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.

    54/402 (page 40)
    Of the general excellence of the Essay on Criticism all its Com- mentators are agreed. Johnson says, that “ if Pope had written nothing else, it would have placed him among the first critics and the first poets; as it exhibits every mode of excellence that can embellish or dignify didactic composition—selection of matter, no- velty of arrangement, justness of precept, splendour of illustration, and propriety of digression.”—But with regard to its order and arrangement, as well as in some other respects, very different opi- nions have been entertained. Dr. Warburton, dissatisfied with the Critique of Addison in the Spectator (No. 235.) where it is said that the observations in the Essay follow one another without that methodical regularity that would have’ been requisite in a prose writer, has asserted that it is a regular piece, written on an uniform and consistent plan; which he has endeavoured to’ prove by a Commentary, published by him in the lifetime of Pope, and highly commended by him. This idea Dr. Warton has strenu-_ ously controverted ; contending that Pope never intended to write this Essay with a systematical regularity, and that Warburton had tortured many passages, in order to give it a meaning which it otherwise had not. To these observations it might perhaps be sufficient to reply, that although the Essay on Criticism is not professedly written on a regular plan, yet it cannot be denied that a certain degree of order and succession prevails, which leads the reader through the most important topics connected with the sub- ject; thereby uniting the charm of variety with the regularity of art. That Warburton has with great labour and ingenuity traced the thread that connects the whole, is in no degree injurious to the ‘work ;but on the contrary, serves to explain the author’s mean- ing, and exemplify his precepts, on many occasions, where the na- ture of poetry, which abhors nothing so much as the appearance of formality and restraint, would not permit him to do it himself. “« As the end of method is perspicuity,” says Johnson, “that series is sufficiently regular that avoids obscurity ; and where there is no obscurity, it will not be difficult to discover method.” The Com- mentary of Warburton may therefore be considered as calculated to render the precepts of the poem applicable to general use. To which it may be added, that if this Commentary were only a per- verse and forced interpretation, as Warton insinuates, it is scarcely ‘likely that Pope would have approved of it so highly, as-not only to-speak of it in the warmest terms. of admiration; but to allow