duction in London after the coronation, and poffibly her appearing to greater perfonal advantage than before, made him feel impatient when she went "To plain work, and to purling brooks," leaving the mall, the ring, affemblies, and plays, for the lonely hall and the rooks of Maple-Durham. That Terefa, not Martha, was the object of his "wooing in rhyme," is proved from the letters now published in the first edition also, the line was written "So from the town the fair TERESA flew." In the letters Teresa is called "Zephylinda ;" and her fifter Martha "Parthenia." Under the name of Zephylinda, for fome years the elder fifter correfponded with a Swain, who had the Arcadian appellation of Alexis. The want of free and social intercourse, as it exists at this day between thofe of different sexes, where we see virtue without hypocrify, modefty without prudery, and unaffected friendlinefs without artifice or difguife, was probably the cause of these fentimental fopperies. Terefa, however, was Zephylinda; Martha, Parthenia; Alexis, James Moore, afterwards James Moore Smythe*; and Pope, though he had no name in romance, (to which, it must be confeffed, his figure was little adapted,) was not deficient in those gallant tendernesses of "fonnets made to his mistress's eyebrow," which might befeem a youthful bard. To Teresa *This accounts, more than any thing else, for Pope's inveteracy to him. James Moore had robbed him of Terefa, as Lord Harvey afterwards did, of his idol, Lady Mary. Teresa he had written an epistle in verfe before; but in this he seems to confefs more, though with his usual guardedness of expreffion at that time, for her fifter is mentioned at the fame time *. But the most extraordinary circumstance relating to this epiftle in verfe, and which evinces the groffnefs of the times, or the licentioufness of the man, was the conclufion of it, now fuppreffed, fo coarse and indecent, that it almost surpasses belief it could have been fent to any woman, (much less one for whom he profeffed efteem,) if the lines in his own hand-writing were not extant. Whatever may be faid of the vices of the prefent age, in many respects, it is so fuperior to the last, that a profeffed woman of the town would now feel infulted at receiving what was then written to a woman of character. I am willing to believe that two copies were written, one, which he fent the lady, and another, which he : kept "She * Ayre fays, with his fimple folemnity, page 32. vol. 2. imagined his civility arofe from his youth, complaisance to her sex, and respect to her family; all which were used as pleas for more frequent opportunities of converfing with her but this was now put an end to for the prefent. If fhe went a little unwillingly from the town, it is no wonder, for fhe was a great admirer of mufic, and the public diverfions, as most at that age fhe was then at do; and the place fhe went to was as retired and as little vifited as a nunnery. On the contrary, Mr. Pope, who could with great delight have enjoyed that folitude, (without enquiring who was his neigh bours), was, by reafon of transacting fome affairs, under an obligation of being in town: he concealed his real concern for this feparation, and wrote Mifs Blount a letter, being the fecond he had wrote to her in verfe, wherein he confeffes (without seeming to do it formally) that she is seldom or ever out of his thoughts. kept for the " confilia fecretiora" of Cromwell, and his other friends of the fame character. At this time, indeed, he abfurdly affected a levity of diffipation. In his verfes "On leaving Town," he calls himself "The gayeft valetudinaire, Doncastle, in a letter extant, written not long af terwards, fays: "I am glad you are turn'd fuch a bon vivant." This affectation was occafioned by vanity and the intercourfe of gay companions, but was neither congenial to his difpofition, nor long continued. The kind of reciprocity, between friendship and gallantry, towards the Blounts, continued till it was put to flight, "not by Gay's tapping him on the fhoulder," but by fomething more fair, more interefting, more fafcinating than either Terefa or Martha. The object that now arrested his heart, was the celebrateď Lady Wortley Montagu. It is neceffary to revert a moment to the change in Pope's circumstances. Towards the end of this year, 1715, being enabled, by the unparalleled fuccess of the subscriptions to Homer, to "live more at ease," the house at Binfield was fold. With his father and mother (for whom his affection feemed to increase as they most needed his kindness) he left the retreat in the Forest *, and arose with fortune and reputation, among There is fomething interefting (but marked by political disappointment) in the letter he wrote his friend Blount, after the VOL. I. battle "among the fwans of Thames," at the pleafant village of Twickenham, fince fo much celebrated on account of his refidence. A leafe, for his own life, of four acres, was purchased of a Mrs. Vernon; fo, in his verses, he says, "Does it concern one "Whether the house belongs to me, or Vernon ?" He here commenced the character of a man of rural taste. The elevation and defign of his refidence were planned by himself: the MS. tranflation of the Odyffey, in the British Museum, is filled with fketches of entablatures, columns, and porticos, by his own hand. He had long been acquainted with Mrs. Howard, afterwards Countess of Suffolk, whom Swift and Gay fruitlessly wooed, in hopes of preferment. The vicinity of her refidence between Twickenham and Richmond, gave him opportunities of friendly intercourfe. Here he firft became acquainted with the celebrated battle of Preston, when he went to take leave, 1715, of his friends in the Foreft: "I write this from Windfor Foreft, of which I am come to take my last look. We have bid our neighbours adieu! much as those who are going to be hanged do their fellow-prifoners who are con demned to follow them a few weeks after! I parted from honeft Mr. D. with tenderness; and from old Sir W. Trumbull, as from a venerable prophet, foretelling with lifted hands the miferies to come, from which he is just going to be removed himself—perhaps now. I have learned fo far as dulcia linquimus arva; my next lesfon may be Nos patriam fugimus.” celebrated lady before mentioned, then in the pride of beauty, fashion, and accomplishments. She had lived retired with her husband till 1714, when his relation, Montague, being appointed to the high office of First Lord of the Treasury, he was made one of the Commiffioners, Oct. 13, 1714; in consequence of which, he was introduced to the Court of George the First. "The first appearance of Lady Mary at St. James's," fays Mr. Dallaway, " was hailed with that univerfal admiration, which beauty, enlivened by wit, incontestably claims; and, while the tribute of praise, fo well merited, was willingly paid in public to the elegance of her form, the charms of her conversation were equally unrivalled, in the first private circles of the nobility." Her powers of converfation, her fphere of life, her fascinating manners, added to youth, and beauty, and cultivated talents, certainly might impress the heart of Pope, at this time in his twentyfixth year. She was not infenfible to the flattery of a man so distinguished in literature, and encouraged, poffibly very innocently (as not having any idea that his feelings could be mixed with ought but the veneration he profeffed) his rifing predilection in her favour. Delighted with manners naturally unguarded, and by her unaffected difdain of rigid and formal etiquette, his admiration was raised to enthufiafm. Whatever he propofed to himself, and whatever C 2 |