The Cambridge Companion to Alexander Pope (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

274 Pages·2007·1.88 MB·English

by  Pat Rogers

the cambridge companion to
alexander pope
AlexanderPopewasthegreatestpoetofhisageandthedominantinfluenceon
eighteenth-century British poetry. His large oeuvre, written over a thirty-year
period, encompasses satires, odes and political verse and reflects the sexual,
moralandculturalissuesoftheworldaroundhim,ofteninbrilliantlinesand
phraseswhichhavebecomepartofourlanguagetoday.Thisisthefirstoverview
to analyse the full range of Pope’s work and to set it in its historical and cul-
turalcontext.Speciallycommissionedessaysbyleadingscholarsexploreallof
Pope’s major works, including the sexual politics of The Rape of the Lock,
thephilosophicalenquiriesofAnEssayonManandtheMoralEssays,andthe
mock-heroicofTheDunciadinitsvariousforms.Thisvolumewillbeindispens-
able not only for students and scholars of Pope’s work, but also for all those
interestedintheAugustanage.
pat rogers isDeBartoloChairintheLiberalArtsattheUniversityofSouth
Florida.

THE CAMBRIDGE
COMPANION TO
ALEXANDER POPE
EDITED BY
PAT ROGERS
cambridge university press
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CONTENTS
Listofillustrations page vii
Notesoncontributors viii
Listofabbreviations xii
AlexanderPopechronology xiii
1
Introduction
pat rogers
1 Pope,self,andworld 14
helen deutsch
2 Pope’sfriendsandenemies:fightingwithshadows 25
david nokes
3 Pope’sversificationandvoice 37
john sitter
4 Poeticspaces 49
cynthia wall
5 Pope’sHomerandhispoeticcareer 63
steven shankman
6 Popeandtheclassics 76
howard d. weinbrot
7 PopeandtheElizabethans 89
david fairer
v
contents
8 PopeinArcadia:pastoralanditsdissolution 105
pat rogers
9 Popeandideology 118
brian young
10 Popeandthepoetryofopposition 134
howard erskine-hill
11 Crimeandpunishment 150
paul baines
12 Landscapesandestates 161
malcolm kelsall
13 Money 175
catherine ingrassia
14 Popeandthebooktrade 186
james mclaverty
15 Popeandgender 198
valerie rumbold
16 Medicineandthebody 210
george rousseau
17 Popeandtheother 222
laura brown
237
Furtherreading
247
Index
vi
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. “Solthro’whiteCurtainsshotatim’rousRay.”Frontispieceto
Cantoi,TheRapeoftheLock(1714),courtesyofSpecial
Collections,UniversityofVirginiaLibrary. page53
2. “BooksandtheManIsing.”TheDunciadVariorum(1729),
BooktheFirst,courtesyofSpecialCollections,Universityof
VirginiaLibrary. 60
3. Pope’svillaatTwickenham,afterthepaintingbyPeterAndreas
Rysbrack,engravedbyNathanielParr(1735). 163
4. AplanofPope’sgardenatTwickenhambyJohnSerle,his
gardener(1745). 167
vii
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
paul bainesis Professor in the School of English, University of Liverpool. His
publicationsincludeTheHouseofForgeryinEighteenth-CenturyBritain(1999),
The Complete Critical Guide to Alexander Pope (2000), The Long Eighteenth
Century(2004),severalarticlesintheOxfordDictionaryofNationalBiography,
andanumberofarticlesonpoetry,crime,andpunishmentintheearlyeighteenth
century.HisbiographyoftheroguebooksellerEdmundCurll,co-writtenwithPat
Rogers,appearedin2007.
laura brownisJohnWendellAndersonProfessorofEnglishatCornellUniversity
and author of Fables of Modernity: Literature and Culture in the English Eigh-
teenthCentury(2001),EndsofEmpire:WomenandIdeologyinEarlyEighteenth-
CenturyEnglishLiterature(1993),RereadingLiterature:AlexanderPope(1985),
and English Dramatic Form 1660–1760: An Essay in Generic History (1981),
as well as co-editor, with Felicity Nussbaum, of The New Eighteenth Century:
Theory-Politics-EnglishLiterature(1987).
helen deutschisProfessorofEnglishatUCLAandtheauthorofResemblance
andDisgrace:AlexanderPopeandtheDeformationofCulture(1996),andLoving
Dr.Johnson(2005),aswellasco-editorofDefects:EngenderingtheModernBody
(2000).ShehasrecentlyreturnedtoPope’sworkasoneofthefocusesofanew
book project on gendered subjectivity, embodiment, and intimate literary forms
suchastheessayandtheverseepistle.
howard erskine-hillisaFellowofPembrokeCollege,Cambridge,andafor-
merProfessorofLiteraryHistoryintheUniversityofCambridge.HeisaFellow
oftheBritishAcademy.HismanyworksincludeTheSocialMilieuofAlexander
Pope(1975)andaneditionofPope’sSelectedLetters(2000).Hehasalsowritten
Poetry of Opposition and Revolution: Dryden to Wordsworth (1996) and, with
EvelineCruickshanks,TheAtterburyPlot(2004).
david fairerisProfessorofEighteenth-CenturyEnglishLiteratureattheUniver-
sityofLeeds.HismostrecentbookisEnglishPoetryoftheEighteenthCentury,
viii
notes on contributors
1700–1789(2003).HeisalsotheauthorofPope’sImagination(1984),ThePoetry
ofAlexanderPope(1989),andeditorofPope:NewContexts(1990),TheCorre-
spondenceofThomasWarton(1995),andthefirstcompleteprintingofWarton’s
HistoryofEnglishPoetry(1998).WithChristineGerrardhehaseditedEighteenth-
CenturyPoetry:AnAnnotatedAnthology(secondedition,2004).
catherine ingrassiaisProfessorofEnglishandAssociateDeanforAcademic
Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her books include Authorship,
CommerceandGenderinEighteenth-CenturyEngland:ACultureofPaperCredit
(1998),“MoreSolidLearning”;NewPerspectivesonAlexanderPope’sDunciad,
co-edited with Claudia Thomas (2000), and A Companion to the Eighteenth-
CenturyNovelandCulture,co-editedwithPaulaR.Backscheider(2005).Sheis
also the editor of Eliza Haywood’s Anti-Pamela and Fielding’s Shamela (2004),
andapasteditorofStudiesinEighteenth-CenturyCulture.
malcolm kelsallisProfessorEmeritusatCardiffUniversity.Hisprincipalpub-
lications in the field of architectural and landscape iconography are The Great
Good Place: The Country House and English Literature (1993), Jefferson and
theIconographyofRomanticism:Folk,Land,CultureandtheRomanticNation
(1999),andLiteraryRepresentationsoftheIrishCountryHouse:Civilisationand
Savagery Under the Union (2003). He has taught at the universities of Cardiff,
Exeter,OxfordandReadingandhasbeenvisitingProfessoratHiroshima,Paris,
andWisconsin,andInternationalScholarinResidenceattheCenterforJefferson
Studies,Charlottesville,Virginia.
james mclavertyis Professor of English at Keele University. He has written
widely on literary and bibliographical topics, including a book on Pope, Print
andMeaning(2001).HerevisedandeditedforthepressDavidFoxon’slectures
onPopeandtheEarlyEighteenth-CenturyBookTrade(1991),aswellasDavid
Fleeman’sBibliographyoftheWorksofSamuelJohnson(2000).
david nokesis Professor of English at King’s College London. He has written
biographiesofJonathanSwift,JohnGay,andJaneAusten,andiscurrentlyworking
on a tercentenary biography of Samuel Johnson, to be published in 2009. He
hasalsowrittentelevisionprogrammesonSwiftandFrankenstein,adaptationsof
ClarissaandTheTenantofWildfellHall,andanovel,TheNightingalePapers.
pat rogersisDeBartoloProfessorintheLiberalArtsattheUniversityofSouth
Florida,andtheauthorofseveralbooksonPopeandhiscontemporaries,including
TheAlexanderPopeEncyclopedia(2004)andPopeandtheDestinyoftheStuarts
(2005). Recent work includes a biography of Edmund Curll (2007), with Paul
Baines,andaneditionofPope’smajorworksforOxfordWorld’sClassics(2006).
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