“To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,
To raise the genius, and to mend the heart;
To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold,
Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold:
For this the Tragic Muse first trod the stage.”

— Alexander Pope

Source: Prologue to Mr. Addison's Cato (1713), Line 1.

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Alexander Pope 158

eighteenth century English poet 1688–1744

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