The Rape of the Lock

The Rape of the Lock Synopsis

Excerpt from The Rape of the Lock: An Essay on Man and Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot

Alexander pope was born in, London in 1688. He was the only son of parents who both came of respectable English stock. His father, a successful linen merchant, re tired early from business, buying an estate at Binfield, on the edge Of Windsor Forest. Here the family lived till 1716, when they removed to Chiswick, where a year later the father died. Soon afterwards Pope, then a man of note, leased the small estate at Twickenham, on which he lived till his death in 1744.

The Popes were Roman, Catholics, and the boy was con sequently debarred from public school and university; so that beyond the inferior instruction afforded by the small Catholic schools which he attended till his twelfth year, Pope had no formal education. At that age he had learned the rudiments of Greek, and could read Latin ?uently, if not correctly. In the mean time, partly perhaps because he was thrown so much upon his own resources, his powers were already ripening. At twelve he wrote couplets which he afterwards inserted without change in the Essay on Oriti cism, and even in The Dunciad. The Pastorals, composed at sixteen, though conventional in conception and Often me chanical in execution, contain passages in the poet's most mature and polished manner. With the Essay on Criti cism, published five years later, Pope reached his maturity. Whatever development is to be found in his later work is the result Of an increase in satirical power. His style was already formed.

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