Alexander Pope | Page 9

his own vanity.
We may, indeed, assume, without much risk of error, that Pope had
become too conscious of his own importance to find pleasure or pride
in doctoring another man's verses. It must remain uncertain how far he
showed this resentment to Wycherley openly, or gratified it by some
covert means; and how far, again, he succeeded in calming Wycherley's
susceptibility by his compliments, or aroused his wrath by more or less
contemptuous treatment of his verses.
A year after the quarrel, Cromwell reported that Wycherley had again
been speaking in friendly terms of Pope, and Pope expressed his
pleasure with eagerness. He must, he said, be more agreeable to himself
when agreeable to Wycherley, as the earth was brighter when the sun
was less overcast. Wycherley, it may be remarked, took Pope's advice
by turning some of his verses into prose maxims; and they seem to
have been at last upon more or less friendly terms. The final scene of
Wycherley's questionable career, some four years later, is given by
Pope in a letter to his friend, Edward Blount. The old man, he says,
joined the sacraments of marriage and extreme unction. By one he
supposed himself to gain some advantage of his soul; by the other, he
had the pleasure of saddling his hated heir and nephew with the jointure

of his widow. When dying, he begged his wife to grant him a last
request, and, upon her consent, explained it to be that she would never
again marry an old man. Sickness, says Pope in comment, often
destroys wit and wisdom, but has seldom the power to remove humour.
Wycherley's joke, replies a critic, is contemptible; and yet one feels that
the death scene, with this strange mixture of cynicism, spite, and
superstition, half redeemed by imperturbable good temper, would not
be unworthy of a place in Wycherley's own school of comedy. One
could wish that Pope had shown a little more perception of the tragic
side of such a conclusion.
Pope was still almost a boy when he broke with Wycherley; but he was
already beginning to attract attention, and within a surprisingly short
time he was becoming known as one of the first writers of the day. I
must now turn to the poems by which this reputation was gained, and
the incidents connected with their publication. In Pope's life, almost
more than in that of any other poet, the history of the author is the
history of the man.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The letter is, unluckily, of doubtful authenticity; but it represents
Pope's probable sentiments.
[2] See Elwin's Pope, Vol. I., cxxxv.
CHAPTER II.
FIRST PERIOD OF POPE'S LITERARY CAREER.
Pope's rupture with Wycherley took place in the summer of 1710, when
Pope, therefore, was just twenty-two. He was at this time only known
as the contributor of some small poems to a Miscellany. Three years
afterwards (1713) he was receiving such patronage in his great
undertaking, the translation of Homer, as to prove conclusively that he
was regarded by the leaders of literature as a poet of very high promise;
and two years later (1715) the appearance of the first volume of his
translation entitled him to rank as the first poet of the day. So rapid a

rise to fame has had few parallels, and was certainly not approached
until Byron woke and found himself famous at twenty-four. Pope was
eager for the praise of remarkable precocity, and was weak and
insincere enough to alter the dates of some of his writings in order to
strengthen his claim. Yet, even when we accept the corrected accounts
of recent enquirers, there is no doubt that he gave proofs at a very early
age of an extraordinary command of the resources of his art. It is still
more evident that his merits were promptly and frankly recognized by
his contemporaries. Great men and distinguished authors held out
friendly hands to him; and he never had to undergo, even for a brief
period, the dreary ordeal of neglect through which men of loftier but
less popular genius, have been so often compelled to pass. And yet it
unfortunately happened that, even in this early time, when success
followed success, and the young man's irritable nerves might well have
been soothed by the general chorus of admiration he excited and
returned bitter antipathies, some of which lasted through his life.
Pope's works belong to three distinct periods. The translation of Homer
was the great work of the middle period of his life. In his later years he
wrote the moral and satirical poems by which he is now best known.
The earlier period, with which I have now to deal, was one of
experimental excursions into various fields of poetry, with varying
success and rather uncertain aim. Pope