Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/587

 Pope's Blank Verse Epic 583 head. MS 1950 contains, in addition to autograph memoranda for the Essay on Criticism and the Essay on Man, the outline of Brutus and the lines of blank verse in Pope's own hand. These eight lines are of too conventional a sort, being a mere invocation to the Muse, to show what Pope might have accomplished had his health permitted him to continue. But if they are somewhat disappointing in their formal coldness, so are the opening lines of The Cotter's Saturday Night and even perhaps of Paradise Lost. In any case they have the unique interest of being probably the only extant lines of Pope's blank verse, and of being undoubtedly genuine. The Patient Chief, who lah'ring long arriv'd shores On Britain's coast and brought with fav'ring Gods Arts Arms & Honour to her Ancient sons: from ei4e* Time Daughter of Memory! instructive Muse Recall j and me w th Bri tains Glory fird, Me far from meaner Care or meaner Song, Snatch to the Holy Hill of spotless Bay, My Countrys Poet, to record her Fame Say first w* Cause? that Pow'r h. EDWARD D. SNYDER. Haverford College.