POPE. ALEXANDER, a celebrated British poet, was born at London on the 3th .Tune, 16SS. A short time after the Revolution, his father, who was a Roman Catholic, and at tached to the exiled family, left the profession of a hatter, his.h he carried on in the Strand, and retired to Binfield, in Windsor Forest, where he had purchased a small house and a few acres of land, and where he lived frugally on a capital of 20,0001. which he had acquired in business. Un (:er his father's roof, and with the assistance of an aunt, he acquired the elements of learning, and he learned the art of writing by copying printed books. About 1696 he was pia ( cd under the care of one Taverner, a Romish priest, in for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of tl.e Latin and Greek languages. Soon after this he was sent to a Roman Catholic seminary at Winchester, and next to a school at Hyde Park Corner. He displayed an early talent for writing verses; and having met with Ogil Vv's .Translation of Homer, and Sandy's Translation of the Metamorphoses of Ovid, he studied them with ardour, and ever afterwards exhibited the most decided passion for po etry. When at the school at Hyde Park, he had occasion al opportunities of visiting the theatre, and he was thus led to draw up a kind of play from Ogilvy's Homer, eked out with his own compositions, and which was acted by his school-fellows, the character of Ajax having been perform ed by the master's gardener.
At Binfield, to which he retired at the age of twelve, he became acquainted with the writings of Spenser, Waller, and Dryden, for the last of whom he always cherished a special veneration. He once succeeded in obtaining a sight of Dryden at a coffee-house, but never became acquainted with him, a misfortune which his phrase of Virg ilium tan tum ridi su happily expresses. At the age of twelve he composed his Ode to Solitude, which, though a respecta ble early composition, exhibits no peculiarity of poetical talent. His translation of the Thebais, and of Sappho to Pinion, executed when he was only fourteen years of age, evince great progress in his career, and the last has been especially admired. At the age of fifteen he began an epic
poem, called .4Icander. A long time afterwards he show ed it to A tterbury, and mentioned his intention of burning it. His friend concurred in the justice of the sentence, but proposed a mitigation of punishment, by saving " the first page, and placing it among his curiosities." " There was a time," says Pope himself,' when I was in love with myself; and my first productions were The Children of Self Love upon Innocence. I had made an epic poem and panegyrics on all the princes, and I thought myself the greatest genius that ever was. I cannot but regret these delightful visions of my childhood, which, like the fine co lours we see when our eyes are shut, are vanished forever." The manners and conversation of our author were pro bably of the same early growth as his poetical talents. Be fore the age of sixteen he had attracted the notice of Sir William Turnbull, and had even formed an intimacy with him. His acquaintance, however, was now greatly ex tended by his Pastorals, begun in 1703. They procured him great reputation, and were the means of introducing hint to Walsh and Wycherley, and some of the other wits and critics of the age. The Pastorals were printed in 1709, in Tonson's 11/iscellanies, and, though deemed by some deficient in original observation, were yet unusually extol led for the melody oh' the versification, and the splendour of the diction.
The genius of Pope was now destined to shine in a still higher sphere. Ile had already composed his Ode for St. Cecilia's Day ; and in the year 1703, before he had reach ed his twentieth) year, he wrote his Essay on Criticism, which, without being strongly marked with an imaginative lustre, evinced a maturity of intellect, and a knowledge of human character, that has rarely been surpassed.