Alexander Pope

MASONIC BIOGRAPHIES

Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations

Alexander Pope

May 21,1688 - May 30, 1744

Son of a Roman Catholic draper, Pope was educated at various Catholic schools until the age of twelve, when severe illness left him crippled; he resorted henceforth to self-education.

Introduced to London life by William Wycherley, he became well known as a satirical poet, and a master of the heroic couplet, notably in An Essay on Criticism(1711), The Rape of the Lock(1712-14), The Dunciad(1728) and An Essay on Man(1733-34). His writings — chiefly verse satires and translations of the classics —brought him fame and fortune: enough of a fortune to allow him to move in 1719 to a villa in Twickenham.

The Universal Prayer, often quoted in masonic instruction, was written by Pope in 1738.

Member: Lodge held at the Goat, a Tavern at the foot of The Haymarket, London

Albert G. Mackey, Encyclopedia of Freemasonry. p. 791. Also see: J.H. Edge, The Builder, May, 1934. Cited: list of lodge members, 1730, United Grand Lodge of England Library, Great Queen Street, London.

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