An Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot is Pope's Apologia pro sua Satura, or “Defence of his Satire”. All previous masters of formal verse satire, including Horace and Juvenal, had written at least one poem in which they explained why they felt it necessary to attack the persons and objects they did, in the way they did. Thus, when Pope's friend and fellow Scriblerian, John Arbuthnot, wrote to him when the former was seriously ill, in July 1734, making it his “Last Request that you continue that noble Disdain and Abhorrence of Vice, which you seem naturally endu'd with, but still with a due regard for your own safety”, Pope seems to have felt that the time had come for him to publish such a poem.

Pope tells the reader in a pr

This article in full comprises 1986 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.

Published 30 March 2001

Citation: Gordon, Ian. "An Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot". The Literary Encyclopedia. 30 March 2001.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6677, accessed 20 November 2009.]