Part 41 (1/2)

Arbuthnot, to whom the epistle is addressed.

'405-411'

The first draft of these appeared in a letter to Aaron Hill, September 3, 1731, where Pope speaks of having sent them ”the other day to a particular friend,” perhaps the poet Thomson. Mrs. Pope, who was very old and feeble, was of course alive when they were first written, but died more than a year before the pa.s.sage appeared in its revised form in this 'Epistle'.

'412'

An allusion to the promise contained in the fifth commandment.

'415 served a Queen':

Arbuthnot had been Queen Anne's doctor, but was driven out of his rooms in the palace after her death.

'416 that blessing':

long life for Arbuthnot. It was, in fact, denied, for he died a month or so after the appearance of the 'Epistle'.

NOTES ON

ODE ON SOLITUDE

Pope says that this delightful little poem was written at the early age of twelve. It first appeared in a letter to his friend, Henry Cromwell, dated July 17, 1709. There are several variations between this first form and that in which it was finally published, and it is probable that Pope thought enough of his boyish production to subject it to repeated revision. Its spirit is characteristic of a side of Pope's nature that is often forgotten. He was, indeed, the poet of the society of his day, urban, cultured, and pleasure-loving; but to the end of his days he retained a love for the quiet charm of country life which he had come to feel in his boyhood at Binfield, and for which he early withdrew from the whirl and dissipations of London to the groves and the grotto of his villa at Twickenham.

NOTES ON

THE DESCENT OF DULLNESS