Forest, and asserts his freedom from avarice. The Imitations addressed respectively to Bolingbroke (published in 1738) and to Murray (published in 1737) are more general, and seem to be suggested by the opportunities they offer both for moralising on some of the prevailing vices of the time, and also for paying compliments to his friends. The charming 'Imitation of Horace, Odes, Book IV. 1,' addressed to Murray, and published in 1736-7, has obviously a complimentary motive. The 'Sober Advice from Horace, as delivered in his Second Sermon,' was written in June, 1734, and published in December of the same year. It is described as an imitation "in the manner of Mr. Pope." Pope sent it in manuscript to Bolingbroke, enjoining him to keep the secret. He denied the authorship to Caryll, but it was included in the edition of his works published by Dodsley in 1738. He was doubtless moved to the imitation by the love of finding ingenious parallels, and by the desire of amusing those who were not too strict to disapprove on principle of the morality of the piece. As, however, it was not published in any edition later than Dodsley's, and was ignored by Warburton, it may be assumed that the poet, either by the advice of the latter, or from his own feeling, was desirous to suppress it.

Imitations of

Whatever value is to be attached to the Horace' and to the Epistle to Arbuthnot' as chapters of autobiography, there can be but one opinion as to their literary merit. The ingenuity of the parallels in the one, and the ease, spirit, breeding and dignity in the style of both, place them among the most delightful compositions in the English language. As we revert to the starting point of Pope's literary career, and compare these works with the Pastorals' and other poems written when he was in bondage to the style of the classics, we perceive how completely he had attained the object he had set before his mind in the Essay on Criticism,' and how, by mastering the true spirit and method of the great writers of antiquity, he had learned to apply them to his own language and his own time,

CHAPTER XIII,

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL PERIOD.

Edition of Wycherley's Works-Clandestine Dealings with Curll-Surreptitious Edition of Correspondence in 1735-Authorised Edition of 1737-Publication of Correspondence with Swift.

1729-1741.

In dealing with Pope's clandestine publication of his correspondence, I shall take the facts of the case to have been conclusively established by Mr. Elwin's exhaustive examination, and shall confine myself to such a narrative as may render as intelligible as possible the intricacies of the poet's extraordinary plot. It will be seen that the fraud was of a twofold nature, part of it relating to the manner in which the correspondence was published, and part to the alteration of the letters themselves. The key to Pope's proceedings is to be found in the Narrative of the Method by which Mr. Pope's Private Letters were Procured and Published by Edmund Curll, Bookseller,' which was published by Cooper in 1735, and in the Preface prefixed to the First Genuine Edition in Quarto, 1737'; both being read in connection with the actual facts as we now know them.

From the Narrative' it appears that the starting point of the whole conspiracy was the publication by Curll in 1726 of Pope's correspondence with Cromwell. We cannot of course know exactly what were the poet's feelings on this occasion, but it may be inferred that he was at first annoyed at being shown to the public corresponding with a person so insignificant as Cromwell. He spoke of the correspondence to Caryll as "very unfit to see the light in many regards," and he afterwards pre

1 Letter from Pope to Caryll of Oct. 5, 1727,

tended to Spence that it was written with an intention not immediately apparent. He also affected to depreciate the character of the letters in a note to the 'Dunciad.' Had he published the authorized edition of his letters in 1726 instead of in 1737 the language of the following paragraph of the Preface to that edition, which can now only be regarded as rhetorical, might have been accepted as sincere.

"But however this collection may be received, we cannot but lament the cause, and the necessity of such a publication, and heartily wish no honest man may be reduced to the same. To state the case fairly in the present situation. A bookseller advertises his intention to publish your letters; he openly promises encouragement, or even pecuniary rewards, to those who will help him to any; and engages to insert whatever they shall send. Any scandal is sure of a reception, and any enemy who sends it free from a discovery. Any domestic or servant, who can snatch a letter from your pocket or cabinet, is encouraged to that vile practice. If the quantity falls short of a volume, anything else shall be joined with it, more especially scandal, which the collector can think for his interest, all recommended under your name. You have not only theft to fear, but forgery. Any bookseller, though conscious in what manner they were obtained, not caring what may be the consequence to your fame or quiet, will sell and dispense them in town and country. The better your reputation is, the more your name will cause them to be demanded, and consequently the more you will be injured. The injury is of such a nature as the law, which does not punish for intentions, cannot prevent; and when done may punish, but not redress. You are therefore reduced either to enter into a personal treaty with such a man (which, though the readiest, is the meanest of all methods), or to take such other measures to suppress them as are contrary to your inclination, or to publish them, as are contrary to your modesty."

Finding, however, that the public, ever greedy for personality, were interested in the correspondence, Pope began to view the matter with different eyes. Whether he conceived the design of publishing his own correspondence as early as 1726 is uncertain: we only know that almost immediately after the appearance of Curll's volume containing his correspondence with Cromwell he became persistent in his applications to Caryll to return him his letters, and that he made the same request to Lord Digby, to the widow of Edward Blount,

Note to Dunciad, ii. 70,

and to other friends. Caryll did not comply with his wishes till the spring of 1729, by which time Pope was in the thick of his quarrel with the Dunces, and perceived that his letters if published would afford favourable testimony of his cha

racter.

"If I have not so soon replied to your very friendly letter," he writes to Caryll on July 8, 1729, "as it well deserved, I must tell you it was not from neglecting, but thinking of you; for I have been these three weeks in full employment and amusement in reviewing the whole correspondence I have had with two or three of my most select friends, whose letters I have read quite through, and thereby passed over all my life in idea, and tasted over again all the pleasing intimacies and agreeable obligations I owed them. Some of my own letters have been returned to me, which I have put into order, with theirs, and it makes altogether an unimportant, indeed, but yet an innocent history of myself. I thank God, above all, for finding so few parts of my life that I need to be ashamed of, no correspondence or intimacies with any but good deserving people, and no opinions that I need blush for, or actions, as I hope, that need to make my friends blush for me."

.

To Lord Oxford in September of the same year he made a further claim on behalf of his correspondence.

"As the rest of the work I told you of-that of collecting the papers and letters of many other correspondents-advances now to some bulk, I think more and more of it, as finding what a number of facts they will settle the truth of, both relating to history and criticism, and parts of private life and character of the eminent men of my time."1

When these words were written it is plain that Pope had resolved to publish his letters, and that he had taken the first step in execution of his design. Captain Shrimpton, who had married the widow of Wycherley, had placed the papers of the dramatist in the hands of Theobald, solicitor to the Shrimpton family, who edited them in a volume which appeared in 1728. Pope, to whom Wycherley had submitted his manuscripts during his life-time, claimed to have an interest in the matter, and made an application to Lord Oxford.

Letter from Pope to Lord Oxford of Sept. 15, 1729.

"The mention of your library, which I should envy any man but one who both makes a good use of it himself, and suffers others to do so, brings back into my mind a request I have had at heart for half a year and more,—that you would suffer some original papers and letters both of my own and some of my friends, to lie in your library at London. There seems already to be an occasion of it from a publication of certain posthumous pieces of Mr. Wycherley, very unfair and derogatory to his memory, as well as injurious to me, who had the sole supervisal of them committed to me, at his earnest desire in his life-time; and something will be necessary to be done to clear both his and my reputation, which the letters under his hand will abundantly do for which particular reason I desire to have them lodged in your lordship's hands."1

The letters of Wycherley, both as actually written and as published by Pope, show that the former had withdrawn his manuscripts from the poet's keeping, and was not disposed to act unreservedly upon his advice; there was therefore nothing in the posthumous volume which could injuriously affect the poet's reputation. Lord Oxford, however, who could not judge of the hollowness of the pretext, gave his consent to the proposal, and Pope, having gained his first point, proceeded to develop his plan.

"All the favour I would beg of your lordship herein," he wrote in his next letter, dated October 6, 1729, "is to give leave that it may be said the originals are in your library, which they shall be as soon as you will give orders to any one to receive them into it, which I earnestly request. I would not appear myself as publisher of them, but any man else may, or even the bookseller be supposed to have procured copies of them-formerly or now it is equal."

Though Lord Oxford must have seen that he was being made a partner in a trick, he still raised no objection, and the poet, perceiving that he might do as he pleased with a character so feeble, did not hesitate to go beyond the licence given him. He brought out his volume-containing among other literary remains of Wycherley the correspondence with himself as a supplement to Theobald's.

"I consulted Mr. Lewis," he writes to Lord Oxford, "upon the turn of the preface to those papers relating to Mr. Wycherley, and

1 Letter from Pope to Lord Oxford of Sept. 15, 1729,