grotto ; and I protest I am so fond of it, that I should be more sorry to leave it unfinished, than any other work I at present can think of. " I hope, in a month's time, or not much longer, to have the plea- sure of seeing you at Bath, and of renewing my obligations to you. Believe me, sir, "Your most affectionate, humble servant, " A. Pope." Addressed " To Dr. Oliver, at his house, Bath." On the blank page inside of Pope's letter is the following reply by Dr. Oliver — obviously a first draft, which accounts for its not being signed : " Bath, Oct. 15th, 1740. " Sir, — I heartily congratulate you on your having brought your work so near to perfection, in which you seem to take so much delight ; but you must pardon me if I can't believe that any adamant will be as lasting as your productions upon paper. You do us too much honour by giving our names a place in your grotto, though we all have such strong longings after immortality that we cannot but be proud of what we are conscious we do not deserve. I think I have heard Mr. Allen hint that you designed to favour the public with a description of your mine ; you can't but believe me impatient to see it, and though I don't doubt but that every diamond has acquired new lustre from its artful disposition, yet it will shine much brighter in your lines than it can do in your grotto. I must beg of you to let me know particularly what quantity of marble spar or diamonds you want for the finishing the facade, and I will immediately desire my friends to supply you with all expedition. They will gladly contribute all in their power to oblige him by whom they will think themselves and me so much obliged. But if you are disposed still to add to the favours already imposed, and will make me the judge of what will please them, I must be influenced by the pleasure I myself felt upon receiving your works, of which I know their opinion to be. Sir, you make this month tedious by promising to see me in the next. I hope to meet you in a state of health likely to last you many years above ground ; but whenever the world is robbed of you, where can you be better deposited than in your own grotto ? for I know you have no ambition to be laid near kings, and lie where you will, your own works must be your everlasting monument." Mr. Bohn also possesses a fragment of a letter by Pope respecting the grotto, accompanied by the following pen-and- ink sketch by the poet : pope's sketch of his grotto. 175 ffliA, tywuAAsrv \k ^5W£- ''trvrc^AL^ TflA. J Aq/m \4 176 LIFE OF POPE. " In the mean time, I'll take your advice, and go on with my plaything, the grotto. But I am at a full stop. The gold- cliff rock Mr. Omer has taken so much pains about, although he writ me word three weeks ago it was promised, has never arrived, and I've inquired at both carriers very often in vain. Which way it was sent, from Wales, or Bristol, or Bath, I know not, and desire to have timely notice when anything comes. I need no more of your stone, and I rejoice extremely that Mrs. Allen has begun to imitate the great works of nature, rather than those baubles most ladies affect. I hope you have not impoverished your rock to beautify mine. I lon<* for Dr. Oliver's supply. He and his friend, Mr. Borlase, ought to have their statues erected in my cave, but I would much rather see their persons there ; and I should be prouder of their approbation, if they think I have imitated nature well, than they would be of statues, though art had counterfeited them ever so well. I would go to Corn- wall on purpose to thank them, if I were able." On the whole, the Twickenham grotto and garden formed a Great Exhibition for the poet and his friends, and every ornament was a memento of kindness and regard. It would have been hard to refuse such contributions, even when their introduction militated against exact propriety of taste or preconceived plans. Pope had afterwards an opportunity of carrying out some of his ideas on picturesque gardening on a large scale at Lord Bathurst's seat, near Cirencester; the "great wood," or " enchanted forest" of which was one of his favourite haunts. The Prince of "Wales's garden, at Kew, was also partly de- signed by him ; and in one of his letters to Bathurst, he gives an amusing account of a consultation held on the subject : " Several critics," he says, " were of several opinions. One de- clared he would not have too much art in it ; ' for my notion, 5 said he, ' of gardening is, that it is only sweeping nature.' Another told them that gravel-walks were not of a good, taste, for all the finest abroad were of a loose sand. A third advised peremptorily there should not be one lime-tree in the whole plantation. A fourth made the same exclusive clause, extended to horse-chesnuts, which lie affirmed not to be trees but weeds. Dutch elms were condemned by a fifth ; and thus about half the trees were prescribed contrary to the Paradise LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 177 of God's own planting, which is expressly said to be planted with all trees. There were some who could not bear evergreens, and called them never-greens ; some who were angry at them only when cut into shapes, and gave the modern gardeners the name of evergreen tailors ; some who had no dislike to cones and cubes, but would have them cut in forest-trees ; and some who were in a passion against anything in shape, even against dipt edges, which they called green walls. These (my lord) are our men of taste, who pretend to prove it by tasting little or nothing. Sure such a taste is like such a stomach — not a good one, but a weak one. "We have the same sort of critics in poetry ; one is fond of nothing but heroics, another cannot relish tra- gedies, another hates pastorals, all little wits delight in epigrams. Will you give me leave to add, there are the same in divinity ; where many ieading critics are for rooting up more than they plant, and would leave the Lord's vineyard either very thinly furnished, or very oddly trimmed." The most poetical of all Pope's editors, Mr. Bowles, was also, in taste and feeling, a landscape gardener; and he characterises these observations as very just, allowing for Pope's colouring. " The objection to limes and horse- chesnuts," he says, " is the very short duration of their beauty ; they are the first trees that fade, and none are more mournful in their discolouration and decay of leaves." The same remark applies to the ash. In some seasons, when the autumn frosts are late, and the leaves are allowed to fade, there is scarcely any colouring in nature to be compared with the delicacy, the tenderness, the pathos, one might almost say, and the inimitable blending of the shades of green and yel- low, that are seen for a few days in the fading ash. But this effect is, perhaps, more peculiarly confined to the moun- tain landscape, and is not seen in the rich groves of Twicken- ham and the Thames. B 178 LIFE OF POPE. CHAPTEE Y. [1719—1722.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU. COMPLETION OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE ILIAD, AND GAY'S CONGRATULATORY POEM. BANISHMENT OF ATTERBURY. Foe some years the translation of the Iliad formed the chief occupation of Pope. A volume appeared annually from 1715 to 1718. But during this time he visited and corre- sponded largely, and was busy with his garden and grotto. One of the poet's neighbours at Twickenham was Lady Mary "Wortley Montagu. They had, as we have seen, met some years before, and Pope's acquaintance with this accom- plished and fascinating woman soon assumed the form and pressure of a real, though transient, passion. It was con- sistent with the extravagant exotic gallantry of that period that married ladies submitted to be addressed by the wits and men of fashion in the language of love and admiration. Pope, though little blessed with the figure, had the set phrase of a worshipper of this kind, and Lady Mary was his darling theme and object. She was two years younger than her poetical admirer. She had, according to one account, received a classical education with her brother, and been taught Latin and Greek by his tutor ; but she told Spence that she had picked up a knowledge of Latin herself, assisted, probably, by hints of instruction from Bishop Burnet, who superintended her studies, and under whose eye she had LADY MABY WOBTLEY MONTAGU. 179 translated a Latin version of Epictetus. The ponderous romances of Clelia, Cassandra, Astrea, &c, were more eagerly devoured, and her youthful beauty accustomed her to admi- ration. "When ouly eight years old her father had sent for her to the Kit-cat Club ; she was nominated as a toast, her health drunk, and her name engraved in due form on a drinking glass ; and she was passed " from the lap of one poet, or patriot, or statesman, to the arms of another, was feasted with sweetmeats, overwhelmed with caresses, and, what perhaps already pleased her better than either, heard her wit and beauty extolled on every side." 1 Lady Mary wrote verses; her Town Eclogues possess considerable smartness, and some of her smaller pieces make a nearer ap- preach to poetry. For town ballads and vers de societe she was unrivalled ; and as she knew all the scandal passing in high life, she was never at a loss for a subject. To this facility with the pen she added a more dangerous fluency of speech. She was lively, witty, and pointed in conversation — too clever and sarcastic to be always prudent — too fond of admiration to be always guarded — yet so superior in intel- lectual and personal attractions to all around her, that her first appearance at Court is marked as one of the wonders of the day. She had come to St. James's on the accession of George I., her husband, Edward Wortley, the friend of Addison and Steele, having obtained, through the influence of his cousin, Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax, an appoint- ment as one of the Commissioners of the Treasury. In June, 1716, Mr. "Wortley resigned this office, in order to proceed as ambassador to the Porte. Lady Mary was to ac- company him, and by accident Pope was the last person she happened to see before quitting England. To this inter- view he alludes in his first letter to her, written in August, 1716: "In what manner did I behave the last hour I saw you? What degree of concern did I discover when I felt a misfortune, which I hope you will never feel, that of parting from what one most esteems ? Tor if my parting looked but like that of your common acquaintance, I am the greatest of all the hypocrites that ever decency made. I 1 Introductory Anecdotes (by Lady Louisa Stuart) to Lord Wharncliffe's edition of Letters and Works of Lady M. W. Montagu. n2 180 LIFE OF POPE. never since pass by the house but with the same sort of melancholy that we feel upon seeing the tomb of a friend, which only serves to put us in mind of what we have lost. I reflect upon the circum- stances of your departure, your behaviour in what I may call your last moments ; and I indulge a gloomy kind of satisfaction m thinking you gave some of those last moments to me. I would fain imagine this was not accidental, but proceeded from a penetration which I know you have in finding out the truth of people's sentiments, and that you were not unwilling the last man that would have parted with you should be the last that did." Lady Mary met this half-disguised declaration in a sen- sible, prosaic spirit : " Perhaps you'll laugh at me," she replies, " for thanking you very gravely for all the obliging concern you express for me. 'Tis certain that I may, if I please, take the fine things you say to me for wit and raillery ; and, it may be, it would be taking them right. But I never in my life was half so well disposed to believe you in earnest as I am at present ; and that distance, which makes the continuation of your friendship improbable, has very much increased my faith in it." And the lady then goes on to describe some performances she had witnessed at the Opera, at Vienna. Pope continued the correspondence with increasing warmth, considering Lady Mary as " a glorious, though remote being," to whom he must send addresses and prayers. Those addresses are all conceived in a spirit of romantic gallantry, but abound in pruriencies both of thought and expression. In 1717, when the collected edition of his works was published, and the third volume of the Iliad was issued, he sent them to Lady Mary to Constantinople. " There are few things in them," he observes, "but what you have already seen, except the Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard, in which you will find one passage that I cannot tell whether to wish you should understand or not" The passage alluded to was, no doubt, the concluding lines : " And sure if Fate some future bard should join In sad similitude of grief to mine, Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore, And image charms he must behold no more ; Such if there be who loves so long, so well, Let him our sad, our tender story tell ; The well-sung woes will soothe my pensive ghost ; He best can paint them who shall feel them most." LETTERS TO LADY MART. 181 He had pointed out the same lines to Martha Blount before the publication of the volume : " The Epistle of Eloise," he said, " grows warm, and begins to have some breathings of the heart in it, which may make posterity think I was in love. I can scarce find in my heart to leave out the conclu- sion I once intended for it." Perhaps the conclusion was then different from the form in which it now appears. In its present shape it could not apply to Martha Blount, whose absence for years the poet was never condemned to deplore, though some of his friends would have considered such an event no very unwelcome privation. Lady Mary received the poetical honour as she received the prose com- pliments, with vague and general acknowledgments, and with a recital of the objects that engaged her diligent cu- riosity abroad. Her letters are natural and unaffected, and it must be admitted contrast favourably with those of the poet. At length Mr. "Wortley was recalled from his foreign embassy, and commenced his journey from Constantinople in June, 1718. Pope was transported with the prospect of Lady Mary's return, and seems even to have contemplated a journey to Italy to meet her. His dread of the sea was for- gotten ; and Teresa and Martha Blount were also forgotten. To Lady Mary he writes : " I have been mad enough to make all the inquiry I could at what time you set out, and what route you were to take. If Italy run yet in your thoughts, I hope you'll see it in your return. If I but knew you intended it, I'd meet you there, and travel back with you. I would fain behold the best and brightest thing I know in the scene of ancient virtue and glory ; I would fain see how you look on the very spot where Curtius sacrificed himself for his country; and observe what difference there would be in your eyes when you ogled the statue of Julius Csesar and Marcus Aurelius. Allow me but to sneak after you in your train, to fill my pockets with coins, or to lug an old busto behind you, and I shall be proud beyond expression. Let people think if they will, that I did all this for the pleasure of tread- ing on classic ground ; I would whisper other reasons in your ear. The joy of following your footsteps would as soon carry me to Mecca as to Rome ; and let me tell you as a friend, if you are really dis- posed to embrace the Mahometan religion, I'll fly on pilgrimage with you thither." A few months afterwards he wrote again, expressing a 182 LIFE OP POPE. wish to meet Lady Mary in Italy, but she did riot receive the communication till she had reached Dover, November 1, 1718, on her return to England. Pope was then at Stanton Harcourt, working diligently at his translation of Homer; but of course he addressed a letter of congratulation to Lady Mary, welcoming her to her native shores. Her near ap- proach seems to have somewhat sobered the enthusiastic poet. His letter on this occasion is much less ardent than the preceding epistles, and is chiefly filled with a descrip- tion of the old gothic house in which he resided. Another copy of this letter, with a different introduction, and some alterations, was printed by Pope as addressed to Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. He had written it with great care, and studied picturesque effect, and the piece altogether is a fine specimen of local painting. The old steward is an excel- lent portrait. " Dear Madam, — It is not possible to express the least part of the joy your return gives me ; time only and experience will convince you how very sincere it is. I excessively long to meet you, to say so much, so very much to you — that I believe I shall say nothing. I have given orders to be sent for the first minute of your arrival, which I beg you will let them know at Mr. Jervas's. I am fourscore miles from London, a short journey compared to that I so often thought at least of undertaking, rather than die without seeing you again. Though the place I am in is such as I would not quit for the town, if I did not value you more than any, nay, everybody else there ; and you will be convinced how little the* town has engaged my affec- tions in your absence from it, when you know what a place this is which I prefer to it. I shall, therefore, describe it to you at large as the picture of a genuine ancient country seat. " You must expect nothing regular in my description of a house that seems to be built before rules were in fashion. The whole is so disjointed, and the parts so detached from each other, and yet so joining again, one camiot tell how, that in a poetical fit you would imagine it had been a village in Amphion's time, when twenty cottages had taken a dance together, were all out, and stood still in amazement ever since. A stranger would be grievously disappointed who should ever think to get into this house the right way. One would expect, after entering through the porch, to be let into the hall ; — alas ! nothing less ; — you find yourself in a brewhouse. From the parlour you think to step into the drawing-room; but upon opening the iron-nailed door, you are convinced by a flight of birds about your ears, and a cloud of dust in your eyes, that it is the / DESCRIPTION OE AN OLD GOTHIC MANSION. 183 pigeon-house. On each side our porch are two chimneys, that wear their greens on the outside, which would do as well within, for when- ever we make a fire, we let the smoke out of the windows. Over the parlour window hangs a sloping balcony, which time has turned to a very convenient penthouse. The top is crowned with a very vene- rable tower, so like that of the church just by, that the jackdaws build in it as if it were the true steeple. "The great hall is high and spacious, flanked with long tables, images of ancient hospitality ; ornamented with monstrous horns, about twenty broken pikes, and a matchlock musket or two, which they say were used in the Civil Wars. Here is one vast arched window, beautifully darkened with divers scutcheons of painted glass. There seems to be great propriety in this old manner of blazoning upon glass, ancient families being like ancient windows, in the course of generations, seldom free from cracks. One shining pane bears date 1286. The youthful face of Dame Elinor owes more to this simple piece than to all the glasses she ever consulted in her life. Who can say after this that glass is frail, when it is not half so perishable as human beauty or glory ? Eor in another pane you see the memory of a knight preserved, whose marble nose is mouldered from his monu- ment in the church adjoining. And yet must one sigh to reflect that the most authentic record of so ancient a family should lie at the mercy of every boy that throws a stone ! In this hall, in former days, have dined gartered knights and courtly dames, with ushers, sewers, and seneschals ; and yet it was but the other night that an owl flew in hither, and mistook it for a barn. " This hall lets you up and down, over a very high threshold, into the parlour. It is furnished with historical tapestry, whose marginal fringes do confess the moisture of the air. The other contents of this room are a broken-bellied virginal, a couple of crippled velvet chairs, with two or three mildewed pictures of mouldy ancestors, who look as dismally as if they came fresh from hell with all their brimstone about them. These are carefully set at the further corner ; for the windows being everywhere broken, make it so convenient a place to dry poppies and mustard-seed in, that the room is appropriated to that use. t " Next this parlour lies, as I said before, the pigeon-house ; by the side of which runs an entry that leads on one hand and the other, into a bedchamber, a buttery, and a small hole called the chaplain's study. Then follow a brewhouse, a little green and gilt parlour, and the great stairs, under which is the dairy. A little further on the right, the servants' hall ; and, by the side of it, up six steps, the old lady's closet, which has a lattice into the said hall, that while she said her prayers, she might cast an eye on the men and maids. There are on this ground-floor in all twenty-four apartments, hard to be distin- guished by particular names; among which I must not forget a 184 LIFE OF POPE. chamber that has in it a large antiquity of timber, which seems to have been either a bedstead or a cider-press. " Our best room above is very long and low, of the exact proportion of a bandbox ; it has hangings of the finest work in the world, those, I mean, which Arachne spins out of her own bowels ; indeed, the roof is so decayed that, after a favourable shower of rain, we may, with God's blessing, expect a crop of mushrooms between the chinks of the floors. All this upper story has for many years had no other in- habitants than certain rats, whose very age renders them worthy of this venerable mansion, for the very rats of this ancient seat are grey. Since these had not quitted it, we hope at least this house may stand during the small remainder of days these poor animals have to live, who are now too infirm to remove to another ; they have still a small subsistence left them in the few remaining books of the library. "I had never seen half what I have described, but for an old, starched, grey-headed steward, who is as much an antiquity as any in the place, and looks like an old family picture walked out of its frame. He failed not, as we passed from room to room, to relate several memoirs of the family, but his observations were particularly curious in the cellar. He showed where stood the triple rows of butts of sack, and where were ranged the bottles of tent 2 for toasts in the morning ; he pointed to the stands that supported the iron-hooped hogsheads of strong beer ; then, stepping to a corner, he lugged out the tattered fragment of an unframed picture. ' This/ says he, with tears in his eyes, ' was poor Sir Thomas, once master of the drink I told you of; he had two sons — poor young masters ! — that never arrived to the age of this beer ; they both fell in this very cellar, and never went out upon their own legs. 5 He could not pass by a broken bottle, without taking it up to show us the arms of the family on it. He then led me up the tower, by dark, winding stone steps, which landed us into several little rooms, one above another ; one of these was nailed up, and my guide whispered to me the occasion of it. It seems the course of this noble blood was a little interrupted about two centuries ago by a freak of the Lady Frances, who was here taken with a neighbouring prior ; ever since which the room has been made up, and branded with the name of the adultery-chamber. The ghost of Lady Frances is supposed to walk here ; some prying maids of the family formerly reported that they saw a lady in a fardingale through the keyhole ; but this matter was hushed up, and the servants forbid to talk of it. " I must needs have tired you with this long letter : but what en- gaged me in the description was a generous principle to preserve the memory of a thing that must itself soon fail to ruin ; nay, perhaps 2 Tent is the name of a kind of wine of a deep red colour, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga, in Spain. STANTON HAECOUET, OXFOEDSHIEE. 185 some part of it before this reaches your hands. Indeed, I owe this old house the same gratitude that we do to an old friend, that har- bours us in his declining condition, nay,' even in his last extremities. I have found this an excellent place for retirement and study, where no one who passes by can dream there is an inhabitant, and even any- body that would visit me dares not venture under my roof. You will not wonder I have translated a great deal of Homer in this retreat ; any one who sees it will own I could not have chosen a fitter or more likely place to converse with the dead. As soon as I return to the living, it shall be to converse with the best of them. I hope, there- fore, very speedily to tell you in person how sincerely and unalterably I am, madam, yours," &c. 3 jMmitr.tMiaiSe. CHAPEL, STANTON HARCOURT. This description of Stanton Harcourt is almost wholly fanciful. The old tower was erected about the time of Ed- ward IV., and is fifty-four feet high. Below it is the chapel. Pope occupied the uppermost room ; and as Dryden recorded * Eoscoe, ix. 105. A view of the Tower is given in the title-page to this volume. 186 LIFE OF POPE. where parts of his iEneid were translated, and wrote the first lines of his translation on a window at his kinsman's house at Chesterton, Huntingdonshire, so Pope inscribed on a pane of red stained glass, in his lofty chamber at Stanton Har- court, a notification that " In the tear 1718 Alexander Pope finished here the Fifth Volume of Homer." The glass has since been taken out of the casement, and is pre- served at Nuneham Courtney, the seat of the noble family of Harcourt. Pope passed several months in this retreat, oc- cupying his chambers in the old tower, and he was occa- sionally visited by Gray, from the neighbouring seat of Lord Harcourt at Cokethorpe. An incident of a touching and romantic character is related in one of these communications ; and the contrast between the letters of Pope and those of Lady Mary cannot be better illustrated than by the story of the rustic lovers killed by lightning. The poet sent an account of the affecting occur- rence from Stanton Harcourt : " I have a mind (lie says) to fill the rest of this paper with an accident that happened jnst under my eyes, and has made a great im- pression upon me. I have just passed part of this summer at an old romantic seat of my Lord Harcourt's, which he lent me. It over- looks a common field, where, under the shade of a haycock, sat two lovers, as constant as ever were found in romance, beneath a spread- ing beech. The name of the one (let it sound as it will) was John Hewet; of the other, Sarah Drew. John was a well-set man, about five-and-twenty, Sarah a brown woman of eighteen. John had for several months borne the labour of the day in the same field with Sarah ; when she milked, it was his morning and evening charge to bring the cows to her pail. Their love was the talk, but not the scandal of the whole neighbourhood ; for all they aimed at was the blameless possession of each other in marriage. It was but this very morning that he had obtained her parents' consent, and it was but till the next week that they were to wait to be happy. Perhaps this very day, in the intervals of their work, they were talking of their wedding-clothes; and John was now matching several kinds of poppies and field-flowers to her complexion, to make her a present of knots for the day. While they were thus employed (it was on the last of July), a terrible storm of thunder and lightning arose, that drove the labourers to what shelter the trees or hedges afforded. Sarah, frighted and out of breath, sank on a haycock, and John (who never separated from her) sate by her side, having raked two or THE RUSTIC LOVERS KILLED BY LIGHTNING. 187 three heaps together to secure her. Immediately there was heard so loud a crack as if heaveu had burst asunder. The labourers, all solicitous for each other's safety, called to one another : those that were nearest our lovers, hearing no answer, stept to the place where they lay ; they first saw a little smoke, and after, this faithful pair ; — John, with one arm about his Sarah's neck, and the other held over her face, as if to screen her from the lightning. They were struck dead, and already grown stiff and cold in this tender posture. There was no mark or discolouring on their bodies, only that Sarah's eye- brow was a little singed, and a small spot between her breasts. They were buried the next day in one grave, in the parish of Stanton Har- court, in Oxfordshire ; where my Lord Harcourt, at my request, has erected a monument over them. Of the following epitaphs which I made, the critics have chosen the godly one : I like neither, but wish you had been in England to have done this office better ; I think 'twas what you could not have refused me on so moving an occasion. " When Eastern lovers feed the fun'ral fire, On the same pile their faithful fair expire ; Here pitying Heav'n that virtue mutual found, And blasted both, that it might neither wound. Hearts so sincere th' Almighty saw well pleas' d, Sent his own lightning, and the victims seiz'd. i. " Think not, by rig'rous judgment seiz'd, A pair so faithful could expire ; Victims so pure Heav'n saw well pleas'd, And snatch'd them in celestial fire. ii. " Live well, and fear no sudden fate : When God calls virtue to the grave, Alike 'tis justice, soon or late, Mercy alike to kill or save. Virtue unmov'd can hear the call, And face the flash that melts the ball. " Upon the whole, I can't think these people unhappy. The greatest happiness, next to living as they would have done, was to die as they did. The greatest honour people of this low degree could have, was to be remembered on a little monument ; unless you will give them another — that of being honoured with a tear from the finest eyes in the world. I know you have tenderness ; you must have it ; it is the very emanation of good sense and virtue ; the finest minds, like the finest metals, dissolve the easiest." This letter was originally sent to Martha Blount, who pro- 188 LIFE OF POPE. bably echoed the poet's tenderness and praised his sentimen- talism. 4 Lady Mary replied in a characteristic style : " I must applaud your good nature, in supposing that your pastoral lovers (vulgarly called haymakers) would have lived in everlasting joy and harmony, if the lightning had not interrupted their scheme of happiness. I see no reason to imagine, that John Hughes and Sarah Drew were either wiser or more virtuous than their neigh- bours. That a well-set man of twenty-five should have a fancy to marry a brown woman of eighteen, is nothing marvellous ; and I can- not help thinking that, had they married, their lives would have passed in the common track with their fellow-parishioners. His endeavour- ing to shield her from a storm was a natural action, and what he would, certainly have done for his horse, if he had been in the same situation. Neither am I of opinion that their sudden death was the reward of their mutual virtue. You know the Jews were reproved for thinking a village destroyed by fire more wicked than those that had escaped the thunder. Time and chance happen to all men. Since you desire me to try my skill in an epitaph, I think the following lines perhaps more just, though not so poetical as yours : " Here lies John Hughes and Sarah Drew ; Perhaps you'll say, what's that to you ? Believe me, friend, much may he said On this poor couple that are dead. On Sunday next they should have married : But see how oddly things are carried ! On Thursday last it rain'd and lighten'd ; These tender lovers, sadly frightened, Shelter'd beneath the cocking hay, In hopes to pass the time away ; But the bold thunder found them out (Commission'd for that end no doubt) ; And, seizing on their trembling breath, Consign'd them to the shades of death. 4 The letter to Miss Blount, describing the fatal accident, is dated Aug. 6, and in it Pope says he met the funeral of the unfortunate couple the evening he arrived at Stanton Harcourt. The letter to Lady Mary is not dated till Sept. 1, and in this he describes the accident as having hap- pened "just under his eyes." But further, the poet, when publishing his letters in 1737, inserts this same description under date of Aug. 9, and heads it, " From Mr. Gay to Mr. F " He had then quarrelled with Lady Mary ; he would not acknowledge her as a correspondent, nor even leave the letter, as in other instances, without a name ; but he dexterously insinuated an insult, by wishing her to believe that he had sent her as original the copy of a letter written by Gay to Fortescue. The same motive, we suspect, led him to prefix the Duke of Buckingham's name to the letter describing the gothic mansion. LADY MARY ARRIVES IS ENGLAND. Who knows if 'twas not kindly done ? For had they seen the next year's sun, A beaten wife and cuckold swain Had jointly curs'd the marriage chain : Now they are happy in their doom, For Pope has writ upon their tomb. " I confess these sentiments are not altogether so heroic as yours ; but I hope you will forgive them in favour of the last two lines. You see how much I esteem the honour you have done them ; though I am not very impatient to have the same, and had rather continue to be your stupid living humble servant, than be celebrated by all the pens in Europe." This lively but matter-of-fact treatment of a pathetic inci- dent, which Pope had worked up so highly, must have been felt as a mortification. It is an index to the radical difference that subsisted between them in mind and temperament, and which was sure, sooner or later, to lead to a breach. The lady was too witty and caustic for her sensitive and in dulge d admirer. Lady Mary and Mr. Wortley — the latter a decent, formal appendage — having arrived in England, took up their abode in London. A summer residence was wanted for the follow- ing year, and Pope negotiated with Sir Godfrey Kneller for a house at Twickenham. In due time the poet had the felicity of seeing Lady Mary in his neighbourhood. A few short notes afford glimpses of their continued intercourse. " It is not in my power, dear madam, to say what agitation the two or three words I wrote to you the other morning have given me. Indeed, I truly esteem you, and put my trust in you. I can say no more, and I know you would not have me." To obtain a portrait of Lady Mary was the next am- bition of Pope, and she consented to sit to Kneller. The painting called forth some extemporaneous lines, in which the personal charms and " the equal lustre of the heavenly mind" of Lady Mary are commemorated. Other verses fol- lowed, but the lady seems at length to have withdrawn in some degree from the society of the poet. This appears from a letter addressed to the Countess of Mar, then in Paris. The letter is without date, but it refers to the recent death of a " great Minister," and both Lord Stanhope and Craggs died in February 1720-1. To this date, or shortly 190 LIFE OF POPE. afterwards, we must assign Lady Mary's interesting commu- nication. " I see sometimes Mr. Congreve," she says, " and very seldom Mr, Pope, who continues to embellish his house at Twickenham. He has made a subterranean grotto, which he has furnished with looking-glasses, and they tell me it has a very good effect. I here send you some verses addressed to Mr. Gray, who wrote him a congratulatory letter on the finishing his house. I stifled them here ; and I beg they may die the same death at Paris, and never go further than your closet : " ' Ah, friend, 'tis true — this truth you lovers know — In vain my structures rise, my gardens grow ; In vain fair Thames reflects the double scenes Of hanging mountains, and of sloping greens : Joy lives not here ; to happier seats it flies, And only dwells where Wortley casts her eyes. " ' What are the gay parterre, the chequer'd shade, The morning bower, the evening colonnade, But soft recesses of uneasy minds, To sigh unheard in to the passing winds ? So the struck deer in some sequester'd part Lies down to die, the arrow at his heart ; There stretch'd unseen in coverts hid from day, Bleeds drop by drop, and pants his life away.' " The lines are among the most beautiful and passionate ever written by Pope. Petrarch never honoured Laura with more melodious or graceful verse. The attachment, however, was wholly on the side of the poet ; and the coolness indicated by Lady Mary in the above extract gradually led to estrange- ment. The latest of the printed letters addressed to her is dated Sept. 15, 1721. Pope was then at Cirencester, on a visit to Lord Bathurst, and Lady Mary wrote to him re- specting a harpsichord which he appears to have borrowed or hired himself, and which he promised to lend, but found he could not, for the accommodation of Lady Mary's musical evening parties at Twickenham. She had complimented him by praising his trees and garden, and his "great walk," which was so fine that she could not stir from it. And this was the last epistolary communication ; the spell closes, and Lady Mary only reappears as the object of his vindictive and malignant hatred. The coarsest lines he ever wrote, and the ETTPTITEE BETWEEN POPE AND LADY MAET. 191 most bitter of his personal attacks, were directed against the lady on whom he had lavished every epithet of admiration and praise. Lady Mary gave various explanations or statements as to the quarrel that ensued. She told Spence, at Eome, " I got a common friend to ask Mr. Pope why he had left off visiting me ? He answered, negligently, that he went as often as he used to do. I then got Dr. Arbuthnot to ask him what Lady M. had done to him ? He said that Lady M. and Lord Hervey had pressed him once together (and I don't remem- ber that we were ever together with him in our lives) to write a satire on some certain persons ; that he refused it ; and that this had occasioned the breach between us." Lady Mary told Lady Pomfret (from whom Spence appears to have derived the statement) that "when she became much ac- quainted with the Duke of "Wharton, Pope grew jealous, and that occasioned a breach between them." A third cause is described by Lady Louisa Stuart, in her Introductory Anec- dotes. Lady Mary's statement was this : " That at some ill- chosen time, when she least expected what romances call a declaration, he made such passionate love to her, as, in spite of her utmost endeavours to be angry and look grave, pro- duced an immoderate fit of laughter ; from which moment he became her implacable enemy." 5 In one so sensitive and vain, the cause was adequate to the effect. A consciousness of his deformity would rush into his mind, as Mary Cha- worth's expression of indifference for the " lame boy," over- heard by Byron, shot through the noble poet's heart, and made him instantly, though late at night, dart out of the house. Pope never made any other declaration respecting the rupture, than that he had voluntarily, without any misun- derstanding, withdrawn from the society of Lady Mary and that of her friend Lord Hervey, because they had too much wit for him, and could do with their wit many things that he could not do with his. 6 Between 1722, when the lady's influence was on the decline, and 1728, when Pope first satirised Lady Mary, we are left in ignorance of the cir- s Lady M. "W. Montagu's Letters and Works, by Lord Wharncliffe. 6 Letter to a Noble Lord, Nov. 30, 1733. 192 LIFE or POPE. cumstances, if any existed, which had turned his love or ad- miration into hatred and contempt. In the first edition of the Dunciad were two lines, undoubtedly pointed at his fair neighbour, which long remained a mystery : " Whence hapless Monsieur much complains at Paris, Of wrongs from Duchesses and Lady Maries." "• The allusion was, after the lapse of more than a century, explained by the publication, in 1837, by Lord WharnclhTe, of a series of letters addressed by Lady Mary to her sister, the Countess of Mar, in Paris, detailing a transaction with M. Euremonde, a Frenchman. 8 This adventurer was one of Lady Mary's admirers. He had taken all sorts of me- thods, for nearly a year, to persuade her of his extraordinary attachment, and at length he came from Paris to pay her a visit. Lady Mary advised him to sell out of the South Sea fund, in which he held some shares ; and he followed her advice, putting into her hands for investment the money she had won for him. By his urgent entreaties, as she said, she laid out the money in stock ; he took his leave, and the stock fell more than a half. Letters passed between them, and at length the Frenchman wrote that he had discovered all the lady's tricks ; that he was convinced she had his money un- touched ; and, unless he received it, he would print her letters to him. He demanded 2000Z., which, according to Lady Mary, would have been several hundreds out of her pocket. She called upon him to appoint persons to examine her, be- fore whom she was ready to submit her accounts, and to be questioned. He still blustered and accused, wrote to Lady Mary's husband (but she fortunately intercepted the letter), and threatened to print the correspondence. The affair seems to have occasioned her the most poignant distress. She im- 7 Dunciad, book ii. v. 135. " This passage was thought to allude to a famous lady, who cheated a French wit of 5000?. in the South Sea year. But the author meant it in general of all bragging travellers, and of all w and cheats under the name of ladies." — Note to Dunciad, Works, vol. ii., published in 1735. 8 Horace Walpole had seen these letters at Woburn, and founded on them a charge of criminality against Lady Mary. He says the letters about Euremonde were ten in number, which Lord Wharncliffe conceived to be a mistake, as he found only nine. In fact, the tenth had previously been printed, and is in Lord Wharncliffe's own edition, vol. ii. p. 138. SATIKICAL ALLUSIONS TO LADY MAEY. 193 plores her sister to intercede on her behalf, for the sake of her children, as the matter was too serious to be delayed, and humanity and Christianity were interested in her preserva- tion ! M. Ruremonde, however, was inexorable. He still demanded the whole sum, which Lady Mary said she could no more send than she could send a million. She then tried to work upon his fears. " I desire you would assure him that my first step will be to acquaint my Lord Stair with all his obligations to him, as soon as I hear he is in London ; and if he dares to give me any further trouble, I shall take care to have him rewarded in a stronger manner than he ex- pects. There is nothing more true than this ; and I so- lemnly swear, that if all the credit or money that I have in the world can do it, either for friendship or hire, I shall not fail to have him used as he deserves ; and, since I know his journey can only be intended to expose me, I shall not value what noise is made." The affair was probably adjusted amicably, as no notice of it appears in the papers of the day ; but Pope had received intelligence of it through some channel. The high imprudence of the lady is obvious. The poet returned to the charge in his Epistle to Arbuth- not. The line, " Who starves a sister or denies a debt," was understood to apply to Lady Mary ;. but was generally considered inexplicable, or a mere calumny. The case of M. Euremonde was known only to a few ; none of Lady Mary's descendants had heard of her starving her sister, and the letters between the sisters breathe only the tenderest affec- tion. " Lady Mar," says Bowles, " could not have been in any great degree of penury, for when Lord Mar was banished (in consequence of the rebellion of 1715), his Scotch estate, which had been settled on his wife, was freely given her by George I., for the maintenance of herself and daughter." A few years since, however, the matter was explained by the publication of some letters of Lord Grange, younger bro- ther of the Earl of Mar, who has obtained an infamous cele- brity for his treatment of his wife, banished by him to the remote island of St. Kilda. 9 Grange was a busy, plotting 9 These letters from Grange to his brother, Thomas Erskine, were pub- lished in Aberdeen, in 1846, in the Miscellany of the Spalding Club. O 194 LIFE OF POPE. politician, and, in 1734, he resigned his seat on the Scottish Bench that he might join the political party arrayed against Walpole. He became Secretary to the Prince of "Wales, and in this situation may have met with Pope. In the printed correspondence of Lady Mary there is a blank in the letters addressed to the Countess of Mar, of no less than twelve years, from 1727 to 1739. Part of this time the Countess would seem to have suffered from mental aberration. Grange writes to his brother, Thomas Erskine, 22nd March,- 1730-1, " Lady M — r, they say, is quite well, and so as in common justice she can no more be detained as a lunatic ; but she is obstinately averse from appearing in Chancery, that the sentence may be taken off. Her sister probably will oppose her liberty, be- cause thereby she would lose and Lord M. in effect gain 5001. yearly ; and the poor lady being in her custody, and under her management, had need to be very firmly recovered, for the guardian may at present so vex, tease, and plague her, that it would turn anybody mad." Grange had a pecuniary interest in procuring the liberation of the Countess, who, with 2000Z. yearly out of the estate, was, he said, in the hands of his foes ; and there was no remedy but to get a pardon for Lord Mar, who could then legally claim his own wife, and her estate. He succeeded in getting the deranged lady into his hands ; but on the road to Scotland she was seized by the Lord Chief Justice's warrant, procured on the affidavit of Lady Mary, that her sister was insane. After many "wimples and turns," as Grange expresses it, a settle- ment was made with Lady Mary, and some grants obtained for Lord Mar's family. "Walpole fixed the sum to be given to her ladyship, for the custody of her sister, at 500Z. yearly, " though he swore," adds Grange, " that he did not helieve she would lay out 2001. on Lady Mar." These details explain, if they do not fully justify, the poet's satire. There were harsh, unfeminine traits in the character of Lady Mary ; but her beauty and vivacity, and the charm of her published corre- spondence, must ever invest her name with interest. Her pictures of Eastern scenery and manners, her wit and pene- tration, outweigh her avarice and scandal. Before their intercourse was broken up, both Pope and Lady Mary had shared in another delusion which was still more abruptly terminated. The famous South Sea scheme SOUTH SEA AND LOTTERY SPECULATIONS. 195 dazzled them with visions of wealth, and the poet, from his intimacy with Craggs, was apprised of every favourable turn for investment. In August, 1720, we find him despatching a messenger with all speed to Lady Mary with intelligence that it was then a certain gain to purchase stock, as it would rise in a few weeks. Martha Blount he also induced to ven- ture within the charmed circle. " I have borrowed money upon ours and Mr. Eckershall's orders," he writes to her, " and bought 5001. stock, S. Sea at 180. It has since risen to 184. I wish us all good luck in it !" 10 How much more the poet invested is not known. He mentioned to Martha Elount that he had kept 1500Z. lying by him (fortunate poet!) to buy at a favourable juncture ; but he seems to have been unwilling to acknowledge that he either lost or gained by the gambling mania. Gay and his other friends believed he was a sufferer. To Atterbury the poet wrote that he had the good fortune to remain with half of what he imagined he had, and he was convinced of the truth of old Hesiod's maxim, that the half was more than the whole. But whether this half represented his anticipated gains from the unprecedented rise in the stock of the company, or the half of the money originally paid for it, he has not explained. He was prudent enough, we suspect, to sell out in time, and thus would retire 10 In Mr. Rogers's collection was one of these anxious business notes relating to lottery speculations : " Dear Sir, — I give you this second trouble (though I am ashamed of the first) to desire, if you have not actually disposed of your lottery orders, to let me have them sent before eleven or twelve to-morrow morning to Mr. Jervas's (yours and all if you please) ; for I believe I can sell 'em, or do what is equivalent. I'll add no more, but that my mother and I join in our good wishes for Mrs. Eckershall's and your welfare. I am always, dear sir, your most obliged and most faithful servant, " A. Pope. " Twitenham, March 2, Wednesday morning." Addressed, " To James Eckershall, Esq., with speed." Teresa Blount and her friend Mrs. Nelson also dabbled in these schemes. "Next week," writes Mrs. Nelson, " I shall begin my venture for the 1000/. I will take more care of your interest than my own." Again : " On Monday I shall buy thirty tickets in the Dutch lottery, which I am so much a Whig as to prefer far before ours. There are ten 1000/. prizes ; the tickets are but 40s. a-piece, and the payment will be a fortnight after 'tis drawn." — Mapkdurham MSB. o 2 196 LIFE or POPE. a gainer by his speculations. The praise of equanimity he always affected. " In South Sea days not happier, when surmised The lord of thousands, than if now excised." Poor Gay — " soon raised and soon depressed" — was sunk almost to death by his losses in this disastrous year, and Lady Mary did not escape from it without being involved, as we have seen, in a labyrinth of difficulty and distress. The Iliad was completed in 1720, the fifth and sixth volumes being published in that year. Pope gracefully closed his long and toilsome labours with a dedication to Congreve, thus reversing the usual order of arrangement, that he might, as he said, leave behind him a memorial of his friendship with one of the most valuable of men, as well as finest writers of his age and country. This dedication to one who was no patron was considered extraordinary ; but as both the great political parties had patronised the translation, he could not without offence have inscribed it either to a Tory or a "Whig chief. The progress of the work had pro- duced abundance of comment. Madame Dacier questioned some of the English translator's criticism on Homer, and complained that he had appropriated some of her notes with- out adequate acknowledgment. Pope replied in a postscript to the Odyssey, but the learned lady did not live to read his courteous answer. The greatest scholar of that age, Bentley, made no public criticism ; but he is said in conversation to have remarked that the work was a very pretty poem, but it was not Homer. 11 Dennis, of course, assailed the translation ; and the literal and prosaic character of some of his comments has a ludicrous effect. On Pope's lines, " The sceptred rulers lead — the following host, Pour'd forth in millions, darken all the coast," Dennis remarks : " Never human army consisted of millions ; no place upon earth can contain such numbers congregated, 11 "I have been told that the great critic (Bentley), who did not read the sermon till he heard something about his son and you, said after, ' Tis an impudent dog. But I talked against his Homer, and the portentous cub never forgives.' " — Letter to Mr. Pope, occasioned by Sober Advice from Horace, 1735. COMPLETION OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE ILIAD. 197 but what at the same time will starve them." Pope saw the propriety of this objection, and reduced millions to thou- " As from some rocky cliff the shepherd sees, Clustering in heaps on heaps the driving bees." Dennis : " While the bees drive they cannot cluster." " Dusky they spread a close embodied crowd." Dennis : " "While the bees are a close embodied crowd, how can they spread?" " That wrath which hurl'd to Pluto's gloomy reign The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain." Dennis : " iNow, I appeal to any impartial person if hurling souls to the gloomy reign of Pluto be not abominable fustian. Hurling of souls is downright ridiculous and burlesque, and reign cannot signify place." Dennis concludes by asserting, what Cowper was not un- willing to repeat in different words, that " the trumpet of Homer, with its loud and various notes, dwindled in Pope's lip3 to a Jew's trump." As to the other critics of Pope's translation, Johnson happily remarks, " Their writings are lost, and the names which are preserved are preserved in the Dunciad." That immortality which the poet conceived poetry alone could confer he has bestowed equally on friends and enemies. Amidst the congratulations called forth by Pope's eman- cipation from his laborious yet splendid task, his friend Gay greeted him with a" Welcome from Greece," so pleasing and picturesque in its subject and treatment, and so interesting from its characteristic description of Pope's galaxy of friends and admirers, that it may be considered as forming a valuable part of his biography. The original draft in Gay's hand- writing, but imperfect, is in the British Museum, and there it bears the title we have affixed to it. 13 12 It is singular that we find no mention of Gay's poem in the printed correspondence, nor does it seem to have been published in the lifetime of either of the poets. We have not been able to trace its publication farther back than to the " Additions to the Works of Pope," printed in 1776, of which George Steevens is said to have been the editor. Of the genuineness of the poem there can be no dovfbt. 198 LIFE OF POPE. ALEXANDER POPE HIS SAFE RETURN FROM TROY. A Congratulatory Poem on his Completing his Translation of Homer's Iliad. IN THE MANNER OF THE BEGINNING OP THE LAST CANTO OF AKIOSTO. I. Long hast thou, friend ! been absent from thy soil, Like patient. Ithacus at siege of Troy ; I have been witness of thy six years' toil, Thy daily labours, and thy nights' annoy. Lost to thy native land, with great turmoil, On the wide sea, oft threat'ning to destroy. Methinks with thee I've trod Sigsean ground, And heard the shores of Hellespont resound. ii. Did I not see thee when thou first sett'st sail To seek adventures fair in Homer's land ? Did I not see thy sinking spirits fail, And wish thy bark had never left the strand ? Ev'n in mid ocean often didst thou quail, And oft lift up thy holy eye and hand, Praying the Virgin dear, and saintly choir, Back to the port to bring thy bark entire. in. Cheer up, my friend ! thy dangers now are o'er ; Methinks — nay, sure the rising coasts appear ; Hark how the guns salute from either shore, As thy trim vessel cuts the Thames so fair : Shouts answ'ring shouts, from Kent and Essex roar, And bells break loud through every gust of air : Bonfires do blaze, and bones and cleavers ring, As at the coming of some mighty king. rv. Now pass we Gravesend with a friendly wind, And Tilbury's white fort, and long Blackwall ; Greenwich, where dwells the friend of human kind, More visited than either park or hall, "Withers the good, 1 and (with him ever join' d) Facetious Disney, 2 greet thee first of all : I see his chimney smoke, and hear him say, M Duke ! that's the room for Pope, and that for Gay ! v. Come in, my friends, here shall ye dine and lie, And here shall breakfast, and here dine again ; And sup, and breakfast on (if ye comply), For I have still some dozens of champagne :" gay's congratulatory poem. 199 His voice still lessens as the ship sails hy ; He waves his hand to bring us back in vain ; For now I see, I see proud London's spires ; Greenwich is lost, and Deptford dock retires. Oh, what a concourse swarms on yonder quay ! The sky re-echoes with new shouts of joy : By all this show, I ween, 'tis Lord Mayor's day ; I hear the voice of trumpet and hautboy. — No, now I see them near ! Oh, these are they Who come in crowds to welcome thee from Troy. Hail to the bard whom long as lost we mourn'd, From siege, from battle, and from storm return'd. ! VII. Of goodly dames, and courteous knights, I view The silken petticoat, and broider'd vest ; Yea, peers, and mighty dukes, with ribands blue, (True blue, fair emblem of unstained breast.) Others I see, as noble, and more true, By no court-badge distinguish'd from the rest : First see I Methuen, of sincerest mind, 3 As Arthur grave, as soft as woman kind. 4 vm. What lady's that, to whom he gently bends ? Who knows not her ? ah ! those are Wortley's eyes ! s How art thou honour'd, number'd with her friends, For she distinguishes the good and wise. The sweet-tongued Murray near her side attends. 6 Now to my heart the glance of Howard flies ; 7 Now Hervey, fair of face, I mark full well, 8 With thee, Youth's youngest daughter, sweet Lepell. 9 IX. I see two lovely sisters, hand in hand, The fair-hair'd Martha and Teresa brown ; 10 Madge Bellenden, the tallest of the land ; 11 And smiling Mary, soft and fair as down. 12 Yonder I see the cheerful Duchess stand, 13 For friendship, zeal, and blithesome humours known : Whence that loud shout in such a hearty strain ? Why all the Hamiltons are in her train ! x. See next the decent Scudamore advance, 1 * With Winchelsea, still meditating song : 15 With her perhaps Miss Howe came there by chance, 16 Nor knows with whom, or why she comes along. 200 life or POPE. Far off from these see Santlow, famed for dance; 17 And frolic Bicknell, and her sister young ; 18 With other names, by me not to be named, Much loved in private, not in public famed ! XI. But now behold the female band retire, And the shrill music of their voice is still'd ! Methinks I see famed Buckingham admire 19 That in Troy's ruin thou hadst not been kill'd ; Sheffield, who knows to strike the living lyre, "With hand judicious, like thy Homer skill'd. Bathurst impetuous hastens to the coast, 20 Whom you and I strive who shall love the most. See generous Burlington, 21 with goodly Bruce, 22 (But Bruce comes wafted in a soft sedan,) Dan Prior next, beloved by ev'ry muse, 23 And friendly Congreve, unreproachful man ! (Oxford by Cunningham hath sent excuse,) See hearty Watkins 24 comes with cup and can ; And Lewis, 25 who has never friend forsaken ; And Laughton 20 whisp'ring asks — "Is Troy town taken?*' XIII. Earl Warwick comes, of free and honest mind ; 2T Bold, gen'rous Craggs, 28 whose heart was ne'er disguised Ah why, sweet St. John, 29 cannot I thee find ? St. John for ev'ry social virtue prized. Alas ! to foreign climates he's confined, Or else to see thee here I well surmised : Thou too, my Swift, doth breathe Boeotian air ; 30 When wilt thou bring back wit and humour here ? XIV. Harcourt I see, for eloquence renown'd, 31 The mouth of justice, oracle of law ! Another Simon is beside him found, Another Simon, like as straw to straw. How Lansdowne 32 smiles, with lasting laurel crown'd! What mitred prelate there commands our awe ? See Rochester approving nods his head, 33 And ranks one modern with the mighty dead. xv. Carlton and Chandos thy arrival grace, 34 Hanmer, 35 whose eloquence th' unbiass'd sways ; Harley, 36 whose goodness opens in his face, And shows his heart the seat where virtue stays. GAY'S COtfGEATULATOEY POEM. 201 Ned Blount 37 advances next, with busy pace, In haste, but saunt'ring, hearty in his ways : I see the friendly Carylls come by dozens, 38 Their wives, their uncles, daughters, sons, and cousins. Arbuthnot there I see, 39 in physic's art, As Galen learned, or famed Hippocrate ; Whose company drives sorrow from the heart, As all disease his med'cines dissipate : Kneller amid the triumph bears his part, 40 Who could (were mankind lost) anew create : What can th' extent of his vast soul confine ? A painter, critic, engineer, divine ! XVII. Thee Jervas hails, robust and debonair, 41 " Now have we conquer'd Homer, friends !" he cries Dartneuf, 42 grave joker, joyous Ford is there, 43 And wondering Maine, so fat with laughing eyes, (Gay, Maine, and Cheney, boon companions dear, 44 Gay fat, Maine fatter, Cheney huge of size,) Yea Dennis, Gildon (hearing thou hast riches,) And honest, hatless Cromwell, with red breeches. Wanley, 45 whence com'st thou with shorten'd hair, And visage from thy shelves with dust besprent ! " Forsooth (quoth he) from placing Homer there, For ancients to compyle is myne entente : Of ancients only hath Lord Harley care ; But hither me hath my meeke lady sent:— In manuscript of Greeke rede we thilke same, But book yprint best plesyth my gude dame." XIX. Yonder I see among th' expecting crowd Evans 46 with laugh jocose, and tragic Young; High-buskin'd Booth, 47 grave Mawbert, 43 wand'ring Frowde, 4 And Titcomb's belly waddles slow along. See Digby faints at Southern talking loud, 50 Yea Steele and Tickell mingle in the throng ; Tickell whose skiff (in partnership they say) Set forth for Greece, but founder'd in the way. xx. Lo, the two Doncastles 51 in Berkshire known! Lo, Bickford, Fortescue, of Devon land ! Lo, Tooker, Eckershall, Sykes, Rawlinson ! See hearty Morley takes thee by the hand ! 202 LIFE OF POPE. Ayrs, Graham, Buckridge, joy thy voyage done ; But who can count the leaves, the stars, the sand? Lo, Stonor, 52 Fenton, 53 Caldwell, Ward, 54 and Broome ; 5 Lo, thousands more, but I want rhyme and room ! XXI. How lov'd, how honour'd thou ! Yet be not vain ! And sure thou art not, for I hear thee say — " All this, my friends, I owe to Homer's strain, On whose strong pinions I exalt my lay. What from contending cities did he gain ; And what rewards his grateful country pay ? None, none were paid— why then all this for me ? These honours, Homer, had been just to thee !" NOTES. 1 Lieutenant-General Henry Withers, who died in 1729. Pope honoured his memory with an epitaph ; and he is mentioned in the correspondence of Swift and Bolingbroke. The general's quiet neat dinners seem to have been highly appreciated by the wits. Withers is frequently alluded to in Marl- borough's letters and despatches. In the opening campaign of 1703 he commanded, as brigadier, 1500 infantry. In the great action on the Schel- lenberg, near Donawert, in July, 1704 (which Marlborough said was the warmest that had been known for many years), the infantry was led by the Earl of Orkney and Major-General Withers. In 1706, Marlborough wrote in favour of Withers to the Duke of Newcastle, wishing, as he said, to make him " a little easy in his circumstances." And in July, 1709, the great chief writes to Secretary Boyle from the camp at Tournay, " Lieut. -General Withers, who mounted the trenches on Saturday, got a contusion on his breast by a small shot, but it has not done him much hurt." Withers re- turned to England in 1711, but next year he was again with the army in Flanders. He was appointed $ general officer December 14, 1714. After his long services, when the War of the Succession was concluded, the veteran was entitled to repose in his pleasant residence at Greenwich, dis- pensing hospitality among his accomplished friends. 2 Colonel Henry Disney appears to have lived with General Withers, and he erected the monument in Westminster Abbey to the General's memory. He was a great favourite with the Pope and Swift circle — " a fellow of abundance of humour," says Swift ; " an old battered rake, but very honest ; not an old man, but an old rake. It was he that said of Jenny Kingdom, the maid of honour, who is a little old, ' that since she could not get a husband, the Queen should give her a brevet to act as a married woman.' " A dangerous illness with which Disney was visited in 1713 awakened the sympathy of his friends in an extraordinary degree, showing how highly he was esteemed and beloved. He died in 1731. " Poor Duke Disney is dead," says Gay, writing to Swift, " and hath left what he had among his friends, among whom are Lord Bolingbroke, 500/; 203 Mr. Pelham, 500?. ; Sir William Wyndham's youngest son, 500/. ; General Hill, 500?. ; Lord Masham's son, 500?." Disney is always called " Duke Disney ;" he seems to have had a habit of using the word " Duke !" as a familiar exclamation, as Goldsmith used to say, " Bye-fore George ! " Colonel Disney was of an old Lincolnshire family, the De Isneys, of Norman, descent. At his own request, Disney was interred in the same grave as Withers. 3 Sir Paul Methuen, son of Mr. Methuen, who negotiated the famous Portuguese treaty of 1703. He was Secretary of State for a short time, 1716-7, and Treasurer of the Household from 1725 to 1729. Lord Hervey gives a curious notice of Pope's sincere friend : " The character of this man was a very singular one ; it was a mixture of Spanish formality and English roughness, strongly seasoned with pride, and not untinctured with honour ; he was romantic in his turn to the highest degree of absurdity ; odd, im- practicable, passionate, and obstinate ; a thorough coxcomb and a little mad." 4 Arthur Moore, of Fetcham. See ante, page 70 ; also Prologue to Satires. 5 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Mrs. Howard, Countess of Suffolk, originally occupied the place here assigned to Lady Mary. In the MS. in the British Museum this eighth stanza is as follows : " What lady's that to whom he gently bends ? Who knows not her ? ah ! those are Howard's eyes ! How art thou honour'd, number'd with her friends, For she distinguishes the good and wise. See sweet-tongued Cowper near her side attends. Now to my heart the glance of Howard flies, Now Pulteaey's graceful air I mark full well, With thee Youth's youngest daughter, sweet Lepell." Gay must have had no small difficulty in selecting and adjusting this list of Pope's friends. The following verse is in the first draft : " See there two brothers greet thee with applause, Both for prevailing eloquence renown' d ; Argyle the brave and Islay learn'd in laws, Than whom no truer friends were ever found. Tom had been nigh you, zealous in your cause, But Tom, alas ! dear friend, is under ground. Then see I Coleman, blithe as bird in May, In vast surprise to see this happy day." 6 Grizel Baillie, daughter of Baillie of Jerviswood, married in 1710 to Mr., afterwards Sir, Alexander Murray, of Stanhope. She died at her seat of Mellerstein, Berwickshire, in 1759, aged sixty-seven. Lady Hervey praises her as the kindest, best, and most valuable friend she ever had. A painful incident occurred to this lady in 1721. One of her father's footmen entered her chamber at midnight, with a pistol in his hand, and declared his passion for her. She succeeded in wresting the pistol from him, and alarmed the family. The man was tried and transported for the offence. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, with singular indelicacy and cruelty, made this occurrence the subject of a poetical epistle, written in the character of Arthur Grey, the condemned footman. 204 LIFE OF POPE. 7 Henrietta Hobart, eldest daughter of Sir Henry Hobart, married to the Hon. C. Howard, afterwards ninth Earl of Suffolk. See Moral Essays. 8 John, Lord Hervey. * See Moral Essays. 9 Mary Lepell, daughter of Brigadier-General Nicholas Lepell. She was one of the Maids of Honour at the Court of the Princess Caroline, and was married this year (1720) to Lord Hervey. That malicious Court gossip, old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, says that Miss Lepell's father made her a cornet in his regiment as soon as she was born, " which is no more wrong to the design of an army," adds Sarah, " than if she had been a son ; and she was paid many years after she was a Maid of Honour." She subse- quently got a pension in lieu of the cornetcy. Lady Hervey was the most accomplished and intelligent of the vivacious young ladies who adorned the Princess's Court. Her letters, published in 1821, written in advanced life, are grave literary epistles, and evince extensive reading. She died Sept. 2, 1768, aged sixty-eight. 10 Martha and Teresa Blount. 11 Margaret Bellenden, daughter of John, second Lord Bellenden. In- stead of the tallest, Gay had at first styled her the bonniest of the land. 12 Mary Bellenden, a younger sister of Margaret, and one of the Maids of Honour. She was the most celebrated beauty of the Court ; and according to Walpole, was never mentioned by any one of her contemporaries but as the most perfect creature they had ever known. The Prince of Wales paid her marked attention, but she married Colonel Campbell, one of the grooms of the bedchamber, who afterwards, in 1761, became Duke of Argyll. Mrs. Campbell died long before this, in 1736. She was the mother of the fifth Duke of Argyll and three other sons, and of one . daughter, who became Countess of Aylesbury. The liveliness of Miss Bellenden is frequently al- luded to. In a ballad made on the quarrel between George I. and the Prince of Wales, at the christening of the Prince's second son, when his Royal Highness and all his household were ordered to quit St. James's, this young lady is described as retaining all her vivacity : " But Bellenden we needs must praise, Who, as down the stairs she jumps, Sings ' Over the hills and far away,' Despising doleful dumps." See Walpole's " Reminiscences." In the Suffolk Correspondence are several letters of this lady ; but, though supporting her reputation for liveliness, they are neither delicate nor witty. In fact, the merry maids of this Court, with their admirers, Pope, Gay, and Swift, were not easily restrained within the bounds of strict decorum — at least, if we judge them by the standard of modern manners. " The Duchess of Queensberry, or Duchess of Hamilton, relict of the Duke of Hamilton, who was killed in the duel with Lord Mohun in 1712. The former was a warm and generous friend of Gay. For notices of both Duchesses, see notes to Moral Essays. 14 Lady Scudamore. Frances, only daughter of Simon, fourth Lord Digby, married Sir James Scudamore, Viscount Sligo, and died in 1729. This lady is frequently mentioned in Pope's letters to her relative, the Hon. Robert Digby. NOTES to gay's poem. 205 15 Anne, daughter of Sir Richard Kingsmill, of Hampshire, married Heneage Finch, fourth Earl of Winchelsea. She died Aug. 5, 1720. Her poems were collected and published in 1713. Some of them possess con- siderable beauty, and Mr. Wordsworth has mentioned with honour her piece entitled " A Nocturnal Reverie." 10 Miss Sophia Howe was another of the Maids of Honour, and the most unfortunate of the fair group. See Pope's lines to her, " What is Prudery?" Sir Walter Scott, in reviewing the Suffolk Correspondence, quotes one of the gay letters of Miss Howe, describing a visit to Farnham. "I am just come from Farnham Church," she says, " where I burst out in laughing the mo- ment I went in, and it was taken to be because I was just pulling out one of my Scotch cloth handkerchiefs, which made me think of Jenny Smith. The pastor made a very fine sermon upon what the wickedness of this world was come to." Sir Walter adds : " Another year, and what was this gay, fluttering, thoughtless creature ! — the victim of seduction, abandoned by the world for which alone she lived, and dying, in solitude and shame, of a broken heart. One friend, indeed, she found ; and there is reason to hope, that when she entered His courts she did it with other feelings, and other thoughts, than those suggested by cloth handkerchiefs, or the recollection of Jenny Smith." Miss Howe's case forms the subject of an epistle, " Mo- nimia to Philocles," by Lord Hervey, which is no bad imitation of Pope's epistle of Eloisa. See Dodsley's Collection of Poems, 1758. 17 Miss Santlow was some time mistress to the great Duke of Marlborough. She was afterwards married to Booth, the tragic actor. Cibber speaks of her success in the comedy of the " Fair Quaker of Deal," in February, 1710 ; and fifteen years later Thomson the poet, in a letter to his friend Cranston, mentions her performance of Ophelia, and her delicious dancing. 18 Mrs. Bicknell was a comic actress. She was one of the original per- formers in Gay's dramas of " The What d'ye Call It" and " Three Hours after Marriage." Her sister, Mrs. Younger, was also a comic actress. See Pope's " Farewell to London." 1 9 John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. He died Feb. 24, 1720-1. 20 Allen, Lord Bathurst. See Moral Essays. 21 Richard, third Earl of Burlington, celebrated for his taste and knowledge of architecture. See Moral Essays. 22 Lord Bruce, son of the Earl of Aylesbury. He married, in 1739 Caroline, the daughter of Colonel Campbell, and of his wife, the beautiful Mary Bellenden. He died Earl of Aylesbury in 1747. 23 Matthew Prior, the poet, who died at Wimpole, the seat of the Earl of Oxford, in 1721. In Lord Oxford's house he made himself beloved by every living thing — master, child, and servant, human creature or animal. See Introduction to Lady Mary W. Montagu's Works by Lord Wharncliffe. Arbuthnot, however, thought that Prior had a narrow escape by dying ; for if he had lived he would have married a low creature, one Bessy Cox, that kept an alehouse in Long-acre. He left his estate between this woman and his servant. Congreve (mentioned in the following line) died in 1729. For " Oxford" (Earl of Oxford) see Pope's Epistles. His friend Cunningham was an active Scotch Member of Parliament, Alexander Cunningham, who sat for Renfrewshire : he died in 1742. 21 Mr. Watkins, mentioned in Swift's correspondence as Secretary to the 206 LIFE OF POPE. Dutch embassy. He was superseded by Harrison, Swift's protege, in 1712. Watkins appears to have been a favourite with Bolingbroke, and a friend of Arbuthnot's. 25 Erasmus Lewis, Secretary to Lord Dartmouth, and afterwards to Lord Oxford : " That Lewis is a cunning shaver, And very much in Harley's favour." Thus said Swift, who was fond of the old Secretary, trusted him with the secret negotiation for the publication of Gulliver, and corresponded with him so long as his faculties remained. In 1737 Lewis speaks of his age, and of being reduced almost to blindness by his early writing by candle- light. " I see nothing less than the pips of the cards," he says, " from which I have some relief in a long winter evening." He lived several years after this, and was remembered by Pope in his will. 26 This name is probably the same as " Lawton." John Lawton, the representative of an old Cheshire family, distantly related to the Temples of Stowe, was married to a sister of Pope's friend, the Earl of Halifax. His son John, M.P. for Newcastle-under-Lyne, died in 1740. Another John Lawton, Deputy-Teller of the Exchequer, died in 1741. 27 Addison's step-son, to whom Tickell inscribed his edition of Addison's works, 1721. Earl Warwick did not live to read Tickell's beautiful lines. " I cannot but think it a very odd set of incidents, that the book should be dedicated by a dead man (Addison) to a dead man (Craggs), and even that the new patron to whom Tickell chose to inscribe his verses should be dead also before they were published. Had I been in the editor's place, I should have been a little apprehensive for myself." — Atterbury to Pope, Oct. 15, 1721. 28 Secretary Craggs. He died Feb. 15, 1720-1, aged thirty-five. See Pope's Epitaphs. 29 Lord Bolingbroke, who was then in France. In 1723 he obtained a full pardon and returned to England. 30 Swift's aversion to Ireland is well known. See the Dunciad. n Simon, the first Viscount Harcourt, elevated to the peerage in 1711. Next year he was made Lord Chancellor. He died July 29, 1727, aged sixty -seven. His son, the Hon. Simon Harcourt, mentioned in the same stanza, predeceased his father, dying in 1720. See Pope's Epitaphs. 32 George Granville, Viscount Lansdowne. On his friend Atterbury being accused of treason in 1722, Lansdowne deemed it prudent to retire to the Continent. He continued abroad for ten years, but returned and died in England, in 1735. 33 Dr. Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, would seem to have had a habit of nodding his head to express his approbation ; for Pope also alludes to the peculiarity in his Prologue to the Satires. 3* Lord Carlton and the Duke of Chandos. See Epilogue to the Satires and Moral Essays. 35 Sir Thomas Hanmer, Speaker of the House of Commons. See Notes to Dunciad. 36 Edward, second Earl of Oxford, celebrated for his magnificent library and collection of manuscripts. The latter were purchased by Government NOTES to gay's poem. 207 for a sum of 10,000?., and now form the Harleian Collection in the British Museum. The Earl died in 1741, aged forty-two. 37 Edward Blount, of Blagdon, Devonshire. See Appendix. 38 The head of this family, in 1720, was John Caryll, of West Grinstead, in Sussex. He died in 1736. Three members of this family subscribed to Pope's Iliad: the Hon. John Caryll, John Caryll, jun., Esq., and Richard Caryll, Esq. 89 Dr. Arbuthnot. See ante, p. 104, and Prologue to. the Satires. 40 Sir Godfrey was then above seventy, but his vanity and eccentricities seem to have afforded great amusement to the Pope circle. They " fooled him to the top of his bent," and as he could bear any amount of flattery, " Who pepper'd the highest was surest to please." Sir Godfrey was a Justice of the Peace, and administered the laws at Twickenham, if we may credit Pope, somewhat in the style of Sancho Panza. Upon one occasion, however, he is reported to have turned the laugh against the poet. Pope, in banter, said if Sir Godfrey had been consulted in the creation of the world, it would have been made more perfect than it is ; upon which the painter, looking at the diminutive person of his friend, said, " There are some little things in it I think I could have mended." Pope said to Spence — " I paid Sir Godfrey a visit but two days before he died, and I think I never saw a scene of so much vanity in my life. He was lying in his bed and contemplating the plan he had made for his own monu- ment. He said many gross things in relation to himself, and the memory he should leave behind him. He said he should not like to lie among the rascals at Westminster ; a memorial there would be sufficient ; and desired me to write an epitaph for it. I did so afterwards ; and I think it is the worst thing I ever wrote in my life." Kneller was buried at Twickenham, ]STov. 7, 1723, and the " memorial," a showy monument by Rysbrack, was erected in Westminster Abbey. 41 Charles Jervas, the portrait painter. See Pope's Epistles ; also " Tatler," JSTo.4. 42 A celebrated epicure. See Pope's Imit. of Horace. 43 Charles Ford, whom Swift got appointed Gazetteer in 1712. He was one of the Dean's humble friends and faithful correspondents, and so much in favour that Swift used to celebrate his birthday, which was on the 1st of January. Ford was an Irishman, a bachelor, and a man of easy convivial habits. He lodged, in his latter days, in Little Cleveland-court, St. James's-place, which, he says, consisted of but six houses in all. His house was a small one of two stories, and his whole family were a man and a maid, both at board wages. There the old bachelor lived a regular town life— from his house to the Mall, then to the Cocoa- tree (the Tory coffee- house in St. James's-street), thence to the tavern, and from the tavern pretty late to bed. 44 Several names in this list belong to that class whom Gay in a previous stanza characterises as " much loved in private, not in public famed." Maine is a Devonshire name, and there was a family named Cheney, of Pinhoe, in Devonshire, connected with the Blounts of Blagdon. Gay, like a true son of Devon, may have introduced as many of his countrymen as he could into his poem ; but Cheney is most likely Dr. George Cheyne, the 208 LIFE OF POPE. eminent physician and medical writer, who was at one time remarkable for his obesity and convivial habits. In his work, " The English Malady," he describes his own case — how he reformed, took to a milk diet, then relapsed, swelled out to thirty-two stones weight, and finally reverted to his milk regimen, on which he enjoyed good health till his death in 1743, at the age of seventy-two. In the neighbourhood of Bath (where Cheyne lived and died) the name is pronounced as spelt by Gay, and in some of the journals of that time it is written " Cheney." Tooker, mentioned in stanza xx., is a Devonshire name, the Tookers of Exeter. One John Tooker, of Norton Hall, Somersetshire (of the same family as the Exeter Tookers), was so zealous a Jacobite that he bad inscribed on his tomb, " Inconcussse fidei Jacobita," which remained in Chilcompton Church from 1737 to 1835. With Dennis and Gildon, and Henry Cromwell, mentioned after Maine and Cheney, the reader is already acquainted. 45 Humphrey Wanley [born 1673, died 1726] was librarian to the Earl of Oxford. He was a zealous antiquary, and made considerable collec- tions relative to archaeology and bibliography. The following is an amus- ing letter addressed to Wanley by Pope : " To my worthy and special Eriend, Maistre Wanley, dwelling at my sin- gular goode Lord's, my Lord of Oxford, kindly present. " Worthy Sir, — I shall take it as a singular mark of your friendly dis- position and kindnesse to me, if you will recommend to my palate from the experienced taste of yours, a dousaine quartes of goode and wholesome wine, such as yee drink at the Genoa Arms, for the which I will in honourable sort be indebted, and well and truly pay the owner thereof, your said mer- chant of wines at the said Genoa Arms. As witness this myne hand, which also witnesseth its master to be, in sooth and sincerity of heart, " Goode sir, yours ever bounden, a j^ Pope. " From Twickenham, this firste of Julie, 1725." 46 Dr. Abel Evans, Oxford, usually called the epigrammatist. He was of St. John's College, and much in the confidence and esteem of Pope. Bowles quotes the epigram made on Evans when, as bursar, he cut down some trees before his College : " The rogue the gallows as his fate foresees, And bears the like antipathy to trees." This was made by Dr. Tadlow, a person remarkable for corpulency, upon whom Evans, in retaliation wrote, " When Tadlow treads the streets, the paviors cry, 4 God bless you, sir,' and lay their rammers by." " Tragic Young," mentioned after Evans, was, of course, Edward Young, the poet. 47 Barton Booth, the tragedian [bora 1681, died 1733]. Booth eloped from Westminster School, at the age of seventeen, to commence actor. He was highly celebrated in the personation of tragic characters, and was the original Cato in Addison's tragedy. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, where his widow erected a monumental bust to his memory. NOTES to gat's poem. 209 48 James Francis Mawbert, a portrait painter. Dallaway says he distin- guished himself by copying all the portraits of English poets he could meet with ; and that Dryden, Wycherley, Congreve, and Pope sat to him. He died in 1746, aged eighty. 49 Philip Frowde, a dramatist, alluded to in Pope's Farewell to London. b0 The Hon. E. Digby. See Pope's Epitaphs. 51 Some of the names in this stanza have been previously introduced — as the Doncastles of Binfield (whose family held the manor of Binfield for two centuries), Counsellor Bickford (of the family of Bickford of Dunsland), and Mr., afterwards Judge, Fortescue, of Fallopit. The Devonshire For- tescues were famous for lawyers — having given a Chief Justice to Ireland, and a Chief Justice to England, besides Pope's friend, the Master of the Rolls. Eckershall, Clerk of the Kitchen to Queen Anne, died at Drayton in 1753, aged seventy-four. The name of Sykes is of Yorkshire renown. Rawlinson was not, we suspect, Thomas Eawlinson, the famous book-collector, but William Rollinson, mentioned in Pope's will, and who was also a friend of Swift and Bolingbroke. This gentleman had been a merchant in London, but retired from business, and lived in Oxfordshire. " Hearty Morley" may have been George Morley, afterwards appointed a commissioner of the lottery. There was a person of the name a writer in the Miscellanies, and also Mr. Morley, husband of the Thalestris of the Rape of the Lock, and sister of Sir George Brown, Berkshire, the Sir Plume of the same poem. Brown took high offence at the manner in which he is drawn in the Rape of the Lock, and Gay does not include him among the poet's friends. Ayrs may be " Squire Ayre," the poet's biographer, who certainly claimed to be ac- quainted with Pope after the publication of the Essay on Man. Squire Ayre, however, was so very small a man that we think Gay must have meant one of Pope's neighbours, the Eyres of Welford, in Berkshire. Gra- ham is a common name, and identification here is impossible. There were at this time a Thomas Graham, apothecary to the king, and Dr. Graham, warder of the Freemasons ; old Colonel Graham, of Bagshot Heath, &c. Buckeridge may have been Mr. Baynting Buckridge, an officer who had been in the East India Company's Service, and who died in 1733. 52 Thomas Stonor, Esq., of Stonor Park, the head of a Catholic family, now represented by Lord Camoys. Mr. Stonor died in 1722, and Pope said he had lost by his death " a very easy, humane, and gentlemanly neigh- bour." 53 Elijah Fenton, the poet. See Pope's Epitaphs. 51 Perhaps John Ward, the philologist and antiquary, who was appointed Professor of Rhetoric in Gresham College in 1720. 55 The Rev. William Broome, of St. John's College, Cambridge, after- wards associated with Pope in the translation of the Odyssey. Pope must have been highly gratified with this poetical blazon, though death and absence had reduced the roll of friends. Peterborough was then abroad. Parnell had died in 1718, and in a few months this loss was followed by that 210 LIFE OP POPE. of Garth and Eowe. These were early and sincere friends, and the social circle of poets was thus already narrowed, and Time was teaching the prosperous bard of Twickenham one of its sternest and saddest lessons. In another year Addison was gone, and his death must have struck a monitory knell of a deep and solemn tone. Atterbury was next to be severed from him as a State criminal. On the 24th of Au- gust, 1722, as the bishop was residing at his deanery, he was arrested on a charge of treasonable correspondence with the Pretender, and was taken, with all his papers, before the Privy Council. Letters, written under feigned names, were produced, the object of which was to obtain a foreign force of 5000 troops, to land under the Duke of Ormond. The pub- lication of Atterbury's correspondence and the Stuart papers has since fully established his criminality, but the evidence against him was slight. Similarity of handwriting was a slender ground of accusation, and Atterbury would make no explanation or acknowledgment to the Privy Council. One seemingly trifling circumstance weighed against him. " There was no doubt that the letters to and from Jones and Illing- ton were of a treasonable nature; the point was to prove that these names were designed for the bishop. Now, it so happened, that Mrs. Atterbury, who died early this year, had a little before received a present from Lord Mar in France of a small spotted dog called Harlequin, and this animal having broken its leg, and being left with one Mrs. Barnes to be cured, was more than once mentioned in the correspon- dence of Jones and Illington. Mrs. Barnes and some other persons were examined before the Council on this subject, and they, supposing that at all events there could be no treason in a lap-dog, readily owned that Harlequin was intended for the Bishop of Eochester. There were many other collateral proofs, but it was the throwing up this little straw which decisively showed from what quarter blew the wind." 13 Atterbury was committed to the Tower, and was so strictly guarded and watched that Pope said even pigeon- pies sent to him were opened. " It is the first time," adds the poet, "that dead pigeons have been suspected of convey- ing intelligence." A bill of pains and penalties enacting 13 Lord Mahon's History of England. BANISHMENT OF ATTERBURY. 211 banishment and deprivation, but without forfeiture of goods, was carried against the bishop in the House of Commons without a division. On the 8th of May, 1723, Atterbury was brought to the House of Lords. He had written to Pope (April 10), that he might call upon the poet to give evidence as to the man- ner in which he spent his time at the deanery, " which," he added, " did not seem calculated towards managing plots and conspiracies." Pope was accordingly called, but his self- possession seems to have deserted him. He got nervous and confused, and, as he himself related to Spence, " though I had but ten words to say, and that on a plain point, how the bishop spent his time whilst I was with him at Bromley, I made two or three blunders in it, and that, notwithstanding the first row of lords, which was all I could see, were mostly of my acquaintance." Even Garrick, upon one occasion, though so much accustomed to public appearances, made as indistinct and confused a witness. On the 11th of May, Atterbury entered upon his defence, and delivered an elo- quent and argumentative address — in some parts highly pathetic — but without invalidating any essential part of the evidence. The tone of this speech — the bishop's complaints of the proceedings against him by so extraordinary a method as a bill of pains and penalties — the hardships he had under- gone in the Tower, and the restrictions which had been put upon his only consolation, the visits of his beloved daughter — all these topics, heightened by strong feeling and artfully blended, render Atterbury' s defence not dissimilar in charac- ter to the more memorable one of the Earl of Strafford before his accusers of the Long Parliament. The bill passed by a majority of 83 to 43 ; and his Majesty having given, though reluctantly, his assent, the bishop prepared for his departure to Prance. Pope had written to him shortly before (April 20), under the impression, then apparent, that the bill would pass, reminding him of the fate of Tully, Bacon, and Claren- don, the disgraced part of whose lives, he said, was now most envied, and was that which he was sure the bishop would choose to have lived. His personal affection for Atterbury was strongly expressed, and the letter concludes with this striking declaration : " Perhaps it will not be in this life only that I shall have cause to remember and acknowledge p2 212 LIFE OF POPE. the friendship of the Bishop of Kochester." The following is Pope's farewell letter ; " May 2, 1723. " Once more I write to you, as I promised, and this once, I fear, will be the last ! the curtain will soon be drawn between my friend and me, and nothing left but to wish you a long good-night. May you enjoy a state of repose in this life, not unlike that sleep of the soul which some have believed is to succeed it, where we lie utterly forget- ful of that world from which we are gone, and ripening for that to which we are to go. If you retain any memory of the past, let it only image to you what has pleased you best ; sometimes present a dream of an absent friend, or bring you back an agreeable conversation. But upon the whole, I hope you will think less of the time past than of the future ; as the former has been less kind to you than the latter infal- libly will be. Do not deny the world your studies ; they will tend to the benefit of men against whom you can have no complaint, I mean of all posterity; and perhaps, at your time of life, nothing else is worth your care. What is every year of a wise man's life but a cen- sure or critique on the past ? Those whose date is the shortest, live long enough to laugh at one half of it : the boy despises the infant, the man the boy, the philosopher both, and the Christian all. You may now begin to think your manhood was too much a puerility; and you'll never suffer your age to be but a second infancy. The toys and baubles of your childhood are hardly now more below you than those toys of our riper and of our declining years, the drums and rattles of ambition, and the dirt and bubbles of avarice. At this time, when you are cut off from a little society, and made a citizen of the world at large, you should bend your talents not to serve a party, or a few, but all mankind. Your genius should mount above that mist in which its participation and neighbourhood with earth long involved it ; to shine abroad and to heaven, ought to be the business and the glory of your present situation. Remember it was at such a time that the greatest lights of antiquity dazzled and blazed the most, in their retreat, in their exile, or in their death: but why do I talk of dazzling or blazing ? it was then that they did good, that they gave light, and that they became guides to mankind. " Those aims alone are worthy of spirits truly great, and such I therefore hope will be yours. Resentment indeed may remain, per- haps cannot be quite extinguished, in the noblest minds ; but revenge never will harbour there : higher principles than those of the first, and better principles than those of the latter, will infallibly influence men whose thoughts and whose hearts are enlarged, and cause them to prefer the whole to any part of mankind, especially to so small a part as one's single self. " Believe me, my Lord, I look upon you as a spirit entered into ATTERBUET PRESENTS POPE WITH HIS BIBLE. 213 another life, as one just upon the edge of immortality ; where the passions and affections must be much more exalted, and where you ought to despise all little views and all mean retrospects. Nothing is worth your looking back ; and therefore look forward, and make (as you can) the world look after you. But take care that it be not with pity, but with esteem and admiration. I am with the greatest sin- cerity, and passion for your fame as well as happiness, "Your, &c." u Alter/bury went into exile the following month. On the 17th of June he took leave of his friends, and presented Pope with his Bible — a memento which, late in life — in 1739 — the poet gave to his friend Kalph Allen, and it was used in the chapel of Prior Park. Atterbury had on a previous occasion pressed the study of the Scriptures on his friend, to which Pope made this curious answer : "I ought first to pre- pare my mind for a better knowledge even of good profane writers, especially the moralists, &c, before I can be worthy of tasting that supreme of books and sublime of all writings." And an anecdote has been related, on the alleged authority of Pope, tending to prove that Atterbury himself was nearly all his life a sceptic. 15 This is incredible. He w T as aspiring, 14 Letters of Mr. A. Pope, London, 1737. 15 Lord Chesterfield relates a circumstantial story to this effect : "I went to him (Pope) one morning at Twickenham, and found a large folio Bible with gilt clasps lying before him on his table ; and as I knew his way of thinking upon that book, I asked him jocosely if he was going to write an answer to it. ' It is a present,' said he, ' or, rather, a legacy from my old friend the Bishop of Kochester. I went to take my leave of him yesterday in the Tower, when I saw this Bible upon the table. The Bishop said to me, " My friend Pope, considering your infirmities and my age and exile, it is not likely we should ever meet again ; and therefore I give you this legacy to remember me by. Take it home with you, and let me advise you to abide by it." " Does your Lordship abide by it yourself?" " I do." " If you do, my Lord, it is but lately ; may I beg to know what new lights or arguments have prevailed with you now to entertain an opinion so contrary to that which you entertained of that book all the former part of your life ?" The Bishop replied, " We have not time to talk of these things ; but take home the book. I will abide by it, and I recommend you to do so too ; and so God bless you !" ' " The tenor, terms, and dates of Atterbury's corre- spondence with Pope all refute this story. How it originated, or, rather, by whom it was fabricated, we cannot say ; error, like truth, is often in- scrutable. Chesterfield was strongly tinctured with infidelity, but he did not hesitate to bear voluntary testimony to the Christian character of an- other friend, Arbuthnot. 214 life or POPE. turbulent, and faithless as a politician, and not without dis- simulation and hypocrisy in private life; 16 but his whole career, his published writings and correspondence, are op- posed to the idea that he disbelieved the faith he preached and professed. On the 18th of June, Atterbury was embarked on board a man-of-war and conveyed to Calais, after which he entered into the service of the Chevalier, first as his confi- dential agent at Brussels, and afterwards at Paris. In 1725 he was the chief Jacobite counsellor and director in Erance, and had organised an expedition to Scotland for raising the Highland clans, then indignant at the disarming act. Atterbury summoned a meeting of the chiefs in Erance, and drew up for them a memorial to the exiled Court, urging im- mediate action, and imploring instructions and resources. The Chevalier was poor and timid : he recommended a profes- sion of submission to the act; but this peaceful message Atterbury never delivered! He ultimately obtained the consent of his royal master, and a special envoy was de- spatched from Rome, bearing, under the sign manual, pro- mises of assistance to the disaffected clans, The effort, however, was too long delayed ; the messenger reached the Highlands, but he does not seem to have ventured on de- livering his credentials, and thus Atterbury failed — no doubt to his deep mortification — to distinguish his period of Jacobite ascendancy by any military enterprise. Let us add that this restless, energetic, and domineering prelate was a man of warm, social, and domestic affections, and though ready to plunge his native country into civil war, still regarded it with tenderness. "After all," he says, "I do and must love my country, with all its faults and blemishes" — a sentiment repeated in the poetry of Cowper — and he gave this character of himself in lines prefixed to his translation of the Georgics : Haec ego lusi Ad Sequanae ripas, Thamesino a flumine longe, Jam senior, fractusque ; sedet ipsti morte meorum Quos colui, patriaeque memor, nee degener nsquam." 1(5 According to Fenton, Atterbury, speaking of Pope, said there "was mens curva in corpore curvo — a crooked mind in a crooked body ; and an- other contemporary, Dr. Herring, spoke of the general belief in Atterbnry's insincerity. See Hughes's Letters by Duncombe, vol. ii. pp. 39 and 105. DEATH OE ATTEEBTJRY. 215 Thus Englished (says Mr. Bowles) by himself: " Thus on the banks of Seine, Far from my native home, 1 pass my hours, Broken with years and pain ; yet my firm heart Regards my friends and country e'en in death." Also in couplets : " Thus where the Seine through realms of slavery strays, With sportive verse I wing my tedious days, Far from Britannia's happy climate torn, Bow'd down with age, and with diseases worn ; Yet e'en in death I act a steady part, And still my friends and country share my heart." These lines, Mr. Bowles says, are " worthy his friend Pope." Is it clearly ascertained that they are Atterbury's ? Both translations appear in Pope's organ, the Grub-street Journal (June 22, 1732), where they are given as " one literal in blank verse, and the other paraphrastical in rhyme, communicated to our society by one of our ingenious correspon- dents." Atterbury died in Prance on the 15th of February, 1732, but his remains were brought to England, and permit- ted to be privately interred in Westminster Abbey. 216 LIFE OF POPE. CHAPTER VI. [1723—1727.] LETTEKS TO JUDITH COWPER. RETURN OF BOLINGBROKE. EDITION OF SHAKSPEARE, AND TRANSLATION OF THE ODYSSEY. SWIFT VISITS ENG- LAND, AND PUBLICATION OF THE MISCELLANIES. The great popularity of Pope's name, and the reliance placed on his taste and judgment, as well as his genius, led to various suggestions from friends and publishers with re- spect to future literary works. Pope loved money, but it was to spend, not to hoard it. His garden and grounds called occasionally for a new poem, as Abbotsford called for a new historical romance, and booksellers and readers were alike willing in both cases to gratify the demand. Tonson was ready to contract for an annotated edition of Shakspeare, and Lintot was eager for a translation of the Odyssey, to complete the English Homer. Both proposals were ulti- mately accepted ; but Pope first discharged a pious duty to the memory of a friend, by editing a selection of the works of Parnell, which was published early in 1722, and was in- scribed to the Earl of Oxford in a poetical epistle remarkable for lofty panegyric and elevation of sentiment, and for the harmony and sweetness of its numbers. No short poem in our language has more of dignity and impressiveness com- bined with musical and faultless versification. In January, 1723, Pope engaged to translate the Odyssey in three years. The work was to be in five volumes, at a guinea each, and re- solving to make the labour as light as possible, he called in literary assistants. One half he reserved for himself, and LETTERS TO EEIKKA. 217 the other half, or twelve books, was given to Eenton and Broome, both competent scholars, and Fenton at least a more than mediocre poet. The Shakspeare he had begun before this, for in November, 1722, he mentions his work as then one quarter printed, though it did not appear till 1725. He pro- posed to collate the early copies, to insert the various read- ings in the margin, and to place the suspected or interpolated passages at the bottom of the page. To gratify the lazy or obtuse readers of Shakspeare, he was to distinguish the " shining passages" by marking them with stars or inverted commas — an expedient not unlike Lady Mary's plan of writing on the margin of her husband, Mr. Wortley's, parlia- mentary speeches the places where he was to pause, look round, and challenge a cheer from the assembled Commons ! Neither attempt was very successful. But Pope set reso- lutely to work, and what between his two engagements, he had full employment for at least two years. An episode of a tender nature was interposed amidst the labours of annotation and translation. In the autumn of 1722, Pope commenced a correspondence with a young lady whose name has not hitherto transpired. A series of twelve letters, written in the poet's most complimentary and admir- ing strain, was published by Dodsley in 1769, 1 printed from the originals. The lady to whom they were addressed ap- peared to reside in Hertfordshire; she occasionally wrote verses, and was intimate with Mrs. Howard. She sat for her portrait as one of Jervas's shepherdesses or Kneller's beauties ; and Pope (who had, he said, been " so mad with the idea of her as to steal the picture and pass whole days in sitting before it !") was ready with a poetical offering : " Though sprightly Sappho force our love and praise, A softer wonder my pleas' d soul surveys, The mild Eeinna blushing in her bays ! So while the sun's broad beam yet strikes the sight, All mild appears the moon's more sober light ; Serene in virgin majesty she shines, And, unobserv'd, the glaring sun declines." 1 Letters of the Late Alexander Pope, Esq., to a Lady. Never before pub- lished. Ruffhead's Life of Pope had been published shortly before (April, 1769), and probably suggested to Dodsley the publication of these letters. 218 LIEE OF POPE. Part of the panegyric was afterwards transferred to Martha Blount. Sappho was, of course, Lady Mary, whose influ- ence seems then to have been on the wane. Pope sent more lines to his correspondent, part of those addressed to Gray, disclosing the passion for Lady Mary, when he was the stricken deer panting in the shades with the arrow in his heart. "Retiring into oneself," he says, "is generally the pis aller of mankind" — one of his true and happy sententious remarks. " Would you have me describe my solitude and grotto to you ? What, if after a long and painted descrip- tion of them in verse (which the writer I have just been speaking of could better make if I can guess by that line, * JSTo noise but water, ever friend to thought'), what if it ended thus : " What are the falling rills, the pendant shades, The morning bowers, the evening colonnades, But soft recesses for th' uneasy mind, To sigh unheard in, to the passing wind I So the struck deer, in some sequester'd part, Lies down to die, the arrow in his heart ; There hid in shades, and wasting day by day, Inly he bleeds, and pants his soul away." " If these lines want poetry," he adds, "they do not want sense. Grod Almighty preserve you from a feeling of them !" — another allusion to his passion for Lady Mary, if not a mere sentimental flourish. The line quoted by Pope occurs in a poem by Dr. Ibbot, in Dodsley's Collection, 2 but he believed it to be the production of his fair correspondent. He sent her also a copy of his poem " To a Lady on her Birth- day, 1723," desiring her to " alter it to her own ivish" and he suggested fresh themes for her Muse : 2 A Fit of the Spleen, in imitation of Shakspeare : » No noise be there But that of falling water, friend to thought." Mrs. Howard had sent Pope a copy of this imitation, without naming the author. When the piece was published in the London Magazine, 1737, and afterwards in Dodsley's Collection, Pope's lines, " What are the falling rills," &c, were absurdly tacked to it, with the note, " Said to be added by Mr. Pope." Ibbot was one of the Chaplains in Ordinary to the King, Assistant Preacher at St. James's, &c. He died in 1725, and two volumes of his PEOPOSES A PAIET TALE. 219 " This beautiful season [the month of September] will raise up so many rural images and descriptions in a poetical mind, that I expect you and all such as you (if there be any such), at least all who are not downright dull translators, like your servant, must necessarily be pro- ductive of verses. I lately saw a sketch this way on the Bower of Beddington. 3 I could wish you tried something in the descriptive way on any subject you please, mixed with vision and moral, like pieces of the old Provencal poets, which abound with fancy, and are the most amusing scenes in nature. There are three or four of this kind in Chaucer admirable. I have long had an inclination to tell a fairy tale, the more wild and exotic the better ; therefore a vision, which is confined to no rules of probability, will take in all the variety and luxuriancy of description you will ; provided there be an apparent moral to it. I think one or two of the Persian tales would give one hints for such an invention ; and perhaps if the scenes were taken from real places that are known, in order to compliment parti- cular gardens and buildings of a fine taste (as I believe several of Chaucer's descriptions do, though it is what nobody has observed), it would add great beauty to the whole." The scenery of "Woodstock Park is supposed to be de- scribed by Chaucer in his Dream and Parliament of Birds, The genial old poet lived " Within a lodge out of the way, Beside a well in a forest." The well of Fair Eosamond j Pope knew the spot, and had toasted the shade of Eosamond with thoughts warmer than the water of her well ! A fairy tale such as is here alluded sermons were published by subscription, under the patronage of the noble family of Cowper. 3 Beddington in Hertfordshire was the seat of Mr. Caesar, Treasurer of the Navy in Queen Anne's reign. Steevens, in his " Additions," prints the lady's lines, and Mrs. Caesar sent a copy of them to Pope : " In Tempe's shades the living lyre was strung, And the first Pope (immortal Phoebus) sung, These happy shades, where equal beauty reigns, Bold rising hills, slant vales, and far-stretch'd plains. The grateful verdure of the waving woods, The soothing murmur of the falling floods, A nobler boast, a higher glory yield, Than that which Phoebus stamp'd on Tempe's field : All that can charm the eye or please the ear Says, ' Harmony itself inhabits here !' " 220 LIFE OF POPE. to would have proved an interesting contribution to our imaginative literature if written by the youthful Pope, when his fancy was redolent of sylphs and other aerial divinities. But it may be questioned whether even then he had enough of the pure creative power and fine spirit of poetry, apart from human interest, to have been perfectly successful in such a work. Addison's prose allegories show more of this inspiration, and Collins' s poetry is full of it. Pope's lady friend was driven from attempting the task by the death of a near relation, a great and good man, whose demise, Pope said, " must affect every admirer and well-wisher of honour and virtue in the nation." This reference to the death of the young lady's relative, joined to the dates and localities mentioned in the correspondence, furnish a clue to the names of the parties : and we have no doubt that the " great and good man" was the Lord Chancellor Cowper, w r ho died on the 10th of October, 1723, and that the lady was Lord Cowper's niece, Judith Cowper (afterwards Mrs. Madan), only daughter of Spencer Cowper, one of the Judges of the Court of Com- mon Pleas. Pope's eulogium on the lady's illustrious kins- man — though all the Cowpers w r ere "Whigs — was appro- priate even from him, when we remember that Lord Cowper had generously opposed the banishment of Atterbury and the bill for taxing the Roman Catholics — events nearly con- temporaneous with the date of this correspondence. The poet afterwards, in one of his Imitations of Horace (Ep. ii., book ii.), alluded in a complimentary style to Cowper's "manner," or deportment, which was remarkable for grace and dignity. Judith Cowper came of a poetical race, and she early began to write verses. She is mentioned by Hayley as having " at the age of eighteen discovered a striking talent for poetry in the praise of her contemporary poets, Pope and Hughes." This refers to a piece entitled The Progress of Poetry, in which she characterises Pope in a strain of unmingled eulo- gium : " High on the radiant list see Pope appears, With all the fire of youth and strength of years. Where'er supreme he points the nervous line, Nature and art in bright conjunction shine. JUDITH COWPER. 221 How just the turns, how regular the draught, How smooth the language, how refined the thought ! Secure beneath the shade of early bays, He dared the thunder of great Homer's lays ; A sacred heat inform'd his heaving breast, And Homer in his genius stands confess'd : To heights sublime he rais'd the ponderous lyre, And our cold isle grew warm with Grecian fire." 4 Hughes, also commemorated by Judith Cowper, was a pro- tege of the Lord Chancellor's, and lived some time at Hert- ingfordbury, the seat of the Cowpers. His friendship' with Addison (who is said to have asked him to write a fifth act to Cato before the timid and sensitive author could bring himself to finish his tragedy), and his contributions to the Spectator, have preserved his name. His death also was re- markable : he expired on the night that his most successful play, The Siege of Damascus, was brought on the stage, and while the plaudits of the audience were still ringing in the ears of his delighted friends. Duncombe, the brother- in-law of Hughes and editor of his works, mentions Miss Cowper in his poem The Feminiad, and Colman and Bonnell Thornton, in their Poems of Eminent Ladies, 1773, speak of her extraordinary genius. 5 4 Poetical Calendar, vol. iii. p. 27. 5 The best verses by this lady which we have met with are the follow- ing, in the fourth volume of Dodsley's Collection — quoted also by Mr. Southey in his Life of Cowper : By Miss Cowper (now Mrs. Madari), in her Brother's Coke upon Littleton. O thou, who labour'st in this rugged mine, May'st thou to gold th' unpolished ore refine ! May each dark page unfold its haggard brow ! Doubt not to reap, if thou canst bear to plough. To tempt thy care, may each revolving night, Purses and maces swim before thy sight ! From hence in time to come, adventurous deed ! May'st thou essay, to look and speak like Mead. When the black bag and rose no more shall shade, With martial air the honours of thy head ; When the full wig thy visage shall enclose, And only leave to view thy learned nose : Safely may'st thou defy beaux, wits, and scoffers, While tenants, in fee simple, stuff thy coffers. Ashley Cowper, the brother of Judith, was also a votary of the Muses — 222 LIFE OP POPE. The fairy tale which Pope had proposed to his fair corre- spondent was not attempted, as we have seen, in consequence of the death of her uncle. But there was another and per- haps a stronger cause for declining the task. The last letter in the correspondence (misplaced in the printed arrange- ment) is dated November 9th, and in less than a month from this time, on the 7th of December, 1723, Miss Cowper was married to Martin Madan, afterwards Colonel Madan, Groom of the Bedchamber to Frederick Prince of "Wales, and M.P. for "Wotton Basset. This event seems to have closed the poetry and poetical correspondence of Judith Cowper. There are no more letters to or from Pope, but the lady, her husband, and other members of her family, were among the subscribers to the Odyssey. 6 Judith was twenty-one at the period of her marriage, and she survived to the age of seventy-nine. She had many children, including Martin Madan, the famous preacher and too famous theo- logical writer, whose Thelypthora, or defence of polygamy, author of a poem called The Progress of Physic. In 1744 he published two volumes entitled The Norfolk Poetical Miscellany, and the first piece in this collection is robot's imitation of Shakspeare. Pope's lines, " What are the falling rills," &c, which the poet had sent to Jndith Cowper, are in the same work. Ashley Cowper — gay and sprightly, a beau in dress when verging on fourscore — and his daughters, the faithful Theodora, Cowper's only love, and Harriet, Lady Hesketh, are imperishably associated with the history of the poet Cowper. 6 We doubt if any cordiality was retained. From Nichols's Account of the Spalding Society (Lit. Anecd., v. vi. p. 68), it appears that in Sep- tember, 1723, the secretary of that society communicated to a meeting of the members A Poem by Mr. Pope on Mr. Cowper's Birthday. Nichols adds the question, " If ever printed ?" We are convinced that Mr. is a misprint for Mrs. Cowper, and that the poem was Pope's verses, To a Lady on her Birthday, 1723, which he had sent to Judith Cowper, as well as to Martha Blount. From Pope's ambiguous language, introducing the verses, and his omission of " June 15," given in the original copy sent to Martha Blount, Judith Cowper supposed the lines to be addressed to herself. Thus she may have been the "simpleton" mentioned in one of the Caryll letters in the Athenaeum. "The verses on Mrs. Patty," says Pope, "had not been printed, but that one puppy of our sex [James Moore Sinythe ?] took 'em to himself as author, and another simpleton of her sex pretended they were addressed to herself. I never thought of showing 'em to anybody but her ; nor she (it seems), being better content to merit praises and good wishes than to boast of 'em." This must be taken cum grano. He had shown them to Judith Cowper, desiring her also to transcribe them for Mrs. Howard, to whom he had promised to send a copy. THE HON". EOBEET DIGKBY. 223 occasioned such grief and scandal to his poetical cousin, William Cowper. Another son died Bishop of Peterborough. Mrs. Madan seems to have been a serious person, though not a devotee, like her daughter, Mrs. Major Cowper, the poet's correspondent. Shortly before her death, we find Cowper writing to John Newton, " Mrs. Madan is happy ; she will be found ripe, fall when she may." She died in Stafford-row, "Westminster, where she had long lived, in December, 1781. One letter of Cowper's to his " dear aunt " Madan is in his published correspondence. She knew his melancholy story, and must have admired his fine talents, and gentle, affectionate nature : his first volume was in the press at the time of her death. She was a connecting link between two schools of poetry — between the era of Swift and Pope and that of Cowper and Burns. In a few more years, her nephew was to rival if not dethrone her early idol, and was to carry the new faith into almost every English family and English heart. About the same time, July 1723, Pope received a visit from an amiable young man of noble family, with whom he had corresponded for some years — the Hon. Bobert Digby, a son of Lord Digby. The impression made upon Digby by the household at Twickenham was highly favourable ; he had received a new idea of life which, he said, was strongly im- pressed upon his imagination, and would long remain on his memory. And no doubt the little family group, the aged mother, devoted son, and faithful nurse, contrasting, in their quiet daily routine, with the poetical celebrity and the accomplishments of his host, must have interested the visitor, and appeared very different from the life he usually wit- nessed among his associates or in his father's princely seat of Sherborne Castle. Pope was no less gratified by a visit to Sherborne ; and in a letter to Martha Blount he describes the picturesque character of the fine old house and grounds, once the residence of the gallant and unfortunate Baleigh. In the letters to Digby (which are among the best of Pope's studied epistles) we have two happy specimens of his word- painting — sketches of spring and autumn. Twickenham, as seen on an old-fashioned May-day, he thus describes : " Our river glitters beneath an unclouded sun, at the same time that its banks retain the verdure of showers ; our gardens 224 LIFE OF POPE. • are offering their first nosegays ; our trees, like new acquaint- ance brought happily together, are stretching their arms to meet each other, and growing nearer and nearer every hour ; the birds are paying their thanksgiving songs for the new habitations I have made them ; my building rises high enough to attract the eye and curiosity of the passenger from the river, where, upon beholding a mixture of beauty and ruin, he inquires what house is falling or what church is rising : so little taste have our common Tritons of Vitruvius, what- ever delight the poetical gods of the river may take in re- flecting on their streams my Tuscan porticos or Ionic pilas- ters." This is a fine picture, full of hope and joy and gratified ambition. Such was spring, and even autumn as yet brought no saddening remembrances to the successful poet. " Do not talk of the decay of the year," he says ; " the season is good when the people are so. It is the best time in the year for a painter ; there is more variety of colours in the leaves ; the prospects begin to open through the thinner woods over the valleys and through the high canopies of trees to the higher arch of heaven ; the dews of the morning impearl every thorn, and scatter diamonds on the verdant mantle of the earth ; the frosts are fresh and wholesome — what would you have ? The moon shines, too, though not for lovers these cold nights, but for astronomers." And let us add to these matronly graces of autumn, the rich atmospheric effects of the season : the golden light in the foreground, and deep blue in the distance. But, as Pope well knew, it is the mind that gives its peculiar zest and ex- pression to the picture. Autumn will always be most fully enjoyed by the young, and spring by the aged. A friend now came to share with the poet and to heighten all his intellectual pleasures. When Atterbury went ashore at Calais, he was informed that Bolingbroke had just arrived there on his way to England, having obtained the royal pardon. " Then I am exchanged !" exclaimed Atterbury ; and, according to "Warburton, the bishop seriously enter- tained this opinion, conceiving that the price agreed upon for Bolingbroke's return was his own banishment. "Sure this is a nation that is cursedly afraid of being overrun with too much politeness," said Pope, "and cannot regain one genius but at the expense of another." Bolingbroke had bolingbkoke's betuek" to England. 225 officiated as secretary to the Pretender in France. He be- came unpopular and lost his appointment — chiefly through the superannuated prejudices and imbecility of the old Cheva- lier — and he then commenced plotting for his return to England. He accomplished his object by the aid of friends, and by that influence then so potent — money. A second marriage (to an amiable French lady) had added greatly to his fortune, and a present of 11,000?, to the king's favourite, the Duchess of Kendal, obtained for him the royal pardon, but without restoring to him his family inheritance, his title, or his seat in the House of Lords. Two years afterwards his estate was restored to him by act of parliament, but Wal- pole was inflexible in his resolution to exclude him from the House of Lords, and this privation galled him into a course of active opposition. He attacked the ministry in pamphlets and newspapers for a period of ten years, until, tired with the fruitless contest, and quarrelling with his own friends of the Opposition, he again withdrew to France. " What wanderer from his native shore E'er left himself behind ?" Restless, ambitious, and insincere, Bolingbroke was always dissatisfied. He excelled, however, in those popular qualities in which Pope was deficient. His appearance was noble ; his eloquence, according to Chesterfield and other contemporary authorities, was of the highest order, and seemed like in-, spiration ; he was of high rank, and a brilliant declamatory and specious writer on political and philosophical subjects. Lord Mahon (now Earl Stanhope) has expressed his surprise that Bolingbroke is not more read on account of his literary merits. One great drawback is the want of general interest in most of the subjects discussed ; another is the style of his writings, which, though flowing on in graceful and stately periods, is too much of a spoken or diffuse oratorical style. Compare a page of Addison, or on political subjects a page of Burke, with a page of Bolingbroke, and see how many ideas, how much thought and reading are in the one, how few and limited in the other ! Yet Bolingbroke has an air of greater dignity and even superiority. He held Pope, as it were, by a spell, and the spell was never broken. Arbuthnot knew him better. The Doctor's son, Greorge Arbuthnot, in- Q 226 LIFE OF POPE. formed Dr. Beattie, author of The Minstrel, that his father had told him he knew Bolingbroke was an infidel, and a vain, worthless man. The printed correspondence shows that there was no intimacy between them. The arrival of the peer was hailed by Pope as affording him more than an equivalent for the loss of Atterbury. The agreeable companion was restored — the eloquent, philo- sophical Mentor — and from him no chilling religious coun- sels or grave lectures on Protestantism were to be feared. Bolingbroke was often at Twickenham, and when his family inheritance (worth about 3000Z. per annum) was recovered, the poet spent much of his time at Battersea or at Dawley, a property near Uxbridge in Middlesex, which Bolingbroke had purchased of Lord Tankerville, and which he decorated with the insignia and even the implements of husbandry. Pope gives us a sketch of this rural retreat : "I now hold the pen for my Lord Bolingbroke, who is reading your letter between two haycocks ; but his attention is somewhat diverted by casting his eyes on the clouds, not in admiration of what rou say, but for fear of a shower. He is pleased with your placing um in the triumvirate, between yourself and me ; tho' he says that he doubts he shall fare like Lepidus, while one of us runs away with all the power, like Augustus, and another with all the pleasures, like Antony. It is upon a foresight of this that he has fitted up his farm, and you will agree that this scheme of retreat at least is not founded upon weak appearances. Upon his return from the Bath, all peccant humours, he finds, are purged out of him ; and his great temperance and economy are so signal, that the first is fit for my con- stitution, and the latter would enable^, you to lay up so much money as to buy a bishopric in England. As to the return of his health and vigour, were you here, you might inquire of his haymakers ; but as to his temperance, I can answer that (for one whole day) we have had nothing for dinner but mutton-broth, beans and bacon, and a barn- door fowl. Now his lordship is run after his cart, I have a moment left to myself to tell you, that I overheard him yesterday agree with a painter for 200/. to paint his country-hall with trophies of rakes, spades, prongs, &c, and other ornaments, merely to countenance his calling this place a farm." The design was carried into effect ; the hall was painted in black crayons, " so that at first," says Goldsmith, " it re- sembled figures scratched with charcoal, or the smoke of a i) DAWLET. 227 candle upon the kitchen walls of farm-houses." No very attractive or picturesque fresco illustrations ! Over the door, at the entrance, was the motto, Satis beatus ruris honoribus. Here, happy in the possession of moral tranquillity, the once ambitious politician was to repose for life ! "I am in my own farm," he writes to Swift; "here I shoot strong and tenacious roots ; I have caught hold of the earth, to use a gardener's phrase, and neither my enemies nor my friends will find it an easy matter to transplant me again." DAWLEY, THE SEAT OF LORD BOLINGBROKE. And as a practical commentary on this text, he immediately commenced political agitation, joining with Pulteney against "Walpole, and writing interminable letters in the Craftsman ! Pope was insensibly led more into opposition by Bolingbroke, though on the first arrival of his friend he seems to have re- solved on eschewing party politics. He wrote to Swift, Jan. 12,1723-4: < " The civilities I have met with from opposite sets of people have hindered me from being violent or sour to any party ; but at the same time the observations and experiences I cannot but have collected, have made me less fond of, and less surprised at any : I am therefore the more afflicted and the more angry at the violences and hardships q2 LIFE OP POPE. I see practised by either. The merry vein you knew me in, is sunk into a turn of reflection, that has made the world pretty indifferent to me ; and yet I have acquired a quietness of mind which by fits im- proves into a certain degree of cheerfulness, enough to make me just so good-humoured as to wish that world well. My friendships are increased by new ones, yet no part of the warmth I felt for the old is diminished. Aversions I have none, but to knaves (for fools I have learnt to bear with), and such I cannot be commonly civil to ; for I think those men are next to knaves who converse with them. The greatest man in power of this sort shall hardly make me bow to him, unless I had a personal obligation, and that I will take care not to have. The top pleasure of my life is one I learned from you both how to gain and hoj£ to use j| the freedom of friendship with men much my superiors. |$To have jieased great men, according to Horace,, is a praise; but not to have flattered them and yet not to haveMis- pleased them, is greateflji I have carefully avoided all intercourse with poets and scribblers, unless where by great chance I have found a modest one. By these means I have had no quarrels with any per- ( sonally; none have been enemies, but who were also strangers to me ; and as there is no great need of an eclaircissement with such, whatever they writ or said I never retaliated, not only never seeming to know, but often really never knowing, anything of the matter. There are very few things that give me the anxiety of a wish ; the strongest I have would be to pass my days with you, and a few such as you. But fate has dispersed them all about the world ; and I find to wish it is as vain as to wish to see the millennium and the kingdom of the just upon earth." This is about as unreal and imaginary as Bolingbroke's picture of philosophical retirement. Swift approved of his friend's abstinence as to party warfare, but he considered that it was more his happiness than his merit to choose his favourites indifferently from either side ; and he knew human nature too well to be deceived by the boasted retirement and perfect tranquillity said to be enjoyed at Dawley and Twicken- ham. " I have no very strong faith in you pretenders to re- tirement," he says; "you are not of an age for it, nor have gone through either good or bad fortune enough to go into a corner and form conclusions de contemptu, mundi et fuga sacitli." In truth, this style of writing on the part of Pope w r as a mere habit, and was generally expressed at the busiest periods of his life. But the poet might have asked his friend what good or bad fortune Tie had experienced to justify his contempt and hatred of mankind ? The misanthropy of Swift % EEPOETS INJTJEIOTJS TO MAETHA BLOUNT. 229 was less pardonable and more incongruous with his good sense and superiority of understanding, than Pope's self-delusion or unmeaning rhetoric. In the midst of this assumed philosophical calm some harsher notes were sounded from the world without. Re- ports injurious to the reputation of the poet's friend, Martha Blount, were revived and circulated widely between the years 1723 and 1725. He wrote to the lady's godfather and his own friend Mr. Caryll a long and serious letter on the sub- ject : " 25 Dec. 1725. " I wish I had nothing to trouble me more [than ill-natured criti- cism] . An honest mind is not in the power of any dishonest one. To break its peace there must be some guilt or consciousness, which is in- consistent with its own principles. Not but malice and injustice have their day, like some poor pert-liv'd vermin, that die of shooting their own stings. Falsehood is folly (says Homer), and liars and calumnia- tors at last hurt none but themselves, even in this world. In the next, 'tis charity to say, God have mercy on them ! They were the devil's vicegerents upon earth, who is the father of lies, and I fear has a right to dispose of his children. I've had an occasion to make these reflections of late much juster than from anything that concerns my writings, for it is one that concerns my morals, and (which I ought to be as tender of as my own) the good character of another very in- nocent person ; who, I'm sure, shares your friendship no less than I do. You, too, are brought into the story so falsely that I think it but just to appeal against the injustice to yourself singly, as a full and worthy judge and evidence too ! A very confident asseveration has been made, which has spread over the town, that your god-daughter, Miss Patty, and I, lived two or three years since in a manner that was reported to you as giving scandal to many ; that upon your writing to me upon it, I consulted with her, and sent you an excusive, alleviating answer ; but did after that, privately, and of myself, write to you a full confession ; how much I myself disapproved the way of life, and owning the prejudice done her, charging it on herself, and declaring that I wished to break off what I acted against my conscience, &c. ; and that she, being at the same time spoken to by a lady of your ac- quaintance, at your instigation, did absolutely deny to alter any part of her conduct, were it ever so disreputable or exceptionable. Upon this villainous lying tale, it is further added by the same hand, that I brought her acquainted with a noble lord, and into an intimacy with some others, merely to get quit of her myself, being moved in con- sciousness by what you and I had conferred together, and playing this base part to get off. You will bless yourself at so vile a wickedness, 230 LITE OF POPE. who very well (I dare say) remember the truth of what then past, and the satisfaction you exprest I gave you (and Mrs. Caryll also exprest the same thing to her kinswoman) upon that head. God knows upon what motives any one should malign a sincere and virtuous friendship. I wish those very people had never led her into anything more liable to objection, or more dangerous to a good mind, than I hope my con- versation or kindness are. She has, in reality, had less of it these two years past than ever since I knew her ; and truly when she has it, 'tis almost wholly a preachment, which I think necessary, against the ill consequences of another sort of company, which they, by their good will, would always keep ; and she, in compliance and for quiet sake, keeps more than you or I could wish. . . . God is my witness I am as much a friend to her soul as to her person ; the good qualities of the former made me her friend. No creature has better natural dispositions, or would act more rightly or reasonably in every duty, did she act by herself, or from herself." 7 This declaration satisfied Mr. Caryll : inquiry had been in- stituted and the injurious reports disproved. The following is part of a letter on the same painful subject addressed by Mrs. Caryll, the wife of Pope's friend, to Martha Blount : " March 15. " Nothing could be more kind than your way of expressing my taking no notice of what had given you so much trouble and uneasi- ness. I own to you I had heard a good deal of what the prattling part of the world had babbled about, but never gave any more ear to it than to the wind. But when I found my own dear [Mr. Caryll] took something to heart in good earnest that related to the two in the world he heartily loves and wishes well to, I began to examine more about it. Then he told me all his friend had imparted to him, which was so highly to your credit and commendation that it caused no change in my thoughts about the matter ; and I really was glad that you had such a friend in the world, nor can I ever hope that any- thing should change him from ever being so to you. I am so far con- vinced of his honour and worth, joined with his good understanding, that should all the peevish ill-will or passionate malice in the world invent all that lay in them, it would in no kind ever make me have the least thought of what I could wish otherwise as to your friendship. . . . .— E. Caryll." 8 7 Athenaeum, July 22, 1854. Part of this letter will be found in the printed correspondence addressed to Arbuthnot, dated " Sept. 10," and de- scribed by Pope in the contents as " To Dr. Arbuthnot, on his return from France ; and on the calumnies about the translation of the Odyssey /" 8 Mapledurham MSS. EDITION OF SHAKSPEAEE. 231 Pope conceived that these reports originated with Martha Blount's own family, hut in none of the letters is any person expressly named. Some years afterwards we find him re- gretting that Patty languished in town and dieted there on fools for want of friends. Teresa, on the other hand, affirmed that nobody of sense could live six miles out of London ; but though town and country might thus be occasionally in col- lision, there is no proof that the harmony of the sisters was ever seriously disturbed. In the year 1725, Pope's edition of Shakspeare was pub- lished by Tonson in six volumes quarto. The impression was limited to seven hundred and fifty copies, but of these, Johnson says, one hundred and forty remained on hand, and were only disposed of by the price being reduced from six guineas to sixteen shillings. This was, perhaps, the first decided failure in any of the publications by Pope. He was deficient in some important requisites for the task he had undertaken. The irksome but necessary duty of colla- tion was indifferently performed; he wanted patience, and he could not command all the early copies. He was not sufficiently read in the literature of Shakspeare's contempo- raries, and thus missed many points of illustration confirm- ing or elucidating the text. He also somewhat arbitrarily and unwarrantably altered or suppressed lines and passages, which he conceived to have been interpolated or vitiated by the players and transcribers. Some of his emendations, where his taste and penetration were brought into play, are original and happy. The exquisite allusion to music in the opening scene of the Twelfth Night — ■ ! it carne o'er me like the sweet south That breathes upon a hank of violets" — owes to Pope one of its principal charms, by the substitution of south for sound, as it previously stood, and which was evi- dently a corrupt reading. In Macbeth is also a felicitous alteration, Tarquin's ravishing strides for sides. Pope's pre- face to the work must be pronounced inferior to Johnson's, but it is what no other author of the day (after Addison's death) could have written. It is by far the best of Pope's prose compositions. Considering the state of criticism at that time, notwithstanding Dryden's Essays and Addison's 232 LIFE OF POPE. Spectators, and remembering the generally low appreciation of Shakspeare, Pope will not be found deficient in reverence or admiration of his great author. He reviews his charac- teristic excellences, his originality, his delineation of cha- racters, so various and dissimilar, yet so life-like, his power over the passions, his sentiments, language, and dramatic art. Much of what he advanced has been superseded by juster and higher criticism, founded on truer principles and more devoted study ; but it must be recollected that Pope was a pioneer in the service, and was not cheered in his labours by contemporary help or enthusiasm. The scale of remuneration, compared with that for Homer, shows how limited were the ideas entertained regarding Shakspeare. Pope agreed to edit the work for the sum of 2171. 12s. He was mortified at the want of success, and to add to his chagrin, the small critics and word-catchers rose in full cry against him. In 1726, Louis Theobald, one of the dullest of versifiers, translators, and dramatists, published a tract, entitled, " Shak- speare Restored, or a specimen of the many errors as well committed and unamended, by Mr. Pope in his late edition." Theobald was well read in black-letter and dramatic literature, and many of his citations of errors and defects were seen to be just. Tonson ventured on a duodecimo edition of Pope's work, and the poet inserted this characteristic notice of his critic : " Since the publication of our first edition, there having been some attempts upon Shakspeare by Lewis Theo- bald (which he would not communicate during the time wherein that edition was preparing for the press, when we, by public advertisement, did request the assistance of all lovers of this author), we have inserted in this impression as many of them as are judged of any the least advantage to the poet ; the toJwle amounting to about twenty-five words." And the same year (1728) appeared Pope's Dunciad with Theo- bald for its hero. The unfortunate commentator could not retaliate in this style ; but with the help of "Warburton and others he produced in 1733 a complete edition of Shakspeare in seven volumes octavo, which evinced greater care and knowledge than that of his illustrious predecessor, and soon eclipsed it in popular estimation. The translation of the Odyssey also involved Pope in trouble. In his proposals, issued January 10th ; 1724-5, he had TBANSLATICXN" OF THE ODYSSEY. 233 expressly stated that the subscription was not wholly for his own use, but for that of two of his friends who had assisted him in the work. He said he had undertaken the translation of the Odyssey, but did not claim to be sole translator. "Mr. Pope the undertaker 11 was a fertile topic of ridicule and abuse ; and an epigram on the translation, by some one of his nameless assailants, rises above the mark of Dennis, Gildon, or Theobald : " If Homer's never-dying song begun To celebrate the wrath of Peleus' son ; Or if his opening Odyssey disclose A patient hero exercised in woes : Let unda'taking Pope demand our praise, Who so could copy the famed Grecian lays, That still Achilles' wrath may justly rise, And still Ulysses suffer in disguise." The charge that he had solicited an expensive subscription, and employed underlings to perform what should have come from his own hands, was therefore an un- founded accusation. Eut Pope disinge- nuously concealed and misrepresented the amount of as- sistance he received. At the conclusion of the notes he makes Broome say — " If my performance has merit either in these or in any part of the trans- lation (namely, in the sixth, eleventh, and eighteenth books), it is but just to attribute it to the judgment and care of Mr. Pope, by whose hands every sheet was corrected : his other and much more able assistant was Mr. Penton, in ELIJAH FENTOX. 234 LIEE OF POPE. the fourth and the twentieth books." Here five hooks only- are mentioned, hut in reality twelve hooks were executed by the assistants. Penton took the 1st, 4th, 19th, and 20th books of the poem. To Broome were assigned the 2nd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 16th, 18th, and 23rd, besides the compilation of the notes. So well was the Pope measure — the " me- chanic echo" of his verse — now understood and practised, that Fenton and Broome show no inferiority in style to their master. The latter, however, corrected carefully, and threw in some of his occasional happy touches. The first couplet of the poem was thus written by Fenton : " The man for wisdom fam'd, O muse relate, Through woes and wanderings long pursued by Fate." Pope erased these, and substituted — " The man for wisdom's various arts renown' d, Long exercised in woes, muse resound." The Battle of the Progs and Mice was translated by Par- nell. According to Warburton, Broome received 6001. for his assistance, and Penton 300Z., but Spence makes Penton's share only 240Z., and it is known that Broome received only 5001. — four hundred for the translation of the eight books, and one hundred for the notes. 9 There was no cordiality in this classical association. Penton had not a good opinion of Pope's heart, Broome had a decidedly bad opinion of Pope's Greek, and Pope, next year, classed Broome among " the parrots who repeat another's words in such a hoarse, odd voice, as makes them seem their own !" Two years had now been employed on the Odyssey — from, 1723 to 1725 ; it extended to five volumes ; and, deducting the sum of 800Z. paid to his coadjutors, the Odyssey realised for Pope 2885Z. 5s. Por the copyright, Lintot had given 1001. per volume, and all the subscribers' copies, amounting to five hundred and seventy-four. The Iliad and Odyssey had thus brought to the English poet from eight to nine thousand pounds. By making the ancient Grecian pass through his poetical crucible into an English form, he had indeed " drawn the golden current of Pactolus to Twickenham." The Anne 9 Cunningham's edition of Johnson's Lives, iii. 211. swift's congbatulation. 235 and Georgian period, up to this date, was princely in its pa- tronage of literature. "Worse days for authors came with an abler administration. "Walpole, in ten years — from 1731 to 1741 — spent above fifty thousand pounds on writers ; but it was on newspaper party hirelings and virulent pamphleteers. Swift wrote to his friend (September 29th, 1725), con- gratulating him on his emancipation from the drudgery of translation, and at the same time exhibiting that vein of misanthropy which, as Warton said, dishonoured him as a man, a Christian, and a philosopher : "I am exceedingly pleased that you have done with transla- tions ; Lord Treasurer Oxford often lamented that a rascally world should lay you under the necessity of misemploying your genius for so long a time. But since you will now be so much better employed, when you think of the world, give it one lash the more at my request. I have ever hated all nations, professions, and communities ; and all my love is towards individuals : for instance, I hate the tribe of lawyers, but I love Counsellor such a one, and Judge such a one. 'Tis so with physicians (I will not speak of my own trade), soldiers, English, Scotch, French, and the rest. But principally I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth. This is the system upon which I have governed myself many years (but do not tell), and so I shall go on till I have done with them. I have got materials towards a treatise, proving the falsity of that definition animal rationale, and to show it should be only rationis capax. Upon this great foundation of misanthropy (though not in Timon's maimer) the whole building of my travels is erected ; and I never will have peace of mind till all honest men are of my opinion : by consequence you are to embrace it immediately, and procure that all who deserve my esteem may do so too. The matter is so clear, that it will admit of no dispute ; nay, I will hold a hundred pounds that you and I agree in the point." Pope, without formally stating his dissent from his friend (October 15th, 1725), contrived to show him that he dis- approved of his view of human nature : "I have often imagined to myself, that if ever all of us meet again, after so many varieties and changes, after so much of the old world and of the old man in each of us has been altered, that scarce a single thought of the one, any more than a single atom of the other, remains just the same; I've fancied, I say, that we should meet like the righteous in the Millennium, quite in peace, divested of all our former passions, smiling at our past follies, and content to enjoy the kingdom "Zdb LIFE OF POPE. of the just in tranquillity. But I find you would rather be employed as an avenging angel of wrath, to break your vial of indignation over the heads of the wretched creatures of this world ; nay, would make them eat your book, which you have made (I doubt not) as bitter a pill for them as possible, I won't tell you what designs I have in my head (besides writing a set of maxims in opposition to all Hochefoucault's principles) till I see you here, face to face. Then you shall have no reason to complain of me, for want of a generous disdain of this world, though I have not lost my ears in yours and their service. Lord Oxford, too (whom I have now the third time mentioned in this letter, and he deserves to be always mentioned in everything that is addressed to you, or comes from you), expects you : that ought to be enough to bring yon hither; 'tis a better reason than if the nation expected you. For I really enter as fully as you can desire, into your principle of love of in- dividuals : and I think the way to have a public spirit is first to have a private one ; for who can believe (said a friend of mine) that any man can care for a hundred thousand people, who never cared for one ? No ill-humoured man can ever be a patriot, any more than a friend." The translation of the Odyssey secured for Pope the most attached and undoubting of all his literary friends. The Rev. Joseph Spence, afterwards Professor of Poetry in Ox- ford, in 1726 published an Essay on Pope's Odyssey. He " censured with respect and praised with alacrity," as John- son remarks ; Pope sought his acquaintance, and they were ever afterwards in habits of the strictest intimacy. The ill success of his Shakspeare, and the clamour raised against him for his " undertaking" the Odyssey, had the effect of determining Pope to make his next appearance as an author in the character of a satirist. In a letter to Swift, written in 1725, he mentions the hatred entertained towards him by lad people, and he specifies Gildon and Cibber. The former was a friend of Ambrose Philips, and in his complete Art of Poetry, published in 1718, he had studiously depre- ciated Pope. His criticism, however, was unworthy of notice, and Pope must have known that if ever Gildon could be con- sidered formidable, he was so no longer, for he was then dead. Cibber had very little gall in his composition, but Pope's feud was of long standing. Swift — ever wise in counsel, when no cloud of passion intervened — dissuaded his friend from the course he saw he was meditating. " Take care," he said, SWIFT AGAIN YISITS ENGLAND. 237 " the bad poets do not outwit you as they have served the good ones in every age, whom they have provoked to transmit their names to posterity. Maavius is as well known as Vjrgil, and Gildon will be as well known as you if his name gets into your verses." Pope accepted the caution, though he could not abide by it, in the spirit and temper of a man of sense. He agreed with Swift, that all scribblers should be passed by in silence; "so," he adds, "let Grildon and Philips rest in peace." The friendly monitor soon afterwards made his ap- pearance in England, and took up his abode at Twickenham. SwifVs reputation had been greatly extended by his de- fence of the liberties of Ireland — as his defeat of the scheme of Wood's copper coinage was considered — and he brought with him the manuscript of Gulliver's Travels. How cor- dially he was received by Pope, by Gray, Arbuthnot, and Bolingbroke, may be readily conceived. To his powerful understanding and strong will they yielded involuntary sub- mission. He was the Coryphaeus of the party, the successful champion of Ireland, and the chief of English wits. Swift valued literature only as a means of promoting his own ad- vancement, or carrying such objects as he strongly desired. He was not like Pope, all author. He wanted literature to do for him what a great fortune or title would have done. He wished, he said, to be used like a lord, so that the reputa- tion of wit or learning might do the office of a blue riband, or a coach and six horses. On this occasion he visited Wal- pole — not disinclined apparently to share in ministerial fa- vour — but his ostensible object was to represent the aifairs of Ireland to the great minister in a true light. He was po- litely received, and the Princess Caroline saw him at Leices- ter House, but his schemes evaporated in mere courtly phrases. He retired more than ever disgusted with courts and ministers of state ; and his visit to England was abruptly terminated by the illness of Stella, in consequence of which he hurried back to Ireland. He had been about four months — from April to August — with Pope at Twickenham. During this time, Gulliver had been finally completed for the press, and two volumes of Miscellanies, containing pieces in prose and verse, by Swift, Pope, Gay, and Arbuthnot, were pro- jected and considerably advanced. Swift had been only a few weeks gone, when a serious accident happened to his host 238 life or pope. at Twickenham. The poet had been dining with Boling- broke at Dawley, and late at night the peer sent his friend home in a stately fashion, in a coach and six. A small bridge, abont a mile from Pope's residence, was broken down, and the postilion taking the water, the coach came in contact with the trunk of a tree, and was overturned. Before the coachman could get to Pope's assistance, the water had reached the knots of his periwig. The glass was broken, and he was rescued, but not until he had received a severe wound in his right hand, which for some time disqualified him for writing. Yoltaire, who was then on a visit at Dawley, sent his condolences in an English epistle, stating that the water into which Pope fell was " not Hippocrene's water, otherwise it would have respected him !" "Is it possible," he added, " that those fingers which have written the Kape of the Lock, and the Criticism, which have dressed Homer so becomingly in an English coat, should have been so barbarously treated ?" Pope disliked the French wit, having, it is said, found out he was a spy, and Voltaire having, on one occasion, talked so grossly at Twickenham with respect to the state of his health, as to drive Mrs. Pope from the table. Voltaire, however, was a favourite with George I. and the Princess Caroline, which helped to fill his subscriptions for the Henriade, and to make his fortune, but which proved no recommendation at Twickenham. Among the Homer MSS. in the British Museum is a small undated and unsigned note, in the handwriting of Martha Blount, referring to this accident : " We shall be at home all Friday, and expect you soon after dinner. Tour dangers on the water that night I can imagine from what George told us. Your wine is come safe." Martha was always sparing of words. Gulliver's Travels made the winter of 1726 famous. It was published in the latter end of October or beginning of November, and sold with such rapidity, that the whole im- pression was exhausted in a week, and the work promised, as Arbuthnot said, to have as great a run as John Bunyan. Pope went to London on purpose to see how it would be re- ceived by statesmen and commoners, and to observe its effects was, he says, his diversion for a fortnight. He had a pecu- liar interest in the work, if the report adopted by Sir Walter gtjlliyeb's teayels. 239 Scott in his Life of Swift be correct, namely, that Swift made him a donation of the copyright, and that he sold it for 300Z. It does not appear, however, that he was connected with car- rying out, though he may have suggested the mystification that accompanied the publication of Gulliver. Erasmus Lewis was the negotiator, and the sum demanded for the copyright was 200Z. The manuscript was sent to Benjamin Motte, Swift's bookseller, with a request that he would immediately deliver a bank-bill of 200Z. Motte demurred to the imme- diate payment, but offered to publish the work within a month after he received the copy, and to pay the sum de- manded, if the success allowed it, in six months. The terms were accepted and the book appeared, but at the end of the six months Motte seems to have applied for a longer period of credit. This also was granted. Swift, disguising his hand, and signing " Richard Sympson," as acting for his cousin Gulliver, left the matter to Erasmus Lewis, and Lewis, May 4th, 1727, writes, " I am fully satisfied." 10 Pope, then, does not appear in the transaction, but the secret of the authorship was, of course, known to Swift's particular friends, though in their letters they all affected ignorance of it. Pope says the publisher received the copy, he knew not from whence nor from whom, dropped at his house in the dark from a hackney coach ; and by computing the time, he found it was after Swift left England, so he suspended his judg- ment. Gay writes to the same effect ; and Swift kept up the humour by alluding to a book sent to him called Gulli- ver's Travels. " A bishop here," he adds, " said that book was full of improbable lies, and for his part he hardly be- lieved a word of it." Arbuthnot writes him : " Lord Scar- borough, who is no inventor of stories, told us that he fell in company with a master of a ship, who told him that he was very well acquainted with Gulliver, but that the printer had mistaken ; that he lived in Wapping, and not in Eotherhithe. I lent the book to an old gentleman (adds Arbuthnot), who went immediately to his map, to search for Lilliput." It is obvious how much all this must have amused and gratified 10 Taylor's edition of Gulliver, 1840. The originals are in the possession of the Kev. C. Bathurst Woodman, Edgbaston, by Birmingham. Mr. W. is grandson of Bathurst, the publisher, who was the partner and successor of Motte. 240 LIFE OF POPE. the Dean and his friends in connexion with the unexampled sale of the volume. The health of Stella being partially restored, Swift visited England again in April, 1727. His fame now stood higher than it had done in the previous autumn, and he was wel- comed at Leicester House, and in all the circles of his friends, with increased delight and enthusiasm. He still clung to the expectation of obtaining some church prefer- ment in England, and fresh hopes were kindled on the death of the king, when a change of ministry was expected. "Wal- pole, however, was again in the ascendant, and Swift lingered on for some months with small chance of his wishes being realised. He resided, as before, with Pope, and the result of their joint efforts appeared by the publication, in June, of two volumes of the Miscellanies. A third, called " the last volume," was published in the following March. The Pre- face is dated from Twickenham, May 27, 1727, and is signed by Swift and Pope, whose initials also appear in a cipher on the title-page. The preface is evidently of Pope's composi- tion, and the following reason is assigned for the publica- tion : " Having both of us been extremely ill treated by some booksellers, especially one Edmund Curll, it was our opinion that the best method we could take for justifying ourselves would be to publish whatever loose papers in prose and verse we have formerly written ; not only such as have already stolen into the world very much to our regret, and perhaps very little to our credit, but such as in any probability hereafter may run the same fate ; having been obtained from us by the importunity and divulged by the indiscretion of friends, although restrained by promises which few of them are ever known to observe, and often think they make us a compliment in breaking." Regret is expressed that their raillery, though ever so tender, or their resentment, though ever so just, should have been indulged with regard to Sir John Vanbrugh, " who was a man of wit and of humour, and Mr. Addison, whose name deserves all respect from every lover of learn- ing." It is then affirmed that the cabinets of the sick and the closets of the dead had been broken open and ransacked to publish their private letters — a statement certainly un- supported by proof, and which seems to have been hazarded MISCELLANIES BY POPE AND SWIFT. 241 with a view of preparing for some subsequent publication of letters. Parnell, Grarth, Bowe, Addison, and Craggs had died, but their friends and executors made no complaints of such indignities, which, if perpetrated, must have awakened the liveliest indignation, and led to instant inquiry. To the Miscellanies Swift was the largest contributor, and his ironical and satirical treatises, with his poetical trifles, thus collected and presented in a compendious shape, must have formed the chief attraction of the work. Pope published his Memoirs of P. P., Clerk of this Parish (a witty though inde- licate satire on Bishop Burnet, in which Gray assisted), and the Treatise on the Bathos, or Art of Sinking in Poetry. He also reprinted the Key to the Lock, and the Satires on Curll and Dennis. Many of his lighter poetical pieces also appeared for the first time in these volumes, including the "Fragment of a Satire," formerly published in Markland's Cythereia, with additions, in which " slashing Bentley and piddling Tibbalds" (Theobald), are duly commemorated, and the lines on Addison are given, slightly corrected. The con- coction of these volumes certainly betrays the art of the bookmaker, and was fairly open to comment ; but the direct personal sallies it contained aroused a whole tribe of hostile authors and friends of authors, and led the way to the " big wars" of the Dunciad. Swift, who had condemned such notice of bad poets, and who possessed more enlarged and tolerant views on these subjects than his friend, must have been overruled in the matter of the publication ; but having assented, he was utterly indifferent to whatever attacks it might provoke. His disappointment at the Court, and the return of his deafness and giddiness, engrossed his attention ; and finding himself unfit for company, and that Pope was too sickly and complaisant, he removed from Twickenham to London. He seems to have stolen away under pretence of some unavoidable business, and he continued in London during the month of September, Pope visiting him as often as he could obtain access to his retreat. He left England in the beginning of October, leaving with Gay a letter for his friend at Twickenham, which was couched in such kind and affecting terms, that Pope says it made him cry like a girl. This was Swift's last visit to England. Stella died about three months after his return to Ireland. 242 LIFE OE POPE. ^Before Swift's departure, Gay had nearly completed his Beggar's Opera. The idea of a Newgate Pastoral had been first suggested by the Dean, and both he and Pope are said to have assisted in the composition of the piece. To Pope has been assigned two of the songs which glance satirically at the Court, but his statement to Spence was, that except a word of correction or advice now and then, the play was wholly of Gay's own writing. In fact, Gay was a better lyrical poet than either of his more able friends. The opera was brought on the stage January 29th, 1727-8 — the very day after the death of poor Stella in Dublin — and its success was as great as that of Gulliver. Pope has recorded the event in one of the notes to the Dunciad, and it appears that Gay's share of the profits — "the author's nights" — amounted to nearly seven hundred pounds. In his treatise on the Bathos, or profound, Pope cited a number of grandiloquent and absurd passages from the poetry of Sir Richard Blackmore, Lee, Cooke, Welsted, Am- brose Philips, Theobald, Broome, &c. These quotations, with the sarcastic introductory remarks, are highly effective. The solemn platitudes of Blackmore, the puerility of Philips, and the rant of some of the tragic heroes, thus displayed, apart from the context, covered them with ridicule from which there was no escape. Broome took offence, though his name was not mentioned, at the introduction of two absurd lines from his pen. "Another author," says the satirist, " describes a poet that shines forth amidst a circle of critics, " ' Thus Phoebus through the zodiac takes his way, And amid monsters rises into day.' " What a peculiarity is here of invention ? The author's pencil, like the wand of Circe, turns all into monsters at a stroke !" This naturally irritated Broome, who was some- what too grave and fine a man to relish such a depreciatory remark. He wrote to Penton and to Pope on the subject, and Pope replied that the passage was " neither his doing nor Dr. Arbuthnot's, but was inserted by a friend." 11 To 11 From Unpublished Letters in Mr. Croker's possession, quoted by Mr. Cunningham in his edition of Johnson's Lives. " All that was remembered of Broome twenty years since, in the parish in Norfolk where he lived, was that he was a fine man, and kept an eagle." — Gent. Mag., 1836. RIDICULE OF THE MINOR POETS. 243 credit this denial would have required more faith and charity than, we suspect, the worthy and classical Suffolk rector was possessed of. "Welsted, in his best poem, Aeon and Lavinia, has two lines open to ridicule : " To decline His suit, who saw her, with familiar eyes, Asleep, and only covered with the skies." The satirist misquoted the lines and added to the absurdity of the picture : -Behold the virgin lie, Naked, and only cover'd by the sky." " To which," says Scriblerus, " thou may'st add — " ' To see her beauties no man needs to stoop, She has the whole horizon for her hoop.' " In addition to the examples of the Bathos, Pope ranged the " confined and less copious geniuses" in different classes under the name of animals, and as this chapter was con- sidered by many the " head and front of his offending," we subjoin the classification : 1. The Flying Fishes : These are writers who now and then rise upon their fins, and fly out of the Profund ; but their wings are soon dry, and they drop down to the bottom. G. S. A. H. C. G. 2. The Swallows are authors that are eternally skimming and flut- tering up and down, but all their agility is employed to catch flies. L. T. W. P. LordR. [Afterwards altered to "Lord H."] 3. The Ostriches are such, whose heaviness rarely permits them to raise themselves from the ground ; their wings are of no use to lift them up, and their motion is between flying and walking ; but then they run very fast. D. P. L. E. The Hon. E. H. 4. The Parrots are they that repeat another's words, in such a hoarse, odd voice, as make them seem their own. W. B. W. H. C. C. The Reverend D. D. 5. The Didappers are authors that keep themselves long out of sight under water, and come up now and then where you least ex- pected them. L. W— D., Esq. [Afterwards " L. W. G. D."] The Hon. SirW.Y. 6. The For poises are unwieldy and big ; they put all their numbers into a great turmoil and tempest, but whenever they appear in plain light (which is seldom) they are only shapeless and ugly monsters. b2 244 LIFE OF POPE. 7 The Froc/s are such as can neither walk nor fly, but can leap and bourd to admiration. They live generally in the bottom of a ditch, and make a great noise whenever they thrust their heads above water. E. W. I. M., Esq. T. D., Gent. 3. The Fels are obscure authors, that wrap themselves up in their own mud, but are mighty nimble and pert. L. W. L. T. P. M. General C. 9. The Tortoises are slow and chill, and, like pastoral writers, de- light much in gardens : they have, for the most part, a fine em- broidered shell, and underneath it a heavy lump. A. P. W. B. L. E. The Eight Hon. E. of S. The busy-idle portion of the reading public of London, and especially the poetasters who had been struck at, had no difficulty in deciphering these initial letters, though a few (as D. D. and E. of S.) seem to have been set down as blinds to the others. Gr. S. was George Seivell, the Whig poet and translator, who died in 1726. A. H. was Aaron Hill. C. Gr. Charles Gildon. L. T. Louis Theobald. W. P. William Patteson, one of Curll's poets, who died in 1727. Lord H. Lord Hervey. D. E. De Foe. L. E. Lawrence LJusden. The Hon. E. H. Edward Howard. W. B. William Broome. C. C. Colley Ciller. L. W — D. Leonard Welsted, and when changed to L. W. Gr. D. Leonard Welsted and George Bucket. The Hon. Sir W. T. Sir William Tonge. I. D. John Dennis. I. O. John Oldmixon. E. W. Edward Ward. I. M. James Moore. T. D. Thomas Lurfey. P. M. Peter Motteux. A. P. Ambrose Philips. 1 " In this classification exact consistency had not been pre- served ; for to make Gildon both a flying fish and a porpoise, Theobald both a swallow and an eel, and Welsted a didapper as well as an eel, was surely, as Dennis said, as little appo- site as the cloud in Hamlet, which Polonius made sometimes like a weasel and sometimes like a whale. Dennis gravely urged that " neither the initial nor the final letters of these authors' names, nor their persons, nor their actions, ever gave any such ideas to any mortal, unless to this little whim- sical creature. But," he adds, "now let us see if we cannot 12 A writer in the Daily Journal, March 26 (evidently Pope), under the signature of Philalethes, suggests that in some instances each letter means a different surname, as E. Eusden ; W. Welsted; I. Johnson; M. Mitchell; T. Tate; D. Durfey. ATTACKS ON JAMES MOORE SMYTHE. 245 turn this very method with a little more success upon Alex- ander P. For let us only do by him what he has done by L. W — D, that is, take the initial letter of his Christian name, and the initial and final letters of his surname, viz., A. P — E, and they give you the same idea of an ape that his face, and his shape, and his stature do, and his name ludicrously mischievous." To such miserable warfare bad the greatest poet of his age subjected himself by ignoble personal satire ! Dennis's remark, however, was, in that style of controversy, a "palpable hit," and Pope altered the initial letters as given above. Nearly all these parties come before us again in Pope's array of dunces, but one of the number he singled out for immediate and signal vengeance, which was never satiated so long as the victim lived. This was James Moore, now James Moore Sraythe, his maternal grandfather, William Smythe, of London, having, in 1720-1, left him his fortune, with directions that he should take the name of Smythe. This fortune was vested in real estate, Smythe having pur- chased a property named Prodley Hall, near Barton, in Staf- fordshire. 13 Though Smythe's father, Arthur Moore, had retired from public life in some disgrace, he lived in a style of magnificence, and had two estates in Surrey, Petcham and Polesden ; his son James, also, from his connexions and fortune, moved in good society. We gather from Pope's Dunciad that Smythe was at least occasionally in the com- 13 In 1731 wo find him present at an entertainment to celebrate the birthday of Lord Andover, son of the Earl of Berkshire, on which occasion he wrote some lines : " Andover, with soft attractions gay, Where early graces and young Muses play ; Think, whilst we celebrate thy natal hour, We toast to freedom unrestrain'd by power — That plan of liberty deliver'd down, Which the sire cherish'd and the son must own. Then, when on noble ruins thou shalt rise, And the bad world yield Berkshire to the skies, Long may'st thou emulate thy father's place, And wear the beauties of thy mother's race." On which Pope wrote this distich, published in the Grub-street Journal : " What makes for once Squire Jemmy's Muse so toward ? Mere joy to see a cousin of Ned Howard." 246 LIFE OF POPE. party of Arbutknot, Young, and other friends of the poet, and by Pope himself was introduced to Lord Peterborough. He was, as we have seen, intimate with the Blount family at Mapledurham. The sarcastic allusion to him in the Miscel- lanies shows that Pope's enmity had then been stirred by some undisclosed affront or injury, and this first blow was followed up a few days afterwards by a letter in the Daily Journal, March 18, 1728 : " Sir, — Upon reading the third volume of Pope's Miscellanies, I found five lines which I thought excellent, and, happening to praise them afterwards in a mixed company, a gentleman present immedi- ately produced a modern comedy published last year, where were the same verses, almost to a tittle. I was a good deal out of countenance to find that I had been so eloquent in praise of a felony, and not a little in pain lest I myself should be understood to be an accomplice. The lines are these ; the subject a coquette : " i 'Tis thus that vanity coquettes rewards, A youth of frolics, an old age of cards ; Fair to no purpose, artful to no end, Young without lovers, old without a friend ; A fool their aim, their prize some worn-out sot, Alive ridiculous, and dead forgot.' But my confusion was vastly aggravated when the same gentleman, pur- suing his triumph, turned me to the discourse at the head of the Third Volume, where the author of these admirable hues is likened to a frog in poetry ; one that can neither walk nor fly, but can leap and bound to admiration ; that lives generally at the bottom of a ditch, and makes a great noise whenever he thrusts his head above water ; and is placed in this class between Mr. Edward Ward and Mr. Thomas Durfey. If every man who is, with equal dulness, abused in that piece, had con- tributed an equal proportion to the Miscellany, instead of its being resented as a fraud on the public, it might have proved an agreeable amusement. But these gentlemen are resolved to be originals in some kind or other ; and are undoubtedly the first plagiaries that pretended to make a reputation by stealing from a man's works in his own life- time, and out of a public print. In their manner of treating him they resemble our ordinary footpads, who never rifle a man without abusing him, as though they meant to make out their title to his money by proving to him that he was not worthy of it. I am, sir, your most humble servant, — Philo-Mauri." Another letter in the same journal, signed Philalethes, points out the injured party : CHARGE OF PLAGIARISM AGAIXST SMTTHE. 247 " I see no reason why you should suppress the name of Mr. I — M. S , to whom this Injury has been done, or not cite the comedy of the Rival Modes, where those five excellent verses are to be found. But I must now farther acquaint you, sir, that the whole piece en- titled "Memoirs of a Parish Clerk," in the second volume of that collection, has above two years been owned by Mr. S in several companies. And I am certainly informed that another admirable piece, called "An Historico-Physical Account of the South Sea," which he has yet in his hands, would (if these authors could any way have procured it from him) have as infallibly been published as their own in this collection." Pope bad thus ingeniously laid the foundation for a charge of plagiarism against Smythe. Whoever read the above letters in the Daily Journal would turn to the Miscellanies for the important lines, and there they appear as forming part of the verses addressed to Martha Blount on her birth- day, in 1723, a copy of which Pope had sent to Judith Cowper : " Oh, be thou blest with all that Heaven can send, Long health, long youth, long pleasure, and a friend, Not with those toys the female race admire, Riches that vex and vanities that tire ; Not as the world its pretty slaves rewards, A youth of frolics, an old age of cards ; Fair to no purpose, artful to no end ; Young without lovers, old without a friend ; A fop their passion, but their prize a sot ; Alive ridiculous, and dead forgot !" &c. These verses underwent various changes, as may be seen by referring to the "Miscellaneous Poems" of Pope in this edition. But the plot against Smythe was not unfolded till the enlarged edition of the Dunciad appeared in 1729. There the above charge was repeated ; the letter accusing Pope of plagiarism was quoted, and Pope entered boldly on his defence. The lines were his, he had given Smythe leave to insert them in his comedy of the Rival Modes ; but a month before the play was acted, January 27, 1726-7, he wrote to him stating that the verses would be known to be his, some copies having got abroad. Smythe, however, begged they might be retained ; the lines had been read in his comedy to several persons, and he hoped Mr. P. would not deprive him of them. Reference is then made to Bo- 248 LIFE OE POPE. lingbroke, to the lady to whom the verses were originally addressed, to Hugh Bethel, and others, who knew the verses to be his (Pope's) long before Smythe composed his play. They had appeared in the Miscellany as addressed to the lady three years before, in 1723. But were they really sent to Martha Blount in 1723 ? In the copy at Mapledurham there are no such lines ; two contemporary manuscripts of the poem exist, and neither contains them ; u they were not in the copy sent to Judith Cowper, and a copy printed and pub- lished in 1726 is without them. The inevitable conclusion is that Pope inserted them in the verses addressed to M. B., as published in the Miscellany, in order to found or support the charge of plagiarism against Smythe. He had made pre- paration for it by his anonymous letters in the Daily Journal, and the triumphant exposure was reserved for the Dunciad. Never before was so much lasting enmity built on so slender a basis ! The charge of plagiarism, even in its worst shape, is feebly supported. The lines are not exactly given as a quo- tation, though Smythe might have argued that they were. Most of the characters in the play are made occasionally to 14 Athenaeum, June 28, 1856. The writer says, " I cannot but believe that Pope had some regrets at this unworthy proceeding, for the Moore Smythe verses were omitted from the Dunciad in 1736, and struck out of the ' Verses to M. B.' when published by Dodsley in 1738." Pope's reason for these omissions, we suspect, was simply that he had previously (in 1735) included the lines in the Characters of Women or Moral Essays, Ep. ii. He could not well continue them in both poems. Smythe, we may suppose, had seen the lines in the hands of his friends, the Miss Blounts. He asked leave of Pope to put them into his comedy ; consent was given, but after- wards withdrawn ; yet Smythe included them in his condemned play, and they appeared in it when printed. Lin tot had given a hundred guineas for the play, and Smythe had dedicated it to Walpole. Pope was now in high wrath, and being then engaged in preparing the Miscellany, he vindicated his right to the appropriated lines by introducing them into the Verses to Mrs. M. B., though he may have intended them for his Epistle on Women, addressed to " A Lady " — i. e. Martha Blount, to which he afterwards trans- ferred them. Some of the lines addressed to Erinna (Judith Cowper) are also in this Epistle, and were written as early as 1723. These, along with the Moore Smythe lines, may have been seen by Bethel, &c, though not in the Birthday Verses, and Pope does not say in what poem they were seen. This is perhaps the only way in which Pope's plot can be vindicated or pal- liated. smtthe's "rival modes." 249 deliver scraps of verse. In Act II. Sagely (performed by- Mills) says : " Gone ! May the common course of jilts light on yon, that not one of your follies may end till it give birth to a worse. 'Tis thus that vanity coquettes rewards, &c. The lines are not distinguished by inverted commas, but are printed in italics. Other verses, sprinkled throughout the play, are given in the same manner ; and it is important to notice that in the very next page to that in which the pla- giarised lines appear, two from Pope's long-published and popular Essay on Criticism are quoted or appropriated thus, and printed like the others : " Bell. Nay, fly to altars, there I'll talk you dead. Mell. For fools rush in where angels fear to tread." It is difficult to reconcile this fact with Pope's warning to Smythe and Smythe's entreaty; for it is obvious that tbe miserable dramatist did not think it necessary that his tag verses should be supposed to be written for the play. The masked battery against Moore Smythe was opened, as we have seen, in the Daily Journal of March 18, 1728. He made no reply, but in the same journal of April 6 there ap- peared an effort at satire from his pen, which, harmless as it is, Pope includes in his catalogue of the writings which pro- voked the Dunciad : Notice is hereby given to all Lovers of Art, and Ingenuity, That the following Collection of such uncommon Curiosities as never were yet exhibited in any publick Auction, belonging to a noted Person at Twickenham, who had been long since advised to leave off his Business, may be viewed there any day in the month of April instant. Qui non credit hodie, eras credat. Ex Auto. T. R. 1. A Curling Spire .... freely touch? d. 2. A frighted Sky 3. A Silver Sound . 4. An awkward Grace 5. An ambrosial Curl 6. A nectar'd Urn. Copy from the Great Blackmore. harmoniously sketched. after the manner of Settle. entire. historical. 250 LIFE OP POPE. 7. Adamantine Lungs 8. A Vermilion Prore 9. A many-coloured Maid 10. A Triple Dog . . 11. A singing Spear . 12. A quivering Shade. 13. A dancing Cork 14. A sequestered Scene 15. AYelvetPlain. . 16. An Oozy Bed . . 17. A Liquid Road . . 18. A Branching Deer . A Peather'd Fate . A Leaden Death . A Pensive Steed . 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. A winged Wonder . A living Cloud . . A brown Horror . A blue Languish . 26. A Self-mov'd Tripod N.B. The Gentleman's . as good as new. . Dutch. . Flemish. , the Romish School. . a copy from Blackmore. . somewhat shook in stretching. . with great Spirit. . still life. . after Brughell. Water Colours. . perfectly new. . Capital. ' > These two go together. . an undoubted Original. . from the Dutch Gabriel. . after the Life. ' £ both very capital. . after the Blacksmith of Antwerp. NURSE, who us'd to shew the above- mentioned Collection, being lately deceas'd, Attendance will be given only in a Morning. Before quitting tbe Miscellanies we shall add some par- ticulars relative to the copyright of the work. They are of biographical interest as illustrating Pope's acuteness as a man of business, and they form a new chapter in literary history. The original documents have recently been brought to light, 15 and they serve also to correct the statement often made that Swift abandoned to Pope the sum obtained for the Miscellanies, and that the sum was 150Z. The agreement between Swift and Pope and Motte the publisher was drawn up and signed March 29, 1727. For the copyright of a previous volume of Miscellanies, Motte was to pay 501. ; for the new pieces he was to pay at the rate of four pounds for each printed sheet, or sixteen pages. The sum of 501. was to be " paid down ;" 100Z. within two months after the publication of the two new volumes; another 100Z. within four months ; and in case of a fourth volume 15 In the Gentleman's Magazine. The originals are in the possession of Mr. Bathurst Woodman (see ante, p. 239), and that gentleman kindly sub- mitted them to our inspection. COPYEIGHT OF THE MISCELLANIES. 251 being added, the rate of payment was to be the same. The sum of 501. was "paid down" to Pope on the 10th of April, and he granted a receipt for the same. On the 30th of June he writes to Motte, " As to the poem which I will have to end the volume, it will make three sheets at least, and I will take time till winter to finish it. It may then be published, singly first, if proper. I'm sure it will be advantageous so to do, but say not a word of it to any man." Swift left England in the autumn of 1727, and in the March following Pope wrote to him : " Our Miscellany [the third volume] is now quite printed. I am prodigiously pleased with this joint volume, in which methinks we look like friends side by side, serious and merry by turns, con- versing interchangeably, and walking down, hand in hand, to posterity — not in the stiff forms of learned authors, flatter- ing each other, and setting the rest of mankind at nought, but in a free, unimportant, natural, easy manner, diverting others just as we diverted ourselves." The public looked with less complacency on the joint volumes, and on the au- thors of this " chaos of odd scraps," as Jonathan Smedley ("the other Jonathan") styled the compilation. The sale was at first slow, and the publisher, as was his wont, solicited a longer term of credit. The first instalment of 1001. was due in May, but Pope granted further time, and in June ac- cepted a promissory note for 501., and another note for 50/. payable to Dr. Arbuthnot. As the winter approached, Pope got anxious for a settlement : " Nov. the 9th. " Me. Motte, — This is to acquaint you, in order that I may not be disappointed a third time in the manner I last was, that at the time you desired, I will draw a bill of 251. on you, namely the 16th of this instant, which I promised the payment of, as of the remainder, the beginning of next month. I found it very troublesome to borrow it the morning you left me, and I must acquaint you that, trying to pro- cure it of Dr. Arbuthnot, he told me (what had I known before I should have been more vexed) that his family were made to wait for the payment of his 50/. six or seven times after he was at Bath. I am ashamed of it. " As I would do anything in reason to make you easy, this was ill done of you. The Dean does not come to England this winter, as I was made to hope. As to what I promised you of the Miscellanies I 252 LIFE OF POPE. will keep my word as you do with me, since it presupposed your ob- serving the conditions. It will be necessary to give Mr. Gay a note for the remainder due, and what patience he pleases he may have, but since what I heard of Dr. Arbuthnot I will take it upon myself no further. I am your sincere well-wisher and servant, — A. Pope." It would seem as if the publisher, before finally settling the claims upon him, wished to obtain possession of the pro- mised new poem, that was to make at least three sheets, and might be advantageously printed in a separate form. But this Pope, who had another object in view, resisted. " "When you have paid the 100Z., either to Mr. Gay or me," he writes to Motte, January 14th, 1728-9, " or given him or me a note for it, for value received — as then the agreement for the former volumes will be made good — I will give you a full discharge, and give you a title to the other volume for 25L, to which you will have liberty, on my word, to add the poem." In these negotiations respecting the " copy money" Swift's name has not appeared since he signed the agreement ; but, on the 8th of March, Pope writes to Motte that he had received a letter from the Dean, desiring that Motte should send the balance of his account to the widow Hyde, in Dublin, "and she will pay it," he adds, " as to our account." Mr. John Hyde was a respectable bookseller in Dublin, mentioned in Swift's correspondence. He died in 1729, in Motte's debt ; and it was no doubt to relieve the widow that Swift made this benevolent request. He intended to present her with his share of the copyright of the Miscellanies. Pope then apologised to Motte for having spoken " a pas- sionate word or two" to him : " I thought myself very ill used in your complaining of me to Mr. Lewis, and I was also provoked at finding from him, some time be- fore, how you had been as backward with the Dean's note. . . . There could be no shadow of an excuse on any pretence of that book's not selling [Gulliver's Travels], which had so extraordinary a run ; I de- sire, therefore, that you will tell me by a line when I may draw upon you for the rest of the fifty (35/.), and entreat you to put me no more out of countenance with Mr. Gay, but that you'll send me a note of 50/., payable to him on demand. Upon which I will finish our whole accounts, and observe punctually what I promised you after, which, till then, you have no right to claim, as it is noway due, but an act of free good will." SUM EEALISED BY THE COPYBIGHT. 253 It is clear that Pope did not intend to give Motte the new poem. About a fortnight afterwards he wrote again, remind- ing the tardy publisher of Gay's claim, and desiring him, in the meantime, to pay 10/. "to the bearer." The account was finally closed on the 1st of July, 1729. Pope allowed an abatement of 251., and signed, conjointly with Motte, on behalf of himself and Swift, a discharge of all claims for the three volumes of Miscellanies. The copyright was to last for fourteen years, with a promise of its being renewed for other fourteen years on payment of five shillings ; and Motte, in consideration of the abatement of 251., relinquished all claim he might have by virtue of the agreement to the fourth volume of Miscellanies therein mentioned. The copyright of the work thus realised a sum of 225/., of which Arbuthnot and Gay appear to have received 50Z. each. Swift was the largest and most valuable contributor; but Pope's persevering attention, and sharp practice as nego- tiator, may have placed him on a parity with the Dean as to pecuniary right. In writing to Pulteney some years after- wards (1735), Swift said he had never got a farthing by any- thing he had written, except once, about eight years before, and that was by the prudent management of Mr. Pope. This declaration must refer to Gulliver's Travels, for which Lewis, as negotiator, had received 200/. Another volume of Mis- cellanies was added by Pope in 1732. It was hastily got up, to anticipate a collection of pieces of Swift's by Pilkington. To Pope's volume Swift gave his consent, but he had no share in its arrangement, and the whole benefit of the copy- right, sold to Motte and Gilliver, seems to have been enjoyed by the poet. In a letter written to Motte in 1732, Swift says, " I can assure you, I had no advantage by any one of the four volumes, as I once hinted to you, and desire it may be a secret always." And a secret it remained, at least to the public, for more than a century. 254 LIFE OE POPE. CHAPTEE YII. [1728—1730.] THE DUNCIAD AND GRUB-STREET JOURNAL. CORRESPONDENCE WITH AARON HILL. The mysterious poem with which Pope tantalised the pub- lisher of the Miscellanies was unquestionably the Dunciad. He had broken off from Motte, a different publisher was selected, and the work was given to the world without the name of the author. In this instance, as in the case of the Rape of the Lock, Pope sent forth at first an imperfect or meagre sketch of his plan. The name originally fixed upon was "Dulness," or "The Progress of Durness ;" and, under the former of these titles, it is mentioned in the correspon- dence by Bolingbroke and Swift, to whom Pope had submitted portions of the work as it proceeded. To Swift he assigns paramount influence in the completion of the satire. "With- out him, he says, it certainly had never been ; and " the first sketch of the poem was snatched from the fire by Dr. Swift, who persuaded his friend to proceed in it, and to him it was therefore inscribed." There are indications, however, of the poem having been contemplated or begun some years before the date of Swift's visit to England. The action of the poem in 1720, when Sir George Thorold was Mayor, and the in- troduction of Motteux, Centlivre, Grildon, and other sons and daughters of Dulness long dead (Grildon is enjoined to em- brace Dennis), seem to point to a period anterior to 1727. In 1721 Pope had struck up a sort of treaty of amity with Dennis. There had been no fresh provocation to hostilities, POPE WRITING THE DUNCIAD. 255 but there were, probably, some old, imprinted materials in store, and Pope was always reluctant to lose a single verse. The Fragment of a Satire, including the Addison lines, may have been part of this original sketch shown to Swift, and, by his advice and assistance, the poem was greatly extended, diversified with new incidents and characters, and enriched with prolegomena and notes. Yet Swift represents himself as only a passive spectator of the anxious labours of the poet. In that fine copy of verses addressed to Pope while he was writing the Dunciad, Swift has drawn a life-like picture of a scene which must often have occurred in the small study at Twickenham : " Pope has the talent well to speak, But not to reach the ear ; His loudest voice is low and weak, The Dean too deaf to hear. " Awhile they on each other look, Then different studies choose ; The Dean sits plodding on a book ; Pope walks and courts the Muse. " Now backs of letters, though design'd For those who more will need 'em, Are fill'd with hints and interlined, Himself can hardly read 'em. ■ Each atom by some other struck, All turns and motions tries ; Till in a lump together stuck, Behold a poem rise! " Yet to the Dean his share allot, He claims it by a canon ; 1 That without which a thing is not, Is causa sine qua non.' " Thus Pope in vain you boast your wit, For had our deaf divine Been for your conversation fit, You had not writ a line. " Of prelate thus for preaching famed, The sexton reason'd well, And justly half the merit claim'd, Because he rang the bell." 256 LIFE OF POPE. Swift did more than ring the bell, and he looked for his reward. He was jealous of the position he occupied among his friends ; he was covetous of praise from men whose praise was honour — in his latter years it degenerated into a love of flattery — and, in particular, he put a high value on the esti- mation of Pope. Before he left England he probably knew that the Dunciad was to be inscribed to him in the language of warm panegyric ; he had contributed notes to the work, in conjunction with Arbuthnot and others, and he looked with impatience for the appearance of a volume in which he had so material a share and interest. Great, therefore, was his dis- appointment on learning, indirectly, that the poet had de- parted from his original plan, and that the poem was to be published divested of the inscription or dedication to himself, and of the commentary in which he had assisted. He wrote to Pope : " The Doctor (Delaney) has told me your secret about the Dunciad, which does not please me, because it defers gratifying my vanity in the most tender point, and perhaps may wholly disappoint it." The work appeared in May, 1728. 1 Tour editions, or impressions, of the poem 1 The Dunciad, an Heroic Poem, in Three Books. Dublin printed: Lon- don reprinted for A. Dodd, 1728, 12mo. It was registered at Stationers' Hall, May 30, by James Bettenham, a printer. To the volume was pre- fixed a frontispiece representing an owl (with a label from the beak, in- scribed The Dunciad) perched on a pile of books, marked "P and K Arthur" (Blackmore's epic poems of Prince Arthur, 1695, and King Arthur, 1697); Shakesp. Restor'd ; Dennis's Works ; Newcastle; Cibber's Plays." This first edition of the Dunciad is advertised in the Daily Post of May 18. On May 27 a quotation from Milton was added to the advertisement : 11 He, as an herd Of goats and timorous flocks together thronged, Drove them before him thunderstruck, pursued Into the vast abyss." On the 29th May was advertised li A Complete Key to the Dunciad; with a character of Mr. Pope and his profane writings, by Sir Richard Black- more, Knight, M.D." Printed for A. Dodd, and sold by E. Curll. This Key, following so close on the publication of the poem, and printed for the same publisher, Dodd, was most likely the work of Pope himself. The comments are explanatory, not depreciatory, and the use of the name of Blackmore is characteristic. All the circumstances connected with the publication of the Dunciad have been ably and fully elucidated in " Notes and Queries" for 1854. PUBLICATION OF THE DUNCIAD. 257 (including a reprint by Faulkner of Dublin) were issued, in this imperfect form, during the year 1728. In the preface, Pope had said (speaking in the character of his publisher), " If it provoke the author to give us a more perfect edition, I have my end ;" and the perfect edition was, of course, soon ready. On June 28th, the poet writes to Swift : " The Dun- ciad is going to be printed, in all pomp, with the inscription (the lines to Swift) which makes me proudest : it will be attended with proeme, prolegomena, testimonia scriptorum, index authorum, and notes variorum." Next month Swift replied, " I would be glad to know whether the quarto edi- tion is to come out anonymously, as published by the com- mentator, with all the pomp of prefaces, &c, and among many complaints of spurious editions ?" Exactly as here indicated, in April, 1729, appeared the enlarged Dunciad, with the prolegomena of Scriblerus and notes variorum, and the preface said to have been prefixed to the five first imperfect editions, printed at Dublin and London. This array of mul- tiplied editions — Irish and English, octavo and duodecimo — was a shadowy progeny created by the poet ; and, indeed, the figment of an original Dublin edition was disproved by Faulkner's title-page, on which were the words, " London printed : Dublin reprinted." The work, in its enlarged form, appears to have been soon pirated in London. In June, 1729, Arbuthnot writes that Pope had got an injunction in Chancery to suppress the piracy, but that it was dissolved again, as the printer could not prove any property, and the author did not appear. Such a result was obvious, and must have been foreseen by Pope. His object in resorting to the Court of Chancery was, no doubt, to increase the public in- terest in the work, and to add to its notoriety. Had he been in earnest, he would have put forward Beckenkam, the printer, in whose name the first edition of the Dunciad had been entered at Stationers' Hall, and w r ho had thus, nomi- nally at least, legal power to restrain the pirates. When the object of immediate publicity had been attained, Pope vindi- cated his right to the copyright of the satire. In November he assigned over "The Dunciad, an Heroic Poem," to the Earls of Burlington and Oxford, and Lord Bathurst, and these in turn transferred the work, " with the sole right and liberty of printing the same," to Pope's publisher, Lawton 258 LIFE OF POPE. Gilliver. By this transaction the poet concealed his name, yet protected his property. His claim to be considered the author was sufficiently set forth in the work ; but the covert assignment to his noble friends, with the statement in the prefatory advertisement that the commentary was the work of several hands, and that the part of Scriblerus must be well enough known, left him greater liberty to indulge in egotism, to prefer accusations, and to parry any assaults that the satire might happen to provoke. Perhaps this is the only instance in our literary annals of three noblemen standing as bottle-holders (to use a sporting phrase) to a poet. 2 The condescension of the three noblemen was paralleled by that of another friend of the poet, whom we now hear of for the first time. To the enlarged edition of the Dunciad was pre- fixed a Letter to the Publisher, dated from St. James's, and signed William Cleland. The letter is an elaborate vindica- tion of the satire, and a censure of the dunces, combined with unqualified praise of the moral character, the literary aims, and genius of Pope. But no one, as Warburton asserts, and as is abundantly proved from the contemporary prints, be- lieved that Cleland was the author of the letter. Pope's character for artifice was now so firmly established that all defences or appearances of this kind were believed to emanate from himself. Dennis professed not to know whether such a " worthy person" as William Cleland was in existence ; by another pamphleteer he was set down as a " counterfeit friend ;" by a third he was designated as " Pope Alexander's man William ;" and by a fourth, who seems to have heard something of Cleland, he is styled " Major Sputter, a Scotch spy, who had travelled in Spain and Italy, and gathered in- telligence, true or false, for Ministers and others at home." 2 In the registers of the Stationers' Company is the following entry, first published by the editor of " Notes and Queries :"— "Nov. 21, 1729. The author of a book entitled The Dunciad, an HeroicTc Poem, hatb, by writing under his hand and seal, assigned unto the Right Hon. Richard Earl of Burlington and Cork, the Right Hon. Edward Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, and the Right Hon. Allen Lord Bathurst, their executors, &c, the said poem and the copy thereof. And the said Earl of Burlington, Earl of Oxford, and Lord Bathurst, by writing under their hands and seals, have assigned unto Lawton Gilliver, his executors, &c, the said book and copy of the sole right and liberty of printing the same, and also the Prole- gomena of Scriblerus. (Signed) " Lawton Gilliver." MAJOR WILLIAM CLELAKD, 259 In reality, the poet's friend and shield-bearer was a gentle- man who had served in the army, having, as Pope afterwards said, held the rank of Major, and been nnder Lord Rivers in Spain. He retired from the army after the peace, and (ap- parently on the accession of George I.) obtained employment in the civil service, first as a Commissioner of Customs in Scotland, and, subsequent to 1723, as a Commissioner for the Land-tax and House-duty in England. He had an official income of 500/. a year, lived in St. James's-place, and asso- ciated with the Scotch Tory peers, Stair, Marchmont, &c, and was known to most of Pope's friends. In 1733 he was one of the persons in London to whom the proceedings of the Scotch peers, who met at Edinburgh in that year, were directed to be communicated. He was thus a man of some rank, and, according to Pope, he was also a man of " uni- versal learning and enlarged conversation." How he sub- mitted to such humiliation as that of lending his name to Pope whenever he wanted it is not easily accounted for. He was, we suspect, a careless, irresolute man, fond of display, and probably under personal obligations to Pope. He may also have had some share in the letters which bear his name. "We may suppose that the explanatory statements, the tone of sentiment, and line of defence, were written out by Pope. His complaisant friend, knowing how tremblingly alive the poet was to all that concerned his reputation, and over- powered by his importunities, would then take up the sub- ject, add at least part of the panegyric, and cast the whole in a somewhat freer and less author-like style. Such, seems to be a reasonable conjecture as to the actual state of the case between poet and commentator. They had the same feeling and tastes as to literature, politics, and private society. So late as 1739, when Cleland was in his sixty-sixth year, we find Pope acknowledging the receipt of a letter from him of six pages, and, at Cleland's intercession, Pope set to the study of Don Quixote — most likely in Jervas's translation. It is clear, however, that though Cleland had, by his sub- serviency, earned the poet's gratitude, he had failed to win his respect. In mentioning the letter of six pages, to which we have alluded, Pope writes to Lord Polwarth, that he acknowledged the receipt of Cleland's letter, that he might he honest even to farthings. The name of Cleland nowhere s2 260 LIFE OF POPE. appears in the Pope and Swiffc correspondence, or in the conversations recorded by Spence. His wife seems to have been acquainted with Swift, Lady "Worsley, Miss Kelly, &c. ; and it is probable that the Major owed his social position, in some measure, to Mrs. Cleland's influence and connexions. 3 Sir "Walter Scott has stated, in his edition of Swift, that Pope's friend was the son of Colonel Cleland, the young Cameronian chief, who wrote a Hudibrastic satire on the Jacobite army, known as the "Highland Host," of 1678, and who was killed at Dunkeld in 1689. Any man might be proud of such a descent, for no cavalier trained to arms and chivalry could have displayed greater gallantry or truer heroism than this young Covenanting leader. He was sud- denly surrounded by a force of four thousand men — the same force that Dundee led to victory. His own followers did not amount to more than eight hundred; but, animated by his exhortations and example, they resolved to give battle, and succeeded in driving the Highland army before them, after the latter had lost about three hundred men. As Cleland Avas addressing his troops he was shot in the head, and when retiring to conceal the fatal accident, he fell and expired. He was then only in his twenty-eighth or twenty-ninth year. 4 3 She was, we believe, related to the Proby family, mentioned in Swift's letters, and now represented by Lord Carysfort. Pope presented a portrait of himself by Jervas, a three-quarters length, and a copy of the quarto Homer, to Mr. Cleland, the latter inscribed in the poet's neat complimentary style : " Mr. Cleland, who reads all other books, will please read this from his affectionate friend, A. Pope." The book and picture are still at Elton Hall, Huntingdonshire. 4 In the posthumous collection of Cleland's Poems, 1697, the first piece is an addition to the lines, " Hollo, my Fancy," stated to be written by him in the last year he Avas at the College, not then fully eighteen years of age. The records of the Universit3 r of Edinburgh (which Mr. David Laing, with his usual courtesy, has examined to settle this point) show that Cleland matriculated in April, 1676, and took bis Master's degree, " privatim," in January, 1681. Other instances occur of the degree being privately granted, by which the parties avoided taking the usual oaths. Cleland's college studies may, however, have been interrupted. If he was fifteen when he entered College (and this was then about the usual age), he must have been born in 1661. His namesake, Pope's friend, was born in 1673. There were several families of his name in his native county of Lanark ; but we con- ceive the future major to have been the student William Cleland, enrolled in the fourth class of Glasgow College in March, 1687. Pope says he stu- died at Utrecht. WILL HONEYCOMB. 261 This brave officer and clever satirical poet could not have been the father of Pope's friend, for he was only twelve or thirteen years of age when Major Cleland was born. The latter was the representative of an old Scotch family, Cleland " of that ilk," distinguished for its services and alliances from the time of Wallace and Bruce. "William Cleland's great- grandfather sold the lands of Cleland ; the house declined, and William, though well connected and educated, and, pro- bably, proud that he was entitled to " carry the principal arms of his family as a tessera of his blood and primogeni- ture" (Nisbet's Heraldry, 1722), was, like many of his countrymen of gentle birth but small fortune, sent into the army. During his early London life, Cleland is said to have been the prototype of Will Honeycomb. The tradition rests on no good authority ; and if it had any foundation, Steele must have altered some traits of character, and added at least twenty years to the age of the old beau for the purpose of making the ridicule stronger. Cleland was only in his thirty- eighth year when the Spectator Club was drawn. He was married; and instead of despising scholars, bookish men, and philosophers, he was precisely one of this class himself. The prototype of Will (though it is extremely doubtful whether the character was drawn from any particular person) is always said to have been a Colonel Cleland. Military titles were then very carelessly applied ; and if Trooper Steele could be universally known as " Captain," no one would have been surprised to find a gentleman who had been in the army sometimes called Major, and sometimes Colonel. There was, however, a Colonel Cleland contemporary with the Major, whom Swift met in society in 1713, and who was anxious to be appointed Governor of Barbadoes. He wrote some tracts on the State of the Sugar Plantations. This Colonel Cleland gave dinners to Swift, Lord Dupplin, and the other Tories, and, after the Queen's death, he enter- tained Lady Marlborough and Steele. But the difference between Swift's Cleland and Will Honeycomb is essential. Swift describes his colonel as the keenest of all place-hunters, as laying " long traps" to engage interest, and as "a true Scotchman;" and we know that by a true Scotchman Swift meant everything that is most cold, crafty, and pertinacious 262 LIFE OF POPE. — everything, in short, that is unlike "Will Honeycomb. "We must, therefore, abandon Swift's Colonel Cleland ; and we do so with some regret, as we had hoped to identify him as the father of another Cleland usually connected with Pope's friend, namely, John Cleland, the unfortunate and worth- less man of letters, author of an infamous novel, and an extensive miscellaneous writer. John Cleland is represented as having been the son of " Colonel Cleland," and we should be glad to be able to divorce him from all connexion with the retired Major and literary Commissioner of the land-tax. The evidence on the other side is, however, notwithstanding the erroneous mili- tary designation, strong and almost conclusive. "While John Cleland was living, it was twice asserted in print that he was the son of Pope's friend and correspondent. Nichols, who asserted this, was a diligent collector of facts, and emi- nently versed in the literary gossip of the eighteenth cen- tury. He had the best means of obtaining information as to this particular point, and his evidence never having been, so far as we know, contradicted, must be received as decisive. He is supported also by Isaac Eeed, editor of the European Magazine (vol. xv.), who mentions John Cleland as the son of Colonel Cleland, " whose name is to a letter prefixed to the Dunciad." Nichols and Eeed, apparently, did not know that there were two military Clelands, contemporaries in London, but they both knew, or believed, that John's father was Pope's friend. 5 5 In the Steele Correspondence published by Nichols there is a letter, dated Sept. 8, 1714, in which Steele mentions his intention of dining with Cleland. This, we suspect, was Swift's Cleland ; but on the name Cleland is the following note : " The friend and correspondent of Pope, and supposed to be the Will Honeycomb of the Spectator. Of his son, who is still living, see the Anecdotes of Bowyer." In the Anecdotes of Bowyer (1782), John Cleland's father is stated to have been a colonel, and the friend and corre- spondent of Pope. John Cleland died in Westminster, January 23rd, 1789, aged eighty. A memoir of him appeared in the Gentleman's and Scots Magazines for February, and there he is again represented as the son of Colonel Cleland, and the original of Will Honeycomb ; and it is mentioned that a portrait of the father, in the fashionable costume of the beginning of the century, always hung in the son's library. It is not stated in this me- moir that Colonel Cleland was the friend and correspondent of Pope ; but when Nichols adopted the memoir in a note to his second edition of his Anecdotes of Bowyer, he inserted this fact. PIECES KELATENGr TO THE DUNCIAD. 263 The last days of Major Cleland seem to have been un- happy. He had for twenty years, Pope says, shown himself to be diligent,, punctual, and incorruptible in his office of Commissioner of Taxes, and he had no other assistance of fortune ; yet he was suddenly displaced by the Minister, and died two months afterwards. This harshness or injustice on the part of Walpole must, we suppose, be ascribed to politics. In May, 1741, a general Parliamentary election took place ; the representation of Westminster was contested with extra- ordinary keenness ; and, though the Court candidates were returned by a small majority, the election was afterwards, on petition, declared void, and the high bailiff was censured for calling in the military and arbitrarily closing the poll-books. Cleland, we suspect, would, as an elector, be found on the side of the country party. He was, no doubt, known to be opposed to the administration, and such an act of contumacy in a government official, at a time when Walpole was making his last great struggle to retain office, constituted an un- forgivable offence. A few more months redressed the wrong of the Westminster electors, and annihilated the power of the Minister ; but, ere this time arrived, William Cleland was no more An account of the circumstances attending the publication of the Dunciad was published in the name of Savage. This was prefixed to a collection of pieces relating to the poem, and was in the form of a dedication to the Earl of Middlesex. Both the unpublished pieces and the dedication were un- doubtedly the work of Pope himself. Indeed, he afterwards claimed and adopted parts of them in the later editions of his works. Savage one would have expected to have found among the poets of the Bathos or the Dunciad. His dissi- pated life, his absurd pride, alternating with meanness, and 6 On Monday last died, after a short illness, at his house in St. James's- place, Major Cleland, who for many years was one of the Commissioners of the Land Tax, &c.— Daily Post of Tuesday, September 22, 1741. Admi- nistration to his effects was granted to Lucy Cleland, his widow, October 29th. The son, we suppose, was then abroad, having gone to Smyrna, it is said, on some mercantile adventure, and afterwards to the East Indies. We find that he was a Westminster scholar, having been elected in 1722, but he left the same year. One Henry Cleland — probably another son of the major's — was elected in 1725. 264 LIFE OF POPE. his flattery of the King, of Sir Robert "Walpole, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, would seem to have marked him out peculiarly for castigation. But Savage had attached him- self to Pope, and furnished him with small personal details for his satire. Among those who were attacked by the poet he was considered as a kind of confederate of Pope's, and suspected, as Johnson says, " of supplying him with private intelligence and secret incidents ; so that the ignominy of an informer was added to the terror of a satirist." Curll, Theo- philus Cibber, and others, make similar statements — Savage was the active spy and secret negotiator. In this dedication to Lord Middlesex it was asserted that the initial letters in the treatise on the Bathos were prefixed, for the greater part, at random ; and that the newspapers had for six months been filled with scurrilities against Pope and his friends, which gave birth to the Dunciad. Savage acknowledged that he had put his name to the statement without thinking ; but, stranger still, Pope incorporated it among the notes to the Dunciad, dropping Savage's name ; so that in one page we are told that the poem Avas written in 1726, and in another that it originated in, and was given birth to, by attacks not made until half a year or more after May, 1727. The correspondence published by the poet himself also dis- proved his Dunciad statements ; and it is clear, that in alter- ing, explaining, or mystifying, Pope had fallen into palpable blunders. He was too stately and precise in his moral pre- tensions to have adopted Prior's witty plea: " Odd's life ! must one swear to the truth of a song?" But he evidently considered himself and his brother wits as placed "beyond the fixed and settled rules" in all such public appearances. Savage, or rather Pope, gives a lively account of ;he ^in- terest excited by the Dunciad, and this part of the story Savage said was true : " 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 I)unciad. On the other side, the booksellers and hawkers made as grea|, an effort to procure it. What could a few poor authors do against