Alexander Pope (1688-1744) - photo 1

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

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£ 23 940
Auction dateClassic
15.12.2023 11:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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ID 1108947
Lot 148 | Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
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, Jr.; his sale, Christie's, 'The Library of Arthur A. Houghton, Jnr.', 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 theOdyssey. 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]).
Place of origin:England
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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