the patronage of this felection will not difgrace you more, than the condefcenfion of the Prince affected his greatness. I present it to you, as a grateful return for the many happy and beneficial moments I have paffed in attending to your comments on the juft merits of its diftinguished author; and have the honour to remain, with the highest respect,

MADAM,

Your moft fincerely devoted fervant, The Compiler.

THE

L I F E

ALEXANDER POPE, Efq.'

His mo

Efq. of

THE very fublime and diftinguished Poet, from whofe works the following felection is compiled, was born in London, June the 8th, 1688; where his father was then a confiderable merchant. Το the fatires made upon him, we are obliged for his genealogy, published by himself, wherein he ac-quaints his controverfial enemies, that the Earl of Downe in Ireland was the head of his family, whofe heir married the Earl of Lindsey. ther was Editha, daughter of W. Turner, York, who fucceeded to the remaining estate of her eldeft brother. Her ancestors, like thofe of her husband, profeffed the Popish religion. Mr. Pope, at eight years of age, was put under the direction of one Taverner, a priest, who taught him the rudiments of the Latin and Greek tongues together. When a child, he took a fingular pleasure in compofing rhymes, and appeared animated with the Vis Poetica from his firft infancy. Ogilby's Homer, Biograph. Britan. v. 5. folio edit.

a 2

Homer, and Sandys's Ovid, were his favourite books, of which the latter preferved an abundant fhare of his attention and partiality throughout his life. From a predilection for theatrical diverfions, he was perfuaded to turn the chief events of Homer into a kind of play, and difpofed of the characters among the upper boys of the Popish feminary, to which he had been removed. The mafter's gardener performed the part of Ajax. Being fo unfortunate as to lofe, under his two last mafters, what he had gained under the first, he retired, at twelve years of age, with his parents, to Binfield, in Windfor Foreft. About this time he wrote his Ode on Solitude, the firft fruits of his poetical genius. Having perufed the writings of Waller and Spenfer, he obtained a fight of Dryden, and inftantly difcovered a congeniality betwixt that poet and himfelf, which made him abandon the beauties of the two former. So attached was he to the merits of that great man, that he esteemed it his highest happiness to have been bleft with the fight of him at a coffee-house. Binfield, being near Easthamftead, where Sir William Trumbull refided, this young and extraordinary genius was introduced to him; and Sir William teftified every mark of patronage and partiality in his favour. A literary correfpondence was preferved between them as long as the latter lived. At fourteen years old he had compofed his translation from Statius's Thebaid, and imitations of different English poets. At fifteen he had acquired a ready habit

in

he

in the two learned languages, to which he foon after added French and Italian. About this time: he fet about writing his Alcander, and the following year executed his Paftorals. He communicated these first to Mr. Walsh, who recommended to him that correctness, which has fo peculiarly marked the harmony of his numbers. In the year 1704, compofed the first part of his Windfor Foreft, and about the fame period formed a defign of writing! American Eclogues, which he afterwards relinquished. Lord Lanfdown and Mr. Wycherley are mentioned as of his earliest acquaintance. Bolingbroke, Congreve, Garth, Swift, Atterbury, Talbot, Somers, and Sheffield, were much inclined to the cultivation of his esteem at the age of feventeen; an early mark of the unusual merits he difcovered. In the cor rection of Wycherley's poems, (a task confented to at the request of their author) he gave birth to the jealoufy of that writer, which was very inconfiderably diminished to the hour of his death. So early as 1708, he wrote his Eay on Criticism, a work which equally delighted and astonished the impartial admirers of unprecedented abilitics. The delicacy of his conftitution prevented him from indulging intemperance and dissipation; and even his mis-shapen form is declared to have been ferviceable to the perfection of his talents. By inheriting a fortune that was a decent competency, his ftudies were facilitated, and his genius unfhackled by dependance. Our author excelled no lefs in the didactic, than the creative arts of poetical imagination. From a quarrel

a 3

quarrel betwixt the families of Lord Petre and Mr. Fermor, owing to a trait of gallantry in the former, which ended in the lofs of Mrs. Fermor's favourite lock of hair, he derived the fubject of his Rape of the Lock, which he has fo beautifully enriched with the beft contrived machinery imaginable. A letter which he addreffed to the fair Heroine on the occafion, is extant in his works, and efteemed far fuperior to any of Voiture. This year he published his Temple of Fame, having, according to his ufual caution, kept it two years in his tudy. In 1713, he gave out propofals for the publication of his translation of Homer's Iliad. The view of raifing an independant fortune appeared to employ his chief attention, being difqualified, by his religious tenets, from holding any place at court. The fubfcription to his Homer was fo large, as to exceed his warmeft expectation, and remains a lafting honour to the liberality of that æra. Mr. Addifon, envious of his growing fame, acted a double part on the eve of this production, and secretly, though in vain, attempted to undermine its credit with the court. To hurt him with the Whigs, he gave out that Pope was a Jacobite and a Tory, and faid he had a hand in writing the Examiner. All thefe fhafts of malice were rendered fruitless, by his address in guarding off their venom, and his moderation in fcorning to proceed too violently in retaliating their attacks. The fuccefs of his propofed tranflation prevailed with him to part with his little property at Binfield, and re

move