Nov. 17. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



377 



lOSDON, SATURDAY, KOVflMBER 17, 185S. 



^atti. 



Papers Letters and Quarrel with Ralph Allen. 

 — It is obvious that most of our previous know- 

 ledge and impressions regarding the private history 

 of Pope, requires now to be sifted and modified. 

 The poet delighted in stratagem and mystification ; 

 he inserted, omitted, altered, and transposed 

 names, initials, dates, and incidents, for the pur- 

 pose of misleading and perplexing his readers and 

 editors ; and in this labour it must be confessed 

 he was eminently successful, Mr. Bowles had a 

 glimpse of the reality as respects the letters, but 

 it was not until the writer in The Athenmum ob- 

 tained access to a portion of the original corre- 

 spondence, and saw how the printed copies had 

 been " cooked " or manufactured, that the public 

 was made fully aware of the extent of the decep- 

 tion. This new track of illustration has been well 

 followed up in " N. & Q. ;" and in Vol. xii., 

 p. 277., W. M. T. has added an interesting con- 

 tribution relative to Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, and 

 the Sappho or Sapphos of the printed correspond- 

 ence. The assumption of the poet's intimacy with 

 this lady is no doubt primarily due to the fact 

 that Mrs. Thomas, in her letter to Cromwell, 

 incidentally includes Pope among her absent 

 friends, and to the poet's substitution of " Mrs. 



T " for Mrs. Teresa, which led Ayre, in 



his Life of Pope, 1745, to conclude that Mrs. 

 Thomas was the person meant. Ayre printed the 

 name at length, and added, that "Mrs. Thomas 

 passed whole days, and more than days, with Mr. 

 Cromwell or Mr, Pope, or both." The antiquated 

 scandal passed current with Bowles, Roscoe, and 

 other editors of Pope down to his latest and least, 

 who will certainly attempt no justification. Such 

 errors are very easily committed, when there is 

 no suspicion of bad faith, and when corroborating 

 circumstances seem to point to the wrong con- 

 clusion. 



I am nevertheless much surprised, like "VV. M. 

 T., at the note in Bowles, which asserts that 



" Mrs. T " was Mrs. Thomas in the original. 



The notes marked "C " in Mr. Bowles's editicm of 

 Pope were supplied by Mr, Alexander Chalmers, 

 who had obtained the use of the original letters 

 addressed to Teresa and Martha Blount. The 

 letters were then in a loose state, and I am sorry 

 to add that many were never returned, and cannot 

 now be recovered. The letter in question, how- 

 ever, is in the collection at Maple Durham, and 

 there the passage reads, " Mrs. Teresa has ho- 

 nestly assured me that but for some whims of that 

 kind which she can't entirely conquer, she would 

 go a-raking with me in man's clothes." Besides 



No. 316.] , 



reducing the name to " Mrs. T ," Pope altered 



some of the expressions, as may be seen from the 

 printed correspondence. Indeed, it may be safely 

 asserted, that not one letter of the poet's was ever 

 published by him without alteration. To correct, 

 amend, and retouch, was through life his favourite 

 employment. Like Southey, he must have re- 

 joiced in proof-sheets ! He might nod at table 

 over his wine, even when the Prince talked of 

 poetry ; but had " Fritz " put a manuscript into 

 the poet's hand for examination, he would soon 

 have discovered how completely awake were Pope's 

 critical faculties. Bolingbroke forgot the strength 

 of this habit — or rather passion — of his friend 

 when he insulted his memory with respect to the 

 corrections made on the " Patriot King," Some- 

 times one is at a loss to discover the object of 

 Pope in these alterations. For example, if it were 

 necessary to tell the world of his desire to serve 

 Martha Blount, it would have been as well in the 

 following instance to have given the original ex- 

 pression of his feelings. Letter XVI. of the series 

 addressed to the ladies at Maple Durham, in 

 Roscoe's edition stands thus : 



" I must not conclude without telling you, that I will 

 do the utmost in the .affair you desire. It would be an 

 inexpressible joy to me if I could serve you, and I will 

 always do all 1 can to give myself pleasure. I wish as 

 well for you as for myself; I am in love with you both as 

 much as I am with myself, for I find myself most so with 

 either when I least suspect it." 



In the original letter the conclusion is both 

 more piquant and affectionate, besides containing 

 an allusion to one of the beauties of the day : 



" Now I am talking of beauty, I shall see my Lady 

 Jane Hyde to-morrow at Cornbury. I shall pass a day 

 and night at Blenheim Park, and will then hasten home, 

 taking Reading by the way. I have everywhere made 

 inquiry if it be possible to get any annuities on sound se- 

 curity. It would really be an inexpressible joy to me if I 

 could serve you, and 1 will always do my utmost to give 

 myself pleasure. 



" I beg you both to think as well of me — that is, to 

 think me as much yours as any one else. What degree 

 of friendship and tenderness I feel for you I must be con- 

 tent with being sure of mj'self, but I shall be glad if you 

 believe it in any degree. Allow me as much as you can, 

 and think as well of me as you are able, of one whose im- 

 perfections are so manifest, and who thinks so little of 

 himself as to think ten times more of either of you." (No 

 signature.) 



The following is an instance of elaboration. 

 Letter XIII., in Roscoe's series, begins thus : 



" You have asked me news a hundred times at the first 

 word you spoke to me, which some would interpret as if 

 you expected nothing better from my lips : and truly it is 

 not a sign two lovers are together, when they can be so 

 impertinent as to inquire what the world does. All I 

 mean by this is, that either you or I are not in love with 

 the other. I leave you to guess which of the two is that 

 stupitl and insensible creature, so blind to the other's 

 excellences and charms, 



" This, then, shall be a letter of news ; and sure if you 

 did not think me the humblest creature in the world, you 



