Page images
PDF
EPUB

ADVERTISEMENT.

M'

R. POPE, in his laft illness, amufed himself, amidft the care of his higher concerns, in preparing a corrected and complete Edition of his Writings *; and, with his ufual delicacy, was even follicitous to prevent any share of the offence they might occafion, from falling on the Friend whom he had engaged to give them to the public.

[ocr errors]

"I own the late encroachments upon my constitution "made me willing to fee the end of all further care about me "or my works. I would reft for the one in a full refigna tion of my Being to be difpofed of by the Father of all mercy; and for the other (though indeed a trifle, yet a trifle may be fome example) I would commit them to the "" candour of a fenfible and reflecting judge, rather than to "the malice of every short-fighted and malevolent critic, or inadvertent and cenforious reader. And no hand can fet "them in fo good a light." . Let. exx. to Mr. W.

b "I alfo give and bequeath to the faid Mr. Warburton, the property of all fuch of my Works already printed as he hath written or fhall write Commentaries or Notes up"on, and which I have not otherwife difpofed of or alienated; and as he fhall publish WITHOUT FUTURE ALTERATIONS."His laft Will and Teftament.

VOL. I.

B

In

In discharge of this truft, the Public has here a complete Edition of his Works; executed in fuch a manner, as, I am perfuaded, would have been to his fatisfaction.

The Editor hath not, for the fake of profit, fuffered the Author's Name to be made cheap by a Subscription; nor his Works to be defrauded of their due honours by a vulgar or inelegant Impreffion; nor his Memory to be difgraced by any pieces unworthy of his talents or virtue. On the contrary, he hath, at a very great expence, ornamented this Edition with all the advantages which the beft Artists in Paper, Printing, and Sculpture could bestow upon it.

If the Public hath waited longer than the deference due to it's generous impatience for the Author's writings fhould have fuffered, it was owing to a reafon which the Editor need not be afhamed to tell. It was his regard to the family-interests of his deceased Friend. Mr. Pope, at his death, had left large impreffions of several parts of his Works, unfold; the property of which was adjudged to belong to his Executors; and the Editor was willing they fhould

fhould have time to difpofe of them to the best advantage, before the publication of this Edition (which hath been long prepared) fhould put a stop to the fale.

But it may be proper to be a little more particular concerning the fuperiority of this Edition above all the preceding; fo far as Mr. Pope himfelf was concerned. What the Editor hath done, the Reader muft collect for himself.

The FIRST Volume, and the original poems in the SECOND, are here first printed from a copy corrected throughout by the Author himself, even to the very preface: Which, with feveral additional notes in his own hand, he delivered to the Editor a little before his death. The Juvenile translations, in the other part of the SECOND Volume, it was never his intention to bring into this Edition of his Works, on account of the levity of fome, the freedom of others, and the little importance of all. But thefe being the property of other men, the Editor had it not in his power to follow the Author's intention.

The THIRD Volume, (all but the Essay on Man, which together with the Effay

« PreviousContinue »