A P O P E. LEXANDER POPE was born in London, May 22, 1688, of parents whose rank or station was never afcertained: we are informed that they were of gentle blood; that his father was of a family of which the Earl of Downe was the head, and that his mother was the daughter of William Turner, Efquire, of York, who had likewife three fons, one of whom had the honour of being killed, and the other of dying, in the fervice of Charles the First; the third was made a general officer in Spain, from whom the fifter inherited what fequeftrations and forfeitures had left in the family. This, and this only, is told by Pope; who is more willing, as I have heard obferved, to fhew what his father was not, than what he was. It is allowed that he grew rich by trade; but whether in a fhop or on the Exchange has never been difcovered. Both parents were papists. Pope was from his birth of a conftitution tender and delicate; but is faid to have fhewn remarkable gentleness and sweetness of difpofition. The weaknefs of his body continued through his life, but the mildnefs of his mind perhaps ended with his childhood. His |