and spirited; and Metaftafio was as young when he wrote Giustino, a tragedy.

At fourteen, he employed himself in translating the first book of the Thebais of Statius, and in modernifing the January and May of Chaucer; the Prologue of the Wife of Bath; and also in tranflating the Epiftle of Sappho to Phaon, in order to complete the careless verfion published under the name of Dryden, but very unequally performed. About the fame time he gave imitations of many English poets; the best of which was, that of Lord Rochester on Silence; in which might be discovered the strong sense, and moral turn of thinking, for which he was afterwards fo juftly celebrated. There was no imitation of Milton *.

After spending a few months in London, to be inftructed in the Italian and French languages, he returned to Binfield, and prosecuted with fresh ardour his poetical studies. He wrote a Comedy; a Tragedy on the story of St. Genevieve, copied by Dodfley in his Cleone; and an Epic Poem, called Alcander; all of them attempts that indicated an ardent and eager defire of future fame. If it be said, that these are marks of vanity and felf-confidence, let it be remembered that he who in youth has never grasped in his mind at more than he could perform, will never arrive at eminence and excellence in any art.

At

* Mr. Harte informed me that Dryden gave Pope a fhilling for translating, when a boy, the story of Pyramus and Thibe.

At fixteen he wrote his Pastorals; and as the first step in the literary, as well as in the political world is of the utmost confequence, thefe Paftorals introduced him to the acquaintance, and foon into the friendship, of Sir William Trumbull, who had formerly been much in public life, Ambaffador at Conftantinople, and Secretary of State; and was then retired into Windfor Foreft, near Binfield. This amiable ex-minister, wearied with the intrigues and bustle of courts, was very naturally pleased to difcover in his neighbourhood a youth of fuch abilities and taste as young Pope; and was therefore happy in his company and converfation,

It was Trumbull who circulated his Paftorals among his friends, and first introduced him to Wycherley and Walsh, and the wits of that time. The Paftorals, though written in 1704, were not publifhed till 1709, in Tonfon's fixth Mifcellany; which volume opened with the Pastorals of Philips, and ended with those of our Author. As examples of correct and melodious verfification, thefe Paftorals deferve the highest commendation. It has been faid, and indeed truly, that they want invention; and it is thought a fufficient anfwer to obferve, that this is to require what was never intended. But this is a confeffion of the very fault imputed to them. There ought to have been invention. The difcourfe prefixed to them is very elegantly and elaborately written; though most of the obfervations are taken from Rapin on Paftoral,

published

published a few years before in Creech's Theocritus, from Walsh on Virgil's Eclogues, and from Fontenelle; whofe differtation is as full of affected thoughts as his own Eclogues; and whom I wish our young poet had profcribed for his paradoxical doctrines against the ancients, which he first broached in this difcourfe *.

It has been my fortune, from my way of life, to have seen many compofitions of youths of fixteen, years old, far beyond these Pastorals in point of ge-nius and imagination, though not perhaps of correctnefs. Their excellence, indeed, might be owing to having had fuch a predeceffor as Pope.

About this time old Mr. Wycherley courted the friendship, and requested the affistance, of our young Author, to correct his verses, which had all the uncouth harshness and afperity of Donne: But Wycher-, ley's vanity was foon disgusted by the honest freedom and true judgment with which Pope executed the task he had unwillingly undertaken; a coolness enfued, which ended in a rupture betwixt them. 66 A "book has been written, faid a man of wit, De morbis

66

artificum. Among authors, jealousy and envy are "incurable diseases."

When

* But another critical treatise of Fontenelle deserves to be spoken of in very different terms; his Reflexions fur la Poetique, annexed to his life of Corneille; for this treatise contains fome of the moft true and profound remarks on dramatic poetry that can be found in any critic whatever.

When we confider the just taste, the strong fenfe, the knowledge of men, books, and opinions, that are fo predominant in the Essay on Criticism, and at the fame time recollect that it was written before the Author was twenty years old, we are naturally struck with astonishment; and must readily agree to place him among the first critics, though not, as Dr. Johnson fays, among the first poets,' on this account alone. As a poet, he must rank much higher, for his Eloifa, and Rape of the Lock. This judgment reminds one of what the fame critic has faid of Dryden's Religio Laici; that one might have expected to have found in it, the effulgence of his genius; though, as he adds, on an argumentative subject; and therefore improper for a display of genius. As much as I revere and refpect the memory

of

my old acquaintance Dr. Johnson*, and as highly as I think of his abilities, integrity, and virtue, yet must I be pardoned for faying, that I cannot poffibly fubfcribe to many of his critical decifions; particularly to what he has faid of the Lycidas, Il Penferofo,

and

*The perpetual pompoufnefs, and the uninterrupted elaboration, of the over-ornamented style of the Rambler, makes one wish that the excellent Author had recollected the opinion of Cicero, "Is enim eft eloquens, qui et humilia fubtiliter, et magna graviter, et mediocria temperatè poteft dicere. Nam qui nihil potest tranquillè, nihil leniter, nihil definitè, diftinctè poteft dicere, is, cum non præparatis auribus inflammare rem cœpit, furere apud fanos, et quafi inter fobrios bacchari temulentus videtur."

and Latin poems of Milton; of the Sixth Book of Paradife Loft; of Taffo's Aminta; of the Rhyming Tragedies, Ode to Killigrew, and the Fables of Dryden; of Chaucer; of the Rehearfal; of Prior; of Congreve's Mourning Bride; of Blackmore; of Yalden; of Pomfret; of Dyer; of Garth; of Lyttelton; of Fielding; of Harris; of Hammond; of Beattie ; of Shenstone; of Savage; of Hughes; of Spence; of Akenfide; of Collins; of Pope's Effay on Man, and Imitations of Horace; and of the Odes of Gray.

The Effay on Criticism was first advertised at the end of the Spectator, No. 65. May 15, 1711, and was praised by Addison in the December following, in Number 253 of the Spectator. But Pope was not a little displeased at one fentence in this paper, in which Addison faid, "I am forry to find an Author "who is very justly esteemed among the best judges, "has admitted some strokes of ill-nature into a very "fine poem, which was published some months fince, "and is a mafter-piece of its kind." He adds, "The observations follow one another, like those in "Horace's Art of Poetry, without that methodical "regularity which would have been requifite in a "profe writer." So that Addison did not perceive that clear order and clofe connection, which Warburton ftrove to discover, in order to give fome fhadow of propriety to a perpetual Commentary upon it.

The