INTRODUCTION. THE only poems included by Warburton in the edition of 1751, among those which he classed as "Miscellaneous" (apart, that is to say, from the Epitaphs, the Odes, and the Early Imitations of the English Poets),' were the following: The Epistles to the Earl of Oxford, Mr. Craggs, Mr. Jevons, and Miss Blount; The Basset Table; Verbatim from Boileau; Answer to a Question of Mrs. Howe; Occasioned by some Verses of the Duke of Buckingham; A Prologue to a Play for Mr. Dennis's Benefit; Macer; To Mr. John Moore; Song by a Person of Quality; On a Certain Lady at Court; On his Grotto at Twickenham; To Mrs. M. B. on her Birthday; To Mr. Thomas Southern on his Birthday. It might have been thought that, as Pope had entrusted his literary reputation to Warburton, any of his writings, which did not appear in the edition of the latter, were suppressed by the poet's own wish. But the industry or the avarice of the collectors of curiosities could not be satisfied with this conclusion. In 1757 a volume was published entitled "A Supplement to the Works of Alexander Pope, Esq.," with a preface, in which the Collector says: "As the leaves of the Sibyl were too valuable to be lost, so we apprehend the recovering the subsequent pieces of Mr. Pope's from the obscurity they lay in, will be an acceptable service to the public." He accordingly prints the following poems: Verses to Lady M. W. Montagu; Version of the First Psalm; Moore's Worm Powder (giving a verse omitted by Warburton); 1 Warburton separates from the Miscellanies, -the Epitaphs, the Odes, and the Imitations of the English Poets. The Translators; Roxana; The Looking Glass; The Fourth Epistle of the Fifth Book of Horace's Epistles; Epigram on a Dog's Collar; Sober Advice from Horace; The Three Gentle Shepherds; The Challenge. Of these we know from Warburton that "Roxana" was not written by Pope, and internal evidence is sufficient to prove that the Imitation of Horace's Fourth Epistle in the Fifth Book could not possibly have been his. The others, with the exception of "The Challenge" and the "Sober Advice," were certainly not worth preserving; and it might have been inferred that, as the latter was not printed by Warburton, Pope had wished, or at least consented, to suppress it. In 1776 appeared another adventurer with two volumes called "Additions to the Works of Alexander Pope, Esq.," and a preface still more elaborate in its apologies for raking all the leavings of the poet. "When Authors," says he, up "have long engaged the public attention, when their works are read with avidity, and universally receive a classical stamp, those who can add anything to their illustration, and recover by time what has eluded former diligence, bring an acceptable present to the public." To the unpublished poems printed in 1756 the new compiler added: A Farewell to London; Lines added to the Address to Miss Martha Blount on her Leaving London; Lines Sung by Durastanti; Mr. Gay's Epitaph; Lord Coningsby's Epitaph; A Dialogue; Verses to be Prefixed before Bernard Lintot's New Miscellany; On the Duke of Marlborough's House at Woodstock. The "Farewell" has distinct merit of its own; but Pope's reputation could certainly gain nothing from the publication of the other pieces. When once, however, the poems suppressed by Pope's literary legatee were admitted by his editors into the body of his works, it became practically impossible to exclude compositions which were known to be his. The number of the "Miscellaneous Poems" has therefore been constantly increasing in recent editions. Mr. Dyce inserted in the Aldine Edition of 1831 many which had not been previously collected; |