Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-08-26
He Contributed More Phrases
to the Vernacular than ANY
Other Save Shakespeare.
After Having Won Noble Hon.
ors and a Splendid Fame,
He Died in I744.


boy was not twelve years old-puny,
dWarfed and deformed, and so Sicilly
and insignificant that the lockers on
| must have wondered why the feeble
little morSel of humanity should haze
been there. If they had asked the boy
however, he could have given Il good
account OF himself. He had come be
cause he had admired Mr.. Dryden
verse aud longed to see for himself
the man whom he had taken for a
master and q model, because better.
than anything else, he loved books
and book masters, in short because his
small distorted body was the cage
which Eeld growing genius and al
ready he was not boy, but a prec0-
cious man of letters himself. This Visit
Of the boy to Wills gave Dryden lust
before he died a chance to see is great
successor, his most brilliant and fl
nous follower, Alexander Pope-"Tha
title Ni2htengale," "The Little Wasp
OF TWickenham, ''The Young PIANIST
Lad Out of Winsor Forest who had
never seen a university in his life
the doctors with his WITT the man VINO
added more phrases to our language
than any other but Shakespeare"
''the greatest literary artist England
ever saw" king Alexander
When Pope was bern in London iii
1858. his father was Il Roman Catholic
merchant in Lombard street who had
accumulated little property and soon
went TO live at Binfeld, in Windsor
forest, taking with him the delicate
child who said afterWard that his Iifc
was enc long disease. When he was
eight he began to study Greek and
Latin with 4 priest; then he went for
q few months to two schools: then he
studied with another priest, and at
twelve had finished his education us we
say. Then he began to read all til >
poetry in all the langlla GcS that he could
find, getting the languages he said. by
hunting after the stories and following
whatever his fancy led HIM ''iike boy
gathering flowers i'll the woods anu
fields just as they fall in his way" This
unusual education was enough to make
the unusual boy brilliant Wit, if nor
learned scholar, and his wit made him
hosts of famous and fashionable friend,
By the time that he vas sixteen. when
he had written an ode and hcglln an
epic, and mOderniZed some [halcer
and translated some OyiG and tried
his hand at Il comedy, and Thought
himself tie greatest genius that ever
was, h" began to frequent the "otlpn
houses. Wits and Buttons. a~d make
friends with the great men of the
day. But lie WAS y dangerous friend.
lie loved people for Il time and then
Qu2rtrleei With them, aud printed ,hpn,
fo1 NE benefit of the town. He admir-
",l Addison and then ou;errclcd with
mH auI satiriZcd him splendidIy as
Atticus III his ep!Stic to Arbuthnot He
fell III love with Lady Mary WortIey.
MontaEu, one of the beauties and 1tiSr>
Of lie Kit Kat club che livcliest So
NereSt an'! WitticSt woman Of her tinl,'
2n'i Wncl she laughed at him, began
to hate aod yillify her as only he coul,!
do. To secure his friendship one mus
haze been rich or well born. or for
liant Then he must have been care
full not to offend the touCly. irritable.
hot-tcmpnrrl man: not to CNctIl tli;n in
literary DIRK. for he was desperately
jealous: net to ridicllle him. for he was
Immensely sensitive and self-ronScious,
and with al these traits he was easy
to laugh at. As he grew older his
,,,l ,I,c.>,
and the gentlemen Of those days ;i!
not hesitate to make Il butt of any bot:
lily infirmity. Every one has heard tic
story, told in various ways, that once
Pope was sitting. his chair r:,iseI to
bring him UP to the table for he was
less than four feet high talking with
som" gentlemen. when one of thea
suggested that line Of Greek which
they were discussing would be mail,
plain by putting after it an interroga-
ton point. Pope said to him very
witheringly. Indeed, and what is an
Interrogation point?" 90" the gentle
man replied. Il thought every one
knew that 1t is a little crooked thing
that asks questions,''
But with all these infirmitias o.
body and temper Pope had true friends
-Bcilingbloke, Oxford. Swift. Cav and
Arbuthnot. the sisters Martha and
Teresa Blount: the artist Richardson,
and the wonderful Sir Godfrey Knel-
Ter. who Dragged more spelled worse
and painted better than any artist of
his day.
Pope'S life was spent in Windsor for
est, in London, and in his famous
villa 1T Twichenham. Here his old
mother, one person toward whom his
love and tenderness rever failed. live!
with him until she was ninety-t,lree.
and here I'ope himself died in 1T44,
1T 56. hay ing won noble honors and
4 splendid fame
The essay on Criticism was written
when Pope was only Il. in the polished
smoth heroic coupletS-rhyming lines o:
ten syllaFleS which he had learned
from Dryden. 1t was wonderfully
brilliant thing for young main TO do,
though its pracepts were not ori-ina'.
and Lady Mary sail savagely OF It
Il admire Mr.. FGpe's Essay on
Criticism at first very much because
had not then read any of the ancient
critics au:l did not know hat it was
stolen The essay on Man, written
many years later, in four letters to thu
witty, wicked Bollingbroke, was an
other collection of brilliant savings
which he made into familiar proverbs.