POPE.

FOR the honour of giving birth to our transcendently favourite poet, ALEXANDER POPE, the first great master of elegant and refined English verse, two rival cities may claim to contend; like the ten cities of Greece, for that of his prototype, Homer: some of his numerous biographers asserting, that he was born, May 22, 1688, in Lombard-street, in the city of London, where his father was a linen-draper; and others, that he was born, June 8, 1688, in the Strand, in the city of Westminster, where his father was a hatter. In the mean time, it seems sufficient to state, generally, that he was born in the metropolis, in 1688; where his father acquired a fortune in trade.

So pleasing was his infantine voice, that his friends fondly called him "the little nightingale;" and, from the earliness of his poetical efforts, his cradle may be said to have been surrounded by the Muses. He was first taught to read by an affectionate aunt; and contrived to write, by copying printed books. The rudiments of the Greek and Latin languages he originally acquired from priests, his parents being both of the Roman Catholic persuasion. He was sent to a seminary, at Twyford, near Winchester; but, having written some severe verses on his master, the young satyrist was removed. At the age of twelve, retiring, with his parents, to Binfield, in Windsor Forest, he cultivated his talents with an ardour of study, and a maturity of taste, very far above his years.

His Pastorals introduced him to public notice. He was early taught to distinguish himself by correctness; the only quality in which English poetry, after Dryden, was conceived to have been deficient. He seized the hint, and it has rendered him unrivalled. In 1708, appeared his Essay on Criticism. His learning and good sense were now admired; but his next poem, the Rape of the Lock, allured by the brilliancy of fancy, the melody of versification, and the higher requisites of poetry. That enchanting poem owed its origin to a furtive frolic of gallantry, in which Lord Petre had sportively cut off a favourite lock of Mrs. Arabella Fermor's hair. This familiarity occasioning a serious rupture between the two families, a friend of both requested Mr. Pope would write something which might restore them to better humour with each other. Accordingly, he published two cantos of the Rape of the Lock. These being read with universal admiration, he enlarged the poem to five cantos; and, by the addition of the machinery of the sylphs, rendered it the most elegant mock-heroic poem ever written.

In 1713, desirous of reaping something more than barren laurels, he issued proposals for a translation of Homer's Iliad. Happily, it was the age of poetical patronage; and from this work, including the Odyssey, he derived a fortune of near 10,000l. the largest sum, perhaps, that any poet ever yet acquired. The lovers of poetry will not, however, consider it as equalling the singular merits of this version; which is to be regarded as a treasury of English poetry, a mine of the purest gold! He now purchased his celebrated villa at Twickenham; and retired, to enjoy the very rare union of poetry and independence. It has been lamented that, in this Tusculum, he should have so frequently indulged his Horatian vein of satire: but, though he produced satire, he also produced his Essay on Man; the most perfect model of didactic verse and philosophical poetry.

Many will agree, that Pope, among the English poets, resembles Virgil among the Latins. Pure, correct, and harmonious, he has oftener seized the delicacies of taste, than displayed the charmful power of genius. Let it not, however, be supposed, that he was deficient in the higher qualification: his judgment would not suffer him to employ it, where it could not be employed with propriety.

He died March 30, 1744, aged 56; and was buried at Twickenham, where a monument has been erected by his great commentator, Warburton, bishop of Gloucester.

THIS great and pious prelate was born at York, on the 8th of May 1731. His father and mother were natives of Virginia; the name of the latter was Jennings, and she was said to be distantly related to Sarah Jennings, wife to John duke of Marlborough: her father, colonel Jennings, was the first of the family who settled in Virginia, and for some time acted as deputy-governor of the colony. Mr. Porteus, after having been several years at school at York, was placed at Ripon, under Mr. Hyde, and at an earlier age than is usually the case now, was sent to Christ's College, Cambridge, and admitted a sizar. His attention while he continued an under graduate was directed chiefly to mathematical studies; but, taking his bachelor's degree in 1752, he became a successful candidate for one of the gold medals distributed as the reward of classical literature, instituted by the duke of Newcastle. Being elected fellow of the college in the spring of the same year, he became a resident in Cambridge. At the age of 26 he took orders, and was ordained deacon at Buckden, in 1757, by the bishop of Lincoln. On his return to the university, he obtained the reward proposed for Mr. Seaton's prize poem ;-the subject being "Death," the recent demise of his father had rendered it congenial with his feelings. Early in 1762, he was appointed by archbishop Secker, one of his domestic chaplains, and in the course of that year quitted college to reside at Lambeth. Whilst in this capacity he was made the purveyor of his lordship's kind offers to assist Peter Annet, in Newgate, who had been exposed to the pillory for denying the authority of Moses. In May 1765, Mr. Porteus married Margaret, eldest daughter of Brian Hodgson, esq. of Ashbourne, in Derbyshire; and in the course of the same year he was presented by the archbishop to the two small livings of Rucking and Wittersham, in Kent, which he soon resigned for the rectory of Hunton, in the same county, in addition to a prebend at Peterborough.

Upon the death of Dr. Denne, in 1767, he obtained the rectory of Lambeth, and soon after this, took his degree of Doctor in Divinity. In August 1768, upon the death of archbishop Secker, Dr. Porteus became one of his executors; and to this primate's lectures on the catechisms, sermons, &c. he prefixed a Review of the Archbishop's Life and Character. At Hunton he zealously performed the duties of his parish. In his attention to the poor he was uniform and indefatigable; and consequently he had the happiness to see his church well filled with a congregation neat and decent in their attire, with looks cheerful and satisfied.

In December 1776, Dr. Porteus kissed the king's hand on his promotion to the see of Chester. Upon the death of Dr. Lowth, in November 1787, Dr. Porteus was translated from the diocese of Chester to that of London; and, on the 23d of April 1789, in obedience to the king's express command, he preached at St. Paul's on the day of thanksgiving for his majesty's recovery. In February 1798, he commenced his Friday's lectures at St. James's, Westminster, which were attended beyond any example.

Upon the whole, after a life spent in doing good, he expired at his palace, at Fulham, without a pang or a sigh, on the 13th of May 1809; and, in obedience to his express directions, his corpse was removed to Sundridge, and there interred in a vault in the churchyard. The bishop was under the middle size, of a thin and a slender frame, and in his youth is supposed to have been very handsome. In politics he constantly voted with Mr. Pitt, though his religious sentiments were always tolerant; and as a preacher his reputation stood deservedly high. His works, complete, in six volumes octavo, have been published since his decease, with a portrait of his lordship, from an original picture.

RACINE.

THIS great French dramatic poet was born at la Ferté Milon, on the 21st of December 1639. He was the eldest child of respectable parents, whom he can scarcely be said ever to have known: his mother dying in January 1641; his father, in February 1643; and his maternal uncle, Peter Sconin, who had proved a parent to him and his infant sister, in 1650. Thus, at the tender age of eleven years, he became, as it were, without any relations in the world. He had, however, still an uncle and aunts retired from the world, and devoted to a religious life at Port Royal; where he received the substantial part of his education, and often wandered, with Sophocles or Euripides in his hand, till he lost himself in the adjacent woods.

Though Racine had early written many little pieces, it was not till 1660, on the marriage of Louis XIV. that he appeared before the public as a poet, by his celebrated Ode on that occasion. This poem obtained him, from the king, a present of a hundred pistoles, and a pension of six hundred livres for life. Thus encouraged, he resolved to cultivate poetry; and, though he still wore the clerical habit, he produced, in 1664, his tragedy of la Thébaide; or, les Frères Ennemis. In this first dramatic production he had aimed at imitating Corneille; but, born to be himself a model, he soon quitted that manner. Two years afterwards, his Alexandre charmed all Paris. In 1668, his famous Andromaque was performed; and the exertions of Montfleuri, in the character of Orestes, cost that celebrated actor his life. Racine's excellent comedy, les Plaideurs, was produced the same year. In 1670, appeared his Britannicus; in 1672, Bajazet ; in 1673, Mithridate; in 1675, Iphigenie; in 1677, Phedre. This last piece meeting with illiberal treatment, Racine determined to abandon the theatre; and, at first, formed a design to embrace the austerities of the Carthusian brethren: but his spiritual director prudently advising him to marry, and settle in the world, he was soon united to the daughter of a treasurer of France. Racine had been named with Boileau to be the historian of the king; but, after labouring together some time, they agreed that the history of such a sovereign could not be with propriety written till a hundred years posterior to his decease.

Religion, which had drawn Racine from-poetry, now restored him to it. At the instigation of Madame de Maintenon, he wrote several tragedies from the Sacred Writings, for her young ladies to perform at the convent of St. Cyr, and they were afterwards acted at Versailles. Racine owed his death to a singular cause. He had lent Madame de Maintenon a manuscript memorial, on the miseries of the people, and the best means of relieving them; which the king happening to find her reading, angrily said-" Because Racine is a poet would he also be a statesman !" This reaching the poet, the shock to his sensibility occasioned a violent fever; which, having been injudiciously treated, terminated in an abscess: the abscess, through like want of skill, while apparently cured, left a pain on his right side, which long occasionally tormented him. At length, the dectors perceived, too late, that his malady was occasioned by an abscess on the liver; and though they could discover no secret in their art to mitigate his anguish, they readily enough found means to augment it, by advising an operation equally cruel and useless. To this he patiently but hopelessly submitted; and died, the fourth day after, with the fortitude and piety, as well as the sufferings, of a martyr, April 22, 1699. He was interred, pursuant to his will, at Port Royal; and, on the destruction of that monastery in 1708, his remains were conveyed to St. Stephen du Mont, at Paris.

Boileau says, "Racine revived Sophocles, surpassed Euripides, and equalled Corneille."