Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/128

Pope a quarrel with him five or six years before her death (Works x. 217). According to several independent reports, varying in details (collected in Works, iii. 77, &c.), Pope read the Atossa to the Duchess of Marlborough, saying that it was meant for the Duchess of Buckinghamshire, and she is said to have seen through the pretence. Meanwhile the character was inserted by Pope in the edition of the 'Moral Essays' which was just printing off at the time of his death, and which he must therefore have expected to be seen by the Duchess of Marlborough. Upon his death she inquired of Bolingbroke whether Pope's manuscripts contained anything affecting her or her husband. He found the 'Atossa' lines in the 'Moral Essays,' and communicated with Marchmont, observing that there was 'no excuse for them after the favour you and I know.' A note in the 'Marchmont Papers' (ii. 334) by Marchmont's executor states this to have been the 1,000l. The whole edition was suppressed, and Warburton, as proprietor of the published works, must have consented. The only copy preserved is now in the British Museum. Bolingbroke soon afterwards found that fifteen hundred copies of some of his own essays had been secretly printed by Pope, Though Pope's motive was no doubt admiration of his friend's work, Bolingbroke, who had been greatly affected at Pope's death, was furious either at the want of confidence or some alterations which had been made. He burnt the edition, but retained a copy, and had another edition published by Mallet, with a preface complaining of the conduct of 'the man' who had been guilty of the 'breach of trust.' He also printed a sheet in 1740 containing the 'Atossa' lines, with a note stating that the duchess had paid 1,000l. for their suppression. Warburton, having consented to the suppression of the edition, was disqualified for directly denying the application of the lines, although he tried elsewhere to insinuate that they were meant for the other duchess (Works, v. 443, 446). The story was afterwards told by Warton (Mr. Courthope's discussion in Works, iii. 75–92, and v. 346–51 is exhaustive). The supposed bargain is disproved. What remains is a characteristic example of Pope's equivocations. Had the epistles appeared in his life, he would no doubt have declared that they applied to the Duchess of Buckinghamshire.

Pope, as described by Reynolds, who once saw him (, Malone, p. 42i)), was four feet six inches in height, and much deformed. He had a very fine eye and a well-formed nose. His face was drawn, and the muscles strongly marked; it showed traces of the headaches from which he constantly suffered, Johnson reports some details given by a servant of Lord Oxford. He was so weak in middle life that he had to wear 'a bodice of stiff canvas;' he could not dress without help, and he wore three pairs of stockings to cover his thin legs. He was a troublesome inmate, often wanting coffee in the night, but liberal to the servants whose rest he disturbed. Johnson mentions that Pope called the servant up four times in one night in 'the dreadful winter of 1740' that he might write down thoughts which had struck him. His old servant, John Searle, lived with him many years, and received a legacy of 100l. under his will. He was abstemious in drink, and would set a single pint before two guests, and, having taken two small glasses, would retire, saying, 'Gentlemen, I leave you to your wine.' He is said to have injured himself by a love of 'highly seasoned dishes' and 'potted lampreys;' but, in spite of a fragile constitution, he lived to the age of fifty-six.

Pope's character is too marked in its main features to be misunderstood, though angry controversies have arisen upon the subject. Literary admirers have resolved to find in him a moral pattern, while dissentients have had no difficulty in discovering topics of reproach. There is, in fact, no more difficult subject for biography, especially in a compressed form. His better qualities, as displayed in the domestic circle, give no materials for narrative, while it is necessary to give the details of the wretched series of complex quarrels, manoeuvres, and falsifications in which he was plunged from his youth. Pope's physical infirmities, his intense sensibility, and the circumstances of his life, produced a morbid development of all the weaknesses characteristic of the literary temperament. Excluded by his creed from all public careers, educated among a class which was forced to meet persecution by intrigue, feeling the slightest touch like the stroke of a bludgeon, forced into an arena of personality where rough practical joking and coarse abuse were recognised modes of warfare, he had recourse to weapons of attack and defence which were altogether inexcusable. The truest statement seems to be that he was at bottom, as he represents himself in the epistle to Arbuthnot, a man of really fine nature, affectionate, generous, and independent; unfortunately, the better nature was perverted by the morbid vanity and excessive irritability which led him into his multitudinous subterfuges. His passion for literary fame, and the keenness of his suffering under attacks, led to all his quarrels. The preceding narrative has shown 