The works of Alexander Pope; with a memoir of the author, notes [&c.] by G. Croly

cise the skill of conjecture, to amuse ingenious credulity, and be discovered with the authorship of Junius.

The variance placed by nature between Pope and Addison had not yet been ripened by circumstances into collision: Addison requested, and Pope supplied, a Prologue for his ، Cato. No performance of a century memorable for partisanship more strikingly exhibited the force of party : the feebleness and frigidity of 'Cato' have long sunk it below the level even of a degenerate stage; but its triumph at the moment was unequalled it was played thirty-five nights in London, and was carried with unimpaired popularity through the provincial theatres. The whigs applauded it vehemently, as embodying their principles; the tories not less vehemently, to show that they were as fond of liberty as their antagonists. Pope says, The numerous and violent clappings of the whig party on the one side of the theatre were echoed back by the tories on the other; while the author sweated behind the scenes with concern, to find their applause proceeding more from the hand than the head.' On this occasion, Bolingbroke sent for Booth, who performed the hero, into the stage-box, and presented him with fifty guineas 'for having de

fended the cause of liberty so well against a perpetual dictator.'

Of the Prologue, Pope says, the author was clapped into a stanch whig at almost every two lines.' This success of two individuals whom he hated alike, aroused the slumbering bile of Dennis his pen was active, and he published a 'Criticism on Cato,' which detected its weaknesses with equal truth and asperity. Pope, perhaps, not displeased to avenge his own wrongs under the plea of defending his friend, retorted the attack in a lampoon, intitled, "The Narrative of Dr. Robert Norris of the Frenzy of J. D:' but this service was not received with corresponding zeal by his friend. Whether disdaining such an antagonist, knowing the wisdom of suffering critical wrath to expire by neglect, or aware of Pope's motives, Addison instantly separated himself from the lampoon by the following note to its publisher, written by Steele :

• Mr. Lintot,

• Mr. Addison desired me to tell you he wholly disapproves the manner of treating Mr. Dennis, by way of Dr. Norris's Account.' When he thinks fit to take notice of Mr. Dennis's objections to his writings, he will do it in a way Mr.

Dennis shall have no just reason to complain of: but when the papers above-mentioned were offered to be communicated to him, he said he could not, either in honor or conscience, be privy to such a treatment, and was sorry to hear of it. 'I am, sir,

• Your very humble servant, RICHARD Steele.'

This letter, sent to Pope's publisher, was doubtless intended as much for Pope as for Dennis; at least, it could not have escaped his knowlege. Another slight circumstance soon added to the vexations which already pressed on this decaying friendship. A series of papers appeared in the 'Guardian,' in 1713, praising Ambrose Phillips's 'Pastorals' as the finest performance of modern times in its style. The mortification was the more felt, as Pope's Pastorals' were not only before the public, but had been published in the same volume with those of Phillips, in 'Tonson's Miscellanies.' The intention of the criticism was therefore not to be mistaken: Tickell was known as the writer; but Tickell was notoriously the instrument of Addison; the train of the affront was thus complete: Pope was determined to avenge himself; and his dexterity deserves all the praise of outwitting his antagonists without

chicane, and satirising them without harshness of language. He sent anonymously a paper to the 'Guardian,' in which he compared passages from Phillips's work with his own, uniformly assigning the superiority to the former, but for the most burlesque reasons. In the habitual negligence of Steele, the paper made its appearance; its clever but careless editor simply feeling some hesitation to insert a criticism which dealt so severely with a living author. But the moment it came into the hands of the public, the stratagem was discovered: Pope was praised for his ingenuity, Steele laughed at for his simplicity: Phillips's 'Pastorals'* became a standing jest: Tickell was baffled; and the triumph was complete over all the offenders.

Pope was now twenty-five; he had tried his powers in almost every species of composition; he was confident of his strength, and felt that the world expected from him something beyond fragments of poetry: he had another stimulus,

* Phillips was indignant at the artifice; but Johnson gives Addison credit for a super-subtlety in the matter, which is not justified by his general character. He says that, perceiving the nature of the paper, he had malice enough to conceal his discovery, in the idea of making his friend Phillips so far ridiculous, as to make him for ever an enemy to Pope.'

which to so many men supplies the place of wisdom-he was poor. His father, honest but prejudiced, entertained so strong an aversion to the government which protected him, that he preferred dying in poverty and bequeathing this barren inheritance to his son, to investing his money in funds blighted by the presence of a Brunswicker: he lived long enough to consume his capital; and Pope, born to the prospect of affluence, found himself almost a beggar. His works had hitherto produced nothing that could amount to an income:* in one of his most fortunate hours, he conceived the design of giving a

* D'Israeli gives an account of this product from Lintot's books:

Feb.

1711. Statius, first book. Vertumnus and

Pomona

1711-12. Rape of the Lock, first edition

1712. To a Lady on presenting Voiture.

lence. Successio

1712-13. Windsor Forest

1713. Ode on St. Cecilia's day

1713-14. Additions to the Rape of the Lock

1714-15. Temple of Fame