THE POETICAL POETICAL WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE. EDITED BY ROBERT CARRUTHERS. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. NEW EDITION, REVISED. WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCLVIII. ADVERTISEMENT. In presenting a new edition of the Poetical Works of Pope, the first duty of the Editor was to attend to the text of his author. The early editions of the poems have been collated, and the principal variations pointed out. In this department, however, a principle of selection was necessary. Pope's corrections, alterations, and transpositions were so numerous and so minute, extending over almost every page of every edition, that a greater amount of space would have been required to print the whole than would have been justified by the value of the extracts. Warton printed two editions of the Dunciadthose of 1729 and 1743; but this was only half accomplishing his object. To complete it, he should have gone back to the edition of 1728, and contrasted it with that of the following year. The first of these contains 918 lines; the second 1014, and the text was also considerably altered. It is sufficient, perhaps, to say that every emendation has been here preserved which appeared to illustrate the poet's personal or literary history, his friendships and his enmities. Some of the early poems and translations have been arranged in chronological order. A strict chronological series could not be adopted without marring the symmetry and effect of the works. The greater poems have a mutual dependence and connexion, though published separately under different titles, and, in some instances, after long intervals. The fourth book of the Dunciad did not appear till fifteen years after the publication of the first three books. The machinery of the Rape of the Lock was not added till the first draft of the poem had been a twelvemonth in print; and the epistles now known as the Moral Essays, and Prologue to the Satires, were first published separately, then collected and arranged as Ethic Epistles, intended to form a second book to the Essay on Man, and finally adjusted and entitled as they now appear. The poet may have refined too much-partly at the suggestion of Warburton—in his classification of the Epistles, and have over-estimated their moral and philosophical importance as compared with their poetical force and beauty; but it would be unjust and unwarrantable to depart from his studied arrangement and to present them in any other order or form than that in which he ultimately wished them to appear. They were among his latest finished productions, to which he chiefly trusted for his fame; they were touched and retouched with artistic care and anxiety, and finally placed, according to his mature judgment, in the best light and position for displaying their harmony, colouring, and design. To elucidate the personal and historical allusions of Pope, notes and biographical sketches have been added-perhaps too many; but as the edition was of a popular complexion it was deemed advisable to render it as self-contained as possible. The notes marked “Steevens” are taken from a copy of Warton's edition of Pope which had belonged to George Steevens, and afterwards came into the possession of the late Mr. Samuel Rogers, who favoured the Editor with the use of the work. Most of these notes had, however, been previously printed by Mr. Bowles in his edition of Pope, 1806. Other notes will be found marked with the signature "Wilkes." The celebrated John Wilkes at one time contemplated becoming the editor of Pope, and made annotations on his copy of Warburton's edition, now forming part of the Grenville Library in the British Museum. Wilkes had not proceeded far with his task, but the Editor has transcribed all his notes and citations of parallel passages. |