The Correspondence of Alexander Pope, vol. I, pp. 149–50
and pp. 159–60. The poems were first printed in 1730, the
second having been substantially rewritten when it was next
printed in 1736.
THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOULSee previous entry.
TO HENRY CROMWELL, 19 OCTOBER 1709
[WITH ARGUS]See Sherburn, vol. I, pp. 73–4. Henry Cromwell was an older
friend of Pope who encouraged him to undertake the Homer
translation.
4 Montaigne Michel de (1533–92). Pope was an early
admirer of his Essays, famous for their questioning
self-knowledge and recognition of the limitation of
human reason. They are written in an informal and
urbane style.
22 Toby There is a dog in the Book of Tobias in the Old
Testament Apocrypha.
25 Argus means swift in Greek. The passage occurs in
Odyssey, XVII (ll. 344–99 in Pope’s version). The
present poem is a summary. The text is from the
original letter including an alexandrine (l. 10)
subsequently amended by the removal of ‘alone’ and a
triplet subsequently altered with the removal of l. 13.
TO HENRY CROMWELL, 25 NOVEMBER 1710
[ON VERSIFICATION]See Sherburn, vol. I, pp. 105–8.
2 numbers versification.
28 alexandrines a line with two extra syllables and therefore
six feet as opposed to the usual five. See An Essay on
Criticism (ll. 337–83) for Pope’s exemplification of what
he considered to be faults in versification.