Weston's misfortunes and the poet's admiration of her gave it life and warmth, and imagination did the rest.

Mrs. Weston, of Sutton, then, was the "Unfortunate Lady" of the printed correspondence. Her history was purposely left in obscurity-shrouded by Pope in poetical mystery and indistinctness, whether or not intended by him to be associated with his Elegy. But in the correspondence we have also an "Unhappy Lady"-so styled by Pope in the table of contents-and of her we learn something from the same source, to which we are indebted for our knowledge of the former. The "Unhappy Lady" was a relation of the Carylls, a Mrs. Cope, whose husband, an officer in the army, had basely deserted his wife, and left her destitute. Pope first met the lady in 1712, and was charmed with her conversation. When her evil days came, he proved a warm and generous friend. He interested Caryll and others in her behalf, and when ultimately she settled in France, in poverty and distress, he made an allowance to her of 201. a year. The lady died, after acute suffering, from cancer in the breast, in 1728, and the poet then stood engaged to the Abbé Southcote, his early friend, for a sum of 207., due for surgeons and necessaries in the last days of Mrs. Cope's illness. "This sum," he says, "is all I think myself a loser by, because it does her no good." 29 Pope had been misinformed with respect to Mr. Caryll's conduct towards this lady, and wrote to him the letter which he entitled, "To Mr. C- expostulatory on the hardships done an unhappy lady," &c. Mr. Caryll explained to the entire satisfaction of the poet: he had, in fact, like his friend, allowed the lady 207. a year; and Pope expressed his joy that the "little shadow of misconstruction" between them had been removed. One circumstance only was wanting to complete and crown the honour due to him from this transaction. As he had resolved on publishing his remonstrance to Caryll, he should also have printed his subsequent letter, in which he acknowledged his error and acquitted his old friend of all blame. Justice to the memory of Mr. Caryll, then recently deceased, and, still more, regard for the feelings of his widow and children, demanded that such an explanation should be given; but it would almost

29 Athenæum, July 22, 1854.

seem that no material act of Pope's life, and no publication from his pen, could be free from misconception or stratagem. To have published Mr. Caryll's explanation would have shown himself to be in error; to have withheld his own expostulatory letter would have deprived him of an opportunity of displaying his superior benevolence; and against both of these vanity protested. Such instances of active and disinterested sympathy as the cases of the ladies afford, are, however, highly honourable to Pope. Amidst all the levities of youth and the eager thirst for distinction, he cherished generous feelings, which were developed in acts of true kindness and substantial assistance.

CHAPTER III.

[1713—1715.]

WINDSOR FOREST. ACQUAINTANCE WITH SWIFT, ARBUTHNOT, PARNELL, ETC. THE RAPE OF THE LOCK. COMMENCEMENT OF THE TRANSLATION OF HOMER. QUARREL WITH ADDISON.

THE measured harmony and correctness of Pope's numbers would seem to infer a kindred taste for music, and he flattered himself that he had a "good ear." It does not appear, however, that he had any knowledge of the principles or science of music; and if the statement be correct that he inquired of Arbuthnot whether the applause bestowed on Handel was really deserved, his taste must also have been defective. He had not, like Milton or Gray, a key to the higher powers and charms of musical combination and proportions. A delicate and acute perception of metrical harmony often exists where there is none for musical harmony. It is more allied to cul-tivated taste and intellect than to the ear; and the name of Pope must be added to the list of poets (including Scott and Byron) who derived none of their inspiration from this most elevating and unsensual of the fine arts. He had, however, from his earliest days, evinced a taste for drawing. His childish imitation of the printed characters in books may be considered an indication of this predilection; and he afterwards proceeded to sketches in India ink, some of which still remain. His father (as we are told by Davies in his Life of Garrick) intended that Pope should become an artist; the study of medicine was also proposed; but painting must have been more congenial; and no doubt the example of Samuel Cooper, who had risen by his art to be the favourite of princes, would be often talked of at Binfield. On the

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walls of the house were some of Cooper's works; even the "grinding-stone and muller," bequeathed by the artist's widow, were suggestive. The experiment was now to be tried. About the beginning of 1713 apparently Pope placed himself under Charles Jervas, better known as the friend of Pope, Steele, and Swift, and as the translator of Don Quixote, than for talent or originality as a painter. Kneller, under whom Jervas had studied, stood higher as an artist; the superiority is undoubted; but Sir Godfrey's vanity and absurdity, and the extent of his engagements, forbade any very close association or companionship. Jervas was scarcely less vain; but he seems to have been friendly, good-hearted, and, in the main, judicious. He was also popular and fashionable -recommendations no less prized in the Forest than in the neighbourhood of St. James's. Jervas gave the poet "daily instructions and examples" for about a year and a half. The mornings, he said, were employed in painting; the evenings in conversation; and we may owe some of the artistic effects in the Epistle of Eloisa, and other poems, to these morning lessons in the management of light, and shade, and colour. It is pleasing to contemplate the picture drawn by Pope in his Epistle to Jervas, of their mutual labours and congenial studies-poetry, however, being decidedly the ambition of the one as art was of the other. Indeed, the year 1713 was one of the busiest of Pope's literary periods, and painting could only have had a subordinate share of his time and attention. We find him thus writing to Gay, August 23, 1713:

"I have been near a week in London, where I am like to remain till I become, by Mr. Jervas's help, elegans formarum spectator. I begin to discover beauties that were till now imperceptible to me. Every corner of an eye, or turn of a nose or ear, the smallest degree of light or shade on a check or in a dimple, have charms to distract me. I no longer look upon Lord Plausible as ridiculous for admiring a lady's fine tip of an ear and pretty elbow, as the 'Plain Dealer' has it; but I am in some danger even from the ugly and disagreeable, since they may have their retired beauties in one part or other about them. You may guess in how uneasy a state I am, when every day the performances of others appear more beautiful and excellent, and my own more despicable. I have thrown away three Dr. Swifts, each of which was once my vanity, two Lady Bridgewaters, a Duchess of Montague, half a dozen earls, and one Knight of the Garter."

These were copies; and he finished a portrait of Betterton, copied from Kneller, which was in the collection of his friend Murray, Lord Mansfield, and still exists. An original specimen of the poet's artistic powers-a pictorial satire is preserved in Ketley parsonage, Wellington, Salop. This is a picture in water colours, about three feet by four feet in size, representing the Prodigal Son, with other allegorical designs and inscriptions, as a death's-head crowned with laurel, a philosopher blowing bubbles in the air, a fallen statue, ruined columns, &c. An engraving was made from this picture, though not containing all the figures, as a frontispiece to an edition of the Essay on Man, with Warburton's Commentary, published by the Knaptons in 1748. The original has long been in the family of its present owner, the Rev. Thompson Stoneham, who is fully sensible of the value of this curious and interesting relic. One defect Pope laboured under, which must have been fatal to success as a painter-he was near-sighted and had weak eyes. He therefore entered all the more earnestly into those studies to which nature and destiny impelled him.

"Windsor Forest" was published in March, 1712-3. The earlier portion of the poem was written several years before, and it was evidently suggested by Denham's Cooper's Hill, which was then the most popular descriptive poem in the language. Pope was allegorical as well as descriptive. He introduced Diana, Lodona, and Father Thames; but little interest attaches to these mythological creations, which appear faint after the rich and glowing allegories of Spenser, or those of Ben Jonson in his gorgeous Masques, or of Milton in his Comus. The descriptive passages also seem tame and meagre after the woodland and river scenes of Thomson, Cowper, and Shelley. In his poem of Alastor-written under the oak shades of Windsor Great Park-Shelley has painted forest scenery with a beauty and magnificence certainly not surpassed in the whole compass of our poetry. Pope's are literal and miniature descriptions-poor in comparison, but touched occasionally with simple grace, and even pathos. All -have admired his pictures of the death of the pheasant, the netting of partridges in the new-shorn fields, and the fowler in winter among the lonely woodcocks and clamorous lapwings. The conclusion of the poem is historical, and of a

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