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The Rape of the Lock: and an Essay On ECLECTIC EN G LISH CLASSICS TH E RA PE OF TH E LOCK A N D AN ES S AY ON MAN BY ALE XAN DE R EOP E TE D BY A . M . VAN E DI DY K E , M . A . DE PARTME N T OF E N G LIS H , CINCI NNATI H IG H SCH OOL N E W YORK CIN CIN N A TI CH ICA G O A M E R I C A N B O O K C O M P A N Y 1 898 w 1 m “H iram i m ” . atis m LIbr ar y BOWL of EGUC TRANS FE HML D I O RAIN MID COL LEG E H a m! 1 192 1 J U . ‘ Co r i h t 1 8 8 b py g , 9 , y A M E R I AN Boox O A C C M P N Y . I N T R O D U CT I O N . A D E R OP E wa s n n A L E X N P bor in Lombard Street , Lo don , May fa h er wa wh o 2 1 1 68 8 . t s , His a linen draper had amassed a considerable fortune , and his mother, Edith , was one of the sev i n n enteen ch ldren of William Turner, a Roman Catholic ge tlema , ’ th e e e e lord of a manor in Yorks hire . Both of po t s par nts wer Roman Catholics . On account of his extremely delicate health , he was, at the age th e n of eight , put under tuitio of the family priest, who taught him the rudiments of Latin and Greek . He had early been n e taught by a n aunt to read and write . Whe he was twelve y ars a t b ut old , he was sent to a Catholic school Twyford , was soon expelled for having written a lampoon upon one of his teachers . ’ s His father retired from busine s soon after the poet s birth , and in eld n B fi r . removed to , on the borde s of Wi dsor Forest Here , u after his expulsion from school , other t tors were provided for b ut n a r e n him ; , his progress being u satisf cto y to hims lf, he aba doned u e a nd this method of st dy, and laid out for hims lf a wide r e . varied cou se of reading, which he pursued with great dilig nce b u He egan to write verse at an early age , prod cing his Ode to Solitude when but twelve year s old . He says of himself 5 I N TR OD U C TI ON I a nd n . lisped in numbers , the umbers came At the age of ” w th e sixteen he rote the Pastorals, and boldly announced to I n 1 1 1 e world that he was a poet . 7 he publish d his Essay on r c . 1 1 2 a C iticism , whi h was much praised by Addison In 7 p “ ear ed - p the mock heroic poem The Rape of the Lock, which a n a nd r ised him to the highest pin acle of fame, the Messiah , ’ n l n w in imitatio of Vergi s Fourth Eclogue . Though he was o l et n the most popu ar poet of his day, y the pecu iary profits de w rived from the publication of his orks had been small ; and , as e n 1 1 his father had nearly exhaust d his fortu e , Pope , in 7 3 , took a a n d u a n n advant ge of his popularity, iss ed propos ls for a tra slatio 1 1 8- 1 2 0 of the Iliad of Homer . The work was finished in 7 7 , and he received for it over £5 00 0 : a a w n With p rt of this sum he purch sed the villa of T icke ham , w e e in 1 1 8 a n hith r he repaired with his moth r 7 , his father h vi g e e w k enh a m th e r e died the y ar before . He resid d at T ic for i d e e m n m a n er of his life . Here he amused hims lf by bellishi g his n e a m en a nd grou ds , receiv d the hom ge of the famous women of e w w wa s I n n n e his tim , ith hom he co stant i t rcourse , and busied l w w n himse f ith his riti gs . ” n a his ~ s uc c es s I E cour ged by with the liad, he put forth , in ” 1 2 in n n o n t F n e . 7 5 , co ju cti wi h Boone and e ton , the Odyss y In — 1 7 2 7 1 7 2 8 he a n d Swift together wrote the Miscellanies . In 1 2 8 u n u wa 7 The D nciad was published a onymo sly, but there s n a nd wa s . no mistaki g the author, it universally ascribed to Pope This poem is a vindictive satire against th e sma ll celebrities of l A nd n a . his day, prompted by liter ry jea ousy agai st whom is h r ? A u a m t is petty i ritation felt gainst feeble jo rnalists, brutal p hleteer s a n p , st rving rimesters , a crew of hack ey authors, Bohe m ians of ink and paper below literature . To sting and wound I N TR OD UC TI ON 7 u s these unfort nate gave Pope pleasure as he sat, meditating stabs , in ! his elegant villa, the resort of the rich and the noble By t w r A TT I S ON . attacking hese, he lo ers himself to thei level (P ) In 1 7 3 2 - 1 7 34 appeared An Essay on Man ; a nd in the last year s of his life Pope de voted himself to writing the Moral ” ” e Essays, the Imitations of Horace, the Satir s, the Epis ” ” tles , and the fourth book of The Dunciad . ’ in r e Pope s mother died 7 33 , and after that, although surround d m e . by any close fri nds, he began to feel himself alone He had a lways been in ill health, and as he grew older he developed a fretfulness and irritability of disposition which taxed the patience of his companions to the utmost . i : Dr . Johnson thus describes the last days of his l fe In May, h 1 his . O n 6t 744 , death was approaching the he was all day ir r fh del ious, which he mentioned, fou days afterwards , as a su u cient h miliation of the vanity of man . He afterwards com d h u u n plaine of seeing things as t ro gh a c rtai , and in false colors ; da the s D ods le ar m and one y , in pre ence of y , asked what it was i n that came out from the wall . He said that his greatest nco ‘ v enienc e was inability to think . He died in the evening of the t 1 hirtieth day of May, 744 , so placidly that the attendants did n not discern the exact time of his expiratio . He was buried at m a nd m e Twickenha , near his father other, where a monum nt has b a een erected to him by his commentator, W rburton , bishop of ” Gloucester . ’ Inas much a s the study of Pope s works is the study of the m a n i n b beh nd them , it is but just to consider his physical conditio e “ r Bom fo e pas sing judgment . to a life that was one long dis ca s e h u e , owever m ch he may have been to some an obj ct of was contempt , he a fit subject for charity, if not for pity . A 8 I N TR OD UC TI ON t i v b e dwarf in s ature, crooked in form , weak of const tution , ain of e r ri cause precocity too much flatter d , i table from ill health , he was hampered greatly in the race of life . In his childhood he was amiable and sweet-tempered ; in his maturer year s he was “ ” the wasp of Twickenham . Even as a child he saw that he was different from other children ; later he brooded over this ff u . was di erence , and perhaps accused Nat re of injustice If he n w crafty and maligna t, vain and conceited , himsical and pas s ionate h , it may ave been but the reaction of his futile resent e th e ment against fate , in an end avor to re venge. himself upon could — e enemies he attack men . Had he be n of a brave or heroical nature , he would not have sought to recompense his own m th defects by i pairing e virtue of others . C We must not , however, overlook the good side of his harac t I er . Bolingbroke said of him never in my life knew a man wh o had so tender a heart for his particular friends ; and Adol h us C a I n m p Ward , in summing up his h racter, says co pensa infir mities h a d tion for his bodily , Nature bestowed upon him a th e h br illiant eye and a melodious voice .
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