Alexander pope s essay on man
To Pope, pleasure does not last, it “sicken, and all glories sink. Our happiness here consists in two things: our ignorance of the future and our hope for better things in the future. How shall we keep, what, sleeping or awake,
A weaker may surprise, a stronger take. When the dull ox, why now he breaks the clod,
Is now a victim, and now Egypt’s god, -. Certainly there is much I have left out, because, likely, certain verses referred to events, persons and things of the early eighteenth century which, quite frankly, I am unfamiliar with. Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend. His avowed enemy Leonard Welsted, for instance, declared the poem “above all commendation. Man’s superior part
Uncheck’d may rise and climb from art to art;
But when his own great work is but begun,
What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone. In this period, Pope was also employed by the publisher Jacob Tonson to produce an opulent new edition of Shakespeare.
But, Pope concludes: ‘Whatever is, is right. [3] He also studied many languages and read works by English, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek poets. Man, by virtue of his reason, rules all creation below, but he is not of ethereal substance, as an angel is, and does not possess angelic power. In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw;
Entangle justice in her net of law;
And right, too rigid, harden into wrong,
Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong. Then giving way to his religious bent, makes reference to the “great teacher Death” and continues with his most famous lines: Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be blest:
The soul uneasy and confin’d from home,
Rest and expatiates in a life to come. Still as one brood, and as another rose,
These natural love maintain’d, habitual those:
The last, scarce ripen’d into perfect man,
Saw helpless from him whom their life began:
Memory and forecast just returns engage;
That pointed back to youth, this on to age;
While pleasure, gratitude, and hope, combined,
Still spread the interest, and preserved the kind. Each animal is subordinated to the ranks above and superior to those below. In the last line of Pope’s first epistle, he bangs home the importance of the “ruling mind” of nature, that while some parts might seem to us to be absurd, it is part of the “general frame” that all of nature, including ourselves, are but “parts of one stupendous whole.
); Essay on Criticism (17 pp. Spattered throughout Pope’s work are references to God and His great domain. In the world of the poem purchased artefacts displace human agency, and ‘trivial things’ assume dominance. If humanity were to acknowledge with humility its insignificant position in the greater context of creation, Pope reasons, then humanity’s capacity to live happily and virtuously on earth would be possible. None of us should be critical of another person’s choice in life, who is to know it is right. Thus beast and bird their common charge attend,
The mothers nurse it, and the sires defend:
The young dismiss’d to wander earth or air,
There stops the instinct, and there ends the care;
The link dissolves, each seeks a fresh embrace,
Another love succeeds, another race. Morris’s phrase, “a forlorn classic of ratiocination. This I might have done in prose; but I chose verse, and even rhyme, for two reasons.
Modern criticism of Pope focuses on the man, his circumstances and motivations, prompted by theoretical perspectives such as Marxism, feminism and other forms of post-structuralism. His conclusion is that we must learn to accept our position in the Great Chain of Being — a “middle state,” below that of the angels but above that of the beasts — in which we can, at least potentially, lead happy and virtuous lives. The good must merit God’s peculiar care;
But who but God can tell us who they are. The learn’d is happy nature to explore,
The fool is happy that he knows no more;
The rich is happy in the plenty given,
The poor contents him with the care of Heaven,
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing
The sot a hero, lunatic a king;
The starving chemist in his golden views
Supremely bless’d, the poet in his Muse. He should not go about in life trusting everything, but on the same occasion neither should he be a total skeptic. For example, motivated by envy, a person may develop courage and wish to emulate the accomplishments of another; and the avaricious person may attain the virtue of prudence. _______________________________
Found this material Helpful. ”
EPISTLE IV In his last Epistle on the Essay of Man, Pope deals with the subject of happiness. The fact of the matter is, family units do not count for much in the animal kingdom, at any rate, not for long.
In the years 1953–1967 the production of the definitive Twickenham edition of Pope’s poems was published in ten volumes. The Works of Alexander Pope Esq. In the edition of Lettres philosophiques published in that year, he wrote: “The Essay on Man appears to me to be the most beautiful didactic poem, the most useful, the most sublime that has ever been composed in any language. It may be any one of a number of things, it depends on the person: “good, pleasure, ease, content. Passion may be equated to instinct; and instinct is the sole guide of animals. Shall he alone, whom rational we call,
Be pleas’d with nothing, if not bless’d with all. And so we arrive at the last of Pope’s lines. Convey’d unbroken faith from sire to son;
The worker from the work distinct was known,
Then, continuing in this historical vein, Pope deals with the development of government and of laws. ” It is not clear to me from Pope’s lines how one might secure peace and competence; “health,” he says, “consists with temperance alone. Although he never married, he had many female friends to whom he wrote witty letters. As a creation of God, the universe ultimately is a perfect design that appears imperfect to humans because the ability to perceive its order correctly is diminished by pride and intellectual limitations. ” Or in the full creation leave a void,
Where, one step broken, the great scale’s destroy’d:
From Nature’s chain whatever link you strike,
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. On its publication, An Essay on Man received great admiration throughout Europe. ) All forms that perish other forms supply,
(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die)
Like bubbles on the sea a matter borne,
They rise, they break, and to that sea return
Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole:
Then, Pope picks up once again his theme of the ruling principles, reason and passion. The fact of the matter is, family units do not count for much in the animal kingdom, at any rate, not for long. But all subsists by elemental strife;
And passions are the elements of life. Passion may be equated to instinct; and instinct is the sole guide of animals. However, passion is the king and reason but a “weak queen.
Additional info about alexander pope s essay on man
Those that reflect on man’s condition will soon have Utopian dreams. These critics determined that its values, despite its themes, were essentially poetic and not coherently philosophical by any means. However, passion is the king and reason but a “weak queen. Feels at each thread, and lives along the line:
In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true
From pois’nous herbs extracts the healing dew. ” Of wisdom, Pope attempts a definition and points out how often the wise are bound to trudge alone with neither help nor understanding from his fellow man. Pope was taught to read by his aunt, and went to Twyford School in about 1698/99. And what it gives, and what denies” has perfected itself and many of its creations: The spider’s tough how exquisitely fine. ” Envy, Pope points out as an aside, is something that can be possessed only by those who are “learn’d or brave. Is the great chain that draws all to agree, –
And, drawn, supports – upheld by God or thee. We have no choice: we come to it, look out and then die. 1 I here make comments about the expressions and thoughts of Pope in his essay. Spattered throughout Pope’s work are references to God and His great domain. Show’d erring Pride, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT;
That Reason, Passion, answer one great aim;
That true Self-love and Social are the same. In the edition of Lettres philosophiques published in that year, he wrote: “The Essay on Man appears to me to be the most beautiful didactic poem, the most useful, the most sublime that has ever been composed in any language. ” One might wish for man to be a God and for earth to be a heaven, both God and heaven coming from the imaginations of man. Self-love and Reason to one end aspire,
Pain their aversion, Pleasure their desire,. In human works, tho’ labour’d on with pain,
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain;
In God’s, one single can its end produce;
Yet serves to second too some other use.
When love was liberty, and nature law:
Thus states were form’d; the name of king unknown,
Till common interest placed the sway in one
‘Twas Virtue only, or in arts or arms,
So, it was trade that built civilizations, and Pope observes, that it was tradition that preserves them. Self-love still stronger, as its objects nigh;
Reason’s at distance, and in prospect lie:
A person is driven by passion, driven by his desire for pleasure; temptation is strong and passion is “thicker than arguments. A sharp accuser but a helpless friend. Essay on Man by Alexander Pope. The limited intellect of man can perceive only a tiny portion of this order, and can experience only partial truths, and hence must rely on hope, which leads to faith. Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust,
Yet cry, if Man’s unhappy, God’s unjust;. However, a number of recent critics have sought to rehabilitate the poem’s status in the canon by focusing on its language and ideas in terms of the genre of philosophical poetry. Complete summary of Alexander Pope's An Essay on Man. Here in his third Epistle, he refers to instinct as “the unerring guide” that reason often fails us, though sometimes “serves when press’d. ” It will get you nothing but a crowd “of stupid starers and of loud huzzas. Reason (“th’ Eternal Art, educing good from ill”) is not a guide but a guard. ‘Twas then, the studious head or generous mind,
Follower of God or friend of human-kind,
Poet or patriot, rose but to restore
The faith and moral Nature gave before;
Relumed her ancient light, not kindled new;
If not God’s image, yet his shadow drew;
Taught power’s due use to people and to kings;
Taught not to slack nor strain its tender strings;
The less or greater set so justly true,
That touching one must strike the other too;
Till jarring int’rests of themselves create
Th’ according music of a well-mix’d state. ” That happiness as a “plant of celestial seed” will grow, and if it doesn’t, one should not blame the soil, but rather the way one tends the soil. Alexander Pope was born in London to a Roman Catholic family. He first observes how “plastic” nature is, how everything is dependant on one and the other, is attracted to one and the other, down even to “single atoms. The poem is an affirmative poem of faith: life seems to be chaotic and confusing to man when he is in the center of it, but according to Pope it is really divinely ordered.
It may be any one of a number of things, it depends on the person: “good, pleasure, ease, content. An Essay on Criticism was published in 1711, within two years of Windsor-Forest (1713) and the first version of The Rape of the Lock (1712). ” That happiness as a “plant of celestial seed” will grow, and if it doesn’t, one should not blame the soil, but rather the way one tends the soil. His translation of the Iliad appeared between 1715 and 1720. ” Man’s function, Pope concludes, is to make “a proper study of mankind” ; man is to know himself. Then say not Man’s imperfect, Heav’n in fault, –
Say rather Man’s as perfect as he ought:
His knowledge measur’d to his state and place,
His time a moment, and a point his space. See also, Rape of the Lock Criticism and Alexander Pope. Pope says that man has learnt about Nature and God’s creation by using science; science has given man power but man intoxicated by this power thinks that he is “imitating God”. Plenitude, for Pope, means the overwhelming fullness of creation, of a universe inhabited by all possible essences created by God. The livelihood of writers, by and large — as was with the case of all artists back then — depended almost entirely on the generosity of church and state, so it was necessary in those days that writers give due regard to religious authority. However, passion is the king and reason but a “weak queen. Johnson’s 65 page biography on Pope, Essay on Man (31 pp.
These were written in the popular Augustan form of the “imitation” of a classical poet, not so much a translation of his works as an updating with contemporary references. As, in some well-wrought picture, light and shade
And oft so mix, the diff’rence is too nice,
Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice. It was a piece of work that Pope intended to make into a larger work; however, he did not live to complete it. Attention, habit and experience gains;
Each strengthens Reason, and Self-love restrains. The first epistle concerns the nature of man and his place in the universe. An Essay on Man (1734) Moral Essays (1731-35) Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot (1735) Related:. The friends often discussed much of the subject matter expressed in both Pope’s poem and Bolingbroke’s own amateur philosophical writings, usually as they walked the grounds of their properties. Those that reflect on man’s condition will soon have Utopian dreams. The poem is not solely Christian, however; it makes an assumption that man has fallen and must seek his own salvation. Pope was taught to read by his aunt, and went to Twyford School in about 1698/99. If the question were asked, What is the worst. Man’s superior part
Uncheck’d may rise and climb from art to art;
But when his own great work is but begun,
What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone. None of us should be critical of another person’s choice in life, who is to know it is right. Those that reflect on man’s condition will soon have Utopian dreams. In 1713, he announced his plans to publish a translation of the Iliad. I have quoted at length from his essay. Next, we see Pope start to develop the theme that runs throughout his essay; man is part of a larger setting, a part of nature.
All this dread order break – for whom. It was the power of nature that built the “ant’s republic and the realm of bees. The livelihood of writers, by and large — as was with the case of all artists back then — depended almost entirely on the generosity of church and state, so it was necessary in those days that writers give due regard to religious authority. The one will appear obvious; that principles, maxims, or precepts, so written, both strike the reader more strongly at first, and are more easily retained by him afterwards: the other may seem odd, but it is true: I found I could express them more shortly this way than in prose itself; and nothing is more certain than that much of the force as well as grace of arguments or instructions depends on their conciseness. Happiness comes when one has “health, peace, and competence. Heavily influenced by Pope’s friend Lord Bolingbroke, whose philosophy was congenial to Pope, An Essay on Man actually sums up the leading principles of the time. Each beast, each insect, happy in its own:
Is Heav’n unkind to Man, and Man alone. He is best known for his satirical verse, as well as for his translation of Homer. The poem begins with a discussion of the standard rules that govern poetry by which a critic passes judgment. Tell, for you can, what is it to be wise.
Johnson’s 65 page biography on Pope, Essay on Man (31 pp. ” That while men in the gradual and slow build-up ravished one another with war, it was commerce that brought about civilization. Pope, but you must not call it Homer. Around this time he began the work of translating the Iliad, which was a painstaking process — publication began in 1715 and did not end until 1720. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, who served briefly as secretary of state and prime minister under Queen Anne. Is the great chain that draws all to agree, –
And, drawn, supports – upheld by God or thee. ”1 Ours must be an age of judgment, for the current consensus is. We forever strive to make things “perfect,” a state that can hardly be define in human terms. The Essay on Man is a philosophical poem, written, characteristically, in heroic couplets, and published between 1732 and 1734. Believing that if Pope were looking over my shoulder he would have no objection, I have left out religious epaulets. ” Man might sort through the maze because he has a marvelous mental faculty, that of reason; man can determine the nature of the world in which he lives; he can see that all things have bearings, ties and strong connections and “nice dependencies. ) All forms that perish other forms supply,
(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die)
Like bubbles on the sea a matter borne,
They rise, they break, and to that sea return
Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole:
Then, Pope picks up once again his theme of the ruling principles, reason and passion. To be, contents his natural desire;
He asks no angel’s wing, no seraph’s fire:
But things, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company. Essay on Man, by Alexander Pope.
Essay on Man by Alexander Pope
To name Pope’s “Essay on Man” in the same. It is an attempt to justify, as Milton had attempted to vindicate, the ways of God to Man, and a warning that man himself is not, as, in his pride, he seems to believe, the center of all things. Or can a part contain the whole. Thus man (given the poem’s title, the use of this word, rather than “people” or “humanity,” may be considered accurate) is superior by virtue of his reason to lower beings. Again, Pope emphasizes how nature “all good and wise. Then say not Man’s imperfect, Heav’n in fault, –
Say rather Man’s as perfect as he ought:
His knowledge measur’d to his state and place,
His time a moment, and a point his space. Back in the eighteenth century, it was not so strange. ” He finds on earth the “Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all. His safety must his liberty restrain:
All join to guard what each desires to gain. [5] Pope would later describe the countryside around the house in his poem Windsor Forest. ” Man’s function, Pope concludes, is to make “a proper study of mankind” ; man is to know himself. Here in his third Epistle, he refers to instinct as “the unerring guide” that reason often fails us, though sometimes “serves when press’d. ” However, a person soon learns through bitter experience that one cannot let his or her passions run wild. All that we feel of it begins and ends in the small circle of our foes and friends. Pope was taught to read by his aunt, and went to Twyford School in about 1698/99. But, Pope concludes: ‘Whatever is, is right.
The poem was originally published anonymously; Pope did not admit authorship until 1735. Therefore it is absurd to claim another’s place since each is a part of the whole ordained by God. These events led to an immediate downturn in the fortunes of the Tories, and Pope’s friend, Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, fled to France. Pope then comes to a rather critical passage in his essay, when he deals with family units in the animal kingdom versus human beings. Man is not a special creature, apart from the fabric of the creation, for whose benefit the entire. When the dull ox, why now he breaks the clod,
Is now a victim, and now Egypt’s god, -. _______________________________
Found this material Helpful. ” Pope observes “anarchy without confusion.
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Then say not Man’s imperfect, Heav’n in fault, –
Say rather Man’s as perfect as he ought:
His knowledge measur’d to his state and place,
His time a moment, and a point his space. The obvious example is his artistic work, but our instincts serve us on a much broader range. Pope secured a revolutionary deal with the publisher Bernard Lintot, which brought him two hundred guineas (£210) a volume, equivalent to about £27,900 in 2016,[20] a vast sum at the time. ) All forms that perish other forms supply,
(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die)
Like bubbles on the sea a matter borne,
They rise, they break, and to that sea return
Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole:
Then, Pope picks up once again his theme of the ruling principles, reason and passion. It is in the nature of man to attempt to change things; he is never happy with things as he finds them; never happy with his fellow man; never happy with the world about him. What we see as we look out on “the scene of man” is a “mighty maze. ‘Twas then, the studious head or generous mind,
Follower of God or friend of human-kind,
Poet or patriot, rose but to restore
The faith and moral Nature gave before;
Relumed her ancient light, not kindled new;
If not God’s image, yet his shadow drew;
Taught power’s due use to people and to kings;
Taught not to slack nor strain its tender strings;
The less or greater set so justly true,
That touching one must strike the other too;
Till jarring int’rests of themselves create
Th’ according music of a well-mix’d state. Upon publication, An Essay on Man made Pope the toast of literati everywhere, including his inveterate foes in London, whom he deceived into celebrating the poem, since he had published it anonymously. ” He, who thro’ vast immensity can pierce,
See worlds on worlds compose one universe,
Observe how system into system runs,
What other planets circle other suns,. ” Ambition: “can destroy or save, and makes a patriot as it makes a knave. In Pope’s world, God exists and is what he centres the Universe around in order to have an ordered structure. 16), a variation of John Milton’s claim in the opening lines of Paradise Lost, that he will “justify the ways of God to men” (1. ” It will get you nothing but a crowd “of stupid starers and of loud huzzas. The good must merit God’s peculiar care;
But who but God can tell us who they are. For in the Lisbon poem and in Candide, he picked up Pope’s recurring phrase “Whatever is, is right” and made mockery of it: “Tout est bien” in a world filled with misery. 1727), an English poet best known for his Essay on Criticism, The Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad. Pope gets the message across that humans must accept their position in the “Great Chain of Being” which is at a middle stage between the angels and the beasts of the world.
We have no choice: we come to it, look out and then die. It is man’s duty to strive to be good regardless of other situations: this is the message Pope is trying to get across to the reader. This chain implies, of course, subordination of lower creatures to higher because each step up the ladder marks a slight variation upon the preceding step. Take Nature’s path, and made Opinion’s leave;
All states can reach it and all heads conceive;
Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell;
There needs but thinking right, and meaning well;
And mourn our various portions as we please,
Equal is common sense, and common ease. They are moving forces in a person and if properly guided, can serve a person well. And virtuous and vicious ev’ry man must be,
Few in the extreme, but all in the degree;
Each person is driven by self-love, but on the same occasion “each on the other to depend, a master, or a servant, or a friend, bids each on other for assistance call. ” Not just the spider does things by instinct, man does. So drives self-love, through just and through unjust
To one man’s power, ambition, lucre, lust:
The same self-love, in all, becomes the cause
Of what restrains him, government and laws:
For, what one likes if others like as well,
What serves one will, when many wills rebel.
Then say not Man’s imperfect, Heav’n in fault, –
Say rather Man’s as perfect as he ought:
His knowledge measur’d to his state and place,
His time a moment, and a point his space. Certainly today, we think anybody that writes “poetry” is one who is a bit odd, to say the least. But the real focus of the revised poem is Walpole and all his works. ” It will get you nothing but a crowd “of stupid starers and of loud huzzas. ” To be rich, to be wise: these are both laudable goals and a person looking about will always be able to find others who have riches and wisdom in varying degrees, but it cannot be concluded to any degree that they are happy. On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail,
Reason the card, but passion is the gale;2. Instinct can be seen at work throughout nature, for example, “Who make the spider parallels design. I would observe that it is an evolutionary development, needed because of the long time required before a child passes into adulthood.
A sharp accuser but a helpless friend
However, family connections for human beings extend over a long period, indeed, over a lifetime. Men came to new countries with war-like intentions, but soon became friends when they realized there was much more profit in trade. Epistle I concerns itself with the nature of man and with his place in the universe; Epistle II, with man as an individual; Epistle III, with man in relation to human society, to the political and social hierarchies; and Epistle IV, with man’s pursuit of happiness in this world. An Essay on Criticism was an attempt to identify and refine. Pope intended this poem to be the centrepiece of a proposed system of ethics that was to be put forth in poetic form. He discusses the laws to which a critic should adhere while critiquing poetry, and points out that critics serve an important function in aiding poets with their works, as opposed to the practice of attacking them. EPISTLE I Within the first few lines, we see Pope wondering about the fruitlessness of life. On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail,
Reason the card, but passion is the gale;2. Tell, for you can, what is it to be wise.
” Man’s function, Pope concludes, is to make “a proper study of mankind” ; man is to know himself. The one will appear obvious; that principles, maxims, or precepts, so written, both strike the reader more strongly at first, and are more easily retained by him afterwards: the other may seem odd, but it is true: I found I could express them more shortly this way than in prose itself; and nothing is more certain than that much of the force as well as grace of arguments or instructions depends on their conciseness. Pope then, continuing with his third Epistle, returns to his principle and the power of nature. Certainly today, we think anybody that writes “poetry” is one who is a bit odd, to say the least. Together with John Gay’s ‘The Beggar’s Opera’ and Swift’s ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ this first ‘Dunciad’ was part of a concerted propaganda assault against Walpole’s Whig ministry and the financial revolution it stabilised. Pope was already removed from society because he was Catholic; his poor health only alienated him further. Forced into virtue thus by self-defence,
Ev’n kings learn’d justice and benevolence:
Self-love forsook the path it first pursued,
And found the private in the public good. And so we arrive at the last of Pope’s lines. Voltaire could have been called a fervent admirer of Pope. ‘Tis but to know how little can be known;
To see all others’ faults, and feel our own:
Condem’d in business or in arts to drudge,
Without a second, or without a judge:
Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land. Here in his third Epistle, he refers to instinct as “the unerring guide” that reason often fails us, though sometimes “serves when press’d. What we see as we look out on “the scene of man” is a “mighty maze. Pleas’d to the last he crops the flow’ry food,
And licks the hand just rais’d to shed his blood.
Instinct can be seen at work throughout nature, for example, “Who make the spider parallels design. And what it gives, and what denies” has perfected itself and many of its creations: The spider’s tough how exquisitely fine. The abundance and variety of creation are also marked by gradation, the notion that there exists a graduated chain or rank among creation, moving from the lowest created thing up to God. Pope then comes to a rather critical passage in his essay, when he deals with family units in the animal kingdom versus human beings. The work that more than any other popularized the optimistic philosophy, not only in England but throughout Europe, was Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man (1733-34), a rationalistic effort to justify the ways of God to man philosophically. And thus o’er all the creatures sway;
Thus let the wiser make the rest obey;
And for those arts mere instinct could afford,
Be crown’d as monarchs, or as gods adored. Equally unjust is man’s wish for the strength of wild beasts or the power of angels, because God made the earth and all its inhabitants in a graduated scale; at the bottom of this scale are the lowest of creatures, man stands in the middle, and above men are multitudes of angels and, finally, God:. ‘An Essay on Man’ Poem – Epistle 1. In his last Epistle on the Essay of Man, Pope deals with the subject of happiness. Man must be aware of his existence in the Universe and what he brings to it, in terms of riches, power and fame. ” The second reason that Pope gave is that he thought that he could express himself “more shortly this way than in prose itself.
Pope’s most famous poem is The Rape of the Lock, first published in 1712, with a revised version published in 1714. This philosophical work is written in heroic couplets. Pope had been fascinated by Homer since childhood. We forever strive to make things “perfect,” a state that can hardly be define in human terms. Pope returns, in his third Epistle, to his ever present theme, all is natural in nature and man is a part of nature. ” He finds on earth the “Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all. ” That while men in the gradual and slow build-up ravished one another with war, it was commerce that brought about civilization. According to his sister, Pope would never go for a walk without the company of his Great Dane, Bounce, and a pair of loaded pistols in his pocket. So drives self-love, through just and through unjust
To one man’s power, ambition, lucre, lust:
The same self-love, in all, becomes the cause
Of what restrains him, government and laws:
For, what one likes if others like as well,
What serves one will, when many wills rebel. ” It will get you nothing but a crowd “of stupid starers and of loud huzzas. The livelihood of writers, by and large — as was with the case of all artists back then — depended almost entirely on the generosity of church and state, so it was necessary in those days that writers give due regard to religious authority.
