The Poetry of Alexander Pope - Volume IX: “You purchase pain with all that joy can give and die of nothing but a rage to live.”

By Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope was born on May 21st, 1688 in London into a Catholic family. His education was affected by the recent Test Acts, upholding the status of the Church of England and banning Catholics from teaching. In effect this meant his formal education was over by the age of 12 and Pope was to now immerse himself in classical literature and languages and to, in effect, educate himself. From this age too he also suffered from numerous health problems including a type of tuberculosis (Pott’s disease) which resulted in a stunted, deformed body. Only to grow to a height of 4’ 6”, with a severe hunchback and complicated further by respiratory difficulties, high fevers, inflamed eyes and abdominal pain all of which served to further isolate him, initially, from society. However his talent was evident to all. Best known for his satirical verse, his translations of Homer and the use of the heroic couplet, he is the second-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare. With the publication of Pastorals in 1709 followed by An Essay on Criticism (1711) and his most famous work The Rape of the Lock (1712; revised and enlarged in 1714) Pope became not only famous but wealthy. His translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey further enhanced both reputation and purse. His engagement to produce an opulent new edition of Shakespeare met with a mixed reception. Pope attempted to "regularise" Shakespeare's metre and rewrote some of his verse and cut 1500 lines, that Pope considered to be beneath the Bard’s standard, to mere footnotes. Alexander Pope died on May 30th, 1744 at his villa at Twickenham (where he created his famous grotto and gardens) and was buried in the nave of the nearby Church of England Church of St Mary the Virgin. Over the years and centuries since his death Pope’s work has been in and out of favour but with this distance he is now truly recognised as one of England’s greatest poets.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Copyright Group
• Release date: Mar 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781785436437

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was an English poet. Born in London to a family of Catholics who were later expelled from the city during a period of religious persecution, Pope was largely self-educated, and struggled with numerous illnesses from a young age. At 23, he wrote the discursive poem An Essay on Criticism (1711), a manifesto on the art of poetry which gained him the admiration and acclaim of influential critics and writers of his day. His most famous poem, The Rape of the Lock (1712), is a mock epic which critiques aristocratic English society while showcasing Pope’s mastery of poetic form, particularly the use of the heroic couplet. Pope produced highly acclaimed translations of the Iliad and Odyssey, which transformed Homer’s ancient Greek dactylic hexameter into a contemporary rhyming English verse. His work The Dunciad (1728-1743), originally published anonymously in Dublin, is a satirical poem which lampoons English literary society and criticizes the moral and intellectual decay of British life. Second only to Shakespeare for the frequency with which he is quoted, Alexander Pope succumbed to his illnesses at the age of 56 while at the height of his fame and productivity.

Book preview

The Poetry of Alexander Pope

Volume IX

Alexander Pope was born on May 21st, 1688 in London into a Catholic family.

His education was affected by the recent Test Acts, upholding the status of the Church of England and banning Catholics from teaching.  In effect this meant his formal education was over by the age of 12 and Pope was to now immerse himself in classical literature and languages and to, in effect, educate himself. 

From this age too he also suffered from numerous health problems including a type of tuberculosis (Pott’s disease) which resulted in a stunted, deformed body.  Only to grow to a height of 4’ 6", with a severe hunchback and complicated further by respiratory difficulties, high fevers, inflamed eyes and abdominal pain all of which served to further isolate him, initially, from society.

However his talent was evident to all. Best known for his satirical verse, his translations of Homer and the use of the heroic couplet, he is the second-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare.

With the publication of Pastorals in 1709 followed by An Essay on Criticism (1711) and his most famous work The Rape of the Lock (1712; revised and enlarged in 1714) Pope became not only famous but wealthy.

His translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey further enhanced both reputation and purse.  His engagement to produce an opulent new edition of Shakespeare met with a mixed reception.  Pope attempted to regularise Shakespeare's metre and rewrote some of his verse and cut 1500 lines, that Pope considered to be beneath the Bard’s standard, to mere footnotes.

Alexander Pope died on May 30th, 1744 at his villa at Twickenham (where he created his famous grotto and gardens) and was buried in the nave of the nearby Church of England Church of St Mary the Virgin.

Over the years and centuries since his death Pope’s work has been in and out of favour but with this distance he is now truly recognised as one of England’s greatest poets.

Index of Contents

THE BASSET-TABLE.

AN ECLOGUE.

CARDELIA.

The basset-table spread, the tallier come;

Why stays Smilinda in the dressing-room?

Rise, pensive nymph, the tallier waits for you!

SMILINDA.

Ah, madam, since my Sharper is untrue,

I joyless make my once adored Alpeu.

I saw him stand behind Ombrelia's chair,

And whisper with that soft, deluding air,

And those feign'd sighs which cheat the listening fair.

CARDELIA.

Is this the cause of your romantic strains?

A mightier grief my heavy heart sustains.

As you by love, so I by fortune cross'd,

One, one bad deal, three Septlevas have lost.

SMILINDA.

Is that the grief, which you compare with mine?

With ease, the smiles of Fortune I resign:

Would all my gold in one bad deal were gone!

Were lovely Sharper mine, and mine alone.

CARDELIA.

A lover lost, is but a common care;

And prudent nymphs against that change prepare:

The Knave of Clubs thrice lost! Oh! who could guess

This fatal stroke, this unforeseen distress?

SMILINDA.

See Betty Lovet! very _àpropos_

She all the cares of love and play does know:

Dear Betty shall th' important point decide;

Betty, who oft the pain of each has tried;

Impartial, she shall say who suffers most,

By cards' ill usage, or by lovers lost.

LOVET.

Tell, tell your griefs; attentive will I stay,

Though time is precious, and I want some tea.

CARDELIA.

Behold this equipage, by Mathers wrought,

With fifty guineas (a great pen'orth) bought.

See, on the tooth-pick, Mars and Cupid strive;

And both the struggling figures seem alive.

Upon the bottom shines the queen's bright face;

A myrtle foliage round the thimble-case.

Jove, Jove himself, does on the scissors shine;

The metal, and the workmanship, divine!

SMILINDA.

This snuff-box,―once the pledge of Sharper's love,

When rival beauties for the present strove;

At Corticelli's he the raffle won;

Then first his passion was in public shown:

Hazardia blush'd, and turn'd her head aside,

A rival's envy (all in vain) to hide.

This snuff-box,―on the hinge see brilliants shine:

This snuff-box will I stake; the prize is mine.

CARDELIA.

Alas! far lesser losses than I bear,

Have made a soldier sigh, a lover swear.

And oh! what makes the disappointment hard,

'Twas my own lord that drew the fatal card.

In complaisance, I took the Queen he gave;

Though my own secret wish was for the Knave.

The Knave won Sonica, which I had chose;

And the next pull, my Septleva I lose.

SMILINDA.

But ah! what aggravates the killing smart,

The cruel thought, that stabs me to the heart;

This cursed Ombrelia, this undoing fair,

By whose vile arts this heavy grief I bear;

She, at whose name I shed these spiteful tears,

She owes to me the very charms she wears.

An awkward thing, when first she came to town;

Her shape unfashion'd, and her face unknown:

She was my friend; I taught her first to spread

Upon her sallow cheeks enlivening red:

I introduced her to the park and plays;

And, by my interest, Cozens made her stays.

Ungrateful wretch! with mimic airs grown pert,

She dares to steal my favourite lover's heart.

CARDELIA.

Wretch that I was, how often have I swore,

When Winnall tallied, I would punt no more?

I know the bite, yet to my