Hello and welcome to the Discourse. John Arbuthnot was a close friend of Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, John Gay, and other Augustan satirists of the Enlightenment age. Together, they made the famous Marcus Scriblerus Club and often wrote critical satires against the corruption and other ills of the court and society. In 1733, Alexander Pope began writing Imitations of Horace which was a collection of satirical poems written in the style of classical poet Horace. Rather than being a mere translation, it was a modification of Horace’s poems in which Pope used contemporary references of his time and attacked the high and mighty of the society including King George II of Great Britain and Prime Minister Robert Walpole.
Originally Horace wrote the poem to satirize the rule of king Augustus. He was criticized because he questioned the usefulness of poets. Pope criticized King George II in his imitation though there hardly was any comparison between Augustus and King George II. While Augustus was a mighty ruler with exceptional qualities of leadership, integrity, sagacity, and intelligence, George II was a feeble figure with little control over the reign. Queen Caroline actually controlled the whole Royal power. George II was born in Hanover, Germany and he hardly had any touch with British culture, nor did he show any interest in learning the traditions of Great Britain. He became close to Robert Walpole who was notoriously famous for large-scale corruption in royal dealings. Thus, these two became the major target of Pope’s satirical poems. Horace’s patron for his satires was Maecenas while Bolingbro supported and inspired Pope to write his imitation. Maecenas offered the Sabine farm to Horace where he could write without interruption while Pope’s Sabine farm became the Twickenham.
Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot:
In 1734, Dr. Arbuthnot, who was the Royal physician of Queen Anne, wrote a letter to Pope in which he informed that he is suffering from a lethal illness. Arbuthnot expressed his concerns for the safety of Alexander Pope who had become quite infamous because of his continuous satirical works in which he openly named and criticized many people of power. Pope was grateful for Arbuthnot’s concerns and he was very sad about his ill health. Thus, he decided to write an Epistle as an answer to his letter. Pope was attacked and criticized by other authors in the meanest ways possible. He suffered from Pott disease, a kind of tuberculosis of the spine that rendered him with stunted growth and a severe hunchback. Those who couldn’t find a mistake in his writings, often drew caricatures of him in a bad light, attacking his physical inabilities. In the Epistle to Arbuthnot, Pope attacks the critics and writers attacking his literary works while he defends his style of satirical writing. Pope explains his character in this letter and courageously expresses that he is not afraid of his opponents though he is worried about those who pretend to be his friends.
In Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, Pope explains his life, motives, and reasons for being a satirical poet. In a way, it is a poem concerning Pope’s self-justification and self-realization. He not only criticizes his detractors but also criticizes himself while praising Joseph Addison as a genius and good writer. He sketches himself as "an envious and malicious monster" whose "satire springs from a being devoid of all natural affections and lacking a heart." he criticizes many detractors including Sporus (John Hervey), Colley Cibber, Harley, Bavius, Bishop, Philips, and Sappho.
Initially, Pope wrote it as a simple letter but then he converted it into a dialogue between him and Arbuthnot. Epistle to Dr. Abuthnot was added as the preface or the first poem of Imitation of Horace in 1751. The poem is a long canonical poem containing 419 lines written in heroic couplets. Many of the phrases Pope invented and devised in this poem became hugely popular and noteworthy. Some of them are “damn with faint praise,” where Pope ridicules the flatterers who pretend to be his friends, and “Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel,” mentioning Lord Hervey and criticizing his torturous and corrupt behavior. Lord Hervey was a political advisor of Queen Caroline and he was too harsh against Alexander Pope. He made assumptions regarding some of Pope’s allusions with no true evidence they pertained to him. Mary Wortley Montague used to be a close friend of Alexander Pope and his patron but she took offense to Pope’s The First Satire of the Second Book of Horace (ll. 83–84) and joined Lord Hervey in criticizing him. Pope mentioned her too in the Epistle by her name Montague. The poem satirizes cowardly critics, hypocritical pedants, insipid patrons of the arts, and corrupt sycophants, and it caricatures Pope’s contemporaries.
The poem can be divided into seven parts or sections.
Summary of Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot:
First Section (Lines 1-68)
“Shut, shut the door, good John! fatigu’d I said, / Tye up the knocker, say I’m sick, I’m dead.”
The poem begins as Pope asks his male servant John to shut the doors. Pope doesn’t want to let the budding poets in his house and compares them with dogs and mad people who ran away from the mental institutes of Bedlam and Parnassus. These new authors and writers are the result of the new printing presses. They lack any quality and acumen of a writer yet, are attracted towards the profession because of the foolish patrons who think of making easy money. Such amateur poets continue to follow Pope everywhere he goes even in his lovely grotto.
“They pierce my Thickets, thro’ my Grot they glide.”
These writers come with their pens and papers, asking him to correct or improvise their sham writings. Some of them try to bribe and cajole Pope to correct their writing. Some others would try to coerce and threaten him or blackmail him so that he may amend their write-ups and their drama or poem may succeed and become famous. However, Pope is not afraid of anything and he denies helping them. Rather he offers them sane advice that of Horace and asks them to wait for nine years before publishing a poem. None of them agrees with him so he now wants John to shut the door.
Second Section (Lines 69-124)
After explaining his troubles of being famous, Pope explains how dangerous it can be. He says that though they pretend to be his admirers, most of them are his jealous detractors wishing to destroy him. He says that these poetasters and admirers are like Midas and are unreliable. He then criticizes such poets who used to be his admirers and then joined the gang of dunces. He ridicules Reverend Laurence Eusden, poet and clergyman, whose drunkenness while serving as poet laureate became legendary; James Moore Smythe, who adopted some of Pope’s work into poorly written drama and joined the dunces in their attacks; Edmund Curll, who published unauthorized work by others as well as notorious literature; and Bernard Lintot, a publisher of most of Pope’s early writing.
“And has not Colly still his Lord, and Whore: / His Butchers Henley, his Free-masons Moor?
Does not one Table Bavius still admit? / Still to one Bishop Philips seem a Wit?
Still Sapho—”Hold! For God-sake—you’ll offend; / No Names—be calm—learn Prudence of a Friend.” (97-102)
He then criticizes a few popular poets using their names including Colley, Henley, Bavius, Bishop Philips, and Sappho. Colley Cibber was the current poet laureate of Britain while Henley was a politician and public orator. Bavius was a poet who attacked and criticized the works of Virgil and Ovid. He criticized Alexander Pope’s works too.
Then Dr. Arbuthnot interrupts him and warns him not to use any names. He ridicules Pope and says that he too satirizes these people and though he is twice taller than Pope, he never uses any name directly. Dr. Arbuthnot advises Pope to learn prudence from him. Pope says that he would prefer to be brave and he is not afraid of taking names. Pope then further complains about the budding amateur writers who would often come to him with requests to amend their dramas and poems that have been rejected by the theatres and production companies. They will try to flatter him and say that his nose is longer than Ovid’s nose and he is better than Hercules or Alexander the Great. Pope says that he knows he is a pretty ordinary man and doesn’t fall into their trap.
Section Third (Lines 125-146)
In this section, Pope expresses how and why he became a satirical poet. He mentions that he was not good with numbers (mathematics) but when he tried, numbers (Poetic meters) naturally came to him. “I lisp’d in Numbers, for the Numbers came.” He says that poetry came naturally to him, by instinct. Nobody asked him to write poetry but he did it by himself. He writes because his friends like Swift, Granville, Congreve, John Gay, and William Walsh enjoyed reading his poetry. Dr. Arbuthnot questions him why he publishes his poetry if it is written for his close friends? Pope answers that his close friends push him to publish his work. Swift, Congreeve, and John Dryden himself convinced him to publish his poems because they liked them and wishes the general audience to cherish his work so Pope published them.
Section Fourth (Lines 147- 260)
Pope attacks critics in this section and says that during the initial days of his career, he used to write descriptive poetry with no ‘sense’ in it. His poetry was insipid and meaningless just like that of Lord Hervey. During those early days, he used to listen to the critics and was very concerned about their advice. But then he noticed that the critics, whose advice he meekly attempted to follow, had never written a word of poetry themselves. How then could they claim to evaluate John Milton and Shakespeare, much less the work of Alexander Pope and his contemporaries? He satirizes Ambrose Philips and declares him to be a plagiarist who copies works from Greek literature to earn money. He says that if Ambrose is forced to write original works only, he would fail to write any more than eight lines in a year.
Then he praises Joseph Addison and says that he learned a lot from Joseph Addison who is a genius writer and essayist. He says that Addison’s defect is that he wants to dominate the literary world. He thinks that he is the greatest of all writers. Pope calls him a coward because while he criticizes and ridicules other writers fiercely, he is afraid of being attacked by other writers himself.
“Curst be the Verse, how well soe’er it fl ow, / That tends to make one worthy Man my foe” (183– 184).
Pope then says that he is not the one who cannot praise the good work of others and he will never satirize anyone through his poetry just because they have hurt his vanity, though he has been criticized by others for hurting their false ego and vanity. Pope says that he criticizes and satirizes only those who deserve his criticism for their menial work and immoral behavior. He also satirizes foolish patrons like Lord Halifax who love being flattered. Pope says that Lord Halifax helps the poetasters who flatter him.
Section Five (Lines 261- 304)
In this section, Pope suggests that he is tired of his detractors and asks the poetasters to let him leave live in a peaceful manner. He says that there is no reason for them to be jealous of him because irrespective of the popularity of his works, he hardly made any money and he is burdened with debt. He says that he is no great person but someone very normal who prays to god every day. He says that only dunces fear him. A dunce is one “Who reads but with a Lust to mis-apply, / Make Satire a Lampoon, and Fiction, Lye.” However, “A Lash like mine no honest man shall dred, / But all such babbling blockheads in his stead” (303-304)
He says that only corrupt liars and fraudsters would fear his satire and works while a man with an honest heart and good intentions needs not to fear him because he will never criticize such an honest person.
Section Six (Lines 305-333)
In this section, Pope criticizes Lord Hervey by the name of Sporus. Dr. Arbuthnot interrupts him and questions if Hervey deserves any criticism as he is too foolish who drinks donkey’s milk and who is so torturous that he crushes butterflies in breaking wheels.
“. . . What? That Thing of silk, Sporus, / that mere white Curd of Ass’s milk?
Satire or Sense alas! Can Sporus feel? / Who breaks a Butterfl y upon a Wheel?” (305–309)
Pope says that such poetasters deserve his criticism because while trained eyes could see their faults, common people often mistake them to be great artists. He then caricatures Hervey as Sporus, whose “virtues” are twisted. He admires “Beauty that shocks you, Parts that none will trust, / Wit that can creep, and Pride that licks the dust” (332–33). he says that Hervey is a liar and flatterer who says anything to please the people in court and in government. He values glamour, sensual pleasure, and social climbing. Being a homosexual, Hervey is not only a man-woman but an animal demon, a shape-changer, like Satan. Hervey had attacked Pope most viciously and he even abused his family and parents.
Section Seven (Lines 334-419)
In the last section, Pope tries to convince Dr. Arbuthnot not to worry about him. He says that his close friend must believe Pope’s virtues and abilities. Pope describes himself as bold, and courageous who is not in fear of his detractors. He says that he never worried about wealth and fortune and thus he has never flattered anyone to gain their favor. He rather likes satirizing his enemies and critics. He claims that he was brought up well by his peace-loving parents, good citizens of England. They led a happy domestic life. Pope also wants to live a similar life. He concludes the poem by praying that Arbuthnot should lead a happy, peaceful, and prosperous life.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
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