Volume II Part 20 (1/2)
The ”Elegy to the memory of an unfortunate Lady,” refers to a tragedy which occurred in Pope's early life, and over which he has studiously drawn an impenetrable veil. When his friend Mr. Caryl wrote to him on the subject, many years after the Elegy was published, Pope, in his reply, left this part of the letter unnoticed; and a second application was equally unsuccessful. His biographers are not better informed.
Johnson remarks upon the Elegy, that it commemorates the ”amorous fury of a raving girl, who liked self-murder better than suspense;” and having given this deadly stroke with his critical fang, the grim old lion of literature stalks on, and ”stays no farther question.” But is this merciful, or is it just? by what right does he sit in judgment on the unhappy dead, of whom he knew nothing? or how could he tell by what course of suffering, disease, or tyranny, a gentle spirit may have been goaded to frenzy? It was said, on the authority of some French author, that she was secretly attached to one of the French princes: that, in consequence, her uncle and guardian (”the mean deserter of a brother's blood,”) forced her into a convent, where, in despair and madness, she put an end to her existence; and that the lines
Why bade ye else, ye powers! her soul aspire Above the vulgar flight of low desire?
Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes; The glorious fault of angels and of G.o.ds,--
refer to this ambitious pa.s.sion. But then, again, this has been contradicted. Warton's story is improbable and inconsistent with the poem;[126] and the a.s.sertion of another author,[127] that she was in love with Pope, and as deformed as himself, is most unlikely. ”O ever beauteous, ever friendly!” is rather a strange style of apostrophising one deformed in person; and exposed to misery, and driven to suicide, by a pa.s.sion for himself. In short, it is all mystery, wonder, and conjecture.
Other women who have been loved, celebrated, or satirized by Pope, are at least more notorious, if not so interesting. His most lasting and real attachment, was that which he entertained for Theresa and Martha Blount, who alternately, or with divided empire, reigned in his heart or fancy for five-and-thirty years. They were of an old Roman Catholic family of Oxfords.h.i.+re; and his acquaintance with them appears to have begun as early as 1707, when he was only nineteen. Theresa, the handsomest and most intelligent of the two sisters, was a brunette, with black sparkling eyes. Martha was short in stature, fair, with blue eyes, and a softer expression. They appear to have been tolerably amiable, and much attached to each other: _au reste_, in no way distinguished, but by the flattering admiration of a celebrated man, who has immortalised both.
The verses addressed to them, convey in general, either counsel or compliment, or at the most playful gallantry. His letters express something beyond these. He began by admiring Theresa; then he wavered: there were misunderstandings, and petulance, and mutual bickerings. His susceptibility exposed him to be continually wounded; he felt deeply and acutely; he was conscious that he could inspire no sentiment corresponding with that which throbbed at his own heart: and some pa.s.sages in the correspondence cannot be read without a painful pity.
At length, upon some mutual offence, his partiality for Theresa was transferred to Martha. In one of his last letters to Theresa, he says, beautifully and feelingly, ”We are too apt to resent things too highly, till we come to know, by some great misfortune or other, how much we are born to endure; and as for me, you need not suspect of resentment a soul which can feel nothing but grief.”
His attachment to Martha increased after his quarrel with Lady Mary W.
Montagu, and ended only with his life.
”He was never,” says Mr. Bowles, ”indifferent to female society; and though his good sense prevented him, conscious of so many personal infirmities, from marrying, yet he felt the want of that sort of reciprocal tenderness and confidence in a female, to whom he might freely communicate his thoughts, and on whom, in sickness and infirmity, he could rely. All this Martha Blount became to him; by degrees, she became identified with his existence. She partook of his disappointments, his vexations, and his comforts. Wherever he went, his correspondence with her was never remitted; and when the warmth of gallantry was over, the cherished idea of kindness and regard remained.”[128]
To Martha Blount is addressed the compliment on her birth-day--
O be thou blest with all that heaven can send,-- Long health, long youth, long pleasure, and a friend!
And an epistle sent to her, with the works of Voiture, in which he advises her against marriage, in this elegant and well-known pa.s.sage,--
Too much your s.e.x are by their forms confin'd, Severe to all, but most to womankind; Custom, grown blind with age, must be your guide; Your pleasure is a vice, but not your pride.
By nature yielding, stubborn but for fame, Made slaves by honour, and made fools by shame.
Marriage may all those petty tyrants chase, But sets up one, a greater, in their place: Well might you wish for change, by those accurst, But the last tyrant ever proves the worst.
Still in constraint your suffering s.e.x remains, Or bound in formal or in real chains: Whole years neglected, for some months adored, The fawning servant turns a haughty lord.
Ah, quit not the free innocence of life For the dull glory of a virtuous wife!
Nor let false shows, nor empty t.i.tles please,-- Aim not at joy, but rest content with ease.
Very excellent advice, and very disinterested, considering whence it came, and to whom it was addressed!!
The poem generally placed after this in his works, and ent.i.tled ”Epistle to the _same_ Lady, on leaving town after the Coronation,” was certainly not addressed to Martha, but to Theresa. It appears from the correspondence, that Martha was not at the Coronation in 1715, and that Theresa was. The whole tenour of this poem is agreeable to the sprightly person and character of Theresa, while ”Parthenia's softer blush,”
evidently alludes to Martha. From an examination of the letters which were written at this time, I should imagine, that though Pope had previously a.s.sured the latter that she had gained the conquest over her fair sister, yet the public appearance of Theresa at the Coronation, and her superior charms, revived all his tenderness and admiration, and suggested this gay and pleasing effusion.
In some fair evening, on your elbow laid, You dream of triumphs in the rural shade; In pensive thought recall the fancy'd scene, See coronations rise on every green.
Before you pa.s.s th' imaginary sights Of lords, and earls, and dukes, and garter'd knights, While the spread fan o'ershades your closing eyes,-- Then give one flirt, and all the vision flies.
Thus vanish sceptres, coronets, and b.a.l.l.s, And leave you in lone woods or empty walls!
To Martha Blount is dedicated the ”Epistle on the Characters of Women;”
which concludes with this elegant and flattering address to her.
O! blest with temper, whose unclouded ray Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day; She who can love a sister's charms, or hear Sighs for a daughter with unwounded ear; She who ne'er answers till a husband cools, Or if she rules him, never shows she rules: Charms by accepting, by submitting sways, Yet has her humour most when she obeys; Let fops or fortune fly which way they will, Disdains all loss of tickets or codille; Spleen, vapours, or small-pox, above them all, And mistress of herself though China fall.