It had the fuccefs which it deferved, being five times printed.

"He was now intimately united to Mr. Addifon, who, when he went into Ireland as fecretary to the lord Sunderland, took him thither, and employed him in public bufinefs; and when (1717) afterwards he rofe to be fecretary of state, made him under-fecretary. Their friendfhip feems to have continued without abatement; for when Addifon died, he left him the charge of publifhing his works, with a folemn recommendation to the patronage of Craggs.

"To thefe works he prefixed an elegy on the author, which could owe none of its beauties to the affiftance which might be fufpected to have ftrengthened or embellished his earlier compofitions; but neither he nor Addifon ever produced nobler lines than arc contained in the third and fourth paragraphs, nor is a more fublime or more elegant funeral poem to be found in the

whole compafs of English literature.

"He was afterwards (about 1725) made fecretary to the Lords Juftices of Ireland, a place of great honour; in which he continued till 1740, when he died on the 23d of April at Bath.

"Of the poems yet unmentioned the longest is Kenfington Gardens, of which the verfification is fmooth and elegant, but the fiction unfkilfully compounded of Grecian Deities and Gothic Fairies. Neither fpecies of thofe exploded beings. could have done much, and when they are brought together, they only make each other contemptible. To Tickell, however, cannot be refufed a high place among the minor poets; nor fhould it be forgotten that he was one of the contributors to the Spectator. With respect to his perfonal character, he is faid to have been a man of gay converfa tion, at least a temperate lover of wine and company, and in his domeftic relations without cenfure.

HE perfon of Pope is well

ΤΗ

known not to have been formed by the nicest model. He has, in his account of the Little Club, compared himself to a fpider, and is defcribed as protuberant behind and before. He is faid to have been beautiful in his infancy; but he was of a conftitution originally feeble and weak; and as bodies of a tender frame are easily distorted, his deformity was probably in part the effect of his application. His ftature was fo low, that, to bring him to a level 1781.

municated by a female domeftic of the Earl of Oxford, who knew him perhaps after the middle of life. He was then fo weak as to ftand in perpetual need of female attendance; extremely fenfible of cold, fo that he wore a kind of fur doublet, under a fhirt of very coarse warm linen with fine fleeves. When he rofe, he was invested in boddice made of ftiff can vafs, being fcarcely able to hold himfelf erect till they were laced, and he then put on a flannel waistcoat. One fide was contracted. His legs were fo flender, that he enlarged their bulk with three pair of flockings, which were drawn on and off by the maid; for he was not able to drefs or undrefs himfelf, and neither went to bed nor rofe without help. His weakness made it very difficult for him to be clean. "His hair had fallen almost all away and he used to dine fometimes with Lord Oxford, privately, in a velvet cap. His drefs of ceremony was black, with a tye-wig, and a little fword.

"The indulgence and accommodation which his fickness required, had taught him all the unpleafing and unfocial qualities of a valitudinary man. He expected that every thing fhould give way to his eafe or humour; as a child, whofe parents will not hear her cry, has unrefifting dominion in the nursery.

C'eft que l'enfant toujours eft homme. C'est que l'homme eft toujours enfant. When he wanted to fleep, he nodded in company, and once flumbered at his own table, while the Prince of Wales was talking of poetry.

"The reputation which his friendAhip gave, procured him many invitations; but he was a very troublefome inmate. He brought no fervant, and had fo many wants, that a numerous attendance was fcarcely

able to fupply them. Wherever he was, he left no room for another, because he exacted the attention and employed the activity of the whole family. His errands were so frequent and frivolous, that the footmen in time avoided and neglected him; and the Earl of Oxford difcharged fome of the fervants for their refolute refufal of his meffages. The maids, when they had neglected their bufinefs, alledged that they had been employed by Mr. Pope. One of his conftant demands was of coffee in the night, and to the woman that waited on him in his chamber he was very burthenfome; but he was careful to recompence her want of fleep; and Lord Oxford's fervant declared, that in a houfe where her bufinefs was to anfwer his call, fhe would not afk for wages.

"He had another fault, eafily incident to thofe who, fuffering much pain, think themselves entitled to whatever pleafures they can fnatch. He was too indulgent to his appetite; he loved meat highly feafoned and of strong tafte; and, at the intervals of the table, amufed himself with bifcuits and dry conferves. If he fat down to a variety of dishes, he would opprefs his stomach with repletion, and though he feemed angry when a dram was offered him, did not forbear to drink it. His friends, who knew the avenues to his heart, pampered him with prefents of luxury, which he did not fuffer to stand neglected. The death of great men is not always proportioned to the luftre of their lives. Hannibal, fays Juvenal, did not perifh by a javelin nor a fword; the flaughters of Canna were revenged by a ring. The death of Pope was imputed by fome of his friends to a filver faucepan, in which it was his delight to heat potted lampreys.

"That

"That he loved too well to eat, is certain; but that his fenfuality fhortened his life will not be haftily concluded, when it is remembered that a conformation fo irregular lafted fix and fifty years, notwithstanding fuch pertinacious diligence of ftudy and meditation.

"In all his intercourfe with mankind, he had great delight in artifice, and endeavoured to attain all his purpofes by indirect and unfufpected methods. He hardly drank tea without a ftratagem. If, at the houfe of his friends, he wanted any accommodation, he was not willing to ask for it in plain terms, but would mention it remotely, as fomething convenient; though, when it was procured, he foon made it appear for whofe fake it had been recommend ed. Thus he teized Lord Orrery till he obtained a fcreen. He practifed his arts on fuch small occafions, that Lady Bolingbroke ufed to fay, in a French phrafe, that he played the politician about cabbages and turnips. His unjustifiable impreffion of the Patriot King, as it can be imputed to no particular motive, must have proceeded from his general habit of fecrecy and cunning: he caught an opportunity of a fly trick, and pleafed himfelf with the thoughts of outwit ting Bolingbroke.

"In familiar or convivial converfation, it does not appear that he excelled. He may be faid to have refembled Dryden, as being not one that was diftinguished by vivacity in company. It is remarkable, that, fo near his time, fo much fhould be known of what he has written, and fo little of what he has faid: traditional memory retains no fallies of raillery, nor fentences of obfervation; nothing either pointed or folid, either wife or merry. One apophthegm only ftands upon record.

When an objection raised against his infcription for Shakspeare was defended by the authority of Patrick, he replied-horrefco referens-that he would allow the publifher of a Dictionary to know the meaning of a fingle word, but not of two words put together.

"He was fretful, and eafily dif pleafed, and allowed himself to be capricioufly refentful. He would fometimes leave Lord Oxford filently, no one could tell why, and was to be courted back by more letters and meffages than the footmen were willing to carry. The table was indeed infefted by Lady Mary Wortley, who was the friend of Lady Oxford, and who, knowing his peevishnefs, could by no intreaties be reftrained from contradicting him, till their difputes were fharpened to fuch afperity, that one or the other quit ted the house.

"He fometimes condefcended to be jocular with fervants or inferiors; but by no merriment, either of others or his own, was he ever feen excited to laughter.

"Of his domeftic character, frugality was a part eminently remark able. Having determined not to be dependent, he determined not to be in want, and therefore wifely and magnanimoufly rejected all temptations to expence unfuitable to his fortune. This general caremuit be univerfally approved; but it fometimes appeared in petty artifices of parfimony, fuch as the practice of writing his compofitions on the back of letters, as may be feen in the remaining copy of the Iliad, by which perphaps in five years five fhillings were faved; or in a niggardly reception of his friends, and fcantinefs of entertainment, as, when he had two guests in his houfe, he would fet at fupper a fingle pint upon the table;

and having himfelf taken two small glaffes would retire, and fay, gentlemen, I leave you to your wine. Yet he tells his friends, that he has a heart for all, a houfe for all, and, whatever they may think, a fortune for all.

"He fometimes, however, made a fplendid dinner, and is faid to have wanted no part of the fkill or elegance which fuch performances require. That this magnificence fhould be often difplayed, that obftinate prudence with which he conducted his affairs would not permit ; for his revenue, certain and cafual, amounted only to about eight hundred pounds a year, of which however he declares himself able to affign one hundred to charity,

"Of his fortune, which, as it arofe from public approbation, was very honourably obtained, his ima gination feems to have been too full it would be hard to find a man, fo well entitled to notice by his wit, that ever delighted fo much in talking of his money. In his letters, and in his poems, his garden and his grotto, his quincunx and his vines, or fome hints of his opulence, are always to be found. The great topic of his ridicule is poverty; the crimes with which he reproaches his antagonists are their debts, their habitation in the Mint, and their want of a dinner. He feems to be of an opinion not very uncommon in the world, that to want money is to want every thing.

"Next to the pleasure of con

templating his poffeffions, feems to be that of enumerating the men of high rank with whom he was acquainted, and whofe notice he loudly proclaims not to have been obtained by any practices of meanness or fervility; a boaft which was never denied to be true, and to which very few poets have ever aspired. Pope never fet his genius to fale: he never flattered those whom he did not love, or praised those whom he did not esteem. Savage however remarked, that he began a little to relax his dignity when he wrote a dif tich for his highness's dog.

"His admiration of the great feems to have increafed in the advance of life. He paffed over peers and statesmen to infcribe his Iliad to Congreve, with a magnanimity of which the praife had been complete, had his friend's virtue been equal to his wit. Why he was chofen for fo great an honour, it is not now poffible to know; there is no trace in literary history of any particular intimacy between them; nor does the name of Congreve appear in the letters. To his latter works, however, he took care to annex names dignified with titles, but was not very happy in his choice; for, except lord Bathurst, none of his noble friends were fuch as that a good man would wish to have his intimacy with them known to pofterity: he can derive little honour from the notice of Cobham, Burlington, or Bolingbroke."

prompt and intuitive perception of confonance and propriety. He faw immediately, of his own concep

tions, what was to be chofen, and what to be rejected; and, in the works of others, what was to be fhunned, and what was to be copied.

"But good fenfe alone is a fedate and quiefcent quality, which manages its poffeffions well, but does not increase them; it collects few materials for its own operations, and preferves fafety, but never gains fupremacy. Pope had likewife genius; a mind active, ambitious, and adventurous, always inveftigating, always afpiring; in its wideft fearches ftill longing to go forward, in its highest flight ftill wifhing to be higher; always imagining fomething greater than it knows, always endeavouring more than it can do.

"To aflit thefe powers, he is faid to have had great ftrength and exactness of memory. That which he had heard or read was not eafily loft; and he had before him not on ly what his own meditation fuggeft ed, but what he had found in other writers that might be accommodated to his prefent purpose.

"Thefe benefits of nature he improved by inceffant and unwearied diligence; he had recourse to every fource of intelligence, and loft no opportunity of information; he confulted the living as well as the dead; he read his compofitions to his friends, and was never content with mediocrity when excellence could be attained. He confidered poetry as the business of his life, and however he might feem to lament his occupation, he followed it with conftancy; to make verfes was his first labour, and to mend them was his laft.

"From his attention to poetry he was never diverted. If converfation offered any thing that could

be improved, he committed it to paper; if a thought, or perhaps an expreffion more happy than was common rose to his mind, he was careful to write it; an independent diftich was preferved for an oppor tunity of infertion, and fome little fragments have been found contain. ing lines, or parts of lines, to be wrought upon at fome other time.

"He was one of thofe few whofe labour is their pleature: he was never elevated to negligence, nor wearied to impatience; he never paffed a fault unamended by indifference, nor quitted it by defpair. He laboured his works first to gain repu tation, and afterwards to keep it.

"Of compofition there are different methods. Some employ at once memory and invention, and, with little intermediate ufe of the pen, form and polish large maffes by continued meditation, and write their productions only when, in their own opinion, they have completed them. It is related of Virgil, that his custom was to pour out a great number of verfes in the morning, and pafs the day in retrenching exuberances and correcting inaccuracies. The method of Pope, as may be collected from his tranilation, was to write his first thoughts in his first words, and gradually to amplify, decorate, rectify, and refine them.

"With fuch faculties, and fuch difpofitions, he excelled every other writer in poetical prudence; he wrote in fuch a manner as might expofe him to few hazards. He used almost always the fame fabric of verfe; and, indeed, by those few effays which he made of any other, he did not enlarge his reputation. Of this uniformity the certain confequence was readiness and dexte.. P 3

rity.