ABSTRACT
The Pastorals were first published on 2 May 1709. In a note at the head of the surviving fair-copy manuscript, Pope states that the poems were first written in 1704 and circulated amongst a select group of patrons, poets and critics:
This Copy is that wch past thro ye hands of Mr Walsh, Mr Congreve, Mr Mainwaring, Dr. Garth, Mr Granville, Mr Southern, Sr H. Sheers, Sr W. Trumbull, Ld. Halifax, Ld Wharton, Marq. of Dorchestr. D. of Bucks. &c. Only ye 3rd Eclog was written since some of these saw ye other 3. wch were written as they here stand wth ye Essay [i.e. ‘A Discourse on Pastoral Poetry’, reproduced in Appendix II below], anno 1704. – Aetat. meae, 16./The Alterations from this Copy were upon ye Objections of some of these, or my own.
