BIB_ID
301567
Accession number
MA 347.2
Creator
Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744.
Display Date
[1716] Aug. 18.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, probably in 1903.
Description
1 item (6 p.) ; 22.7 cm
Notes
Part of a collection of autograph letters, primarily from Alexander Pope to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and manuscript poems. Items in the collection are described in individual records; see MA 347 for details.
Signature is heavily crossed out.
Year is from Sherburn's edition of Pope's letters.
Signature is heavily crossed out.
Year is from Sherburn's edition of Pope's letters.
Provenance
The Earl of Harrowby; sale (London, Sotheby, June 18-20, 1903); purchased by Quaritch; probably purchased by Pierpont Morgan in 1903.
Summary
Telling her that his letters "will be the most impartial Representations of a free heart ... Not a feature will be soften'd, or any advantageous Light employd to make the Ugly thing a little less hideous, but you shall find it in all respects most Horribly Like"; encouraging her to write freely to him because he is "confident no one knows [her] better"; discussing her influence over him and noting that she has "ruin'd [him] for all the Conversation of one Sex, and almost all the Friendship of the other" because he is "too sensible thro' [her] means that the Company of Men wants a certain Softness to recommend it, and that of Women wants every thing else"; describing the "misfortune" of "parting from what one most esteems."
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