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The education of our great Author was attended with circumftances very fingular, and fome of them extremely unfavourable; but the amazing force of his genius fully compenfated the want of any advantage in his earliest inftruction. He owed the knowledge of his letters to an aunt; and having learned very early to read, took great delight in it, and taught himfelf to write by copying after printed books, the characters of which he would imitate to great perfection. He began to compofe verfes farther back than he could well remember; and at eight years of age, when he was put under one Taverner, a priest, who taught him the rudiments of the Latin and Greek tongues at the fame time, he met with Ogilby's Homer, which gave him great delight; and this was increased by Sandy's Ovid. The raptures which these authors, even in the difguife of fuch tranflations, then yielded him were fo ftrong, that he fpoke of them with pleasure ever after.

From Mr. Taverner's tuition he was fent to a private fchool at Twiford, near Winchester, where he continued about a year, and was then removed to another near Hyde Park Corner; but was fo unfortunate as to lofe under his two laft mafters what he had acquired under the firft.

While he remained at this fchool, being permitted to go to the playhoufe with fome of his fchoolfellows of a more advanced age, he was fo charmed with dramatic reprefentations, that he formed the tranflation of the Iliad into a play, from feveral of the fpeeches in Ogilby's tranflation connected with verfes of his own; and the feveral parts were performed by the upper boys of the fchool, except that of Ajax by the mafter's gardener. At the age of twelve our young Poet went with his father to refide at his houfe at Binfield, in Windfor Foreft, where he was, for a few months, under the tuition of another priest, with as little fuccefs as before; fo that he refolved now to become his

own

wn mafter, by reading thofe claffic writers which gave him moft entertainment; and by this method, at fifteen, he gained a ready habit in the learned languages, to which he foon after added the French and Italian. Upon his retreat to the Foreft he became firft acquainted with the writings of Waller, Spencer, and Dryden; in the laft of which he immediately found what he wanted, and the poems of that excellent writer were never out of his hands; they became his model, and from them alone he learned the whole magic of his verfification.

The first of our Author's compofitions now extant in print is an "Ode on Solitude," written before he was twelve years old; which, confidered as the production of fo early an age, is a perfect mafterpiece; nor need he have been afhamed of it, had it been written in the meridian of his genius: while it breathes the moft delicate fpirit of poetry, it at the fame time demonftrates his love of folitude, and the rational pleafures which attend the retreats of a contented country life.

Two years after this he tranflated the First Book of "Statius Thebais," and wrote a coppy of verses on Silence, in imitation of the Earl of Rochester's poem on Nothing. Thus we find him no fooner capable of holding the pen than he emloyed it in writing veries:

"He lifp'd in numbers, for the numbers came."

Though we have had frequent opportunity to obferve that poets have given early displays of genius, yet we cannot recollect that, amongst the infpired tribe, one can be found who, at the age of twelve, could produce fo animated an ode, or, at the age of fourteen, tranflate from the Latin. It has been reported indeed concerning Mr. Dryden, that when he was at Weftminster fchool, the mafter, who had affigned a poetical task to fome of the boys of writing a paraphrafe on our Saviour's miracle of turning water into

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wine,

wine, was perfectly aftonifhed when young Dryden prefented him with the following line, which he afferted was the beft comment that could be written upon it;

The confcious water faw its God, and blush'd.

This was the only inftance of an early appearance of genius in this great man, for he was turned of thirty before he acquired any reputation; an age in which Mr Pope's was in its full diftinction.

The year following that in which Mr. Pope wrote his poem on "Silence," he began an epic poem, entitled " Alcander," which he afterwards very judicioufly committed to the flames, as he did likewife a comedy and a tragedy, the latter taken from a story in the legend of St. Genevieve, both of these being the product of thofe early days: but his Pastorals, which were written when he was only fixteen years of age, were efteemed by Sir William Trumball, Mr. Granville, Mr. Wycherley, Mr. Walsh, and others of his friends, too valuable to be condemned to the fame, fate.

During this period of his life he was indefatigably diligent, and infatiably curious. Wanting health for violent, and money for expenfive pleafures, and having excited in himself very trong defires of intellectual eminence, he spent much of his time over his books; but he read only to store his mind with facts and images, feizing all that his authors prefented with undiftinguishing voracity, and with an appetite for knowledge too eager to be nice. In a mind like his, however, all the faculties were at once involuntarily improving. Judgment is forced upon us by experience. He that reads many books must compare one opinion or one ftyle with another; and, when he compares, muft neceffarily diftinguifh, reject, and prefer. But the account given by himself of his studies was, that from fourteen to twenty he read

only

only for amusement, from twenty to twenty-feven for improvement and instruction; that in the firft part of this time he defired only to know, and in the second he endeavoured to judge.

The three great writers of pastoral dialogue, which Mr. Pope in fome measure feems to imitate, are Theocritus, Virgil, and Spenfer. Mr. Pope is of opinion that Theocritus excels all others in nature and fimplicity.

That Virgil, who copies Theocritus, refines on his original; and in all points, in which judgment has the principal part, is much fuperior to his matter.

That among the moderns, their fuccefs has been greatest who have most endeavoured to make thefe Ancients their pattern. The moft confiderable genius appears in the famous Taffo, and our Spenter. Tasso, in his Aminta, has far excelled all the paftoral writers, as in his Gierufalemme he has outdone the epic poets of his own country. But as this piece feems to have been the original of a new fort of poem, the paftoral comedy, in Italy, it cannot fo well be confidered as a copy of the Ancients. Spenfer's Calendar, in Mr. Dryden's opinion, is the most complete work of this kind which any nation has produced ever fince the time of Virgil; but this he said before Mr. Pope's Paftorals appeared.

Mr. Walth pronounces on our Shepherd's Boy (as Mr. Pope called himself) the following judgment, in a letter to Mr. Wycherley.

"The verses are very tender and eafy. The Au"thor feems to have a particular genius for this kind "of poetry, and a judgment that much exceeds the 66 years you told me he was of. It is no flattery at all "to fay, that Virgil had written nothing fo good at "his age. I fhall take it as a favour if you will bring "me acquainted with him; and if he will give him"felf the trouble any morning to call at my houfe, "I fhall be very glad to read the verses with him, and “give

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"give him my opinion of the particulars more largely " than I can weli do in this letter."

Thus early was Mr. Pope introduced to the acquaintance of men of genius, and fo improved every advantage, that he made a more rapid progress towards a confummation in fame than any of our English poets. His Meffiah, his Windfor Foreft, (the first part of which was written at the fame time with his Paltorals,) and his Effay on Criticism in 1709, were highly

received.

In 1712 he wrote the "Rape of the Lock,” occa- · fioned by a frolic of gallantry, rather too familiar, in which Lord Petre cut off a lock of Mrs. Arabella Fermor's hair. This, whether by ftealth or violence, was fo much refented, that the commerce of the two families, before very friendly, was interrupted.

The Rape of the Lock" ftands forward in the claffes of literature, as the moft exquifite example of ludicrous poetry. Berkeley congratulated him upon the difplay of powers more truly poetical than he had fhewn before; with elegance of description and juftnefs of precepts, he had now exhibited boundless fertility of invention.

This poem established his poetical character in fuch a manner, that he was called upon by the public voice to enrich our language with the tranflation of the "Iliad," which he began at twenty-five, and executed in five years. This was published for his own benefit, by fubfcription, the only kind of reward which he received for his writings, which do honour to our age and country.

By the fuccefs of his subscription Pope was relieved from thofe pecuniary diftreffes with which, notwithftanding his popularity, he had hitherto struggled. Lord Oxford had often lamented his difqualification for public employment, but never propofed a penfion. While the tranflation of "Homer" was in its progrefs, Mr. Craggs, then fecretary of state, offered to

procure

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