Pope (1769), inspired by Warburton. The notes of many commentators, with some letters and a memoir, were included in the Works of Alexander Pope, edited by W. L. Bowles (10 vols., 1806). His Poetical Works were edited by Alexander Dyce (1856); by R. Carruthers (1858) for Bohn’s Library; by A. W. Ward (Globe Edition, 1869), &c. Materials for a definitive edition were collected by John Wilson Croker, and formed the basis of what has become the standard version, The Works of Alexander Pope (10 vols., 1871–1898), including unpublished letters and other new material, with introduction and notes by W. Elwin and W. J. Courthope. The life of Pope in vol. v. was contributed by Professor Courthope. The chief original authority besides Pope’s correspondence and Ruffhead’s Life is Joseph Spence’s Anecdotes, published by S. W. Singer in 1820. Samuel Johnson gives a good estimate of Pope in his Lives of the Poets. The best modern lives are that by Professor Courthope, already mentioned; and Alexander Pope, by Sir L. Stephen, in the English Men of Letters series (1880). See also George Paston, Mr Pope: His Life and Times (1909). The first check to the admiration that prevailed during Pope’s lifetime was given by the publication of Joseph Warton’s Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope (vol. i.. 1757; vol. ii., 1782). Warton had a sincere appreciation of Pope’s work, but he began the reaction which culminated with the romantic writers of the beginning of the 19th century, and set the fashion of an undue disparagement of Pope’s genius as a poet with enduring effects on popular opinion. Thomas Campbell’s criticism in his Specimens of the British Poets provoked a controversy to which William Hazlitt, Byron and W. L. Bowles contributed. For a discussion of Pope’s position as one of the great men of letters in the 18th century who emancipated themselves from patronage, see A. Beljame, Le Public et les hommes de lettres en Angleterre au dix-huitième siècle (1881); a section of Isaac D’Israeli’s Quarrels of Authors is devoted to Pope’s literary animosities; and most important contributions to many vexed questions in the biography of Pope, especially the publication of his letters, were made by C. W. Dilke in Notes and Queries and the Athenaeum. These articles were reprinted by his grandson, Sir Charles Dilke, in 1875, as The Papers of a Critic. (W. M.; M. Br.)
POPE, ALEXANDER (1763–1835), Irish actor and painter,
was born in Cork, and was educated to follow his father’s
profession of miniature painting. He continued to paint
miniatures and exhibit them at the Royal Academy as late as
1821; but at an early date he took the stage, first appearing
in London as Oroonoko in 1785 at Covent Garden. He remained
at this theatre almost continuously for nearly twenty years,
then at the Haymarket until his retirement, playing leading
parts, chiefly tragic. He was particularly esteemed as Othello
and Henry VIII. He died on the 22nd of March 1835. Pope
was thrice married. His first wife, Elizabeth Pope (c. 1744–1797),
a favourite English actress of great versatility, was billed
before her marriage as Miss Younge. His second wife, Maria Ann
Pope (1775–1803), also a popular actress, was a member of an
Irish family named Campion. His third wife, Clara Maria Pope
(d. 1838), was the widow of the artist Francis Wheatley, and
herself a skilful painter of figures and of flowers.
POPE, JANE (1742–1818), English actress, daughter of a
London theatrical wig-maker, who began playing in a Lilliputian
company for Garrick in 1756. From this she speedily
developed into soubrette roles. She was Mrs Candour in The
School for Scandal at its first presentation (1777), and thereafter
she had many important parts confided to her. She was' the
life-long friend of Mrs Clive, and erected the monument at
Twickenham to the latter’s memory. She was not only an
admirable actress, but a woman of blameless life, and was
praised by all the literary critics of her day-unused to such a
Combination. She died on the 30th of July 1818.
POPE, JOHN (1822–1892), American soldier, was the son. of
Nathaniel Pope (1784–1850), U.S. judge for the district of
Illinois, and was born at Louisville, Kentucky, on the 16th of
March 1822. He graduated at the United States Military
Academy in 1842 and was assigned to the engineers. He served
in the Mexican War, receiving the brevets of 1st lieutenant and
captain for his conduct at Monterey and Buena Vista. Subsequently
he was engaged in engineering and exploring work,
mainly in New Mexico, and in surveying the route for a Pacific
railroad. He was commissioned captain in 1856. He was
actively opposed to the Buchanan administration, and a speech
which he made in Connexion with the presidential campaign
of 1860 caused him to be summoned before a court»martial.
Early in the Civil War he was placed, as a brigadier-general
U.S.V., in charge of the district of Missouri, which by vigorous
campaigning against, guerrilla bands and severe administration of
the civil population he quickly reduced to order. In 1862, along
with the gunboat flotilla (commanded by Commodore A. H.
Foote) on the Mississippi, Pope obtained a. great success by the
capture of the defences of New Madrid and Island No. 10, with
nearly 7000 prisoners. Pope subsequently joined Halleck, and in
command of the Army of the Mississippi took part in the siege of
Corinth. He was now a major-general U.S.V. The reputation
he had thus gained as an energetic leader quickly
placed him in a high command, to which he proved to be quite unequal. The “Army of Virginia,” as his new forces were styled, had but a brief career. At the very outset of his Virginian campaign Pope, by a most ill-advised order, in which he contrasted the performances of the Western troops with the failures of the troops in Virginia, forfeited the confidence of his officers
and men. The feeling of the Army of the Potomac (which was ordered to his support) was equally hostile, and the short operations culminated in the disastrous defeat of the second battle of Bull Run. Pope was still sanguine and ready for another trial of strength, but he was soon compelled to realize the impossibility of retrieving his position, and resigned the command. Bitter controversy arose over these events. Halleck, the general-in-chief,
was by no means free from blame, but the public odium
chiefly fell upon generals McClellan and Fitz-John Porter, against whom Pope, while admitting his own mistakes, made grave charges. Pope was not again employed in the Civil War, but in command of the Department of the North-West he showed his former skill and vigour in dealing with Indian risings. In 1865
he was made brevet major-general U.S.A. (having become
brigadier-general on his appointment to the Army of Virginia), and he subsequently was in charge of various military districts and departments until his retirement in 1886. In 1882 he was promoted to the full rank of major-general U.S.A. General Pope died at Sandusky, Ohio, on the 23rd of September 1892.
He was the author of various works and papers, including railway reports (Pacific Railroad Reports vol. iii.) and The Campaign of Virginia (Washington, 1865).
POPE, SIR THOMAS (c. 1507–1559), founder of Trinity College, Oxford, was born at Deddington, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, probably in 1507, for he was about sixteen years old when his father, a yeoman farmer, died in 1523. He was educated at Banbury school and Eton College, and entered the court of chancery. He there found a friend and patron in the lord chancellor Thomas Audley. As clerk of briefs in the star chamber, warden of the mint (1534–1536), clerk of the Crown in Chancery (1537), and second officer and treasurer of the court for the settlement of the confiscated property of the smaller religious foundations, he obtained wealth and influence. In this last office he was superseded in 1541, but from 1547 to 1553 he was again employed as fourth officer. He himself won by grant or purchase a considerable share in the spoils, for nearly thirty manors, which came sooner or later into his possession, were originally church property. “He could have rode,” said Aubrey, “in his owne lands from Cogges (by Witney) to Banbury, about 18 miles.” In 1537 he was knighted. The religious changes made by Edward VI. were repugnant to him, but at the beginning of Mary’s reign he became a member of the privy council. In 1556 he was sent to reside as guardian in Elizabeth’s house. As early as 1555 he had begun to arrange for the endowment of a college at Oxford, for which he bought the site and buildings of Durham College, the Oxford house of the abbey of Durham, from Dr George Owen and William Martyn. He received a royal charter for the establishment and endowment of a college of the “Holy and Undivided Trinity” on the 8th of March 1556. The foundation provided for a president, twelve fellows and eight scholars, with a schoolhouse at Hooknorton. The number of scholars was subsequently increased to twelve, the schoolhouse being given up. On the 28th of March the members of the college were put in possession of the site, and they were formally admitted on the 29th of May 1556. Pope died at Clerkenwell on the 29th of January 1559, and was buried at St Stephen’s,
