Changes produced by the death of Queen Anne-'Temple of Fame '- Pope's first visit to Bath-His Farewell to London '-Removal Mrs. Nelson-Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady'-Lady M. W. Montagu and the 'Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard '-Corres- THE TRANSLATION OF THE ILIAD. 1713-1720. Origin of the Translation-Difficulties of the Work-Quarrel with Lord Bathurst-Villa at Twickenham-The South Sea Bubble-Atter- bury's Plot-Edition of Shakespeare-Translation of the Odyssey. 179 The 'Miscellanies'-Origin of the 'Dunciad '-Its motives as de- scribed by Cleland and Savage-Its real motives-Pope's causes of quarrel with the various persons satirised-The Grub Street Journal 211 Death of Gay-'First Imitation of Horace '-Verses to the Imitator of Horace' and 'Letter to a Doctor of Divinity'-'Letter to a Noble AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL PERIOD. 1729-1741. Edition of Wycherley's Works-Clandestine Dealings with Curll-Sur- reptitious Edition of Correspondence in 1735-Authorised Edition POPE AND THE PARLIAMENTARY OPPOSITION. 1733-1740. Death of Peterborough-Despondency of Swift-The Political Situation -The Third Moral Essay-The Opposition and the Prince of Wales-Introduction of Pope to the Prince- Epistle to Augustus' THE CLOSING YEARS OF POPE'S LIFE. 1739-1744. Pope assists Dodsiey, Savage, and Johnson-Attack of Crousaz on the Essay on Man'-Warburton-The 'New Dunciad'-Quarrel with Cibber-Ralph Allen-Martha Blount and the Allens-Pope's THE PLACE OF POPE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. Difference between the Greek and the Medieval Idea of Nature-Decay of the Medieval Idea-Revival of Classical Principles of Criticism -Pope's principles of Poetical Conception and Poetical Diction- Objections to his principles and practice-Historical survey of the Revival of the Romantic principle-Warton-Bowles-Controversy respecting Pope in 1819-Rise of the Lake School-Wordsworth's theory of Poetical Conception and Poetical Diction-Coleridge's opinion-Examination of the Theory of Wordsworth and Coleridge -Matthew Arnold's view of Pope's place in English Literature- LIFE OF POPE. 17 CHAPTER I. PARENTAGE AND EDUCATION. 1688-1700. ALEXANDER POPE was born on the 21st of May, 1688, a year which, in its relation to the character of his genius, and to the direction which under his influence English literature took during the eighteenth century, is full of interest and significance. Seven months later in the same year James II., by his flight from England, left vacant the throne of his ancestors, and severed the links which had hitherto bound the crown to the people. Up to this date the caprice or discretion of the reigning Monarch had been among the most powerful factors in the formation of English taste. Elizabeth and the first three Stuarts had all possessed enough of literary instinct to leave an impress of their character on contemporary poetry, while the Court, as the central institution of English social life, had exercised a controlling influence over every art that addressed itself to the imagination. The painter, the musician, the player (the King's peculiar servant) the University student, made it the object of their respective ambitions to paint the Sovereign's portrait, to solemnise the services in his Chapel, to relieve the tedium of his leisure moments, and to separate his language in as marked a manner as possible from the idiom of the vulgar. Hence, when the legitimate branch of the House of Stuart was excluded from the succession, the hereditary throne VOL. V. exchanged for one resting on a Parliamentary title, native sovereigns succeeded by kings who neither understood the language nor shared the sympathies of the people, the same causes which had effected a breach in the continuity of political order, produced also a revolution in the form of literary expression. With the hereditary Monarchy, declined, if it did not immediately disappear, the spiritual influence which had hitherto moulded the taste and imagination of Society. Though the Reformation had vitally affected the national spirit, the mediæval system of theology, retaining its hold on the institutions of the country, had preserved the old forms of expression with but slight external modifications. Elizabeth and her two immediate successors, strongly Anglican in their principles, leant to the ceremonial of the ancient Church: Charles II. and James II. were secret or avowed Roman Catholics: the Universities kept up in their lectures and disputations all the framework of the scholastic logic. In a thousand subtle ways the education of the country was affected by modes and methods of thought having their roots in the old forms of religion. A Revolution, which had for its main object the establishment of a Protestant dynasty, necessarily produced a corresponding effect on the hitherto unbroken tradition of Catholic scholasticism. This scholasticism had been faithfully reflected in the poetry of the seventeenth century. It had mixed itself even with the Puritanism of Milton, who, in his 'Paradise Lost,' as Pope afterwards said with justice, often makes 'God the Father turn a school divine.' The controversy between the Churches had formed the argument of Dryden's 'Hind and Panther,' as the general religious uncertainty of the times had found expression in his 'Religio Laici.' Most of all had the spirit of the schools influenced that remarkable series of poets from Donne to Cowley, generally known by the title of 'metaphysical,' in whose works, as in a mirror, may be seen, at their last ebb, the play of the time-honoured ideas which had once inspired the fancy of medieval Europe. On the other hand, the forms |