LEXANDER POPE was born in London, May 22, 1688, of parents whofe rank or station was never afcertained: we are informed that they were of gentle blood; that his father was of a family of which the Earl of Downe was the head, and that his mother was the daughter of William Turner, Efquire, of York, who had likewife three fons, one of whom had the honour of being killed, and the other of dying, in the fervice of Charles the First; the third was made a general officer in Spain, from whom the fifter inherited what fequeftrations and forfeitures had left in the family.

This, and this only, is told by Pope; who is more willing, as I have heard obferved, to fhew what his father was not, than what he was. It is allowed that he grew rich by trade; but whether in a fhop or on the Exchange was never difcovered, till Mr. Tyers told, on the authority of Mrs. Racket, that he was a linen-draper in the Strand. Both parents were

papifts.

VOL. IV.

B

Pope

Pope was from his birth of a constitution tender and delicate; but is said to have fhewn remarkable gentlenefs and sweetness of difpofition. The weakness of his body continued through his life * ; but the mildness of his mind perhaps ended with his childhood. His voice, when he was young, was fo pleafing, that he was called in fondnefs the little Nightingale.

Being not fent early to fchool, he was taught to read by an aunt; and when he was feven or eight years old, became a lover of books. He firft learned to write by imitating printed books; a fpecies of penmanship in which he retained great excellence through his whole life, though his ordinary hand was not elegant.

When he was about eight, he was placed in Hampfhire under Taverner, a Romish prieft, who, by a method very rarely practifed, taught him the Greek and Latin rudiments together. He was now first regularly initiated in poetry by the perufal of Ogylby's Homer, and Sandys's Ovid: Ogylby's affiftance he never repaid with any praife; but of Sandys he declared, in his notes to the liad, that English poetry owed much of its prefent beauty to his tranflations. Sandys very rarely attempted original compofition.

From the care of Taverner, under whom his proficiency was confiderable, he was removed to a school at Twyford near Winchester, and again to another fchool about Hyde-park Corner; from which he used fometimes to ftroll to the playhoufe, and was fo de

This weakness was fo great, that he constantly wore ftays, as I have been affured by a waterman at Twickenhamn, who, in lifting him into his boat, had often felt them. His method of taking the air on the water, was to have a fedan chau in the boat, in which he fat with the glaties down.

lighted

P O P

E.

LEXANDER POPE was born in London,

A May

May 22, 1688, of parents whofe rank or station was never afcertained: we are informed that they were of gentle blood; that his father was of a family of which the Earl of Downe was the head, and that his mother was the daughter of William Turner, Efquire, of York, who had likewife three fons, one of whom had the honour of being killed, and the other of dying, in the fervice of Charles the First; the third was made a general officer in Spain, from whom the fifter inherited what fequeftrations and forfeitures had left in the family.

This, and this only, is told by Pope; who is more willing, as I have heard obferved, to fhew what his father was not, than what he was. It is allowed that he grew rich by trade; but whether in a fhop or on the Exchange was never difcovered, till Mr. Tyers told, on the authority of Mrs. Racket, that he was a linen-draper in the Strand. Both parents were papists.

VOL. IV.

fices. How Mr. Deane could fpend, with a boy who had tranflated fo much of Ovid, fome months over a small part of Tully's Offices, it is now vain to enquire.

Of a youth fo fuccefsfully employed, and fo confpicuoufly improved, a minute account must be naturally defired; but curiofity must be contented with confufed, imperfect, and fometimes improbable intelligence. Pope, finding little advantage from external help, refolved thenceforward to direct himfelf, and at twelve formed a plan of ftudy which he completed with little other incitement than the defire of excellence.

His primary and principal purpose was to be a poet, with which his father accidentally concurred, by propofing fubjects, and obliging him to correct his performances by many revifals; after which the old gentleman, when he was fatisfied, would fay, these are good rhymes.

In his perufal of the English poets he foon diftinguifhed the verfification of Dryden, which he confidered as the model to be ftudied, and was impreffed with fuch veneration for his inftructer, that he perfuaded fome friends to take him to the coffee-house which Dryden frequented, and pleafed himself with having feen him.

Dryden died May 1, 1701, fome days before Pope was twelve; fo early muft he therefore have felt the power of harmony, and the zeal of genius. Who does not wish that Dryden could have known the value of the homage that was paid him, and forefcen, the greatnefs of his young admirer?

The