The Works of Alexander Pope: Esq. with Notes and Illustrations by Himself and Others. To which are Added, a New Life of the Author, an Estimate of His Poetical Character and Writings, and Occasional Remarks, Volume 6

Front Cover

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 173 - For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; His can't be wrong whose life is in the right...
Page 37 - A clerk, foredoom'd his father's soul to cross, Who pens a stanza, when he should engross?
Page 78 - A cherub's face, a reptile all the rest; Beauty that shocks you, parts that none will trust, Wit that can creep, and pride that licks the dust.
Page 32 - Me, let the tender office long engage, To rock the cradle of reposing age, With lenient arts extend a mother's breath, Make languor smile, and smooth the bed of death, Explore the thought, explain the asking eye, And keep a while one parent from the sky!
Page 36 - tis past a doubt, All Bedlam, or Parnassus, is let out: Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand, They rave, recite, and madden round the land. What walls can guard me, or what shades can hide? They pierce my thickets, through my grot they glide, By land, by water, they renew the charge, They stop the chariot, and they board the barge.
Page 71 - Oh let me live my own, and die so too ! (To live and die is all I have to do:) Maintain a Poet's dignity and ease, And see what friends, and read what books I please : Above a Patron, tho...
Page 410 - ... sermo oritur, non de villis domibusve alienis, nee male necne Lepos saltet ; sed quod magis ad nos pertinet et nescire malum est agitamus : utrumne divitiis homines an sint virtute beati ; quidve ad amicitias, usus rectumne, trahat nos ; 75 et quae sit natura boni summumque quid eius.
Page 202 - But for the wits of either Charles's days, The mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease ; Sprat, Carew, Sedley, and a hundred more, (Like twinkling stars the miscellanies o'er) One simile, that solitary shines In the dry desert of a thousand lines, Or lengthen'd thought that gleams through many a page, Has sanctified whole poems for an age.
Page 460 - So bright is thy beauty, so charming thy song, As had drawn both the beasts and their Orpheus along : But such is thy avarice, and such is thy pride, That the beasts must have starved, and the poet have died. THE BALANCE OF EUROPE. Now Europe balanced, neither side prevails ; For nothing's left in either of the scales.
Page 39 - twas when he knew no better. Dare you refuse him? Curll invites to dine; He'll write a journal, or he'll turn divine." Bless me! a packet. — " 'Tis a stranger sues, A virgin tragedy, an orphan muse." If I dislike it, "Furies, death and rage!" If I approve, "Commend it to the stage.

Bibliographic information