Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Ten autograph letters, of which seven signed (‘A. Pope’), to Judith Cowper (‘Madam’), Twickenham (‘Twitenham’) and n.p., 30 September 1722–9 November [1723]
26 pages, various sizes (200 x 150mm to 220 x 183mm), of which 6 bifolia and 3 with integral address panels. Provenance: Arthur A. Houghton, Jnr (1906-1990); his sale, Christie's, 11 & 12 June 1980, lot 381.

Letters exemplifying Pope’s relationship with the poet Judith Cowper, containing early versions of three of his poems, and providing insight into his work on his edition of Shakespeare and his translation of the Odyssey. Pope’s correspondence begins with a tentative if unambiguous declaration of his intention to solicit Cowper’s friendship: he has ‘repeated assurances of a thing I am unfeigndly so desirous of, as your allowing me to correspond with you’ (30 September 1722). Over the course of the year, he finds a more comfortable, self-deprecating tenor. He tells her about his progress with his edition of Shakespeare, with which he is exhausted, describing his perceived descent ‘from a pretending Poet to a Critick, then to a low Translator, lastly to a meer Publisher’ (5 November [1722]). Similarly, a year later he writes of his translation of the Odyssey: ‘I find by Experience that his own fiddle is no great pleasure to a Fiddler, after once the first good Conceit of himself is lost’ (9 November [1723]). This collection contains early texts of three of Pope's poems:

1) 'Tho' sprightly Sappho force our Love & Praise' (18 October 1722), 7 lines, the final version published in Of the Characters of Women (1735).

Tho sprightly Sappho force our Love & praise,
A softer wonder my pleasd soul surveys,
The mild Erinna, blushing in her bays.
So while the sun's broad beam yet strikes the sight,
Serene, in virgin majesty, she shines;
And un-observd, the glareing sun declines.

The brightest wit in y^e world, without the better qualities of the heart, must meet with this fate; and tends only to endear such a character as I take yours to be.

2) 'What are the falling rills, the pendant Shades?' (5 November 1722), 8 lines, published as 'To Mr. Gay' in Twickenham Edition, VI, pp. 225-7.

... Would you have me describe my Solitude and grotto to you? What if, after a long & painted description of 'em in verse (which y^e writer I've just been speaking of could better make, if I can guess by that line no noise but water, Ever friend to thought)

What if I ended it thus?

What are the falling rills, the pendant shades,
The morning Bow'rs, the evening Colonnades?
But soft Recesses for th'uneasy mind,
To sigh un-heard in, to the passing wind!
So the struck Deer, in some sequestred part
Lies down to dye, (the arrow in his heart)
there hid in shades, & wasting day by day,
Inly he bleeds, & parts his soul away.

If these lines want poetry, they don't want sence. God almighty preserve you from a feeling of 'em!

3) 'To a Lady on her Birthday. 1723' (13 July 1723), 14 lines, the final version published in Miscellany Poems (fifth edition, 1726).

I was tother day forming a wish for a Lady's happiness, upon her Birth-day: and thinking of y^e Greatest Climax of felicity I could raise, step by step, to end in This – a Friend. I fancy I have succeeded in y^e gradation, & send you y^e whole copy to ask y^r opinion, or (w^ch is much y^e better reason) to desire you to alter it to y^r own Wish: for I believe you are a Woman y^t can wish for y^rself more Reasonably, than I can for you. [...]

Oh be thou blest with All that Heav'n can send:
Long life, long youth, long Pleasure – and a Friend!
not with those Toys the Woman-World admire
Riches that vex, and vanities that tire
Let Joy, or Ease; let Affluence, or Content;
And the gay Conscience of a Life well-spent,
Calm ev'ry Thought; inspirit ev'ry Grace;
Glow in thy Heart; and smile upon thy Face!
Let Day improve on Day, and year on year;
without a Pain, a Trouble, or a Fear!
And ah! (since Death must that dear frame destroy),
Dye, by some sudden Extacy of Joy:
In some soft Dream may thy mild Soul remove,
And be thy latest Gasp, a Sigh of Love!

Judith Cowper and Pope had known each other neither long nor intimately at the beginning of their correspondence in 1722, and the early letters, full of the hyperbolic romanticism he habitually showered on his female friends, reveal some difficulty in establishing an appropriate tone. Their rapid exchange of letters settled into a mutually respectful trade of verses and friendly concern before the relationship virtually ended upon Judith Cowper’s marriage to Captain Madan in December 1723. Pope's letters to Cowper were published, apparently under Cowper's supervision, in Letters to a Lady (1769). The letters in this collection bear editorial markings connected with that publication.