Alexander Pope: A Glorious Revolution

From his adult height of 4’6’’ to his lack of a formal education because of his religion, Alexander Pope was often counted out throughout his life, but he overcame these problems again and again to impact the literary world. Alexander Pope lived during the restoration period, a tumultuous time. During this time, many things were happening in Britain. Pope was born in 1688, the year of the so called “Glorious Revolution” in which William and Mary became the rulers of Britain. Although things like the Bill of Rights gave most citizens at the time more individual rights, Catholics were heavily excluded. In fact, the Toleration Act of 1689 gave the freedom to worship to all non-conformists, except Roman Catholics. Unfortunately, Alexander Pope …show more content…
During his childhood years, especially, he was often discriminated against. The year he was born was shared with the Glorious Revolution, and during this time, Catholics “were perceived as being actively or potentially treacherous” (Cody, “The Religion of Alexander Pope”). Pope was actually not allowed to go to to public school as a child because he was Catholic and instead was forced to go to two Catholic schools in London that, while technically illegal, were allowed to run (Students’ Academy 228). Pope was more self taught than most at the time because of his inability to go to a bona fide school. For Pope, though, his lack of public schooling was not the only thing the government was keeping him from. Pope’s family moved out of London when he was just 12. The reason for this move? According to A Class Unconventional-Biographies-Writers and Poets, by Students’ Academy, “Pope and his Family were forced to move in 1700 to a small estate at popeswood in Binfield, Berkshire...This was due to strong anti-Catholic sentiment and a statute preventing Catholics from living within 10 miles (16km) of either London or Westminster.” Sadly, Pope was not still not left alone after the move. Many of his friends actually attempted to convert him away from Catholicism. David Cody, an Associate Professor of English at Hartwick College states “Many of his friends attempted to persuade him to renounce …show more content…
Pope wrote many works over the course of his life. “Pope’s principal works are—Pastorals, published in 1709; Essay on Criticism, 1711;Pollio, 1712; Rape of the Lock, 1714; Translation of Homer’s Iliad, 1715–18; Edition of Shakspeare, 1725; Translation of Homer’s Odyssey, 1726; Dunciad, 1st form, 1728;Epistle to the Earl of Burlington, 1731; On the Use of Riches, 1732; Essay on Man, Part I, 1732; Horace, Sat. 2. 1. imitated, 1733; Epistle to Lord Cobham, 1733; Epistle to Arbuthnot, 1735; Horace, Epistle 1. 1. imitated, 1737; Dunciad, altered and enlarged, 1742 (Pattison, “Alexander Pope (1688-1744)”). Obviously, Pope wrote early and often in his life. His first works, his pastorals, were published in 1709. “Jacob Tonson, the bookseller, had seen these pastorals in the hands of Walsh and Congreve, and sent a polite note (April 20, 1706) to Pope asking that he might have them for one of his miscellanies” (“Alexander Pope”, NNDB.com). Pope was only 21 and already making an impact in the world of literature. Atypically inclined in the ways of literature Pope was precocious, but, “also industrious; and he spent some eight or nine years in arduous and enthusiastic discipline, reading, studying, experimenting, taking the advice of some and laughing in his sleeve at the advice of others (“Alexander Pope”, NNDB.com). Once these pastorals, his first works, were published they were instantly popular, and,