Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope, by Leslie
Stephen

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Title: Alexander Pope English Men of Letters Series
Author: Leslie Stephen
Release Date: October 29, 2006 [EBook #19654]
Language: English
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ALEXANDER POPE ***

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English Men of Letters
EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY
POPE

ALEXANDER POPE
BY
LESLIE STEPHEN
London: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1880.
The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved.
FIFTH THOUSAND.

PREFATORY NOTE.
The life and writings of Pope have been discussed in a literature more
voluminous than that which exists in the case of almost any other
English man of letters. No biographer, however, has produced a
definitive or exhaustive work. It seems therefore desirable to indicate
the main authorities upon which such a biographer would have to rely,
and which have been consulted for the purpose of the following
necessarily brief and imperfect sketch.
The first life of Pope was a catchpenny book, by William Ayre,
published in 1745, and remarkable chiefly as giving the first version of
some demonstrably erroneous statements, unfortunately adopted by
later writers. In 1751, Warburton, as Pope's literary executor, published
the authoritative edition of the poet's works, with notes containing
some biographical matter. In 1769 appeared a life by Owen Ruffhead,

who wrote under Warburton's inspiration. This is a dull and meagre
performance, and much of it is devoted to an attack--partly written by
Warburton himself--upon the criticisms advanced in the first volume of
Joseph Warton's Essay on Pope. Warton's first volume was published in
1756; and it seems that the dread of Warburton's wrath counted for
something in the delay of the second volume, which did not appear till
1782. The Essay contains a good many anecdotes of interest. Warton's
edition of Pope--the notes in which are chiefly drawn from the
Essay--was published in 1797. The Life by Johnson appeared in 1781;
it is admirable in many ways; but Johnson had taken the least possible
trouble in ascertaining facts. Both Warton and Johnson had before them
the manuscript collections of Joseph Spence, who had known Pope
personally during the last twenty years of his life, and wanted nothing
but literary ability to have become an efficient Boswell. Spence's
anecdotes, which were not published till 1820, give the best obtainable
information upon many points, especially in regard to Pope's childhood.
This ends the list of biographers who were in any sense contemporary
with Pope. Their statements must be checked and supplemented by the
poet's own letters, and innumerable references to him in the literature of
the time. In 1806 appeared the edition of Pope by Bowles, with a life
prefixed. Bowles expressed an unfavourable opinion of many points in
Pope's character, and some remarks by Campbell, in his specimens of
English poets, led to a controversy (1819-1826) in which Bowles
defended his views against Campbell, Byron, Roscoe, and others, and
which incidentally cleared up some disputed questions. Roscoe, the
author of the Life of Leo X., published his edition of Pope in 1824. A
life is contained in the first volume, but it is a feeble performance; and
the notes, many of them directed against Bowles, are of little value. A
more complete biography was published by R. Carruthers (with an
edition of the works), in 1854. The second, and much improved, edition
appeared in 1857, and is still the most convenient life of Pope, though
Mr. Carruthers was not fully acquainted with the last results of some
recent investigations, which have thrown a new light upon the poet's
career.
The writer who took the lead in these inquiries was the late Mr. Dilke.
Mr. Dilke published the results of his investigations (which were partly

guided by the discovery of a previously unpublished correspondence
between Pope and his friend Caryll), in the Athenæum and Notes and
Queries, at various intervals, from 1854 to 1860. His contributions to
the subject have been collated in the first volume of the Papers of a
Critic, edited by his grandson, the present Sir Charles W. Dilke, in
1875. Meanwhile Mr. Croker had been making an extensive collection
of materials for an exhaustive edition of Pope's works, in which he was
to be assisted by Mr. Peter Cunningham. After Croker's death these
materials were submitted by Mr.