Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Autograph letter to George Lyttelton, secretary to Frederick, Prince of Wales, n.p. [London], n.d. [c.1 November 1738]
4½ pages, 228 x 182mm, bifolium with additional quarto sheet containing integral address leaf and preserving remains of a black seal. Provenance: George, first Baron Lyttelton (1709-1773); Sotheby's, 12 December 1978, lot 123.

Pope reports on a plan to install Lyttelton’s master, Frederick, Prince of Wales, as leader of the Tory party, following a meeting with Sir William Wyndham. He humbly introduces himself while flattering his recipient:

Of all the kind opinions you entertain of me, there is one which I deserve, the opinion that I am sincerely yours; & that I love virtue, for I love you & such as you: such are listed under her Banners, they fight for her; Poets are but like heralds … and the best you can make of me is that I am her poor trumpeter.

Pope reports on the recent affairs of the Tory party, and ‘the result of y^e conference with Sr. W. W. [William Wyndham] and the disposition in which it left him.’ He writes that Wyndham ‘seemed strongly touch’d with a sence of the indignity, the folly, and the danger, that attend the present state & conduct of the opposition’. For Wyndham, Pope writes, the Tory party as it stands is ‘nothing more than a bubble-scheme, wherein multitudes who intended the publick service, would be employ’d to no purpose than to serve private ambition.’ He moves on to relate a secret plot to have ‘his R. H.’ take over as head of the party. For this to succeed, members of the party must be pushed to the ‘dilemma, of joyning with the court, or of following their friends with no good grace.’ All this will require is for one prominent peer to come out in favour – namely, Lord Thomas Saunderson, followed by ‘any 2 or 3 old members more, with the phalanx of young members’. Then, ‘a new opposition would be thus created, (or rather the old one reviv’d)’. Pope concludes with a statement of obedience to Lyttelton’s master, the Prince:

Pray assure your master of my Duty & service: they tell me he has everybody's Love already. I wish him Popular, but not familiar, and the Glory of being beloved, not the Vanity of endeavoring it too much. I wish him at the Head of the only good Party in the Kingdome, that of Honest men; I wish him Head of no other Party. And I think it a nobler situation, to be at the head of the Best men of a Kingdom than at the Head of any Kingdom upon earth ...

Lyttelton is the author of the poem 'An Epistle to Mr. Pope. From Rome, 1730', in which he imagines Virgil instructing his recipient to focus on more patriotic themes: 'Of thee more worthy were the task, to raise | A lasting column to thy Country's praise; | To sing the land, which yet alone can boast | That Liberty corrupted Rome has lost [...]; Approving Time shall consecrate thy lays, | And join the Patriot's to the Poet's praise.' Pope later became involved in opposition politics, and around the time that he wrote the present letter, Lyttelton had been trying to persuade him to act as a political mentor to the Prince. Pope summarised his outlook on politics in the epigram that he composed for the collar of one of the Prince's pet dogs: 'I am His Highness' dog at Kew; Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?'

Please note that this autograph letter by Pope is not signed by him, as previously stated in the catalogue note.