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THE

POETICAL WORKS

OF

ALEXANDER POPE,

WITH A LIFE,

BY REV. ALEXANDER DYCE.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOLUME L

BOSTON:

LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY.

SHEPARD, CLARK AND BROWN.

M.DCCC.LIX.

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

FROM THE LIBRARY OF
GAMALIEL BRADFORD VI

MAY 24, 1942

MEMOIR OF POPE1

BY THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE.

"L'Art quelquefois frivole, et quelquefois divin,
L'Art des vers est dans Pope utile au genre humain."

VOLTAIRE.

ALEXANDER POPE was born in Lombard Street, London, on the 21st, or, according to some authorities, on the 22d of May, 1688. His father, who having been placed in youth with a merchant at Lisbon, had become a convert to the Roman Catholic faith, was an eminent linen-draper: the paternal grandfather of the poet was a clergyman of the Church of England, settled in Hampshire. His mother, who had been formerly married to a Mr. Rackett, was the daughter of William Turner, Esq. of York.2

An only child of very delicate and sickly frame,

1 In this Memoir, I have attempted little more than to throw together, within certain limits, all the most important particulars which are to be found concerning Pcpe in the writings of Ayre, Ruff head, Spence, Johnson, Warton, Bowles, Roscoe, and others. To the Life of our author by Mr. Roscoe I am particularly indebted.

2 In the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, Pope says that his parents

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