Alexander Pope

(21 May 1688 - 30 May 1744)
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

Works in ECPA

alphabetical listing / listing in source editions

Source editions

  • Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744. Ode for musick. London: printed for Bernard Lintott, 1713. [4],8p. ; 2⁰. (ESTC T5694; Foxon P904; OTA K023150.000)
  • Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744. Windsor-Forest. To the Right Honourable George Lord Lansdown. By Mr. Pope. London: printed for Bernard Lintott, 1713. [2],18p. ; 2⁰. (ESTC T5763; Foxon P987; OTA K023202.000)
  • Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744. An essay on criticism: Written by Mr. Pope. The second edition. London: printed for W. Lewis, 1713 [1712]. [4],36p. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T5572; Foxon P810; OTA K023052.000)
  • Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744. The rape of the lock: An heroi-comical poem. In five canto's. Written by Mr. Pope. London: printed for Bernard Lintott, 1714. [8],48p.,plates ; 8⁰. (ESTC T5726; Foxon P941; OTA K023176.000)
  • Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744. The court ballad: By Mr. Pope. To the tune of, To all you ladies now at land, &c. [London]: Printed for R. Burleigh, in Amen-Corner, 1717. 2p. ; 1/2⁰. (ESTC T5527; Foxon P762; OTA K023019.000)
  • Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744. An epistle to the Right Honourable Richard Earl of Burlington: Occasion'd by his publishing Palladio's designs of the baths, arches, theatres, &c. of ancient Rome. By Mr. Pope. London: printed for L. Gilliver, 1731. 14,[2]p. ; 2⁰. (ESTC T5700; Foxon P908; OTA K023156.000)
  • Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744. The impertinent: or a visit to the court. A satyr. By an eminent hand. London: printed for John Wileord, 1733. 16p. ; 4⁰. (ESTC T5678; Foxon P898; OTA K023140.000)
  • Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744. An essay on man: being the first book of ethic epistles. To Henry St. John, L. Bolingbroke. London: printed by John Wright, for Lawton Gilliver, 1734. [8],74p. : ill. ; 4⁰. (ESTC T5607; Foxon P852; OTA K023079.000)
  • Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744. An epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot. London: printed by J. Wright for Lawton Gilliver, 1734 [1735]. [4],30[i.e.20]p. ; 2⁰. (ESTC T5567; Foxon P802; OTA K023049.000)
  • Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744. Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745. Bounce to Fop: An heroick epistle from a dog at Twickenham to a dog at court. By Dr. S----t. [London]: Dublin, printed, London, reprinted for T. Cooper, 1736. 11,[1]p. ; 2⁰. (ESTC T5522; Foxon B326; OTA K023014.000)
  • Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744. Horace his ode to Venus. Lib. IV. Ode I. Imitated by Mr. Pope. London: printed for J. Wright, and sold by J. Roberts, 1737. [2],7,[1]p. ; 2⁰. (ESTC T5677; Foxon P896; OTA K023139.000)
  • Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744. The first epistle of the first book of Horace imitated: By Mr. Pope. London: printed for R. Dodsley, and sold by T. Cooper, 1737 [1738]. [2],19,[1]p. ; 2⁰. (ESTC T5661; Foxon P878; OTA K023128.000)
  • Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744. The universal prayer: By the author of the Essay on man. London: printed for R. Dodsley, 1738. 7,[1]p. ; 2⁰. (ESTC T5757; Foxon P982; OTA K023198.000)
  • Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. III. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758]. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.003)
  • Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. VI. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758]. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.006)

Biographical note

Alexander Pope was born in the City of London on 21 May 1688. He was the son of a linen merchant, also Alexander Pope (1646-1717), and his wife Edith, née Turner (1643-1733). He was educated privately by family members, priests, and at clandestine Catholic schools. As a Roman Catholic, Pope was debarred from attending university. In 1700 his family moved to Binfield, in Windsor Forest, where Pope immersed himself in literature and where he began writing poetry in imitation of Spenser, Waller and others. From about 1703, Pope began to show symptoms of health problems, which would severely limit his growth and cause disfigurement. Pope relied on a network of Catholic friends and acquaintances who encouraged him as a poet and published his first poems. In quick succession, Pope published the Essay on Criticism (1711), The Rape of the Lock (1712), and Windsor-Forest (1713). Pope, who was for a time associated with Addison's circle, became increasingly involved with the Tory grouping (Swift, Gay, Arbuthnot, and Atterbury), which would become the Scriblerus Club. The first volumes of Pope's translation of Homer's Iliad appeared in 1715. A rival translation by Tickell, which was sponsored by Addison, caused them to become enemies. In 1717 Pope published an elaborately produced first volume of his Works. Pope became fascinated with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu shortly afterwards and they corresponded and exchanged pieces of poetry. The Iliad translation project, which was completed in 1720, had left Pope financially independent and he was able to retire to a villa set in five acres of land in Twickenham. He was embroiled in a number of political affairs by his involvement in opposition politics. Pope devoted the remainder of his life to poetry, editing, and gardening. Pope's later compositions include The Dunciad (1728, revised The Dunciad Variorum [1729], final version 1743), An Essay on Man (1733-1734), and translations of Horace. He published a second volume of his Works in 1736. Pope died at Twickenham on 30 May 1744 and was buried in the parish church.

Bibliography

DMI 2044; ODNB 22526; NCBEL 500

Manuscripts

  • Smith, Margaret M. Index of English Literary Manuscripts. Vol. III, 1700-1800 . London: Mansell, 1986-1997. Pt. 3 Pope-Steele. 1-78. Print. 4 volumes.

Editions

  • Ault, Norman, and Rosemary Cowler, eds. Prose Works of Alexander Pope. Oxford: Blackwell, 1936–86. Print. 2 volumes.
  • Butt, John, ed. The Poems of Alexander Pope: A One Volume Edition of the Twickenham Pope. 1963. London: Routledge, 1996. Print.
  • Davis, Herbert, ed. Pope: Poetical Works. Oxford Standard Authors. London: Oxford UP, 1966. Print.
  • Lancashire, Ian, ed. Selected Poetry of Alexander Pope (1688-1744). Representative Poetry Online. Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries, 2011. Web. 20 Jan. 2012. http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poets/pope-alexander.
  • Rogers, Pat, ed. Alexander Pope: The Major Works. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.
  • Rumbold, Valerie, ed. The Dunciad (1728) and The Dunciad Variorum (1729). Harlow: Pearson Longman, 2007. Print.
  • Rumbold, Valerie, ed. The Dunciad in Four Books. Harlow: Longman, 1999. Print.
  • Sherburn, George, ed. The Correspondence of Alexander Pope. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956. Print. 5 volumes.
  • The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper; including the Series Edited, with Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, by Dr Samuel Johnson: and the most approved translations. The Additional Lives by Alexander Chalmers, F.S.A. Vol. XII. London: J. Johnson et al., 1810. 49-362. Google Books edition. Web. 13 Feb. 2016. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=V_ZLAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA49

Concordance

  • Bedford, Emmett G. and Robert J. Dilligan, eds. A Concordance to the Poems of Alexander Pope. Detroit: Gale, 1974. Print. 2 volumes.

Biography

  • Hammond, Brean. Pope. Brighton: Harvester Press, 1986. Print.
  • Mack, Maynard. Alexander Pope: A Life. New Haven: Yale UP, 1985. Print.
  • Rosslyn, Felicity. Alexander Pope: A Literary Life. Macmillan Literary Lives. London: Macmillan, 1990. Print.

Bibliography

  • De Bruyn, Frans. Selected Bibliography: Alexander Pope (1688-1745). c18 Bibliographies On-Line. Ed. Jack Lynch. Rutgers University, Newark, 03 Jun. 2001. Web. 20 Jan. 2012. http://jacklynch.net/C18/biblio/pope.html.
  • Griffith, R. H. Alexander Pope: A Bibliography. London: Holland Press, 1962. Print. 2 volumes.
  • Guerinot, J. V. Pamphlet Attacks on Alexander Pope, 1711-1744: A Descriptive Bibliography. London: Methuen, 1969. Print.

Reference works

  • Baines, Paul, Julian Ferraro, Pat Rogers, eds. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Eighteenth-Century Writers and Writing, 1660-1789. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. 273-278. Print.
  • Baines, Paul. The Complete Critical Guide to Alexander Pope. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.
  • Berry, Reginald. A Pope Chronology. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1988. Print.
  • Fairer, David. English Poetry of the Eighteenth Century 1700-1789. Longman Literature in English Series. Harlow: Longman, 2003. 281-283. Print.
  • Lawlor, Clark. Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744. Literature Online biography. Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey, 2000. Web. 21 Feb. 2016. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&xri:pqil:res_ver=0.2&res_id=xri:lion&rft_id=xri:lion:ft:ref:BIO001698:0
  • Mell, Jr., Donald C. English Poetry, 1660-1800: a guide to information sources. American Literature, English Literature, and World Literatures in English Information Guide Series, vol. 40. Detroit: Gale, 1982. 282-334. Print.
  • Radcliffe, David H., ed. Alexander Pope (1688-1744). Spenser and the Tradition: ENGLISH POETRY 1579-1830. Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Tech, 2006. Web. 23 Sep. 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20170908014740/http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/AuthorRecord.php?recordid=32967.
  • Rogers, Pat. The Alexander Pope Encyclopedia. Westport: Greenwood, 2004. Print.
  • Suarez, Michael F. Pope, Alexander. A Collection of Poems by Several Hands [1782]. Ed. Robert Dodsley and Michael F. Suarez. Vol. I. London: Routledge/Thoemmes, 1997. 194-198. Print. 6 volumes.
  • Williams, Aubrey L. Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 - 30 May 1744). Eighteenth-Century British Poets, First Series. Ed. John E. Sitter. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 95 . Detroit: Gale, 1990. 169-210. Print.

Criticism

  • Barnard, John, ed. Pope: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge, 1973. Print.
  • Bogel, Fredric V. Acts of Knowledge: Pope's Later Poems. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell UP, 1981. Print.
  • Brower, Reuben A. Alexander Pope: The Poetry of Allusion. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959. Print.
  • Brown, Laura. Alexander Pope. Oxford: Blackwell, 1985. Print.
  • Brownell, Morris. Alexander Pope and the Arts of Georgian England. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978. Print.
  • Damrosch, Leopold. The Imaginative World of Alexander Pope. Berkeley and London: University of California Press, 1987. Print.
  • Deutsch, Helen. Resemblance and Disgrace: Alexander Pope and the Deformation of Culture. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1996. Print.
  • Dixon, Peter. The World of Pope's Satires. London: Methuen, 1968. Print.
  • Erskine-Hill, Howard. The Social Milieu of Alexander Pope. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1975. Print.
  • Erskine-Hill, Howard, and Anne Smith, eds. The Art of Alexander Pope. London: Vision, 1979. Print.
  • Erskine-Hill, Howard, ed. Alexander Pope: World and Word. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP for British Academy, 1998. Print.
  • Fairer, David. Pope's Imagination. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1984. Print.
  • Fairer, David. The Poetry of Alexander Pope. Penguin Critical Studies. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1989. Print.
  • Fairer, David, ed. Pope: New Contexts. New York, etc.: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990. Print.
  • Ferguson, Rebecca. The Unbalanced Mind: Pope and the Rule of Passion. Brighton: Harvester, 1986. Print.
  • Griffin, Dustin H. Alexander Pope: The Poet in the Poems. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1978. Print.
  • Jones, Emrys. Pope and Dulness. Proceedings of the British Academy 54 (1968): 231-263. Print.
  • Knellwolf, Christa. A contradiction still: Representations of women in the poetry of Alexander Pope. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1998. Print.
  • Mack, Maynard, ed. Essential Articles for the Study of Alexander Pope. Revised and enlarged edition. Hamden, CT: Archon, 1968. Print.
  • Mack, Maynard. The Garden and the City: Retirement and Politics in the Later Poetry of Pope, 1731-1743. Toronto, etc.: U of Toronto P., 1969. Print.
  • Mack, Maynard, and James A. Winn, eds. Pope: Recent Essays. Hamden, CT: Archon, 1980. Print.
  • Mack, Maynard. Collected in Himself: Essays, Critical, Biographical, and Bibliographical on Pope and Some of his Contemporaries. Newark, NJ: University of Delaware Press, 1982. Print.
  • McLaverty, James. Pope, Print, and Meaning. Oxford: OUP, 2001. Print.
  • Nicholson, Colin E., ed. Alexander Pope: Essays for the Tercentenary. Aberdeen: Aberdeen UP, 1988. Print.
  • Rogers, Pat. An Introduction to Pope. London: Methuen, 1975. Print.
  • Rogers, Pat. Essays on Pope. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Print.
  • Rogers, Pat, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Alexander Pope. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007. Print.
  • Rousseau, G. S. and Pat Rogers, eds. The Enduring Legacy: Alexander Pope Tercentenary Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988. Print.
  • Rumbold, Valerie. Women's Place in Pope's World. Cambridge: CUP, 1989. Print.
  • Seidel, Michael. Satiric Inheritance: Rabelais to Sterne. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1979. 226-249. Print.
  • Spacks, Patricia Meyer. An Argument of Images: The Poetry of Alexander Pope. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1971. Print.
  • Stack, Frank. Pope and Horace: Studies in Imitation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. Print.
  • Thomas, Claudia. Alexander Pope and his Eighteenth-Century Women Readers. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1994. Print.
  • Weinbrot, Howard D. Alexander Pope and the Traditions of Formal Verse Satire. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1982. Print.
  • Williams, Carolyn D. Pope, Homer, and Manliness. London and New York: Routledge, 1993. Print.

Studies of individual works

  • Ferraro, Julian. The Satirist, the Text and 'The World Beside': Pope's First Satire of the Second Book of Horace Imitated. Translation and Literature 2 (1993): 37-63. Print.
  • Hooker, Edward Niles. Pope on Wit: The Essay on Criticism. Clifford, James L., ed. Eighteenth-Century Literature: Modern Essays in Criticism. New York: OUP, 1959. 42-61. Print.
  • Hunter, J. Paul. Satiric Apology as Satiric Instance: Pope's Arbuthnot. Journal of English and Germanic Philology 68 (1969): 625-647. Print.
  • Rogers, Pat. The Symbolic Design of Windsor-Forest: Iconography, Pageant, and Prophecy in Pope's Early Work. Newark: University of Delaware P, 2004. Print.
  • Sitter, John. The Poetry of Pope's Dunciad. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P., 1971. Print.