The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, vol 1

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Title: The Poetical Works Of Alexander Pope, Vol. 1
Author: Alexander Pope et al
Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9413]
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0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE
POETICAL WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE, VOL. 1 ***
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THE POETICAL WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE
VOL. I.
With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes
by THE REV. GEORGE GILFILLAN
M.DCCC.LVI.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER POPE
Alexander Pope was born in Lombard Street, London, on the 21st of
May 1688--the year of the Revolution. His father was a linen-merchant,
in thriving circumstances, and said to have noble blood in his veins. His
mother was Edith or Editha Turner, daughter of William Turner, Esq.,
of York. Mr Carruthers, in his excellent Life of the Poet, mentions that
there was an Alexander Pope, a clergyman, in the remote parish of
Reay, in Caithness, who rode all the way to Twickenham to pay his
great namesake a visit, and was presented by him with a copy of the
subscription edition of the "Odyssey," in five volumes quarto, which is
still preserved by his descendants. Pope's father had made about
£10,000 by trade; but being a Roman Catholic, and fond of a country
life, he retired from business shortly after the Revolution, at the early
age of forty-six. He resided first at Kensington, and then in Binfield, in
the neighbourhood of Windsor Forest. He is said to have put his money
in a strong box, and to have lived on the principal. His great delight
was in his garden; and both he and his wife seem to have cherished the
warmest interest in their son, who was very delicate in health, and their
only child. Pope's study is still preserved in Binfield; and on the lawn, a
cypress-tree which he is said to have planted, is pointed out.
Pope was a premature and precocious child. His figure was

deformed--his back humped--his stature short (four feet)--his legs and
arms disproportionably long. He was sometimes compared to a spider,
and sometimes to a windmill. The only mark of genius lay in his bright
and piercing eye. He was sickly in constitution, and required and
received great tenderness and care. Once, when three years old, he
narrowly escaped from an angry cow, but was wounded in the throat.
He was remarkable as a child for his amiable temper; and from the
sweetness of his voice, received the name of the Little Nightingale. His
aunt gave him his first lessons in reading, and he soon became an
enthusiastic lover of books; and by copying printed characters, taught
himself to write. When eight years old, he was placed under the care of
the family priest, one Bannister, who taught him the Latin and Greek
grammars together. He was next removed to a Catholic seminary at
Twyford, near Winchester; and while there, read Ogilby's "Homer" and
Sandys's "Ovid" with great delight. He had not been long at this school
till he wrote a severe lampoon, of two hundred lines' length, on his
master--so truly was the "boy the father of the man"--for which
demi-Dunciad he was severely flogged. His father, offended at this,
removed him to a London school, kept by a Mr Deane. This man taught
the poet nothing; but his residence in London gave him the opportunity
of attending the theatres. With these he was so captivated, that he wrote
a kind of play, which was acted by his schoolfellows, consisting of
speeches from Ogilby's "Iliad," tacked together with verses of his own.
He became acquainted with Dryden's works, and went to Wills's
coffee-house to see him. He says, "Virgilium tantum vidi." Such
transient meetings of literary orbs are among the