The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 1

Part 1

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THE WORKS

ALEXANDER POPE.

NEW EDITION.

INCLUDING

SEVERAL HUNDRED UNPUBLISHED LETTERS, AND OTHER NEW MATERIALS.

COLLECTED IN PART BY THE LATE

R'T. HON. JOHN WILSON CROKER.

WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES.

BY REV. WHITWELL ELWIN.

VOL. I.

POETRY.--VOL. I.

WITH PORTRAITS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS.

LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1871.

LONDON: BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

CONTENTS

THE FIRST VOLUME OF POETRY.

PAGE CATALOGUE OF POPE'S COLLECTED EDITIONS OF HIS WORKS vii

POPE'S MEMORIAL LIST OF RELATIONS AND FRIENDS ix

ADVERTISEMENT OF WARBURTON TO HIS EDITION OF POPE'S WORKS xi

INTRODUCTION xv

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE 1

RECOMMENDATORY POEMS 17

TRANSLATIONS 37 THE FIRST BOOK OF STATIUS'S THEBAIS 41 SAPPHO TO PHAON FROM OVID 87 THE FABLE OF DRYOPE FROM OVID 104 VERTUMNUS AND POMONA FROM OVID 108

JANUARY AND MAY, FROM CHAUCER 113

THE WIFE OF BATH, FROM CHAUCER 155

THE TEMPLE OF FAME 185

PASTORALS 231 DISCOURSE OF PASTORAL POETRY 257 1. SPRING, TO SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL 265 2. SUMMER TO DR. GARTH 276 3. AUTUMN TO MR. WYCHERLEY 285 4. WINTER, TO THE MEMORY OF MRS. TEMPEST 292

Part 2

MESSIAH, A SACRED ECLOGUE 301

WINDSOR FOREST 319

CATALOGUE

OF POPE'S COLLECTED EDITIONS OF HIS WORKS.

The Works of Mr. ALEXANDER POPE. London: Printed by W. BOWYER for BERNARD LINTOT, between the Temple Gates, 1717. 4to and folio.

This volume consists of all the acknowledged poems which Pope had hitherto published, with the addition of some new pieces.

The Works of Mr. ALEXANDER POPE. Volume ii. London: Printed by J. WRIGHT, for LAWTON GILLIVER, at Homer's Head in Fleet Street, 1735. 4to and folio.

The volume of 1735 contains, with a few exceptions, the poems which Pope had printed since 1717. The pages of each group of pieces--Epistles, Satires, Epitaphs, etc.--are numbered separately, and there are other irregularities in the numbers, arising from a change in the order of the Moral Essays after the sheets were struck off.

Letters of Mr. ALEXANDER POPE, and Several of his friends. London: Printed by J. WRIGHT for J. KNAPTON in Ludgate Street, L. GILLIVER in Fleet Street, J. BRINDLEY in New Bond Street, and R. DODSLEY in Pall-Mall, 1737. 4to and folio.

This is Pope's first avowed edition of his letters. A half-title, "The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope in Prose," precedes the title-page.

The Works of Mr. ALEXANDER POPE, in Prose. Vol. ii. London: Printed for J. and P. KNAPTON, C. BATHURST, and R. DODSLEY, 1741. 4to and folio.

The half-title is more precise: "The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, in Prose. Vol. ii. Containing the rest of his Letters, with the Memoirs of Scriblerus, never before printed; and other Tracts written either singly, or in conjunction with his friends. Now first collected together." The letters are the Swift correspondence, and they are in a different type from the rest of the book. The numbers of the pages are very irregular, and show that the contents and arrangement of the volume had been greatly altered from some previous impression. The folio copies of the two volumes of poetry, and the two of prose, are merely the quarto text portioned out into longer pages, without a single leaf being reprinted. The trifling variations from the quartos were introduced when the matter was put into the folio size.

The Works of ALEXANDER POPE, ESQ.; vol. i. with explanatory Notes and Additions never before printed. London: Printed for B. LINTOT, 1736. Small 8vo.

This is the first volume of an edition which extended to nine volumes, and which from the want of uniformity in the title-pages, the dates, and names of the publishers appears to consist of odd volumes. The copyright of Pope's works belonged to different proprietors, and they at last agreed to print their respective shares in small octavo, that the several parts united might form a complete set. Each proprietor commenced printing his particular section of the octavos when the previous sizes he had on hand were sold, and thus it happened that the second volume of the edition came out in 1735 before the first, which was published in 1736. The series was not finished till 1742, when the fourth book of the Dunciad was added to the Poems, and the Swift Correspondence to the Letters. Some of the volumes were reprinted, and the later editions occasionally differ slightly from their predecessors. The Poems and Letters of Pope are more complete in the octavos than in the quartos, but the octavos, on the other hand, omit all the prose works except the Letters, and the Memoirs of Scriblerus, and octavos and quartos combined are imperfect in comparison with the editions which have been published since Pope's death.

A MEMORIAL LIST

DEPARTED RELATIONS AND FRIENDS.

WRITTEN BY POPE IN AN ELZEVIR VIRGIL, NOW IN THE LIBRARY OF THE EARL OF MANSFIELD.

NATUS MAJI 21, 1688, HORA POST MERID. 6-3/4.

Quo desiderio veteres revocamus amores Atque olim amissas flemus amicitias.

Catullus.

Anno 1700, Maji primo, obit, semper venerandus, poetarum princeps, Joannes Dryden, æt. 70.

Anno 1708, mens. Aprili, obiit Gulielmus Walsh, criticus sagax, amicus et vir bonus, æt. 49.

Anno 1710, Jan. 24, Avita mea piissimæ mem., Eliz. Turner, migravit in coelum, annum agens 74.

Anno 1710, mens. Aprili, Tho. Betterton, Roscius sui temporis, exit omnium cum plausu bonorum, æt. 74.

Anno 1712, mens. Januario, decessit vir facetissimus, juventutis meæ deliciæ, Antonius Englefleld, æt. 75.

Anno 1718, obit Tho. Parnell, poetica laude, et moribus suavissimis insignis.

Anno 1715, mens. Martio, decessit Gul. Wycherley, poeta morum scientia clarus, ille meos primus qui habebat amores, æt. 75.

Anno 1716, mens. Decemb. obit Gulielmus Trumbull, olim Regi Gul. a secretis, annum agens 75. Amicus meus humanissimus a juvenilibus annis.

Part 3

Pater meus, Alex. Pope, omnibus bonis moribus præditus obit, an. 1717.

Simon Harcourt, filius, obit, mens. Junio 1720, Lutet. Parisior. Quem sequitur Pater, olim M. Britann. Cancellar., mense Julio 1727.

Jacobus Craggs R.M.B. a secretis, natura generosus et ingenuus, amicus animosus, charissim. memor., e vita exc. Feb. 1720/1.

Robertus Oxoniæ Comes, mihi perfamiliaris et jucundus, fortiter obit, 1724.

Jo. Sheffield, Buckinghamiæ Dux, mihi lenis et amicissimus, fato functus est Feb. 1720/1 æt. 73.

Nutrix mea fidelissima M. Beech, obiit 5 Novem. 1725, æt. 77.

Robertus Digby, ex Patre antiquis præditus moribus, e vita migravit, Apr. 1726.

Edwardus Blunt, vir amicissimus obit, Aug. 1726.

Anno 1728/9, Jan. 20, æt. 57, mortuus est Gulielmus Congreve, poeta, eximius, vir comis, urbanus, et mihi perquam familiaris.

Elijah Fenton, vir probus, et poeta haud mediocris, decessit men. Julio 1730, æt. 48.

Francisc. Atterbury, Roffens Episcopus, vir omni scientia clarus, animosus, ex Anglia exilio pulsus, an. 1723. Obiit Parisiis, mense Febr. 1732, æt. 70.

Joan. Gay, probitate morum et simplicitate insignis, socius peramabilis, sub oculis meis mortuus est, Dec. 4, 1723, æt. 44.

Mater mea charissima, pientissima et optima, Editha Pope, obiit septima die Junii 1733, annum implens nonagesimum tertium.

G. Garth, MD. homo candidus et poeta urbanus, obiit 1719.

Joan. Arbuthnot, MD. vir doctiss., probitate ac pietate insignis, obiit Febr. 27, 1734/5, æt. 68.

Carolus Mordaunt. Com. Peterbor., vir insigniss. bellica virtute, ac morum comitate, obiit Ulyssipont. anno ætatis 78, 1735, mense Octobris.

FOOTNOTES:

ADVERTISEMENT OF WARBURTON TO HIS EDITION OF POPE'S WORKS, 1751.

Mr. Pope, in his last illness, amused himself, amidst the care of his higher concerns, in preparing a corrected and complete edition of his writings; and, with his usual delicacy, was even solicitous to prevent any share of the offence they might occasion, from falling on the friend whom he had engaged to give them to the public. In discharge of this trust, the public has here a complete edition of his works, executed in such a manner, as, I am persuaded, would have been to his satisfaction. The editor hath not, for the sake of profit, suffered the author's name to be made cheap by a subscription; nor his works to be defrauded of their due honours by a vulgar or inelegant impression; nor his memory to be disgraced by any pieces unworthy of his talents or virtue. On the contrary, he hath, at a very great expense, ornamented this edition with all the advantages which the best artists in paper, printing, and sculpture could bestow upon it.

If the public hath waited longer than the deference due to its generous impatience for the author's writings should have suffered, it was owing to a reason which the editor need not be ashamed to tell. It was his regard to the family interests of his deceased friend. Mr. Pope, at his death, had left large impressions of several parts of his works, unsold, the property of which was adjudged to belong to his executors; and the editor was willing they should have time to dispose of them to the best advantage, before the publication of this edition (which hath been long prepared) should put a stop to the sale. But it may be proper to be a little more particular concerning the superiority of this edition above all the preceding, so far as Mr. Pope himself was concerned. What the editor hath done, the reader must collect for himself.

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