THE DISABILITIES OF POPE.
Those who imagine there is some necessary connection between literary genius and inches will have to explain away the case of Alexander Pope. Pope was exactly 4ft 6in high. He was humpbacked and deformed. According to one of Lord Oxford's servants, he was "so weak as to stand in perpetual need of female attendance ; extremely sensible of cold, so that he wore a kind of far doublet under a skirt of very coarse warm linen, with fine sleeves. When he rose he was invested in & bodice made, of stiff canvas, being hardly able to stand erect till it was laced, and he then put on a flannel waistcoat. One side was contracted. His legs were bo slender that he enlarged their bulk with three pairs of stockings, which were drawn on and off by the maid j for he was not able to dress or undress himself."
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Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 150, 26 June 1915, Page 18
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151THE DISABILITIES OF POPE. Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 150, 26 June 1915, Page 18
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