Copy 1, Volume 1

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.

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    to Lintot, who might be expected to give Pope information of the seeming injury. Lintot, I be- lieve, did nothing; and Curll did what was ex- pected. That to make them public was the only purpose, may be reasonably supposed, because the numbers offered to sale by the private messengers shewed, that hope of gain could not nave been the motive of the impression. “It seems that Pope, being desirous 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 compulsion; that, when he could complain that his letters were surreptitiously published, he might decently and defensively publish them himself.” This strange tissue of gross mistakes and ground- less imputations has been adopted by Dr. Warton, in his Life of Pope, in the same words, without further examination ; and Mr. Bowles has not only given it his full sanction, but has endeavoured to confirm it by various arguments; and in particu- lar by @ supposed discovery, that “almost all the letters in the collection, which Pope calls the spu- rious one, were carefully corrected and amended.” “That he did it himself,” adds Mr. Bowles, “ap- pears from the letters afterwards printed in his own name in 1735,* having retained all the corrections, amendments, and additions, which he had care- * Pope printed no letters in his own name in 1735. It was not till 1737 that the authentic edition of his letters was published.