An Epistle to Bathurst
An Epistle to Bathurst is a poem by Alexander Pope, published in January 1733 as Of the Use of Riches: An Epistle to the Right Honourable Allen Lord Bathurst. It examines wealth through contrasting accounts of hoarding, extravagant spending and generosity.[1]
Publication and revision
The London edition was printed by J. Wright for Lawton Gilliver. Its title page bears the year 1732, but Oxford’s bibliographic record dates publication to 1733, following David Foxon’s catalogue. A Dublin edition printed by S. Powell also appeared in 1733.[2][3]
The poem changed during composition and after publication. Surviving drafts show Pope trying different positions for the passage addressed to Bathurst. In the 1744 text, a passage about accepting the world and its money becomes an explicit exchange between poet and addressee. These changes matter when comparing early and later versions.[1]
Form and characters
The poem uses rhyming pairs of lines to move between argument, questions and short portraits. Its opening considers whether people use gold mainly to accumulate fortunes or to squander them. Money can provide food and clothing and support trade, but it can also enable bribery and selfishness. These are claims made within Pope’s satire.[3]
Old Cotta and his son embody opposite failures: the father refuses to spend, while the son exhausts the family resources. The address to Bathurst presents a possible middle course. Literary scholar William Hutchings describes these contrasting characters as a central means by which the poem develops its argument.[4]
The Man of Ross offers a more practical example of generosity. Pope describes him providing water, helping travellers and supporting people in need. The poem closes with the story of Sir Balaam, whose growing fortune draws him into dishonesty and ends in his downfall.[3]
Interpretation
Critics disagree about whether the poem ultimately supports or challenges the financial order it portrays. In a study of its drafts and revisions, Julian Ferraro argues that Pope exposes excuses for severe inequality. He reads the changing use of personal pronouns as drawing poet, addressee and reader into the behaviour under examination.[1]
The Man of Ross should not simply be understood as poor. Ferraro notes that John Kyrle, the historical figure behind the portrait, belonged to the landed gentry. The contrast concerns the extent and usefulness of his generosity, as well as the size of his resources.[1]
Related reading
- Poetry
- An Epistle to a Lady — another verse epistle by Pope.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Julian Ferraro, “The Distribution of Wealth in Alexander Pope’s Epistle to Bathurst”, The Review of English Studies, 72 (305), 2021, pp. 502–519, doi:10.1093/res/hgaa107. Author accepted manuscript consulted through the University of Liverpool repository, 11 October 2026.
- ↑ University of Oxford, “Of the use of riches: an epistle to the Right Honorable Allen Lord Bathurst. By Mr. Pope.”, Great Writers Inspire, Oxford Text Archive bibliographic record, ESTC T5712. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Alexander Pope, Of the Use of Riches: An Epistle to the Right Honourable Allen Lord Bathurst, Dublin: S. Powell, 1733. Primary text and title-page transcription on Wikisource; accessed 11 October 2026.
- ↑ William Hutchings, “An Epistle to Allen, Lord Bathurst”, chapter 13 of ‘Wit’s Wild Dancing Light’: Reading the Poems of Alexander Pope, Open Book Publishers, 2023, pp. 155–164, doi:10.11647/obp.0372.14. Public chapter abstract consulted; full chapter not reviewed.