got an honest reputation by such an action: I would mark it down, in order to imitate it when I had an opportunity.-Mr. Pope. Did you never mind what your angry critics published against you? Never much; only one or two things at first. When I heard for the first time that Dennis had written against me, it gave me some pain; but it was quite over as soon as I came to look into his book, and found he was in such a passion.-The same. When I was looking over some things I had brought from Italy, to pick out what might be of use to his grotto, and came among the rest to some beads and medals that had been blest at Loretto, he laid them gently aside, and said, "these would be good presents for a papist."-The same. I began writing verses of my own invention further back than I can remember. The same. Ogilby's translation of Homer was one of the first large poems that ever Mr. Pope read; and he still spoke of the pleasure it then gave him with a sort of rapture, only on reflecting on it. It was that great edition with pictures. "I was then about eight years old. This led me to Sandys' Ovid, which I liked extremely, and so I did a translation of a part of Statius by some very bad hand."-The same. When I was about twelve, I wrote a kind of play, which I got to be acted by my schoolfellows. It was a number of speeches from the Iliad, tacked together with verses of my own. The same. The epic poem, which I began a little after I was twelve, was Alcander, Prince of Rhodes; and there was an under-water scene in the first book: 'twas in the Archipelago. The same. I wrote four books towards it, of about a thousand verses each, and had the copy by me till I burnt it by the advice of the Bishop of Rochester a little before he went abroad.-The same. I endeavoured (says he smiling) in this poem to collect all the beauties of the great epic writers into one piece: there was Milton's style in one part, and Cowley's in another; here the style of Spenser imi 3 tated, and there of Statius; here Homer and Virgil, and there Ovid and Claudian. "It was an imitative poem then, as your other exercises were imitations of this or that story?" "Just that."-The same. Mr. Pope wrote verses imitative of sounds so early as in this epic poem. "Shields, helms, and swords all jangle as they hang, And sound formidinous with angry clang," was a couplet of this nature in it.-The same. There were also some couplets in it which I have since inserted in some other of my works, without any alteration. As that in the Essay on Criticism, (v. 194). "Whose honours with increase of ages grow, As streams roll down, enlarging as they flow." And this in the Dunciad, (iii. 56). "As man's meanders to the vital spring Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring." The same. And I think he said of that simile, (Dunc. i. 182). "As clocks to weight their nimble motion owe, The wheels above urged by the load below." In the scattered lessons I used to set myself about that time, I translated above a quarter of the Metamorphoses, and that part of Statius which was afterwards printed with the corrections of Walsh.-The same. My next work after my epic was my pastorals, so that I did exactly what Virgil says of himself*.-The same. I translated Tully's piece de Senectute in this early period, and there is a copy of it in Lord Oxford's library.-The same. My first taking to imitating was not out of vanity, but humility. I saw how defective my own things were, and endeavoured to mend my manner by copying good strokes from others.-The same. I have often mentioned my great reading period to you: in it I went through all the best critics‡; almost all the English, * Cum canerem reges et prælia, Cynthius aurem + From about 13 or 14 to about 21. This probably led Mr. Pope to writing his Essay on Criticism, which was in that period. E French, and Latin poets of any name; the minor poets; Homer and some other of the greater Greek poets in the original, and Tasso and Ariosto in translations. The same. I even then liked Tasso more than Ariosto, as I do still; and Statius of all the Latin poets, by much next to Virgil.The same. My epic poem was about two years in hand*. Alcander was a prince driven from his throne by Deucalion, father of Minos, and some other princes. It was better planned than Blackmore's Prince Arthur; but as slavish an imitation of the ancients. Alcander showed all the virtues of suffering, like Ulysses; and of courage, like Eneas or Achilles. Apollo, as the patron of Rhodes, was his great defender; and Cybele, as the patroness of Deucalion and Crete, his great enemy. She raises a storm against him in the first book, as Juno does against Eneas; and he is cast away and *From 13 to 15. |