Where praise is due, the praise bestow." "It was that God who claims my prayer, ALEXANDER POPE. (1688-1744.) THE name which gives the key-note to the poetical literature of Anne's reign and those of the first two Georges, is that of Alexander Pope, whom his last biographer, Mr Roscoe, styles the "most harmonious, correct, and popular of the English poets." Pope brought to perfection that school of poetry, of which Dryden may be considered the founder and the type, and which has been termed the "poetry of artificial life." The imitators of Pope, and those who caught from him the complexion of their versification, degenerated into mere musical smoothness and unexciting sweetness; and hence the poetry of the eighteenth century exhibits, with a few illustrious exceptions, either a slumbrous artificial softness, or stilted pomp. The popularity of this school has declined before the stronger nutriment, which has administered to public taste since the age of Cowper: but Pope, as a classical writer, still sustains his position, and, like Shakspeare in a very different sphere of composition, has filled English literature with his maxims and phraseology. Pope was the son of a London merchant, and was born in May 1688. His father, a Roman Catholic, after the Revolution annihilated the prospects of his party, realized his capital and retired to the small estate of Binfield in Windsor Forest. Here the poet spent his early years; his constitution was delicate, but he was an interesting and pleasing child, and termed, from the sweetness of his voice, the little nightingale. His education was begun by the priest of the family; he received some little instruction at two Catholic schools, at one of which he manifested at his master's expense the germs of his satiric talent. But after twelve years of age he was his own instructor. He read the classical poets with intense avidity; studied the early English literature, and acquired a knowledge of French and Italian. He had "lisped in numbers" so early, that he could not recollect the time when he did not write poetry. Dryden, his master in verse, was the object of his boyish enthusiasm. More fortunate than Ovid, his father encouraged him in his tastes, and used to criticise his efforts into correctness. His life as an author may date from his sixteenth year, when he wrote his "Pastorals." He rapidly acquired the notice and acquaintance of the literary men of the day. His religion and his connection with the Tory party excluded him from the patronage of the court; but the popularity of his works had enabled him, by the time he was thirty years of age, to realize a sum sufficient to purchase the villa at Twickenham on the Thames, which he adorned with all the elaborate garden taste of the time. Hither he prevailed on his parents to remove, and here he resided till his death. The life of Pope, like that of Dryden, forms the literary history of his period. It would be endless to relate his friendships or his enmities with Swift, Gay, Garth, Steele, Bolingbroke, Arbuthnot, Atterbury, Warburton, Addison, Dennis, Cibber. Like Dryden, he was perpetually involved in literary squabbles, and was abused very much in the same terms, (see Roscoe, iv. 379), and, like Dryden, he has immortalized in the Dunciad many names that time would otherwise have forgotten. His female friendships and enmities form also a variegated chapter in the poet's life. No character has been more canvassed than that of Pope's, both personal and literary. On one side we have alleged meanness, avarice, duplicity, malignity, childishness, peevishness; on the other, gentleness, candour, dignified self-defence, just infliction of deserved chastisement, steady friendship, devout piety, and beautiful filial affection; by some he is elevated into the first rank in English poetry; by others, his merits are lowered to the question, whether he was a poet at all. The principal biographies of Pope are those of Warburton, Johnson, Warton, Bowles, and Roscoe. The poet having survived considerably both his parents, whom he cherished in his retreat with the most devoted affection, sunk under a complication of diseases in the year 1744. He died in the reception of the sacraments of the Roman Catholic faith, although his religious opinions seem never greatly to have sympathized with any of the peculiar doctrines or practices of that persuasion. The principal of Pope's poetical writings are the following: "Pastorals;" "Odes ;" "Windsor Forest," a descriptive poem with historical allusions interwoven;" Epistles ;""Satires ;""Essay on Criticism," published when the poet was twenty-one, and regarded as miraculous in talent for such an age; "Essay on Man," a singularly-successful effort to weave ethical philosophy into poetry; " Moral Essays," supplementary to the design of the preceding piece; "The Rape of the Lock," a mock heroic on the fraudulent abstraction of a ringlet of a lady's hair; "The Dunciad," a mock heroic, lashing with satire his literary enemies; with numerous miscellaneous and fugitive pieces, epitaphs, &c. A great proportion of his verse consists of adaptations and imitations of early English authors, particularly Chaucer and Donne ; and of translations and imitations of classical authors, particularly Horace, Virgil, and Statius. His translations of the Iliad and Odyssey are well known as the most popular hitherto published; but in these he employed largely, especially in the Odyssey, the assistance of others. His prose works consist of" The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus," a satire on false learning; but a great portion of this piece is ascribed to his friend Dr Arbuthnot; the "Preface" to his edition of Shakspeare; and a large body of epistolary correspondence. "Of his social qualities," says Johnson, "if an estimate be made from his letters, an opinion too favourable cannot easily be formed; they exhibit a perpetual and unclouded effulgence of general benevolence and particular fondness. There is nothing but liberality, gratitude, constancy, and tenderness." As a writer, the genius of Pope may be conceived to have been injured by his youthful and subsequent efforts in translation and imitation. Though in his original works his power of combination be great, he is deficient in that inventive faculty which is essential to the highest poetry. Hence his descriptions of nature are frequently groups of pretty things rather than living and speaking pictures. They have a garden aspect, where everything is scrupulously elegant, soft, and beautiful. He seldom ascends to passion, yet he was capable of rendering "Eloisa to Abelard" one of the most affecting and moving of epistles. It is as the poet of learning and philosophy; as the satirist, who unites the fierceness of Juvenal with the elegance of Horace, except where he has sometimes descended in the Dunciad, that Pope merits the highest applause; and he felt with exultation this proud power: Yes, I am proud, I must be proud, to see Men not afraid of God, afraid of me. For a general estimate of Pope's poetry, we refer our readers to Johnson's beautiful parallel between him and Dryden. See Johnson's Life of Pope แ (Our) critics, of less judgment than caprice,- (As most in manners) by a love to parts. What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd; As shades more sweetly recommend the light, For works may have more wit than does 'em good, Others for language all their care express, Words are like leaves, and where they most abound, Is like a clown in regal purple dress'd : * In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold; Be not the first by whom the new are tried, But most by numbers judge a poet's song, Who haunt Parnassus but to please their ear, These equal syllables alone require, Tho' oft the car the open vowels tire; While expletives their feeble aid do join; That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main," 1 The exemplification of the censured faults in the preceding has been admired. Alexandrine; generally understood to be derived from this measure, being used in the great metrical romance "Alexandreis," written about 1200 A.D., by Gaultier de Chatillon. 2 These celebrated lines have been censured, as not illustrating the poet's principle of echo to the sense. See Alexander's Feast, p. 245, supra. Ajax and Camilla are from Homer and Virgil. And bid alternate passions fall and rise! And now, unveil'd, the toilet stands display'd, Transform'd to combs, the speckled and the white. Some fold the sleeve, whilst others plait the gown; 1 Strangely among our grandmothers reckoned ornaments to beauty. 2 Spirits of the air, in the Rosicrucian philosophy: from silphe, Gr., a kind of beetle, or a moth supposed to renew its youth like the phoenix. The adoption of the sylph machinery in this poem has been reckoned one of the happiest efforts of Pope's invention. The Toilet was humorously translated into Latin hexameters by Pope's friend Parnell.See Roscoe, iii. 177. |