The feverity of this fatire left Cibber no longer any patience. He had confidence enough in his own Fowers to believe that he could disturb the quiet of his adversary, and doubtless did not want inftigators, who, without any care about the victory, defired to amuse themfelves by looking on the conteft. He therefore gave the town a pamphlet, in which he declares his refolution from that time never to bear another blow without returning it, and to tire out his adverfary by perfeverance, if he cannot conquer him by ftrength. The inceffant and unappeafable malignity of Pope he imputes to a very diftant caufe. After the "Three "Hours after Marriage" had been driven off the stage, by the offence which the mummy and crocodile gave the audience, while the exploded fcene was yet fresh in memory, it happened that Cibber played Bayes in the Rehearsal; and, as it had been ufual to enliven the part by the mention of any recent theatrical tranfactions, he faid, that he once thought to have introduced his lovers disguised in a Mummy and a Crocodile. "This," fays he, "was received with loud claps, "which indicated contempt of the play." Pope, who was behind the scenes, meeting him as he left the stage, attacked him, as he fays, with all the virulence of a "Wit out of his fenfes ;" to which he replied, "that "he would take no other notice of what was faid by "fo particular a man than to declare, that, as often as "he played that part, he would repeat the fame pro"vocation." Of all our Poet's writings none were read with more general approbation than his Ethic Epiftles, or multiplied into more editions. Mr. Pope, who was a perfect economist, fecured to himself the profits arifing from his own works; he was never fubjected to neceffity, and therefore was not to be impofed upon by the art or fraud of publishers. But now approaches the period in which, as he himfelf expreffed it, he stood in need of the generous tear he paid: Pocts T Poets themfelves muft fall like thofe they fung; Mr. Pope, who had been always fubjected to a variety of bodily infirmities, finding his ftrength give way, began to think that his days, which had been prolonged past his expectation, were drawing towards a conclufion. However, he vifited the Hot-Wells at Bristol, where, for fome time, there were fmall hopes of his recovery; but making too free with purges, he grew worfe, and feemed defirous to draw nearer home. A dropfy in the breaft at laft put a period to his life at the age of fifty-fix, on the 30th of May 1744, at his houfe at Twickenham, where he was interred in the fame grave with his father and mother. Mr. Popes's behaviour in his laft illness has been variously reprefented to the world; fome have affirmed that it was timid and peevish; that, having been fixed in no particular fyftem of faith, his mind was wavering, and his temper broken and difturbed. Others have afferted that he was all chearfulness and refignation to the Divine will. Which of these opinions is true we cannot now determine; but if the former, it must be regretted that he who had taught philosophy to others, fhould himfelf be deftitute of its affiftance in the most critical moments of his life. "The bulk of his fortune he bequeathed to Mrs. Blount, with whom he lived in the ftrictest friendfhip, and for whom he is faid to have entertained the warmest affection. His works, which are in the hands of every perfon of true taste, and will last as long as our language will be understood, render unnecessary all further remarks on his writings. He was equally admired for the dignity and fublimity of his moral and philofophical works, the vivacity of his fatirical, the clearness and propriety of his didactic, the richnefs and variety of his defcriptive, and the elegance of all, added to a harmony of verfification, and correctness of fentiment and language, unknown to our former former poets, and of which he has fet an example, which will be an example or a reproach to his fucceffors. His profe ftyle is as perfect in its kind as his poetic, and has all the beauties proper for it, joined to an uncommon force and perfpicuity. Under the profeffion of the Roman Catholic religion, to which he adhered to the laft, he maintained ail the moderation and charity becoming the most thorough and confiftent Proteftant. His converfation was natural, eafy, and agreeable, without any affectation of diplaying his wit, or obtruding his own judgment, even upon fubjects of which he was fo eminently a mafter. The moral character of our Author, as it did not efcape the lafh of his calumniators in his life, fo have there been attempts fince his death to diminish his reputation. Lord Bolingbroke, whom Mr. Pope efteemed to almoft an enthufiaftic degree of admiration, was the first to make this attack. Not many years ago the public were entertained with this controverfy, immediately upon the publication of his Lordship's Letters on the Spirit of Patriotism, and the Idea of a Patriot King. Different opinions have been offered; fome to extenuate the fault of Mr. Pope for printing and mutilating these letters without his Lordship's knowlege; others to blame him for it as the highest breach of friendship, and the greatest mark of dif honour: but it would exceed our propofed bounds to enter into the merits of this controversy. This great man is allowed to have been one of the first rank amongst the poets of our nation, and to acknowledge the fuperiority of none but Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden. With the two former it is unnatural to compare him, as their province in writing is fo very different. Pope has never attempted the drama, nor publifhed an epic poem, in which these two diftinguished geniufes have fo wonderfully fucceeded. Though Pope's genius was great, it was yet of of fo different a caft from Shakespeare's and Milton's, that no comparison can be justly formed. But if this may be faid of the former two, it will by no means hold with refpect to the latter; for between him and Dryden there is a great fimilarity of writing, and a very striking coincidence of genius. It will not, perhaps, be unpleafing to our readers if we pursue this comparison, and endeavour to difcover to whom the fuperiority is juftly to be attributed, and to which of them poetry owes the higheft obligations. When Dryden came into the world he found poetry in a very imperfect state; its numbers were unpolished, its cadences rough, and there was nothing of harmony or mellifluence to give it a graceful flow. In this harsh, unmufical fituation Dryden found it, (for the refinements of Waller were but puerile and unfubftantial :) he polifhed the rough diamond, he taught it to fhine, and connected beauty, elegance, and ftrength, in all his poetical compofitions. Though Dryden thus polifhed our English numbers, and thus harmonized verfification, it cannot be faid that he carried his art to perfection. Much was yet left undone; his lines, with all their fmoothness, were often rambling, and expletives were frequently introduced to complete his measures. It is apparent, therefore, that an additional harmony might ftill be given to our numbers, and that cadences were yet capable of a more musical modulation. To effect this purpofe Mr. Pope arofe, who with an ear elegantly delicate, and the advantage of the fineft genius, fo harmonized the English numbers, as to make them completely mufical. His numbers are likewife fo minutely correct, that it would be difficult to conceive how any of his lines can be altered to advantage. He has created a kind of mechanical verfification; every line is alike; and though they are fweetly mufical, they want diverfity; for he has not ftudied fo great a variety of paufes, and where the accents may be be laid gracefully. The ftructure of his verfe is the beft, and a line of his is more musical than any other line can be made by placing the accents elsewhere; but we are not quite certain whether the ear is not apt to be.foon cloyed with this uniformity of elegance, this famene's of harmony. It must be acknowledged, however, that he has much improved upon Dryden in the article of verfification, and in that part of poetry is greatly his fuperior. But though this must be acknowledged, perhaps it will not neceffarily follow that his genius was, therefore, fuperior. The grand characteristic of a poet is his invention, the fureft diftinction of a great genius. In Mr. Pope nothing is fo truly criginal as his Rape of the Lock, nor difcovers fo much invention. In this kind of mock-heroic he is without a rival in our language, for Dryden has written nothing of the kind. His other work which difcovers invention, fine defigning, and admirable execution, is his Dunciad: which, though built on Dryden's Mac Flecknoe, is yet fo much fuperior, that, in fatiric writing, the palm muft juftly be yielded to him. In Mr. Dryden's Abfalom and Åhithopel there are, indeed, the moft poignant ftrokes of fatire, and characters drawn with the most masterly touches; but this poem, with all its excellencies, is much interior to the Dunciad, though Dryden had advantages which Mr. Pope had not; for Dryden's characters are men of great eminence and figure in the ftate, while Pope has to expofe men of obfcure birth and unimportant lives, only diftinguished from the herd of mankind by a glimmering of genius, which rendered the greatest part of them more emphatically contemptible. Pope's was the hardest task, and he has executed it with the greatest fuccefs. As Mr. Dryden mult undoubtedly have yielded to Pope in fatiric writing, it is incumbent on the partizans of Dryden to name another species of compofition in which the former excels fo as to throw the balance |