No More Learning

In the preface to the
1728 edition of this work, the reader is told that
every week for these last two months past the town has been persecuted with
pamphlets, advertisements, and weekly essays, not only against the wit and
writings, but against the character and person of Mr Pope.
But it has been shown that, when the provocation is considered,
the attacks made upon Pope were extremely few, and did not
include a single pamphlet, while four of them, if not Pope's own
I Cf. post, chap. v.
? Lounsbury, u. s. p. 207.


## p. 79 (#103) #############################################

The Dunciad
79
handiwork, were inspired by him. It was evident, too, that the
composition of the poem had preceded the attacks. It seems to
have been on the stocks, in some form or other, for several years.
What determined its plan and hastened its completion was, un-
doubtedly, the pain given him by Theobald's Shakespeare Restored,
which must have been all the keener because he could not fail
to perceive the justice of the criticism. In the preface to the
1729 edition of The Dunciad, the dedication to Swift is said to
have been due to the fact that the latter had snatched the first
draft of the poem from the fire and urged the author to proceed
with it. Pope was certainly engaged on The Dunciad when Swift
was his guest, and the latter claimed some credit for the work
on the ground that his deafness had prevented conversation. But
it has never been shown that he had any actual share in the com-
position of the work. The story of its publication reveals one of
the most intricate series of manoeuvres in which Pope was ever
implicated. Evidently, he felt anxious at the thought of putting
before the public the whole mass of his personalities, and of ac-
knowledging them under his own name. The Dunciad appeared,
anonymously, in May 1728. It bore on the title ‘Dublin Printed,
London Re-printed for A. Dodd,' and was advertised as the second
edition. Its success was immediate, and several further issues
followed. Pope was emboldened to bring out a more elaborate
form in 1729. Names, with a very few exceptions, were now printed
in full, whereas, in the previous edition, initial and final letters,
or initial only, had been the rule. The dedicatory lines to Swift,
which had been purposely omitted, were restored and the poem
was garnished with ‘Notes Variorum and the Prolegomena of
Scriblerus. ' An elaborate piece of caution on Pope's part was to
assign the copyright to Lords Bathurst, Burlington and Oxford,
who afterwards assigned it to Lawton Gilliver. Its authorship
was not openly acknowledged till 1735. The main idea of The
Dunciad was taken from Mac Flecknoe, and, in emulating his
master's vigorous satire, Pope must have felt that he was put
upon his mettle. The Dunciad, even in its earlier form, is four
times the length of Mac Flecknoe, and, while Dryden's assault is
almost exclusively upon Shadwell, Pope, though aiming principally
at Theobald, attacked, at the same time, whole battalions of his
enemies. There are two sides to The Dunciad. Though Pope's
claim that the lash was lifted in the interests of all honest men
must be rejected, he was not merely indulging in an outburst of
personal malice. In places, especially in the book added later


## p. 80 (#104) #############################################

80
Pope
there is effective chastisement of literary vices, without an undue
admixture of the personal element. But his treating The Dunciad
like a large open grave into which fresh bodies of his victims
could be flung, has impaired the value of his general satire. The
tremendous energy with which he dealt damnation round the
land' has had a result which would have astounded himself,
Though our protests are challenged by the presence of some
names, such as Bentley and Defoe, yet, with regard to the bulk
of his victims, the reader is apt to feel even more than acqui-
escence in Pope's verdict. Perhaps it is thought that his dunces
must have been exceptionally dull, as dullards of the eighteenth
century. Of course, Pope was unjust, but an element of injustice
enters into all satire. If he chose to attack individuals by name,
we can hardly complain that he did not select nonentities for the
purpose. In allowing his personal resentment to make choice of
Theobald as a hero, Pope was particularly unjust. Theobald had
produced his share of unsuccessful work; yet it was plain that
Pope was not provoked by his dramatic failures but by his im-
measurable superiority in Shakespearean criticism. Again, he
committed the error of insisting that literary inefficiency must
be accompanied by moral degradation. Though dulness never
dies, he tried to spread the belief that he had annihilated her
particular representatives whom he attacked. To judge from the
warfare that ensued, they showed an intolerable unwillingness
to be extinguished. The legend that no man branded in The
Dunciad could obtain employment from booksellers is incredible.
The coarseness of a great part of the second book suggests that,
if Swift had no more immediate share in it, Pope had, at least,
been encouraged by his example. But it is impossible to dispute
the brutal vigour of these Rabelaisian ådra. In the development
of its plot and action, The Dunciad is inferior to Pope's earlier
and lighter mock-heroic. The chief space is occupied by what are
really episodes in a main narrative that is barely more than intro-
duced. In recalling it as a whole, we are apt to think of passages
which had no place in the three-book form.
In the warfare arising out of The Dunciad, a considerable part
was played for some years by The Grub-Street Journal, which viru-
lently assailed Pope's adversaries and praised those who appeared
in his defence. It is certain that Pope had a large hand in this
paper; but his subterranean methods have, apparently, made it
impossible now to determine his precise share.
His poetical energy during the next few years was deeply
a


## p. 81 (#105) #############################################

Epistles (Moral Essays) 81
influenced by a friend for whom he felt the warmest admiration.
Bolingbroke had been known to Pope before he fled to France.
Their acquaintance had been renewed on his visit to England in
1723. During his residence at Dawley, 1725-35, their intercourse
was frequent. When in exile, Bolingbroke had become interested
in philosophical and ethical questions, and drew Pope to take some
of these as subjects for his verse. The first result was the Epistle
to the Earl of Burlington, Of Taste (1731), afterwards altered to
Of False Taste, and ultimately, under the sub-title of the Use
of Riches, placed fourth of his Moral Essays. It is a finished
specimen of Pope's art and attitude. The denunciation of extra-
vagant expense, the appeal to good sense and nature, are alike
characteristic. The sketches or touches of character in the first
part, Villario, Sabinus, Visto, Virro (the precursor of the dean
who had much taste, and all very bad) yield to the description
of Timon's villa which fills half the poem. Trouble came of
this last. Pope had to learn, as the creator of Harold Skimpole
learned later, that, when prominent traits are taken from life, the
public will insist on complete identity. There seems to be no
ground for supposing ingratitude, but he had no doubt been think-
ing of Canons and the duke of Chandos. The next Epistle was
that To Lord Bathurst (III), also entitled Of the Use of Riches
(1732). Pope professed that this was one of his most laboured
works; yet his fondness for retouching led him, at the end of his
life, to transpose parts and to convert it into a dialogue. He
starts with the thought that the miser and spendthrift are divinely
appointed to secure a due circulation of wealth; but the merits of
the Epistle lie in passages, such as the end of Buckingham and the
rise and fall of Sir Balaam. We see how Pope is being drawn into
the opposition fomented by Bolingbroke, the lines in which he
dwells on the facilities given to corruption by paper credit being
an attack on Walpole.
The Epistle now placed first among the Moral Essays, that
Of the Knowledge and Characters of Men, came out in the same
year (1732). The difficulties in attempting to judge a man's
character are set forth, and the solution is found to lie in the
discovery of the ruling passion, to which reference had already
been made in the fourth Epistie, and which is dealt with at some
length in Epistle II of An Essay on Man. This theory of the
predominant passion is used to explain the career of the duke
of Wharton, and its presence in the hour of death is shown by
two illustrations in Pope's best style, that of Narcissa (Mrs Oldfield)
6
B. L. IX,
CH. III.


## p. 82 (#106) #############################################

82
Pope
and Euclio. One of Pope's most brilliant similes occurs in Epistle 11.
Later, at Warburton's suggestion, extensive alterations were made
in the order of parts, to give the poem 'all the charm of method and
force of connected reasoning'; but it cannot be said to have gained
by his interference. Epistle 11, Of the Characters of Women, though
finished by February 1733, was kept back till 1735. The ‘lady'
to whom it was addressed was Martha Blount. Her name, as Pope
tells Caryll, was suppressed at her own desire. An advertisement
to the first edition declares upon the author's 'Honour that no
one Character is drawn from the Life. ' As Warton pointed out,
the imaginary Rufa, Silia, Papilia and others are in the style of
the portraits in Young's fifth Satire (1725). The characters of
Philomede, Atossa and Chloe were withheld until Warburton's
edition (1751). Chloe is understood to be Lady Suffolk ; Philomede,
Henrietta, duchess of Marlborough. In the case of Atossa, scandal
and controversy have raged. A report was early spread that
Pope had taken £1000 from Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, for a
promise to suppress these lines in which her character was drawn,
and broke his promise. This story, inherently improbable, has
never been proved. The character, as it stands, has details that
cannot apply to her, and it seems not unlikely that Pope drew
traits from the duchess of Buckinghamshire also. During this
same time, he had been busy with his Essay on Man, Epistle i
of which appeared in February 1733, II and III following in the
course of the year. These were anonymous, as he was diffident
of their reception. IV appeared under his name in January 1734.
He hoped, at one time, to extend the work and to fit into its frame
his Moral Epistles, from material on false learning and education
which found a place in the fourth Dunciad.
In the account of his design, given in the second volume of
his Works (1735), he hopes that, if the Essay has any merit,
it is in steering betwixt the extremes of doctrines seemingly opposite . . . and
in forming out of all a temperate, yet not inconsistent, and a short, yet not
imperfect, system of Ethics.
Epistle i treats of the nature and state of man with respect to
the universe; II of man with respect to himself; III of man with
respect to society; IV of man with respect to happiness. The
intention running through the whole is expressed in the couplet:
Laugh where we must, be candid where we can,
But vindicate the ways of God to mana.
1 Ll. 41–50 (the last waking image).
2
Epistle 1, 11. 15—16.


## p. 83 (#107) #############################################

83
An Essay on Man
Pope's methods of composition, his want of philosophical training
and his inability to conduct a sustained argument made it im-
possible for him to produce a great philosophical poem. It must
be granted that he has no harmonious and clearly developed
system, and often fails to recognise the logical results of his beliefs.
But it does not follow that, because he was a loose thinker, he is
not, in the main, expressing his genuine feelings or what he fancies
to be such. While recognising that he is no metaphysician, we
should not lose sight of the exquisite workmanship of separate
passages or of the interest of the whole as an expression of con-
temporary thought. Bolingbroke, in one sense, was the begetter
of the poem. The legend that Pope merely versified a prose
sketch by Bolingbroke is absurd; that the poet was deeply in-
debted to him is certain. There are passages in Bolingbroke's
philosophical fragments that must have been known to Pope when
he was composing the Essay, and, as the poet's own philosophical
reading was superficial, it is probable that, in many cases, the
thoughts of others had come to him through Bolingbroke's mind.
At the time when Pope wrote, newer and more liberal modes of
thought were not yet generally accepted or assimilated, or their
relation to orthodoxy clearly defined, nor was Pope the only man
whose religious views hovered between unsectarian Christianity
and something that could barely be distinguished from deism. It
is easy to show that Pope, in one place, is pantheistic, in another
a fatalist, in yet another deistical, though he repudiated the charge;
that his theory of self-love and reason will not stand examination;
that his conception of the historical development of political and
religious organisations is vague in the extreme. But the fact that
the Essay is still read with pleasure is a proof of the consummate
power of the style. It attracted a wider attention than any
other of Pope's works. A Swiss professor, Jean-Pierre de Crousaz,
proceeded to demolish its philosophy, and it inspired Voltaire to
write La Loi Naturelle (1756). Pope, dismayed at Crousaz's
onslaught, was overjoyed when Warburton came to his aid in a
set of letters appearing in The Works of the Learned (1738—9).
'You understand me,' he wrote, as well as I do myself; but you
express me better than I can express myself. ' During the re-
mainder of Pope's life, Warburton was one of his chief intimates.
He became the authorised commentator on Pope's poems and was
left by will the copyright of all his published works.
In 1735, a collection of Pope's letters was published by Curll.
Many years before, Cromwell had given a number of letters from
6-2


## p. 84 (#108) #############################################

84
Pope
Pope to a Mrs Thomas: she sold them to Curll, who printed them
in 1726. Pope, who had long ceased to pride himself on his
acquaintance with Cromwell, was genuinely annoyed. Soon, he
began to beg various friends to return his letters; and, seeing in
how favourable a light they would show his character, to the dis-
comfiture of his enemies, he conceived the idea of getting them
published. In 1729, on the plea that his own and Wycherley's
reputation had been injured by Theobald's edition of Wycherley's
literary remains, he induced Oxford to allow some letters and
papers which would clear their reputation to be deposited in his
library, and to let the publishers acknowledge his permission to
obtain copies. He then published the correspondence between
Wycherley and himself as a supplement to Theobald's volume,
but the book did not sell. The curious history of the 1735
collection has been elaborately traced by Charles Wentworth
Dilke and Elwin. Curll received an offer in writing from ‘P. T. '
of a large collection of Pope's letters. After negotiations, printed
copies of Pope's correspondence from 1704 to 1734 were delivered
to him by an unknown person. Apparently at Pope's instigation,
Curll was summoned before the House of Lords, as the advertise-
ment spoke of letters from peers, the publication of which, without
their consent, was a breach of privilege. None such being forth-
coming, Curll escaped. It seems fairly certain that Pope engineered
the whole business, in order to provide an excuse for publishing
his own edition in 1737. More remarkable than the device for
publication was the way in which he had manipulated the corre-
spondence. Besides numerous alterations, additions and omissions,
parts of different letters were combined, dates altered, and letters
to one correspondent addressed to another. The fact that Caryll
took copies of letters before returning them was a main cause
of the laying bare of Pope's tricky methods. By a strange fate,
his attempts to set his moral character right with his con-
temporaries have seriously damaged his reputation with posterity.
For several years, Pope urged Swift to return his letters, on the
ground, at first, that he was afraid of their getting into Curll's
hands, later, that he might wish to print some himself. Swift, at
last, consented to hand over all he could find. Pope appears to
have arranged that they should be printed and a copy sent to
Swift, who consented to their being published in Dublin. Pope
included them in vol. II of his Works in Prose (1741), where they
are stated to be copied from an impression sent from Dublin, and
to have been printed by the Dean's direction, and complained


## p. 85 (#109) #############################################

Imitations of Horace
85
a
to friends that Swift had published them without his consent.
The letters to Cromwell are interesting as illustrating Pope's early
tastes and ambitions; but his elaborate way of doctoring the
correspondence for whose publication he was himself responsible
makes it of very little worth as biographical evidence, unless the
originals or genuine copies, as in Carylls case, have survived.
As a whole, the letters are disappointing; they are wanting in
naturalness and charm, and, too often, are a mere string of moral
reflections.
The year 1733 was, perhaps, the most prolific in Pope's life.
About the beginning of the year, when he had for the moment laid
aside An Essay on Man on account of ill-health, Bolingbroke
observed to him how well the first satire of Horace's second book
would 'bit his case' if he were to imitate it in English. On this
hint, Pope 'translated it in a morning or two and sent it to the press
in a week or fortnight after. ' The suggestion of a friend, and the
framework of Horace, had given him one of the greatest oppor-
tunities of his literary life. The brilliance and conciseness of his
style, his command alike over a lofty and over a conversational
tone, the power of pungent epigram with which he stung his
enemies, the affectionate enthusiasm with which he praised his
friends, the fondness with which he lingered over the subject of
himself-all here found expression. Horace's rambling method
lent itself to his purpose, and the original text, while sparing him
the task of constructing his own scheme, enabled him to display
his skill in adaptation and parallel. While, in one part, adopting
& tone of proud superiority as the conscious champion of virtue, he
does not deny the presence of a personal animus:
Whoe'er offends, at some unlucky time
Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhymel.
The most savage blow was aimed at ‘furious Sappho. ' Lady
Mary had been attacked in ‘The Capon's Tale'in Pope and Swift's
Miscellany, and, again, in The Dunciad. Pope suspected her of
being, at least part, author of A Pop upon Pope, which gave an
imaginary account of his whipping by two of his victims in The
Dunciad. In March 1733 appeared Verses addressed to the
Imitator of Horace: By a Lady, in which Pope's body, soul,
and muse were mercilessly reviled. Of this piece, Lady Mary, it
would seem, was the chief author, helped, perhaps, by Lord Hervey,
smarting from the reference to himself as 'Lord Fanny' in the
6
ILI. 77-78.
1


## p. 86 (#110) #############################################

86
Pope
first Imitation of Horace'. Hervey replied, on his own account,
in the feeble Letter from a Nobleman at Hampton Court (1733).
Pope's rejoinder was the prose Letter to a Noble Lord (printed,
but not published, in 1733); but his most conclusive reply to
the attacks he had provoked was in his Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot
(1735), misnamed by Warburton The Prologue to the Satires.
This magnificent outburst of autobiography, self-laudation, satire
and invective contains some of Pope's most finished and bril-
liant work. He professed that, feeling the awkward necessity to
say something of himself, he had merely put the last hand
to a desultory piece which he had had no thoughts of publishing.
Parts, it is true, such as Addison's character and the lines on
his own mother, were of earlier date; but the bulk of the com-
position is, obviously, written for an immediate end. Beginning
with lively complaints of the persecution from friend and foe
which his fame has brought on him, he sketches his career as
a man of letters, the encouragement received by him, all that he
has endured from critics, his shrinking from literary coteries, his
own lofty aims and his promptness to attack vice high or low. He
closes by dwelling on his father's character and his own devotion
to his mother's declining years. His pride in the approval and
.
love bestowed by the fittest on his studies and himself is seen in
those lines which Lamb could not repeat without emotion; but, in
general, the blame is more thickly sown than the praise. Gildon,
Dennis, Colley Cibber, Philips, Curll, Budgell, Welsted, Moore,
Bentley, Theobald, all are made to feel his lash. A satiric
portrait of Bubb Dodington was transferred in later editions to
Halifax; but the two most famous full-lengths are those of Lord
Hervey and Addison. Both are essentially unjust, and the latter
is a masterpiece of plausible misinterpretation. No less remark-
able than the number of passages of high excellence is the art
with which they are introduced into the context and the supreme
ease that throughout distinguishes the style.
Pope soon followed up the success of his first imitation of
Horace. Satire II, îi appeared in 1734, I, ii, 'Sober advice
from Horace,' anonymously in the same year. Epistle i, vi in
January, II, ii in April, II, i in June and i, i at the end of
1737. They have been called perfect translations, the persons and
things being transferred as well as the words. ' They are, however,
something less and something more than translations. Horace's
i Sat. 11, i, 6.
2 LI. 305-333.
3 LI. 193—214,


## p. 87 (#111) #############################################

Various Satires
87
point of view is not always caught. In places, adherence to the
Latin produces a train of thought not perfectly natural in English ;
but, for the most part, the imitations give keen pleasure as originals,
and the pleasure is made more various by comparison with the
model. There is a wide difference between the two satirists. Pope
has less of the mellow wisdom of Horace's maturity and more of
the fiery temper of his youth. The lofty and declamatory moral
tone is in the manner, rather, of Juvenal. Full use is made of the
chances for personal reference. It cannot be said that Pope
administers justice impartially. When there is an opportunity
for an example of vice, his personal enemies have the first claim,
while supporters of the opposition in arms against Walpole are
treated with leniency. Of his compliments to his friends, Hazlitt
has well said they are equal in value to a house or an estate. '
His use of irony is extraordinarily skilful. It is seen at its best
in his treatment of George II in Epistle 11, i; his frequent hits,
elsewhere, at king George II and his consort are due to his having
adopted wholesale the opinions of the opposition. Pope's style in
the Satires is at its very highest. In such lines as
And goad the prelate slumb'ring in his stalli
or
Bare the mean heart that lurks beneath a star,
manner.
the thought is expressed to perfection and acquires a further
atmosphere from the words chosen. The Imitations of Epistle
1, vii and the latter part of Satire II, v in octosyllabic verse are
of a totally different character, being attempts to copy Swift's
The Satires (II and iv) of Dr Donne Versified were
included in the collection of 1735; the latter had appeared, anony-
mously, in 1733. If Pope is to be believed, they were composed
at the request of Lords Oxford and Shrewsbury; but, if written
earlier, they were largely revised in the reign of George II, when
many of the modern instances were added. Pope had thought of
dealing, after the same fashion, with the Satires of Joseph Hall
whom he has imitated in more than one place, but Hall's versifica-
tion invited less change. The two Dialogues of 1738 were treated
.
by Warburton as an epilogue to the Satires. They appeared at
a time when the opposition to Walpole was exceptionally active,
and are full of evidence of Pope's sympathy with that side. In
one of these, a friend contrasts Pope's severity with Horace's 'sly,
7
1 Epilogue to the Satires, written in 1738, Dial. 11, 1. 219.
2 Imitations of Horace, Sat, a, i, 1. 108.
3 Cf, ante, vol. iv, pp. 329 ff.


## p. 88 (#112) #############################################

88
Pope
polite, insinuating style,' and presses him to take safe subjects for
his satire. Pope ironically agrees: :
Come, harmless characters, that no one hit1.
He laments, that, though virtue is an empty boast, the dignity of
vice should be lost, and ends with a picture of universal corruption.
In Dialogue II, the poet defends his practice of personal satire,
showing that he can appreciate merit, that it is not friendship only
which prompts his lays and that he praises virtue in whatever party.
He ends by dwelling on his proud consciousness of his office as
a satirist. It is difficult at first to reconcile this boast with the
elaborate party purpose of the two poems. But, often as Pope
perverted his powers for personal ends, capable as we know him
to have been of insincere professions, it is difficult not to feel, when
reading his lofty claim, that, at the moment, he believed his satire
to be an instrument for righteousness. The unfinished 1740 found
among Pope's papers? is of interest in showing the feeling of a
section of the opposition to their nominal leaders, Pulteney and
Carteret.
The new Dunciad (1742) embodied materials on the mis-
application of learning, science and wit originally designed for
another poem. Its appearance seems due to Pope's irritation
against the university of Oxford for declining to offer Warburton
the degree of D. D. While gratifying many personal grudges, as
in the notorious lines on Bentley’, the satire was, to a large extent,
general, falling on the Italian opera, the abuses of education at
school and college, antiquaries, naturalists and freethinkers. The
lines describing the final consummation of the power of dulness
have won deserved praise; those on the fashionable tour, though
less elevated, are almost equally brilliant.
Pope had frequently directed his satire at Colley Cibber. His
most offensive line was in the Epistle to Arbuthnot (1. 97). In the
new Dunciad, Cibber was introduced as ‘Dulness's Laureate Son. '
Cibber, in reply, published a letter in which he suggested that,
if 'Sawney' had been substituted for 'Cibber' in the Epistle, the
satire would have been equally just. To prove this, he told how,
having met Pope in very doubtful company in years gone by,
he would take credit for Homer in having saved his translator
from serious harm. Cibber's good-humoured patronage was
sufficiently exasperating, and, to Pope, who was ambitious of
fame as a moralist, this full-flavoured anecdote, with the derisive
1 Epilogue, etc. (1738), Dial. I, 1. 65.
2 LI. 203-274.


## p. 89 (#113) #############################################

Pope's Genius and Influence
89
engravings which it occasioned, must have been particularly gall-
ing. In revenge, he installed Cibber in Theobald's place as hero
of The Dunciad in the new edition which incorporated the fourth
book (1743). Pope has been reproached for allowing his rancour
to inflict irreparable injury on his original design. Certainly, the
change of the opening is ludicrously inapposite, but the hero's
personality is little to the fore in the later books. Cibber was
no dullard, but neither were many of the other 'dunces'; and he
undoubtedly had much of the bad taste and folly that is apt to
attend on cleverness. A man of his character was not so hope-
lessly unsuited for the throne.
Warburton was now on terms of growing intimacy with Pope.
He had contributed 'Aristarchus on the Hero of the Poem' and
notes to the latest edition of the Dunciad, and his influence is felt
in parts of the fourth book. He had written commentaries on An
Essay on Man and on An Essay on Criticism and was engaged
on the Ethic Epistles. This edition, completed in time for Pope
to present to some of his friends, was suppressed by Warburton
at Bolingbroke's suggestion in consequence of its containing the
character of Atossa.
Pope, who had been for some time in failing health, died on
30 May 1744.
With Pope, the classical spirit in English poetry reached its
acme. That the life of so supreme a genius for style coincided
with the period when the social interest in man had dwarfed the
feeling for nature, and when knowledge of the town was more
prized than romance or pathos, gave double strength to the reaction
when it came. His immediate influence, however, was immense
and extended across the sea to Germany, France and other parts
of Europe. Before his death, the first traces of the coming change
were seen; but the effect of his language and numbers prevailed
for long when the tone and subject of poetry were changing.
When the dust of the long controversy had been laid that raged
during the first quarter of the next century, it came to be recognised
that Pope's claim to rank among the very greatest poets could no
longer be allowed; but that, in his own class and kind, he need
not yield to any one. He has suffered most, in general repute, from
a distaste for the period which he faithfully reflected, from the
narrowness of devotees of nature and from the comparative rarity
of a true sense of form in the average reader of poetry, With the
professional student, his permanence is secure; but heaven forbid
that Pope should ever become a mere subject for research!


## p. 90 (#114) #############################################

90
Pope
It
Important for the history of English poetry and taste, he is
important, also, as the writer of lines that live. Critics may
attempt to define his limitations and point him to his place in
the great company of poets; but, within the pale of literary ortho-
doxy, there is room for difference. The survival of poets other
than the very highest must depend not on their historical value,
but on their finding in each generation a body of admirers.
has been said that admiration for Pope comes with years. If so,
. ,
it is among the kindliest provisions of Providence against old age.
The question is essentially one of temperament. Those who, while
not responding readily to violent emotions, are keenly interested
in men and manners, with but a chastened passion for green fields,
who can appreciate satire and epigram and have a nice sense of
finish, will, in every age, enjoy the poetry of Pope for its own sake.


## p. 91 (#115) #############################################

CHAPTER IV
SWIFT
>
SWIFT's writings are so closely connected with the man that
they cannot be understood properly without reference to the
circumstances under which they were produced. The best way,
therefore, of arriving at Swift's views and methods will be to set
out briefly the chief events of his life, and, afterwards, to consider
the more important of his writings.
Jonathan Swift's royalist grandfather, Thomas Swift, of a
Yorkshire family, was vicar of Goodrich, and married Elizabeth
Dryden, niece of Sir Erasmus Dryden, the poet's grandfather.
The eldest of his large family, Godwin, a barrister, went to
Ireland, where he became wealthy; and some of his brothers
followed him. One of them, Jonathan, who had married Abigail
Erick, was made steward of the king's inns, Dublin, but he did not
live long, and, seven months after his death, on 30 November 1667,
his only son, Jonathan, was born. The widow was left dependent
mainly on her husband's brother, Godwin. A nurse took the child
to Whitehaven, and kept him there three years; and, not long
after his return to Dublin, his mother returned to her relatives
in England, leaving the boy in his uncle's care. He was sent
to Kilkenny school, where he met Congreve; and, when he was
fourteen, he was entered as a pensioner at Trinity college, Dublin.
Why he afterwards felt so much resentment against his relatives is
not clear; for his uncle gave him, not the education of a dog,' but
the best obtainable in Ireland. Swift was often at war with the
college authorities; but he got his degree in 1685.
;
In 1688, Swift's uncle Godwin died, having lost his fortune, and
Swift realized that he must not depend on any one but himself. The
revolution brought trouble for Ireland, and the young man joined
his mother at Leicester and looked about for employment. After
a time, an opportunity came from Sir William Temple, who was
now living in retirement at Moor park, near Farnham. Temple's
6


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92
Swift
ܢ
father had been a friend of Godwin Swift; he had himself known
the Swifts in Ireland; and Lady Temple was a connection of
Swift's mother. A man of cultivation and refinement, and a
renowned diplomatist, Temple was in need of someone to assist
him in his literary work, and Swift was chosen. Temple is said
to have treated him entirely as a dependent; but it must be
remembered that, at this time, Swift was an untrained youth of
twenty-two, and the distance between him and 'a person of
quality' like Temple would inevitably be great, especially in
those days.
In later years, Swift spoke somewhat disparagingly of Temple,
saying that he had felt too much what it was to be treated like a
schoolboy. Temple sometimes seemed out of humour for three or
four days, while Swift suspected a hundred reasons. In 1690, his
patron sent Swift with a letter of introduction to Sir Robert South-
well, secretary of state in Ireland, in the hope that he would find
Swift a post or procure for him a fellowship at Trinity college. The
letter said that Swift knew Latin and Greek and a little French;
that he wrote a good hand, and was honest and intelligent.
Nothing came of this recommendation, and Swift was soon back at
Moor park. Temple procured for him the M. A. degree at Oxford
and recommended him to William III. 'He thinks me a little
necessary to him,' wrote Swift. In 1693, he was sent by Temple to
represent to the king the necessity of triennial parliaments; but
the king was not convinced'. The first publication of anything by
Swift appears to have been in February 1691/2, when he printed in
the fifth supplement to The Athenian Mercury, a curious forerunner
of Notes and Queries, a ‘Letter to the Athenian Society,' enclosing
a Pindaric ode, in which he referred to his 'young and almost
vergin muse. ' In 1694, Swift parted from Temple, disappointed at
the failure of his patron to make any definite provision for him;
and, in October, he was ordained deacon, and priest in the following
January. He found it necessary to ask Temple for testimonials,
and Temple went further than he was asked, and obtained for
Swift the prebend of Kilroot. Swift, however, soon tired of
Ireland ; and, in 1696, he was once more at Moor park. In the
meantime, he had had a love affair with a Miss Jane Waring,
whom he addressed as Varina ; but he represented to her that
he was not in a position to marry. He remained with Temple
1 'I have sent him (the secretary) with another complaint from Papa to the King,
where I fancy he is not displeased with finding opportunities of going. ' Martha,
Lady Giffard, Her Life and Correspondence, ed. Longe, J. S. , 1911, p. 216.


## p. 93 (#117) #############################################

Moor Park and Laracor
93
until that statesman's death in 1699. Lady Temple had died in
1694, and Temple found his secretary more and more useful.
Swift was learning much in many directions. He read classical
and historical works in the library; he heard of public affairs
and of the experiences of his patron; he had opportunities of
studying the ways of servants in great houses; and he formed
the lasting affection of his life. Lady Giffard, Temple's sister, who
kept house for him after his wife's death, had as a companion or
servant Mrs Johnson, widow of a merchant of good position; and
this Mrs Johnson had two daughters, one of whom, Esther, a bright
child of eight when Swift first met her, was a great favourite with
the family, and received a legacy under Temple's will. Swift acted
as tutor to the girl, and, by the time of his last sojourn at Moor
park, she had, he says, grown into perfect health and was looked
upon as one of the most beautiful and graceful young women in
London.
Temple took part in the controversy on ancient and modern
learning, and in an essay he quoted the spurious 'Epistles of
Phalaris' as evidence of the superiority of the ancients. He was
answered by William Wotton, and, in 1697, Swift wrote his contri-
bution to the controversy, the clever Battle of the Books, which,
however, was not published till 1704. By his will, Temple had left
Swift £100 and any profit that was to be made by the publication
of his posthumous works. Unfortunately, this task led to a pro-
tracted quarrel with Lady Giffard. Swift was 'as far to seek as
ever. ' An application to the king came to nothing, and he thought
it well to accept an invitation to be chaplain and secretary to
Lord Berkeley, one of the lords justices in Ireland; but a rival
persuaded Lord Berkeley that the post was not fit for a clergyman,
and Swift departed in dudgeon. He was, however, presented to the
living of Laracor, near Trim, with two other small livings, together
with the prebend of Durlaven, in St Patrick's, and these brought
in an income of some £230 a year. Laracor had a congregation of
about fifteen persons; but he was often in Dublin and, through his
friendship with Lady Berkeley and her daughters, soon became well
known there. He suggested to Esther Johnson that she and her
friend Rebecca Dingley, who, in some way, was related to the Temple
family, might, with advantage, live in Ireland, and the ladies took
his advice. Swift was now thirty-four, Esther Johnson a young
woman of twenty. Everything was done to avoid any occasion of
scandal When Swift was absent, the ladies used his rooms in
Dublin; when he was there, they took separate lodgings, and he


## p. 94 (#118) #############################################

94
Swift
was never with Esther Johnson except in the presence of a third
person.
Swift was soon back in England. He had already written one
of his most amusing poems, the burlesque Petition of Mrs Frances
Harris ; and, in 1701, he wrote the pamphlet A Discourse on the
Dissensions in Athens and Rome, which was attributed by some
to Somers and by others to Burnet. He was evidently well known
in London society by the time that A Tale of a Tub appeared
in 1704, after lying in manuscript for seven or eight years. He
became a friend of Addison, who sent him a copy of his Travels
in Italy with an inscription : ‘To Jonathan Swift, the most agree-
able of companions, the truest friend, and the greatest genius of
his age this work is presented by his most humble servant the
author. ' Of one of his poems, Baucis and Philemon, Swift said
that Addison made him blot out fourscore lines, add fourscore
and alter fourscore. Steele, too, at this time, was among his friends;
but he spoke with some contempt of the ordinary coffeehouse
wits. He took part in the attack on the almanac written by the
astrologer John Partridge, producing a parody, Predictions for
the ensuing year, by Isaac Bickerstaff, in which he foretold that,
on 29 March, Partridge would die of fever; and, on 30 March, he
printed a letter giving an account of Partridge's end. Partridge
protested that he was alive; but Swift represented that he was
really dead, inasmuch as his credit was gone. Other wits joined
in the fray, and Steele, on starting The Tatler in 1709, adopted
the name Bickerstaff as that of the supposed author. At the same
time, Swift was engaged in more serious work. In 1708—9, he
produced important pamphlets on church questions, which show
that he was beginning to understand that the interests of the whig
party could not be reconciled with those of his order, and was
busily engaged in representing to the government the claims of
the Irish clergy to the first fruits and twentieths, which had
already been granted to the clergy in England.
An attempt to lessen the power of the duke of Marlborough
had come to nothing. Harley, just when he seemed to have
attained success, lost his office; Marlborough and Godolphin
joined the whigs, and, by the end of 1708, Somers was lord
president of the council and Wharton lord lieutenant of Ireland.
Swift was hoping for preferment for himself; but he informed
correspondents that no promise of making his fortune would
prevail on him to go against what became a man of conscience
and truth and an entire friend to the established church. Hopes


## p. 95 (#119) #############################################

i
London and Party Politics 95
that had been held out to him came to nothing, and Swift re-
tired to Ireland. A great change, however, was not far distant.
The prosecution of Sacheverell gave the high church party its
chance. The whigs were turned out of office: Harley became
chancellor of the exchequer, and the new parliament of November
1710 had a great tory majority. In September, Swift was again in
London, and the events of the three following years, with all Swift's
thoughts and hopes, are set out before us in his letters to Esther
Johnson and Mrs Dingley, afterwards to be published as the
Journal to Stella. In a very short time, Swift was in company
with Harley and St John. The whigs, he said, had clutched at
him like a drowning man at a twig, but he minded them not.
Harley listened to the proposals as to first fruits, showed
familiarity with Swift's Christian name and, in general, was exces-
sively obliging. Swift confessed that he was willing to revenge
himself upon his old friends, who had neglected him. “I will
make them repent their ill-usage before I leave this place,' he
said. But we must not forget that, in joining the tories, he was
only rallying to the side with which he was really in sympathy.
The interests of the church were paramount with him; and he had
come to see that tories were the church's natural guardians. In
October, he attacked Godolphin in The Virtues of Sid Hamet
the Magician's Rod, and published a pamphlet against Wharton,
charging him with nearly every crime. In the following month,
he took in charge a weekly paper, The Examiner, which had just
been started by St John', and he wrote for it regularly until June
1711. St John afterwards said, “We were determined to have you:
you were the only one we were afraid of. '
An attempt to assassinate Harley, in March 1711, greatly in-
creased the popularity of that minister. Swift was much alarmed
while Harley's life was in danger. He had, Swift said, always
treated him with the tenderness of a parent, and never refused him
any favour as a friend. The efforts of the party were now devoted
to bringing the war with France to an end. Harley was created
earl of Oxford, and became lord treasurer. The whigs, opposed
to a peace, formed an alliance with Nottingham, previously an
extreme tory. Swift, who had given up his connection with
The Examiner, composed, in November and December 1711, two
pamphlets in favour of peace: The Conduct of the Allies and of
the late Ministry in beginning and carrying on the present war,
and Some Remarks on the Barrier Treaty. He also attacked
* See post, chap. VIII.
6
}
1


## p. 96 (#120) #############################################

96
Swift
the duchess of Somerset in The W-ds—r Prophecy, and assisted
the government by A Letter to the October Club, which consisted
of the more extreme tories. The danger threatening the govern-
ment from the House of Lords was removed, in December, by the
creation of twelve new peers, and by the dismissal of the duke of
Marlborough from his employments.
Swift had now attained a position of great importance, and the
authority he possessed and the respect shown him gave him much
pleasure. He often used his power in the service of humble friends
as well as of persons of more social consequence. "This I think I
am bound to do, in honour to my conscience,' he says, 'to use of
my little credit toward helping forward men of worth in the
world. ' To literary men, he was specially helpful. The Brothers'
club, which had been founded in 1711, to advance conversation
and friendship, included St John and other ministers, Swift,
Arbuthnot and Prior. The club does not seem to have lasted
beyond 1713, but its members frequently called each other
"brother' in later years. With regard to his own promotion,
Swift felt that he should be asked rather than ask? Recognition
of his services was, no doubt, to some extent, delayed by the wish
of ministers to keep him at hand to assist them; but the main
dífficulty was the suspicion as to his orthodoxy, an argument
which had considerable weight with the queen. Oxford was
kind to him; 'mighty kind,' says Swift; ‘less of civility but more
of interest! ' At last, in April 1713, he was given the vacant
deanery of St Patrick's—a somewhat disappointing end to his
hopes, inasmuch as it involved banishment to Ireland, and the
payment of heavy expenses on the deanery. His health was
bad; he was subject to attacks of giddiness; and his reception
in Dublin was anything but friendly. In October, Swift returned
to London. Peace had now been secured, and the question before
the country was that of the succession to the crown. Oxford was
not above suspicion; St John (now Viscount Bolingbroke) was
involved in Jacobite plots. Swift was not aware of these schem-
ings, although there was widespread suspicion which led to much
uneasiness in the country. The queen was in ill-health, and it was
known that her life was very precarious.
Swift's efforts to repair the growing breach between Oxford and
* He did not, however, always leave it to others to make the suggestion. On
5 Jan. 1712/3, he wrote to Oxford: 'I must humbly take leave to inform your Lordship
that the Dean of Wells died this morning at one o'clock. I entirely submit my small
fortunes to your Lordsbip. ' Marquis of Bath's Papers, Hist. MSS Comm. , 1904, 1, 228.


## p. 97 (#121) #############################################

Stella and Vanessa
97
>
Bolingbroke came to nothing. In many respects, his sympathies
were with Bolingbroke; but his friendship for Oxford made it im-
possible for him to desert that minister. He refused, therefore,
to join with the men now in power. Oxford was deprived of office
on 27 July 1714; but Bolingbroke's triumph was short-lived, for,
on 1 August, queen Anne died. Swift retired to Dublin, where he
lived in the corner of a vast unfurnished house. '
In Dublin, of course, Swift was in constant intercourse with
Esther Johnson; but his relations with Stella, as she has come
to be known, were complicated by his friendship for Hester
Vanhomrigh, the daughter of a widow with whom he had become
acquainted in 1708. In 1710, when Swift went to London, he had
taken lodgings near the family, and he was frequently with them.
Hester Vanhomrigh was then nineteen.