The Rape of the Lock and Other Major Writings: Poems and Other Writings (Penguin Classics)

by Alexander Pope

  What I write will show you that my head is yet weak. I had written to you by that gentleman from the Bath,43 but I did not know him, and everybody that comes from Ireland pretends to be a friend of the Dean’s. I am always glad to see any that are truly so, and therefore do not mistake anything I said so as to discourage your sending any such to me. Adieu.

  To William Warburton,44 11 April 1739

  Sir – I have just received from Mr Robinson two more of your Letters. It is in the greatest hurry imaginable that I write this, but I cannot help thanking you in particular for your third Letter, which is so extremely clear, short, and full, that I think Mr Crousaz ought never to have another answerer, and deserved not so good an one. I can only say you do him too much honour, and me too much right, so odd as the expression seems, for you have made my system as clear as I ought to have done and could not. It is indeed the same system as mine, but illustrated with a ray of your own, as they say our natural body is the same still when it is glorified. I am sure I like it better than I did before, and so will every man else. I know I meant just what you explain, but I did not explain my own meaning so well as you; you understand me as well as I do myself, but you express me better than I could express myself. Pray accept the sincerest acknowledgments of, Sir, Your most obliged and real humble servant, A. Pope I cannot but wish these Letters were put together in one book, and intend (with your leave) to procure a translation of part at least of them into French, but I shall not proceed a step without your consent and opinion.

  Notes

  Dictionary refers to A Dictionary of the English Language, edited by Samuel Johnson (first edition, 1755); when Johnson uses a line by Pope as his illustrative example, as he often does, this is indicated.

  A few of Pope’s poem titles are shortened, e.g. ‘The Fourth Satire of Dr John Donne Versified’, to a distinctive word or two, ‘Donne’.

  For full bibliographical references, see Further Reading.

  Biblical passages are quoted from the King James Version, the one normally used by Pope and his contemporaries.

  Quotations from foreign languages are in Latin unless otherwise indicated. English translations are by the editor of this volume.

  EARLY POEMS

  An Essay on Criticism Pope published ‘An Essay on Criticism’ in 1711, at the age of twenty-three, yet he was able to achieve a lofty, authoritative tone and to incorporate an extraordinary range of reference, in the spirit of Horace’s Ars Poetica and Nicolas Boileau’s Art of Poetry. Years later Samuel Johnson said admiringly that the poem exhibits ‘such extent of comprehension, such nicety of distinction, such acquaintance with mankind, and such knowledge both of ancient and modern learning, as are not often attained by the maturest age and longest experience’ (Life of Pope, p. 94). With Horace as his chief model, Pope sought to draw together the many strands of aesthetic theory that had accumulated since ancient times, and to promote an appreciative response to literature in place of the fierce controversies that characterized the previous generation. Throughout the poem the key word ‘wit’ recurs dozens of times, with ever-changing nuances of implication. In addition to its modern meaning, it could indicate intelligence in general, or even genius, and Pope resisted the widespread assumption in his day that it was inferior to analytical judgement. Far from distorting the materials it works with, wit gives them a brighter lustre; it is ‘Nature to advantage dressed’, with ‘Nature’ a name for the fullness of the living universe. And far from being a didactic treatise, ‘An Essay on Criticism’ brilliantly exemplifies the art it describes, whether in aphorisms that have the permanence of proverbs – ‘A little learning is a dang’rous thing’; ‘To err is human, to forgive, divine’ – or in verses whose sound and rhythm create the very quickness or heaviness they refer to. Above all, Pope encourages a generous conception of criticism, in an era when critics measured works of art dogmatically against arbitrary ‘rules’. The only principles that matter, he argues, are the ones that give shape and meaning to representations of the world of experience: Those rules of old discovered, not devised, Are nature still, but nature methodized …

  Pope has the artist’s resentment of the critic who ‘Seizes your fame, and puts his laws in force’, and he argues eloquently for an imaginative response that can ‘read each work of wit / With the same spirit that its author writ’.

  Epigraph: ‘If you know any rules more correct than these, share them candidly; if not, make use of these as I do’ (Horace, Epistles, I, vi, 67–8).

  4. sense: Good sense, judgement.

  17. wit: Intelligence in general, as well as cleverness.

  26. schools: Pedantic universities.

  27. coxcombs: ‘a fop; a superficial pretender to knowledge or accomplishments’ (Dictionary).

  32. still: Always; also 69, 307, 437.

  34. Maevius: A bad poet, mentioned by Horace and Virgil. Apollo: Patron of poetry.

  39. mules: Product of a union between a horse and a donkey, a mule is barren.

  40. witlings: ‘witling: a pretender to wit; a man of petty smartness’ (Dictionary, citing this line).

  43. equivocal: Uncertain; it was thought that creatures in the Nile mud (41) might be products of ‘spontaneous generation’. See also ‘Donne’, 27–9n.

  44. tell: Count (cf. US ‘bank teller’).

  53. pretending: ‘to pretend: to profess presumptuously’ (Dictionary).

  60. science: Mode of knowledge (not just natural science); see also 224n.

  62. peculiar: Particular; also 244.

  76. informing: ‘animating’ (Dictionary).

  77. spirits: Vital spirits, subtle fluids that were believed to carry energy throughout the body.

  81. as much more: i.e. more intelligence.

  84. Muse’s steed: The winged horse Pegasus.

  86. gen’rous: ‘strong; vigorous’ (Dictionary).

  87. mettle: ‘spirit; sprightliness; courage’ (Dictionary, citing this line).

  94. Parnassus: Mountain near Delphi in Greece, sacred to Apollo and the Muses.

  108. ’pothecaries: Apothecaries, or druggists, were competing with physicians for medical practice.

  109. bills: Medical prescriptions.

  112. leaves: Pages, with a pun on leaves of a plant.

  115. receipts: Recipes.

  120. fable: Story, plot.

  129. comment: Commentary. Mantuan Muse: Virgil, who came from Mantua; see also 130n. and 708n.

  130. Maro: Virgil, whose full name was Publius Virgilius Maro.

  138. Stagyrite: Aristotle, who came from Stagira in Macedonia.

  142. happiness: ‘fortuitous elegance; unstudied grace’ (Dictionary).

  153. faults: Poetic effects that deviate from rigid ‘rules’.

  168. Seizes: ‘takes forcible possession of by law’ (Dictionary).

  180. Homer nods: i.e. sometimes even Homer nods off and gets careless (from Horace’s Ars Poetica, 359: bonus dormitat Homerus). we that dream: It is we who are nodding off.

  181. bays: Laurel leaves, the reward of poetic excellence.

  186. consenting: In concord, harmony.

  206. recruits: Supplies.

  208. wants: Is lacking.

  216. Pierian spring: Hippocrene on Mount Olympus, sacred to the Muses.

  224. science: Learning of all kinds.

  239. lays: Songs.

  241. tenor: ‘continuity of state; constant mode’ (Dictionary).

  247. dome: Building (from Latin domus).

  261. verbal critic lays: Pedant lays down rules.

  267. La Mancha’s Knight: Don Quixote, in Cervantes’s novel of that name; see also ‘IV Burlington’, 160n.

  270. Dennis: Critic John Dennis, long-time enemy of Pope; his early criticisms provoked numerous allusions in Pope’s poems; see 585n. below and see also ‘Arbuthnot’, 371n. and ‘Dunciad’, I, 106 and note.

  276. passions: Emotions. unities: As enjoined by neoclassical dramatic theory, the three unities of time, place, and action (one day,
one place, and one plot).

  278. lists: Enclosures in which jousting combats were held.

  286. Curious: ‘difficult to please’. exact: ‘accurate; not negligent’. nice: ‘superfluously exact; fastidious’ (all from Dictionary).

  289. conceit: Clever (or too clever) metaphor or simile, as in the no longer fashionable metaphysical poets.

  308. content: Trust.

  319. decent: ‘becoming; fit; suitable’ (Dictionary).

  321. clown: ‘a rustic; a country fellow; a churl’ (Dictionary).

  323. sev’ral: Various.

  324. made pretence: Laid claim.

  328. Fungoso: A would-be man of fashion in Ben Jonson’s Every Man Out of His Humour.

  337. numbers: Metre, versification.

  339. conspire: Unite.

  347. low: Commonplace, vulgar.

  356. Alexandrine: Iambic line with six stresses instead of five (as exemplified in 357).

  361. Denham … Waller: Seventeenth-century poets who perfected the heroic couplet. On John Denham, see also headnote to ‘Windsor Forest’; on Edmund Waller, see Horace, Ode, IV, ix, 8–9n., and ‘Epilogue to the Satires’, II, 230n.

  370. Ajax: Immensely powerful Greek warrior in the Iliad.

  372. Camilla: A female warrior in the Aeneid. scours: ‘scour: to pass swiftly over’ (Dictionary, citing this line).

  373. main: Level stretch of land.

  374. Timotheus: Greek musician in the court of Alexander the Great.

  376. son of Lybian Jove: Alexander the Great, visited the oracle of Ammon in Libya and proclaimed himself the son of Ammon … Zeus (in Latin, Jupiter or Jove).

  380. like turns of nature: Similar expressions of natural emotion.

  383. Dryden now: In 1697 John Dryden wrote Alexander’s Feast, or, The Power of Music, which was set to music by Jeremiah Clarke and later by Handel.

  390. turn: ‘the manner of adjusting the words of a sentence’ (Dictionary).

  400. sublimes: Exalts.

  411. own: Lay claim to.

  415. quality: People of rank.

  419. hackney sonneteer: Hack writer of trivial verses.

  428. schismatics: Religious sectarians (with stress on first syllable).

  440. school-divines: University-trained theologians.

  441. sentences: ‘maxims; axioms, generally moral’ (Dictionary).

  444. Scotists and Thomists: Adherents of the opposing systems of the medieval theologians Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas.

  445. Duck Lane: London street where old books were sold.

  449. proves the ready wit: Gives ready wit an occasion to prove itself.

  454. Fondly: Foolishly.

  459. parsons, critics, beaus: The clergyman Jeremy Collier attacked the immorality of the stage, Gerald Langbaine criticized Dryden’s plays, and the Duke of Buckingham satirized Dryden in The Rehearsal (on the last, see ‘Dunciad’, I, Argument note).

  463. Blackmores … Milbournes: Would-be rivals of Dryden, the physician Sir Richard Blackmore, who wrote tedious, bombastic epics, excerpts from which appear in Pope’s Peri Bathous (see also Horace, Epistle, I, i, 16n.); and the translator Luke Milbourne.

  464. awful: Awe-inspiring.

  465. Zoilus: Fourth-century BC critic of Homer.

  477. betimes: ‘before long time has passed’ (Dictionary).

  509. commence: Begin to be.

  521. sacred: Accursed (from sacer).

  527. spleen: ‘anger; spite; ill-humour’ (Dictionary).

  528. provoking: ‘in such a manner as to raise anger’ (Dictionary).

  536. an easy monarch: The ‘merry monarch’ Charles II, noted for his anti-puritanical temperament, graceful manners, and busy love life. See also Horace, Epistle, II, i, 140n.

  538. Jilts: Harlots, referring to Charles’s numerous mistresses: statesmen: In addition to the Duke of Buckingham (see 459n.), Sir Charles Sedley and Sir George Etherege were also successful comic playwrights.

  541. mask: A woman (quite possibly a prostitute) wearing a mask at the theatre.

  544. foreign reign: William of Orange in the Netherlands, who became William III of England in 1688 when the Glorious Revolution brought his wife Mary to the English throne.

  545. Socinus: Sixteenth-century Italian theologian who denied the divinity of Christ, and whose followers were known (and denounced) as Socinians.

  551. admired: Wondered, marvelled.

  552. Titans: Giant sons of earth who were overthrown by Zeus and the Olympians, and who tried in vain to conquer the heavens; by implication, deistic freethinkers who criticized orthodox beliefs; see also ‘Essay on Man’, IV, 73n.

  553. licensed blasphemies: After the Licensing Act was allowed to lapse in 1695, freethinking works were published that would formerly have been censored.

  563. candour: ‘openness; kindness’ (Dictionary).

  570. own: Acknowledge.

  578. on no pretence: With no matter what reasons.

  580. complacence: ‘civility; complaisance; softness of manners’ (Dictionary); i.e. do not betray your trust by being too polite and deferential.

  585. Appius: Dennis promoted the sublime and was known for using the word ‘tremendous’ (586); the allusion is unmistakable since he wrote a failed tragedy, Appius and Virginia.

  588. tax: Censure. honourable: A person of rank (cf. ‘your Honour’).

  591. they can take degrees: Awarded by Oxford and Cambridge to noblemen even when they lacked academic qualifications.

  592. satyrs: Pope’s spelling of ‘satires’; probably pronounced ‘sators’.

  601. lashed asleep: ‘a top sleeps when it moves with such velocity that its motion is imperceptible’ (Oxford English Dictionary).

  603. jades: ‘horses of no spirit; worthless nags’ (Dictionary).

  606. Still run on: Continue to write.

  617. Dryden’s Fables … Durfey’s Tales: Dryden’s Fables Ancient and Modern was his last book and contains some of his greatest poetry; Thomas Durfey’s Tales Tragical and Comical was an often-derided popular work.

  618. With: According to.

  619. Garth: Pope’s friend the physician Samuel Garth burlesqued the struggle between doctors and apothecaries in his mock-heroic Dispensary (which influenced ‘Rape of the Lock’), and was wrongly suspected of not having written it himself.

  623. Paul’s churchyard: Booksellers had stalls outside St Paul’s Cathedral.

  636. humanly: Humanely.

  641. converse: ‘acquaintance; familiarity’ (Dictionary).

  648. Maeonian: Homeric (Maeonia in Asia Minor was traditionally the birthplace of Homer).

  651. Received his laws: As laid down in the Poetics.

  652. conquered nature: Aristotle wrote extensively on the physical sciences.

  662. phlegm: ‘the watery humour of the body, which is supposed to produce sluggishness or dullness’ (Dictionary).

  665. Dionysius: Of Halicarnassus, a Roman critic and historian (born in Asia Minor).

  667. Petronius: Petronius Arbiter, author of the Satyricon, who served as arbiter elegantiae (judge in matters of taste) in the court of Nero.

  669. Quintilian: Roman author of Institutio Oratoria, an immensely influential treatise on rhetoric.

  671. magazines: Armouries.

  675. Longinus: Greek rhetorician, supposed author of On the Sublime. the Nine: The Muses.

  684. eagles: Roman standards in battle.

  693. Erasmus: Dutch Renaissance humanist, liberal Catholic theologian, and opponent of Martin Luther, in the sixteenth century; author of the satiric In Praise of Folly.

  694. shame: Because he attacked other priests, who deserved it.

  696. Vandals: Like the Goths, Germanic barbarians who trashed Rome. See also ‘Dunciad’, III, 86–90n.

  697. Leo: Leo X, Pope (1513–21) under whom the Renaissance was thought to have reached its high-water mark.

  699. genius: ‘protecting or ruling power’ (Dictionary).

  704. Raphae
l … Vida: Renaissance Italian painter and poet, respectively; Pope was familiar with Vida’s On the Art of Poetry.

  707. Cremona: Birthplace of Vida.