The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope Volume One

279 Pages·2004·0.83 MB·English

THE POETICAL WORKS OF
ALEXANDER POPE
VOL. I.
With Memoir, Critical Dissertation,
and Explanatory Notes
by
THE REV. GEORGE GILFILLAN
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A Penn State Electronic Classics Series Publication
The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope: Volume One, with Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory
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The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope: Volume One, with Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory
Notes by the Rev. George Gilfillan, the Pennsylvania State University, Electronic Classics Series, Jim Manis,
Faculty Editor, Hazleton, PA 18201-1291 is a Portable Document File produced as part of an ongoing
student publication project to bring classical works of literature, in English, to free and easy access of
those wishing to make use of them.
Cover Design: Jim Manis
Copyright © 2004 The Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University is an equal opportunity university.
Contents
LIFE OF ALEXANDER POPE...................................................................................................................................6
PREFACE2..................................................................................................................................................................25
VARIATIONS IN THE AUTHOR’S MANUSCRIPT PREFACE.........................................................................31
PASTORALS, WITH A DISCOURSE ON PASTORAL POETRY. WRITTEN IN THE YEAR MDCCIV......32
SPRING.......................................................................................................................................................................37
SUMMER....................................................................................................................................................................41
AUTUMN....................................................................................................................................................................44
WINTER .....................................................................................................................................................................47
MESSIAH....................................................................................................................................................................50
AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM.....................................................................................................................................53
THE RAPE OF THE LOCK: AN HEROI-COMICAL POEM.............................................................................72
WINDSOR-FOREST38 .............................................................................................................................................94
ODE ON ST CECILIA’S DAY................................................................................................................................106
TWO CHORUSES TO THE TRAGEDY OF BRUTUS.......................................................................................109
TO THE AUTHOR OF A POEM ENTITLED SUCCESSIO55............................................................................111
ODE ON SOLITUDE56........................................................................................................................................... 112
THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL ........................................................................................................... 113
ELEGY TO THE MEMORY OF AN UNFORTUNATE LADY58...................................................................... 113
PROLOGUE TO MR ADDISON’S ........................................................................................................................ 115
TRAGEDY OF CATO.............................................................................................................................................. 115
IMITATIONS OF ENGLISH POETS .................................................................................................................. 116
I. CHAUCER ............................................................................................................................................................ 116
II. SPENSER............................................................................................................................................................. 117
III. WALLER ............................................................................................................................................................ 119
ON A FAN OF THE AUTHOR’S DESIGN, IN WHICH WAS PAINTED THE STORY OF CEPHALUS AND
PROCRIS, WITH THE MOTTO, .................................................................................................................... 119
IV. COWLEY............................................................................................................................................................120
V. EARL OF ROCHESTER ....................................................................................................................................121
VI. EARL OF DORSET...........................................................................................................................................123
VII. DR SWIFT ........................................................................................................................................................125
THE TEMPLE OF FAME.......................................................................................................................................125
ELOISA TO ABELARD ..........................................................................................................................................136
EPISTLE TO ROBERT EARL OF OXFORD AND EARL MORTIMER.68....................................................144
EPISTLE TO JAMES CRAGGS, ESQ.,................................................................................................................145
EPISTLE TO MR JERVAS,....................................................................................................................................146
EPISTLE TO MISS BLOUNT, ...............................................................................................................................148
EPISTLE TO MRS TERESA BLOUNT ................................................................................................................150
TO MRS M. B.75 ON HER BIRTHDAY ...............................................................................................................151
TO MR THOMAS SOUTHERN,76 ON HIS BIRTHDAY, 1742.........................................................................152
TO MR JOHN MOORE,.........................................................................................................................................153
TO MR C.,80 ST JAMES’S PLACE ......................................................................................................................154
EPITAPHS ................................................................................................................................................................154
I. ON CHARLES EARL OF DORSET, IN THE CHURCH OF WITHYAM, IN SUSSEX..............................154
II. ON SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL.81 ................................................................................................................155
III. ON THE HON. SIMON HARCOURT, ONLY SON OF THE LORD CHANCELLOR HARCOURT, AT
THE CHURCH OF STANTON HARCOURT, IN OXFORDSHIRE, 1720. ................................................155
IV. ON JAMES CRAGGS, ESQ. IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY..........................................................................156
V. INTENDED FOR MR ROWE, IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY........................................................................156
VI. ON MRS CORBET, WHO DIED OF A CANCER IN HER BREAST. ........................................................157
VIII. ON SIR GODFREY KNELLER, IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY, 1723......................................................158
IX. ON GENERAL HENRY WITHERS, IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY, 1729. .................................................159
X. ON MR ELIJAH FENTON,83 AT EASTHAMSTEAD, IN BERKS, 1730....................................................159
XI. ON MR GAY, IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY, 1732.........................................................................................160
XII. INTENDED FOR SIR ISAAC NEWTON, IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY..................................................160
XIII. ON DR FRANCIS ATTERBURY, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER, WHO DIED IN EXILE AT PARIS, 1732. 161
XIV. ON EDMUND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, WHO DIED IN THE NINETEENTH YEAR OF HIS AGE, 1735.161
XV. FOR ONE WHO WOULD NOT BE BURIED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY............................................162
XVI. ANOTHER, ON THE SAME.........................................................................................................................162
XVII. ON TWO LOVERS STRUCK DEAD BY LIGHTNING.85......................................................................163
AN ESSAY ON MAN: IN FOUR EPISTLES TO HENRY ST JOHN, LORD BOLINGBROKE....................164
EPISTLE TO DR ARBUTHNOT; OR, PROLOGUE TO THE SATIRES.........................................................200
SATIRES AND EPISTLES OF HORACE IMITATED........................................................................................ 213
THE FIRST EPISTLE OF THE SECOND BOOK OF HORACE......................................................................228
THE SECOND EPISTLE OF THE SECOND BOOK OF HORACE.................................................................238
BOOK I. EPISTLE VII............................................................................................................................................246
BOOK II. SATIRE VI..............................................................................................................................................248
BOOK IV. ODE I. TO VENUS................................................................................................................................253
PART OF THE NINTH ODE OF THE FOURTH BOOK. ..................................................................................254
THE SATIRES OF DR JOHN DONNE, DEAN OF ST PAUL’S, VERSIFIED. ................................................254
EPILOGUE TO THE SATIRES. ............................................................................................................................264
Index of First Lines ..................................................................................................................................................277
The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope – Volume One
THE POETICAL LLLLLIIIIIFFFFFEEEEE OOOOOFFFFF AAAAALLLLLEEEEEXXXXXAAAAANNNNNDDDDDEEEEERRRRR PPPPPOOOOOPPPPPEEEEE
Alexander Pope was born in Lombard Street, London, on
WORKS OF
the 21st of May 1688—the year of the Revolution. His fa-
ther was a linen-merchant, in thriving circumstances, and
ALEXANDER said to have noble blood in his veins. His mother was Edith
or Editha Turner, daughter of William Turner, Esq., of York.
Mr Carruthers, in his excellent Life of the Poet, mentions
POPE
that there was an Alexander Pope, a clergyman, in the re-
mote parish of Reay, in Caithness, who rode all the way to
Twickenham to pay his great namesake a visit, and was pre-
VOL. I.
sented by him with a copy of the subscription edition of the
“Odyssey,” in five volumes quarto, which is still preserved
With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, by his descendants. Pope’s father had made about £10,000
and Explanatory Notes by trade; but being a Roman Catholic, and fond of a coun-
try life, he retired from business shortly after the Revolu-
by
tion, at the early age of forty-six. He resided first at
Kensington, and then in Binfield, in the neighbourhood of
THE REV. GEORGE GILFILLAN
Windsor Forest. He is said to have put his money in a strong
box, and to have lived on the principal. His great delight was
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in his garden; and both he and his wife seem to have cher-
ished the warmest interest in their son, who was very deli-
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The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope – Volume One
cate in health, and their only child. Pope’s study is still pre- He had not been long at this school till he wrote a severe
served in Binfield; and on the lawn, a cypress-tree which he lampoon, of two hundred lines’ length, on his master—so
is said to have planted, is pointed out. truly was the “boy the father of the man”—for which demi-
Pope was a premature and precocious child. His figure was Dunciad he was severely flogged. His father, offended at this,
deformed—his back humped—his stature short (four feet)— removed him to a London school, kept by a Mr Deane. This
his legs and arms disproportionably long. He was sometimes man taught the poet nothing; but his residence in London
compared to a spider, and sometimes to a windmill. The gave him the opportunity of attending the theatres. With
only mark of genius lay in his bright and piercing eye. He these he was so captivated, that he wrote a kind of play, which
was sickly in constitution, and required and received great was acted by his schoolfellows, consisting of speeches from
tenderness and care. Once, when three years old, he nar- Ogilby’s “Iliad,” tacked together with verses of his own. He
rowly escaped from an angry cow, but was wounded in the became acquainted with Dryden’s works, and went to Wills’s
throat. He was remarkable as a child for his amiable temper; coffee-house to see him. He says, “Virgilium tantum vidi.”
and from the sweetness of his voice, received the name of the Such transient meetings of literary orbs are among the most
Little Nightingale. His aunt gave him his first lessons in read- interesting passages in biography. Thus met Galileo with
ing, and he soon became an enthusiastic lover of books; and Milton, Milton with Dryden, Dryden with Pope, and Burns
by copying printed characters, taught himself to write. When with Scott. Carruthers strikingly remarks, “Considering the
eight years old, he was placed under the care of the family perils and uncertainties of a literary life—its precarious re-
priest, one Bannister, who taught him the Latin and Greek wards, feverish anxieties, mortifications, and disappoint-
grammars together. He was next removed to a Catholic semi- ments, joined to the tyranny of the Tonsons and Lintots,
nary at Twyford, near Winchester; and while there, read and the malice and envy of dunces, all of which Dryden had
Ogilby’s “Homer” and Sandys’s “Ovid” with great delight. long and bitterly experienced—the aged poet could hardly
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The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope – Volume One
have looked at the delicate and deformed boy, whose preter- sarcasm. In the Forest, he became acquainted with Sir Will-
natural acuteness and sensibility were seen in his dark eyes, iam Trumbull, the retired secretary of state, a man of general
without a feeling approaching to grief, had he known that accomplishments, who read, rode, conversed with the youth-
he was to fight a battle like that under which he was himself ful poet; introduced him to old Wycherley, the dramatist;
then sinking, even though the Temple of Fame should at and was of material service to his views. With Wycherley,
length open to receive him.” At twelve, he wrote the “Ode who was old, doted, and excessively vain, Pope did not con-
to Solitude;” and shortly after, his satirical piece on Elkanah tinue long intimate. A coldness, springing from some criti-
Settle, and some of his translations and imitations. His next cisms which the youth ventured to make on the veteran’s
period, he says, was in Windsor Forest, where for several poetry, crept in between them. Walsh of Abberley, in
years he did nothing but read the classics and indite poetry. Worcestershire, a man of good sense and taste, became, after
He wrote a tragedy, a comedy, and four books of an Epic a perusal of the “Pastorals” in MS., a warm friend and kind
called “Alexander,” all of which afterwards he committed to adviser of Pope’s, who has immortalised him in more than
the flames. He translated also a portion of Statius, and Cicero one of his poems. Walsh told Pope that there had never hith-
“De Senectute,” and “thought himself the greatest genius erto appeared in Britain a poet who was at once great and
that ever was.” His father encouraged him in his studies, and correct, and exhorted him to aim at accuracy and elegance.
when his verses did not please him, sent him back to “new When fifteen, he visited London, in order to acquire a more
turn” them, saying, “These are not good rhymes.” His prin- thorough knowledge of French and Italian. At sixteen, he
cipal favourites were Virgil’s “Eclogues,” in Latin; and in wrote the “Pastorals,” and a portion of “Windsor Forest,”
English, Spencer, Waller, and Dryden—admiring Spencer, although they were not published for some time afterwards.
we presume, for his luxuriant fancy, Waller for his smooth By his incessant exertions, he now began to feel his constitu-
versification, and Dryden for his vigorous sense and vivid tion injured. He imagined himself dying, and sent farewell
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The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope – Volume One
letters to all his friends, including the Abbé Southcot. This common decency quits the words of male and female parties
gentleman communicated Pope’s case to Dr Ratcliffe, who in their mutual communications, it is a very ample charity
gave him some medical directions; by following which, the that can suppose it to adhere to their actions. And nowhere
poet recovered. He was advised to relax in his studies, and to do we find grosser language than in some of Pope’s prose
ride daily; and he prudently followed the advice. Many years epistles to the Blounts.
afterwards, he repaid the benevolent Abbé by procuring for His “Pastorals,” after having been handed about in MS.,
him, through Sir Robert Walpole, the nomination to an ab- and shewn to such reputed judges as Lord Halifax, Lord
bey in Avignon. This is only one of many proofs that, not- Somers, Garth, Congreve, &c., were at last, in 1709, printed
withstanding his waspish temper, and his no small share of in the sixth volume of Tonson’s “Miscellanies.” Like all well-
malice as well as vanity, there was a warm heart in our poet. finished commonplaces, they were received with instant and
In 1707, Pope became acquainted with Michael Blount of universal applause. It is humiliating to contrast the recep-
Maple, Durham, near Reading; whose two sisters, Martha tion of these empty echoes of inspiration, these agreeable
and Teresa, he has commemorated in various verses. On his centos, with that of such genuine, although faulty poems, as
connexion with these ladies, some mystery rests. Bowles has Keat’s “Endymion,” Shelley’s “Queen Mab,” and
strongly and plausibly urged that it was not of the purest or Wordsworth’s “Lyrical Ballads.” Two years later, (in 1711), a
most creditable order. Others have contended that it did not far better and more characteristic production from his pen
go further than the manners of the age sanctioned; and they was ushered anonymously into the world. This was the “Es-
say, “a much greater license in conversation and in epistolary say on Criticism,” a work which he had first written in prose,
correspondence was permitted between the sexes than in our and which discovers a ripeness of judgment, a clearness of
decorous age!” We are not careful to try and settle such a thought, a condensation of style, and a command over the
delicate question—only we are inclined to suspect, that when information he possesses, worthy of any age in life, and al-
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The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope – Volume One
most of any mind in time. It serves, indeed, to shew what fantastic fancies grow suddenly out of realities, like the bud
Pope’s true forte was. That lay not so much in poetry, as in from the bough, or the fairy-seeming wing of the summer-
the knowledge of its principles and laws,—not so much in cloud from the stern azure of the heavens.
creation, as in criticism. He was no Homer or Shakspeare; A little after this, Pope became acquainted with a far greater,
but he might have been nearly as acute a judge of poetry as better, and truer man than himself, Joseph Addison.
Aristotle, and nearly as eloquent an expounder of the rules Warburton, and others, have sadly misrepresented the
of art and the glories of genius as Longinus. connexion between these two famous wits, as well as their
In the same year, Pope printed “The Rape of the Lock,” in relative intellectual positions. Addison was a more amiable
a volume of Miscellanies. Lord Petre had, much in the way and childlike person than Pope. He had much more, too, of
described by the poet, stolen a lock of Miss Belle Fermor’s the Christian. He was not so elaborately polished and fur-
hair,—a feat which led to an estrangement between the fami- bished as the author of “The Rape of the Lock;” but he had,
lies. Pope set himself to reconcile them by this beautiful naturally, a finer and richer genius. Pope found early occa-
poem,—a poem which has embalmed at once the quarrel sion for imagining Addison his disguised enemy. He gave
and the reconciliation to all future time. In its first version, him a hint of his intention to introduce the machinery into
the machinery was awanting, the “lock” was a desert, the “The Rape of the Lock.” Of this, Addison disapproved, and
“rape” a natural event,—the small infantry of sylphs and said it was a delicious little thing already—merum sal. This,
gnomes were slumbering uncreated in the poet’s mind; but Pope, and some of his friends, have attributed to jealousy;
in the next edition he contrived to introduce them in a man- but it is obvious that Addison could not foresee the success
ner so easy and so exquisite, as to remind you of the varia- with which the machinery was to be managed, and did fore-
tions which occur in dreams, where one wonder seems softly see the difficulties connected with tinkering such an exquis-
to slide into the bosom of another, and where beautiful and ite production. We may allude here to the circumstances
10