He was better known, however, as a critic, and had been
declared by Dryden to be, without flattery, the best in the nation. Pope
received from him one piece of advice which has become famous. We had
had great poets--so said the "knowing Walsh," as Pope calls him--"but
never one great poet that was correct;" and he accordingly recommended
Pope to make correctness his great aim. The advice doubtless impressed
the young man as the echo of his own convictions. Walsh died (1708),
before the effect of his suggestion had become fully perceptible.
The acquaintance with Walsh was due to Wycherley, who had submitted
Pope's Pastorals to his recognized critical authority. Pope's
intercourse with Wycherley and another early friend, Henry Cromwell, had
a more important bearing upon his early career. He kept up a
correspondence with each of these friends, whilst he was still passing
through his probationary period; and the letters published long
afterwards under singular circumstances to be hereafter related, give
the fullest revelation of his character and position at this time. Both
Wycherley and Cromwell were known to the Englefields of Whiteknights,
near Reading, a Catholic family, in which Pope first made the
acquaintance of Martha Blount, whose mother was a daughter of the old
Mr. Englefield of the day. It was possibly, therefore, through this
connexion that Pope owed his first introduction to the literary circles
of London. Pope, already thirsting for literary fame, was delighted to
form a connexion which must have been far from satisfactory to his
indulgent parents, if they understood the character of his new
associates.
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