Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/116

 from Mr. J. C. Smith). Pope's statement in a note in the Epistle to Arbuthnot, that his father belonged to the family of the earls of Downe, appears to have been a fiction (, Essay, ii. 255). The poet's maternal grandfather descended from a family of small landowners in Yorkshire. He had seventeen children, one of whom, Edith, the poet's mother, was baptised on 18 June 1642, though, according to her epitaph, she was ninety-three at her death on 7 June 1733. Christiana, another daughter, married the portrait-painter,  (1609–1672) [q. v.], and at her death in 1693, left some china, pictures, and medals to her nephew. Three of her sons, according to Pope's statement (Epistle to Arbuthnot), were in the service of Charles I. Alexander Pope, the linendraper, after his second marriage, moved his business to Lombard Street. He made some money by his trade, and in or before 1700 moved to Binfield in Windsor Forest. It appears from his will (, Pope, 1857, p. 463) that he had some landed property, and he also invested money in French rentes (Works, vi. 189, 201). The story, first told by Ruffhead, that he put all his money in a strong-box and lived upon the principal, is therefore erroneous. As a catholic, he was exposed to various disqualifications; but he appears to have lived comfortably among the country gentry. He had many friends among the Roman catholics, several of whom lived near the forest. He was fond of gardening, and had twenty acres of land round his house at Binfield. One room of the house is said to remain, and a row of Scottish firs near it was apparently there in Pope's time.

Pope was precocious, and in his infancy healthy. He was called the ‘little nightingale’ from the beauty of his voice, a name still applied to him in later years by the dramatist Southern (, p. 476;, Swift, p. 207). A portrait, painted when he was ten years old, showed him ‘plump and pretty, and of a fresh complexion.’ This is said to have been like him at the time; but a severe illness two years later, brought on by ‘perpetual application,’ ruined his health and distorted his figure (, Anecdotes, 1820, p. 26). Spence's statements, chiefly derived from Pope himself and his sister, Mrs. Rackett, give all that is known of his childhood. He was once nearly killed by a cow. He learnt to read ‘from an old aunt,’ and to write by imitating printed letters. He acquired a clear and good hand. When eight years old he began Latin and Greek under a priest named Banister (or Taverner). Next year he was sent to a Roman catholic school at Twyford, near Winchester, and afterwards to a school kept by [q. v.], first at Marylebone, and then at Hyde Park Corner. He was removed from Twyford because he had been whipped for satirising the master; and at the two schools he unlearnt what he had learnt from Banister. He was then brought back to his father's house, and placed for a few months under a fourth priest. After this he was left to his own devices, and plunged into miscellaneous reading, studying, he says, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek, as well as English poets, ‘like a boy gathering flowers’ (ib. p. 193). His scholarship naturally was very imperfect; but he read poetry voraciously. He did nothing else but write and read, says Mrs. Rackett (ib. p. 267). He began very early to imitate his favourite authors. He read Ogilby's translation of Homer when he was about twelve, and formed from it a ‘kind of play,’ which was acted by his schoolfellows. At the same age he saw Dryden (who died 1 May 1700), and ‘observed him very particularly’ (ib. p. 332). Between the ages of thirteen and fifteen he wrote an epic poem called ‘Alexander’ (ib. p. 279), which he burnt about 1717, with the approval, perhaps at the suggestion, of Atterbury (Works, ix. 8). He made a translation from Statius about 1702 or 1703, according to his own account, though it was not published till 1712, and then no doubt with many corrections. Other translations from the classics and adaptations of Chaucer show his early practice in versification. He went to London in his fifteenth year to learn French and Italian (, p. 25), and his energetic studies produced another illness. He thought himself dying, and sent farewells to his friends. One of these, the Abbé Southcote, hereupon applied to Radcliffe for advice. Radcliffe sensibly prescribed less study and daily rides in the forest. Pope regained health, and twenty years later showed his gratitude by obtaining for Southcote, through Sir Robert Walpole, an appointment to a French abbey near Avignon (ib. pp. 7, 8). Pope's precocious ambition led him to court the acquaintance of all the wits whom he could meet, and the homage of so promising a lad was returned by warm encouragement. One of his earliest friends was Sir William Trumbull, who had been secretary of state, and was living in retirement at Easthampstead Park. Pope rode out with him three or four days a week, and was encouraged by him in the composition of his ‘Pastorals.’ The first is addressed to Trumbull, and Pope, whose statements on such points are always doubt-