PREFACES,

BIOGRAPHICAL

AND

CRITICA L,

ΤΟ ΤΗ Ε

WORKS

OF THE

ENGLISH POET S.

BY SAMUEL JOHNSON.

VOLUME THE SEVEN T H.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY J. NICHOLS;

FOR C. BATHURST, J. BUCKLAND, W.STRAHAN, J. RIVING TON AND SONS, T. DAVIES, T. PAYNE, L. DAVIS, W. OWEN,

B. WHITE, S. CROWDER, T. CASLON, T. LONGMAN,

B. LAW, C. DILLY, J. DODSLEY, J. WILKIE, J. KÒB

SON, J. JOHNSON, T. LOWNDES, G. ROBINSON,
T. CADELL, J. NICHOLS, E. NEWBERY,
T. EVANS, J. RIDLEY, R. BALDWIN,

G. NICOL, LEIGH AND SOTHEBY,
J. BEW, N. CONANT, J. MURRAY,
W. FOX, J. BOWEN.

M DCC LXXXI.

POPE.

A

LEXANDER POPE was born in London, May 22, 1688, of parents whofe rank or ftation 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 service of Charles the First;