ABSTRACT
Oh may some Spark of your Coelestial Fire The last, the meanest of your Sons inspire.
(Pope, Essay on Criticism (1711), 195-6)
Pope’s circumstances deprived him of any chance to ‘make a man of himself financially and socially except by publishing a translation of Homer, yet made it almost impossible for him to do even that. The most obvious problem was his body: twisted, frail, agonized, and 4 feet 6 inches tall. Today, his condition is usually diagnosed as tuberculosis of the spine (Pott’s disease), probably transmitted in the milk of his wetnurse, Mary Beach (c. 1647-1725) (Mack 1985: 153). The symptoms appeared when Pope was about 11 years old; he believed it was ‘perpetual application’ to his studies ‘that changed his form and ruined his constitution’ (Spence 1966: I, 6). Owen Ruffhead (1723-69), however, incorporates this illness into a pattern which turns Pope into a mollycoddled invalid from infancy:
Our bard was naturally of a tender and delicate constitution, but of a temper nevertheless peculiarly sweet and engaging; these circumstances, no doubt, contributed to endear him to his parents, for, as on the one hand, the mildness and suavity of his disposition attracted their love, so on the other hand, the imbecility [weakness] of his frame, excited a tender commiser ation; and thus both co-operated to increase and confirm their parental affection.
