Pope's first important publication was his (Pastorals) (1709). After the 18th century fashion, these were much circulated in manu script, and they were already well known to most of the contemporary literati long before they wereprinted. They appeared at the be ginning of the sixth volume of Tonson's (Poetical Miscellanies) (which also included a modernization by Pope of January and May, Chaucer's
Tale') ; and exhibiting, as Johnson says,
series of versification which had in English poetry no precedent," met with complete success. Two years later appeared the (Essay on
said to have been written in the year in which the
were printed. In this poem Pope aimed at oc cupying much the same place in English as Horace had occupied in Latin with the (4rs Poetica,' and Boileau in French with the
Poitique ; and the performance, though of necessity a cento, was certainly an extraordi nary one for a youth of three and twenty. Addison, who noticed it in Spectator, No. 253, certainly did not °damn it with faint praise' when he called it °a masterpiece in its kind,' which contained things that "would have been very much admired in an Ancient Poet' though he regretted the freedom with which the writer already spoke of his brother moderns. But the commendation shows how closely Pope had fol lowed the injunctions of Walsh; and moreover, fully justified him in offering to Steele's and Addison's paper (No. 378), his next effort, the
This theme he found in a little piece which, as a matter of fact, in its first form, preceded the
namely the hero-comic (Rape of the Lock,' contributed in May 1712, to an other
Miscellany,' that of Bernard Lintot. It is a flawless piece of executive jewel-work, the fragile theme of which is the theft of a lock of hair by Lord Petre, a Roman Catholic peer, from a noted beauty, Miss Ara bella Fermor. Out of this trifling amatory escapade had arisen a family estrangement, which Pope was invited to reconcile by his rhymes. His poem was more successful than his purpose. Upon this he extended his plan, and improved it. Not content with the "let well alone' of Addison, who called it °menses sal,— a delicious little thing,' Pope proceeded to weave skilfully into his first sketch a subordi nate Rosicrucian machinery of sylphs and gnomes, which eventually proved the best part of what Johnson justly describes as "the most airy, the most ingenious, and the most delight ful of all his compositions.' He was now launched, and his future popu larity assured. His next works were (Windsor Forest,' of which he borrowed the design from Denham's
Hill' ; and the
for Music on Saint Cecilia's Day,' a competition with Dryden suggested by Steele. Both these came out in 1713. In 1715, following the
more indulgently of it than one of Pope's modern rivals, Professor Conington: alt has been— I hope it is still—the delight of every intelligent schoolboy; they read
kings and heroes and of mighty deeds' in language which, in its calm, majestic flow, unhasting, unresting, carries them on as irresistibly as Homer's own could do, were they born readers of Greek; and their minds are filled with a conception of the heroic age, not indeed strictly true, but almost as near the truth as that which was entertained by Virgil himself.'
Writings,' 1872, i. 43.) A minor incident connected with the
was the misunderstanding between the trans lator and his first critic, Addison, to which it gave rise. Pope's frailty of constitution led him easily to magnify mole hills, and his liter ary suceptibilities were painfully morbid. His relations, moreover, with Addisop had already become strained. Addison, as we have seen, had deprecated that recasting of (The Rape of the Lock,' which subsequently proved so fortu nate. Pope's suspicious nature resented this advice, especially in view of the result. When again Pope championed Addison against the rancorous old critic, John Dennis, Addison had not approved — he could hardly be expected to approve— the peculiarly Swifuan character of Pope's warfare. Finally, by an unfortunate coincidence, when Pope's
was announced, a rival version was put forward by Addison's bosom friend, Thomas Tickell (1686-1740), which Pope perhaps not unnaturally regarded as prompted, if not edited, by Addison himself. Modern criticism has failed to find any valid ground for this supposition. But the cumulative result of Pope's irritation was the cruelly clever portrait of Addison as eAtticus" which 18 years after Addison's death, found its final place in the Prologue to the Satires (°Epistle to Arbuthnot"). Upon the faith of Spence's
pp. 148-149, it was long held that Pope, in his first anger, had actually sent the lines to Addison; but this is now held not to be probable (Courthope's
1889, p. 161) ; and Spence's entire account is con jectured to be a fabrication by Pope arising out of his desire to establish beyond a doubt the fact that the character was not written after the death, but during the life of Addison. In any case, the eAtticusp is a matchless piece of writing, and (as even Addisonians must allow), in some particulars, presents — to quote Thack cray on Dennis portrait of Steele — °a dread ful resemblance to the original' After the already-mentioned