Alexander Pope was a spokesperson of the Neo-classical literature. He was born in London, on May 21, 1688 to Alexander Pope, Sr and Editha Pope.The most instinctively classical poet missed the intensely classical education of his day. He was mostly educated at home. However, he learned Latin and Greek from a local priest and thereafter gained proficiency in French and Italian. He was enrolled at Twyford School, from where he was expelled within a year for writing satire on one of the masters. His orthodox Roman Catholic faith denied him University education.
He was a son of a Roman Catholic linen merchant. His parents were impeccable in their character and would be remembered long for their virtuous life. Pope’s father earned his fortune by fair means leading a peacefully wedded life. He was a stranger to political and religious conflicts. He did not go to law courts and did not believe in litigation and never lied. He was not learned, but understood the language of affection and sincerity as he was honest and wise. He enjoyed perfect health that Alexander in envy, wished to lead.
The Setback
In 1700, the Popes moved to Binfield when Alexander was 12. This perfectly healthy child suffered from tubercular disease of bone, later known as Pott's disease. The disease struck the teenager and made him a dwarf for life. After he contracted the disease, he became a humpbacked dwarf of just four foot six. This crippled condition was a big blow to the growing youth. His deformity was accompanied by constant coughing and severe headaches time to time. The illness increased as he advanced in age. But his deformity or illness could not tab the spirit of this poet to be. Instead, he always struggled to overcome it, though his struggle was interspersed with occasional bouts of gloom and sadness. Sometimes he felt so low that once he sat and wrote farewell to all his friends and family.
Pope’s physical deformity made him an easy target of heartless mockery; but in his work, he was a literary dictator of his age.
"Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see,
Thinks what ne’er was, nor is, nor e’er shall be."
(Essay on Criticism)
Literature And Pope
He was taken to a prominent physician when he was 16. The doctor advised him to take rides. He was accompanied by a 60 year old gentleman neighbor, Sir William Trumbull. Both the men got along well despite the vast age difference. Sir Trumbull was a great lover of literature and their rides together might have sawn the seed of creating literature in the young mind of Alexander. The old man would patiently listen to the early efforts of the budding poet. His first attempt to write took place when he was just 12 and tried to produce an epic poem. His first contact with literature occurred when he was taken to meet the poet Dryden. He met many of the contemporary writers including dramatists William Wycherley and William Congreve and critic William Walsh. Alexander got along well with Wycherley and Walsh, particularly with Walsh from whom he got inspired to write in his peculiar style, making correctness his study and aim.
His Women
In his middle age, he wore a stiffened canvas bodice to support his spine. The Popes were Roman Catholics and at Binfield they came in contact with several Catholic families, who were to play an important role in Alexander’s life. His religion played an important part in shaping his life and gave him some lifelong friends, mainly Squire John Caryll and Martha Blount to whom Pope addressed some of the most remarkable of his poems and to whom he bequeathed most of his property. He was very close to both Blount sisters, Teresa and Martha and turned to them, especially Martha in times of stress.
He was in love with Mary Wortley Montagu but this relationship gave him nothing except pain. He was unsuccessful in love and his relationship with Lady Mary soured after 1723. His style of comic social criticism owed much to his membership at the Scriblerus Club with John Gay, Jonathan Swift, Dr John Arbuthnot, Thomas Parnell and Robert Harley, the Earl of Oxford. Meetings with such minds brought sweet memories in Pope’s later life. In 1717, on the death of his father he moved to Twickenham. He devoted most of his time and attention to his mother. In 1733, his mother died too. These incidents caused pain in Pope’s life. He was totally devoted to his parents and his devotion and affection are expressed in An Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot.
Friends
All his life, he sought out father figures or elderly persons, like Sir William Trumbull, William Congreve, Lord Digby, Lord Peterborough, Ralph Allen, and especially Lord Bolingbroke, whom he treated and worshipped as a God. Pope’s relationship with women was ambiguous and difficult because it brought bitterness and breakdown in his life. Added to the uncertainty of his gentle position, was the uncertainty of his social class in a rigidly hierarchical society. This, he tried to combat by creating around him a small select group of ‘top people’ and by belonging to exclusive clubs that were anti-establishment. His friends, all belonged to an aristocracy of birth or talent, people who saw themselves as superior to the common run of men. Religion and politics, his precarious position as a Catholic, Crypto (one below church used as burial place) - Jacobite Tory (political party), involved him at least to some extent, in subversion and in secrecy that seemed to suit his temperament.
The Poet
He grew up in an indulgent home on the edge of Windsor Forest that was the gateway of Pope’s poetic fragrance. His intellectual isolation at Windsor Forest gave him intellectual freedom. He wrote his first verse Pastorals at the age of 12 that were published in Tonson’s Miscellany. He says, " I lisped in numbers because numbers came."
This work shows us that Pope was a born poet. An essayist, critic, satirist and one of the greatest poets of the Augustan Age.
But the real Pope is first encountered in an Essay on Criticism published in 1711. As he was a poet, he was careful to discuss the principles of his art. So Pope naturally turned for inspiration to the Ars Poetica of Horace and the writings of those who had imitated it with the Essay on Criticism. It included the famous line – A little learning is a dangerous thing. Later it became a famous epigram and that reached door to door, generation to generation.
His next work truly established him. The Rape of the Lock published in 1712 was based on an actual incident. It became at his hands a blend of the mock–heroic, the satirical and the fanciful, unmatched in English poetry. Eminent critic William Hazlitt called it ‘an exquisite specimen of filigree work.’
He put in his all the efforts in writing and became the first English author to live off writings, without any patrons.
An enlarged edition appeared in 1714. The Rape of the Lock, an elegant satire about the hysterical battles between the sexes and follies of Belinda with her ‘puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet-doux’. The theme of The Rape of the Lock was trivial but Pope’s genius made it extraordinary. This work presents the fashion and follies that Belinda engages in. She plays cards, has affairs and drinks coffee. His work reflects the contemporary society.
Two poems of uncertain dates appear in his collected works of 1717, Eloisa to Abelard and the fine Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady. In these, Pope has made a sustained attempt to present pathos and passion. His friendship and affection are expressed with singular charm in three epistles :
(1) To Mr Jervas with Dryden’s translation of Fresnoy’s Art of Painting.
(2) To a Young Lady with work of Voiture.
(3) To the same on her leaving the town after coronation.
Of the three, the last two were written in the first instance for his friend Teresa Blount and transferred afterwards to her younger sister Martha.
Pope’s literary activity in the first half of his career was both intense and varied. He left alone drama, though he paid more attention to Arbuthnot’s epistle Three Hours After Marriage. His Ode for Music on Saint Cecilia’s Day is inferior to Drydens. There is not much lyrical quality in the poetry of Pope but the aphoristic quality was highly developed. He was not prosaic. He was satisfied with nothing less than poetic perfection. It may be called Pope’s formula and may be stated thus: the lines are strictly iambic. By 1717, Pope had already published the first installment of his most laborious enterprise, the translation of the Iliad. Pope’s Homer, like Dryden’s Virgil, was not intended to make known an unknown author. His readers were familiar with Homer. The first four volumes appeared actually between 1715 to 1718 and the last two in 1720. Tickell’s version of the first Iliad was published on the same day as Pope’s first volume. It was alleged to be inspired by Addison. With all its faults, Pope’s translation was a great success.
Shortly after Pope was engaged in two fresh enterprises. The translation of the Odyssey, shared with Elijah Fenton and William Broome to whom half the books were allotted. The first three volumes were published in 1725 and the remaining two the next year. But homely, domestic, romantic Odyssey was less successful than the heroic, oratorical Iliad. The other task, which he undertook at the invitation of Jacob Johnson, the bookseller, was a new edition of Shakespeare, published in 1725. Among the shorter pieces of this period is the Epistle to Robert Earl of Oxford, almost unsurpassed for variety of music and dignity of style.
The first two volumes of Miscellanies appeared in 1727. The last volume (1728) contained the severe Character of Addison, which had already made an appearance earlier. The Dunciad (Books I – III) appeared anonymously in 1728. Its success was immediate. Pope was emboldened to bring out a more elaborate one in 1729. Its main idea was taken from Mac Flecknoe in an emulation of his master’s great satire. The authorship was openly acknowledged in 1735.
Pope’s poetical energy during the next few years was deeply influenced by Bolingbroke. The first result was the Epistle to the Earl of Burlington, of Taste in 1731, later altered into False Taste and ultimately called The Use of Riches. It is a finished specimen of Pope’s art and attitude. The next epistle was that to Lord Bathurst also entitled Of the Use of Riches in 1732. The epistle called Of the Knowledge and Characters of Men came out in the following year. The epistle entitled Of the Characters of Women was held back till 1735. During this period, Pope had been busy with his Essay on Man and he said, "The Proper study of Mankind is Man." Epistle I Essay on Man appeared in February 1733, and epistle II Essay On Man and III Essay On Man followed in the course of a year. These were anonymous. Pope was capable of producing a sustained philosophical poem of any value at any time.
The year 1733 marks the beginning of a singularly successful form of Pope’s literary activity. Pope replied on his Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot in 1735. These magnificent outbursts of autobiography, self-adulation, satires and invectives contain some of Pope’s most finished and brilliant works. Other versions of certain satires and epistles appeared between 1734 to 1737. They have been called perfect translations, "The persons and things being transferred as well as the words."
The New Dunciad appeared in 1742. In this poem, Pope had described a new hero Theobald. During the 17th century, Pope was often denied the name of a poet and was made to suffer for the faults of his worst imitators. According to scholars and some people, he has been liked and well received in every age. His admirers now tend to increase rather than to diminish. Pope’s spiritual home was the Parish of St James. He was quintessentially urbane; and the romantic period sought the beauty that added strangeness in it.
During the last two years of his life, he suffered the most as his illness became critical. He was looked after by his friends, especially Bolingbroke, Marchmont, Spence and Martha Blount. He died on May 30, 1744. The man who always kept an eye on his audience was inevitably asked whether he was telling the truth, when Pope declared, at the end of his life that he "never had any uneasy desire of fame, or keen Resentment of Injuries."
Physical disability, religious biases, and to top it all a vulnerable target of people’s mockery – a life loaded with ‘wrongs’, but hats off to the indefatigable spirit of the man called Alexander Pope.
Pope faced all adversities, natural and manmade to emerge as England’s Poet Laureate, whose chosen weapon, ‘satire’ blunted all attacks, through verse and poetic forms to every poetry lover’s delight.
The Rape of the Lock sets him apart from the rest of the ‘pack’. His distinguished epigrams show uncanny wit, humor and of course all that he got early in life returned in the same coin.
"For fools rush in where Angels fear to tread", he said.So let us tread softly on the following pages to have an insight on his life and works.
CHRONOLOGY OF WORKS
1709
Publication of Pope’s Pastorals in Tonson’s Miscellanies.
1711
Essays on Criticism.
1712
The Rape of the Lock (2 canto Version);
1714
Enlarged version of The Rape of the Lock.
1715
Translation of Homer's Iliad I – IV published.
1716
Translation of Homer's Iliad V – VIII published.
1717
Translation of Homer's Iliad IX-XII published.
1718
Translation of Homer's Iliad XIII-XVI published.
1720
Translation of Homer's Iliad XVII-XXIV published.
1721
Began work on the new edition of Shakespeare.
1722
Began translation of Odyssey in association with Elijah Fenton and William Broome.
1725
New edition of Shakespeare published; Odyssey I-III published
1726
Odyssey IV-V published.
1729
Annotated Dunciad Variorum; Beggar’s Opera premiered.
1731
Epistle to Burlington published.
1733
Epistle to Bathurst, Imitations of Horace, Satire II.i, Essays on Man I – III published.
1734
Essay on Man IV, Imitations of Horace, Satire II.ii, Epistle to Cobham published.
1735
Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, Epistle to a Lady, Works II, Curll’s unauthorized edition of Pope’s letters published.
1737
Imitations of Horace, Epistles II. i-ii published.
1738
Imitations of Horace, Epistles I. i, vi; Epilogue to satires published.
1741
Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus published; begins work on revised edition of poems with Warburton.
1742
The New Dunciad (the fourth book to the Dunciad) published.
1743
The New Dunciad (Four Books), with Cibber replacing Theobald as central figure published.
CHRONOLOGY OF LIFE
May 21, 1688
Alexander Pope born Lombard St London of Catholic parents.
1700
Popes moved to Binfield, Windsor Forest, complying with anti-Catholic regulations.
1713
Formed the Scriblerus Club with Swift, Gay, Parnell and Arbuthnot.
1715
Friendship with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
1716
Family moved to Chiswick near the Earl of Burlington.
1719
Moved to Twickenham on the death of his father.
1733
Pope’s mother died.
1735
Pope’s friend Dr Arbuthnot died.
May 30, 1744
Death of Pope.
In ‘The Augustan Age’ or ‘The Age of Pope’ in London, the coffeehouses replaced the court as the meeting place for men of culture. The journalist makes his appearance. Gossip and tittle-tattle make their way into print. Poetry becomes social and familiar. In this background Alexander Pope flourishes and nourishes poetry with his intellect and skill.
Pope’s first work was Pastorals that appeared in Tonson’s Poetical Miscellanies. Then, later in 1711, An Essay on Criticism was published. Its brilliantly polished epigrams were,
A little learning is a dangerous thing.
To err is human, to forgive, divine,
For fools rush in where angels fear to tread
which were later to become the integral part of the proverbial heritage of the English language and spread all over the world. It has now become part of our speech in everyday life. This work shows how Pope mingled art and life together in one thread.
Pope’s well-deserved success of the Essay on Criticism widened his circle of friends. They were Richard Steele and Joseph Addison who were collaborating on The Spectator. To this journal, Pope contributed the most original of his pastorals, The Messiah (1712) and other papers in prose. He was influenced by The Spectator policy of correcting public morals by witty admonishment, and in this vein he wrote the first version of his mock-heroic epic The Rape of the Lock (two cantos in 1712, five cantos in 1714). This work is the masterpiece of Pope’s and perhaps the best of his whole career. This mock-heroic poem, brought out in Pope a combination of qualities that he never again displayed together. Delicate imagination, subtle ironic wit, mock-heroic extravagance, the most perfect control over cunningly manipulated verse - these qualities go together with an almost tenderly affectionate humor. In a criticism of female vanity at once indulgent and penetrating, had the faintest breath of underlying melancholy at the inevitable disparity between human professions and the realities of social life. He has made a trivial drawing room episode into an epic theme and to treat the social customs of the Age of Queen Anne with an assumed epic seriousness, was to set about creating certain tensions and ironies which the early 18th century was especially fit to appreciate. The Rape of the Lock is more than a jest. The more important thing – the tone of the poem, is original. The blend of burlesque, wit, humor, irony and morality being a distillation we find nowhere else in English poetry. Something of the irony can be seen in the opening statement :
Say what strange motive, Goddess ! could compel
A well bred Lordt’ assault a gentle Belle ?
The irony of the epic appeals to the goddess in the manner of Homer is surpassed by the subtler irony of expressing surprise that a lord should assault a belle. Further, he specifies a well bred Lord and a gentle belle – thus suggesting that not all lords were well bred nor all belles gentle. Here, Pope is not condemning any specific society, but being gently ironical about the social surface of life in general. The description of Belinda’s dressing table,
Here files of Pins extends their shining rows,
Puffs, Powders, Patches, Bibles, billet-doux….
is humorously indulgent, but at the same time the confusions between real and pretended interests are not only Belinda’s. But the manner, fashions and the conventions of any society bound to produce in some degree, are artfully ticked off in this poem. Perhaps the greatest skill of all is displayed in using mock-heroic diction to provide healthy atmosphere, both ritualistic and cheerfully social, in describing the activities of a high brow society.
The Epistle to Addison, originally written in 1715, is a wholly independent poem. It ends with a compliment to Addison, which is in sharp contrast to the brilliantly satirical portrait of him as Atticus in The Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot because Pope thinks that Addison is a jealous person. Jealous of people who rise. Addison never admired anyone who rose and that is the only reason given by Pope for satirizing Addison.
In 1717, Pope published a collected volume of poems. This volume included the Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady and Eloisa to Abelard.
Pope’s translation of Homer’s Iliad appeared in six volumes between 1715 and 1720. The success of the translation was immediate, enabling Pope to buy his house and garden at Twickenham in 1718 and he lived there in financial independence for the rest of his life. This translation is not exactly what Homer’s Iliad means but Pope contrived his own kind of spirit and fire in his translation. Another translated work of Pope – Odyssey (five volumes) appeared in 1725-26. His four Epistles addressed to Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke, appeared from 1733 to 1734.
The Dunciad, 1728, had made him very unpopular. His literary enemies found a rich vein in the relative obscurity of his birth. They argued that Pope had no right to sneer at the poverty of others. The Dunciad had dismissed so contemptuously influenced members of the court circle; who had the ear of the monarch and the higher echelons of government seemed to be conspiring against him. Lady Mary’s attack was launched in March (1733), almost certainly with the collaboration of poets John Gay, Lord Hervey and Lord Chamberlain in August. Pope’s verses to the mechanical efforts of a mere tradesman, and in an obscure allusion to the latter’s trade, reminded Pope of the old slander on his parentage. Before his Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot was published, which was written partly for revenge on Lady Mary and Lord Hervey, because this poet criticized Pope’s satire. Pope’s violent attack on the minor writers of the day was mostly an expression of his personal enmity with several persons who had dared to say anything against him. Pope had printed an open letter in prose to Lord Hervey. A letter to a noble lord, in which all of his insecurities about his physical deformity and his class position were brought out in the open and ingeniously converted into powerful bids for attracting Lord Hervey’s sympathy.
Pope’s immediate reply to Lady Mary and Lord Hervey was the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, published on January 2, 1735. The Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot supplies a list of illustrious friends that are generously sprinkled throughout. Pope’s poem and Epistle To Dr. Arbuthnot are substantially accurate on reportings of the times.
The decade 1715-25 was the most memorable in the life of Pope because it was devoted to making his fortune by translating the Iliad and the Odyssey and editing Shakespeare. All these works made it possible for him to stand ahead of other poets with his head high. Pope’s translation of Iliad was successful partly because it was an excellent product, a spirited translation with unrivalled aesthetic appeal; and partly because Pope’s business instinct dictated that he should market it by seeking the patronage of all his aristocratic friends, putting pressure on them to buy sets and persuade their friends to do so as well. In so far, the edition was both a commercial success and a triumph for high brow, coterie art; it was a perfect icon for Pope’s uncertain, upwardly mobile class position. The money he made, guaranteed his independence of professional writing and financed an ideology that in the The Dunciad and later poems, represented professional writing as a dangerous form of barbarism.
Yet, Pope did not feel entirely at home in the social success that his fame brought, nor could he quietly enjoy his wealth, because it was precarious.
Pope’s An Essay on Man (1733 – 1735) showcased Pope’s talent for philosophical poetry. This work and four Moral Essays (1731 – 1735) were originally intended to form a long poetic sequence on the nature of mankind that Pope had hoped would be his greatest work. Between 1733 and 1738, he published more than a dozen Imitations of Horace. About his Epistles, Pope thinks that they are vehicles for social commentary. Pope’s Horatian Poems are his most mature, elegant and self assured works.
His next work is the philosophical Essay on Man I – III (1733), the year his mother died. In 1734, Essay on Man IV appeared.
The Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot was mostly written in 1734, though some passages, notably the Portrait of Atticus, had been written earlier. In the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot he had satirized the scholars and the poets like Theobald, Bentley, Addison by imaginary names. The people immediately recognized the persons whom he satirized and this was the magic of Pope’s pen, because they had disapproved his works and had tried to belittle his genius. It was the revengeful nature of Pope that led him to attack these personalities with great venom and force in his epistles and satires. He had written this poem under the title Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, because Dr Arbuthnot saved Pope’s life by his friendly advice and professional skill. Pope wanted him now to prescribe some medicine for his newfound disease.
Dr Arbuthnot advised Pope not to attack great persons by names. But the poet had made up his mind to expose flatterers. Pope wished every domestic happiness to Dr Arbuthnot. He wanted to enjoy a long life in order to nurse his ailing mother. He prayed to God to guard Dr Arbuthnot against all sorrow and suffering. The poem concludes on a note of resignation to the will of God.
Dr Arbuthnot expressed his faith in providence.
In 1737, the classicist Pope produced an ‘authorized’ version of his letters and when his identity as a poet was recognized through the Essay on Man, he expressed his views on religion. In this year, his satirical Imitations of Horace was published which attacked the corruption and venality of the Whig government under Sir Robert Walpole and the indifferences of King George II, which Walpole tolerated and to all things literary or cultural. With the help of William Warburton, Pope produced the final version of The Dunciad, which appeared in four books, in 1743.
The Dunciad appeared in 1728 and continued till 1742. Now for the first time the poem was put before the reading public in totality with a new hero. Colley Cibber, the actor-manager replaced Theobald as king of the Duncies, while other changes in personnel were made according to the 1743 state of play, regarding Pope’s friends and enemies and the fortunes of the Duncies in the intervening years.
The Dunciad is far more than an attack on patronage. It is a comprehensive attack on the institution of writing and a merciless satire on all professional writers. Pope’s hostility towards those who earned their living by the pen is not the straightforward phenomenon that it is sometimes taken to be. The Dunciad ridiculed bad writers, scientists and critics.
Brutus, an epic poem in blank verse, remained incomplete because of his death in 1744.
Style Of Pope’s Poetry
Alexander Pope was the greatest poet of his time and he is considered to be a classicist of the 18th century. He introduced in his poetry, a lucidity of expression and elegance of form. His poetry had the Neo-classical qualities of exactness, correctness, finish and polish.
According to Compton Rickett, in the poetry of Pope, "The merits and limitations of the 18th century school of poetry are clearly exhibited." Pope was a classicist and almost all the qualities that we associate with classicism are present in his poetry. He always tried to be immaculate in his work and he revised his poems again and again till he was satisfied. He remarked, "I corrected because it was as pleasant to me to correct as to write."
Pope was a great master of the poetic technique. For him style and expression was always much more important than the subject matter. He wanted his poetry to consist of "What oft was thought but never so well-expressed."
The subject he chose were common enough, but his presentation was outstanding, for example, the trivial theme of hair, around which The Rape of the Lock has been composed. In order to perfect his style and expression, Pope consciously imitated the ancient Greek and Roman writers.
Pope has been regarded to be "pre-eminently a satirist." He followed the method of the Roman Satirist Juvenal in his satires. Some of his greatest works, Essay on Criticism, The Rape of the Lock, The Prologue, The Moral Essay and The Dunciad are almost entirely satirical in nature.
Member of Scriblerus Club
In late 17th century, intellectual history was split between professional and amateur scholarship, largely along the lines of social class. Alexander Pope’s first attempts at satire were made under the aegis of a literary club that he formed jointly with Jonathan Swift, which they called the Scriblerus Club.
The other members of the club along with Pope and Jonathan Swift were John Gay, Thomas Parnell, Dr John Arbuthnot, Robert Harley and Earl of Oxford. This group regularly met only for a short while in 1714. Its members remained in contact with each other from time to time. The result of their exchanges may be seen in Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera (1728), Pope’s Peri Bathous ! Or, The Art of Sinking in Poetry (1728), and Arbuthnot’s and Pope’s Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus (1741).
Nature in Pope’s Poetry
Pope once said ‘follow nature’. One of the most important characteristics of the Augustan Age was – literature must follow nature. However, Pope did not share this view with Wordsworth and Coleridge. The Augustans were more interested in human nature rather than the pastoral images. The Age of Pope had no intention or any kind of interest in describing flowers and trees and the changes of seasons. Their only aim was to copy ‘The Man and Manner of Society’. Pope presented the nature of mankind through different ways – the jealous nature of Addison, the frailty of women in The Rape of the Lock and in many other poems, the generous nature of Dr Arbuthnot. He has presented all these as part of human nature in his poems. So we can say that Pope was the poet of Human Nature, because he said, "The proper study of mankind is man".
Pope’s Quotable Verses Next To Shakespeare
Pope’s quotable verses in his works are considered to be a big heritage for mankind. It is a precious treasure for mankind. The moral truths presented by Pope in these quotable verses are true for all times to come, and that is the reason why Pope has been considered as a poet of thousand years. Among his quotable verses are such memorable lines as :
First follow nature and your judgment frame
By the just standard, which is still the same.
To vindicate the ways of God to man.
Whatever is, is right.
All art is nature to advantage dressed,
What oft was thought, but never so well expressed.
How vain are all these glories, all our pains
Unless good sense preserve that beauty gains.
Beauties in vein their pretty eyes may roll
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
A little learning is a dangerous thing.
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring.
Be silent always when you doubt your sense
And speak, the ‘sure with seeming diffidence.
All but parts of one stupendous whole
Whose body nature is and God the soul.
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan
The proper study of mankind is man !
Pope’s Thoughts About Women
In his Of The Characters of Women : an Epistle to a Lady (1735) and in The Rape of the Lock, we find his vindictive nature. The devastating attack on the female character that opens with the lines – "Nothing so true as what you once let fall, most women have no characters at all."
In 1711, he met the Blount sisters, Teresa and Martha. He became infatuated, briefly with Teresa, but Martha, the kind-hearted, passionate woman remained his close friend for the rest of a life. He had friendships with many women, perhaps he admired them greatly but he failed to be a possible husband or prospective lover. He also satirized Lady Mary Montagu whom he once loved. He drew frailty, fashion, and lust of women’s nature in his poetry. Through this he has presented the nature of women. For the presentation of all these, he used satire as his weapon and even reveals his agony through this. He had addressed many poems to Martha. In his poems, Pope presents Martha as a true companion, an ideal woman in whom contradictions do not produce unnaturalness, hypocrisy or false wit. Pope’s advice to Teresa is that beauty does not last, but personality is an important thing and all these qualities he finds in Martha.
Martha is therefore an exception to the general rule that "Most women have no characters at all." He has written about many virtuous qualities of Martha and he has compared her with Diana, the Goddess of Chastity. Through his poems he has presented many negative and positive qualities of women.
Life at Twickenham
Pope and his family had moved from Binfield to Chiswick in 1716. There his father died (1717) and two years later he and his mother rented a house on the Thames at Twickenham. It was a small country town where several landowners had retired to live in rustic atmosphere. This was Pope’s home for the remainder of his life. There he entertained friends like Swift, Bolingbroke, Oxford and the painter Jonathan Richardson. All these friends were enthusiastic gardeners and it was Pope’s pleasure to advise and superintend their landscaping according to the best contemporary principles, formulated in his Epistle to the Right Honorable Richard, Earl of Burlington (1731). This poem is one of the most mature works of Pope. It is rambling discussion of false taste in architecture and design in the Horatian manner with some suggestions for the worthier employment of a nobleman’s wealth.
Pope’s Friendship with Dr Arbuthnot
Dr Arbuthnot and Pope’s friendship was the most remarkable. Dr Arbuthnot advised him from time to time. He had given his dutiful service to Pope’s mother and he hoped to extend her life. He had also treated Pope during his ailment. Moreover, Dr Arbuthnot also advised Pope not to expose some foolish poets because they were dangerous. Pope has attributed some remarkable passages to Dr Arbuthnot in his An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot.
