BIB_ID
301585
Accession number
MA 347.5
Creator
Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744.
Display Date
[1716] Nov. 10.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, probably in 1903.
Description
1 item (6 p.) ; 22.5 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.
Year is from Sherburn's edition of Pope's letters.
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
Saying, "the more I examine my own mind, the more Romantick I find myself"; discussing his admiration for her; mentioning people's comments about her wig; asking her to talk about herself rather than shrines and relics; wondering how her "Christian Virtues hold out in so long a Voyage" into the "free Region of Adultery"; imagining the stages of her trip to Turkey; quoting Tibullus; remarking that his body "is as ill-matchd to [his] Mind as any wife to her husband"; mentioning his own trips to York and Bath; reporting that [William] Congreve also wrote to her; sending her "two little pieces" [not included in this collection]; telling her he has heard she will travel through Italy and go to Constantinople by sea; suggesting that he may join her.
Catalog link
Department