dear rate, and would now find them worth little more than waste paper.

After some farther exchange of altercation, in which the prevailing opinions of the lawyers and others of that day are decidedly against Mr. Bee's monopoly of biblical criticism, the parties in 1668 agreed to refer to two of his majesty's privy-council, the marquis of Dorchester and the earl of Anglesey, who determined in favour of Mr. Pool, and, as it would seem, even to the satisfaction of Mr. Bee, whose name appears, as a vender in the title-page of vol. I. published in 1669. Pool had previously obtained his majesty's patent, expressed in the same terms as that granted to Bee for the "Critici Sacri," forbidding the printing of the "Synopsis" either in whole or in part, without his leave, for the space of fourteen years, under penalty of confiscation, &c. This is dated Oct. 14, 1667.

We have said that Mr. Pool intended to have comprized the whole in 3 vols. folio, for which the subscription price was 4l. but he had not proceeded far before he found that he had made a wrong calculation, and that it would be necessary to add a fourth. This appears to have given him great uneasiness, for he considered his first proposals as implying a sacred and inviolable compact. As soon, therefore, as he perceived his error, he issued "A Proposition" concerning this fourth volume, plainly showing that it was unavoidably necessary, but at the same time betraying very serious apprehensions as to the fate of it. His subscribers, however, soon dissipated his fears, and the bishops and other divines who had originally recommended the work to the public, being now better acquainted with his merit in executing it, and with the plan he had adopted, again came forward with a new and liberal testimonial in his favour. To the former names of his clerical patrons were now added those of Dr. Mews, Dr. Allestree, Dr. Pocock, Dr. Pearson, &c. The price of this volume to subscribers was 11. and when it became farther necessary to extend it to the size of two, as usually bound, he left it to his subscribers' option to receive the fifth without paying more, or, if they pleased, to contribute another sum of ten shillings. He even hopes that this last will be the case, and trusts that "he shall not be censured by any ingenuous person, as a transgressor of the rules either of justice or modesty." The number printed of the whole work was four thousand, and it was so favourably received that before the fifth volume appeared, there

were not two hundred copies of the preceding four unsold. And notwithstanding many hindrances of the press, &c. for which Mr. Pool thought it his duty to be frequently apologizing, the other volumes appeared in the following order; vol. I. in 1669, vol. II. in 1671, vol. III. in 1673, vol. IV. in 1674, and vol. V. in 1676, the whole in about seven years, during which, according to his own account, he had very little copy before-hand, but continued supplying two presses with incredible diligence. Calamy informs us, that while employed on this work, "his common rule was to rise very early in the morning, about three or four o'clock; and take a raw egg about eight or nine, and another about twelve, and then continue his studies till the afternoon was pretty far advanced, when he went abroad, and spent the evening at some friend's house in cheerful conversation;" in which, he observes, " he was very facetious, as well as very true to his friend." It may be doubted whether the British press of the eighteenth century has produced many works of equal risk and value with Walton's "Polyglot," the "Critici Sacri," and the "Synopsis." The price of the two latter has within these few years advanced very considerably; but the reputation of the "Synopsis" seems to have been longer preserved abroad than in this country. Notwithstanding the impression extended to four thousand, many of which were probably disposed of on the continent, a second edition was printed at Francfort in 1678, 5 vols. fol. and a third at Utrecht, edited by Leusden, in 1686. A fourth edition was printed at Francfort in 1694, in 5 vols. 4to, in a very small type, and a fifth at the same place in 1709, 6 vols. folio. This last, as well as the foriner has additions and improvements, criticisms on the Apocrypha, and a defence of the learned author against the censures of father Simon.

In the midst of this employment Mr. Pool found leisure to testify his zeal against popery, in a treatise concerning the infallibility of the church, printed in 1666, 8vo, which was followed by another the next year, 8vo, entitled, "Dialogues between a Popish priest and an English Protestant, wherein the principal points and arguments of both religions are truly proposed, and fully examined." Besides these, he published a "Seasonable Apology for Religion," on Matthew xi. 14, London, 1673, 4to. The first of these pieces was reprinted in 1679: his other works VOL. XXV.

M

1

are some sermons, already mentioned, in the "Morning Exercise;" a poem and two epitaphs upon Mr. Jeremy Whitaker; two others upon the death of Mr. Richard Vines; and another on the death of Mr. Jacob Stock; a preface to twenty posthumous Sermons of Mr. Nalton's, together with a character of him. He also wrote a volume of "English Annotations on the Holy Scripture;" but was prevented by death from going farther than the 58th chapter of Isaiah. Others undertook to complete that work, whose names Ant. Wood has mistaken. From Calamy we learn that the 59th and 60th chapters of Isaiah were done by Mr. Jackson of Moulsey. The notes on the rest of Isaiah and on Jeremiah and Lamentations were drawn up by Dr. Collinges; Ezekiel by Mr. Hurst, Daniel by Mr. Cooper, the Minor Prophets by Mr. Hurst; the four Evan gelists by Dr. Collinges; the Acts by Mr. Vinke; the Epistle to the Romans by Mr. Mayo; the two Epistles to the Corinthians, and that to the Galatians, by Dr. Collinges; that to the Ephesians by Mr. Veale; the Epistles to the Philippians and Colossians by Mr. Adams; the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, by Dr. Collinges; that to the Hebrews by Mr. Obadiah Hughes; the Epistle of St. James, two Epistles of St. Peter, and the Epistle of St. Jude, by Mr. Veale; three Epistles of St. John by Mr. Howe; and the Book of the Revelations by Dr. Collinges. These Annotations were printed at London 1685, in two volumes in folio, and reprinted in 1700, which is usually called the best edition, although it is far from correct. We have the original proposals for this work also before us; but there is nothing very interesting in them, unless that they inform us of the price, which was 11. 5s. per volume, or a penny per sheet, which appears to have been the average price of folio printing at that time.

When Oates's depositions concerning the popish plot were printed in 1679, Pool found his name in the list of those that were to be cut off; and an incident befel him soon after, which gave him the greatest apprehension of his danger. Having passed an evening at alderman Ashurst's, he took a Mr. Chorley to bear him company home. When they came to the narrow passage which leads from Clerkenwell to St. John's-court, there were two men standing at the entrance; one of whom, as Pool came along, cried out to the other, " Here he is!" upon which the other replied, "Let him alone, for there is somebody with him." As soon as they were passed, Pool asked his friend, if he heard what those men said? and upon his answering that he had, "Well," replied Pool, "I had been murdered to-night if you had not been with me." It is said, that, before this incident, he gave not the least credit to what was said in Oates's deposition; but then he thought proper to retire to Holland, where he died in Oct. of the same year, 1679, not without a suspicion of being poisoned, as Calamy relates. His body was interred in a vault belonging to the English merchants at Amsterdam.

It has been said that Pool lived and died a single man. This, however, was not the case. Niceron tells us that he had a son who died in 1697, a piece of information which he probably took from the account of Mr. Pool, prefixed to the Francfort edition of the "Synopsis," 1694; and in Smith's Obituary (in Peck's "Desiderata") we have a notice of the burial, Aug. 11, 1668, of "Mrs. Poole (wife to Mr. Matthew Poole preacher), at St. Andrew's Holborn, Dr. Stillingfleet preacher of her funeral sermon."

POPE (ALEXANDER), the most elegant and popular of all English poets, was born in Lombard-street, London, May 22, 1688, where his father, a linen-draper, had acquired a property of 20,000l. His mother was daughter of William Turner, esq. of York, two of whose sons died in the service of Charles I. and a third became a general officer in Spain, and from this last Mrs. Pope is said to have inherited what sequestrations and forfeitures had left in the family. Botlı his parents were Roman catholics. He was from his birth of a constitution tender and delicate; but is said to have shewn remarkable gentleness and sweetness of disposition. The weakness of his body continued throughout life, and was so great that he constantly wore stays; but the mildness of his mind, says Johnson, perhaps ended with his childhood. His voice, when he was young, was so pleasing, that he was called in fondness "the little Nightingale."

He was taught to read by an aunt who was particularly fond of him, and to write by copying printed books, which he did all his life with great skill and dexterity, although his ordinary hand was far from elegant. At the age of eight he was placed under the care of Taverner, a Romish

priest, who taught him the rudiments of the Greek and Latin languages at the same time, a method very rarely practised. Having improved considerably under Taverner, he was sent to a celebrated seminary of catholics at Twyford, near Winchester; but in consequence of his writing a lampoon on his master, one of his first efforts in poetry, he was again removed to a school kept near Hyde-parkcorner. His master's name here is not mentioned by any of his biographers, but it was probably John Bromley, who was curate of St. Giles's in the fields in the beginning of James II.'s reign, soon after became a decided catholic, and losing his employment at the revolution, taught a school with good reputation. Dodd was informed that Pope was one of his pupils. Before his removal to this last place he had been much a reader of Ogilby's Homer, and Sandys' Ovid, and frequently spoke, in the latter part of his life, of the exquisite pleasure which the perusal of these two writers gave him. He now had an opportunity of visiting the playhouse, and became so delighted with theatrical exhibitions, that he formed a kind of play from the chief events of the Iliad as related by Ogilby, with some verses of his own intermixed. He persuaded a few of the upper boys to act in this piece; the master's gardener represented the character of Ajax; and the actors were dressed after the pictures of his favourite Ogilby, which indeed were designed and engraved by artists of

note.

In 1700, when he had attained his twelfth year, he retired with his father to Binfield near Oakingham; and for some time was under the care of another priest named Dean, but with so little advantage, that the youth determined to study on a plan of his own, reading all such books as he could procure, but with a decided preference, even at this early age, to poetical works. It does not appear that any of the learned professions were pointed out to him*, or that his father attempted in any way to direct his studies. "He was," says Dr. Warton, "invariably and solely a poet, from the beginning of his life to the end." Of the poets which he read, Dryden soon became his favourite and model; and we are told that he entreated a friend to carry him to Button's coffee-house which Dryden