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OF

A NEW AND ILLUSTRATED EDITION

OF THE

WORKS OF POPE;

WITH

A LIFE, NOTES, AND CRITICAL NOTICES ON EACH POEM,

BY THE REV. G. CROLY, LL.D.

RECTOR OF ST. STEPHEN'S, WALBROOK,

LONDON.

LONDON:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY A. J. VALPY, M. A.
AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.

IN offering another edition of the Works of POPE to the public, no apology can be required, and but little explanation. If variety, vigor, and elegance of poetic language, singular subtlety of thought, and extensive knowlege of mankind, are titles to fame, POPE has established his imperishable rank among the first writers of Europe. Permanency of renown is the truest of all tests. The poet of

a

fashion may

be but the poet of a day; but every

age reverts to POPE as the standard of English

versification.

The object of the publisher is to present the British nation with the writings of this great ornament of literature in a complete, correct, and ACCESSIBLE form, corresponding with the popular illustrated editions of Shakspeare, Byron, Scott, &c.

UNIVERSALLY

The Work will appear in SIX MONTHLY VOLUMES, price 5s. each, handsomely bound in cloth, with a Life of the Author, Notes historical and critical, and illustrative Engravings. Critical Notices on each Poem, by the Editor, will also form a distinguishing feature of this edition.

The historical and landscape embellishments, for which ORIGINAL DRAWINGS have been expressly made, will be executed in the best style of lineengraving on steel; and no effort will be spared to render the edition worthy of "the great moral poet of all times, of all climes, of all feelings, and of all stages of existence.”

NEW AND ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF POPE.

3

The publication commenced on the first of April, 1835, and will be regularly continued on the first of each succeeding month.

The first volume contains a fine Portrait of the Author, in addition to two original engravings; and the succeeding volumes will be embellished with frontispieces and vignettes, illustrative of some portions of the Author's works.

BYRON ON POPE.

"Neither time, nor distance, nor grief, nor age, can ever diminish my veneration for him, who is the great moral poet of all times, of all climes, of all feelings, and of all stages of existence. The delight of my boyhood, the study of my manhood, perhaps if allowed me to attain it—he may be the consolation of my age. His poetry is the Book of Life. He has assembled all that a good and great man can gather together of moral wisdom clothed in consummate beauty. SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE observes-that of all the members of mankind that live within the compass of a thousand years, for one man that is born capable of making a great poet, there may be a thousand born capable of making as great generals and ministers of state as any in story. Here is a statesman's opinion of poetry: it is honorable to him and the art. Such a poet of a thousand

years was Pope. A thousand years will roll away before such another can be hoped for in literature.

"He was adored by his friends-friends of the most opposite dispositions, ages, and talents,-by the old and wayward Wycherley, by the cynical Swift, the rough Atterbury, the gentle Spence, the stern attorney-bishop Warburton, the virtuous Berkeley, and the 'cankered Bolingbroke.' Bolingbroke wept over him like a child; and Spence's description of his last moments is at least as edifying as the more ostentatious account of the death-bed of Addison. The soldier Peterborough and the poet Gay, the witty Congreve and the laughing Rowe, the eccentric Cromwell and the steady Bathurst, were all his intimates. The man who could con

ciliate so many men of the most opposite description, not one of whom but was a remarkable or a celebrated character, might well have pretended to all the attachment which a reasonable man would desire."

JOHNSON ON POPE.

"It is surely superfluous to answer the question that has once been asked, whether Pope was a poet? otherwise than by asking in return, if Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be found? Let us look round on the present time, and back on the past; let us inquire to whom the voice of mankind has decreed the wreath of poetry; let their productions be examined, and their claims stated; and the pretensions of Pope will be no more disputed.-A thousand years may elapse before there shall appear another man with a power of versification equal to that of Pope."

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