friendly and uncandid Life prefixed to it. Johnfon adds, "He had forgotten to mention the Revenge, "till a friend reminded him of it." So little did he value dramatic poetry.

Though he did not put his name to the loofe Imitation of the Second Satire of Horace, intitled, "Sober Advice from Horace to the Young Gentle"men about Town," printed 1736, yet was he indifputably the Author of it; and fuffered his friend Dodfley to publifh it as fuch, in one edition in 12mo; and is in plain terms charged with it by Bolingbroke, in one of his Letters.

No lefs than four of his Imitations of Horace appeared 1737, which, by the artful accommodations of modern fentiments to ancient, by judicious applications of fimilar characters, and happy parallels, are become fome of the most pleafing and popular of all his Works, efpecially to readers of years and experience. Thefe are, the Sixth Epistle of the First Book of Horace to Mr. Murray (to whom he also addreffed an Imitation of the Ode to Venus); the Second Satire of the Second Book to Mr. Bethel; the First Epistle of the First Book of Epiftles to Lord Bolingbroke; the First Epistle of the Second Book to the King; the Second Epiftle of this Book to Colonel Dormer. Of these Imitations, that to the King, Lord Bolingbroke, and Mr. Murray afterwards Lord Mansfield, are the beft; and that to Mr. Bethel the feebleft. The Epistle to Auguftus, at first read and understood,

by

by fome fuperficial courtiers, as a compliment to George II. as foon as the bitter and farcaftic irony in it was discovered, gave great offence.

Mr. Allen of Bath, having long defired our Author to publish a Collection of his Letters, from which, he faid, a perfect system of morals might be extracted, offered to be at the cost of a publication of them. Pope refused this offer; but in the year 1737, published an edition of them in quarto, by a large subscription; and a fecond volume, with the Memoirs of Scriblerus, 1741. I think it proper to give an account of the manner in which this correspondence was procured, in the words of Dr. Johnson.

"One of the paffages of Pope's Life, which feems to deserve some inquiry, was a publication of Letters between him and his friends, which falling into the hands of Curll, a rapacious bookfeller of no good fame, were by him printed and fold. This volume containing fome Letters from Noblemen, Pope incited a profecution against him in the House of Lords for breach of privilege, and attended himself to ftimulate the refentment of his friends. Curll appeared at the bar, and, knowing himself in no great danger, fpoke of Pope with very little reverence. He has, faid Curll, a knack of verfifying, but in profe I think myself a match for him. When the orders of the Houfe. were examined, none of them appeared to have been infringed;

VOL. I.

d

Curll

Curll went away triumphant, and Pope was left to feek fome other remedy.

"Curll's account was, that one evening a man in a clergyman's gown, but with a lawyer's band, brought and offered to fale a number of printed volumes, which he found to be Pope's Epiftolary Correspondence; that he asked no name, and was told none; but gave the price demanded, and thought himself authorised to use this purchase to his own advantage,

"That Curll gave a true account of the tranfaction, it is reasonable to believe, because no falfehood was ever detected; and when fome years afterwards I mentioned it to Lintot, the fon of Bernard, he declared his opinion to be, that Pope knew better than any body elfe how Curll obtained the copies, because another parcel was at the fame time fent to himself, for which no price had ever been demanded, as he made known his refolution not to pay a porter, and confequently not to deal with a nameless agent.

"Such care had been taken to make them public, that they were fent at once to two bookfellers; to Curll, who was likely to seize them as a prey; and to Lintot, who might be expected to give Pope information of the feeming injury. Lintot, I believe, did nothing, and Curll did what was expected. That to make them public was the only purpose, may

be

be reafonably fuppofed, because the numbers offered to fale by the private messengers, fhewed that hope of gain could not have been the motive of the impreffion.

"It feems that Pope, being defirous of printing his Letters, and not knowing how to do, without imputation of vanity, what has in this country been done very rarely, contrived an appearance of com. pulfion; that when he could complain his Letters were furreptitiously published, he might decently and defenfively publish them himself.

Pope's private correfpondence, thus promul gated, filled the nation with praise of his candour, tenderness, and benevolence, the purity of his pur pofe, and the fidelity of his friendship. There were fome Letters which a very good, or a very wife man would wish fuppreffed; but, as they had been already expofed, it was impoffible now to retract them."

In the various forts of compofition in which the English have excelled, we have perhaps the least claim to excellence in the article of Letters of our celebrated countrymen. The best in this Collection, are of Swift and Arbuthnot, of Peterborough and Trumbull, as written from the heart, and in an eafy, familiar ftyle. Thofe of Bolingbroke are in the form of differtations; and those of Pope himself, like the elegant and studied Epiftles of Pliny and Balfac. All of them are over-crowded with profeffions of integrity

and disinterestedness, with trite reflections on contentment and retirement; a difdain of greatnefs and courts; a contempt of fame; and an affected strain of commonplace morality. They seem to be chiefly valuable for fome literary particulars incidentally mentioned.

Being now, in the year 1738, closely connected with the moft able oppofers of the Miniftry and the Court, he wrote the Two Dialogues that took their title from the year in which they were compofed, and which are, perhaps, all things confidered, fome of the strongest Satires ever written in any age or any country. Every species of farcasm and mode of style are here alternately employed; ridicule, reasoning, irony, mirth, seriousness, lamentation, laughter, familiar imagery, and high poetical painting. Many perfons in power were highly provoked, but the name of Pope prevented a profecution, for what Paxton wifhed to have called a libel. But about the fame time, Paul Whitehead, a very inferior poet, publishing Manners, gave an opportunity for repreffing what was thought too great a liberty of the prefs. He left in his poem a very unguarded line,

"And Sherlock's fhop and Henley's are the fame."

For this line, the Bishop of Salisbury fummoned Whitehead to appear before the Houfe of Lords. As he could not be found, his printer, Dodfley, was taken and conveyed, as he himself informed me, to a fpunging-house in the Butcher-row, under the custody

of