scholarly journals The Animal in Pope’s Essay on Man

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 118-142
Author(s):  
Michael Smith
Keyword(s):  
Essay On Man

Why are there so many animals referenced in Alexander Pope’s poem Essay on Man? Traditionally, animals were separated from man throughout history.  Namely, the animal was denied logos and access to the polis. However, this article claims that neither of these traditions hold true throughout Pope’s work.  Rather, man is placed on a level on par with the animal in order to “vindicate the ways of God to man,” Pope’s explicit purpose of the poem.  The article concludes that the agnostic figure of the animal, oddly, becomes the “guarantor” of God’s ways in the eyes of man through its comparison with man.

Gray's 'Ode on the Spring' and Pope's Essay on Man

2003 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-205
Author(s):  
R. S. Edgecombe
Keyword(s):  
Essay On Man

An Essay on Man

2018 ◽  
Vol 99 (3) ◽  
pp. 350-351
Author(s):  
Kevin Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Essay On Man

Pope's Social Satire: Belles-Lettres and Business

PMLA ◽  
1952 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 420-434
Author(s):  
Hugo M. Reichard
Keyword(s):  
Special Place ◽  
Belles Lettres ◽  
Essay On Man

The modern redemption of the Dunciad has been in part a demonstration that the poem deals with extant dunceness more than with forgotten dunces. By way of extending the demonstration, I wish to show how luminously Pope associates the spread of bad books with the dynamics of a commercialized society. While dealing of course with other problems too, the Dunciad and its pendants treat a notable aspect of the issue which pervades and unifies most of his mature satire—the antinomy of mercenary and humane values. Repeatedly between 1728 and 1743 Pope contemplates the predicament of a nation that is “sunk in lucre's sordid charms” and of men who are “alike in nothing but one lust of gold.” He protests the corrupt practices of politicians like Walpole, the extravagance of aristocrats like Timon, and the acquisitive enterprise of business men like Balaam. As far afield as the great Parisian banquet of the Dunciad (iv.549-564) Maynard Mack has sensitively detected Pope's animus toward a “money culture.” Since it underlies his general outlook of gloom, this animus is even behind the sighs for a “sinking land” which appear briefly amid the spacious optimism of the Essay on Man (iv.265-266). A similarity between two of Pope's finest symbols marks the special place of the Dunciad within his vision of evil: in the Epilogue to the Satires the goddess Vice rules an avaricious world by means of “golden chains” (i.147-148, 161-162); and Dulness, the deity of the Dunciad, fixes society to a bimetallic standard of “lead and gold” (iv.13-16).

Anthony David Nuttall 1937–2007

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Lerner
Keyword(s):  
Present State ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
Grammar School ◽  
Classical Education ◽  
University Of Oxford ◽  
Vice Chancellor ◽  
Essay On Man ◽  
The University

Anthony David Nuttall (1937–2007), a Fellow of the British Academy, was born on April 25, 1937, and grew up in Hereford. He attended Hereford Grammar School and then Watford Grammar School, where he received a thorough, old-fashioned classical education. Nuttall then went to Merton College in the University of Oxford, where he met his lifelong friend Stephen Medcalf. In 1962, he was appointed lecturer in English at the new University of Sussex, rising to professor ten years later, and in 1978 he became Pro-Vice-Chancellor. After twenty-two years teaching at Sussex, Nuttall applied for a fellowship at New College, Oxford. Common Sky (1974) was the book in which he emerged as a critic with a distinctive and compelling way of looking at literature. Another book, Overheard by God (1980) is about George Herbert's poetry, but its first, riveting sentence displays the brilliance of its immodesty. In New Mimesis (1983), Nuttall discusses the present state of literary theory. He also wrote Essay on Man (1984), The Alternative Trinity (1998), and The Stoic in Love (1989).

Volume IV of the Iliad. Lady Mary returns from abroad. Death of Parnell. 1719 AP leases villa at Twickenham overlooking the Thames. 1720 South Sea Bubble. Volumes V and VI complete Iliad translation. 1721 AP edits Parnell’s poems. 1722 AP editing Shakespeare and translating Odyssey; Atterbury arrested on suspicion of treason. 1723 AP publishes Works of John Sheffield; edition seized on sus picion of treasonable material; Atterbury tried and exiled; Bol ingbroke returns. 1725 AP publishes 6-volume edition of Shakespeare. Bolingbroke settles at Dawley Farm. First three volumes of Odyssey trans lation published. 1726 Theobald attacks AP in Shakespeare Restored. Volumes IV-V of Odyssey published. Swift visits; Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels pub lished. 1727 Death of George I; accession of George II. AP and Swift publish two volumes of Miscellanies. 1728 Gay’s Beggar’s Opera begins huge run. AP and Swift publish third volume of Miscellanies, including Peri Bathous. First version of The Dunciad published, to controversial reception. 1729 Dunciad Variorum published; advance copy presented by Walpole to King and Queen. 1730 Cibber appointed Poet Laureate. 1731 First version of Epistle to Burlington published. 1732 AP and Swift publish fourth volume of Miscellanies. Death of Atterbury; death of Gay. 1733 Epistle to Bathurst published. Imitations of Horace series be gins with The First Satire of the Second Book of Horace. Montagu/ Hervey Verses attacking Pope. Essay on Man, Epis tles I-III. Death of AP’s mother. 1734 Epistle to Cobham published. Essay on Man, Epistle IV. Second Satire of the Second Book of Horace, Sober Advice from Horace published. 1735 Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot published. Epistle to a Lady published. Death of Arbuthnot. Second volume of AP’s Works published. Curll publishes edition of AP’s Letters. 1736 AP gives Prince of Wales a puppy. 1737 Second Epistle... and First Epistle of the Second Book of Horace published. Authorized edition of AP’s Letters. Essay on Man attacked by Crousaz. 202

2002 ◽  
pp. 216-216
Keyword(s):  
Poet Laureate ◽  
Gulliver's Travels ◽  
Fourth Volume ◽  
South Sea ◽  
Essay On Man
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