The Rape of the Lock, and Other Poems
an old legend tells us that Midas was presented with a pair of ass's
ears by an angry god whose music he had slighted. His barber, or,
Chaucer says, his queen, discovered the change which Midas had tried to
conceal, and unable to keep the secret whispered it to the reeds in the
river, who straightway spread the news abroad.
'75'
With this line Arbuthnot is supposed to take up the conversation. This
is indicated here and elsewhere by the letter A.
'79 Dunciad':
see Introduction, p. xviii.
'85 Codrus':
a name borrowed from Juvenal to denote a foolish poet. Pope uses it here
for some conceited dramatist who thinks none the less of himself because
his tragedy is rejected with shouts of laughter.
'96'
Explain the exact meaning of this line.
'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':