of Letters Series. Has remained the standard brief biography. 1881. Beljame, A. Le Public et les Hommes de Lettres en Angleterre au dix-huitième siècle. A study of the decay of patronage and the rise of the reading public. A classic in scholarship. 1883. Dennis, J. Studies in English Literature. 1886. Lang, Andrew. Epistle to Mr. Alexander Pope, in Letters to Dead Authors. 1886. Montégut, Emile. Pope. In Revue des Deux Mondes. Reprinted in Heures de Lecture d'un Critique, 1891. Sympathetic study, especially of the early work of Pope, emphasizing the existence of Romantic elements in it. 1897. Dobson, Austin. Dialogue to the Memory of Mr. Alexander Pope, in Collected Poems. 1901. Courthope, W. J. Life in Poetry: Law in Taste. Chapter viii. An excellent discussion of Pope's literary creed. 1902. Chesterton, G. K. Pope and the Art of Satire, in Twelve Types, later reprinted as Varied Types. Brief and erratic, but brilliant and stimulating. 1903. Pope's Complete Poetical Works. Edited by H. W. Boynton. Cambridge Edition. 1905. Courthope, W. J. History of English Poetry, volume v. Courthope was especially interested in tracing the relation of poetry to the changes in the national life, and his history is comprehensive and philosophical, at times somewhat too hasty in generalization. He is at his best dealing with the Eighteenth century, which he understood as few have done. 1909. Paston, George (pseud.). Mr. Pope, his Life and Times. 2 volumes. Readable biography, containing considerable new material. 1918. More, Paul Elmer. Pope, in With the Wits. Eloquent and penetrating defence of Pope as the poet of satire. 1918. Palmer, George Herbert. Pope, in Formative Types in English Poetry. 1919. Mackail, J. W. Pope. The Leslie Stephen lecture at the University of Cambridge. Both Palmer and Mackail are judicious, but sympathetic, in their discussion of Pope as a poet. 1923. Sherburn, George. Notes on the Canon of Pope's Works, 1714-1720. In The Manly Anniversary Studies. Important biographical study, tending to show that early attacks on Pope drove him into satire on the dunces. 1923. Ker, William Paton. Pope, in The Art of Poetry. Acute and illuminating comments on Pope's style. 1924. Strachey, Lytton. Pope. A lecture by a man with an Eighteenth century personality. APPENDIX B POPE'S VERSIFICATION For further discussion of the versification of Pope, the following works may be consulted: Abbott, Edwin A., Introduction to Abbott's Concordance. McLean, L. Mary. The Riming System of Alexander Pope. In Publications of the Modern Language Association, 1891. Mead, W. E. The Versification of Pope in its Relation to the 17th Century. 1889. Saintsbury, George. A History of English Prosody. Volume ii, 1908. The main principles of Pope's versification were formulated by him in a letter written to Cromwell, November 25, 1710. When Pope, in 1735, published some of his letters, he recast this letter, addressed it to Walsh, and dated it back to October 22, 1706, obviously to prove his own precocity. From this revised form of the letter, the following is quoted: "After the thoughts I have already sent you on the subject of English Versification, you may desire my opinion as to some further particulars. There are indeed certain Niceties, which, tho' not much observed even by correct versifiers, I cannot but think deserve to be better regarded. "I. It is not enough that nothing offends the ear, but a good Poet will adapt the very Sounds, as well as Words, to the things he treats of. So that there is (if one may express it so) a Style of Sound. As in describing a gliding stream, the numbers should run easy and flowing; in describing a rough torrent or deluge, sonorous and swelling; and so of the rest. This is evident everywhere in Homer and Virgil, and nowhere else, that I know of, to any observable degree. We have one excellent example of it in our language, Mr. Dryden's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, entitled Alexander's Feast. “2. Every nice ear must (I believe) have observ'd that in any smooth English verse of ten syllables, there is naturally a Pause at the fourth, fifth, or sixth syllable. It is upon these that the ear rests, and upon the judicious change and management of which depends the variety of versification. For example, "At the fifth: 'Where'er thy navy spreads her canvas wings.' "At the fourth: 'Homage to thee and peace to all she brings.' "At the sixth: 'Like tracks of leverets in morning snows.' "Now I fancy that, to preserve an exact Harmony and variety, the Pause at the 4th or 6th should not be continued above three lines together, without the interposition of another; else it will be apt to weary the ear with one continued tone, at least it does mine. That at the 5th runs quicker, and carries not quite so dead a weight, so tires not so much, tho' it be continued longer. "3. Another nicety is in relation to Expletives, whether words or syllables, which are made use of purely to supply a vacancy; do before verbs plural is absolutely such; and it is not improbable but future refiners may explode did and does in the same manner, which are almost always used for the sake of rhyme. The same cause has occasioned the promiscuous use of you and thou to the same person, which can never be found so graceful as either one or the other. 4. I would also object to the irruption of Alexandrine verses of twelve syllables, which, I think, should never be allow'd but when some remarkable beauty or propriety in them atones for the liberty. Mr. Dryden has been too free of these, especially in his latter works. I am of the same opinion as to Triple Rhimes. "5. I could equally object to the repetition of the same Rhimes within four or six lines of each other, as tiresome to the ear thro' their Monotony. “6. Monosyllable Lines unless very artfully managed, are stiff, or languishing; but may be beautiful to express Melancholy, Slowness, or Labour. "7. To come to the Hiatus, or Gap between two words, which is caus'd by two vowels opening on each other (upon which you desire me to be particular); I think the rule in this case is either to use the Caesura, or admit the Hiatus, just as the ear is least shock'd by either; for the Caesura sometimes offends the ear more than the Hiatus itself, and our language is naturally over-charg'd with consonants. As for example; if in this verse, "The old have Int'rest ever in their eye,' we should say, to avoid the Hiatus, 'But th' old have Int'rest.' The Hiatus which has the worst effect, is when one word ends with the same vowel that begins the following; and next to this, those vowels whose sounds come nearest each other, are most to be avoided. O, A, or U, will bear a more full and graceful sound than E, I, or Y. . . . To conclude, I believe the Hiatus should be avoided with more care in poetry than in Oratory; and I would constantly try to prevent it, unless where the cutting it off is more prejudicial to the sound than the Hiatus itself." The student should be warned that Pope did not in this letter give a full description of the resources of his art. His versification, like that of any true artist, is too subtle and exquisite to be reduced to rules. The following comments 1 are intended only to quicken the reader's perception of the niceties of movement and modulation, most of which, as every experienced reader knows, are beyond analysis. Metre. The "normal" line of iambic pentameter is frequently modified; (a) a trochee is substituted for an iambus: Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand. (5). No place is sacred, not the Church is free (11). Has Life no joys for me? or, (to be grave) (273). He spins the slight, self-pleasing thread anew (90). This saving counsel, "Keep your piece nine years” (40). Some of these illustrations are, however, debatable. Some readers of Pope deny that he ever used a trochee except at the beginning of the line. Such readers would probably explain the last two illustrations as cases of divided emphasis; but line 273 would give them a difficult problem. The test of formulations of principles of versification is always in the easy, natural, and effective reading of the verse. 1 For convenience, all illustrations in this appendix are taken from the Epistle to Arbuthnot, the number after each indicating the line. (b) a division of the emphasis on the two syllables of a foot is not infrequent: I'd never name Queens, Ministers, or Kings (76). Is there, who, lock'd from ink and paper, scrawls (19). (c) frequently the metrical emphasis falls on an unimportant syllable or on a monosyllable; in such cases the metrical emphasis is lightened, or even nullified, the tempo of the line is speeded up, and some of the rhythm of the trisyllabic measure is borrowed for the instant, without losing the integrity of the fundamental iambic pattern: All Bedlam, or Parnassus, is let out (4). Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand (5). What walls can guard me, or what shades can hide (7). PAUSES.-All commentators on Pope's versification mention his tendency to mass the cesura after the fourth, fifth, and sixth syllables, and the consequent breaking up of the line into two balanced or antithetical parts. But it should also be borne in mind that, in the process of developing and polishing the heroic couplet from Ben Jonson to Pope, double pauses were being used increasingly. Tie up the knocker, || say I'm sick, || I'm dead (1). Pope did not restrict himself to two pauses: Shut, shut the door, good John! fatigu'd, I said (1). Is there, who, lock'd from ink and paper, scrawls (20). Intermingled with pauses, which in themselves offered an infinite variety of rhythms, are lines which have no pause at all: Happy to catch me just at Dinner-time (14). Poor Cornus sees his frantic wife elope (25). THE COUPLET.-In Seventeenth century English poetry there had been an increasing tendency to make each couplet a self-contained, independent unit of thought and rhythm, with a full pause at the end. Pope has a smaller percentage of unstopped couplets than any previous English Poet. But it is an error to say that he has none. Couplets ending with commas are not infrequent; and even where the couplets are punctuated as if independent, they are often really felt in reading as a part of a larger poetical unit, such as the lines on Atticus, or the conclusion of the Dunciad. |