There are fifteen of these triplets in the third book. And throughout the whole translation their occurrence is common. So also Joseph Hall, afterwards Bishop of Norwich, in his Satires, Bk. iv. Sat. I :— 'Titius knew not where to shroude his head Until he did a dying widow wed, Whiles she lay doating on her death's bed.' 1. 15. When Asia's, &c. This is the same metre as Macaulay's 'Virginia.' 1. 25. Polyolbion. Appeared 1613. Polyolbion='many ways happy.' 1. 29. Cowley was the first, &c. This is an error. Many writers of the Elizabethan era inserted Alexandrines amongst their heroics. Hall, who has already been quoted for the triplet, will afford an instance:— 'As though the staring world hanged on his sleeve, Whene'er he smiles to laugh, and when he sighs to grieve.' 1. 34. Swift. Swift says in a letter (dated April 12, 1735) to Mr. Thomas Beach :-' Upon which I took the number of lines, which are in all 299, the odd number being occasioned by what they call a triplet, which was a vicious way of rhyming, wherewith Dryden abounded, and was imitated by all the bad versifiers of Charles II's reign. Dryden, though my near relation, is one I have often blamed as well as pitied. He was poor and in great haste to finish his plays, because by them he chiefly supported his family, and this made him so very incorrect; he likewise brought in the Alexandrine verse at the end of his triplets. I was so angry at these corruptions that above 24 years ago I banished them all by one triplet, with the Alexandrine, upon a very ridiculous subject.' P. 107, 1. 30. Elijah Fenton, who aided Pope in his translation of the Odyssey, translated four books and supplied the notes. He also wrote a tragedy, 'Mariamne.' He edited Waller and wrote a life of Milton. P. 108, 1. 1. second is the emphatic word in this sentence, contrasted with 'first' in line 5. 1. 24. Davis, who became Sir John Davies after the reign of Elizabeth, author of 'Nosce Teipsum,' a poem in stanzas of elegiac verse. This poem had a considerable influence on English verse, and Davies hardly deserves the covert sneer of Johnson. Cf. p. 8, 1. 5, note. THE LIFE OF POPE. P. 125, 1. 3. Cf. Pope's Epistle to Arbuthnot, 1. 388 :'Of gentle blood (part shed in honour's cause While yet in Britain honour had applause) Each parent sprung. 1. 4. Earl of Downe. When Mr. Pope published the notes on the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, in giving an account of his family, Mr. Pottinger, a relation of his, observed, that his cousin Pope had made himself out a fine pedigree, but he wondered where he got it; that he had never heard anything himself of their being descended from the Earls of Down; and, what is more, he had an old maiden aunt, equally related, a great genealogist, who was always talking of her family, but never mentioned this circumstance; on which she certainly would not have been silent, had she known anything of it.... The Earl of Guildford says that he has seen and examined the pedigrees of that family [the Popes, Earls of Down] and is sure that there were then none of the name of Pope left, who could be descended from that family.' Warton's Essay on Pope, vol. ii. p. 256, ed. 1806. Pope's claim to descent from the Earls of Downe is, however, allowed by Mr. Hunter (Pope, his Descent and Family, 1857) to be not improbable. 1. 5. His mother. Even of this there seems to be much doubt. It rests on the authority of 'Mr. Brooke, one of the Heralds, who is writing an account of Yorkshire families.' Mason to Walpole, Dec. 4, 1782. 1. 9. sequestrations. 'Left her what estate remained after the sequestrations and forfeitures of her family.' Pope's Note on the Epistle to Arbuthnot, 1. 381. 1. 11. told by Pope. As in the Epistle to Arbuthnot above quoted. 1. 15. Mrs. Racket. It appears that this name should properly be Rackett. She was Pope's half-sister by his mother's former marriage. 1. 16. Strand. Should be Lombard Street. P. 126, 1. 6. Taverner. In this name Johnson follows Ruffhead. By Spence the name of the priest is given as Banister. 1. 9. Ogilby. John Ogilby (1600-1676) was a native of Edinburgh, and came of a good family, which had been so reduced that young Ogilby had to release his father from a debtors' prison, and afterwards bind himself apprentice to a dancing-master in London. Picking up scholarship as best he could, he was employed by Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, and accompanied that nobleman to Ireland. There he translated some of Esop's Fables' into English verse, and soon after started a theatre in Dublin. The breaking out of the rebellion in Ireland ruined him, and he arrived in London quite destitute, after having been shipwrecked on his voyage home. But he made his way on foot to Cambridge, where he was encouraged, and there translated the 'Works of Virgil.' He learnt Greek about 1654, and proceeded to translate Homer, the work alluded to in the text. He also published an edition of the English Bible, more elaborate than any of its predecessors. In 1666 his house and property in London were destroyed by the great fire, but his energy was equal to the task of again recovering his fortunes. We may discover some lingering sympathy with him in Johnson's words 'Ogilby's assistance,' &c. It is well, therefore, to note how his life was one continued struggle against ever-recurring difficulties, as this would explain, by a natural bond of sympathy, the trace of kindliness with which Johnson seems to regard one of the worst of poets. Sandys. George Sandys published his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses in 1626. 1. 14. From the . . . . This sentence is far too long, and open to the censure that it introduces matter too heterogeneous to be comprised within the limits of one sentence. There are no less than eight principal points:--Taverner, Twyford, Hyde Park Corner, the playhouse, Ogilby, the schoolfellows, the gardener, and Ajax. 1. 23. two last. Should be last two. Johnson inveterately misarranges this phrase and others like it. Cf. Life of Dryden, p. 40, 1. 6, and note. 1. 30. Tells of himself. In the Epistle to Arbuthnot, 1. 128. 1. 33. Pindar. One of the greatest lyric poets of Greece. Little is known of his life, his probable date being about B.C. 520-440. He was born in the territory of Thebes, though whether in Thebes itself or at Cynoscephalae is uncertain. There is a tale that he was first attracted to poetry by a miraculous swarm of bees, which in his infancy settled on his lips, as he lay sleeping. Cf. Pausanias, ix. 23. 2: Пívdapov dè ἡλικίαν ὄντα νεανίσκον καὶ ἰόντα ἐς Θεσπιὰς ὥρᾳ καύματος περὶ μεσοῦσαν μάλιστα ἡμέραν κόπος καὶ ὕπνος ἀπ ̓ αὐτοῦ κατελάμβανεν. Ὁ μὲν δὴ ὡς εἶχε κατακλίνεται βραχὺ ὑπὲρ τῆς ὁδοῦ· μέλισσαι δὲ αὐτῷ καθεύδοντι προσεπέτοντό τε καὶ ἔπλασσον πρὸς τὰ χείλη τοῦ κηροῦ· ἀρχὴ μὲν Πινδάρῳ ποιεῖν ᾄσματα ἐγένετο τοιαύτη. P. 127, 1. 6. in a chest. This story is not true. The money was invested in foreign securities. 1. 13. Tully's Offices.' Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis. We are not informed how many months Deane read with Pope, nor exactly what proportion of the Offices was done. Cicero De Officiis is not short, and no easy reading for a boy of twelve, even though as precocious as Pope undoubtedly was. 1. 24. His primary. To such early training Pope doubtless owed much of his subsequent facility in the attainment of correctness and elegance. We have another instance of similar training with a similar result in the early instruction in speaking given by his father to the younger Pitt. 1. 33. coffee-house. Cf. Life of Dryden, p. 59, 1. 25. P. 128, 1. 1. 1701. Should be 1700. 1. 5. foreseen the greatness. Dryden may have done so to a certain extent. 'I was informed by an intimate friend of Pope [Walter Harte] that when he was yet a mere boy, Dryden gave him a shilling, by way of encouragement, for a translation he had made of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from Ovid.' Warton, Essay on Pope, vol. i. p. 80, note; ed. 1806. 1. 9. Cowley. Among the English poets, Cowley, Milton, and Pope might be said "to lisp in numbers"; and have given such early proofs, not only of powers of language, but of comprehension of things, as to more tardy minds seems scarcely credible. But of the learned puerilities of Cowley there is no doubt, since a volume of his poems was not only written but printed in his thirteenth year, containing, with other poetical compositions, "The Tragical History of Pyramus and Thisbe," written when he was ten years old; and "Constantia and Philetus," written two years after.' Johnson's Life of Cowley. The thirteenth year' of the above extract is, however, incorrect. Cowley was born in 1618, and this book was printed in 1633, his fifteenth year. 1. 13. Thebais. The Thebais of Publius Papinius Statius was finished at Naples, the native town of its author, and dedicated to the Emperor Domitian. This was between the years A.D. 86 and 90, but there is much difficulty about the precise fixing of these dates. He is alluded to, perhaps satirised, by Juvenal, in the following lines:— Curritur ad vocem jucundam et carmen amicae Esurit, intactam Paridi nisi vendat Agaven.' 1. 14. if he had no help. It seems he had the assistance of Walsh. 'In the scattered lessons I used to set myself about that time, I translated above a quarter of the Metamorphoses and that part of Statius which was afterwards printed with the corrections of Walsh.' Pope, in Spence's Anecdotes, p. 210, ed. 1858. 1. 16. By Dryden's Fables. Cf. Life of Dryden, p. 98. 1. 27. 'Nothing.' This is the best of many light pieces by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, one of the court wits of Charles II's reign. Of his dissolute life and penitent death an account was given by Burnet in 1680. Speaking of Rochester to Lord Dorset, Pope says: 'They should be considered as holiday writers; as gentlemen that diverted themselves now and then with poetry, rather than as poets.' Spence's Anecdotes, p. 212. P. 129, 1. 18. St. Genevieve. St. Geneviève (A.D. 424-512) was the patron saint of Paris. She twice saved the city, according to the traditions, by her prayers; first from Attila and the Huns, and again on another occasion when it was besieged ; but of this latter siege there are neither dates nor details. There is a church called after her standing in the Quartier Latin. 1. 28. Trumbal. This name is incorrectly spelt by Johnson, who doubtless wrote it from memory. Sir William Trumbull was born at Easthamstead in Berkshire. He was Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, was sent by Charles II on several diplomatic missions, and on his return was made Lord of the Treasury, and afterwards Secretary of State with the Duke of Shrewsbury. He retired to his native place on his resignation, and there died in 1716. P. 130, 1. 20. his full share. Swift places him in an honourable position among distinguished men of the time:- Your acquaintance with distinguished men of all kinds was almost as ancient as mine. I mean Wycherley, Rowe, Prior, Congreve, Addison, Parnell,' &c. Swift to Pope, Dec. 2, 1736. 1. 24. Dennis. This John Dennis was a critic not without some merit, to whom Pope was always hostile. Dennis is the Appius of the Essay on Criticism, 585: 'But Appius reddens at each word you speak And stares, tremendous, with a threat'ning eye, 1. 25. pleasant amusing. The absolute use of the word in this sense seems unusual. Locke (Essay on the Human Understanding, ii. 17, 14) speaks of‘a pleasant argument,' in the sense of one suited rather to produce mirth than conviction, but in such a phrase as 'It is pleasant' we should generally expect the meaning agreeable. Johnson cannot have meant that it is agreeable to see how soon Pope learnt cant. But P. 131, 1. 3. always considered him with kindness. 'I beg you, sir, to pardon my speaking well of myself in this one thing, since I doubt not but Mr. Wycherley speaks ill enough of me in some others. But I pardon his jealousy, which is become of his nature, and shall never be his enemy whatsoever he says of me.' Pope to H. Cromwell, Oct. 28, 1710. Johnson's character of Wycherley is not just. Offence does not seem to have been taken at Pope's corrections, but at his satirising his friend Wycherley at the very time when he professed so much affection for him. Johnson's admiration of Pope's genius made him perhaps a little inclined to side with him in his quarrels more than justice would warrant. 1. 7. a-hunting. A is here a preposition, meaning on. Cf. Life of Dryden, p. 13, 1. 32. 1. 13. Their correspondence.... Miscellanies. These letters were first |