1217 country, and frequently by Frederic Prince of Wales, who was happy to contribute to its beauty and ornament, as will be seen by the Letter here annexed1. His father did not live long to behold and to enjoy the prosperity and reputation of his son, but died at Twickenham, 1717, suddenly, "and without a groan," in his seventy-fifth year; and was celebrated with equal elegance, tenderness, and gratitude, in the Epistle to Arbuthnot. In this year also he collected all his Poems, and published them, with a very judicious preface, in a beautiful edition, in folio, and in quarto. In the year 1720, when the publication of the Iliad was completed, which he began 1712, he became one of the infatuated adventurers in the famous and fatal South-Sea scheme, and luckily withdrew the sum of money he had hazarded, without being a great loser. As the eras of a mere author's life can be marked only by the series of his publications, which however shew the progress of his genius and labours, I proceed to observe, that, in 1721, he published the exquisite Poems of his friend Parnell, to which he prefixed the fine Epistle to Lord Oxford; and in the same year engaged with Tonson to give an edition 1 "Dear Sir, "Since my last, I have received His Royal Highness's commands, to let you know, that he has a mind to present you with some urns, or vases, for your garden; and desires you would write me word, what number, and size, will suit you best. You may have six small ones for your laurel circus, or two large ones to terminate points, as you like best. He wants to have your answer soon.-Adieu.” of Shakspeare, in six quarto volumes; for which he received the sum of two hundred and seventeen pounds twelve shillings. For this edition he was justly attacked by Theobald, first in Shakspeare Restored, and afterward in a formal edition, to which Warburton contributed many remarks; and by Theobald many deficiencies, errors, and mistakes, were pointed out. Pope was so mortified by this failure, that from this time, it is said, he became an enemy to collators, commentators, and verbal critics, hinting that he miscarried in this undertaking, for which he was not qualified, by having a mind too great for such minute employment. Soon afterward he gave out Proposals for a Translation of the Odyssey; and took for his coadjutors, Fenton and Broome; the former of whom, both from his genius and learning, was eminently qualified for the task. He, himself, translated only twelve books; and at the end of the notes, which were compiled by Broome, a false statement was given of their respective shares; but it is now ascertained by Spence's papers, that Fenton translated the first, fourth, nine ? On this occasion Mallet addressed to him an Epistle on Verbal Criticism; full of affected contempt for a sort of learning with which Mallet, as well as Pope, was unacquainted. This Epistle procured him the friendship of Pope, who commends it in his Letters, though Mallet was afterward the person that Bolingbroke employed to revile the memory of Pope, for publishing the idea of a Patriot King: The most unmeaning of all Bolingbroke's Treatises, and which, as said Count Powniatowski, the late unhappy King of Poland, proves nothing at all. But the postscript to the notes was written by Pope himself, and is so fine a piece of criticism, that it is inserted in this edition, among his prose pieces. teenth, and twentieth Books; and Broome the second, sixth, eighth, eleventh, twelfth, sixteenth, eighteenth, and twenty-third Books. Lintot agreed to pay Pope one hundred pounds for each volume; the number of subscribers was five hundred and seventy-four; and of copies eight hundred and nineteen. He is said to have given to Fenton for his assistance, three hundred pounds; and to Broome five hundred. About this time he was full of grief and anxiety, on account of the impeachment of his friend Bishop Atterbury, for whom he seems to have felt the greatest affection and regard. And being summoned before the Lords at the trial, to give some account of Atterbury's domestic life and employments, not being used to speak in a large assembly, he made several blunders in the few words he had to utter. In 1726, Mr. Joseph Spence, Fellow of New College in Oxford, but not yet Professor of Poetry, as Dr. Johnson imagined him to be (my father holding that office at the time), published an Essay on the Odyssey, in a dialogue betwixt Philypsus and Antiphaus, after the manner of Bouhours and Dryden on the Drama, in which its beauties and blemishes were minutely considered. The candour, the politeness, the true taste, and judgment, with which this criticism was conducted, were so very acceptable and pleasing to Pope, that he immediately courted the acquaintance of the ingenious Author, who, notwithstanding Dr. Johnson's invidious assertion, was an excellent scholar, and earnestly invited him to spend some time with him at Twickenham; and I have now before me a Letter which Spence wrote from thence, to his intimate friend Mr. Pitt, the translator of Vida and Virgil, describing to him the uncommonly kind and friendly manner in which he was received and treated. By the favour of Dr. Lowth, the late excellent Bishop of London*, I have seen a copy of this Essay on the Odyssey, with marginal observations written in Pope's own hand, and generally acknowledging the justness of Spence's observations; and in a few instances pleading, humorously enough, that some favourite lines might be spared. I speak from experience, when I say, that I know no critical treatise better calculated to form the taste of young men of genius, than this Essay on the Odyssey. And lest it should be thought that this opinion arises from my partiality to a friend with whom I lived so many years in the happiest intimacy; I will add, that this also was the opinion of three persons, from whose judgment there can be no appeal, Dr. Akenside, Bishop Lowth, and Mr. James Harris. The two valuable preferments which Spence obtained, the Prebend of Durham, and the Professorship of Modern History in Oxford, were owing to the interest which Pope, among some of his powerful friends, exerted in his favour. And it was upon Pope's recommendation that he travelled with Lord Middlesex, which was the foundation of his future good fortune. To this learned and amiable man, on whose friendship I set the greatest value, am I indebted for most ' Who transmitted an account of his friend Spence's life to Dr. Kippis, to be inserted in the Biographia Britannica, which I have read with great pleasure, and which I presume is among the papers left by that learned and candid compiler. of the anecdotes relating to Pope mentioned in this edition, which he communicated to me when I was making him a visit, 1754, at Byfleet in Surrey; a pleasant villa which had been presented to him by Lord Lincoln. The only bad accident Pope, in the course of his life, ever met with, was at the close of this year, when he was overturned in a deep water, and was with difficulty snatched out of his coach by the postilion, with a force that broke the glass, and cut two of his fingers so desperately, that, though he was attended by St. André, a skilful and eminent surgeon, he lost the use of them. On which occasion Voltaire wrote to him a letter, which, as a specimen of his English, is here inserted in a note 5. 5 "Sir, "I hear this moment of your sad adventure. That water you fell in, was not Hippocrene's water, otherwise it would have respected you. Indeed, I am concerned beyond expression for the danger you have been in, and more for your wounds. Is it possible that those fingers which have written the Rape of the Lock, and the Criticism, which have dressed Homer so becomingly in an English coat, should have been so barbarously treated? Let the hand of Dennis, or of your poetasters, be cut off, yours is sacred. I hope, Sir, you are now perfectly recovered; really your accident concerns me as much as all the disasters of a master ought to affect his scholar. I am sincerely, Sir, with the admiration which you deserve, "Your most humble servant, "In my Lord Bolingbroke's house, Friday at noon, Nov. 16, 1726." N. B. If Voltaire is frequently quoted in the following sheets, it is because he was a man of wit and penetration, though an unbeliever; which, however, never appears in his tragedies; because he was the most celebrated of all our Author's contemporary poets; because he was an admirer and acquaintance of Pope; because they wrote on similar subjects; because he had made |