No More Learning

'697 Leo's golden days:'

the pontificate of Leo X (1513-1521). Leo himself was a generous patron
of art and learning. He paid particular attention to sacred music (l.
703), and engaged Raphael to decorate the Vatican with frescoes. Vida
(l. 704) was an Italian poet of his time, who became famous by the
excellence of his Latin verse. One of his poems was on the art of
poetry, and it is to this that Pope refers in l. 706.


'707-708'

Cremona was the birthplace of Vida; Mantua, of Virgil.


'709'

The allusion is to the sack of Rome by the Constable Bourbon's army in
1527. This marked the end of the golden age of arts in Italy.


'714 Boileau:'

a French poet and critic (1636-1711). His 'L'Art Poetique' is founded on
Horace's 'Ars Poetica'.


'723 the Muse:'

'i. e.
' the genius, of John Sheffield (1649-1720), Duke of Buckingham
(not to be confounded with Dryden's enemy). Line 724 is quoted from his
'Essay on Poetry'.


'725 Roscommon:'

Wentworth Dillon (1633-1684), Earl of Roscommon, author of a translation
of the 'Ars Poetica' and of 'An Essay on Translated Verse'.


'729 Walsh:'

a commonplace poet (1663-1708), but apparently a good critic. Dryden, in
fact, called him the best critic in the nation. He was an early friend
and judicious adviser of Pope himself, who showed him much of his early
work, including the first draft of this very poem. Pope was sincerely
attached to him, and this tribute to his dead friend is marked by deep
and genuine feeling.


'738 short excursions:'

such as this 'Essay on Criticism' instead of longer and more ambitious
poems which Pope planned and in part executed in his boyhood. There is
no reason to believe with Mr. Elwin that this passage proves that Pope
formed the design of the poem after the death of Walsh.





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AN ESSAY ON MAN


INTRODUCTION

The 'Essay on Man' is the longest and in some ways the most important
work of the third period of Pope's career. It corresponds closely to his
early work, the 'Essay on Criticism'. Like the earlier work, the 'Essay
on Man' is a didactic poem, written primarily to diffuse and popularize
certain ideas of the poet. As in the earlier work these ideas are by no
means original with Pope, but were the common property of a school of
thinkers in his day. As in the 'Essay on Criticism', Pope here attempts
to show that these ideas have their origin in nature and are consistent
with the common sense of man. And finally the merit of the later work,
even more than of the earlier, is due to the force and brilliancy of
detached passages rather than to any coherent, consistent, and
well-balanced system which it presents.