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Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope. 1688-1744. Religion. Roman Catholic Could not vote inherit or purchase land attend a public school or university live within ten miles of London hold public office openly practice religion. Illness and Disability. Tuberculosis of the spine stunted his growth (4’6”)

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Alexander Pope

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  1. Alexander Pope 1688-1744

  2. Religion • Roman Catholic Could not • vote • inherit or purchase land • attend a public school or university • live within ten miles of London • hold public office • openly practice religion

  3. Illness and Disability • Tuberculosis of the spine • stunted his growth (4’6”) • rendered him hunchbacked and deformed • left him with pain, migraines, and frequent nausea • required assistance for daily activities • Rival critics called him a “hunch-backed toad” • believed his ugly exterior reflected mental and moral corruption

  4. Inspired and determined • Spent his adolescent years reading the greatest writers of Europe and England • Self-taught Latin and Greek • Staunch Tory • Financially successful poet • Mistrusted and manipulated publishing business • Member of the Scriblerus Club with Gay and Swift

  5. Poetry: a major cultural form Essay on Criticism (1711) Rape of the Lock (1711, 1714) Windsor-Forest (1713) Iliad (1715-1720) Odyssey (1726) Shakespeare edition (1725) Dunciad(1728, 1742) Essay on Man (1733)

  6. Rape of the Lock • Inspired by true events • Mock-epic • Heroic couplets

  7. Elements of Epics • Sea voyage • Exhortation to the troops • Single combat • Epic feast • Journey to the underworld • General combat • Apotheosis • Division into books • Invocation of the muse • Use of gods to commence, oversee and influence events • Dream message from the gods • Arming the heroes • Sacrifice to the gods

  8. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) • Born in Dublin, Ireland • Raised around Glorious Revolution • Secretary to William Temple - 1688-1699 • Church of Ireland clergyman • Relationship with Esther Johnson

  9. Swift’s Context • Frequent travels to England • Ménière's disease • First Whig then Tory – editor of The Examiner • Part of Tory governments of Queen Anne • Pushed for clergy rights in Ireland • British oppression of Ireland in 18th C. • After fall of Tory gov’t, given Deanery of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin

  10. Swift’s Literary Career • Member of Scriblerus Club, friend of Pope • Author of numerous satires circulated as pamphlets: • Tale of a Tub (1704) • The Battle of the Books (1704) • A Modest Proposal (1729) – Irish famine of 1729. • Author of many poems • Much of his work dealt with current events and/or people.

  11. Gulliver’s Travels • Began 1713-1720 in Scriblerus Club • Published in 1726, then in amended (and controversial) edition in 1735. • Fear of prosecution led to some editing – restored portions in 1735. • Genre: Satire • Travel narrative • Anti-Whig politics • Irish question • Human nature • Novel?

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