Pope's Word to Literary Critics

"Let standard authors, thus, like trophies borne,
Appear more glorious as more hacked and torn.
And you, my critics! in the chequered shade,
Admire new light through holes yourselves have made."

--Alexander Pope (from The Dunciad, lines 123-125)

Pope was born in 1688, the son of a linen-draper of London. He was friends with Addison, Swift and Gay. He suffered from a deformity as a result of an illness. He died in 1744.

Pope's most quoted saying (usually taken out of context) is: "The proper study of mankind is man."