The Project Gutenberg EBook of Alexander Pope, by Leslie Stephen

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Alexander Pope
English Men of Letters Series

Author: Leslie Stephen

Release Date: October 29, 2006 [EBook #19654]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALEXANDER POPE ***

Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Lisa Reigel and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net

[TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Greek words in this text have been
transliterated and placed between +marks+. A complete list of changes
follows the text.]

English Men of Letters

EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY

POPE

ALEXANDER POPE

BY

LESLIE STEPHEN

London:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1880.

_The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved._

FIFTH THOUSAND.

PREFATORY NOTE.

The life and writings of Pope have been discussed in a literature more
voluminous than that which exists in the case of almost any other
English man of letters. No biographer, however, has produced a
definitive or exhaustive work. It seems therefore desirable to indicate
the main authorities upon which such a biographer would have to rely,
and which have been consulted for the purpose of the following
necessarily brief and imperfect sketch.

The first life of Pope was a catchpenny book, by William Ayre, published
in 1745, and remarkable chiefly as giving the first version of some
demonstrably erroneous statements, unfortunately adopted by later
writers. In 1751, Warburton, as Pope's literary executor, published the
authoritative edition of the poet's works, with notes containing some
biographical matter. In 1769 appeared a life by Owen Ruffhead, who wrote
under Warburton's inspiration. This is a dull and meagre performance,
and much of it is devoted to an attack--partly written by Warburton
himself--upon the criticisms advanced in the first volume of Joseph
Warton's Essay on Pope. Warton's first volume was published in 1756; and
it seems that the dread of Warburton's wrath counted for something in
the delay of the second volume, which did not appear till 1782. The
Essay contains a good many anecdotes of interest. Warton's e