D. ROCK.
Buckland, Faringdon.
Replies.
POPE AND FLATMAN.
(Vol. iv., p. 132.)
In the edition of Pope's Works published by Knapton, Lintot, and others, 1753, 9 vols., I find the following note to the Ode entitled "The Dying Christian to his Soul:"—
"This Ode was written in imitation of the famous Sonnet of Hadrian to his departing Soul, but as much superior to his original in sense and sublimity as the Christian religion is to the pagan."
This is confirmed by the correspondence of Pope with Steele, vol. vii. pp. 185, 188, 189, 190. Letters 4, 7, 8, and 9.
That Pope also derived some hints at least from Flatman's Ode is, I think, certain, from the following extract from a bookseller's catalogue of a few years' date:
"Flatman, Thos., Poems and Songs. Portrait slightly damaged. 8vo., new, cf. gt. back, 8s. With autograph of Alex. Pope.
"MS. Note at p. 55.—'This next piece, A Thought on Death, is remarkable as being the verses from which Pope borrowed some of the thoughts in his Ode of The Dying Christian to his Soul.'"