Satire is the usual expression, in literature, of indignation. Being uncommonly well read, Pope was very familiar with the traditional literary expressions of indignation. There were two main branches to the literary tradition of indignation, the classical, which was the more important in Pope's case, and the Judaic-Christian. In the classical branch, the most noteworthy influences on Pope were Juvenal and Horace. In the Judaic-Christian branch, the Old Testament prophets such as Jeremiah were influential. From both branches, Pope inherited, and in many cases improved upon, the traditional methods of satire, such as monologue, parody, paradox, burlesque, topical references, and irony. Even while using the traditional methods, Pope was able to place his individual stamp upon his works. Besides the literary tradition to which he related, a second source of Pope's indignation was his personality as shaped by his experience. The main sources of indignation in Pope's life are discussed in this thesis, and examination shows that his letters accurately point to these sources of indignation. The same main causes of his indignation are also revealed in his literary works. Two conclusions are reached: that for Pope indignation was one of the well-springs of literary creation, and that Pope's expressions of indignation were sometimes transmuted into art. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Pope's treatment of Lewis Theobald and Colley Cibber in their roles as the king of dunces in the Dunciad. After an introductory chapter that treats the battles between Pope and Theobald and Pope and Cibber, the second chapter gives a short factual biography of Theobald emphasizing the events relating to his battle with Pope. The third chapter analyzes the caricature of Theobald in the Dunciad Variorum, showing its variations from fact. By comparing Theobald and Cibber, the fourth chapter investigates the extent and effectiveness of the changes made in the Dunciad of 1743 to accommodate the change from Theobald to Cibber as the king of dunces. This paper attempts to demonstrate that Theobald and Cibber were treated unfairly by Pope, whose decision to enthrone both was based on a desire for personal revenge.

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The Influence of Lucretius' De Rertun Natura and of its English translations by Thomas Creech and John Dryden on Alexander Pope's Essay on Man has not previously been adequately explored. As this thesis demonstrates, comparative analysis shows (1) that the Lucretiun poem is a model for Pope's manner of addressing the audience, for the pose of his speaker, and for his satiric and didactic style; (2) that the English translations of Creech and Dryden are sources of many verbal echoes and allusions and of a few rhymes; (3) that De Rerum Natura is the source of several controlling metaphors for the Essay on Man; (4) that similarities exist between the Lucretiun concept of order arising from disorder and Pope's concept of "discordia concors" and between the recognition of the cycle as the outer aspect of Nature in both poems; (5) that one of Pope's purposes is to refute the Epicurean religious beliefs professed by Lucretius; and (6) that a remarkable similarity exists between the ethical beliefs of Lucretius and those of Pope. The evidence suggests that De Reruzn Natura, and its translations by Creech and Dryden, should be considered major influences on Pope's An Essay on Man.

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Includes vita. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 258 pages. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The overarching goal of this study is to suggest that Alexander Pope did not abandon his project for a "system of ethics in the Horatian way," but rather that in his final days he did find a way to unite the parts at hand into a viable whole. Constructing such an argument, however, requires a similar building up from the parts, and so the core focus becomes a study on the way the image of an arch can serve as a metaphor for Pope's reconciliation scheme in his Moral Essays as he "steers betwixt" seeming opposites. To justify this approach, I note the works of critics who have studied Pope's use of the sister arts, the works of architectural theorists and historians, as well the works of critics who focus on various reconciliatory strategies. Perhaps more importantly, I look back to Pope's correspondence and Joseph Spence's record to establish not only Pope's interest in architecture, but also his actual architectural endeavors. / ABSTRACT: From this foundation, I relate Pope's intentions for his opus magnum and indicate the connections that can be drawn between the four epistles of Essay on Man and the four epistles that Pope selected to comprise the "death-bed" edition of his ethic work, namely To a Lady, To Cobham, To Bathurst, and To Burlington. Finally, I examine Pope's method of reconciling the extremes he presents by exemplum in the Moral Essays by comparing the personal and societal pressures that form the basis of Pope's satire to the vertical and lateral thrusts that enable an arch to stand, even as they threaten its destruction should the forces become unbalanced. From such an architectural perspective, one can trace Pope's conception of man in his middle state as he makes the transition from the abstract plan established in Essay on Man, through the pendentive formed by the arches of the Moral Essays, and ultimately to the ideal state of existence that is represented by the dome. / ABSTRACT: The final result can be conceived of as no less than a monument to Pope's life and art. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The purpose of this dissertation is two-fold: one is to analyze the narratives of Acis and Galatea written by Ovid, and the two libretti by Handel's librettists including Nicola Giuvo (1708) and John Gay (1718) with John Hughes and Alexander Pope; the other is to correlate this textual analysis within the musical languages. A 1732 pastiche version is excluded because its bilingual texts are not suitable for the study of relationships between meaning and words. For this purpose, the study uses the structural theory- -mainly that of Gérard Genette--as a theoretical framework for the analysis of the texts. Narrative analysis of Acis and Galatea proves that the creative process of writing the libretto is a product of a conscious acknowledgement of its structure by composer and librettists. They put the major events of the story into recitative and ensemble. By examining the texts of both Handel's work, I explore several structural layers from the libretti: the change of the characterization to accommodate a specific occasion and the composer's response to contemporary English demand for pastoral drama with parodistic elements, alluding to the low and high class of society. Further, Polyphemus is examined in terms of relationships with culture corresponding to his recurrent pattern of appearance.