An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot.

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Of An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot.

According to Griffith; “The Epistles of Arbuthnot was the poet’s apologia, his blasting conclusion to the warfare upon his enemies, the Dunces. In publishing the Epistle, he sought no cloak of anonymity, previously he had done so, partly through fear of consequences and partly, it would appear, because of a feeling that the inferior social status of his adversaries would derogate from his own dignity if he placed his name to his attacks. But when Lord Hervey and Lady Montagu joined the ranks of his enemies, he could afford to accept battle with them openly.”.

Until the publication of the Memoirs Lord Hervey was chiefly known as the object of savage satire on the part of Alexander Pope, in whose works he figured as Lord Fanny, Sporus, Adonis and Narcissus. The quarrel is generally put down to Pope’s jealousy of Hervey’s friendship with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. In the first of the Imitations of Horace, addressed to William Fortescue, Lord Fanny and Sappho were generally identified with Hervey and Lady Mary, although Pope denied the personal intention. Hervey had already been attacked in the Dunciad and the Peribathous, and he now retaliated. There is no doubt that he had a share in the Verses to the Imitator of Horace (1732) and it is possible that he was the sole author. In the Letter from a nobleman at Hampton Court to a Doctor of Divinity (1733), he scoffed at Pope’s deformity and humble birth.

Pope’s reply was a Letter to a Noble Lord, dated November 1733, and the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot (1735). The Epistle famously contains Pope’s savage attack on the society gossip Lord Hervey, who is named “Paris” here but “Sporus” in subsequent editions: “Let Paris tremble” – “What? that Thing of silk, Paris, that mere white Curd of Ass’s milk? Satire or Shame alas! Can Paris feel? Who breaks a Butterfly upon a Wheel?”.