Copy 1, Volume 3

The works of Alexander Pope, esq. with notes and illustrations by himself and others. To which are added a new life of the author, an estimate of his poetical character and writings, and occasional remarks / by William Roscoe. Esq.

  • Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The works of Alexander Pope, esq. with notes and illustrations by himself and others. To which are added a new life of the author, an estimate of his poetical character and writings, and occasional remarks / by William Roscoe. Esq. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/402 (page 6)
    GRANVILLE commands; your aid, O Muses, bring! What Muse for GRANVILLE can refuse to sing? The Groves of Eden, vanish’d now so long, Live in description, and look green in song: These, were my breast inspir’d with equal flame, Like them in beauty, should be like in fame. 10 NOTES. His Progress of Beauty, and his Essay on Unnatural Flights in Poetry, seem to be the best of his pieces; in the latter are many good critical remarks and precepts, and it is accompanied. with notes that contain much agreeable instruction. For it may be added, his prose is better than his verse. Witness a Letter to a Young Man on his taking Orders, his Observations on Burnet, and his Defence of his relation Sir Richard Grenville, and a Translation of some parts of Demosthenes, and a Letter to his Father on the Revolution, written in October 1688. After having been Secretary at War 1710, Controller and Treasurer to the Household, and of her Majesty’s Privy Council, and created a Peer 1711, he was seized as a suspected person, at the accession of King George the First, and confined in the Tower, in the very chamber that had before been occupied by Sir Robert Walpole. But whatever may be thought of Lord Lansdown as a poet, his character as a man was highly valuable. His conversation was most pleasing and polite; his affability, and universal benevolence and gentleness, captivating ; he was a firm friend, and a sincere lover of his country. Warton. IMITATIONS. Ver. 6. “ neget quis carmina Gallo ?” Virc. REMARKS... Ver. 7. Allusion to Milton’s Paradise Lost. Warton. Ver. 8. Live in description, | Evidently suggested by Waller : “ Of the first Paradise there’s nothing found, Yet the description lasts ; who knows the fate Of lives that shall this Paradise relate ? Instead of rivers rolling by the side Of Eden’s garden,” &c. Bovoles. Ver. 9. inspir’d with equal flame,| That is (as I understand it), if the Poet were inspired with Milton’s poetical flame, then chese groves,