During his last illness, he complained of seeing things as through a curtain;' and lamented, as his greatest inconvenience, his inability to think. Upon the suggestion of Hooke the historian, a convert to Popery, he received the sacrament from a Romish priest.* He had, throughout his life, been the victim of a severe head-ach. † This complaint, to which his mother likewise had always been subject, was now greatly increased by his other ailments; and under their joint attack he expired, May 30, 1744, in the fifty sixth year of his age. His body was deposited, pursuant to his own request, in the same vault with those of his parents, to whose memory he had erected a monument, with an inscription written by himself: D. O. M. Alexandro Pope, viro innocuo, probo, pio, Et Edithe conjugi, inculpabili, pientissimæ, Parentibus benè merentibus Et sibi. Obiit an. (1744.) ætatis (56). Not long before his death he made his will, in which he bequeathed his papers to Lord Bolingbroke, *Though pressed by Atterbury, he had never chosen to declare a change of religion: whether through indifference to forms, or from a reluctance to give his mother pain. Upon this subject an elegant epigram was written : Immortal Jove thus felt an equal pain, And Wisdom's Goddess issued from his brain.' Lord Bathurst, Lord Marchmont, Mr. Murray, and Mr. Arbuthnot were his executors. and failing him to Lord Marchmont; to Dr. Warburton the property of such of his works already printed, as he had written or should write Commentaries upon, and which had not been otherwise disposed of (with the sole condition, that they should be published without subsequent alterations); his pictures and statues, with some of his favourite books, among his noble friends; provision for his favourite domestics; and to Mr. Allen,* in affected repayment of all his kindness, a legacy of 1501.! which that gentleman accepted, and gave to the Bath Hospital. "I own," says he in a letter to Warburton, "the late encroachments upon my constitution make me willing to see the end of all farther care about me, or my works. I would rest for the one, in a full resignation of my being to be disposed of by the Father of all Mercies; and for the other, though indeed a trifle, yet a trifle may be some example, I would commit them to the candor of a sensible and reflecting judge, rather than to the malice of every shortsighted and malevolent critic, or inadvertent and censorious reader; and no head can set them in so clear a light, or so well turn their best side to the day, as your own." In discharge of this trust, Warburton gave a complete edition, in 1751, of all his works (with the exception of his Homer) in nine * Allen had offended the haughty Miss Blount, by refusing her his carriage to the Catholic chapel. This, as he was then Mayor of Bath, he stated, could not without impropriety be seen at the door of a place of worship, which his office might require him to suppress. She complained to Pope on the occasion, and not satisfied with making him abruptly leave the house, refused to accept from him any legacy, unless he left the world with a formal disavowal of all obligation to Mr. Allen. Pope meanly submitted to pollute his will with female resentment. volumes octavo, executed in such a manner as, he was persuaded, would have been to the author's entire satisfaction.* "If we may judge of him (says Lord Orrery) by his works, his chief aim, was to be esteemed a man of virtue. His letters are written in that stile: his last volumes are all of the moral kind; he has avoided trifles, and consequently has escaped a rock, which has proved very injurious to Dr. Swift's reputation. He has given his imagination full scope, and yet has preserved a perpetual guard upon his conduct. The constitution of his body and mind might really incline him to the habits of caution and reserve: the treatment, which he met with afterward from an innumerable tribe of adversaries, confirmed this habit, and made him slower than the Dean in pronouncing his judgement upon persons and things. His prosewritings are little less harmonious than his verse; and his voice, in common conversation, was so naturally musical, that I remember honest Tom Southern used to call him the Little Nightingale.' His manners were easy, delicate, and engaging; and he treated his friends with a politeness that charmed, 6 privilege of writing notes Many indeed, inserted in * How far, however, his editorial extended, is only known to himself. the first edition, were left out in the second; but many likewise were retained, which convey severe reflexions upon the dearest friends. These have not escaped deserved censure. poet's Another edition, by Owen Ruffhead, with an account of his Life and observations upon his compositions, appeared in 5 vols. 4to. in 1769. Others were announced by Gilbert Wakefield, and Dr. Joseph Warton, whose Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope' (2 vols. 8vo. 1762, 1782) abounds with taste and learning; and the latest was published in ten volumes 8vo. by the Rev. W. L. Bowles, in 1806. and a generosity that was much to his honour. Every guest was made happy within his doors, pleasure dwelt under his roof, and elegance presided at his table." I In person protuberant both behind and before, he was so low of stature, that in order to bring him on a level with common tables, it was necessary to raise his seat. But his face was animated, and his eye remarkably piercing. As he could scarcely, from the contraction of one side and general feebleness of frame, hold himself upright without support, he very pardonably used stays. Under a coarse linen shirt, with fine sleeves, he wore a fur doublet; and, to enlarge the bulk of his legs, had three pair of stockings, which (as he could neither dress, nor undress, himself) were drawn on and off by his maid. Sickly, fretful, and impatient, he was extremely troublesome to the servants of those whom he visited; but he compensated their kindness by pecuniary rewards. When he felt drowsy, a sense of propriety did not restrain him from nodding in company: he once, indeed, slumbered at his own table, while the Prince of Wales was talking of poetry. In eating, he was both dainty and voracious; but it does not appear, that he was addicted to wine. At home, he was at some times so frugal, that he would limit a couple of guests to a pint of wine; though at others, professing to give a splendid entertainment, he would display great taste and magnificence. His love of money was rather eagerness to gain, than solicitude to keep: for he lent a considerable sum to Dodsley, to enable him to open a shop, subscribed handsomely to Savage, and bestowed large sums in charity. Too early susceptible and too long retentive of offence, open to flattery and studious of revenge, peevish in temper and petty in contrivance (which may principally be ascribed, perhaps, to constitutional debility) he must have had a powerful overbalance of virtues, to be so much beloved during his life, and so affectionately regretted after his death. Bolingbroke himself affirmed, He had never known a man, who had so tender a heart for his particular friends, or more general friendship for mankind.' Of his intellectual character the fundamental principle is good sense, a prompt and intuitive perception of consonance and propriety. As a poet, while it is allowed that he does not abound in invention, he must be admitted to excel in the other great constituent qualities of harmonious versification, imagery and splendor of diction, and the talent of vivifying and brightening every subject which he touched. To assist these powers, he possessed singular strength and exactness of memory improved by indefatigable industry, and he had acquired and thoroughly digested a vast aggregate of various kinds of knowledge. His productions, indeed, form a school of English Poetry. The reader will be glad to peruse, from the pen of Dr. Johnson, a parallel between Pope and his great master Dryden; a composition every way worthy of it's subject, and which could scarcely by any other pen have been supplied: 6 Integrity of understanding and nicety of discernment were not allotted in a less proportion to Dryden, than to Pope. The rectitude of Dryden's mind was sufficiently shown by the dismission of his poetical prejudices, and the rejection of unnatural thoughts and rugged numbers. But Dryden never desired to apply all the judgement that he had. He wrote, |