To this caufe, though not generally remarked, I impute the origin of the Effay on CRITICISM, which was written in 1709, but not published till 1711. Mortified pride fought to gratify itself by general obfervations; but perfonalities could not be avoided, where vanity was deeply wounded. Hence the lines; "But APPIUS* reddens at each word you fpeak, Many other paffages, which have not been confidered in that light, were probably written by Pope, in juftification of himself and his muse, against fome fuppofed critical objections to his earlier poems. However this might be, Dennis conceived himself attacked; and Addifon, in his review of the poem in the Spectator, laments there were "fome ftrokes of ill-nature." We may here remark, and it is a fingular circumftance, that the first effufions of Pope's mufe were the cause of unappeafable enmities. After the publication of his Pastorals, he was piqued that Phillips, who profeffed to write more from English country life than from what Pope calls the "Golden Age," fhould be compared as a pastoral writer with himself. The Paftorals of Phillips were printed in the year 1709, in the fame volume of Mifcellanies which contained thofe of Pope. Both were warmly commended by Addison in the. *Dennis bad published a tragedy at this time, called "APPIUS." the Spectator; but the praise given to the English ruftic was "wormwood," to the fhepherd of the "Golden Age ;" and he gratified his fpleen by an ironical comparison, three years afterwards, in the Guardian. Not fatisfied with this difingenuous and unmanly hoftility, he encouraged Gay, who had gained his friendship by the dedication of "Rural Sports," to write the Eclogues in ridicule of Phillips, called the "Shepherd's Week." Phillips, mortified and offended, it is faid, hung up a rod at Button's Coffee-house, to chastise, horrefco referens, his rival Arcadian! Thus Pope's Paftorals were the foundation of lafting animofity between Phillips and himself; his Effay on Criticism caufed all the fubfequent unkindness between him and Dennis; and the Rape of the Lock was the commencement of the misunderstanding with Addifon. Pope was now in the twenty-third year of his age (1711), but he had not attained that period of his life without experiencing other feelings than those of friendship. Sir William Trumbull was his first real friend, from whom he might have learned to combine every thing dignified and pleafing in the human mind. Plain, accomplished, and fincere, he fhewed the greatest regard to Pope's rifing character, by judicious and affectionate advice; in particular when he left the Foreft, to mix with gayer fociety in London. But But at this dangerous period, when the mind is most fufceptible of flattery, and most easily befet with temptation, he met with a different character in Cromwell. As he learnt the language of criticism and taste from Walsh, so he foon affected that of gallantry and licentious pleafantry from a companion who flattered him both for his poetry and powers of pleafing *. Cromwell was a man of fingularity, a quaint compound of the beau and the pedant. Pope early caught the manners of his tutor, and something of his affectation, particularly in regard to the ladies, of whofe acquaintance Cromwell was fuperlatively vain. Cromwell introduced him to his Mistress, Mrs. Thomas, of whom more will be faid hereafter. She had the poetical name of Sappho, and is often spoken of under that name by Pope t I need not point out those paffages in the letters to Cromwell, undoubtedly genuine, which have been properly fuppreffed. Some idea of his friend's fingularity may be formed from one of Pope's letters, inviting him to Binfield, and another written to him after his departure: "Pray, bring a confiderable number of pint bottles with you. This might feem a ftrange odd request, if you *Let the reader compare his verfes on leaving London, with Sir William's remonftrance, "Fly from all tavern company," Tamquam ex incendio !! + This was before his acquaintance with Lady M. Montagu. you had not told me you would stay but as many days as you brought bottles.". " All you faw in this country charge me to affure you of their humble service, and the Ladies in particular, who look upon us as plain country-fellows fince they faw you, and heard more civil things in that fortnight, than they expect from a whole fhire of us in an age. The trophy you bore away from one of them in your fnuff-box, will doubtlefs preserve her memory, and be a teftimony of your admiration for Pope now commenced lover, notwithstanding his appearance was ill calculated to excite tenderness. The first person who feems to have engaged his tender feelings, about the year 1709, was the lady distinguished by the epithet of "unfortunate,” in his exquifite Elegy, whofe real hiftory is ftill involved in mysterious uncertainty; and concerning whom as much inquiry has been inftituted, and with as little fuccefs, as of the man in the "iron mask." One thing is plain, that he wished little fhould be known. It is remarkable, that Caryl of Weft Grinstead, mentioned in the Rape of the Lock, afks the queftion in two letters, but Pope returns no answer. It is in vain, after the fruitless inquiry of Johnson and Warton, perhaps, to attempt further elucidation; but I fhould think it unpardonable not to mention what I have myself heard, though I cannot vouch for its truth. Pope hints in one one place, that she was the fame lady on whom the Duke of Buckingham wrote his fong, entitled, "To a Lady retiring to a Convent." The verfes prove that she was nobly allied; and as the Duke of Buckingham was a man very far from exemplary in his moral character, it is probable that an intimacy might have existed between them, and on her he might have written his Dialogue between an "Elderly Swain and a young Shepherdefs." The story which was told to Condorcet by Voltaire, and by Condorcet to a gentleman of high birth and character, from whom I received it, is this:-"That her attachment was not to Pope, or to any Englishman of inferior degree;" but to a young French Prince of the blood royal, Charles Emmanuel Duke of Berry, whom, in early youth, fhe had met at the court of France. In 1710, if we give this date to the Elegy, the Duke of Berry muft have been in his twenty-fourth year, being born 1686. The verfes certainly feem unintelligible, unless they allude to fome connexion, to which her highest hopes, though nobly connected herself, could not afpire. What other fenfe can be given to these words? "Why bade ye elfe, ye powers, her foul aspire She |