Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/584

 580 Snyder POPE'S BLANK VERSE EPIC I have often been impressed by the fact that Owen Ruffhead in his biography of Alexander Pope (1769) paid so much atten- tion to Pope's plan for an epic poem to be entitled Brutus and written in blank verse. Having before him Pope's autograph notes for the entire poem, Ruffhead deciphered them as best he was able and gave the public for the first time a fairly complete synopsis of the projected work. The difficulty of making such a synopsis must have been very great, for the notes are miser- ably arranged, with two or three parallel columns on the same page, the second column being in some cases an explanation of the first and in others a mere continuation; but Ruffhead succeeded in making out of the material before him a coherent plan which, I have no doubt, is fairly true to Pope's intention. As a sample of his accuracy in copying and expanding, I may quote a few of the most legible sentences in Pope's MS exactly as they stand, and then give Ruffhead's elaboration of them: This he may tell his Council to encourage 'em to proceed. Yet y y continue afraid pleading ye example of Hercules for going no farther, ye Presumption of going beyond a God. He answers he was but a mortal like them, & if their Virtue were superior to his, they w d be as much Gods as he Ye way is open to Heaven by Virtue. Lastly he resolves etc [in another part of the page the sentence is taken up thus:] he resolves to go in a single ship, & reject all Cowards. This has such an effect, that the whole council being dismayed, are unwil- ling to pass the straits, and venture into the great ocean; pleading the example of Hercules for not advancing farther, and urging the presumption of going beyond a god. To which Brutus, rising with emotion, answers, that Hercules was but a mortal like them; and that if their virtue was superior to his, they would have the same claim to divinity: for that the path of virtue was the only way that lay open to Heaven. At length he resolves to go in a single ship, and to reject all such dastards as dared not accompany him. It is surprising to me that Ruffhead should make his outline with such care and at the same time pay so little attention to the fact that Pope's epic was to be in blank verse. After devoting some eleven pages of his biography to the outline as he elaborated it from Pope's notes, he remarks: "Our author had actually begun this poem, and a part of the manuscript in blank verse now lies before me, but various accidents concurred to prevent his making any further progress in it." Interesting