Excerpt from Pope: Descent and Family Connections; Facts and Conjecture These allusions to his origin seem to have galled the Poet more than anything else that was said Of him. He was then living in what is called high society, and it was of some im portance to him not to be thought meanly bred. Three courses were open to him. He might have assumed to pass over the charge as unworthy his notice: he might have claimed it as a merit to have surpassed his ancestors, and risen to dis tinction by his own genius, out Of himself drawing his web or he might deny the charge altogether. He adopted the last Of these courses, and in this he acted wisely and honestly. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.