English Poetry in the Eighteenth Century [pp. 30-50]

ENGLISH POE TRY I V THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 33
in, and sought to secure the end by the most unscrupulous
means. Coarse, immoral, and without sense of decorum in
his own life, a disbeliever in political honor or in private female
virtue, he carried on his government by systematic corruption.
"All these men have their price," he said, pointing to a group
of members. And again, "I am obliged to bribe members not
to vote against, but for, their conscience."
Pope himself was no politician, and prided himself in keep.
ing aloof from party.
" Thanks to Homer, he could live and thrive,
Indebted to no prince or peer alive."
But, in spite of this boast, he was the humble friend of Boling
broke, and saw public life in the main through the spectacles of
him and his set.
As to social life in the time of Pope, the day had fully come
when the court and the drawing-room set the fashion and gave
tone to society. Feudalism and the old life of the baron intrenched in his own castle were long gone. The nobles came
to town, passed much of their time there, were fascinated by the
display and the splendor of the court, and sought the favors that
the court conferred. The style of life which had been established in Paris by Louis Quatorze came into England with
Charles II., and was in fuller bloom under Queen Anne. The
courtiers studied conversation as an art, and found it a powerful
aid to promotion. The manners and the conversation of the court
and of the circles next to it told powerfully on the tone of literature. And literature in some of its brightest representatives
was called in to enliven and adorn the life of the court. Statesmen, too, found the shafts of wits, essayists, satirists, and poets
powerful instruments in their schemes of social or political advancement. If the Whigs had Addison, Steele, and Tickell on
their side, Bolingbroke and the disappointed Tories could more
or less depend on the bitter misanthropy of Swift and the more
polished satire of Pope. But for politics proper the latter had
no special gift; his aim was, as far as might be, to steer clear of
these, and to be on social terms with the chief wits and ornaments of society as far as his frail health, irritable temper, and
most morbid vanity would allow him.
3