This selection begins with the second paragraph of the fourth lecture on
the "English Poets."
P. 118. _The question whether Pope was a poet_. Hazlitt had written a
paper in answer to this question in the Edinburgh Magazine for February,
1818 (Works, XII, 430-432), from which the following paragraphs down to
"Such at least is the best account" are copied. The question had been
previously answered by Dr. Johnson with the same common sense as by
Hazlitt: "It is surely superfluous to answer the question that has once
been asked, Whether Pope was a poet? otherwise than by asking in return,
If Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be found? To circumscribe poetry
by a definition will only shew the narrowness of the definer, though a
definition which shall exclude Pope will not easily be made." ("Life of
Pope," ed. B. Hill, III, 251). In their edition of Pope (II, 140), Elwin
and Courthope express the opinion that the doubt which both Johnson and
Hazlitt felt called upon to refute "was never maintained by a single
person of reputation." Yet there is something very close to such a doubt
implied in the utterances of Coleridge: "If we consider great
exquisiteness of language and sweetness of metre alone, it is impossible
to deny to Pope the character of a delightful writer; but whether he was a
poet, must depend upon our definition of the word.... This, I must say,
that poetry, as distinguished from other modes of composition, does not
rest in metre, and that it is not poetry, if it make no appeal to our
passions or our imagination." (Works, ed. Shedd, IV, 56.) Pope's verse was
made the occasion of a long-winded controversy as to the relative value of
the natural and artificial in poetry, lasting from 1819 to 1825, with
William Bowles and Lord Byron as the principal combatants. Hazlitt
contributed an article to the London Magazine for June, 1821, "Pope, Lord
Byron and Mr. Bowles" (Works, XII, 486-508), in which he pointed out the
fallacies in Byron's position and censured the clerical priggishness of
Bowles in treating of Pope's life. The chief points in the discussion are
best summed up in Prothero's edition of Byron's "Letters and Journals,"
Vol. V, Appendix III.
_If indeed by a great poet we mean_. Cf. Introduction, p. 1.
P. 120. _the pale reflex_. "Romeo and Juliet," iii, 5, 20.
P. 121. _Martha Blount_ (1690-1762), the object of Pope's sentimental
attachment throughout his life.
_In Fortune's ray_. "Troilus and Cressida," i, 3, 47.
_the gnarled oak ... the soft myrtle_. "Faerie Qu.," II, ii, 116-117.
_calm contemplation_. Thomson's "Autumn," 1275.
P. 122. _More subtle web_. "Faerie Queene," II, xii, 77.
P. 123. _from her fair head_. "Rape of the Lock," III, 154.
_Now meet thy fate_. Ibid., V, 87-96.
P. 124. _Lutrin_. The "Lutrin" was a mock-heroic poem (1674-1683) of the
French poet and critic, Nicolas Boileau Despreaux (1636-1711), the
literary dictator of the age of Louis XIV.
_'Tis with our judgments_. "Essay on Criticism," I, 9.
_Still green with bays_. Ibid., I, 181.
P. 125. _the writer's despair_. Cf. Ibid., II, 278:
"No longer now that Golden Age appears,
When Patriarch-wits survived a thousand years:
Now length of fame (our second life) is lost,
And bare threescore is all ev'n that can boast:
Our sons their fathers' failing language see,
And such as Chaucer is shall Dryden be."
_with theirs should sail_, "attendant sail." "Essay on Man," IV, 383-6.
P. 126. _There died_. "Eloisa to Abelard," 40.
P. 127. _If ever chance_. Ibid., 347.
_Bolingbroke_. Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751). "The
Essay plainly appears the fabric of a poet: what Bolingbroke supplied
could be only the first principles; the order, illustration, and
embellishments must be all Pope's." Pope's Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope,
II, 264.
P. 128. _he spins_, "draweth out." "Love's Labour's Lost," v, 1, 18.
_the very words_. Cf. "Macbeth," i, 3, 88: "the selfsame tune and words."
_Now night descending_. "Dunciad," I, 89.
_Virtue may choose_. "Epilogue to the Satires," Dialogue I, 137.