. A short history of England's and America's literature, by Eva March Tappan. ghteenth century. Not long before Drydens death, a boy of twelveslipped into the edge of the circle and stood gazing atthe great man with dark, earnest eyes; for Dryden wasthe poet whom he most reverenced and admired. Theboy was very small, he was badly deformed, and sohelpless that he could not stand without supports; buthis mind was wonderfully active, and he hoped to beable some day to write poems that would make himfamous. He had already made some attempts thatwere amazingly good for a child. 93. Alexander Pope,
. A short history of England's and America's literature, by Eva March Tappan. ghteenth century. Not long before Drydens death, a boy of twelveslipped into the edge of the circle and stood gazing atthe great man with dark, earnest eyes; for Dryden wasthe poet whom he most reverenced and admired. Theboy was very small, he was badly deformed, and sohelpless that he could not stand without supports; buthis mind was wonderfully active, and he hoped to beable some day to write poems that would make himfamous. He had already made some attempts thatwere amazingly good for a child. 93. Alexander Pope, 1688-1744. This boys namewas Alexander Pope. His father was a retired mer-chant who was exceedingly proud of his precocious son, 154 ENGLANDS LITERATURE [1709 while his mother looked upon him as the most marvel-lous boy that ever lived. The family were Roman Cath-olics, and therefore he would not have been allowed toenter either of the universities even if he had beenwell; but he did a vast amount of reading and study-ing, though with very little formal instruction. Before. ALEXANDER POPE168S-1744 he was twenty-one he had published several poems, hewas well known among the literary men of the time,and associated with them upon equal terms. A drama-tist four times his age had asked him for suggestionsand criticisms. One suggestion which had come to himfrom William Walsh, a critic of the day, became themotto of his literary life. Be correct, said Walsh, I7n] THE CENTURY OF PROSE 155 we have had great poets, but never one great poetthat was correct. Pope set to work to be correct. Hewrote and rewrote and polished and condensed and re-fined. In 1711, when he was only twenty- Essayonthree, his Essay on Criticism came out. There criticism,is no originality in the poem ; it is simply a 1711combination of what Latin and French critics had said;but the thoughts are so clearly and concisely put thatthey seem new and fresh. For instance, there is nostartling novelty in the statement that
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