Alexander Pope, An Epistle to Cobham

Ian Gordon (Anglia Ruskin University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1734 - 1744

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Epistolary
Poetry (any)

Resources

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Pope wrote

An Epistle To The Right Honourable Richard Lord Viscount Cobham

during the autumn of 1733 and first published it on 16 January 1734, a year after

An Epistle to Bathurst

. Viscount Cobham (1675-1749) was a soldier and Whig politician who supported Walpole until the latter introduced the Excise Bill, in the spring of 1733, after which Cobham formed an independent Whig section, known as the Boy Patriots that opposed the government. He rebuilt his house at Stowe and, with the help of Charles Bridgeman and William Kent, laid out the most celebrated landscape garden in the country, praised by Pope in

An Epistle to Burlington

, line 70, as a “Work to wonder at”. Pope became friendly with Cobham in 1725, eight years before he addressed his epistle to him, and visited him at Stowe…

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1718 words

Citation: Gordon, Ian. "An Epistle to Cobham". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 January 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6678, accessed 24 November 2024.]

Alexander Pope, An Epistle to Cobham

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