SOURCE: “A Warfare upon Earth: The Life of a Satirist,” in The Sacred Weapon: An Introduction to Pope's Satire, The Book Guild, 1993, pp. 9-32.

In the following essay, Blocksidge provides an overview of Pope's life and career, highlighting the personalities whom he targeted—and who targeted him—as the objects of satirical verse.

Pope has always been a controversial figure, liable to arouse strong feelings in his readers. These strong feelings were as much a part of his life as they have been of his reputation since his death. For a man who, in his life, celebrated friendship and was esteemed highly by a range of eminent and discerning people, his posthumous reputation has been defined largely in terms of his apparent enmities and hatreds. He has had many detractors over the centuries, particularly among those readers who enjoy trying to score moral points over authors.¹

Superficially, it...