ALEXANDER POPE THE CRITICAL HERITAGE JOHN BARNARD. Edited by. London and New York

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1 ALEXANDER POPE THE CRITICAL HERITAGE Edited by JOHN BARNARD London and New York

2 Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS page VI ABBREVIATIONS xiv PREFACE XV INTRODUCTION I NOTE ON THE TEXT 39 PART I CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM General reactions WILLIAM WYCHERLEY, April I7O (a) JOHN GAY on Pope, May (b) JOSEPH ADDISON on Pope, October JOHN DENNIS, from A True Character of Mr. Pope, May LEONARD WELSTED, from Palcemon to Ccelia, March THOMAS PARNELL, 'To Mr. Pope', (a) GILES JACOB, from The Poetical Register, December (b) DR ABEL EVANS, July Pastorals (1709) 7 Reactions (a) LORD LANSDOWNE, I705 Or I (b) WILLIAM WALSH, April (c) JACOB TONSON, April I (d) WILLIAM WALSH, September (e) WILLIAM WYCHERLEY, May I WILLIAM WYCHERLEY'S public acclamation, ALEXANDER POPE, The Guardian, April An Essay on Criticism (1711) 10 JOHN DENNIS, from Reflections Critical and Satyrical, June JOSEPH ADDISON, from The Spectator, December CHARLES GILDON'S first attack, December AARON HILL, May vii

3 14 Two contrasting views 86 (a) SIR THOMAS HANMER (?), I (b) LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU, January-February Messiah (1712) 15 SIR RICHARD STEELE, June I Windsor Forest (1713) 16 JOHN DENNIS, December WILLIAM BOND, from The Progress ofdulness, June The Rape of the Lock (1714) 18 (a) SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL, March (b) REV. GEORGE BERKELEY, May I7I CHARLES GILDON, from A New Rehearsal, April JOHN DENNIS, from Remarks on the Rape of the Lock, May I7i4ff WILLIAM BOND, from The Progress ofdulness, June MATTHEW CONCANEN, from 'Of Modern Poetry', November 1725 ^ P.-K GUYOT, 'Preface du Traducteur', 1728 no 24 Two Italian assessments n 1 (a) ANDREA BONDUCCI, 1739 III (b) GIUSEPPE BUONDELMONTI, I739 Iliad ( ) 25 RICHARD FIDDES, from A Prefatory Epistle, THOMAS BURNET and GEORGE DUCKETT, from Homerides, March (a) Anonymous, The Weekly Journal, June 1715 (b) Anonymous, The Weekly Journal, June The public takes sides, June 1715-March 1717 (a) THOMAS PARNELL, June I7I5 (b) JONATHAN SWIFT, June I715 (c) DR EDWARD YOUNG, June I7I5 (d) REV. GEORGE BERKELEY, July I7I5 (e) JOHN GAY, July 1715 (f) THOMAS BURNET, AugUSt I7I5 (g) JOSEPH ADDISON, from The Freeholder, May 1716 (h) j. D. BREVAL ('Joseph Gay'), from The Confederates, March 1717 viii III

4 29 LEWIS THEOBALD, from The Censor, January JOHN DENNIS, from Remarks on Mr. Pope's Homer, February LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU, September ANNE DACIER, 'Reflexions sur la Preface de M. Pope', WILLIAM MELMOTH, October A Roman Catholick Version of the First Psalm (1716) 34 SIR RICHARD BLACKMORE, from Essays upon Several Subjects, Eloisa to Abelard (1717) 35 (a) MATTHEW PRIOR, from Alma, March (b) JAMES DELACOUR, preface to Abelard to Eloisa, Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady (1717) 36 THOMAS BLACKLOCK, C. I Epitaph on John Hewet and Sarah Drew (1718) 37 (a) BISHOP ATTERBURY, September (b) LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU, November General Reactions MATTHEW CONCANEN, from 'A Letter to a Critick', VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE, February DR EDWARD YOUNG, from The Universal Passion, Satire i, WALTER HARTB, from 'To Mr. Pope', VOLTAIRE on Pope 153 (a) October (b) from Lettres philosophiques, June 1726-March (a) MATHER BYLES, October (b) MATHER BYLES, May JOHN DENNIS (?), from The Daily Journal, May MATTHEW CONCANEN, from A Supplement to the Profound, August Pope's superiority 163 (a) RICHARD SAVAGE, from The Wanderer, (b) BISHOP ATTERBURY, November Odyssey (1725-6) 47 'HOMERIDES', from The London Journal, July DANIEL DEFOE, 'On Pope's Translation of Homer', July JOSEPH SPENCE, from An Essay on Pope's Odyssey, part i, June ix

5 50 JOSEPH SPENCE, from An Essay on Pope's Odyssey, part ii, August MATTHEW CONCANEN, from Preface, A Supplement to the Profound, August The Dunciad (1728) 52 W.A., from Mist's Weekly Journal, May Anonymous, from An Essay on the Dunciad, June JONATHAN SWIFT, July The Dunciad Variorum (1729) 55 Anonymous, from Pope Alexander's Supremacy Examin'd, May JOHN DENNIS, from Remarks upon the Dunciad, July BISHOP ATTERBURY, AugUSt I GILES JACOB, December WALTER HARTE, from An Essay upon Satire, January HENRY FIELDING, from The Champion, November General reactions SAMUEL RICHARDSON, conversation, c LORD LYTTELTON, An Epistle to Mr. Pope, June 'CHEVALIER* ANDREW RAMSAY, O 64 Anonymous, from The Satirist, June Anonymous, from The Poetfinish'd in Prose, June Anonymous poem from The Prompter, November THOMAS DALE, from An Epistle.. from South Carolina, (a) DR ISAAC WATTS, June (b) COUNTESS OF HERTFORD, AugUSt (c) COUNTESS OF HERTFORD, May HENRY BROOKE, November DR ISAAC WATTS, from The Improvement of the Mind, LORD HERVEY, from A Letter to Mr. C b r, August Anonymous, from Sawney and Colley, 'Ethick Epistles' ( ) 73 (a) VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE, June-July (b) JONATHAN SWIFT, December Moral Essays IV: Epistle to Burlington (1731) 74 DUKE OF CHANDOS, December

6 75 LEONARD WELSTED, from Of Dukess and Scandal, January Moral Essays III: Epistle to Bathurst (1733) 76 JONATHAN SWIFT, January Imitations of Horace, Satires II. i (1733) 77 LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU, Verse Address'd to the Imitator, March Anonymous, from An Epistle to the Little Satyrist of Twickenham, March An Essay on Man (1733) 79 Pope describes the poem's reception, March Initial reactions, (a) LEONARD WELSTED, March (b) DR ALURED CLARKE, April I (c) A.Z. from The Gentleman's Magazine, February (d) I.C. from The Gentleman's Magazine, February (e) ROBERT DODSLEY, from An Epistle to Mr. Pope, November (f) JONATHAN SWIFT, November MR BRIDGES from Divine Wisdom, March ABBE DU RESNEL, 'Discours preliminaire', j. p. DE CROUSAZ, from Examen de Vessai sur I'homme, WILLIAM WARBURTON replies, December 1738-April LORD HERVEY, from A Letter to Mr. C b r, August Epitaph on Mr. Gay (1733) 86 JONATHAN SWIFT, March Imitations of Horace: Sober Advice from Horace (1734) 87 THOMAS BENTLEY, from A Letter to Mr. Pope, March Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735) 88 (a) ELIZABETH ROWE, I734~5 329 (b) LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU, January (c) COLLEY CIBBER, from A Letter from Mr. Cibber, Epilogue to the Satires: Dialogue II (1738) 89 (a) AARON HILL, July (b) JONATHAN SWIFT, August The New Dunciad (1742) 90 (a) WILLIAM SHENSTONE, March XI

7 (b) THOMAS GRAY, April COLLEY CIBBER, from A Letter from Mr. Cibber, July HENRY FIELDING, from The Champion, August SAMUEL RICHARDSON, January The Dunciad in Four Books (1743) 94 JOHN HENLEY, from Why How now, Gossip Pope?, SAMUEL RICHARDSON, January A final tribute 96 Anonymous, An Elegy on Mr. Pope, June PART II LATER CRITICISM WILLIAM AYRE, from Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Alexander Pope, Esq., THOMAS GRAY, February SAMUEL JOHNSON, from The Rambler, February WILLIAM WARBURTON, from The Works of Alexander Pope, o 101 CATHERINE TALBOT, AugUSt WILLIAM COWPER on Pope's Homer, c DE LUSTRAC on the Pastorals, April ROBERT SHIELS, from Cibber's Lives of the Poets, February JOSEPH WARTON, from The Adventurer, June JOSEPH WARTON, from An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope, vol. i, SAMUEL JOHNSON reviews Warton, SAMUEL JOHNSON, from 'A Dissertation upon the Epitaphs of Pope', May VOLTAIRE, passage added to Lettres Philosophiques, SAMUEL RICHARDSON, I in w. H. DILWORTH, from The Life of Alexander Pope, DR EDWARD YOUNG, from Conjectures on Original Composition, CONTE F. ALGAROTTI, October SAMUEL JOHNSON, from The Idler, October LORD LYTTELTON, from Dialogues of the Dead, DR HUGH BLAIR, from Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, delivered c xii

8 117 LORD KAMES, from Elements of Criticism, March ARTHUR MURPHY, from The Works of Henry Fielding, PALISSOT DE MONTENOY on The Dunciad, (a) OLIVER GOLDSMITH, from An History of England, (b) OLIVER GOLDSMITH, from The Beauties of English Poesy, April OWEN RUFFHEAD, from The Life of Alexander Pope, SAMUEL JOHNSON reviews Ruffhead, THOMAS WARTON, from A History of English Poetry, GEORGE CAMPBELL, from The Philosophy of Rhetoric, PERCIVAL STOCKDALE, from An Inquiry into the Nature, and Genuine Laws of Poetry, (a) WILLIAM COWPER, from Table-Talk, written (b) WILLIAM COWPER, January SAMUEL JOHNSON, from 'The Life of Pope', May JOSEPH WARTON, from An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, vol. ii, WILLIAM HAYLEY, from An Essay on Epic Poetry, December SAMUEL JOHNSON, October vicesimus KNOX, from Essays Moral and Literary, APPENDIX A Pope on Versification (1706?) 529 APPENDIX B 'The Ballance of Poets'(1745) 532 BIBLIOGRAPHY 537 INDEX 539 xm

9 Abbreviations The following abbreviations are used throughout: Corresp.: The Correspondence of Alexander Pope, ed. G. Sherburn (Oxford, 1956). Dennis, Critical Works: The Critical Works ofjohn Dennis, ed. E. N. Hooker (Baltimore, ). PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. Spence, Anecdotes: Spence, Joseph, Observations, Anecdotes and Charact of Books and Men, ed. James M. Osborn (Oxford, 1966). Twickenham: The Twickenham Edition of the Poems of Alexander Pope (London and New Haven, ). For full details, see the bibliography. xiv