_Verses attributed to Charles Yorke_ (Vol. ii., p. 7.; and Vol. iii., p.
43.).--These lines, "Stript to the naked soul," have been frequently
printed, indeed so lately as in Lord Campbell's _Lives of the Chancellors_,
at the end of the Life of Charles Yorke, as his, but without any
observation. What is most singular is, that the excellent editor of Bishop
Warburton's _Literary Remains_ has overlooked the fact that they are driven
in that prelate's correspondence with Bishop Hurd as Pope's. (See
_Letters_, p. 362., edit. 1809, 8vo.) Warburton observes, "The little poem
is certainly his." He remarks in a letter to Yorke--
"You have obliged me much (as is your wont) by a fine little poem of my
excellent and endeared friend, Mr. Pope, and I propose to put in into
use."--_Letters from Warburton to C. Yorke_. 1812, 4to. p. 64.
Warburton then gave them to Ruffhead, who inserted them in his _Life of
Pope_, from which they were transferred in Bowles's editions of _Pope's
Works_ (vol. ii. p. 406), and in the supplementary volume to _Pope's Works_
(1807, 4to.). The extraordinary circumstance is, that they had appeared as
far back as 1753 in the miscellaneous works of Aaron Hill, published in
1753, in 4 vols. 8vo., and are included in that collection as his own.
Roscoe observes (Life of Pope, in vol. i. of his edition of _Pope's Works_,
p. 361., edit. 1824), without, however appearing to have been fully
acquainted with the facts of the case:
"These verses are not the production of Pope, as might indeed readily
have been perceived, but of Aaron Hill."
I must confess I cannot agree with the remark. If the point be to be
decided by internal evidence, the verses are surely Pope's. The collection
of A. Hill's miscellaneous works was a posthumous one for the benefit of
the family, and includes several other poems, which were certainly not
written by him. Little stress, therefore, can be laid upon the fact of the
lines being included in this collection, which seems to have comprised
whatever was found amongst Hill's papers, without any nice examination or
scrutiny. My conclusion is, that the verses are Pope's; and it is at all
events certain that they are not Charles Yorke's.