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franknefs and fpirit, as a man undeservedly neglected or opposed; and Addison affected a contemptuous unconcern, and, in a calm even voice, reproached Pope with his vanity, and, telling him of the improvements which his early works had received from his own remarks and thofe of Steele, faid, that he, being now engaged in publick bufinefs, had no longer any care for his poetical reputation; nor had any other defire, with regard to Pope, than that he fhould not, by too much arrogance, alienate the publick.

To this Pope is faid to have replied with great keennefs and feverity, upbraiding Addison with perpetual dependance, and with the abufe of thofe qualifications which he had obtained at the publick coft, and charging him with mean endeavours to obftruct the progrefs of rifing merit. The conteft rofe fo high, that they parted at laft without any interchange of civility,

The first volume of Homer was (1715) in time pub: lifhed; and a riyal verfion of the firft Iliad, for rivals the time of their appearance inevitably made them, was immediately printed, with the name of Tickell. It was foon perceived that, among the followers of Addifon, Tickell had the preference, and the criticks and poets divided into factions. I, fays Pope, have the town, that is, the mob, on my fide; but it is not uncommon for the finaller party to fupply by industry what it wants in numbers.-1 appeal to the people as my rightful judges, and, while they are not inclined to condemn me, fhall not fear the bigh-flyers at Button's. This oppofition he immediately imputed to Addifon, and complained of it in terms fufficiently refentful to Craggs, their common friend.

When

When Addifon's opinion was afked, he declared the verfions to be both good, but Tickell's the beft that had ever been written; and fometimes faid that they were both good, but that Tickell had more of Homer,

Pope was now fufficiently irritated; his reputation and his intereft were at hazard. He once intended to print together the four verfions of Dryden, Maynwaring, Pope, and Tickell, that they might be readily compared, and fairly estimated. This defign feems to have been defeated by the refufal of Tonfon, who was the proprietor of the other three verfions..

Pope intended at another time a rigorous criticifin of Tickell's tranflation, and had marked a copy, which I have feen, in all places that appeared defective. But while he was thus meditating defence or revenge, his adverfary funk before him without a blow; the voice of the publick were not long divided, and the preference was univerfally given to Pope's perfor

mance.

He was convinced, by adding one circumftance to another, that the other tranflation was the work of Addifon himfelf; but if he knew it in Addison's lifetime, it does not appear that he told it. He left his illuftrious antagonist to be punished by what has been confidered as the most painful of all reflections, the remembrance of a crime perpetrated in vain.

The other circumftances of their quarrel were thus related by Pope *.

"Philips feemed to have been encouraged to abufe me in coffee-houfes, and converfations: and Gildon

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" wrote a thing about Wycherley, in which he had abused both me and my relations very grofly. "Lord Warwick himself told me one day, that it "was in vain for me to endeavour to be well with "Mr. Addifon; that his jealous temper would never

admit of a fettled friendship between us: and, to "convince me of what he had faid, affured me, that "Addison had encouraged Gildon to publifh those "fcandals, and had given him ten guineas after they "were published. The next day, while I was heated "with what I had heard, I wrote a Letter to Mr. Ad"difon, to let him know that I was not unacquainted "with this behaviour of his; that if I was to fpeak "feverely of him, in return for it, it fhould be in "fuch a dirty way, that I fhould rather tell him, "himself, fairly of his faults, and allow his good "qualities; and that it fhould be something in the

following manner: I then adjoined the first sketch

of what has fince been called my fatire on Addi<< fon. Mr. Addison ufed me very civilly ever

"after."

The verfes on Addifon, when they were fent to Atterbury, were confidered by him as the most excellent of Pope's performances; and the writer was advised, fince he knew where his ftrength lay, not to fuffer it to remain unemployed.

This year (1715) being, by the fubfcription, enabled to live more by choice, having perfuaded his father to fell their eftate at Binfield, he purchased, I think only for his life, that houfe at Twickenham to which his refidence afterwards procured fo much celebration, and removed thither with his father and mother.

4.

Hera

Here he planted the vines and the quincunx which his verses mention; and being under the neceffity of making a fubterraneous paffage to a garden on the other fide of the road, he adorned it with foffile bodies, and dignified it with the title of a grotto; a place of filence and retreat, from which he endeavoured to perfuade his friends and himself that cares and paffions could be excluded.

A grotto is not often the wish or pleasure of an Englifhman, who has more frequent need to folicit than exclude the fun; but Pope's excavation was requifite as an entrance to his garden, and, as fome men try to be proud of their defects, he extracted an ornament from an inconvenience, and vanity produced a grotto where neceffity enforced a paffage. It may be frequently remarked of the ftudious and fpeculative, that they are proud of trifles, and that their amufements. feem frivolous and childish; whether it be that men confcious of great reputation think themselves above the reach of cenfure, and fafe in the admiffion of negligent indulgences, or that mankind expect from elevated genius an uniformity of greatnefs, and watch its degradation with malicious wonder, like him who having followed with his eye an eagle into the clouds, fhould lament that the ever defcended to a perch.

While the volumes of his Homer were annually publifhed, he collected his former works (1717) into one quarto volume, to which he prefixed a Preface, written with great fpritelinefs and elegance, which was afterwards reprinted, with fome paffages fubjoined that he at first omitted; other marginal additions of the fame kind he made in the later editions of his. poems. Waller remarks, that poets lofe half their

praise,

praife, because the reader knows not what they haveblotted. Pope's voracity of fame taught him the art of: obtaining the accumulated honour both of what he had published, and of what he had fuppreffed.

In this year his father died fuddenly, in his feventyfifth year, having paffed twenty-nine years in privacy. He is not known but by the character which his fon has given him. If the money with which he retired was all gotten by himself, he had traded very fuccefsfully in times when fudden riches were rarely attainable.

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The publication of the Iliad was at laft completed in 1720. The fplendor and fuccefs of this work raised Pope many enemies, that endeavoured to depreciate his abilities. Burnet, who was afterwards a Judge of no mean reputation, cenfured him in a piece called Homerides before it was publifhed. Ducket likewife endeavoured to make him ridiculous. Dennis was the

perpetual perfecutor of all his ftudies. But, whoever his criticks were, their writings are loft; and the names which are preferved, are preferved in the Dunciad.

In this difaftrous year (1720) of national infatuation, when more riches than Peru can boaft were expected from the South Sea, when the contagion of avarice. tainted every mind, and even poets panted after wealth, Pope was feized with the univerfal paffion, and ventured fome of his money. The ftock rofe in its price; and he for a while thought himself the Lord of thousands. But this dream of happinefs did not last long; and he feems to have waked foon enough to get clear with the lofs only of what he once thought himfelf to have won, and perhaps not wholly of that.

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