An Essay on Man Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) p. 536: Despite a crippling childhood disease and persistent ill health, Alexander Pope was determined at a young age to become a great poet. He triumphantly achieved his boyhood ambition by the time he was in his twenties, capturing the attention of the leading literary figures of England with An Essay on Criticism (1711) and The Rape of the Lock (1712-1714). A brilliant satirist in verse, Pope gave his name to the literary era in which he wrote, which is now called The Age of Pope and Swift.

A Struggle Against Prejudice Born into the Roman Catholic family of a London linen merchant, Pope was a member of a persecuted religious minority. After the expulsion of King James II in 1688, English Catholics could not legally vote, hold office, attend a university, or live within ten miles of London. Probably to comply with the rule of residency, his family moved first to the village of Hammersmith and then to Binfield, near Windsor Forest. In this rural setting, Pope spent his formative years writing poetry, studying the classics, and educating himself.

“[T]his long Disease, my Life” In addition to facing religious prejudice, Pope had severe political problems. Deformed by tuberculosis of the bone, or Pott’s disease, Pope stood only about four and a half feet tall—“that little Alexander the women laugh at,” he said about himself. Pope also suffered from nervousness and excruciating headaches throughout his life. In a line from his poem Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735), he refers jokingly but also with with sadness to “this long Disease, my Life.” Around 1719, two years after his father’s death, Pope moved Twickenham (traditionally pronounced twit ‘nem), a village on the Thames, where he lived for the remainder of his life.

Literary Friendships Although Pope is more often remembered for his wasplike sting in quarrels than for his cordiality—he was called “the Wasp of Twickenham”—he befriended many literary figures of his day. For example, in the coffeehouses of London, he associated with Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, essayists and founders of two prominent periodicals of the time.

Satiric Scribblers Pope also associated with a group that included writers Jonathan Swift and John Gay. Pope joined with these men and others in forming the Scriblerus Club, whose purpose was to ridicule what its members regarded as “false tastes in learning.” Meeting regularly, the members wined, dined, and joked with one another. For example, when Pope read aloud to the group his revised version of The Rape of the Lock, one member, Thomas Parnell, humorously objected that Pope had stolen a passage from an old manuscript. Parnell even pretended to produce this manuscript, which was really his own translation of Pope’s English into bad Latin. Although the club did not continue for long, its emphasis on fun and satire probably inspired Swift’s masterwork Gulliver’s Travels; Gay’s Beggar’s Opera, the most successful play of the century; and Pope’s The Dunciad, which is an assault on his literary enemies.

A Turn to Philosophy In the 1730s, Pope’s writing moved out of the satirical mode to become increasingly philosophical. Leaving humor behind, he embarked on a massive work concerning morality and government, but completed only An Essay on Man and Moral Essays. Nevertheless, the entire body of his work is so noteworthy that critics and fellow writers alike frequently accord him exceptionally high praise. The twentieth-century poet An Essay on Man Alexander Pope

Edith Sitwell, for example, called Pope “perhaps the most flawless artist our race has yet produced.” excerpted from p. 537: Literary Analysis In both works [An Essay on Man and The Rape of the Lock], Pope uses a figure of speech from rhetoric, or public speaking, called antithesis — placing side by side, and in similar grammatical structures, strongly contrasting words, clauses, sentences, or ideas. excerpt from An Essay on Man (p. 539) ______An Essay on Man is an examination of human nature, society, and morals. In the following passage, Pope cautions against intellectual pride by vividly describing the uncertain “middle state” in which humans have been placed. ______

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man. Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise, and rudely great: 5 With too much knowledge for the skeptic side, With too much weakness for the stoic’s pride, stoic n. a person He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest; indifferent to joy, In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast; grief, pleasure, or In doubt his mind or body to prefer; pain. 10 Born but to die, and reasoning but to err; Alike in ignorance, his reason such, Whether he thinks too little, or too much: Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; 15 Still by himself abused, or disabused; Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled: Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled: 20 The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!