POP E. LEXANDER POPE was born in London, AMAYAN,DER,POPE Wass in May 22, 1688, of parents whose rank or ftation was never ascertained: we are informed that they were of "gentle blood;" that his father was of a family of which the Earl of Downe was the head, and that his mother was the daughter of William Turner, Efquire, of York, who had likewise three fons, one of whom had the honour of being killed, and the other of dying, in the fervice of Charles the Firft; the third was made a general officer in Spain, from whom the fifter inherited what fequef trations and forfeitures had left in the family. This, and this only, is told by Pope; who is more willing, as I have heard obferved, to fhew what his father was not, than what he was. It is allowed that he grew rich by trade; but whether in a fhop or on the Exchange was never difcovered till Mr. Tyers told, on the authority of Mrs. Racket, that he was a linen-draper in the Strand. Both parents were papists. Pope Pope was from his birth of a conftitution tender and delicate; but is faid to have fhewn remarkable gentleness and fweetnefs of difpofition. The weaknefs of his body continued through his life; but the mildness of his mind perhaps ended with his childhood. His voice, when he was young, was fo pleafing, that he was called in fondnefs" the "little Nightingale." Being not fent early to fchool, he was taught to read by an aunt; and when he was feven or eight years old, became a lover of books. He firft learned to write by imitating printed books; a fpecies of penmanship in which he retained great excellence through his whole life, though his ordinary hand was not elegant. When he was about eight, he was placed in Hampshire under Taverner, a Romish prieft, who, by a method very rarely practifed, taught him the Greek and Latin rudiments together. He was now first regularly initiated in poetry by the perufal of "Ogilby's Homer," and "Sandys's Ovid." Ogilby's assistance he never repaid with any praife; but of Sandys he declared, in his notes to the "Iliad," that English poetry owed much of its beauty to his tranflations. Sandys very rarely attempted original compofition. From the care of Taverner, under whom his proficiency was confiderable, he was removed to a school * This weakness was fo great that he conftantly wore ftays, as I have been affured by a waterman at Twickenham, who, in lifting him into his boat, had often felt them. His method of taking the air on the water, was to have a fedan chair in the boat, in which he fat with the glaffes down. H. at Twyford near Winchester, and again to another school about Hyde-park Corner; from which he used fometimes to ftroll to the playhoufe; and was fo delighted with theatrical exhibitions, that he formed a kind of play from "Ogilby's Iliad," with fome verses of his own intermixed, which he perfuaded his school-fellows to act, with the addition of his master's gardener, who perfonated Ajax. At the two last schools he used to reprefent himself as having loft part of what Taverner had taught him; and on his master at Twyford he had already exercifed his poetry in a lampoon. Yet under those masters he tranflated more than a fourth part of the "Metamorphofes." If he kept the fame proportion in his other exercifes, it cannot be thought that his lofs was great. He tells of himself, in his poems, that "he lifp'd "in numbers;" and used to say that he could not remember the time when he began to make verses. In the ftyle of fiction it might have been faid of him as of Pindar, that, when he lay in his cradle, "bees fwarmed about his mouth." "the About the time of the Revolution, his father, who was undoubtedly difappointed by the fudden blast of Popish profperity, quitted his trade, and retired to Binfield in Windfor Foreft, with about twenty thousand pounds; for which, being confcientiously determined not to entrust it to the govern ment, he found no better ufe than that of locking up in a cheft, and taking from it what his expences required; and his life was long enough to confume a great part of it, before his fon came to the inheritance. it To To Binfield Pope was called by his father when he was about twelve years old; and there he had for a few months the affiftance of one Deane, another prieft, of whom he learned only to conftrue a little of "Tully's Offices." How Mr. Deane could fpend, with a boy who had tranflated fo much of " Ovid," fome months over a finall part of "Tully's Offices," it is now vain to enquire. Of a youth fo fuccefsfully employed, and fo confpicuously improved, a minute account must be naturally defired; but curiofity must be contented with confused, imperfect, and fometimes improbable intelligence. Pope, finding little advantage from external help, refolved thenceforward to direct himself, and at twelve formed a plan of ftudy which he completed with little other incitement than the defire of excellence. His primary and principal purpose was to be a poet, with which his father accidentally concurred, by propofing fubjects, and obliging him to correct his performances by many revifals; after which the old gentleman, when he was fatisfied, would fay, "these are good rhymes." In his perufal of the English poets he foon diftinguished the verfification of Dryden, which he confidered as the model to be ftudied, and was impreffed with fuch veneration for his inftructor, that he perfuaded fome friends to take him to the coffee-house which Dryden frequented, and pleafed himfelf with having feen him. Dryden died May 1, 1701, fome days before Pope was twelve; fo early muft he therefore have felt the power of harmony, and the zeal of genius. Who does not wish that Dryden could have known the value of the homage that was paid him, and foreseen the greatnefs of his young admirer? The earliest of Pope's productions is his "Ode "on Solitude," written before he was twelve, in which there is nothing more than other forward boys have attained, and which is not equal to Cowley's performances at the fame age. His time was now wholly fpent in reading and writing. As he read the Clafficks, he amufed himfelf with tranflating them; and at fourteen made a verfion of the first book of the "Thebais," which, with fome revifion, he afterwards published. He must have been at this time, if he had no help, a confiderable proficient in the Latin tongue. By Dryden's Fables, which had then been not long published, and were much in the hands of poetical readers, he was tempted to try his own fkill in giving Chaucer a more fashionable appearance, and put "January and May," and the "Prologue of the Wife of Bath," into modern English. He tranflated likewife the Epiftle of "Sappho to "Phaon" from Ovid, to complete the verfion which was before imperfect; and wrote fome other fmall pieces, which he afterwards printed. He fometimes imitated the English poets, and profeffed to have written at fourteen his poem upon "Silence," after Rochefter's "Nothing." He had now formed his verfification, and the smoothness of his numbers furpatfed his original: but this is a fmall part of his praife; he difcovers fuch acquaintance both with human and public affairs, as is not |