I should indeed blush to bring any charges upon such palpable exaggerations, magnified by my own spleen.—Yes, and I should do more than blush; I should think the hand that wrote, and the heart that dictated, ought to wither, before I could coolly sit down to impute motives to a commentator or poet, from a professed satire, as this unblushing critic has done to me. I should do more than blush, if I had repeated so often, what I knew to be false ; for it is as false to say I had endeavoured to rob Pope of his virtues, as it is to say I asserted he was " no Great Poet." Why do I give myself this trouble? It will be all in vain. The next critic, as ingenuous and honorable as this, will assert the same falsehood, which has been so often refuted, that I and my kindhearted master, now beyond the reach of this paltry untruth, have denied that Pope was " a Great Poet," when we have only denied he was the GREATEST! Of this we shall speak more by-and-by; but whether I were critic or commentator, I should indeed “ Hang my head, “ And Blush to think myself a man," if, knowing my charges would be read by thousands, to whom the vindication would never come, I had described a commentator so malignant as to charge the poet, whose life he was writing, with taking a BRIBE to suppress a satire,” when I knew, and could not but know, that that commentator had expressed (besides his indignation that such a charge should be made, which sentiment has been grossly perverted) his utter disbelief of it, to prove which 1 call the reader's attention to the passage quoted in my answer to Campbell, which in other respects this writer has read with sufficient acuteness. How dare such an “unblushing calumniator" not only pervert the honest expressions of my feelings, but attribute to me, that I had charged Pope with “ taking a bribe to suppress a satire,” who ” have recorded in vain, in two publications, my disbelief! “ Ope circumstance is mentioned by Horace Walpole, which, if true, was indeed flagitious : Walpole informs Gray, that the character of ATOSSA was shown to the Duchess of Buckingham and the Duchess of Marlborough; that Pope received a thousand pounds from the Duchess of Marlborough, promising, on these terms to suppress it; that he took the money and then published it!" ” I had already expressed warmly what I felt at the baseness of sach transaction, JF TRUE; not at all implying that I believed it rue. My “ Life” contains the following remarks on it, and se - VOL. XVII. Pum. NO. XXXIII. F remarks are republished in the letter to Campbell ; and here is a man, who has sead those remarks, and baving first perverted my obvious meaning, tells med charge, Pope with. I taking a bribe to suppress a satire, and then publishing it vil alt motud stitna id Here then, again, I must quote my own words ago 9 bytejo 104 A story so base gught quot for a moment to admitted, solely on the testimony of Walpoles till there is Other proof, besides the assertion of Walpole, the same, candour, which made us reject . whatg vupois no better foundation, was said of Addison, ought to inake us xpjeetaqwith equal readiness, the belietota circumstance of SO DEROGA TORX to the character of Pope age sockw, ideied, a. "Whatever can be proved ought not to be rejected; whatever (charge) has no other foundation than the : ipse dixit the dipse dixit son au of an adversary is entitled to NGBEGARD." Note on Pope Let me now ask, how could any one, with the honorable feel , ings of an honest beart, keep in the dark, purposely, this testimony in Pope's favori a I say purposelyet for, the book was before bim, out of which, ! 9909 01 gnigs .no With all th' invidious malice of a shrew, rr(Cowpen.) bra he has picked every thing that he thought would me appear prejudiced, and studiously omitted whatever was contrary to his own unjust and exasperated prejudice? How could any one, I repeat, without feelings of t« deep, deep\" shame wo without being lost and dead to every sense of candidor generous feelings bold up and emblazon, to the broad day, with colors furnished from his own , distempering and distorting. " spleen," every thing a sacred regard to truth made me say, which might appear derogatory to Pope's . , . amiable character, and yet shut his eyes, on purpose, to those passages where I have denied the charges brought unjustly agains him, or spoken of bis virtues I should indeed have "BLUSHED to have acted in this manner. 9 918 9w nerw.zonilgat 929), die dieThe distich on Sappho, Juhich this very writer calls too er calls too indelicate to transcribe," I leave for him to reconcile to Pope's purity, which I have “ aspersed;" and observe, reader, because I had spoken of his uinmanly conduct to a lady whom heronce idolised, how this same i, Mr. Bowles Mary." Mr. Bowles spoke with indignation, quarrena bany, 123tafi and , cannot, transcribe," against and I Pope kreiv knew the couplet was universally a Lady to her alone. Pope received froin Lord' Peterborough the most pressing remonstrance, as from a friend and gallant Cavalier, not to let the disgraceful couplet” remain,' and this fact alone, in in opposition to his, ando all advanced by the Reviewer, is sufficient in the eyes of common sense, to fix the application of the couplet, not on the first Sappho, Mrs: Thomas," for she was bern! and beyond the reach of satire ; but on the living, the accomplished Sappho, who had rejected Pope's preposterous addresseseim I neve nds 999 H "And here' i assert, sunwarrantablyplas) may haven " at 1 tacked" Pope, for his conduct to Lady Mary, I have said nothing against him half so depreciating as this critic's own representation: * In his letters to her Ladyship, the stages of his erotie fever may be noted by the statements of the patient himself; perhaps it was at its height, when, speaking of to the congeniality of their minds,' the formented poet put his case to her hypothetically, if she can overlook wretched body! siis toshmio sedlo on esd (soted/5) “We conjecture this was the precise moments when a rude burst of laughter awoke him from the PARA DISE°op Fools." PARADISE As I had no doubt of the fact this stated, I liave shown this was my opinion, but I have not touched on it in a manner half so disparaging to Pope ! dordw to 300 And now we enter on the famous quarreli with Addison. b. When we look with regret on the numerous “macula" on Pope's 5900 logo ed sit gadi (1979 b9:01q isdom pageal Who can avoid repeats, botitao ylewoibose bus hygibuisıq 9q91 1 900 Fierblue-Excuse some countly staivs, sx bas toujou of guisd Juodfi No whiter page than Addison's remains" isst vuodsiva When we turn to his works, when we temember the virtuous impression generally excited by his name, band find his character in accordance with his page; when we remember he filled a high post in public life, band yet was 'venerated and beloved by those who were pablicly opposed to him when his generous conduct to Swift, in Treland, is remembered, the silence of political adversaries, and the warmth of so many endeared friends and whilst glowing with these feelings, when we are carried to his death-bed, in that mansion, now inhabited by an accomplished, amiable, classical nobleman, and repeat with Tickel, avsl 19ditieustí v oten 920859d 196691 291192do bris. ';b921990s sved toidla Tobi 95/46 He taught us How To DIVE; and oh, how highid on any " The price of knowledge, ITAUGHT US HOW TO PIEC"ordt web With these feelings some predilection may be allowed to the recollection of the and kind, and accomplished, and Christian, , : Now, as I have said, the best way to estimate the character of those, whose tale of qayş is endevould be to compare what is said of them by friend or foe! But it really appears to me, that the mode in which departed worth is estimated by this writer, is to take for granted what is said by enemies, against those we wish to depress, and listen to the idolising plaudits only, of the most partial friends of those we choose to exalt. и ATо big аяааяр Thus the man takes a few sayings of those who were the least friendly, and says, “ How like is Pope's character of Atticus!”. Pope's verses to Addison, on Medals, with the elegant adulation of his friend Craggs, may be brought as a proof of his ested praise. But it must, at the same time, be remembered, how warmly does Addison in the Spectator speak of Pope's early productions. He was, moreover, eminent in the political as well as the literary world." In such a situation, and with such a character,to whom would ខំ a young man offer sooner, the elegant testimony of classical encomium ! But in speaking of Pope's meeting, after the quarrel with Addison, 1 set plainly before the reader count which is left us. And this account, I repeat, is not left by Addison, or any of his friends, but by the admirer and idolizer of Pope. Thuisisid smo2 lant D52&qquam I say, again, let any unbiassed man, read only the account of this , mid memorable meeting, by Pope's partial friend, and then declare whether he thinks l'ought to be condemned, for judging, according to that very document, which Pope's own friend furnished, and on which my opinion was founded. Is yd nondal. ot blot esw 1 Surely I have the same time same right to express my opinion as this writer has to express his. I have added nothing; I have concealed pg. He has done both : he has added exaggerations, and he has wilfully concealed what suited his purpose to conceal; and when he charges me with SURMISING AWAY EVERY SAMIABLE CHARACTERISTIC of Pope, I charge him, and I think he stands 1. convicted of wilfully aggrav aggravating every charge against me, 10.9 I will now candidly lay before the public, to whom I the real reason of that exclamation, which has excited such a tone of sarcastic reproof, when this critic ten to Mr. Bowles a sort of sentimental critics List I tremble for every character when I heard thing of Spence's Anecdotes. Now listen to Mr. BowLES WLES AGAIN, and be will ingenuously tell this “unsentimental sort of a critic to make this exclamation. Od sa tea Whatrugom E90 9 161 hood This, and another pious composition, Pope imputed to a selfISH Motive! He says he believed this, on the credit of Ton son,” who having quarrelled with Addison, said, “ he intended to TAKE ORDERS and OBTAIN A BISHOPRICK; and this was the reason n of Addison's writing" in Defence of the Christian R RELIGION! for Tonson always believed him a PriesT IN HIS Shop hoang, « Prior is only fit to make verses. was a despicable drab ) of the lowest species. „Spence! SPENCE « Phillips, mog orgrimis 19VORIO M 25W SH Pope, says seemed to have been encouraged to abuse me, in coffee-houses and conversations." --Spence! How ofw * Addison and Steele, to echo him, used to DEPRECIATE DRYDEN us -SPENCE! # When Gay, by request, attended Addison on his death bed, & Addison told him het po Pabello de la what the injury wu; but Gay supposed that some preferment, intended for him, was by ADDISON SJNTERVENTION, With ? story of Addison's ungenerous treatment of Steele, 090 told me Spence, but, in a late edition, ie traced to Popes and I , is know no other authority for it ity for . It was told to Johnson by a person whose name is not givens, person whose name is not given_ to this nameless person it n'it was told by Lady Primrose; Steele told it to her with tears in his eyes; it was confirmed to the anonymous author of a note in Johnson's Lives, by Dr. Stenton, who UU said he had it from Hooke, who had it-*FROM Pope. pyg766 90 Had I been disposed to attack Pope, as I am described, “a l'outrancezni think I could have brought more proofs than I have done, of something that looks more like lisingenuous carping at Addison's fame, than appears from Addison towards him. i am sure, if I had sat down, not with a sacred regard to truth, but on purpose to aggravate his faults , and to surmise away "every amiable quality, Pcould not have been more abused, by those whose Fancour can be only accounted for by supposing they share all Popesunamiable qualities , without his virtues or bis genius, I have thought it necessary to say so much, to show the nature of my feelings when I hastily. Of Spence's Anecdotes, and the "Critic is welcome to his jocularity Having declared I did not believe the charge against Pope, which was in ' deed " infamous, if true, I may, I hope, be allowed to say, I do. not believe one syllable of all that is charged against Addison or Prior, the authority being only one, and, in the case of Addison, that of an enemy; but Spence's Anecdotes, where these and other accusations are heaped against eminent men, seen, as they were, without any accontouing or enlivening circumstances, such as now appear, when the amusing gossip is read as a whole, |
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