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Pope in the Private and Public Spheres: Annotations in the Second Earl of Oxford's Volume of Folio Poems, 1731-1736 by James McLaverty
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Pope in the Private and Public Spheres: Annotations in the Second Earl of Oxford's Volume of Folio Poems, 1731-1736
by
James McLaverty

A volume of separately published folio poems now in the Bodleian Library, shelfmark M 3.19 Art, provides an unusual perspective on Pope's publishing activities between 1731 and 1736 and evidence of the response of his friend Edward Harley, second Earl of Oxford. Of the twenty-five pieces in the collection, fourteen are written by Pope himself, three are attacks on him by opponents, and eight are the work of supporters or friends. Central are the four epistles to several persons (or moral essays), An Essay on Man, and The First Satire of the Second Book of Horace and its consequent attacks and counter-attacks. Twenty of the poems are annotated by Harley, fourteen are dated, and five have detailed commentary. Harley's notes show that he sided with Pope, even when members of his circle became entangled in the satire, that he was fascinated by questions of reference, and that he attended


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to textual variation. His annotation has special interest because it coincides with Pope's own first systematic attempts to mediate between his poems and their public by providing a commentary. Following Maynard Mack, I shall also argue that in one of the poems in the collection, An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, Pope has made three changes in his own hand.[1]

The early history of the volume leads to the Harleian library, and then, through the sale of the library (which peripherally draws in one of its cataloguers, Samuel Johnson), to one of the Bodleian's greatest benefactors, Richard Rawlinson. The Harleian library, built up by Edward and his father, the statesman Robert Harley, was one of the greatest of all British libraries, and its manuscripts became one of the founding collections of the British Museum.[2] Edward Harley (1689-1741) was an inveterate collector from his undergraduate days, when he was already running up large bills for books. To his father's extensive collection of genealogy, heraldry, history, politics, bibles, and prayer books, he added incunabula, printing on vellum, illuminated manuscripts, Greek and oriental manuscripts, coins and medals, and much more. When the library was sold it amounted to around 50,000 printed books (which had been kept at the country house, Wimpole) and 7,639 volumes of manuscripts, with 14,236 deeds, rolls, and charters (which had been stored at the town house in Dover Street). Harley took a detailed interest in the library, directing its organization and furnishing, and dating his purchases; he was generous to scholars, helping Maittaire, Palmer, and Hearne among others. His generosity extended to Pope, who treated the Dover Street house as something of a London base and found his own uses for the library.[3]

Pope saw that Harley's interest in books and his great library had potential value to him, and in the period immediately preceding the 1730s folios he involved him in two of his most complicated publishing operations. When the arrangements for The Dunciad Variorum in 1729 seemed likely to prove dangerous, with the printer and bookseller liable to prosecution, he asked Harley for help, suggesting that if a group of peers were prepared to publish the work, no action could be taken against them for libel. Harley agreed to act and consequently Pope sent him instructions about the distribution of


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the books, down to the most explicit details: 'I beg your Lordship to send about 20 books to Cambridge, but by no means to be given to any Bookseller, but disposed of as by your own Order at 6s. by any honest Gentleman or Head of a House.'[4] Subsequently Harley was one of those (the others were Burlington and Bathurst) who assigned the copyright of The Dunciad to Lawton Gilliver. The second operation involved Harley's library directly. As early as September 1729 Pope wrote to Harley with the request 'That you would suffer some Original papers & Letters, both of my own and some of my Friends, to lye in your Library at London' (Correspondence, III, 54). Later, with publication in mind, he asked for permission to say that the originals were in Harley's library and was told, 'what ever mention you make of that Library I shall be pleased with' (Correspondence, III, 56). In consequence, Harley's library became the home for Pope's letters, the place of transcription (Harley even became involved in checking the transcriptions himself), and the vital stage on the route to 'involuntary' publication. Other works were transcribed there, and for some of Pope's shorter poems Harleian transcriptions provide the most authoritative witness. There can be little doubt that during the period Harley was collecting and annotating the Bodleian folios, he was, through his library, becoming intimately acquainted with many aspects of Pope's career.[5]

When Harley died, the state of his financial affairs necessitated the sale of the library. The books were bought by the bookseller Thomas Osborne for £13,000, and it was probably at the Osborne sale of the Harleian library that Richard Rawlinson bought the volume now in the Bodleian.[6] It appears from his correspondence that Rawlinson had not liked Harley, finding him 'incommunicative' and believing that he helped scholars in order 'to beg the applause of the world',[7] and he liked Osborne's sale, or so he claimed, even less, fearing that the bookseller would blend in his own stock with Harley's books. He resolved not to buy, but when he saw the books, 'a beautiful sight it was', he soon gave way and started making purchases.[8] His dislike of Osborne


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was something he shared with Pope and Johnson. Osborne's advertisement of subscription copies of the Iliad at half price had led to Pope's installing him as Curll's rival in the urinating contest in The Dunciad in 1743,[9] but Johnson's attack on the bookseller may have been more effective. Employed with William Oldys, who had been Harley's literary secretary, to supervise the cataloguing of the library, he took offence at Osborne's treatment of him, as Boswell explains: 'It has been confidently related, with many embellishments, that Johnson one day knocked Osborne down in his shop, with a folio, and put his foot upon his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. "Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop: it was in my own chamber."' But, with characteristic fairness, Johnson noted that though the sum paid for the Harleian books would not have covered the cost of the original binding, 'the slowness of the sale was such, that there was not much gained by it.'[10]

Rawlinson died on 6 April 1755, leaving 5,205 volumes of manuscripts and between 1,800 and 1,900 printed books to the Bodleian Library. In his Will be specifically bequeathed to the Bodleian books such 'as shall appear to have therein any manuscript additions, or explanatory enlightning or controversial notes, either by myself or any other person or persons whatsoever'.[11] The volume which is now M 3.19 Art clearly falls into that category, but it did not come to the Library with the other volumes in the bequest that started to arrive from 1756 onwards. It seems to have arrived there between 1874 and 1880, the period during which a book by Devèze de Chabriol that had previously been at M 3.19 Art was moved to Physics b. 13. The history of the volume in the intervening period remains at present unknown.[12]

The folio poems collected by Harley cover the period following the publication of the Dunciad Variorum in March 1729 and culminating in the issue of the second volume of Works in April 1735. The collection was probably given to the binder over a year after the appearance of Works II; the last poem in the collection, Bounce to Fop, was published in May 1736, and the first Pope poem to be published after that, presumably too late to be bound


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with these, was Horace his Ode to Venus on 9 March 1737.[13] Some of Harley's notes, those on An Epistle from a Nobleman (title-page) and To Arbuthnot (15.9), which are transcribed with the others at the end of this essay, show knowledge of the quarto or folio Works of 1735, but that does not mean all the notes (even in those poems) were made after that date, and the most likely pattern is of annotation shortly after receipt followed by some further notes around the time of binding. The book is bound quite plainly, which befits its status as a collection of folio pamphlets rather than a subscription edition of Homer or a fine-paper copy of the Works. The front and back covers are bound in marbled brown calf, with a gilt double-rule border; the spine is in smooth calf with a red gilt-bordered label, gilt-stamped 'EPISTLES BY Mr. POPE & OTHERS'. On the top left-hand side of the front cover a strip, measuring c. 3 x 10 (all measurements are in cms.), has been torn away. The volume measures 37.2 (high) x 23 (wide) x 3.6 (deep). The endpapers are marbled and the inside of the front cover bears the Rawlinson bookplate based on his diploma as Doctor of Laws.[14] On the first page after the endpapers, someone has written in pencil in an open sprawling eighteenth-century hand, 'MSS. Notes of the hand writing of Lord Oxford'. This identification is confirmed in an ink annotation by a librarian. The volume has been bulked out with blank sheets: eight leaves before item 1, two in item 2 before p. 5, six before item 15, and eight more at the end. Item 1 has been repaired by the Library; item 2 has two readily perceptible stab-holes. One item in the collection, 12*, I do not understand. It consists of two leaves of An Essay on Man with a line already present written out at the foot. I do not think the writing is Harley's or Pope's.

The poems in the collection fall into three groups, though there are various interlinkings and Harley's own arrangement is loosely chronological. First, and as the heart of the collection, come the poems Pope planned as part of the opus magnum which was to be founded on the basis of the Essay on Man: the Essay itself, represented by the first edition and revision of the first epistle and first editions of the other three (1733-34); and first editions of the supplementary poems, To Burlington (1731), To Bathurst (1732), To Cobham (1733), and To a Lady.[15] Second comes the group associated with Horatian imitations. Perhaps to help ensure the anonymity of the Essay on Man, Pope published his imitation of The First Satire of the Second Book of Horace in 1733 and followed it with an imitation of The Second Satire of the same book. The First Satire rapidly whipped up a controversy of its own: responses included an attack from Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Lord Hervey, and William Wyndham, Verses Address'd to the Imitator . . . of Horace (1733), with an anonymous riposte, Advice to Sappho (1733), and an


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attack from Hervey alone, An Epistle from a Nobleman to a Dr. of Divinity (1733), with its anonymous riposte, Tit for Tat (1734). To this group also belong Pope's Sober Advice from Horace (1734) and his reply to his critics, An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735). The final group consists of poems by friends and protégés. Three young friends developed themes that were important to Pope. David Mallet attacked Bentley and Theobald in Verbal Criticism: An Epistle to Mr Pope (1733); Gilbert West praised Lord Cobham's gardens in Stowe . . . Address'd to Mr. Pope (1732); and Walter Harte contributed An Essay on Reason (1735), whose title echoes that of the prospective first epistle of the second stage of the opus magnum. Mallet was at pains to emphasize his independence of Pope: 'this poem was undertaken and written entirely without the knowledge of the Gentleman to whom it is addressed', but we know from a letter of 7 November [1732] that Pope had seen it before publication, 'The Epistle I have read over & over, with great & just Delight; I think it correct throughout, except one or two small things that savor of Repetition toward the latter End' (Correspondence III, 330). Of the four Swift poems included at the end of the collection, On Poetry (1733), An Epistle to a Lady (1734), The Life and Genuine Character of Doctor Swift (1733), and Bounce to Fop (1736), the two last have been attributed to Pope, and it is quite possible he had a hand in their revision or publication.[16]

Harley's collection represents both the new direction Pope was giving to his career and the publishing arrangements that went with it. The opus magnum was to be combined with The Dunciad to make a new volume of Works. The plans for the opus magnum are known to us mainly through the account Pope gave to Spence in 1730 and through a cancelled leaf in the fine-paper quarto edition of the complete Essay on Man. This leaf, containing the 'Index to the Ethic Epistles', is preserved in a copy in the Cambridge University Library and shows a division into two books.[17] The first book contains the four epistles of An Essay on Man; the second book contains nine projected epistles, arranged to correspond to the four epistles of An Essay on Man. The plan may be summarized in modernized typography by giving Pope's account of the first book and following each epistle with the parallel material of the second book in brackets: Of the nature and state of man [Of the use of things]; Epistle I, With respect to the universe [Of the limits of human reason; Of the use of learning; Of the use of wit]; Epistle II, As an individual [Of the knowledge and characters of men; Of the particular characters of women];


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Epistle III, With respect to society [Of the principles and use of civil and ecclesiastical polity; Of the use of education]; Epistle IV, With respect to happiness [A view of the equality of happiness in the several conditions of men; Of the use of riches, etc.]. As Miriam Leranbaum has explained, the project was never completed, though it continued to haunt Pope's thinking for the rest of his career.[18] The four poems Bateson decided to call 'Epistles to Several Persons' represent, more or less explicitly, contributions to the grand design: To Cobham and To a Lady correspond to the two epistles planned for the second section, while To Bathurst and To Burlington correspond to aspects of the final section. Other material seems to have been used in the fourth book of The Dunciad, published in 1742. Pope clearly anticipated that Harte's Essay on Reason would be taken as part of the design, and a letter to Mallet in the summer of 1734 suggests that he welcomed the prospect:
I fancy the Title of an Essay on Reason is the best, & am half of opinion, if no Name be set to it, the public will think it mine especially since in the Index, (annext to the large paper Edition of the Essay on Man) the Subject of the next Epistle is mentioned to be of Human Reason &c. But whether this may be an Inducement, or the Contrary, to Mr Harte, I know not: I like his poem so well (especially since his last alterations) that it would no way displease me. (Correspondence, III, 408-409)
The extent of Pope's contribution to An Essay on Reason is in doubt, but it appeared anonymously, and was indeed mistaken for Pope's work.[19]

It is not clear when Pope decided that he would not himself be able to complete the opus magnum in time for the 1735 Works or when he decided to abandon the scheme altogether. David Foxon has shrewdly suggested that the publication of The Impertinent as a scruffy quarto on 5 November 1733 may be the first sign of self-doubt, while the Works in quarto and folio suggest a certain amount of dithering.[20] Gilliver's advertisement leaf in To a Lady, which appeared a couple of months before the Works, simply gives a twofold division, Essay on Man and 'Epistles to Several Persons'; the Works themselves hedge their bet with a division into An Essay on Man and 'Ethic Epistles, The Second Book: Epistles to Several Persons', under which heading To Cobham, To a Lady, To Bathurst, and To Burlington fall indifferently with To Addison, To Oxford, and To Arbuthnot. But it is clear from the organization of the epistles in the series of octavo Works that followed the publication of the quarto and folio Works II in 1735 that Pope still clung to some of his original vision. The half-titles of the subsequent octavo volumes (Griffith 388, 389, and 430) revived the opus magnum plan by implementing a four-part division: 'An Essay on Man, Being the First Book of Ethic Epistles'; 'Ethic Epistles, The Second Book'; 'Epistles, The Third Book. To Several


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Persons'; 'Satires of Horace Imitated, With the Satires of Dr. Donne, Versified by the same hand'. This was accompanied by careful paralleling of the first two books: both had a 'Contents' section which presented a schematic account of the epistles, and that account then shadowed the text in footnotes. This was the pattern in the first three editions of octavo Works II in 1735 and 1736, but in 1739 the pattern changed: the influence of the original quarto and folio reasserted itself and the new Works II (Griffith 505) divided the epistles into two sections only, An Essay on Man and 'Epistles to Several Persons'; the 'Contents' relating to the four epistles was dropped; commentary linking the first and second books (for example, on pp. 19, 24) was omitted; and commentary suggesting an abandoned plan was added ("The Deduction and Application of the forgoing Principles, with the Use or Abuse of Civil and Ecclesiastical Policy, was intended for the subject of the third Book', p. 46). This collection, planned in 1738, probably marks the point when Pope finally abandoned the opus magnum, but during the time of Harley's collecting, the project was still very much alive, and the evidence of the early Works II octavos is that Pope regarded his inability to complete it by 1735 as setback rather than a defeat.

To Burlington, which is the first item in the collection, was probably something of a trial run for the opus magnum epistles, and it is representative of Pope's new publishing arrangements. It was printed by John Wright for Lawton Gilliver and so continued the pairing that Pope had established to publish the Dunciad Variorum. After quarrelling with Lintot over the subscription for the Odyssey, Pope decided to control the publication of his works himself. He employed John Wright, who had formerly been manager of John Barber's printing shop but had now set up on his own account—or Pope's—on St. Peter's Hill, and Lawton Gilliver, a bookseller almost out of his apprenticeship, who had just set up in Fleet Street at the appropriately named Homer's Head.[21] This combination of experienced printer and novice bookseller was perfectly suited to Pope's needs. Heavy demands were to be made on the printer's skill and patience by complex books (The Dunciad Variorum) and extensive revision (everywhere), while copyrights were to be guarded and profit margins squeezed. After the publication of To Burlington, which, because of the furore over the 'Timon's Villa' episode, must have been a critical nightmare for Pope but a commercial success for Gilliver, the poet and bookseller signed an agreement which was clearly designed to take care of the completion of the opus magnum. The basis for the agreement of 1 December 1732 was that Pope intended to 'publish certain Poems or Epistles', that he might choose to offer some of them to Gilliver, and that Gilliver would pay £50 for the privilege of printing and publishing each one for a year. A subsidiary interest was entry in the Stationers' Register to protect the copyright; Gilliver promised to enter each poem correctly in the Register, to enjoy the benefit of the entry for one year, and after that to hold


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it in trust for Pope. It was probably at this same time that Pope made the declaration that is kept with the agreement in the British Library. The declaration is undated and it refers quite formally to the agreement without giving its date, which suggests it was written on the same day. The Declaration deals with the possibility of Pope's death before he has finished the opus magnum, ensuring that Gilliver would be free to publish the existing epistles in a volume of Works. Gilliver, as the declaration points out, owned the Dunciad copyright, so there was a joint interest in the Works, which was finally entered to Pope and Gilliver in half shares in the Register.

The agreement and declaration had their impact on the twenty-five items (fourteen by Pope) in Harley's collection. Nine are printed by Wright and published by Gilliver (four have both names in the imprint), and in addition each was involved in one publication without the other, Wright printing the fourth epistle of An Essay on Man and Gilliver publishing Of Verbal Criticism. I suspect that only the need for anonymity deprived them of a full hand of all fourteen Pope items. Maynard Mack has stressed Pope's determination to obtain an unprejudiced critical reception for An Essay on Man, and this extended to avoiding the by then well established association with Gilliver and Wright (Twickenham, III, i, xv). For the publication of the Essay Pope turned to the printer and publisher of The Grub Street Journal, which he seems to have been involved with, through Gilliver, in the early stages. Official publication of An Essay on Man was by John Wilford, a shareholder in the Journal from 7 September 1732 and subsequently its publisher, and printing was by Samuel Aris (Epistle III) and John Huggonson (Epistle I), successively printers of the Journal, with Edward Say (Epistle II), who, as far as I know, has no other Pope connection, making up the number.[22] Sober Advice was also kept anonymous, but for reasons of decency. The bookseller was Thomas Boreman and the printer John Hughs. That completes the account of the Pope poems, except for Bounce to Fop. The names of the same printers appear surprisingly often in an account of the other eleven. On the evidence of imprints and ornaments, Wright and Gilliver produced West's Stowe and Harte's Essay on Reason ('Printed by J. Wright for Lawton Gilliver' in the latter suggesting an official Pope publication); Gilliver and Say produced Mallet's Of Verbal Criticism, and Say printed Swift's The Life and Genuine Character of Doctor Swift and possibly (from the style of the ornaments only) Tit for Tat; Huggonson printed Verses Address'd to the Imitator . . . of Horace, in its first and fifth editions, and Swift's On Poetry; and Aris printed Swift's An Epistle to a Lady. The printers of Advice to Sappho, Hervey's Epistle to a Nobleman, and Bounce to Fop remain unidentified. This concentration on a relatively small circle of book


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trade figures suggests the influence of Gilliver as Pope's bookseller. He was doubtless sought out by Pope's admirers, and those given Pope's or Swift's anonymous works to print tended to be otherwise associated with him in his business.

One of the major interests of Harley's volume is the annotation of dates of publication and receipt. The established relationship between Pope and Gilliver may explain the regularity with which Harley not only received these poems but was sent pre-publication copies. However, the single reference to the topic in Pope's correspondence suggests otherwise. On 30 December 1734 Pope wrote to Harley, 'I hoped to have had Interest enough with my negligent Bookseller [Gilliver] to have procur'd a Copy of the Epistle to Dr A. to accompany my Letter. I doubt whether I shall do it yet?' (Correspondence, III, 446). In this case Harley notes the date of publication, 'Publisht Janu. 2. 1734/5', which coincides with the date of entry in the Stationer's Register and of advertisement in the London Evening Post, but does not make it clear when he received his copy. Pope's correspondence shows that he was well aware of the value of providing pre-publication copies to interested parties and influential friends. Off-prints of The Rape of the Locke, for example, were sent to Arabella Fermor, Robert Petre, and John Caryll in May 1712 (Correspondence, I, 145), and, towards the end of his life, in a letter to Warburton of 21 February 1744 Pope advised him, 'I would also defer . . . the publication of the Two Essays [On Criticism and On Man] with your Notes in Quarto, that (if you thought it would be taken well) you might make the Compliment to any of your Friends (& particularly of the Great ones, or of those whom I find most so) of sending them as Presents from yourself' (Correspondence, IV, 500). Such pre-publication copies would be especially valued by a collector like Harley. He frequently annotated his volumes with dates of receipt, and he would have been encouraged in the practice by an unusual letter from Pope of 16 May 1729, seeking his help in compiling a case against Burnet, Duckett, and Dennis, the authors of Pope Alexander's Supremacy, 'I therfore beg your Lordship to send a Careful hand to buy the Book of Lintot, (who must not be known to come from you) & to enter down the day of the month. . . . Let the same Man, after he has the book, go to Roberts the Publisher in Warwick lane and threaten him, unless he declares the author' (Correspondence, III, 33-34).

Harley's annotation of the date of receipt or publication is not systematic, only fourteen out of the twenty-five poems are dated, and it is not easy to discern a pattern. Inadvertance may have played its part, but the most likely explanation is that poems were dated if they were complimentary copies. The attacks on Pope by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Lord Hervey, Tit for Tat, and three of the Swift poems, for example, were unlikely to be sent by their authors. And Gilbert West, the nephew of Lord Cobham, may not have felt himself in need of powerful friends to the same extent as 'Mr Mallet. a Scots Gentleman' whose poem was 'Sent by the Author'. On the other hand, it would be very surprising if Harley had not


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been sent the revised version of To Burlington, To Bathurst, and To Cobham by Pope himself, especially since To Bathurst contained the lines,
Who copies Yours or OXFORD's better part,
To ease th'oppress'd, and raise the sinking heart?
It may be that in this and some other cases, Harley was sent a fine-paper copy that was bound elsewhere; only the joint satires of the Satires of the Second Book of Horace are in fine-paper copy here. It is not clear either why some poems are annotated with the date of publication rather than of receipt. The distinction between the two is clear in the copy of To a Lady, where the half-title is annotated with the date of receipt, 6 February 1735, and the title with the date of publication, 7 February 1735. In another case, that of the two Satires of the Second Book of Horace, the publication date recorded, quite accurately, as 15 February 1733, is the date of publication of the first satire, not of both satires, which did not appear together until 9 July 1734. It seems possible that these dates were given to Harley by Pope, otherwise he must have given scrupulous attention to the newspapers and journals.[23] The dates of receipt may usefully be compared with the dates of publication as given by David Foxon in his catalogue, which makes good use of Harley's datings. The general pattern is of receipt one or two days before publication: Advice to Sappho, 12 April 1733 (13 April); Essay on Man III, 4 May 1733 (8 May); Essay on Man IV, 22 January 1734 (24 January); Verbal Criticism 14 April 1733 (16 April); Sober Advice, 20 December 1734 (21 December); To a Lady, 6 February 1735 (7 or 8 February); Essay on Reason, 6 February 1735 (7 February); The Life and Genuine Character of Doctor Swift, 12 April 1733 (?20 April). The very early receipt of the last item is another small grain in the balance towards establishment of Pope's authorship, while the presence of Harte's Essay on Reason in this list confirms the impression that Pope was contriving to have this work mistaken for his own.

Harley's other annotations have special importance because they coincide with Pope's own growing interest in the editing and annotation of his work. When Pope wrote to Jacob Tonson, senior, about the publication of Bentley's Milton and Theobald's Shakespeare, I suspect his reference to his own work was only half in jest: 'I think I should congratulate your Cosen on the new Trade he is commencing, of publishing English classicks with huge Commentaries. Tibbalds will be the Follower of Bentley, & Bentley of Scriblerus. What a Glory will it be to the Dunciad, that it was the First Modern Work publish'd in this manner?' (Correspondence, III, 243-244.) The Dunciad Variorum itself seems to have been modelled on Claude Bossette's edition of Bolieau, published in Geneva in 1716.[24] The typography, especially the


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division of the notes into 'Remarks' and 'Imitations' (though the Variorum lacks the 'Changemens' found in the Boileau) seems to derive from that edition, and Pope's Variorum could claim like Boileau's Oeuvres to be 'Avec Eclaircissemens Historiques, Donnez par lui-meme'. Although much of the Dunciad apparatus is comic and parodic, much of it also is highly informative and justificatory (most 'Imitations', for example, simply identify allusions), and the influence of Boileau did not die with publication of the Variorum but lived through the preparation of the Works. Jonathan Richardson has explained that he was given the manuscripts of the Essay on Man 'for the pains I took in collating the whole with the printed editions . . . on my having proposed to him the making an edition of his works in the manner of Boileau's'.[25] The original plan must have been for Works II to appear with annotations to both the Dunciad and the opus magnum epistles, as the 'Postscript' to the quarto and folio Works makes clear:

It was intended in this Edition, to have added Notes to the Ethic Epistles as well as to the Dunciad, but the book swelling to too great a bulk, we are oblig'd to defer them till another Volume may come out, of such as the Author may hereafter write, with several Pieces in Prose relating to the same subjects.

In the mean time, that nothing contained in the former Editions may be wanting in this, we have here collected all the Variations of the separate Impressions, and the Notes which have been annexed to them, with the addition of a few more which have been judg'd the most necessary.

Some notes, therefore, remain at the foot of the page as they were in the individual editions; others are placed at the end. The 'Changemens' lacking in the Dunciad are here provided as endnotes, though only for An Essay on Man and To Arbuthnot, and there are 'Remarques', now 'Notes', on To Bathurst and To Arbuthnot. The two octavo editions of Works II of 1735 and their successors elaborated the notes, which were placed at the foot of the page, but they did not include the 'Variations'.[26] By comparing Harley's notes with those in the quarto, folio, and octavo Works, we can contrast Pope's implied reader with an actual one, though it is important to recognise that Pope was constrained by the laws of libel, as Harley working in his library was not.

Harley shows no interest in 'Imitations', which is surprising for a man of keen scholarly interests. Pope provides literary notes on Oppian at Essay on Man, III, 178, on Virgil at To Bathurst, 75, 184 (octavo only), on Don Quixote at To Burlington, 160 (octavo only), and on Pitholeon (49, octavo only), Chaucer (72), Horace (88, octavo only), and Milton (319, octavo only) in To Arbuthnot. It is possible that Pope included these notes in the octavo editions


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because they were for a general, and less educated, public, whereas the quartos and folios were aimed at the wealthy, including scholars and collectors like Harley, who, it might be thought, needed no help in identifying references and allusions. Certainly the development of a running explanatory commentary and system of cross-references in the octavos suggests their readers are in need of a helping authorial hand. But in the case of the 'Imitations', it seems more likely that Pope really was short of time in preparing the quarto and folio and had to leave some things out; many purchasers of the quartos and folios were probably, like Harley, more interested in personalities than intertextuality.

Where the Works II octavos do seem to be responsive to Pope's sense of his readership is in the omission of 'Variations'. The Works I octavos published at the same time do include them, but those editions provided Pope's first serious opportunity to elaborate his early texts. It is clear from the 'Postscript' in the large-format Works that Pope attached the need for 'Variations' to the purchase of expensive editions; purchasers spending a guinea would want a truly complete Works, one that included the readings of individual editions that their friends told them about. The 'Variations' would also appeal to another category of reader, the persistent purchasers of Pope's poems in folio (and sometimes quarto), who would be interested in having their attention drawn to novelties in the new book. In the octavos space was at a premium, and the difference in format and price removed the sense of obligation to provide variant readings.

In his attention to textual variation Harley shows a scholarly enthusiasm lacking in the treatment of 'Imitations'. This is particularly evident in his comparison of the two versions of the first epistle of An Essay on Man. In some ways his annotation is superior to that supplied in the quarto and folio Works, presumably by Jonathan Richardson working under Pope's supervision. Harley compared his copy of the first edition of the first epistle with the revised edition Pope published two months later, and marked the changes in the first edition. On the first page he notes the change made famous by Johnson, from 'A mighty Maze! of walks without a Plan' to 'A mighty Maze! but not without a Plan' (Lives of the Poets, III, 162). Although Mack in his Twickenham volume points out that both lines are susceptible of orthodox interpretation, Pope's failure to include the original line in the Works 'Variations' suggests that he was not anxious to keep it before his public. Harley notes further detailed verbal changes in the early stages of the poem, without providing a comprehensive collation. Some of the changes may be recorded because they particularly appealed to his sensibility. For example, the revision of the word 'spreads' to 'swells' in the line 'Suckles each herb, and spreads out ev'ry flow'r' (134) is ignored by the Works 'Variations' but recorded by Harley, whereas the complicated revision of the lines about bliss (93-94) are recorded in the 'Variations' but ignored by Harley. What is particularly impressive about Harley's collation is the neat recording of major deletions and shifts by the use of marginal 'x's. On page 6 at lines 14-15, for example, he notes that six lines from later in the poem are inserted


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at this point, and he duly marks the lines with an 'x' (7.1). On page 10 he marks lines 7-12, two of which were transferred and four omitted. It must be conceded that Harley lacked stamina as a collator, and that towards the end of the poem the 'x's are used in a general way to note a complex revision of a whole passage (13.1-2 and 14.18-19), but his notes suggest an admirably careful and attentive reader, with an awareness of the sort of distinctions that became so important in later controversies about this poem.

Other poems provided few opportunities for collation, but Harley's notes on To Arbuthnot show an attentiveness to minor changes in the representation of Lord Hervey in the Works text, even though he ignores some of the omissions and developments picked up by the Works 'Variations'. The change from 'Damon' to 'Fanny' is noted at page 8 line 13, and in the margin of the reference to 'Paris' on page 15 line 9 he writes, 'In a late edition the name is changed to Sporus a more proper nick name' (see Figure 1). In this instance a difference in the use of the pen suggests that Harley has come back to the poem some time after making the original annotation, which presumably preceded the 1735 Works. His note draws attention to the increased harshness of treatment of Hervey in the Works text, and, of course, he had no need to record the other variants when the Works did it for him. Verses to the Imitator of . . . Horace is a parallel case, and the two stages of annotation suggest, if rather weakly, that the first was probably not long after receipt.

Harley's main interest in annotating the poems is in the personalities represented. This form of interest goes back at least as far as The Dunciad, when he wrote to Pope in a letter of 27 May 1728, 'I see curl has advertised a Key to the Dunciad, I have been asked for one by several [Sherburn signifies a gap here] I wish the True one was come out' (Correspondence, II, 496). It was an interest Pope encouraged and shared. The question of naming preoccupied him at this time: it is discussed in the 'Cleland' preface to The Dunciad Variorum; in Boileau's discourse annexed to Walter Harte's Essay on Satire, Particularly on the Dunciad; and in The First Satire of the Second Book of Horace, To Arbuthnot, and To a Lady. Harley shows no scruples about naming; he merely wants to know who's who. Most of the annotations are simple identifications. The best example is The First Satire of the Second Book of Horace, where there are five straightforward identifications, four of which are accepted as correct by modern editors. A fifth, that of Dr. Hollings as 'Celsus', is ignored by John Butt in the Twickenham edition, perhaps because Hollings has proved impossible to identify. The five identifications are accompanied by what I take to be seven queries, represented by underlinings in red pencil. In a letter which is unfortunately undated but which Sherburn allots to 1733, Pope writes to Harley from Dover Street, 'I find here Two red Lead pencils, one of which I presume is for me, & therfore I have taken it away (for it writes well)' (Correspondence, III, 359). I assume that Harley is using another of these pencils for his underlinings here and elsewhere, though the colour is now a reddish-brown. The underlinings probably precede publication of To Arbuthnot, which would have identified Budgell, and they show that Harley had some difficulty in spotting allusions


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illustration

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to members of his own circle. 'Shylock and his Wife', although unidentified by Butt, are surely Edward and Mary Wortley Montagu, who appeared under the same name (and as 'Worldly') in To Bathurst, though Harley does not identify them there either.[27]

Sometimes Harley's identifications are confirmed by Pope in subsequent editions, as when Gage (To Bathurst, 8.2) is given his full name in the first Works II octavo, or when a full note is supplied on Sir John Blount (To Bathurst 8.7) in the large-format Works II. Sometimes confirmation is delayed until Warburton's edition, as in the case of Arthur Moore (To Arbuthnot 2.13). None of the identifications has been discredited by modern scholarship, though Butt suggests that 'Lady M------' in Sober Advice (7.20) may be Lady Mary Wortley Montagu rather than Lady Mohun, and he omits the identification of Theobald as the butt of 'Three things another's modest wishes bound, / My Friendship, and a Prologue, and ten Pound' (To Arbuthnot 3.16), of the Duke of Argyll as the man Welsted wishes to be commended to (To Arbuthnot 3.17), and of 'one Hamilton' as the man offering to 'go snacks' (To Arbuthnot 4.12-13). Sometimes Harley himself expresses an intelligent caution. His note on 'Bufo' in To Arbuthnot (12.8) seems to have been written in three stages. First he wrote a cautious 'this character made fit many I think it is cheifly the right of mr Bubb Doddington'. Then, possibly on immediately reading what he had written, he added 'but' before the 'I' to admit his daring. Finally he added in red pencil, possibly after talking to Pope, 'it would also fit the late earl of Halifax'. This is a shrewd recognition of Pope's practice of double reference that might serve as guide to modern editors.[28] Similarly, next to 'Fannia' in To a Lady, he notes 'It is said this hints at the Countess of Pembroke, who used to be drawn in these several attitudes', showing respect for Pope's concern in his preface that ladies should not be identified. He has no hesitation, however, in identifying the addressee of the poem as Martha Blount; in doing so he shows that contemporaries were willing to accept the poem as a tribute in a way that Warburton, possibly out of personal dislike for Martha Blount, would not, insisting that the addressee is 'imaginary'.[29]

In three cases, Harley provides longer notes. On page 8 of To Bathurst he gives a very specific anecdote illustrating Lady Mary Herbert's meanness, which contrasts with the more general one provided by Pope in the Works. Pope's note deals with Lady Mary and Gage together:

The two Persons here mentioned were of Quality, each of whom in the time of the Missisipi despis'd to realize above three hundred thousand pounds: The Gentleman with a view to the purchase of the Crown of Poland, the Lady on a Vision of the like Royal nature. They since retired into Spain, where they are still in search of Gold in the Mines of the Asturies.

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Pope's note lacks some of the tang of specific social transgression supplied by Harley's, but it gives a more general picture. Harley's gift for vivid anecdote also shows in the Miller's Tale-style story told of Lady Mohun as a note to Sober Advice (7.20). This story suits the bawdy tone of Sober Advice, and chimes in perfectly with the annotated couplet,
A Lady's Face is all you see undress'd;
(For none but Lady M-------- shows the Rest),
The anecdote is entirely apposite, though the point of the story (does Lord Mohun recognize his wife's buttocks or not?) is not entirely clear. The third longer note is on 'Paris' in To Arbuthnot (15.9; see Figure 1). This is composed of three parts: a variant reading; a scholarly account of Sporus's 'Gelding' (an interesting feature of this and the previous anecdote is Harley's use of capital letters to highlight impropriety); and a judgement, 'It so happens that this is generaly applyed to Lord Harvey, and as he deserved it of Mr Pope, it is very proper for him & is very justly Drawn'. It is significant that Harley is here endorsing Pope's treatment of an important court figure at a point in Pope's career when the question of birth and status had been made important to him. The issues raised by Verses Address'd to the Imitator . . . of Horace and Pope's reply in To Arbuthnot make the response of an aristocrat like Harley especially interesting.

Harley is our most important source for the authorship of the Verses. To the usual co-authors, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Lord Hervey, he adds a third, William Wyndham, 'under Tutor to the Duke of Cumber-land and married to my Lady Deloraine'. Maynard Mack ingeniously, and surely correctly, suggests that this explains an allusion in To Arbuthnot, one of those marked in red pencil:

To please a Mistress, One aspers'd his life;
He lash'd him not, but let her be his Wife.[30]
Isobel Grundy, in her fine article on the Verses Address'd to the Imitator . . . of Horace, points out that the marriage did not take place until April 1734, over a year after the publication of the poem, and takes this as the date after which Harley's annotation must have been made.[31] But the 'and' of 'and married to my Lady Deloraine' starts more than an ordinary space away from 'Cumberland' and a little lower than the line established by the earlier writing. It is at least possible that Harley identified the authors at an early stage (his wife, as Grundy points out, was a friend of Lady Deloraine) and added the information about the marriage when he was looking through later, either on the publication of To Arbuthnot or at the time of binding the folios together. After all, if Harley himself did not give the information on the authorship of the Verses to Pope, somebody like him must have done so. Harley shows no hostility to Lady Deloraine or Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

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(another of Lady Oxford's friends), but he clearly sided with Pope against Lord Hervey as he gleefully annotated An Epistle from a Nobleman, 'that is my Lord Harvey alias Lord Fanny, alias Paris, alias Sporus alias &c &c &c.' and wrote of the addressee, 'The Dean of Chichester Dr. Shewin a very great scoundrel'. The relationship between the Verses Address'd to the Imitator . . . of Horace and To Arbuthnot interested Harley, as at this stage it interested Pope and his implied readers. He notes that the 'Fifth Edition Corrected' of the Verses is no such thing and that it was a reprint in response to To Arbuthnot. On page 19 he improves on Pope's footnote reference to the Verses by giving page and line numbers; in the 'Fifth Edition' of the Verses he would have found a reference to page 19 of To Arbuthnot. Harley makes no comment on Pope's account of his parentage. In the light of Johnson's debunking information that his father was 'a linen draper in the Strand',[32] it is easy to forget that many of the country's leading figures, Harley, Burlington, Bathurst, Cobham, must have read this account and believed it; it is not improbable Pope believed it himself.

In Harley, therefore, Pope found a careful and attentive reader, a collector sharing his own interest in first editions and textual variation, and an interpreter with an eye for personal satire but a willingness to rest in doubts and uncertainties when they were necessary. What we cannot know is how far Harley's reading was guided by Pope himself, and unfortunately Pope's own annotations of To Arbuthnot are far from having the self-explanatory quality that might help us. There is even some doubt about where Pope's contribution starts and Harley's ends, for although there are two interventions convincingly attributed to Pope, and I shall go on to propose another, three more single-letter annotations, cautiously proposed as Pope's by Maynard Mack, are not, I believe, by him. The doubtful annotations are not without importance. On page 15 (Figure 1) someone has designated speakers of the dialogue: 'P' (Pope) speaks first; 'Dr' (Arbuthnot) replies; and the 'P' begins the Sporus portrait. When Warburton produced his edition of Pope in 1751, he gave all the speeches in To Arbuthnot to either 'P' or 'A', and To Bathurst was similarly divided. If Pope made the changes to Harley's copy, the probability that Warburton was following Pope's instructions is increased. Although the difficulties of distinguishing handwriting on so narrow a base are self-evident, I think these capitals can be identified as Harley's. The 'P' has a distinctive foot, which is also to be found in the margin in 'Paris'. The 'D' is also distinctive, looking a little like a treble-clef; the vertical line rises above the bowl of the letter, which curls away behind it to form a complete circle; a similar 'D' is found in the margin in 'Drawn'.[33]


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The two undisputed Pope interventions are both substantial. The couplet added on page 12, between lines 12 and 13, appeared in Pope's manuscript, and was included in the notes to Warburton's edition as a 'Variation':

To Bards Reciting he vouchsafd a Nod
And snuff'd their Incence like a gracious God.[34]
Harley would not have been able to include this couplet without Pope's help, and the handwriting is of a quite different quality from Harley's. Even more significant is the note on 'Atticus' on page 11. Mack correctly identifies this as being in Pope's handwriting, and in any case the degree of revision suggests composition not transcription. Mack thinks the explanation of the presence of this note is that Harley was sent Pope's own working copy in which he was preparing the note for the quarto and folio Works. That note certainly presents interesting parallels:
ATTICUS] It was a great Falshood which some of the Libels reported, that this Character was written after the Gentleman's death, which see refuted in the Testimonies prefix'd to the Dunciad. But the occasion of writing it was such, as he would not make publick in regard to his memory; and all that could further be done was to omit the Name in the Edition of his Works.
The notes follow a similar structure: they state the accusation, point to the previously established defence, deny the reader further information on the grounds of tenderness to the memory of 'Atticus', and say that all that can be done is to omit the name. The handwritten annotation picks up a further problem, why the character was ever printed, but denies any knowledge of it. Mack is certainly correct in seeing a relation between the two, but there are some difficulties in seeing the folio sent to Harley as a working copy. For one thing the implication of Pope's letter of 30 December is that he had no copies of To Arbuthnot but was planning to send one to Harley as soon as he received it; if the Harley copy was received on 2 January, which seems likely, that leaves no time for Pope to establish a working copy. Of course, Pope may in exasperation have sent Harley a copy he had had for some time, but that chimes in ill with the letter. Another problem is that Pope was unlikely to draft the notes to the Works on copies of the individual epistles. The texts sometimes differed quite substantially, and it would have been reckless to annotate the wrong text, especially when the large-format Works version represented an earlier text and had probably been printed off in advance. There is also the question of the interpolated couplet. There is little sign that Pope seriously intended to incorporate it into the poem, nor is the insertion made in Pope's characteristically professional way. The alternative to the suggestion that Harley's copy was Pope's working copy must be that

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Pope was annotating the poem for him, perhaps on the occasion that Harley entered the second identification of 'Bufo' in the margin. Some signs support that idea: the footnote is keyed to the text with a dagger, which would be inappropriate for a draft endnote; Pope begins by attempting to work within the measure, avoiding straying into the margin by breaking the words 'provocation' and 'perpetuate', and only his revisions make the page untidy. If Pope was annotating the text some time after Harley received it but before the appearance of Works, he would have been trying to remember a note he had penned only a short while before.

The further annotation I wish to propose as Pope's is that of the note on page 16. The note, linked by an asterisk to 'Or at the Ear of Eve, familiar Toad' is itself unusual:

In the fourth book of Milton, the Devil is represented in this Posture. It is but justice to own, that the Hint of Eve and the Serpent was taken from the Verses on the Imitator of Horace.
Pope rarely reveals so much of his technique as he does here. Isobel Grundy has written of the power with which Pope appropriated and transformed the insults offered him in the Verses to the Imitator of . . . Horace (pp. 117-118), and in this note he is directing our attention to that achievement, just as he directs attention to the insult to his birth on pages 18 to 19. Someone has added to this note 'shape &' before 'Posture'; the change successfully clarifies the relation between Pope's line and Paradise Lost. I do not believe Harley would have made this emendation himself (he is a conservative annotator) and I do not think he could have found it printed elsewhere. In these circumstances I am readily persuaded that the writing is Pope's: the 'h' closes to resemble a 'k' as his sometimes does; the 'p' has a gap between vertical and bowl; the ampersand is not Harley's usual one. More important, the movement of the pen seems to have been Pope's rather than Harley's, with the ink spreading more widely. Pope was improving a footnote a few pages after composing or recollecting the 'Atticus' one.

The creation of a separate note on 'Atticus' had repercussions on the annotation of this poem in general. The individually published folio of To Arbuthnot had included a long note on 'Lyes so oft o'erthrown':

Such as those in relation to Mr. A------, that Mr. P. writ his Character after his death, &c. that he set his Name to Mr. Broom's Verses, that he receiv'd Subscriptions for Shakespear, &c. which tho' publickly disprov'd by the Testimonies prefix'd to the Dunciad, were nevertheless shamelessly repeated in the Libels, and even in the Paper call'd, The Nobleman's Epistle.
The provision of a separate note on Addison for the large-format Works led to a revision of this note, with Addison omitted and the Shakespeare charge being placed before the Broom one. But then, after all this trouble, in the octavo Works the 'Atticus' note was omitted altogether and so was the note on 'Lyes so oft o'erthrown'. It was not reintroduced until Warburton's edition of 1751. The note on Paradise Lost had a rather different fate. It was omitted from the large-format Works but resurfaced in the second octavo of 1735 in

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the truncated form 'See Milton. Book 4'. The attention this note originally gave to Verses Address'd to the Imitator of . . . Horace, and its revision, omission, and final abbreviation suggest Pope's special interest in the relation between the two poems. If the Verses were not only published by Dodd but, as it appears, printed by Huggonson, it might be worth investigating the possibility that Pope had a hand in their publication.[35]

Differences in annotation between Pope's folios and quartos on the one hand and his octavos on the other are difficult to interpret, but they suggest authorial attention to the needs of different readerships. As we have seen, the large-format editions gave 'Variations', provided a cross-reference to the aristocrats' Verses Address'd to the Imitator of . . . Horace (in the individual folio), and defended Pope's conduct with respect to Addison; the octavos had none of this but they did have more 'Imitations' and a running commentary, as well as a few more ordinary notes. Purely material questions of space must have played their part, but Pope probably knew that readers, like Harley, who moved in society and collected books would be interested in variant readings and in contemporary personalities belonging to their circle; it is Lord Hervey and Lady Mohun that really interest Harley, not Budgell and Welsted. Pope cared for the opinion of these readers and took account of rumours and accusations that would damage his reputation. For the wider readership purchasing the octavos, variants were not necessary, though some guidance in reading was; if these readers were unaware of the aristocrats' contempt or the charges about Addison, the Shakespeare, and Broome, there was little point in informing them; the task of self-justification before the jury of peers had already been essayed in the quartos and folios. Harley's annotations suggest that at least one member of that jury was convinced.

A Transcription of Annotations in Bodley M 3.19 Art (published by kind permission of the Bodleian Library)

The poems are by Pope unless the contrary is indicated. Titles and imprints are simplified and abbreviated, and title-page dates are in arabic. Reference numbers are given to D. F. Foxon, English Verse 1701-1750. I have based my transcription on the system advocated by Fredson Bowers in 'Transcription of Manuscripts: The Record of Variants', Studies in Bibliography 29 (1976): 212-264, and adapted by David Vander Meulen in Pope's Dunciad of 1728: a History and Facsimile (Charlottesville and London, 1991), 166-169. Each entry gives the page number (or 'title-page'), the line number on that page, the line in the Twickenham Edition ('∧' indicates that the relevant line does not appear there), a lemma or location on the page ('head' or 'foot'), and a transcription of the annotation. Italic comments in brackets


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apply to the whole annotation, or all following the last bracket, or all following the last asterisk (single asterisks and their brackets enclose double asterisks and their brackets). The following abbreviations are used: del[eted], interl[ined], marg[in], underl[ined]. Because there is no accompanying text, I have given some small preference to intelligibility over brevity in lemmata and comment. I have not followed the original lineation. Superscripts are retained except in dates, which are levelled. Marks in grey pencil, which I take to be the work of librarians, are not transcribed.

  • 1. An Epistle to the Right Honourable Richard Earl of Burlington. Printed for L. Gilliver. 1731. (Foxon P908)
  • title-page head 'Called TASTE'; 'The True Title is False Taste'; 'first edition was publisht Dec. 13. 1731 [final '1' over '2']'
  • 2. Of False Taste. An Epistle to the Right Honourable Richard Earl of Burlington. The Third Edition. Printed for L. Gilliver. 1731. (Foxon P912, with intervening sheet before p. 5.)
  • 3. Of the Use of Riches, An Epistle to the Right Honorable Allen Lord Bathurst. Printed by J. Wright, for Lawton Gilliver. 1732. (Foxon P923, with corrected reading on p. 13)
  • 8.2 (130) -------] r. marg. 'Gage'; l. marg. 'Gage esq3 Brother to my Lord Gage'
  • 8.3 (131) Maria's] preceded by 'x'; l. marg. 'Lady Mary Herbert'; foot 'Lady Mary Herbert in the Mississipi time borrowed of Her servant 10 Luidores for necessary expences because she said she would not Break a million never paid the servant.'
  • 8.7 (135) Bl-------t] l. marg. 'Sr John Blount'
  • 4. An Epistle to the Right Honourable Richard Lord Visct. Cobham. Printed for Lawton Gilliver. 1733. (Foxon P920)
  • 5. The First Satire of the Second Book of Horace, Imitated in Dialogue Between Alexander Pope of Twickenham, in Com' Mid' Esq; and his Learned Council. To Which is Added, The Second Satire of the Same Book. Printed for L. G. 1734. (Foxon P895, with engraving on p. 36)
  • title-page head 'Publisht Feb. 15. 1732/3'
  • 3.3 (3) Peter] underl.; r. marg. 'Peter] Walter'
  • 3.6 (6) Fanny] underl.; r. marg. 'Lord *Harvey [overwrites illegible]'
  • 5.9 (19) Celsus] both occurrences underl.; r. marg. 'Dr Hollings'
  • 5.13 (23) Richard] underl.; r. marg. 'Blackmore'
  • 5.17 (27) Budgell's] underl. in red pencil
  • 7.12 (44) Bond] r. marg. 'Bond] Dennis Bond'

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  • 13.4 (100) Lee] underl. in red pencil
  • B**ll] underl. in red pencil
  • 13.7 (103) Plums] underl. in red pencil
  • Directors] underl. in red pencil
  • Shylock] underl. in red pencil
  • Wife] underl. in red pencil
  • 6. [See attribution below], Verses Address'd to the Imitator of the First Satire of the Second Book of Horace. By a Lady. Printed for A. Dodd. (Foxon V39)
  • title-page By a LADY.] above 'The Authors of this poem are Lady Mary Wortley Lord Harvey & Mr Windham under Tutor to the Duke of Cumberland *and married to my Lady Deloraine [spacing suggests a later addition]'
  • 7. [Unknown], Advice to Sappho. Occasioned by Her Verses on the Imitator of the First Satire of the Second Book of Horace. By a Gentlewoman. Printed for the Authoress; and sold by J. Roberts. 1733. (Foxon A86)
  • title-page head 'R. April. 12. 1733'
  • 6.12 hope] 'p' del.; l. marg. 'm/' [prepublication correction]
  • 8. An Essay on Man. . . . Part I. Printed for J. Wilford. (Foxon P822)
  • title-page head 'February' [over 'March'] 1732/3'
  • 5.6 (6) of walks] underl.; r. marg. 'But Not'
  • 6.14-15 (22/29) l. margin. 'six lines *from [over illegible] x'
  • 6.15 (29) Of] del.
  • vast] del.
  • l. marg. 'But'
  • 6.17 (31) And Centres] del.; l. marg. 'Gradations'
  • 7.1 (23) l. marg. 'x'
  • 7.6 (∧) has] del.
  • us as we are] del.
  • r. marg. 'all things as they are'
  • 10.6-7 (98/73) l. marg. 'x' underl.
  • 10.13 (99) l. marg. 'x'
  • 11.2-3 (108/∧) r. marg. 'x'
  • 11.6-7 (∧/110) l. marg. 'x'
  • r. marg. '------'
  • 12.10 (134) spreads] del.; l. marg. 'swells'
  • 13.1-2 (∧) l. marg. 'x'
  • 14.18-19 (184/∧) l. marg. 'x'
  • 9. An Essay on Man. . . . Epistle I. Corrected by the Author. Printed for J. Wilford. (Foxon P827)
  • title-page head 'Publisht April. 23. 1733.'

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  • 10. An Essay on Man. . . . Epistle II. Printed for J. Wilford. (Foxon P833)
  • title-page head 'Publisht April. 23. 1733.'
  • 11. An Essay on Man. . . . Epistle III. Printed for J. Wilford. (Foxon P840)
  • title-page head 'R. May 4. 1733'
  • 12. An Essay on Man. . . . Epistle IV. Printed for J. Wilford. (Foxon P845)
  • title-page head 'R. Janu. 22. 1733/4'
  • 12*. Two leaves of An Essay on Man. . . . Epistle IV, pp. 17-18 and advert leaf.
  • 17. foot 'Come then, my friend! my Genius come along'
  • 13. [Mallet, David], Of Verbal Criticism: An Epistle to Mr Pope. Printed for Lawton Gilliver. 1733. (Foxon M51)
  • title-page head 'Sent by the Author April. 14. 1733.'
  • Mr. Pope.] r. marg. 'By Mr Mallet. a Scots Gentleman'
  • 14. Sober Advice from Horace, to the Young Gentlemen about Town. (Foxon P968)
  • title-page head 'R. .Dec. 20: 1734'
  • 6.4 (92) Lady or Lord Fanny] r. marg. 'Lord and Lady Harvey'
  • 7.16 (121) Ty-------y] r. marg. 'Lady Tyrawley very near sighted'
  • 7.20 (125) Lady M-------] r. marg. and foot 'Lady Mohun there is a famous story of her she was in a Hackney coach with some fellows and my Lord came up & would know who was there, she did not care to be found out at last she said that she would show her Bare Arse to him if that would satisfy him, he agreed & she put her Arse out at the Window to him, and he went away'
  • 8.8 (133) N-------dh-------m's] 'Mother Needham a famous Bawd'
  • 9.4 (150) Bedford-head] underl. in red pencil
  • 9.12 (158) B-------t] r. marg. 'Lord Bathurst'
  • 9.14 (160) nor pay too dear] underl. in red pencil
  • 9.20 (166) M-------ue] r. marg. 'Mountague'
  • 10.10 (176) B-------ck] r. marg. 'Buck'
  • 10.12 (178) L-------l, J-------ys, O-------w] foot 'L-------l Mr Richard Lyddel J-------ys Mr Jefferies O-------w Ld Onslow'
  • 15. [Hervey, John], An Epistle from a Nobleman to a Doctor of Divinity. Printed for J. Roberts. 1733 (Foxon H157)
  • title-page Nobleman] above interlined 'that is my Lord Harvey ['v' over 'l'], alias Lord Fanny, alias Paris, alias

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    Sporus alias &c &c &c.'
  • Doctor of Divinity] r. margin. 'The Dean of Chichester Dr. Sherwin a very great scoundrel.'
  • H-------n C-------t] below interlined 'ampto' 'our'
  • 16. [Unknown], Tit for Tat. Or an Answer to the Epistle to a Nobleman. Printed for T. Cooper. 1734. (Foxon T322)
  • 17. An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot. Printed by J. Wright for Lawton Gilliver. 1734. (Foxon P802)
  • title-page head 'Publisht Janu. 2. 1734/5.'
  • 2.10 (20) Charcoal] underl. in red pencil
  • 2.13 (23) Arthur] l. marg. 'Arthur Moore'
  • whose giddy son] underl. in red pencil
  • 2.19 (29) Drop] preceded by 'x'; l. marg. 'Wards famous Drop' Nostrum] underl. in red pencil
  • 3.16 (48) My] preceded by 'x'
  • Friendship] underl. in red pencil
  • Prologue] underl. in red pencil
  • ten Pound.] underl. in red pencil
  • r. marg. 'xTibbald'
  • 3.17 (49) Pitholeon] underl. in red pencil; preceded by 'x'; r. marg. 'x Welstead'
  • Grace]; preceded by 'x'; r. marg. 'x the Duke of Argile'
  • 3.22 (54) Journal] underl. in red pencil
  • 4.12-13 (66-67) l. marg. 'one Hamilton'
  • 6.4 (100) Bishop] underl. in red pencil
  • 6.5 (101) nay see you] underl.; l. marg. 'the Drs common phrase'
  • 6.17 (113) Letters] underl. in red pencil
  • 8.4 (140) nod the head,] underl. in red pencil
  • 8.13 (149) Damon] del.; l. marg. 'Fanny'
  • 11.14 (214) Atticus] preceded by 'τ'; foot 'The assertion of some anonymous authors that Mr P. writ this Character after the Gentlemans death, was utterly untrue; it having been sent him several years before; [followed by del. 'on a Provocation of that nature, wch *he had too much regard to his memory to' [above del. '(unless obliged to it) we wd not perpetuate':]] and then shown to Mr Secretary Crags, & ye present Earl of Burlington; who approvd our author's Conduct on an Occasion, wch *he has to much regard to that Gentlemans memory willingly to make publick [interl. with caret above del. 'out of Regard to his Memory to perpetuate']. By what accident it

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    Page 58
    came into print, he never could learn, but [interl.] All he can now do is to omit the Name.'
  • 12.8 (230) Bufo] l. marg. 'Bufo] this *character [over illegible] made fit many *but [later insertion?] I think it is cheifly the right of Mr Bubb Doddington*, it would also fit the late earl of Halifax [in red pencil]'
  • 12.12-13 (234-235) interlined with caret 'To Bards reciting he vouchsafd a Nod And snuff'd their Incence like a gracious God.'
  • 13.13 (260) QUEENSB'RY] r. marg. 'Gay] he was neglected by the court & had no place though often promised, He lived with the Duke of Queensberry & died at his House Dec. 4. 1732. He was buried at the Duks expence and will set up a monument for him'
  • 14.8 (280) Sir Will.] l. marg. 'Sr Will, Sr William Young, a great scribler of Libels & Lampoons.'
  • 14.8 (280) Bubo] l. marg. 'Bubo, Bubb Dorington of the same stamp.'
  • 15.4 (300) Cannons] 'Cannons, the seat of his Grace the duke of Chandos [final 's' over ? 'e']'
  • 15.9 (305) Let Paris] preceded by 'P' ; r. marg. 'Paris] It so happens that this is generaly applyed to Lord Harvey, and as he deserved it of Mr Pope, it is very proper for him & is very justly Drawn *In a late edition the name is changed to Sporus a more proper **nick [interlined with caret] name Sporus was a youth whom Nero had a mind to make a woman of by Gelding him. [ink suggests later addition]'
  • 15.9 (305) 'What] preceded above by 'Dr'
  • 15.13 (309) Yet] preceded by 'P'
  • 16.n (319n) Posture] preceded by 'shape &' above with caret
  • 18.9 (376) To please a Mistress] underl. in red pencil
  • 18.10 (377) but let her be his Wife:] underl. in red pencil
  • 18.12 (379) except his Will;] underl. in red pencil
  • 19.4 (385) M*] 'oore' over the asterisk
  • 19.10 (391) Bestia] underl. in red pencil
  • 19.12 (393) Noble Wife,] underl. in red pencil
  • 19.n (381n) Verses to the Imitator of Horace] r. marg. 'p. 4 Line 10'
  • 18. [See attribution of item 6], Verses Address'd to the Imitator of the First Satire of the Second Book of Horace. By a Lady. . . . The Fifth Edition Corrected. Printed for A. Dodd. (Foxon V44)
  • title-page Fifth Edition] r. marg. 'This wch is called the fifth edition is not true but a sham of the booksellers upon Mr Popes printing his Epistle ['pis' over illegible]

    59

    Page 59
    to Dr. Arbuthnot where these verses are mentiond they supposed that some copies would be called for.'
  • 19. Of the Characters of Women: An Epistle to a Lady. Printed by J. Wright, for Lawton Gilliver. 1735. (Foxon P917)
  • half-title head 'R Feb. 6. 1734/5.'
  • title-page head 'Publisht. ['P' over 'B'] Feb. 7. 1734/5.
  • 5.5 To a LADY] r. marg. 'Mrs Martha Blount'
  • 6.3 (9) Fannia] underl.; l. marg. 'It is said this hints at the Countess of Pembroke, who used to be drawn in these *several ['a' interlined with caret] attitudes'
  • 9.5 (63) Now] preceded by 'x'
  • 9.6 (64) Grace] 'e' below 'x'; r. marg. 'The Duke of Wharton'
  • Ch**] r. marg. 'Coll Charters'; 'see miscellanies vol. 3. p. 137.'
  • 20. [West, Gilbert], Stowe, the Gardens of the Right Honourable Richard Lord Viscount Cobham. Address'd to Mr. Pope. Printed for L. Gilliver. 1732. (Foxon W360)
  • title-page Address'd to Mr. POPE.] r. marg. 'By Mr West Nephew to My Lord Cobham'
  • 7.20 Dy'd for the Laws he] underl. in red pencil
  • 21. [Swift, Jonathan], On Poetry: A Rapsody. Printed at Dublin, and reprinted at London: And sold by J. Huggonson. 1733. (Foxon S888)
  • 22. [Swift, Jonathan], An Epistle to a Lady, Who Desired the Author to Make Verses on Her, in the Heroick Stile. Also a Poem, Occasion'd by Reading Dr. Young's Satires, Called, The Universal Passion. Dublin printed: and reprinted at London for J. Wilford. 1734. (Foxon S841)
  • 23. [Harte, Walter], An Essay on Reason. Printed by J. Wright for Lawton Gilliver. 1735. (Foxon H93)
  • title-page head 'R. Feb: 6. 1734/35'
  • 24. Swift, Jonathan, The Life and Genuine Character of Doctor Swift. Written by Himself. Printed for J. Roberts. (Foxon S884)
  • title-page head 'R. April. 12 1733'
  • 25. [Pope, Alexander, and Swift, Jonathan], Bounce to Fop. An Heroick Epistle from a Dog at Twickenham to a Dog at Court. By Dr. S-------T. Dublin printed, London reprinted for T. Cooper. 1736. (Foxon B326)
  • title-page By Dr. S-------T.] followed by 'much altered by Mr Pope.'

Notes

 
[1]

Pope's role was first noted by Mack in 'Some Annotations in the Second Earl of Oxford's Copies of Pope's Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot and Sober Advice from Horace', Review of English Studies, n.s. 8 (1957), 416-420. I am deeply indebted to Professor Mack's work, not least to his transcription of Pope's note on Atticus; I shall dispute one of his three ascriptions to Pope while adding another. Harley's notes are referred to in the Twickenham Edition of the Poems of Alexander Pope, 11 vols (1939-69), III, ii, 48, 103; IV, 84-85; VI, 370; and in Margaret Smith and Alexander Lindsay, Index of Literary Manuscripts, III (1700-1800), Part 3 (1992), pp. 9-10, PoA 11, PoA 83, PoA 306.

[2]

The best account of the library, on which I have drawn freely, is the introduction to The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London, 1966), which supersedes the brief accounts in Edward Edwards, Lives of the Founders of the British Museum (1870) and William Younger Fletcher, English Book Collectors (1902). The manuscripts were acquired for the nation for £10,000.

[3]

See Maynard Mack, Alexander Pope: A Life (1985), p. 881. Mack suggests The First Satire of the Second Book of Horace may have been written there. Pope gave a Persian manuscript to the library (Diary of Humfrey Wanley, II, 247 [13]).

[4]

The Correspondence of Alexander Pope, ed. George Sherburn, 5 vols (1956), III, 26-27, 27 March [1729]. See also the account of this episode in David Foxon, Pope and the Early Eighteenth-Century Book Trade (1991), 108-114.

[5]

See Sherburn's account of the publication of Pope's letters (Correspondence, I, xi-xviii), and the suggestion that An Essay on Man may have been transcribed in the library (Correspondence, III, 193). Papers from the Harleian library have been important in establishing Pope's text; see Twickenham IV, xlii, and VI passim, and Index of Literary Manuscripts, III, iii, 9.

[6]

A good short account of Rawlinson is provided by Ian Philip, The Bodleian Library in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1983), 82-84, 93-98. A splendidly detailed account, on which Philip draws, is provided by B. J. Enright, 'Richard Rawlinson: Collector, Antiquary, and Topographer', unpublished D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 1956. Richard Rawlinson: A Tercentenary Memorial, by Georgian R. Tashjian, David R. Tashjian, and Brian Enright (Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1990) gives information on other aspects of his career.

[7]

Bodley MS Ballard 2, f. 113, 24 June 1742. I suspect Enright is wrong in saying Rawlinson thought Harley 'dog in the manger'; that applies to Mr. West.

[8]

He complains in Bodley MS Ballard 2, f. 119 ([23 October] 1742), MS Ballard 2, f. 123 (24 March 1743), and MS Ballard 2, f. 161 (16 October 1744); sees the books in MS Ballard 2, 129 (18 May 1743), and buys some 'not incurious' in MS Ballard 2, f. 146 (25 October 1743). I have not found the volume that is now M 3.19 Art listed in Catalogus Bibliothecae Harleianae, 5 vols (1743), though that may be because of the complex ordering of the catalogue. The Bodleian has Rawlinson's copy with some items marked (8° Rawl. 66-70), and I have noted these Pope items, without claiming to have made an adequate check: I, 4864, 4893, 4916; III, 3618, 6158, 6164; V, 1128.

[9]

See Twickenham, V, ed. James Sutherland, pp. 303-304, and David Foxon, Pope and the Early Eighteenth-Century Book Trade, pp. 248-249.

[10]

See Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. George Birkbeck Hill, rev. and enlarged L. F. Powell, 6 vols (1934-50), I, 154.

[11]

Enright, p. 299, cites the relevant part of the Will. The printed books were a relatively minor part of the bequest, and the major problem for the Library was the cataloguing of the manuscripts; see R. W. H[unt], 'The Cataloguing of the Rawlinson Manuscripts, 1771-1844', Bodleian Library Record, 2, no. 26 (December 1947), 190-195.

[12]

I am most grateful to Mr. Clive Hurst of the Bodleian Library for his generous advice and his skilled detection of the period of the volume's arrival in the Library.

[13]

The dates are taken from D. F. Foxon, English Verse 1701-1750, 2 vols (1975), hereafter abbreviated to Foxon.

[14]

The bookplate is discussed and illustrated in Enright's thesis, pp. 105-106.

[15]

I have used short titles for Pope's poems throughout this essay. The choice of abbreviation for Pope's epistles is influenced by F. W. Bateson's presentation in Twickenham, III, ii, of the four that Warburton called 'Moral Essays'.

[16]

See The Poems of Jonathan Swift, ed. Harold Williams, 3 vols (1958), II, 541-543, III, 1135-36; Jonathan Swift: The Complete Poems, ed. Pat Rogers (1983), 844-845, 895-897; and Pat Rogers, 'The Authorship of "Bounce to Fop": A Re-examination', Bulletin of Research in the Humanities, 85 (1982), 241-268.

[17]

Joseph Spence, Observations, Anecdotes, and Characters of Books and Men, ed. James Osborn, 2 vols (1966), I, 131, Anecdote 299. The edition is Foxon P853. The Index is reproduced in Foxon, Pope and the Early Eighteenth-Century Book Trade, p. 125, and in Foxon's facsimile of An Essay on Man (Menston, 1969), which was reprinted, with To Arbuthnot and others, in Alexander Pope: Poems in Facsimile, intro. Geoffrey Day (Aldershot, 1988). The original facsimile of To Arbuthnot, with Foxon's introduction, was published at Menston, 1970.

[18]

Miriam Leranbaum, Alexander Pope's 'Opus Magnum' 1729-1744 (1977) gives an intricate account of which I have given only the baldest summary here.

[19]

See Leranbaum, pp. 25-27. Harte's views on these matters were not strictly orthodox, but I have found no attack on Pope on that basis.

[20]

See Foxon, Pope and the Early Eighteenth-Century Book Trade, p. 123, and Reginald Harvey Griffith, Alexander Pope: A Bibliography, 2 vols (1922, 1927), books 370-372.

[21]

I summarize the account in Foxon, Pope and the Early Eighteenth-Century Book Trade, pp. 102-108.

[22]

Huggonson was a shareholder in the Journal from the time of the first records (28 August 1730) and held two shares (Gilliver held 6 and four others had 1 each); he replaced Aris as printer in October 1733. See Michael Turner's transcription of 'The Minute Book of the Partners in the Grub Street Journal', Publishing History, 4 (1978), 49-94. I have identified printers freely on the basis of association of ornaments; such identifications are necessarily tentative.

[23]

The following items have publication dates: 1, 5, 8, 9, 10, 17, 19. The dates on all items except 8 and 10 are endorsed by Foxon; the date of 8 is indefinite and 10 seems to have been sent with 9 and caught its date.

[24]

See McLaverty, 'The Mode of Existence of Literary Works of Art: The Case of the Dunciad Variorum', Studies in Bibliography, 37 (1984), 82-105. Pope's copy of the Geneva Boileau, given to him by James Craggs, is at Mapledurham House; see no. 26 in Maynard Mack's listing of surviving books from Pope's library, Collected in Himself (1982), p. 399.

[25]

Richardsoniana (1776), p. 264.

[26]

In conception, if not execution, it is Warburton's 1751 edition which comes closest to achieving an edition of Pope in the 'manner of Boileau's': the notes are of three sorts (under the headings, 'Imitations', 'Variations', and 'Notes') and, as Warburton is anxious to remind us, they were communicated to the editor by the author himself.

[27]

The identification is made by Bateson in Twickenham, III, ii, and the coupling of the miser and his wife makes it plausible. Oxford may at this time have been unaware of the extent of Pope's animosity towards Lady Mary.

[28]

It would lead to a recasting of Bateson's appendix on Atossa, for example. It may be that the couplet in Sober Advice (7.20 [124-125]) is another example of the same technique.

[29]

The Works of Alexander Pope, ed. William Warburton, 9 vols (1751), III, 193, 195.

[30]

Mack, 'A Couplet in the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot', TLS, 2 September 1939, p. 515.

[31]

Grundy, 'Verses Address'd to the Imitator of Horace: A Skirmish between Pope and Some Persons of Rank and Fortune', Studies in Bibliography, 30 (1977), 96-119 (110).

[32]

Lives of the English Poets, ed. G. Birkbeck Hill, 3 vols (1905), III, 83.

[33]

Confirmation that this is Harley's writing can be found in his letters to Thomas Hearne in the Bodleian. That dated 12 December 1723 (MS Rawl. Lett. 8 f. 336; letter 184) has a good example of the 'P' in the title A Memorial of suche Princes, while that dated 25 December 1731 (MS Rawl. Lett. 8 f. 377; letter 206) has good examples of the 'D' in 'Durandus'. These extracts also give other valuable information about his writing: that capital 'M' is almost indistinguishable and has to be interpreted generously, that some capital 'T's are little more than a straight line with a lead-in stroke, and that capital 'B's and 'R's have a flourish quite foreign to the rest of the hand.

[34]

Works, IV, 30. Pages of manuscript are reproduced in John Butt's 'Pope's Poetical Manuscripts', Proceedings of the British Academy, 40 (1954), 23-39, and Maynard Mack, The Last and Greatest Art (Newark, 1984), 419-454. The couplet appears on p. 438 of the latter; it has been interlined by Pope in a transcript by another hand.

[35]

There are other interesting differences between the notes in the large-format Works and the octavos. The note on 'Welsted's Lye' originally ended with 'He took no notice of so frantick an Abuse; and expected that any man who knew himself Author of what he was slander'd for, would have justify'd him on that Article', an attack on the editors of the Grub Street Journal that was dropped in the octavos. Notes on Blount and Ward in To Bathurst are corrected.