Atticus Passage

This handout was prepared by Dr. William Tarvin, a retired professor of literature. 

Note:  Text used:  W. H. Abrams, ed.  The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 7^th            ed.  Vol. 1.  New York:  Norton, 2000.

I.    INTRODUCTION

            1.   Dr. Arbuthnot was hopelessly ill and had written Pope a “last request” that the poet should continue to attack vice in his satires.  

            2.   This poem, basically written during the summer of 1734, was published in Jan. 1735, less than two months before Arbuthnot’s (1667-1735) death.

            3.   Arbuthnot was Queen Anne’s favorite doctor and later held a similar relation to Princess Caroline, who in 1727 became Queen Caroline.  

            4.  Also during 1733, Pope was the victim of two bitter attacks by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Lord Hervey (pronounced Harvey).

            5.  The poem is less an “epistle” than a dialogue between “P.” (Pope) and “A.” (Arbuthnot, who is not introduced until line 75).

II.  THEME

            1.   The poem is an attack on Pope’s detractors and a defense of his own character and career (Abrams 2562).  

            2.   Pope uses every device of persuasive rhetoric:  reasonable argument and emotional appeals, subtly suggestive imagery, and superbly controlled shifts in tone and style (2562).

            3.  The poem expresses a span of emotions:  anger, contempt, amusement, sarcasm, mock self-pity, indignation, hatred, affection, gratitude, and tenderness (2562).

            4.   Also very effective is that Pope addresses Arbuthnot, a man known to be honest and kind; this acquisition of virtue through association is an effective stroke (2562).

            5.   In defense of his own character, in the final section of the poem, Pope portrays himself as a virtuous man, full of love, nursing his aged mother and asking Heaven’s blessing for his friend.  This shows him furthest removed from the popular conception of the satirist as a malevolent man.

LINES 193-214:  ATTICUS PASSAGE

                        1.   The Atticus portrait grammatically is one sentence of 22 lines.

                        2.  Generosity, kindness, courage, wholeheartedness, and humility seem mainly what Atticus lacks. 

                        3.  The passage begins by commenting on line 194.  “Peace to all such!” (193) asserts that “all such” who would dare attack Addison will keep their “peace.”  Of course, Pope then starts a subtle attack on Addison—who dies in 1719, sixteen years before the poem—who is called Atticus here.

                        4.  Pope begins by praising Atticus for his “genius” (194) and his “talent” as a writer and conversationalist (196).

                        5.  However, the praise turns to criticism when Pope wonders whether Atticus was so egotistical that he would allow no-one to challenge his “rule” (197).

                        6.  Unpleasant words are brought forward and associated with Atticus:  “jealous” (199) and “hate” (200).

                        7.  These qualities caused Atticus to judge other writers circumspectly:  “Damn with faint praise” (201).

                        8.  Atticus was cowardly and sneaky in his approach to criticism of others; he would not “strike” (203), but would nevertheless “wound” (203) by “hint[ing] a fault, and hesitat[ing] dislike” (204).

                        9.  He lacked courage, but retained guile:  “A timorous foe, and a suspicious friend” (206).

                        10.  He was a literary tyrant who loved to hear his admirers applaud him (209-12).

                        11.  Pope concludes that in perspective such a contradictory man deserves to be laughed at, although the laughers would cry if they were like Addison:  “Who but must laugh, if such a man here be? / Who would no weep, if Atticus were he?”  (214-15).

NOW, MA'AM'S NOTES:

• Doctor diagnosed with deadly disease
• poem is an epistle
• mock heroic poem, written in 419 lines
• written in imitation of Horace, of the Horace-Virgil-Ovid trio
• reacts to Addison, Hervey
• According to Pope, "in the making for many years"
• Preface taken from Cicero: 

"You will not any longer attend to the vulgar mob's gossip, nor put your trust in human rewards for your needs; Virtue, through her own charms, should lead you to true glory. Let what others say about you be their concern; whatever it is, they'll say it anyway."

• in poem, Atticus (Addison) is described as a 
• famous, well-established man of wit
• "And born to write, converse, and live with ease;" = cosmopolitan man
• he was truly skilled, genius, but jealous, vainglorious
• back-handed compliments
• double standards
• cannot allow a contemporary to rise
• bad-mouths but never confronts
• merges image with identity - this requires explanation - Ma'am explained in class how we often use our perception of a person's character as his/her identity, when the image and the identity are not, in fact, interchangeable
• unwilling to take a stand
• easy to flatter
• insecure
• possessive
• essentially calling him craven