The Rape of the Lock, and Other Poems
loose women like Lady Castlemaine and the Duchess of Portsmouth had
great influence on the politics of Charles II's time, and statesmen of
that day like Buckingham and Etheredge wrote comedies.
'541 Mask':
it was not uncommon in Restoration times for ladies to wear a mask in
public, especially at the theater. Here the word is used to denote the
woman who wore a mask.
'544 a Foreign reign':
the reign of William III, a Dutchman. Pope, as a Tory and a Catholic,
hated the memory of William, and here asserts, rather unfairly, that his
age was marked by an increase of heresy and infidelity.
'545 Socinus':
the name of two famous heretics, uncle and nephew, of the sixteenth
century, who denied the divinity of Christ.
'549'
Pope insinuates here that the clergy under William III hated an absolute
monarch so much that they even encouraged their hearers to question the
absolute power of God.
'551 admir'd:'
see note l. 391.
'552 Wit's Titans:'
wits who defied heaven as the old Titans did the gods. The reference is
to a group of freethinkers who came into prominence in King William's
reign.
'556 scandalously nice:'
so over-particular as to find cause for scandal where none exists.
'557 mistake an author into vice:'
mistakenly read into an author vicious ideas which are not really to be
found in his work.
'575'
Things that men really do not know must be brought forward modestly as
if they had only been forgotten for a time.
'577 That only:'
good-breeding alone.
'585 Appius:'
a nickname for John Dennis, taken from his tragedy, 'Appius and
Virginia', which appeared two years before the 'Essay on Criticism'.
Lines 585-587 hit off some of the personal characteristics of this
hot-tempered critic. "Tremendous" was a favorite word with Dennis.
'588 tax:'
blame, find fault with.
'591'
In Pope's time noblemen could take degrees at the English universities
without passing the regular examinations.
'617'
Dryden's 'Fables' published in 1700 represented the very best narrative
poetry of the greatest poet of his day. D'Urfey's 'Tales', on the other
hand, published in 1704 and 1706, were collections of dull and obscene
doggerel by a wretched poet.
'618 With him:'
according to "the bookful blockhead."
'619 Garth:'
a well-known doctor of the day, who wrote a much admired mock-heroic
poem called 'The Dispensary'. His enemies asserted that he was not
really the author of the poem.
'623'
Such foolish critics are just as ready to pour out their opinions on a
man in St. Paul's cathedral as in the bookseller's shops in the square
around the church, which is called St. Paul's churchyard.
'632 proud to know:'
proud of his knowledge.
'636 humanly:'
an old form for "humanely."
'642 love to praise:'
a love of praising men.
'648 Maeonian Star:'
Homer. Maeonia, or Lydia, was a district in Asia which was said to have
been the birthplace of Homer.
'652 conquered Nature:'
Aristotle was a master of all the knowledge of nature extant in his day.
'653 Horace:'
the famous Latin poet whose 'Ars Poetica' was one of Pope's models for
the 'Essay on Criticism'.
'662 fle'me:'
phlegm, according to old ideas of physiology, one of the four "humours"
or fluids which composed the body. Where it abounded it made men dull
and heavy, or as we still say "phlegmatic."
'663-664'
A rather confused couplet. It means, "Horace suffers as much by the
misquotations critics make from his work as by the bad translations that
wits make of them."
'665 Dionysius:'
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a famous Greek critic. Pope's manner of
reference to him seems to show that he had never read his works.
'667 Petronius:'
a courtier and man of letters of the time of Nero. Only a few lines of
his remaining work contain any criticism.
'669 Quintilian's work:'
the 'Institutiones Oratoriae' of Quintilianus, a famous Latin critic of
the first century A.D.
'675 Longinus:'
a Greek critic of the third century A.D., who composed a famous work
called 'A Treatise on the Sublime'. It is a work showing high
imagination as well as careful reasoning, and hence Pope speaks of the
author as inspired by the Nine, 'i.e.' the Muses.
'692'
The willful hatred of the monks for the works of classical antiquity
tended to complete that destruction of old books which the Goths began
when they sacked the Roman cities. Many ancient writings were erased,
for example, in order to get parchment for monkish chronicles and
commentaries.
'693 Erasmus:'
perhaps the greatest scholar of the Renaissance. Pope calls him the
"glory of the priesthood" on account of his being a monk of such
extraordinary learning, and "the shame" of his order, because he was so
abused by monks in his lifetime. Is this a good antithesis?
'697 Leo's golden days:'
the pontificate of Leo X (1513-1521). Leo himself was a generous patron
of art and learning. He paid particular attention to sacred music (l.
703), and engaged Raphael to decorate the Vatican with frescoes. Vida
(l. 704) was an Italian poet of his time, who became famous by the
excellence of his Latin verse. One of his poems was on the art of
poetry, and it is to this that Pope refers in l. 706.
'707-708'
Cremona was the birthplace of Vida; Mantua, of Virgil.
'709'
The allusion is to the sack of Rome by the Constable Bourbon's army in
1527. This marked the end of the golden age of arts in Italy.
'714 Boileau:'
a French poet and critic (1636-1711). His 'L'Art Poetique' is founded on
Horace's 'Ars Poetica'.
'723 the Muse:'
'i.e.' the genius, of John Sheffield (1649-1720), Duke of Buckingham
(not to be confounded with Dryden's enemy). Line 724 is quoted from his
'Essay on Poetry'.
'725 Roscommon:'
Wentworth Dillon (1633-1684), Earl of Roscommon, author of a translation
of the 'Ars Poetica' and of 'An Essay on Translated Verse'.
'729 Walsh:'
a commonplace poet (1663-1708), but apparently a good critic. Dryden, in
fact, called him the best critic in the nation. He was an early friend
and judicious adviser of Pope himself, who showed him much of his early
work, including the first draft of this very poem. Pope was sincerely
attached to him, and this tribute to his dead friend is marked by deep
and genuine feeling.
'738 short excursions:'
such as this 'Essay on Criticism' instead of longer and more ambitious
poems which Pope planned and in part executed in his boyhood. There is
no reason to believe with Mr. Elwin that this passage proves that Pope
formed the design of the poem after the death of Walsh.
* * * * *
AN ESSAY ON MAN
INTRODUCTION
The 'Essay on Man' is the longest and in some ways the most important
work of the third period of Pope's career. It corresponds closely to his
early work, the 'Essay on Criticism'. Like the earlier work, the 'Essay
on Man' is a didactic poem, written primarily to diffuse and popularize
certain ideas of the poet. As in the earlier work these ideas are by no
means original with Pope, but were the common property of a school of
thinkers in his day. As in the 'Essay on Criticism', Pope here attempts
to show that these ideas have their origin in nature and are consistent
with the common sense of man. And finally the merit of the later work,
even more than of the earlier, is due to the force and brilliancy of
detached passages rather than to any coherent, consistent, and
well-balanced system which it presents.
The close of the seventeenth century and beginning of the eighteenth was
marked by a change of ground in the sphere of religious controversy. The
old debates between the Catholic and Protestant churches gradually died
out as these two branches of Western Christianity settled down in quiet
possession of the territory they still occupy. In their place arose a
vigorous controversy on the first principles of religion in general, on
the nature of God, the origin of evil, the place of man in the universe,
and the respective merits of optimism and pessimism as philosophic
theories. The controversialists as a rule either rejected or neglected
the dogmas of revealed religion and based their arguments upon real or
supposed facts of history, physical nature, and the mental processes and
moral characteristics of man. In this controversy the two parties at
times were curiously mingled. Orthodox clergymen used arguments which
justified a strong suspicion of their orthodoxy; and avowed freethinkers
bitterly disclaimed the imputation of atheism and wrote in terms that
might be easily adopted by a devout believer.
Into this controversy Pope was led by his deepening intimacy with
Bolingbroke, who had returned from France in 1725 and settled at his
country place within a few miles of Twickenham. During his long exile
Bolingbroke had amused himself with the study of moral philosophy and
natural religion, and in his frequent intercourse with Pope he poured
out his new-found opinions with all the fluency, vigor, and polish which
made him so famous among the orators and talkers of the day.
Bolingbroke's views were for that time distinctly heterodox, and, if
logically developed, led to complete agnosticism. But he seems to have
avoided a complete statement of his ideas to Pope, possibly for fear of
shocking or frightening the sensitive little poet who still remained a
professed Catholic. Pope, however, was very far from being a strict
Catholic, and indeed prided himself on the breadth and liberality of his
opinions. He was, therefore, at once fascinated and stimulated by the
eloquent conversation of Bolingbroke, and resolved to write a
philosophical poem in which to embody the ideas they held in common.
Bolingbroke approved of the idea, and went so far as to furnish the poet
with seven or eight sheets of notes "to direct the plan in general and
to supply matter for particular epistles." Lord Bathurst, who knew both
Pope and Bolingbroke, went so far as to say in later years that the
'Essay' was originally composed by Bolingbroke in prose and that Pope
only put it into verse. But this is undoubtedly an exaggeration of what
Pope himself frankly acknowledged, that the poem was composed under the
influence of Bolingbroke, that in the main it reflected his opinions,
and that Bolingbroke had assisted him in the general plan and in
numerous details. Very properly, therefore, the poem is addressed to
Bolingbroke and begins and closes with a direct address to the poet's
"guide, philosopher, and friend."
In substance the 'Essay on Man' is a discussion of the moral order of
the world. Its purpose is "to vindicate the ways of God to man," and it
may therefore be regarded as an attempt to confute the skeptics who
argued from the existence of evil in the world and the wretchedness of
man's existence to the impossibility of belief in an all-good and
all-wise God. It attempts to do this, not by an appeal to revelation or
the doctrines of Christianity, but simply on the basis of a common-sense
interpretation of the facts of existence.
A brief outline of the poem will show the general tenor of Pope's
argument.
The first epistle deals with the nature and state of man with respect to
the universe. It insists on the limitations of man's knowledge, and the
consequent absurdity of his presuming to murmur against God. It teaches
that the universe was not made for man, but that man with all his
apparent imperfections is exactly fitted to the place which he occupies
in the universe. In the physical universe all things work together for
good, although certain aspects of nature seem evil to man, and likewise