POPE AND SHAKESPEARE ON MAN

 

          POPE AND SHAKESPEARE ON MAN

            Both Alexander Pope and William Shakespeare were English poets. Pope was born in London n 21 May 1688 and passed away at his home in Twickenham, United Kingdom, om 30 May 1744. An Essay on Man is one of his long  poems. The extract which is given below is titled:

                        The Riddle Of The World

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan

The proper study of Mankind is Man.

Placed on this Isthmus of a middle state,

A Being darkly wise, and rudely great:

With too much knowledge  for the Sceptic side,

With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride.

He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;

In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;

In doubt his mind and body to prefer;

Born but to die, and reas’ning but to err;

Whether he thinks too little, or too much;

Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus’d;

Still by himself, abus’d or disabus’d;

Created half to rise and half to fall;

Great Lord of things, yet a prey to all,

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled;

The glory, jest and riddle of the world.

            This poem is an excerpt from Pope’s philosophical poem An Essay on Man.    

            William Shakespeare was both a poet and playwright. He was born on 23 April 1564 at Stratford-upon-Avon  and died on the same date in  1616 at Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom.   

            The two  extracts on man which follow are  taken from his  tragic play Hamlet.

 

                                    FIRST EXTRACT

            What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!------Act 2, Sc 2.                    

                                                            SECOND  EXTRACT

What is a man,

If his chief good and market of his time

Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.

Sure he hath made us with such large discourse,

Looking before and after, gave us not

That capability and god-like reason

To fust in us unus’d.------Act 4, Sc.4.

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G.R.Kanwal

13 March 2026