Editing Alexander Pope

{{Short description|English poet (1688–1744)}}
{{hatnote group|
{{distinguish|Pope Alexander (disambiguation){{!}}Pope Alexander}}
{{Other uses}}
}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Alexander Pope
| image            = Alexander Pope by Michael Dahl.jpg
| caption          = Portrait by [[Michael Dahl]], {{circa|1727}}
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1688|5|21}} O.S.
| birth_place      = [[London]], England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1744|5|30|1688|5|21}}
| death_place      = [[Twickenham, Middlesex]], England
| resting_place    = [[St Mary's Church, Twickenham]], [[Middlesex]], England
| occupation       = Poet, writer, translator
| genre            = [[Poetry]], [[satire]], translation
| movement         = [[Classicism]], [[Augustan literature]]
| notableworks     = ''[[The Dunciad]]'', ''[[The Rape of the Lock]]'', ''[[An Essay on Criticism]]'', his translation of [[Homer]]
| signature        = Alexander Pope signature.svg
}}
'''Alexander Pope''' (21 May 1688 [[Old Style and New Style dates|O.S.]]<ref>Goldsmith, Netta Murray (2002), ''Alexander Pope: The Evolution of a Poet'', p. 17: "Alexander Pope was born on Monday 21 May 1688 at 6.45 pm when England was on the brink of a revolution." This date in the Gregorian calendar is a Friday. The equivalent New Style date is 31 May.</ref> – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of [[Augustan literature]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=29 April 2021 |title=Alexander Pope |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/alexander-pope |access-date=30 April 2021 |publisher=Poetry Foundation |archive-date=27 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427012646/https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/alexander-pope |url-status=live }}</ref>  Pope is best known for his satirical and discursive poetry including ''[[The Rape of the Lock]]'', ''[[The Dunciad]]'', and ''[[An Essay on Criticism]],'' and for his translations of [[Homer]].

Pope is often quoted in ''[[The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations]]'', some of his verses having entered common parlance (e.g. "[[damning with faint praise]]" or "[[An Essay on Criticism|to err is human; to forgive, divine]]").

==Life==
Alexander Pope was born in London on 21 May 1688 during the year of the [[Glorious Revolution]]. His father (Alexander Pope, 1646–1717) was a successful linen merchant in the [[Strand, London]]. His mother, Edith (née Turner, 1643–1733), was the daughter of William Turner, Esquire, of [[York]]. Both parents were [[Catholic Church|Catholics]].<ref name="Erskine-Hill, DNB"/> His uncle-in-law was the miniature painter [[Samuel Cooper (painter)|Samuel Cooper]], through his mother's sister, Christiana. Pope's education was affected by the recently enacted [[Test Act]]s, a series of English penal laws that upheld the status of the [[State religion|established]] [[Church of England]], banning Catholics from teaching, attending a university, voting, and holding public office on penalty of perpetual imprisonment. Pope was taught to read by his aunt and attended [[Twyford School]] circa 1698.<ref name="Erskine-Hill, DNB"/> He also attended two Roman Catholic schools in London.<ref name="Erskine-Hill, DNB"/> Such schools, though still illegal, were tolerated in some areas.<ref name="Alexander Pope' 2000">"Alexander Pope", ''Literature Online biography'' (Chadwyck-Healey: Cambridge, 2000). (subscription required) 
</ref>

In 1700 his family moved to a small estate at [[Popeswood]], in [[Binfield]], [[Berkshire]], close to the royal [[Windsor Great Park|Windsor Forest]].<ref name="Erskine-Hill, DNB" /> This was due to strong anti-Catholic sentiment and a statute preventing "[[Popery|Papists]]" from living within {{convert|10|mi|km}} of London or Westminster.<ref>"An Act to prevent and avoid dangers which may grow by Popish Recusants" ([[3 Jas. 1]]. c. 4). For details, see ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'', "[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11611c.htm Penal Laws] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806142534/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11611c.htm |date=6 August 2020 }}".</ref> Pope would later describe the countryside around the house in his poem ''[[Windsor-Forest|Windsor Forest]]''.<ref name="WF">Pope, Alexander. [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3704-w0010.shtml ''Windsor-Forest''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617055954/http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3704-w0010.shtml |date=17 June 2016 }}. Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA).</ref> Pope's formal education ended at this time, and from then on, he mostly educated himself by reading the works of classical writers such as the [[Satire|satirists]] [[Horace]] and [[Juvenal]], the [[Epic poetry|epic poets]] [[Homer]] and [[Virgil]], as well as English authors such as [[Geoffrey Chaucer]], [[William Shakespeare]] and [[John Dryden]].<ref name="Erskine-Hill, DNB"/> He studied many languages, reading works by French, Italian, Latin, and Greek poets. After five years of study, Pope came into contact with figures from London literary society such as [[William Congreve]], [[Samuel Garth]] and [[William Trumbull]].<ref name="Erskine-Hill, DNB"/><ref name="Alexander Pope' 2000"/>

At Binfield he made many important friends. One of them, [[John Caryll the younger|John Caryll]] (the future dedicatee of ''[[The Rape of the Lock]]''), was twenty years older than the poet and had made many acquaintances in the London literary world. He introduced the young Pope to the ageing playwright [[William Wycherley]] and to [[William Walsh (poet)|William Walsh]], a minor poet, who helped Pope revise his first major work, ''[[Pastorals (Pope)|The Pastorals]]''. There, he met the Blount sisters, [[Teresa Blount|Teresa]] and [[Martha Blount|Martha (Patty)]], in 1707. He remained close friends with Patty until his death, but his friendship with Teresa ended in 1722.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rumbold |first1=Valerie |title=Women's Place in Pope's World |date=1989 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |pages=33, 48, 128 |isbn=978-0-521-36308-2 |url= http://archive.org/details/womensplaceinpop0000rumb}}</ref>

[[File:Alexander Pope's house at Twickenham.png|thumb|left|[[Pope's villa]] at [[Twickenham]], showing the [[grotto]]; from a watercolour produced soon after his death]]

From the age of 12 he suffered numerous health problems, including [[Pott disease]], a form of [[tuberculosis]] that affects the spine, which deformed his body and stunted his growth, leaving him with a severe hunchback. His tuberculosis infection caused other health problems including respiratory difficulties, high fevers, inflamed eyes and abdominal pain.<ref name="Erskine-Hill, DNB"/> He grew to a height of only {{height|ft=4|in=6|abbr=no}}. Pope was already removed from society as a Catholic, and his poor health alienated him further. Although he never married, he had many female friends to whom he wrote witty letters, including [[Lady Mary Wortley Montagu]]. It has been alleged that his lifelong friend [[Martha Blount]] was his lover.<ref name="Alexander Pope' 2000"/><ref name="Gordon 2002"/><ref name="Mount"/><ref>''The Life of Alexander Pope'', by [[Robert Carruthers]], 1857, with a corrupted and badly scanned version available [https://archive.org/details/lifealexanderpo00carrgoog from Internet Archive], or as an [https://archive.org/details/lifealexanderpo00carrgoog even worse 23MB PDF]. For reference to his relationship with Martha Blount and her sister, see pp. 64–68 (p. 89 ff. of the PDF). In particular, discussion of the controversy over whether the relationship was sexual is described in some detail on pp. 76–78.</ref> His friend [[William Cheselden]] said, according to [[Joseph Spence (author)|Joseph Spence]], "I could give a more particular account of Mr. Pope's health than perhaps any man. [[Cibber]]'s slander (of carnosity) is false. He had been gay [happy], but left that way of life upon his acquaintance with Mrs. B."<ref>Zachary Cope (1953) ''William Cheselden, 1688–1752''. Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingstone, p. 89.</ref>

In May 1709, Pope's ''Pastorals'' was published in the sixth part of bookseller [[Jacob Tonson]]'s ''Poetical Miscellanies''. This earned Pope instant fame and was followed by ''[[An Essay on Criticism]]'', published in May 1711, which was equally well received.

Around 1711, Pope made friends with Tory writers [[Jonathan Swift]], [[Thomas Parnell (poet)|Thomas Parnell]] and [[John Arbuthnot]], who together formed the satirical [[Scriblerus Club]]. Its aim was to satirise ignorance and pedantry through the fictional scholar Martinus Scriblerus. He also made friends with [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] writers [[Joseph Addison]] and [[Richard Steele]]. In March 1713, ''Windsor Forest''<ref name="WF"/> was published to great acclaim.<ref name="Alexander Pope' 2000"/>

During Pope's friendship with Joseph Addison, he contributed to Addison's play ''[[Cato, a Tragedy|Cato]]'', as well as writing for ''[[The Guardian (1713)|The Guardian]]'' and ''[[The Spectator (1711)|The Spectator]]''. Around this time, he began the work of translating the ''[[Iliad]]'', which was a painstaking process – publication began in 1715 and did not end until 1720.<ref name="Alexander Pope' 2000"/>

In 1714 the political situation worsened with the death of Queen Anne and the disputed succession between the [[House of Hanover|Hanoverians]] and the [[Jacobitism|Jacobites]], leading to the [[Jacobite rising of 1715]]. Though Pope, as a Catholic, might have been expected to have supported the Jacobites because of his religious and political affiliations, according to [[Maynard Mack]], "where Pope himself stood on these matters can probably never be confidently known". These events led to an immediate downturn in the fortunes of the [[Tories (British political party)|Tories]], and Pope's friend [[Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke]], fled to France. This was added to by the [[Impeachment of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford|Impeachment]] of the former Tory Chief Minister [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer|Lord Oxford]]. 

Pope lived in his parents' house in Mawson Row, [[Chiswick]], between 1716 and 1719; the red-brick building is now the ''[[Mawson Arms]]'', commemorating him with a [[blue plaque]].<ref name="ChiswickHistory">{{Cite web |url=http://chiswickhistory.org.uk/html/110-people.html |title=Chiswick History |publisher=chiswickhistory.org.uk |work=People: Alexander Pope |access-date=16 March 2012 |author=Clegg, Gillian |archive-date=20 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110920224652/http://chiswickhistory.org.uk/html/110-people.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The money made from his translation of Homer allowed Pope to move in 1719 to [[Pope's villa|a villa at Twickenham]], where he created his now-famous [[Pope's Grotto|grotto]] and gardens. The serendipitous discovery of a spring during the excavation of the subterranean retreat enabled it to be filled with the relaxing sound of trickling water, which would quietly echo around the chambers. Pope was said to have remarked, "Were it to have nymphs as well – it would be complete in everything." Although the house and gardens have long since been demolished, much of the grotto survives beneath Radnor House Independent Co-educational School.<ref name="Gordon 2002"/><ref>''[[London Evening Standard]]'', 2 November 2010.</ref> The grotto has been restored and will open to the public for 30 weekends a year from 2023 under the auspices of Pope's Grotto Preservation Trust.<ref>{{Cite news |title=The secrets and lights of Alexander Pope's Twickenham grotto |url=https://www.ft.com/content/6a06cfab-1be7-432e-9aab-3c7ba501ac28 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/6a06cfab-1be7-432e-9aab-3c7ba501ac28 |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=24 July 2021 |newspaper=Financial Times|date=23 July 2021 |last1=Fox |first1=Robin Lane }}</ref>

==Poetry==
[[File:Mawson Arms 01.JPG|thumb|[[Mawson Arms]], Chiswick Lane, with [[blue plaque]] to Pope]]

===''Essay on Criticism''===
{{main|An Essay on Criticism}}
''[[An Essay on Criticism]]'' was first published anonymously on 15 May 1711. Pope began writing the poem early in his career and took about three years to finish it.

At the time the poem was published, its [[heroic couplet]] style was quite a new poetic form and Pope's work an ambitious attempt to identify and refine his own positions as a poet and critic. It was said to be a response to an ongoing debate on the question of whether poetry should be natural, or written according to predetermined artificial rules inherited from the classical past.<ref name="Rogers 2006"/>

The "essay" begins with a discussion of the standard rules that govern poetry, by which a critic passes judgement. Pope comments on the classical authors who dealt with such standards and the authority he believed should be accredited to them. He discusses the laws to which a critic should adhere while analysing poetry, pointing out the important function critics perform in aiding poets with their works, as opposed to simply attacking them.<ref name="Baines 2001"/> The final section of ''An Essay on Criticism'' discusses the moral qualities and virtues inherent in an ideal critic, whom Pope claims is also the ideal man.

===''The Rape of the Lock''===
Pope's most famous poem is ''[[The Rape of the Lock]]'', first published in 1712, with a revised version in 1714. A [[mock-epic]], it satirises a high-society quarrel between [[Arabella Fermor]] (the "Belinda" of the poem) and [[Robert Petre, 7th Baron Petre|Lord Petre]], who had snipped a lock of hair from her head without permission. The satirical style is tempered, however, by a genuine, almost voyeuristic interest in the "beau-monde" (fashionable world) of 18th-century society.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.english-literature.org/essays/alexander-pope.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080531103412/http://www.english-literature.org/essays/alexander-pope.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=31 May 2008 |title=from the London School of Journalism.}}</ref> The revised, extended version of the poem focuses more clearly on its true subject: the onset of acquisitive individualism and a society of conspicuous consumers. In the poem, purchased artefacts displace human agency and "trivial things" come to dominate.<ref>Colin Nicholson (1994). ''Writing and the Rise of Finance: Capital Satires of the Early Eighteenth Century'', Cambridge.</ref>

===''The Dunciad'' and ''Moral Essays''===
[[File:Alexander Pope circa 1736.jpeg|thumb|upright|Alexander Pope, painting attributed to English painter [[Jonathan Richardson]], c. 1736, [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]]]]

Though ''[[The Dunciad]]'' first appeared anonymously in [[Dublin]], its authorship was not in doubt. Pope pilloried a host of other "hacks", "scribblers" and "dunces" in addition to Theobald, and Maynard Mack has accordingly called its publication "in many ways the greatest act of folly in Pope's life". Though a masterpiece due to having become "one of the most challenging and distinctive works in the history of English poetry", writes Mack, "it bore bitter fruit. It brought the poet in his own time the hostility of its victims and their sympathizers, who pursued him implacably from then on with a few damaging truths and a host of slanders and lies."<ref>Maynard Mack (1985). ''Alexander Pope: A Life''. W. W. Norton & Company, and [[Yale University Press]], pp. 472–473. {{ISBN|0393305295}}</ref>

According to his half-sister Magdalen Rackett, some of Pope's targets were so enraged by ''The Dunciad'' that they threatened him physically. "My brother does not seem to know what fear is," she told [[Joseph Spence (author)|Joseph Spence]], explaining that Pope loved to walk alone, so went accompanied by his [[Great Dane]] Bounce, and for some time carried pistols in his pocket.<ref>Joseph Spence. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015030979424;view=1up;seq=52 ''Observations, Anecdotes, and Characters of Books and Men, Collected from the Conversation of Mr. Pope'' (1820), p. 38] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230402171055/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015030979424;view=1up;seq=52 |date=2 April 2023 }}.</ref> This first ''Dunciad'', along with [[John Gay]]'s ''[[The Beggar's Opera]]'' and Jonathan Swift's ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'', joined in a concerted propaganda assault against [[Robert Walpole]]'s Whig ministry and the financial revolution it stabilised. Although Pope was a keen participant in the stock and money markets, he never missed a chance to satirise the personal, social and political effects of the new scheme of things. From ''The Rape of the Lock'' onwards, these satirical themes appear constantly in his work.

In 1731, Pope published his "Epistle to [[Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington|Burlington]]", on the subject of architecture, the first of four poems later grouped as the ''[[Moral Essays]]'' (1731–1735).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3487|title=Moral Essays|access-date=9 August 2021|archive-date=9 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210809153723/https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3487|url-status=live}}</ref> The epistle ridicules the bad taste of the aristocrat "Timon".<ref name="Moral Essays">Alexander Pope. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZTQjrVbjerwC ''Moral Essays''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230421091327/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZTQjrVbjerwC |date=21 April 2023 }}, p. 82</ref> For example, the following are verses 99 and 100 of the Epistle:

{{blockquote
|At Timon's Villa let us paſs a day,<br>Where all cry out, "What ſums are thrown away!"<ref name="Moral Essays"/>
}}

Pope's foes claimed he was attacking the [[James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos|Duke of Chandos]] and his estate, [[Cannons (house)|Cannons]]. Though the charge was untrue, it did much damage to Pope.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

There has been some speculation on a feud between Pope and [[Thomas Hearne (antiquarian)|Thomas Hearne]], due in part to the character of Wormius in ''The Dunciad'', who is seemingly based on Hearne.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rogers |first=Pat |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/607099760 |title=The Alexander Pope encyclopedia |date=2004 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=0-313-06153-X |location=Westport, Conn. |oclc=607099760}}</ref>

===''An Essay on Man''===
{{main|An Essay on Man}}
''[[An Essay on Man]]'' is a philosophical poem in heroic couplets published between 1732 and 1734. Pope meant it as the centrepiece of a proposed system of ethics to be put forth in poetic form. It was a piece that he sought to make into a larger work, but he did not live to complete it.<ref name="Nuttal 1984"/> It
attempts to "vindicate the ways of God to Man", a variation on Milton's attempt in ''Paradise Lost'' to "justify the ways of God to Man" (1.26). It challenges as prideful an anthropocentric worldview. The poem is not solely Christian, however. It assumes that man has fallen and must seek his own salvation.<ref name="Nuttal 1984"/>

Consisting of four epistles addressed to [[Lord Bolingbroke]], it presents an idea of Pope's view of the Universe: no matter how imperfect, complex, inscrutable and disturbing the Universe may be, it functions in a rational fashion according to natural laws, so that the Universe as a whole is a perfect work of God, though to humans it appears to be evil and imperfect in many ways. Pope ascribes this to our limited mindset and intellectual capacity. He argues that humans must accept their position in the "Great Chain of Being", at a middle stage between the angels and the beasts of the world. Accomplish this and we potentially could lead happy and virtuous lives.<ref name="Nuttal 1984"/>

The poem is an affirmative statement of faith: life seems chaotic and confusing to man in the centre of it, but according to Pope it is truly divinely ordered. In Pope's world, God exists and is what he centres the Universe around as an ordered structure. The limited intelligence of man can only take in tiny portions of this order and experience only partial truths, hence man must rely on hope, which then leads to faith. Man must be aware of his existence in the Universe and what he brings to it in terms of riches, power and fame. Pope proclaims that man's duty is to strive to be good, regardless of other situations.<ref name="Cassirer"/>{{Failed verification|date=August 2022}}

===Later life and works=== 
{{Quote box |width=225px |align=left |quoted=true |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=right
 |quote =<poem>
FATHER of all! in every age,
:In every clime adored,
By saint, by savage, and by sage,
:[[Jehovah]], [[Jove]], or Lord!

If I am right, thy grace impart
:Still in the right to stay;
If I am wrong, O, teach my heart
:To find that better way!

Save me alike from foolish pride,
:Or impious discontent,
At aught thy wisdom has denied,
:Or aught thy goodness lent.

Teach me to feel another's woe,
:To hide the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
:That mercy show to me.

Mean though I am, not wholly so,
:Since quickened by thy breath;
O, lead me wheresoe'er I go,
:Through this day's life or death! 

To thee, whose temple is all space,
:Whose altar, earth, sea, skies!
One chorus let all Being raise!
:All Nature's incense rise! 
</poem>|author=Pope|source ="The Universal Prayer"<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=kXd4bRr71a4C&dq=Oliver+Wendell+Holmes+Katydid&pg=PA269 ''A Library of Poetry and Song: Being Choice Selections from The Best Poets. With An Introduction by William Cullen Bryant''], New York, J. B. Ford and Company, 1871, pp. 269-270.</ref>}} 

[[File:Alexander Pope dying.png|thumb|The death of Alexander Pope from ''Museus'', a [[threnody]] by [[William Mason (poet)|William Mason]]. [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]] holds the dying Pope, and [[John Milton]], [[Edmund Spenser]], and [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] prepare to welcome him to heaven.]]

The ''Imitations of Horace'' that followed (1733–1738) were written in the popular Augustan form of an "imitation" of a classical poet, not so much a translation of his works as an updating with contemporary references. Pope used the model of [[Horace]] to satirise life under [[George II of Great Britain|George II]], especially what he saw as the widespread corruption tainting the country under Walpole's influence and the poor quality of the court's artistic taste. Pope added as an introduction to ''Imitations'' a wholly original poem that reviews his own literary career and includes famous portraits of Lord [[John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey|Hervey]] ("[[Sporus]]"), [[Thomas Hay, 9th Earl of Kinnoull]] ("Balbus") and Addison ("Atticus").

In 1738 came "The Universal Prayer".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/pope_a/prayer.html |title=Alexander Pope 'Universal Prayer' |author=McKeown, Trevor W. |work=bcy.ca |access-date=12 April 2007 |archive-date=28 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170128120922/http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/pope_a/prayer.html |url-status=live }} [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3702-w0010.shtml Full-text] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617083225/http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3702-w0010.shtml |date=17 June 2016 }}. Also at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA).</ref>

Among the younger poets whose work Pope admired was [[Joseph Thurston (poet)|Joseph Thurston]].<ref>James Sambrook (2004) "Thurston, Josephlocked (1704–1732)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press. {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/70938}}</ref> After 1738, Pope himself wrote little. He toyed with the idea of composing a patriotic epic in blank verse called ''Brutus'', but only the opening lines survive. His major work in those years was to revise and expand his masterpiece, ''The Dunciad''. Book Four appeared in 1742 and a full revision of the whole poem the following year. Here Pope replaced the "hero" Lewis Theobald with the [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom|Poet Laureate]], [[Colley Cibber]] as "king of dunces". However, the real focus of the revised poem is Walpole and his works. By now Pope's health, which had never been good, was failing. When told by his physician, on the morning of his death, that he was better, Pope replied: "Here am I, dying of a hundred good symptoms."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ruffhead |first=Owen |title=The Life of Alexander Pope; With a Critical Essay on His Writings and Genius |url=https://archive.org/details/lifealexanderpo00ruffgoog |year=1769 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lifealexanderpo00ruffgoog/page/n479 475]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dyce |first=Alexander |title=The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, with a Life, by A. Dyce |year=1863 |page=cxxxi}}</ref> He died at his villa surrounded by friends on 30 May 1744, about eleven o'clock at night. On the previous day, 29 May 1744, Pope had called for a priest and received the [[Last Rites]] of the Catholic Church. He was buried in the nave of [[St Mary's Church, Twickenham]].

==Translations and editions==
===The ''Iliad''===
Pope had been fascinated by Homer since childhood. In 1713, he announced plans to publish a translation of the ''[[Iliad]]''. The work would be [[Publication by subscription|available by subscription]], with one volume appearing every year over six years. Pope secured a revolutionary deal with the publisher Bernard Lintot, which earned him 200 [[Guinea (British coin)|guineas]] (£210) a volume, a vast sum at the time.

His ''Iliad'' translation appeared between 1715 and 1720. It was acclaimed by [[Samuel Johnson]] as "a performance which no age or nation could hope to equal".  Conversely, the classical scholar [[Richard Bentley]] wrote: "It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Samuel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xWDDZ4QaA8gC |title=The Lives of the Most Eminent Poets with Critical Observations on their Works |publisher=Printed for J. Rivington & Sons, and 39 others |year=1791 |volume=IV |location=London |pages=193 |access-date=20 March 2023 |archive-date=7 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407054850/https://books.google.com/books?id=xWDDZ4QaA8gC |url-status=live }}</ref>

===The ''Odyssey''===
{{Main|Odyssey (Alexander Pope translation)}}
[[File:OdysseyPopeTP1752.jpg|thumb|Frontispiece and title page of a 1752 edition of Pope's ''Odyssey''|alt=]]
Encouraged by the success of the ''Iliad'', Bernard Lintot published Pope's five-volume translation of Homer's ''Odyssey'' in 1725–1726.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Homer |name-list-style=amp |translator1=Alexander Pope |translator2=William Broome |translator3=Elijah Fenton |title=The Odyssey of Homer |edition=1st |date=1725–1726 |location=London |publisher=Bernard Lintot}}</ref> For this Pope collaborated with [[William Broome]] and [[Elijah Fenton]]: Broome translated eight books (2, 6, 8, 11, 12, 16, 18, 23), Fenton four (1, 4, 19, 20) and Pope the remaining twelve. Broome provided the annotations.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Fenton |first1=Elijah |title=The poetical works of Elijah Fenton with the life of the author |date=1796 |publisher=Printed for, and under the direction of, G. Cawthorn, British Library, Strand |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PZDgW_comgYC&pg=PA7 |access-date=27 May 2018 |archive-date=21 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230421091324/https://books.google.com/books?id=PZDgW_comgYC&pg=PA7 |url-status=live }}</ref> Pope tried to conceal the extent of the collaboration, but the secret leaked out.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fraser |first=George |title=Alexander Pope |url=https://archive.org/details/alexanderpope00fras/page/52 |url-access=registration |publisher=Routledge |year=1978 |isbn=9780710089908 |page= 52}}</ref> It did some damage to Pope's reputation for a time, but not to his profits.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Damrosch |first=Leopold |title=The Imaginative World of Alexander Pope |url=https://archive.org/details/imaginativeworld0000damr |url-access=registration |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |year=1987 |page=[https://archive.org/details/imaginativeworld0000damr/page/59 59]|isbn=9780520059757 }}</ref> [[Leslie Stephen]] considered Pope's portion of the ''Odyssey'' inferior to his version of the ''Iliad'', given that Pope had put more effort into the earlier work – to which, in any case, his style was better suited.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Stephen |first1=Sir Leslie |title=Alexander Pope |date=1880 |publisher=Harper & Brothers |pages=[https://archive.org/details/alexanderpope07stepgoog/page/n96 80] |url=https://archive.org/details/alexanderpope07stepgoog}}</ref>

===Shakespeare's works===
In this period, Pope was employed by the publisher [[Jacob Tonson]] to produce an opulent new edition of Shakespeare.<ref name="Pope-Shakespeare-Tonson">{{Cite web |title=Preface to Shakespeare, 1725, Alexander Pope |url=https://shakespearebrasileiro.org/en/preface-to-shakespeare-1725-alexander-pope/ |website=ShakespeareBrasileiro |access-date=10 March 2020 |archive-date=11 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200111152105/https://shakespearebrasileiro.org/en/preface-to-shakespeare-1725-alexander-pope/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> When it appeared in 1725, it silently regularised Shakespeare's metre and rewrote his verse in several places. Pope also removed about 1,560 lines of Shakespeare's material, arguing that some appealed to him more than others.<ref name="Pope-Shakespeare-Tonson"/> In 1726, the lawyer, poet and pantomime-deviser [[Lewis Theobald]] published a scathing pamphlet called ''Shakespeare Restored'', which catalogued the errors in Pope's work and suggested several revisions to the text. This enraged Pope, wherefore Theobald became the main target of Pope's ''Dunciad''.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lewis-Theobald#ref59272 "Lewis Theobald"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814063758/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lewis-Theobald#ref59272 |date=14 August 2020 }} ''Encyclopaedia Britannica''.</ref>

The second edition of Pope's ''Shakespeare'' appeared in 1728.<ref name="Pope-Shakespeare-Tonson"/> Apart from some minor revisions to the preface, it seems that Pope had little to do with it. Most later 18th-century editors of Shakespeare dismissed Pope's creatively motivated approach to textual criticism. Pope's preface continued to be highly rated. It was suggested that Shakespeare's texts were thoroughly contaminated by actors' interpolations and they would influence editors for most of the 18th century.

==Spirit, skill and satire==
Pope's poetic career testifies to an indomitable spirit despite disadvantages of health and circumstance. The poet and his family were [[Catholic Church|Catholics]] and so fell subject to the prohibitive [[Test Act]]s, which hampered their co-religionists after the abdication of [[James II of England|James II]]. One of these banned them from living within ten miles of London, another from attending public school or university. So except for a few spurious [[Catholic school]]s, Pope was largely [[self-educated]]. He was taught to read by his aunt and became a book lover, reading in French, Italian, Latin and Greek and discovering [[Homer]] at the age of six. In 1700, when only twelve years of age, he wrote his poem ''[[Ode on Solitude]]''.<ref>''Genetic studies of genius'' 
by [[Lewis Madison Terman]]  Stanford University Press, 1925 OCLC: 194203</ref><ref>"Personhood, Poethood, and Pope: Johnson's Life of Pope and the Search for the Man Behind the Author" by Mannheimer, Katherine. ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'' - Volume 40, Number 4, Summer 2007, pp. 631-649 [http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/eighteenth-century_studies/v040/40.4mannheimer.pdf MUSE] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221518/http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/eighteenth-century_studies/v040/40.4mannheimer.pdf |date=3 March 2016 }}</ref> As a child Pope survived once being trampled by a [[Cattle|cow]], but when he was 12 he began struggling with tuberculosis of the spine ([[Pott disease]]), which restricted his growth, so that he was only {{convert|4|ft|6|in|m|abbr=off}} tall as an adult. He also suffered from crippling headaches.

In the year 1709, Pope showcased his precocious metrical skill with the publication of ''[[Pastoral]]s'', his first major poems. They earned him instant fame. By the age of 23, he had written ''[[An Essay on Criticism]]'', released in 1711. A kind of poetic [[manifesto]] in the vein of [[Horace]]'s ''[[Ars Poetica (Horace)|Ars Poetica]]'', it met with enthusiastic attention and won Pope a wider circle of prominent friends, notably [[Joseph Addison]] and [[Richard Steele]], who had recently begun to collaborate on the influential ''[[The Spectator (1711)|The Spectator]]''. The [[critic]] [[John Dennis (dramatist)|John Dennis]], having found an ironic and veiled portrait of himself, was outraged by what he saw as the impudence of a younger author. Dennis hated Pope for the rest of his life, and save for a temporary reconciliation, dedicated his efforts to insulting him in print, to which Pope retaliated in kind, making Dennis the butt of much satire.

A folio containing a collection of his poems appeared in 1717, along with two new ones about the passion of love: ''Verses to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady'' and the famous proto-romantic poem ''[[Eloisa to Abelard]]''. Though Pope never married, about this time he became strongly attached to Lady M. Montagu, whom he indirectly referenced in his popular ''Eloisa to Abelard'', and to Martha Blount, with whom his friendship continued through his life.

As a [[satirist]], Pope made his share of enemies as critics, politicians and certain other prominent figures felt the sting of his sharp-witted satires. Some were so virulent that Pope even carried pistols while walking his dog. In 1738 and thenceforth, Pope composed relatively little. He began having ideas for a [[patriotic]] epic in [[blank verse]] titled ''Brutus'', but mainly revised and expanded his ''Dunciad''. Book Four appeared in 1742; and a complete revision of the whole in the year that followed. At this time Lewis Theobald was replaced with the [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom|Poet Laureate]] [[Colley Cibber]] as "king of dunces", but his real target remained the [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] politician [[Robert Walpole]].

==Reception==
By the mid-18th century, new fashions in poetry emerged. A decade after Pope's death, Joseph Warton claimed that Pope's style was not the most excellent form of the art. The Romantic movement that rose to prominence in early 19th-century England was more ambivalent about his work. Though [[Lord Byron]] identified Pope as one of his chief influences – believing his own scathing satire of contemporary English literature ''English Bards and Scotch Reviewers'' to be a continuance of Pope's tradition – [[William Wordsworth]] found Pope's style too decadent to represent the human condition.<ref name="Alexander Pope' 2000"/> George Gilfillan in an 1856 study called Pope's talent "a rose peering into the summer air, fine, rather than powerful".<ref>George Gilfillan (1856) "The Genius and Poetry of Pope", ''The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope'', Vol. 11.</ref>

Pope's reputation revived in the 20th century. His work was full of references to the people and places of his time, which aided people's understanding of the past. The post-war period stressed the power of Pope's poetry, recognising that Pope's immersion in Christian and Biblical culture lent depth to his poetry. For example, Maynard Mack, in the late 20th-century, argued that Pope's moral vision demanded as much respect as his technical excellence. Between 1953 and 1967 the definitive Twickenham edition of Pope's poems appeared in ten volumes, including an index volume.<ref name="Alexander Pope' 2000"/>

==Works==
===Major works===
*1709: ''[[Pastorals (Pope)|Pastorals]]''
*1711: ''[[An Essay on Criticism]]''<ref name=cocel>Cox, Michael, editor, ''The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature'', [[Oxford University Press]], 2004, {{ISBN|0-19-860634-6}}</ref>
*1712: ''[[Messiah (English poem)|Messiah]]'' (from the [[Book of Isaiah]], and later [[Messiah (Latin poem)|translated into Latin]] by [[Samuel Johnson]])
*1712: ''[[The Rape of the Lock]]'' (enlarged in 1714)<ref name=cocel/>
*1713: ''[[Windsor-Forest|Windsor Forest]]''<ref name="WF"/><ref name=cocel/>
*1715: ''[[The Temple of Fame|The Temple of Fame: A Vision]]''<ref>Alexander Pope (1715) ''The Temple of Fame: A Vision.'' London: Printed for Bernard Lintott. Print.</ref> 
*1717: ''[[Eloisa to Abelard]]''<ref name=cocel/>
*1717: ''[[Three Hours After Marriage]]'', with others
*1717: ''[[Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady]]''<ref name=cocel/>
*1728: ''[[Peri Bathous, Or the Art of Sinking in Poetry]]''
*1728: ''[[The Dunciad]]''<ref name=cocel/>
*1731–1735: ''[[Moral Essays]]''
*1733–1734: ''[[Essay on Man]]''<ref name=cocel/>
*1735: ''[[Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot]]''

===Translations and editions===
*1715–1720: Translation of the ''[[Iliad]]''<ref name=cocel/>
*1723–1725: ''The Works of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespear]], in Six Volumes''
*1725–1726: Translation of the ''[[Odyssey]]''<ref name=cocel/>

===Other works===
*1700: ''[[Ode on Solitude]]''
*1713: ''Ode for Musick''<ref name="OfM">Pope, Alexander. [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3688-w0010.shtml ''ODE FOR MUSICK.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617182256/http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3688-w0010.shtml |date=17 June 2016 }}. Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA).</ref>
*1715: ''A Key to the Lock''
*1717: ''The Court Ballad''<ref name="TCB">Pope, Alexander. [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3668-w0010.shtml ''The Court Ballad''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617102130/http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3668-w0010.shtml |date=17 June 2016 }}. Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA).</ref>
*1717: ''Ode for Music on St. Cecilia's Day''
*1731: ''An Epistle to the Right Honourable Richard Earl of Burlington''<ref name="EtB">Pope, Alexander. [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3689-w0010.shtml ''Epistle to Richard Earl of Burlington''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617131253/http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3689-w0010.shtml |date=17 June 2016 }}. Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA).</ref>
*1733: ''The Impertinent, or A Visit to the Court''<ref name="TIS">Pope, Alexander. [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3683-w0010.shtml ''The IMPERTINENT, or A Visit to the COURT. A SATYR.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617192851/http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3683-w0010.shtml |date=17 June 2016 }}. Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA).</ref>
*1736: ''Bounce to Fop''<ref name="BtF">Pope, Alexander. [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3665-w0010.shtml ''Bounce to Fop''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617124318/http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3665-w0010.shtml |date=17 June 2016 }}. Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA).</ref>
*1737: ''The First Ode of the Fourth Book of Horace''<ref name="H4O1">Pope, Alexander. [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3682-w0010.shtml ''THE FIRST ODE OF THE FOURTH BOOK OF HORACE.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617190953/http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3682-w0010.shtml |date=17 June 2016 }}. Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA).</ref>
*1738: ''The First Epistle of the First Book of Horace''<ref name="HIE1">Pope, Alexander. [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3677-w0010.shtml ''THE FIRST EPISTLE OF THE FIRST BOOK OF HORACE.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617134004/http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3677-w0010.shtml |date=17 June 2016 }}. Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA).</ref>

===Editions===
*''The Works of Alexander Pope'' [https://archive.org/details/worksalexanderp03unkngoog vol 3] [https://archive.org/details/worksalexanderp61popegoog vol 3] [https://archive.org/details/worksalexanderp31wartgoog v 9 of 10] [https://books.google.com/books?id=DKYDAAAAQAAJ v 6 of 8]

==See also==
{{wikiquote|Alexander Pope}}
*''[[Characters and Observations]]''
*[[List of abolitionist forerunners]]
*''[[Pope's Urn]]''

==References==
{{reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name="Baines 2001">{{Cite book |last=Baines |first=Paul |title=The Complete Critical Guide to Alexander Pope |publisher=Routledge Publishing |year=2001 |pages=67–90}}</ref>
<ref name=Cassirer>{{Cite book |last=Cassirer |first=Ernst |title=An Essay on Man; an introduction to a philosophy of human culture |url=https://archive.org/details/essayonmanintrod00cass |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=1944|isbn=9780300000344 }}</ref>
<ref name="Erskine-Hill, DNB">Erskine-Hill, Howard (2004). "Pope, Alexander (1688–1744)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press. {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/22526}} (subscription required)</ref>
<ref name="Gordon 2002">{{Cite web |last=Gordon |first=Ian |url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6702 |title=An Epistle to a Lady (Moral Essay II) |publisher=The Literary Encyclopedia |date=24 January 2002 |access-date=17 April 2009 |archive-date=7 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071007130551/http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6702 |url-status=live }}</ref>
<ref name=Mount>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/70053/Martha-Blount |title=Martha Blount |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |year=2009 |access-date=17 April 2009 |archive-date=30 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120130025911/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/70053/Martha-Blount |url-status=live }}</ref>
<ref name="Nuttal 1984">{{Cite book|isbn=9780048000170 |last=Nuttal |first=Anthony |title=Pope's Essay on Man |publisher=[[Allen & Unwin]] |year=1984 |pages=3–15, 167–188}}</ref>
<ref name="Rogers 2006">{{Cite book |isbn=019920361X|last=Rogers |first=Pat |title=The Major Works |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |pages=17–39}}</ref>
}}

==Bibliography==
*"The Author as Editor: Congreve and Pope in Context."''[[The Book Collector]]'' 41 (no 1) Spring, 1992:9-27.
*{{Cite book |editor-last=Davis |editor-first=Herbert |title=Poetical Works |location=London |publisher=Oxford U.P. |date=1966 |series=Oxford Standard Authors}}
*{{Cite book |last=Mack |first=Maynard |title=Alexander Pope. A Life |location=New Haven |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=1985}}
*Ostrom, Hans (1878). "Pope's Epilogue to the Satires, 'Dialogue I'." ''Explicator'', 36:4, pp.&nbsp;11–14.
*{{Cite book |last=Rogers |first=Pat |title=The Cambridge Companion to Alexander Pope |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2007}}
*[[Geoffrey Tillotson|Tillotson, Geoffrey]] (2nd ed. 1950). ''On the Poetry of Pope''. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press.
*Tillotson, Geoffrey (1958). ''Pope and Human Nature''. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Alexander Pope}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikisource author}}
{{DNB poster|Pope, Alexander (1688–1744)}}
*[http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/authors/pers00012.shtml Alexander Pope] at the [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/ Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)]
*{{gutenberg author|id=907|name=Alexander Pope}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=Alexander Pope}}
*{{Librivox author |id=1231}}
*[https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/houseofcommons/reformacts/from-the-parliamentary-collections/wilkes1/wilkes2/ John Wilkes and Alexander Pope – UK Parliament Living Heritage]
*{{Cite CE1913 |wstitle=Alexander Pope |first=Patrick Joseph |last=Lennox |volume=12 |short=x}}
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Pope, Alexander | volume= 22 |last1= Minto |first1= William |author1-link= William Minto |last2= Bryant |first2= Margaret |author2-link= | pages = 82&ndash;87 |short=1}}
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0038x97 BBC audio file]. ''[[In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)|In Our Time]]'', radio 4 discussion of Pope.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061010113614/http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poet/263.html University of Toronto "Representative Poetry Online" page on Pope]
*[http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/pope.htm Pope's Grave]
*[http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=19 The Twickenham Museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514003003/http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=19 |date=14 May 2011 }}
*[http://www.popesgrotto.org.uk/ Pope's Grotto Preservation Trust]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927223740/http://www.richmond.gov.uk/local_history_a_pope.pdf Richmond Libraries' Local Studies Collection. Local History]. Accessed 2010-10-19
*{{UK National Archives ID}}
*{{NPG name}}
*[http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/search/results.aspx?index=0&mainQuery=Alexander%20Pope&searchType=all&form=basic&theme=&county=&district=&placeName= Images relating to Alexander Pope] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130731141534/http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/search/results.aspx?index=0&mainQuery=Alexander%20Pope&searchType=all&form=basic&theme=&county=&district=&placeName= |date=31 July 2013}} at the [[English Heritage Archive]]
*[http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/pope-alexander-1688-1744 Blue Plaque] at 110 Chiswick Lane South, Chiswick, London W4 2LR

{{Alexander Pope}}

{{Authority control}}

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