Alexander Pope | Page 5

his cradle to his
grave his eye was fixed unremittingly upon the sole purpose of his life.
The whole energies of his mind were absorbed in the struggle to place
his name as high as possible in that temple of fame, which he painted
after Chaucer in one of his early poems. External conditions pointed to
letters as the sole path to eminence, but it was precisely the path for
which he had admirable qualifications. The sickly son of the Popish
tradesman was cut off from the bar, the senate, and the church.
Physically contemptible, politically ostracized, and in a humble social
position, he could yet win this dazzling prize and force his way with his
pen to the highest pinnacle of contemporary fame. Without adventitious
favour and in spite of many bitter antipathies, he was to become the
acknowledged head of English literature, and the welcome companion
of all the most eminent men of his time. Though he could not foresee
his career from the start, he worked as vigorously as if the goal had
already been in sight; and each successive victory in the field of letters
was realized the more keenly from his sense of the disadvantages in
face of which it had been won. In tracing his rapid ascent, we shall
certainly find reason to doubt his proud assertion,--

That, if he pleased, he pleased by manly ways,
but it is impossible for any lover of literature to grudge admiration to
this singular triumph of pure intellect over external disadvantages, and
the still more depressing influences of incessant physical suffering.
Pope had indeed certain special advantages which he was not slow in
turning to account. In one respect even his religion helped him to
emerge into fame. There was naturally a certain free-masonry amongst
the Catholics allied by fellow-feeling under the general antipathy. The
relations between Pope and his co-religionists exercised a material
influence upon his later life. Within a few miles of Binfield lived the
Blounts of Mapledurham, a fine old Elizabethan mansion on the banks
of the Thames, near Reading, which had been held by a royalist Blount
in the civil war against a parliamentary assault. It was a more
interesting circumstance to Pope that Mr. Lister Blount, the then
representative of the family, had two fair daughters, Teresa and Martha,
of about the poet's age. Another of Pope's Catholic acquaintances was
John Caryll, of West Grinstead in Sussex, nephew of a Caryll who had
been the representative of James II. at the Court of Rome, and who,
following his master into exile, received the honours of a titular
peerage and held office in the melancholy court of the Pretender. In
such circles Pope might have been expected to imbibe a Jacobite and
Catholic horror of Whigs and freethinkers. In fact, however, he
belonged from his youth to the followers of Gallio, and seems to have
paid to religious duties just as much attention as would satisfy his
parents. His mind was really given to literature; and he found his
earliest patron in his immediate neighbourhood. This was Sir W.
Trumbull, who had retired to his native village of Easthampstead in
1697, after being ambassador at the Porte under James II., and
Secretary of State under William III. Sir William made acquaintance
with the Popes, praised the father's artichokes, and was delighted with
the precocious son. The old diplomatist and the young poet soon
became fast friends, took constant rides together, and talked over
classic and modern poetry. Pope made Trumbull acquainted with
Milton's juvenile poems, and Trumbull encouraged Pope to follow in
Milton's steps. He gave, it seems, the first suggestion to Pope that he

should translate Homer; and he exhorted his young friend to preserve
his health by flying from tavern company--tanquam ex incendio.
Another early patron was William Walsh, a Worcestershire country
gentleman of fortune and fashion, who condescended to dabble in
poetry after the manner of Waller, and to write remonstrances upon
Celia's cruelty, verses to his mistress against marriage, epigrams, and
pastoral eclogues. He was better known, however, as a critic, and had
been declared by Dryden to be, without flattery, the best in the nation.
Pope received from him one piece of advice which has become famous.
We had had great poets--so said the "knowing Walsh," as Pope calls
him--"but never one great poet that was correct;" and he accordingly
recommended Pope to make correctness his great aim. The advice
doubtless impressed the young man as the echo of his own convictions.
Walsh died (1708), before the effect of his suggestion had become fully
perceptible.
The acquaintance with Walsh was due to Wycherley, who had
submitted Pope's Pastorals to his recognized critical authority. Pope's
intercourse with Wycherley and another early friend, Henry Cromwell,
had a more important bearing upon his