The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems by Alexander Pope

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'97 Bavius':

a stock name for a bad poet. See note on 'Essay on Criticism', l. 34.

'98 Philips':

Ambrose Philips, author among other things of a set of 'Pastorals' that
appeared in the same volume with Pope, 1709. Pope and he soon became
bitter enemies. He was patronized by a Bishop Boulter.

'99 Sappho':

Here as elsewhere Pope uses the name of the Greek poetess for his enemy,
Lady Mary Wortley Montague.

'109 Grubstreet':

a wretched street in London, inhabited in Pope's day by hack writers,
most of whom were his enemies.

'111 Curll'

(see note to l. 53) had printed a number of Pope's letters without the
poet's consent some years before this poem was written.

'113-132'

Pope here describes the flatterers who were foolish enough to pay him
personal compliments. They compare him to Horace who was short like
Pope, though fat, and who seems to have suffered from colds; also to
Alexander, one of whose shoulders was higher than the other, and to
Ovid, whose other name, Naso, might indicate that long noses were a
characteristic feature of his family. Pope really had large and
beautiful eyes. Maro, l. 122, is Virgil.

'123'

With this line Pope begins an account of his life as a poet. For his
precocity, see Introduction, p. xii.

'129 ease:'

amuse, entertain.

'friend, not Wife:'

the reference is, perhaps, to Martha Blount, Pope's friend, and may have
been meant as a contradiction of his reported secret marriage to her.

'132 to bear:'

to endure the pains and troubles of an invalid's life.

'133 Granville:'

George Granville, Lord Lansdowne, a poet and patron of letters to whom
Pope had dedicated his 'Windsor Forest.'

'134 Walsh:'

see note on 'Essay on Criticism,' l. 729.

'135 Garth:'

Sir Samuel Garth, like Arbuthnot, a doctor, a man of letters, and an
early friend of Pope.

'137'

Charles Talbot, Duke of Shrewsbury; John, Lord Somers; and John
Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham; all leading statesmen and patrons of
literature in Queen Anne's day.

'138 Rochester:'

Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, an intimate friend of Pope.

'139 St. John:'

Bolingbroke. For Pope's relations with him, see introduction to the
'Essay on Man,' p. 116.

'143'

Gilbert Burnet and John Oldmixon had written historical works from the
Whig point of view. Roger Cooke, a now forgotten writer, had published a
'Detection of the Court and State of England.' Pope in a note on this
line calls them all three authors of secret and scandalous history.

'146'

The reference is to Pope's early descriptive poems, the 'Pastorals' and
'Windsor Forest.'

'147 gentle Fanny's:'

a sneer at Lord Hervey's verses. See the introduction to this poem, p.
126.

'149 Gildon:'

a critic of the time who had repeatedly attacked Pope. The poet told
Spence that he had heard Addison gave Gildon ten pounds to slander him.

'151 Dennis:'

see note on 'Essay on Criticism.' l. 270.

'156 kiss'd the rod:'

Pope was sensible enough to profit by the criticisms even of his
enemies. He corrected several passages in the 'Essay on Criticism' which
Dennis had properly found fault with.

'162 Bentley:'

the most famous scholar of Pope's day. Pope disliked him because of his
criticism of the poet's translation of the 'Iliad', "good verses, but
not Homer." The epithet "slashing" refers to Bentley's edition of
'Paradise Lost' in which he altered and corrected the poet's text to
suit his own ideas.

'Tibbalds':

Lewis Theobald (pronounced Tibbald), a scholar who had attacked Pope's
edition of Shakespeare. Pope calls him "piddling" because of his
scrupulous attention to details.

'177 The Bard':

Philips, see note on l. 98. Pope claimed that Philips's 'Pastorals' were
plagiarized from Spenser, and other poets. Philips, also, translated
some 'Persian Tales' for the low figure of half a crown apiece.

'187 bade translate':

suggested that they translate other men's work, since they could write
nothing valuable of their own.

'188 Tate':

a poetaster of the generation before Pope. He is remembered as the part
author of a doggerel version of the Psalms.

'191-212'

For a discussion of this famous passage, see introduction to the
'Epistle' p. 130.

'196 the Turk':

it was formerly the practice for a Turkish monarch when succeeding to
the throne to have all his brothers murdered so as to do away with
possible rivals.

'199 faint praise':

Addison was hearty enough when he cared to praise his friends. Pope is
thinking of the coldness with which Addison treated his 'Pastorals' as
compared to those of Philips.

'206 oblig'd':

note the old-fashioned pronunciation to rhyme with "besieged."

'207 Cato':

an unmistakable allusion to Addison's tragedy in which the famous Roman
appears laying down the law to the remnants of the Senate.

'209 Templars':

students of law at the "Temple" in London who prided themselves on their
good taste in literature. A body of them came on purpose to applaud
'Cato' on the first night.

'raise':

exalt, praise.

'211-212 laugh ... weep':

explain the reason for these actions.

'Atticus':

Addison's name was given in the first version of this passage. Then it
was changed to "A---n." Addison had been mentioned in the 'Spectator'
(No. 150) under the name of Atticus as "in every way one of the greatest
geniuses the age has produced."

'213 rubric on the walls':

Lintot, Pope's old publisher, used to stick up the titles of new books
in red letters on the walls of his shop.

'214 with claps':

with clap-bills, posters.

'215 smoking:'

hot from the press.

'220 George:'

George II, king of England at this time. His indifference to literature
was notorious.

'228 Bufo:'

the picture of a proud but grudging patron of letters which follows was
first meant for Bubb Doddington, a courtier and patron of letters at the
time the poem was written. In order to connect it more closely with the
time of which he was writing, Pope added ll. 243-246, which pointed to
Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax. Halifax was himself a poet and
affected to be a great patron of poetry, but his enemies accused him of
only giving his clients "good words and good dinners." Pope tells an
amusing story of Montague's comments on his translation of the 'Iliad'
(Spence, 'Anecdotes', p. 134). But Halifax subscribed for ten copies of
the translation, so that Pope, at least, could not complain of his lack
of generosity.

'Castalian state:'

the kingdom of poets.

'232'

His name was coupled with that of Horace as a poet and critic.

'234 Pindar without a head:'

some headless statue which Bufo insisted was a genuine classic figure of
Pindar, the famous Greek lyric poet.

'237 his seat:'

his country seat.

'242 paid in kind:'

What does this phrase mean?

'243'

Dryden died in 1700. He had been poor and obliged to work hard for a
living in his last years, but hardly had to starve. Halifax offered to
pay the expenses of his funeral and contribute five hundred pounds for a
monument, and Pope not unreasonably suggests that some of this bounty
might have been bestowed on Dryden in his lifetime.

'249'

When a politician wants a writer to put in a day's work in defending
him. Walpole, for example, who cared nothing for poetry, spent large
sums in retaining writers to defend him in the journals and pamphlets of
the day.

'254'

John Gay, the author of some very entertaining verses, was an intimate
friend of Pope. On account of some supposed satirical allusions his
opera 'Polly' was refused a license, and when his friends, the Duke and
Duchess of Queensberry (see l. 260) solicited subscriptions for it in
the palace, they were driven from the court. Gay died in 1732, and Pope
wrote an epitaph for his tomb in Westminster Abbey. It is to this that
he alludes in l. 258.

'274'

Balbus is said to mean the Earl of Kinnoul, at one time an acquaintance
of Pope and Swift.

'278'

Sir William Yonge, a Whig politician whom Pope disliked. He seems to
have written occasional verses. Bubo is Bubo Doddington (see note on l
230).

'297-298'

In the Fourth Moral Essay, published in 1731 as an 'Epistle to the Earl
of Burlington', Pope had given a satirical description of a nobleman's
house and grounds, adorned and laid out at vast expense, but in bad
taste. Certain features of this description were taken from Canons, the
splendid country place of the Duke of Chandos, and the duke was at once
identified by a scandal-loving public with the Timon of the poem. In the
description Pope speaks of the silver bell which calls worshipers to
Timon's chapel, and of the soft Dean preaching there "who never mentions
Hell to ears polite." In this passage of the 'Epistle to Arbuthnot' he
is protesting against the people who swore that they could identify the
bell and the Dean as belonging to the chapel at Canons.

'303 Sporus':

a favorite of Nero, used here for Lord Hervey. See introduction to this
poem, p. 128.

'304 ass's milk':

Hervey was obliged by bad health to keep a strict diet, and a cup of
ass's milk was his daily drink.

'308 painted child':

Hervey was accustomed to paint his face like a woman.

'317-319'

Pope is thinking of Milton's striking description of Satan "squat like a
toad" by the ear of the sleeping Eve ('Paradise Lost', IV, 800). In this
passage "Eve" refers to Queen Caroline with whom Hervey was on intimate
terms. It is said that he used to have a seat in the queen's hunting
chaise "where he sat close behind her perched at her ear."

'322 now master up, now miss':

Pope borrowed this telling phrase from a pamphlet against Hervey written
by Pulteney, a political opponent, in which the former is called "a
pretty little master-miss."

'326 the board':

the Council board where Hervey sat as member of the Privy Council.

'328-329'

An allusion to the old pictures of the serpent in Eden with a snake's
body and a woman's, or angel's, face.

'330 parts':

talents, natural gifts.

'338-339'

An allusion to Pope's abandoning the imaginative topics to his early
poems, as the 'Pastorals' and 'The Rape of the Lock', and turning to
didactic verse as in the 'Essay on Man', and the 'Moral Epistles'.

'347'

An allusion to a story circulated, in an abusive pamphlet called 'A Pop
upon Pope', that the poet had been whipped for his satire and that he
had cried like a child.

'349'

Dull and scandalous poems printed under Pope's name, or attributed to
him by his enemies.

'351 the pictur'd shape':

Pope was especially hurt by the caricatures which exaggerated his
personal deformity.

'353 A friend in exile':

probably Bishop Atterbury, then in exile for his Jacobite opinions.

'354-355'

Another reference to Hervey who was suspected of poisoning the mind of
the King against Pope.

'361 Japhet':

Japhet Crooke, a notorious forger of the time. He died in prison in
1734, after having had his nose slit and ears cropped for his crimes;
see below, l. 365.

'363 Knight of the post':

a slang term for a professional witness ready to, swear to anything for
money. A knight of the shire, on the other hand, is the representative
of a county in the House of Commons.

'367 bit':

tricked, taken in, a piece of Queen Anne slang. The allusion is probably
to the way in which Lady Mary Wortley Montague allowed Pope to make love
to her and then laughed at him.

'369 friend to his distress':

in 1733, when old Dennis was in great poverty, a play was performed for
his benefit, for which Pope obligingly wrote a prologue.

'371'

Colley Gibber, actor and poet laureate. Pope speaks as if it were an act
of condescension for him to have drunk with Gibber.--'Moore': James
Moore Smythe (see note on l. 23), whom Pope used to meet at the house of
the Blounts. He wrote a comedy, 'The Rival Modes', in which he
introduced six lines that Pope had written. Pope apparently had given
him leave to do so, and then retracted his permission. But Moore used
them without the permission and an undignified quarrel arose as to the
true authorship of the passage.

'373 Welsted',

a hack writer of the day, had falsely charged Pope with being
responsible for the death of the lady who is celebrated in Pope's 'Elegy
to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady'.

'374-375'

There is an allusion here that has never been fully explained. Possibly
the passage refers to Teresa Blount whom Pope suspected of having
circulated slanderous reports concerning his relations with her sister.

'376-377'

Suffered Budgell to attribute to his (Pope's) pen the slanderous gossip
of the 'Grub Street Journal',--a paper to which Pope did, as a matter of
fact, contribute--and let him (Budgell) write anything he pleased except
his (Pope's) will. Budgell, a distant cousin of Addison's, fell into bad
habits after his friend's death. He was strongly suspected of having
forged a will by which Dr. Tindal of Oxford left him a considerable sum
of money. He finally drowned himself in the Thames.

'378 the two Curlls':

Curll, the bookseller, and Lord Hervey whom Pope here couples with him
because of Hervey's vulgar abuse of Pope's personal deformities and
obscure parentage.

'380 Yet why':

Why should they abuse Pope's inoffensive parents? Compare the following
lines.

'383'

Moore's own mother was suspected of loose conduct.

'386-388 Of gentle blood ... each parent':

Pope asserted, perhaps incorrectly, that his father belonged to a
gentleman's family, the head of which was the Earl of Downe. His mother
was the daughter of a Yorkshire gentleman, who lost two sons in the
service of Charles I (cf. l. 386).

'389 Bestia':

probably the elder Horace Walpole, who was in receipt of a handsome
pension.

'391'

An allusion to Addison's unhappy marriage with the Countess of Warwick.

'393 The good man':

Pope's father, who as a devout Roman Catholic refused to take the oath
of allegiance (cf. l. 395), or risk the equivocations sanctioned by the
"schoolmen," 'i.e'. the Catholic casuists of the day (l. 398).

'404 Friend':

Arbuthnot, to whom the epistle is addressed.

'405-411'

The first draft of these appeared in a letter to Aaron Hill, September
3, 1731, where Pope speaks of having sent them "the other day to a
particular friend," perhaps the poet Thomson. Mrs. Pope, who was very
old and feeble, was of course alive when they were first written, but
died more than a year before the passage appeared in its revised form in
this 'Epistle'.

'412'

An allusion to the promise contained in the fifth commandment.

'415 served a Queen':

Arbuthnot had been Queen Anne's doctor, but was driven out of his rooms
in the palace after her death.

'416 that blessing':

long life for Arbuthnot. It was, in fact, denied, for he died a month or
so after the appearance of the 'Epistle'.

* * * * *

NOTES ON

ODE ON SOLITUDE

Pope says that this delightful little poem was written at the early age
of twelve. It first appeared in a letter to his friend, Henry Cromwell,
dated July 17, 1709. There are several variations between this first
form and that in which it was finally published, and it is probable that
Pope thought enough of his boyish production to subject it to repeated
revision. Its spirit is characteristic of a side of Pope's nature that
is often forgotten. He was, indeed, the poet of the society of his day,
urban, cultured, and pleasure-loving; but to the end of his days he
retained a love for the quiet charm of country life which he had come to
feel in his boyhood at Binfield, and for which he early withdrew from
the whirl and dissipations of London to the groves and the grotto of his
villa at Twickenham.

* * * * *

NOTES ON

THE DESCENT OF DULLNESS

In the fourth book of the 'Dunciad', Pope abandons the satire on the
pretenders to literary fame which had run through the earlier books, and
flies at higher game. He represents the Goddess Dullness as "coming in
her majesty to destroy Order and Science, and to substitute the Kingdom
of the Dull upon earth." He attacks the pedantry and formalism of
university education in his day, the dissipation and false taste of the
traveled gentry, the foolish pretensions to learning of collectors and
virtuosi, and the daringly irreverent speculations of freethinkers and
infidels. At the close of the book he represents the Goddess as
dismissing her worshipers with a speech which she concludes with "a yawn
of extraordinary virtue." Under its influence "all nature nods," and
pulpits, colleges, and Parliament succumb. The poem closes with the
magnificent description of the descent of Dullness and her final
conquest of art, philosophy, and religion. It is said that Pope himself
admired these lines so much that he could not repeat them without his
voice faltering with emotion. "And well it might, sir," said Dr. Johnson
when this anecdote was repeated to him, "for they are noble lines." And
Thackeray in his lecture on Pope in 'The English Humorists' says:

"In these astonishing lines Pope reaches, I think, to the very
greatest height which his sublime art has attained, and shows himself
the equal of all poets of all times. It is the brightest ardor, the
loftiest assertion of truth, the most generous wisdom, illustrated by
the noblest poetic figure, and spoken in words the aptest, grandest,
and most harmonious."

* * * * *

EPITAPH ON GAY

John Gay, the idlest, best-natured, and best-loved man of letters of his
day, was the special friend of Pope. His early work, 'The Shepherd's
Week', was planned as a parody on the 'Pastorals' of Pope's rival,
Ambrose Philips, and Pope assisted him in the composition of his
luckless farce, 'Three Hours after Marriage'. When Gay's opera 'Polly'
was forbidden by the licenser, and Gay's patrons, the Duke and Duchess
of Queensberry, were driven from court for soliciting subscriptions for
him, Pope warmly espoused his cause. Gay died in 1732 and was buried in
Westminster Abbey. Pope's epitaph for his tomb was first published in
the quarto edition of Pope's works in 1735--Johnson, in his discussion
of Pope's epitaphs ('Lives of the Poets'), devotes a couple of pages of
somewhat captious criticism to these lines; but they have at least the
virtue of simplicity and sincerity, and are at once an admirable
portrait of the man and a lasting tribute to the poet Gay.

* * * * *

APPENDIX

THE RAPE OF THE LOCK

Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos
Sed juvat, hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis.

MART.

FIRST EDITION

CANTO I

What dire offence from am'rous causes springs,
What mighty quarrels rise from trivial things,
I sing--This verse to C--l, Muse! is due:
This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:
Slight is the subject, but not so the praise, 5
If she inspire, and he approve my lays.

Say what strange motive, goddess! could compel
A well-bred lord t' assault a gentle belle?
O say what stranger cause, yet unexplored,
Could make a gentle belle reject a lord? 10
And dwells such rage in softest bosoms then,
And lodge such daring souls in little men?

Sol through white curtains did his beams display,
And ope'd those eyes which brighter shine than they,
Shock just had giv'n himself the rousing shake, 15
And nymphs prepared their chocolate to take;
Thrice the wrought slipper knocked against the ground,
And striking watches the tenth hour resound.
Belinda rose, and midst attending dames,
Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames: 20
A train of well-dressed youths around her shone,
And ev'ry eye was fixed on her alone:
On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore
Which Jews might kiss and infidels adore.
Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose, 25
Quick as her eyes, and as unfixed as those:
Favours to none, to all she smiles extends;
Oft she rejects, but never once offends.
Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike,
And, like the sun, they shine on all alike. 30
Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride,
Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide:
If to her share some female errors fall,
Look on her face, and you'll forgive 'em all.

This nymph, to the destruction of mankind, 35
Nourished two locks, which graceful hung behind
In equal curls, and well conspired to deck
With shining ringlets her smooth iv'ry neck.
Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains,
And mighty hearts are held in slender chains. 40
With hairy springes we the birds betray,
Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey,
Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare,
And beauty draws us with a single hair.

Th' adventurous baron the bright locks admired; 45
He saw, he wished, and to the prize aspired.
Resolved to win, he meditates the way,
By force to ravish, or by fraud betray;
For when success a lover's toil attends,
Few ask if fraud or force attained his ends. 50

For this, ere Phoebus rose, he had implored
Propitious heav'n, and every pow'r adored,
But chiefly Love--to Love an altar built,
Of twelve vast French romances, neatly gilt.
There lay the sword-knot Sylvia's hands had sewn 55
With Flavia's busk that oft had wrapped his own:
A fan, a garter, half a pair of gloves,
And all the trophies of his former loves.
With tender billets-doux he lights the pire,
And breathes three am'rous sighs to raise the fire. 60
Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent eyes
Soon to obtain, and long possess the prize:
The pow'rs gave ear, and granted half his pray'r,
The rest the winds dispersed in empty air.

Close by those meads, for ever crowned with flow'rs, 65
Where Thames with pride surveys his rising tow'rs,
There stands a structure of majestic frame,
Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name.
Here Britain's statesmen oft the fall foredoom
Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home; 70
Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take--and sometimes tea.

Hither our nymphs and heroes did resort,
To taste awhile the pleasures of a court;
In various talk the cheerful hours they passed, 75
Of who was bit, or who capotted last;
This speaks the glory of the British queen,
And that describes a charming Indian screen;
A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes;
At ev'ry word a reputation dies. 80
Snuff, or the fan, supply each pause of chat,
With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that.

Now when, declining from the noon of day,
The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray;
When hungry judges soon the sentence sign, 85
And wretches hang that jurymen may dine;
When merchants from th' Exchange return in peace,
And the long labours of the toilet cease,
The board's with cups and spoons, alternate, crowned,
The berries crackle, and the mill turns round; 90
On shining altars of Japan they raise
The silver lamp, and fiery spirits blaze:
From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide,
While China's earth receives the smoking tide.
At once they gratify their smell and taste, 95
While frequent cups prolong the rich repast.
Coffee (which makes the politician wise,
And see through all things with his half-shut eyes)
Sent up in vapours to the baron's brain
New stratagems, the radiant lock to gain. 100
Ah cease, rash youth! desist ere't is too late,
Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla's fate!
Changed to a bird, and sent to flit in air,
She dearly pays for Nisus' injured hair!

But when to mischief mortals bend their mind, 105
How soon fit instruments of ill they find!
Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting grace
A two-edged weapon from her shining case:
So ladies, in romance, assist their knight,
Present the spear, and arm him for the fight; 110
He takes the gift with rev'rence, and extends
The little engine on his fingers' ends;
This just behind Belinda's neck he spread,
As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head.
He first expands the glitt'ring forfex wide 115
T' enclose the lock; then joins it, to divide;
One fatal stroke the sacred hair does sever
From the fair head, for ever, and for ever!

The living fires come flashing from her eyes,
And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies. 120
Not louder shrieks by dames to heav'n are cast,
When husbands die, or lapdogs breathe their last;
Or when rich china vessels, fall'n from high,
In glitt'ring dust and painted fragments lie!

"Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine," 125
The victor cried, "the glorious prize is mine!
While fish in streams, or birds delight in air,
Or in a coach and six the British fair,
As long as Atalantis shall be read,
Or the small pillow grace a lady's bed, 130
While visits shall be paid on solemn days,
When num'rous wax-lights in bright order blaze,
While nymphs take treats, or assignations give,
So long my honour, name, and praise shall live!"

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