Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/728

 708 POPE school, first at TVyford, where he was flogged for lampooning his master, and afterward in London, where he studied little but Dryden, Spenser, Waller, Ogilby's translation of Homer, and Sandys's translation of Ovid. Dryden was his master in the art of poetry ; he had the warmest admiration for him, studied his works minutely, copied his style, and records that when about 12 years old he had a glimpse of the great poet, then in the last year of his life. Soon after this Pope went home to Binfield, and continued a course of self-education with diligence until he was 19 or 20. He taught himself French, Latin, and Greek, through the medium of translations. The earliest of his pieces extant is an " Ode on Solitude," written when he was about 12. From his 13th to his 15th year he was engaged upon "Alcander," an epic poem of which he had finished four books when he burned it. He also composed a comedy and a tragedy, which he destroyed, and gave promise of his satirical powers in some "Lines to the Author of a Poem entitled Successio " (Elkanah Settle), which were print- ed in 1712 by Lintot in a volume of " Miscel- laneous Poems and Translations." His imita- tions of some of the English poets, translations of the first book of the Thebais of Statius, of Ovid's epistle from Sappho to Phaon and part of the " Metamorphoses," and of the fa- bles of " January and May " and the " Wife of Bath " from Chaucer, belong to nearly the same period ; but none of his youthful com- positions were published earlier than his 21st year. About 1704 he was introduced by Sir William Trumbull to the veteran dramatist Wycherley, under whose auspices he made his first acquaintance with the coffee-house wits of London. Wycherley submitted his verses to the boy poet for correction ; but the freedom with which Pope exercised his critical office resulted in a quarrel. Garth and Congreve were also among his early friends. In 1709 he established his position as the first poet of his time by the publication of his " Pastorals," written five years before. They appeared in the sixth volume of Tonson's "Poetical Mis- cellany," with the version of Chaucer's "Jan- uary and May," and a translation of the episode of Sarpedon from the Iliad. He had already begun the " Essay on Criticism," which was published anonymously in 1711, and assailed by John Dennis with the most extravagant abuse, while Addison praised it in the " Spectator " (No. 253) as " a masterpiece in its kind." In the next year Pope contributed to the " Spec- tator " the " Messiah, a Sacred Eclogue." The first sketch of the " Rape of the Lock," a mere skeleton of what the poem afterward became, appeared in Lintot's collection of "Miscel- laneous Poems and Translations " in 1712. It originated in a quarrel between two families of quality on account of the stealing of a lock of hair from the head of a reigning belle ; JPope was urged " to write a poem to make a jest of it, and laugh them together again," and its literary success was such that the author determined to enlarge it. It was accordingly printed in 1714 with the addition of the super- natural machinery and a dedication to Miss Arabella Fermor, the heroine of the piece. In 1713 he went to London, where for a year and a half he studied painting under Jervas, a pu- pil of Sir Godfrey Kneller. He had a strong natural taste for the art, but his bad eyesight was an insuperable bar to success; and after throwing away " three Dr. Swifts, two Lady Bridgewaters, a duchess of Montague, half a dozen earls, and one knight of the garter," and executing a few pieces which have had a better fate, he returned to literature. In 1713 appeared his descriptive poem on " Windsor Forest," mostly written when he was 16 years old, the publication of which led to his inti- macy with Swift and Arbuthnot, and an " Ode for Music on St. Cecilia's Day," which is un- fortunate in provoking comparison with the composition of Dryden on the same subject. In the mean time Pope had made the acquaint- ance of Teresa and Martha Blount, young ladies of good family and nearly his own age. Martha, the younger, was his devoted friend through life and his principal heir. Her inter- course with him did not escape scandal, but it is now agreed that no imputations could be more unjust. Another of his friends was Gay ; and Steele, who was one of the first to appre- ciate his genius, introduced him to Addison. For the first performance of Addison's " Cato " (1713) he wrote a prologue which was as pop- ular as the tragedy itself ; and when Dennis attacked the play he hastened to revenge his friend in a " Narrative of Dr. Robert Norris [a noted quack who pretended to cure lunatics] concerning the strange and deplorable Frenzy of J. D." Pope contributed to the " Guardian'* several papers, including a sarcastic parallel between his own pastorals and those of his rival Ambrose Philips, whom Steele in the same publication had pronounced the legiti- mate successor of Spenser. Pope had thus far been supported by a moderate allowance from his father; all his poetry together had not brought him 100. He now issued proposals for a poetical translation of the Iliad, to be published by subscription in six volumes at a guinea each ; over 650 copies were subscribed for. But Pope was no master of Greek, and, with all the help of various translations, had at first such " terrible moments " that he wished a hundred times somebody would hang him. But as the work went on the task became lighter, and he fell into the method of trans- lating 30 or 40 verses before he got up, and working upon it the rest of the morning. " My usual method," he says, " was to take advan- tage of the first heat, and then to correct each book, first by the original text, then by other translations, and lastly to give it a reading for the versification only." The first volume ap- peared in 1715 and the last in 1720. Besides the subscription money, he received from Lin-