The same
complaints reappear in many letters, but the position remained
unaltered. It is impossible to say with any certainty what may have been
the real facts. Pope's mania for suspicion deprives his suggestions of
the slightest value. The only inference to be drawn is, that he drew
closer to Martha Blount as years went by; and was anxious that she
should become independent of her family. This naturally led to mutual
dislike and suspicion, but nobody can now say whether Teresa pinched
her mother, nor what would have been her account of Martha's relations
to Pope.
Johnson repeats a story that Martha neglected Pope "with shameful
unkindness," in his later years. It is clearly exaggerated or quite
unfounded. At any rate, the poor sickly man, in his premature and
childless old age, looked up to her with fond affection, and left to her
nearly the whole of his fortune. His biographers have indulged in
discussions--surely superfluous--as to the morality of the connexion.
There is no question of seduction, or of tampering with the affections
of an innocent woman. Pope was but too clearly disqualified from acting
the part of Lothario. There was not in his case any Vanessa to give a
tragic turn to the connexion, which, otherwise, resembled Swift's
connexion with Stella. Miss Blount, from all that appears, was quite
capable of taking care of herself, and had she wished for marriage, need
only have intimated her commands to her lover. It is probable enough
that the relations between them led to very unpleasant scenes in her
family; but she did not suffer otherwise in accepting Pope's attentions.
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