for I do not know one thing for which I can envy London but for your continuing there.""If you have any curiosity to know how I live, or rather lose a life, Martial will inform you in one line:

'Prandeo, poto, cano, ludo, lego, cœno, quiesco.'

Every day with me is literally another yesterday, for it is exactly the same. It has the same business, which is poetry, and the same pleasure, which is idleness. A man might indeed pass his time much better, but I question if any man could pass it much easier."

Whilst Pope was engaged in his Imitations of the English Poets-an employment which, without the effort of original composition, accustomed him to every nicety and refinement of language, and every variety of expression, he still continued to study the principles of the art to which he had devoted himself; and by the perusal of Quintilian, who is said to have been "an old favourite author with him," and the aid of the critical works of Rapin and Bossu, prepared himself for the greater task which had for some time employed his thoughts, and which he now accomplished in such a manner as to establish his character for solidity of judgment and critical taste, no less than he had before done for poetical powers and lively imagination. If we may rely on Ruffhead, the Essay on Criticism was written before he had attained his twentieth year, but in the title of the printed copies it is said to have been written in 1709, at which time Pope was twenty-one years of age. It is however not improbable that he had meditated this work for several years, and that some part of it had even been seen by Walsh, who died in 1708. He is said to have laid the plan, and

8 Mr. Bowles informs us, in his Life of Pope, p. 27, that Pope "wrote the Essay on Criticism at the age of nineteen ;" but in the ensuing page he says, "it was written in 1709."

In Spence's Anecdotes, Pope says, "he showed Mr. Walsh his Essay

digested all the matter in prose, and then to have turned it into verse with great rapidity'. His general rule in composition was to write freely, and to correct with deliberation; and in the two years during which this poem lay by him before publication, it probably received great improvement; nor would it even then have been given to the public had not the solicitations of his friends overpowered that reluctance, which was occasioned by an apprehension lest he should offer to them any thing that might be unworthy of their accept

ance.

But, although none of the writings of Pope had as yet been published, his Pastorals had been known and admired for some time, and had already introduced him to the acquaintance of many of the most distinguished persons of the age, among whom were George Granville, afterwards Lord Lansdowne, Dr. Garth, Mr. Congreve, Lord Halifax, Lord Somers, Mr. Mainwaring, and many others. By their recommendation he was at length induced to appear in the character of an author. This determination was probably confirmed by an application from Tonson the bookseller, who was then collecting a Miscellany, and was desirous of ornamenting it with pieces which had already obtained such great celebrity 2. The Pastorals accordingly made their appearance in the sixth volume

on Criticism in 1706." Malone's ed. p. 20. But at p. 15, he says, “my Essay on Criticism was written in 1709, and published in 1711; which is as little a time as ever I let any thing of mine lie by me.”

1 Ruffhead, p. 67.

2 The following is the letter written by Tonson to Pope on this occasion :

Sir, I have lately seen a Pastoral of yours in Mr. Walsh's and Congreve's hand, which is extremely fine, and is approved by the best judges in poetry. I remember I have formerly seen you in my shop, and am sorry I did not improve my acquaintance with you. If you design your poem for the press, no one shall be more careful in printing it, nor no one can give greater encouragement to it than, Sir, &c."

of Tonson's Miscellanies in 1709, which opened with the Pastorals of Philips, and ended with those of Pope. The principal inducement of Pope to prefer this mode, to that of printing them in a separate publication, seems to have been, that they might be less obnoxious to the severity of criticism. On the 1st of November, 1708, he writes to Cromwell: "But now I talk of these critics, I have good news to tell you concerning myself, for which I expect you should congratulate with me. It is, that beyond all my expectations, and far above my demerits, I have been most mercifully reprieved by the sovereign power of Jacob Tonson, from being brought forth to public punishment; and respited from time to time from the hands of those barbarous executioners of the Muses, whom I was just now speaking of. It often happens that guilty poets, like other guilty criminals, when once they are known and proclaimed, deliver themselves into the hands of justice, only to prevent others from doing it more to their disadvantage, and not out of any ambition to spread their fame by being executed in the face of the world, which is a fame but of short continuance. That poet were a happy man that could but obtain a grant to preserve his for ninety-nine years; for those names rarely last so many days, which are planted either in Jacob Tonson's, or in the ordinary of Newgate's Miscellanies."

Besides the Pastorals, this volume of Miscellanies contained some others of Pope's early works, amongst which were versions of some parts of Homer and of Chaucer. The reception of these pieces by the public at large, confirmed the opinion that had been given of them by his friends. "I must thank you," says Wycherley, "for a volume of your Miscellanies, which Tonson sent me, I suppose by your order; and all I

can tell you of it is, that nothing has lately been better received by the public than your part of it. You have only displeased the critics, by pleasing them too well; having not left them a word to say for themselves against you and your performances; so that now your hand is in, you must persevere till my prophecies of you be fulfilled. In earnest, all the best judges of good sense or poetry are admirers of yours, and like your part of the book so well, that the rest is liked the worse." This information given by Wycherley as a matter of fact, and not of opinion, must have contributed to allay the anxiety and to gratify the feelings of a youthful poet, on his first publication. Pope, in his reply, whilst he declines the commendation bestowed on him, evinces by his sprightliness and his wit, the satisfaction he felt on this occasion. "I am glad," says he, "you received the Miscellany, if it were only to show you that there are as bad poets in this nation as your servant. As to the success which you say my part has met with, it is to be attributed to what you was pleased to say of me to the world; which you do well to call your prophecy, since whatever is said in my favour must be a prediction of things that are not yet. You, like a true Godfather, engage on my part for much more than I ever can perform. My pastoral Muse, like other country girls, is but put out of countenance by what you courtiers say to her; yet I hope you would not deceive me too far, as knowing that a young scribbler's vanity needs no recruits from abroad; for nature, like an indulgent mother, kindly takes care to supply her sons with as much of their own as is necessary to their satisfaction. If my verses should meet with a few flying commendations, Virgil has taught me that a young author has not too much reason to be pleased with them, when he

considers that the natural consequence of praise is envy and calumny:

66

si ultra placitum laudarit, baccare frontem Cingite, ne vati noceat mala lingua futuro."

In this anticipation of the vexations which an author is doomed to experience, and perhaps the more so, because he is successful, Pope was not mistaken; and these were aggravated in no small degree by a spirit of political party, which at this period existed in the country, and not only extended itself into every department of literature, but influenced, in a very particular manner, the circumstances, the conduct, the friendships, and the writings of Pope.