Alexander Pope – The Complete Works

Автор: Alexander Pope
Название книги: The Complete Works (Delphi Poets)
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Зарубежная поэзия
Страницы: 1473
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

The Poetry Collections
EARLY POEMS
PASTORALS
WINDSOR FOREST
AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM
POEMS, 1708–17
THE RAPE OF THE LOCK
ELOISA TO ABELARD
POEMS: 1718–27
THE CURLL MISCELLANIES
POEMS SUGGESTED BY GULLIVER
LATER POEMS
EPIGRAMS AND EPITAPHS
AN ESSAY ON MAN
MORAL ESSAYS
SATIRES
THE DUNCIAD
THE ILIAD
THE ODYSSEY
The Poems
LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
LIST OF POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
The Play
THREE HOURS AFTER MARRIAGE by John Gay, Alexander Pope and John Arbuthnot
The Biographies
ALEXANDER POPE by Leslie Stephen
THE AGE OF POPE by John Dennis
BRIEF LIFE OF POPE by Thomas De Quincey

Alexander Pope (1646–1717) was the son of a linen merchant with strong Catholic ties, directly affecting
his son’s education. Due to the recently enforced Test Acts, upholding the status of the established Church
of England, all Catholics were banned from teaching, attending university, voting or holding public office
on pain of perpetual imprisonment. Therefore, Pope was taught to read by his aunt, before attending
Twyford School, followed by two Catholic schools in London. These schools were technically illegal,
though they were tolerated in some areas. Nevertheless, a university education was denied to Pope.
From an early age, he began suffering numerous health problems, including a form of tuberculosis
called Pott’s disease, which affects the bone. This disease deformed his body and stunted his growth,
leaving him with a severe hunchback and achieving a height of only 4 ft 6 in. The infection also caused
other health problems, including respiratory difficulties, high fevers, inflamed eyes and abdominal pain.
In 1700, the Pope family moved to a small estate at Popeswood in Binfield, Berkshire, due to a statute
preventing Catholics from living within ten miles of London. Pope’s formal education ended at this time,
and from then on he mostly educated himself by reading the works of classical writers such as the Roman
satirists Horace and Juvenal, the epic poets Homer and Virgil, as well as such English authors as
Chaucer, Shakespeare and John Dryden. Pope also studied several languages, reading works by English,
French, Italian, Latin and Greek authors. The extensive reading of classics and English masters influenced
many of Pope’s early poetic works, demonstrating his natural affinity to handling various metres and
rhyme schemes.