PREFACE TO VOLUMES IX. AND X. THE letters contained in these two volumes are very miscellaneous. A large proportion of them have never before appeared in any edition of Pope's collected Works. Some of them have been gathered from various quarters, such as the Memoirs of Lyttelton, the Marchmont Papers, Lady Suffolk's Correspondence, the European and Gentleman's Magazines: others, again, such as the correspondence with the Richardsons, with Slingsby Bethel, and a few others, are now published for the first time from transcripts made from the originals, either by Mr. Croker and Mr. Cunningham, or by the owners. The great extent and variety of Pope's acquaintance is exhibited in them, and besides contributing materially to our knowledge of the social life of the period, they help to illustrate the features of his subtle and many-sided mind. Many slight but significant indications of character will be noticed by the careful reader in the alterations or omissions made from the original by the poet in the editions published by his own authority. The collection might indeed have been consider ably increased, as among both the Warburton MSS. |