THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER POPE. Encluding Extracts from his Correspondence. BY ROBERT CARRUTHERS. SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND CONSIDERABLY ENLARGED. WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCLVII. PREFACE. THIS new edition of the LIFE OF POPE, preliminary to a reprint of his Works, has been carefully revised. Considerable additions have been made, and a better arrangement of the materials attempted. Indeed, so many new facts illustrative of Pope's literary and personal character have been brought to light within the last four or five years, that any previous life of the poet would require to be almost wholly rewritten. The Editor has availed himself of this recent information-of course specifying the authority for each fact and illustration-and he has been enabled to make some additions from unpublished sources. Further extracts are given from the Mapledurham MSS., including a few letters from Pope, Mrs. Howard, Mallet, &c. The correspondent to whom Pope addressed the "Letters to a Lady," first published by Dodsley in 1769, has been traced and found (where it is pleasant to find a new poetical association) in the family of Cowper. The "Erinna" of Pope was the aunt of the author of "The Task." Some particulars |