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improvement; and, having luckily contrived to borrow his machinery from the Roficrucians, imparted the scheme with which his head was teeming to Addison, who told him that his work, as it ftood, was a delicious little thing, and gave him no encouragement to retouch it.

This has been too hastily confidered as an instance of Addison's jealoufy; for as he could not guess the conduct of the new defign, or the poffibilities of pleafure comprised in a fiction of which there had been no examples, he might very reasonably and kindly perfuade the author to acquiefce in his own profperity, and forbear an attempt which he confidered as an unneceffary hazard.

Addison's counfel was happily rejected. Pope forefaw the future efflorefcence of imagery then budding in his mind, and refolved to spare no art, or industry of cultivation. The foft luxuriance of his fancy was already fhooting, and all the gay varieties of diction were ready at his hand to colour and embellifh it.

His attempt was juftified by its fuccess. The Rape of the Lock ftands forward, in the claffes of literature, as the most exquifite example of ludicrous poetry. Berkeley congratulated him upon the difplay of powers more truly poetical than he had fhewn before; with elegance of description and justnefs of precepts, he had now exhibited boundless fertility of invention.

He always confidered the intermixture of the machinery with the action as his moft fuccessful exertion of poetical art. He indeed could never afterwards produce any thing of fuch unexampled excellence. Those performances, which strike with wonder, are combinations of fkilful genius with happy cafualty; VOL. IV.

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and it is not likely that any felicity, like the discovery of a new race of preternatural agents, should happen twice to the fame man.

Of this poem the author was, I think, allowed to enjoy the praise for a long time without disturbance. Many years afterwards Dennis published fome remarks upon it, with very little force, and with no effect; for the opinion of the publick was already fettled, and it was no longer at the mercy of criticism.

About this time he published the Temple of Fame, which, as he tells Steele in their correspondence, he had written two years before; that is, when he was only twenty-two years old, an early time of life for fo much learning and fo much obfervation as that work exhibits.

On this poem Dennis afterwards published some remarks, of which the moft reasonable is, that fome of the lines represent motion as exhibited by fculpture.

Of the Epiftle from Eloifa to Abelard, I do not know the date. His firft inclination to attempt a compofition of that tender kind arofe, as Mr. Savage told me, from his perufal of Prior's Nut-brown Maid. How much he has furpaffed Prior's work it is not neceffary to mention, when perhaps it may be faid with justice, that he has excelled every compofition of the fame kind. The mixture of religious hope and refignation gives an elevation and dignity to difappointed love, which images merely natural cannot beftow. The gloom of a convent strikes the imagination with far greater force than the folitude of a grove.

This piece was, however, not much his favourite in his latter years, though I never heard upon what principle he flighted it.

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In the next year (1713) he published Windfor Foreft; of which part was, as he relates, written at fixteen, about the fame time as his Paftorals, and the latter part was added afterwards: where the addition begins, we are not told. The lines relating to the Peace confefs their own date. It is dedicated to Lord Landfdowne, who was then high in reputation and influence among the Tories; and it is faid, that the conclufion of the poem gave great pain to Addifon, both as a poet and a politician. Reports like this are often spread with boldness very difproportionate to their evidence. Why should Addison receive any particular disturbance from the last lines of Windfor Forest? If contrariety of opinion could poison a politician, he would not live a day; and, as a poet, he must have felt Pope's force of genius much more from many other parts of his works.

The pain that Addifon might feel it is not likely that he would confefs; and it is certain that he fo well fuppreffed his difcontent, that Pope now thought himself his favourite ; for, having been confulted in the revifal of Cato, he introduced it by a Prologue; and, when Dennis published his Remarks, undertook not indeed to vindicate but to revenge his friend, by a Narrative of the Frenzy of John Dennis.

There is reafon to believe that Addifon gave no encouragement to this difingenuous hoftility; for, fays Pope, in a Letter to him, " indeed your opinion, that "'tis entirely to be neglected, would be my own in " my own cafe; but I felt more warmth here than I "did when I firft faw his book against myself (though "indeed in two minutes it made me heartily merry)" Addison was not a man on whom fuch cant of fenfibility could make much impreffion. He left the par

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phlet to itself, having difowned it to Dennis, and perhaps did not think Pope to have deferved much by his officioufnefs.

This year was printed in the Guardian the ironical comparison between the Paftorals of Philips and Pope; a compofition of artifice, criticism, and literature, to which nothing equal will eafily be found. The fuperiority of Pope is fo ingenioufly diffembled, and the feeble lines of Philips fo skilfully preferred, that Steele, being deceived, was unwilling to print the paper left Pope fhould be offended. Addifon immediately faw the writer's defign; and, as it feems, had malice enough to conceal his difcovery, and to permit a publication which, by making his friend Philips ridiculous, made him for ever an enemy to Pope.

It appears that about this time Pope had a strong inclination to unite the art of Painting with that of Poetry, and put himself under the tuition of Jervas. He was near-fighted, and therefore not formed by nature for a painter: he tried, however, how far he could advance, and sometimes perfuaded his friends to fit. A picture of Betterton, fuppofed to be drawn by him, was in the poffeffion of Lord Mansfield; if this was taken from the life, he must have begun to paint earlier; for Betterton was now dead. Pope's ambition of this new art produced fome encomiaftick verfes to Jervas, which certainly fhew his power as a poet; but I have been told that they betray his ignorance of painting.

He appears to have regarded Betterton with kindnefs and esteem; and after his death published, under. his name, a verfion into modern English of Chaucer's Prologues, and one of his Tales, which, as was re

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lated by Mr. Harte, were believed to have been the per formance of Pope himself by Fenton, who made him a gay offer of five pounds, if he would fhew them in the hand of Betterton.

The next year (1713) produced a bolder attempt, by which profit was fought as well as praife. The poems which he had hitherto written, however they might have diffufed his name, had made very little addition to his fortune. The allowance which his father made him, though, proportioned to what he had, it might be liberal, could not be large; his religion hindered him from the occupation of any civil employment, and he complained that he wanted even money to buy books*.

He therefore refolved to try how far the favour of the publick extended, by foliciting a subscription to a verfion of the Iliad, with large notes.

To print by fubfcription was, for fome time, a prac tice peculiar to the English. The first confiderable work, for which this expedient was employed, is faid to have been Dryden's Virgil; and it had been tried again with great fuccefs when the Tatlers were collected into volumes,

There was reafon to believe that Pope's attempt would be fuccefsful. He was in the full bloom of reputation, and was perfonally known to almoft all whom dignity of employment or fplendour of reputation had made eminent; he converfed indifferently with both parties, and never disturbed the publick with his political opinions; and it might be naturally expected, as each faction then boafted its literary zeal, that the great men, who on other occafions practifed all the violence of oppofition, would emulate each other in their en- · • Spence, C 3

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