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

by Alexander Pope

  18. ‘junto’: ‘a cabal; a kind of men combined in any secret design’ (Dictionary).

  19. hemistich: Half-line of verse.

  20. very few: Ever since ‘Essay on Criticism’, Pope had been admired for his remarkable skill in making sound echo sense.

  21. Chapman, Hobbes, and Ogilby: George Chapman’s Elizabethan translation would be rediscovered in the next century and admired for its muscular energy (as in Keats’s sonnet ‘On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer’). In the seventeenth century the political theorist Thomas Hobbes made a prose translation, and John Ogilby (see ‘Dunciad’, I, 141n.) a poetic one, neither of which had much success.

  22. Bussy D’Ambois: Jacobean tragedy by Chapman.

  23. figures: Figures of speech.

  24. periods: ‘period: a complete sentence from one full stop to another’ (Dictionary).

  FROM THE PREFACE TO THE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE

  Capitalizing on Pope’s poetic fame, the publisher Jacob Tonson recruited him to serve as editor of an expensive six-volume edition of Shakespeare that came out in 1725. In his preface, approximately half of which is given here, Pope praises Shakespeare’s genius and seeks to defend him from accusations of carelessness and ‘faults’ by arguing that he should not be held to the rules of neoclassical drama. Pope does take it for granted, however, that Shakespeare had no education, pandered to a popular audience, and wrote from spontaneous inspiration by ‘Nature’ rather than as a conscientious artist. The final analogy with Gothic architecture is double-edged, since it concedes a certain grandeur to the Gothic, but assumes as well the superiority of the classical style of Pope’s own time. Pope’s edition was vulnerable to scholarly attacks that soon appeared, since although he and his helpers had diligently compared early versions of the plays, he trusted too confidently in his own judgement to select particular readings, and to alter the text whenever he thought it was called for.

  1. beauties and faults: It was customary for editors to single out specific passages either as especially fine, or as offending against good taste and theoretical ‘rules’.

  2. passions: Strong emotions such as love and anger, which were considered involuntary; a skilful playwright would know how to ‘raise’ them in his audience.

  3. spleen: Depression or ‘melancholy’, thought to originate in disorders of the spleen.

  4. sentiments: See ‘Preface to Iliad’, n. 9.

  5. accidents: Non-essential elements.

  6. subsistence: Adequate income.

  7. mechanics: Manual labourers.

  8. vulgar: ‘plebeian; practised among the common people’ (Dictionary).

  9. extraction: ‘derivation of an original; lineage; descent’ (Dictionary).

  10. Grex: Troop or group, a pair of characters who act as commentators in Jonson’s Every Man Out of His Humour.

  11. prince: Monarch (Elizabeth I, followed by James I).

  12. player: Actor.

  13. blotted: Erased; Ben Jonson wrote in Timber, or Discoveries (1641): ‘I remember the players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare that in his writing, whatsoever he penned, he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been, “Would he had blotted a thousand.” ’

  14. folio: The large-format First Folio edition of Shakespeare’s plays was published in 1623, seven years after his death, by his colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell.

  15. most wit and fancy: Lively intelligence and imagination.

  16. glaring: Striking.

  FROM PERI BATHOUS, OR: OF THE ART OF SINKING IN POETRY

  By 1714 Pope and a group of friends – Swift, Arbuthnot, Gay, and the then-popular Irish poet Thomas Parnell – had formed a group that called itself the Scriblerians, meeting weekly in London to compose the mock biography of an absurd pedant they called Martinus Scriblerus. Over the ensuing years Pope never lost sight of the project, and eventually published the Memoirs of Scriblerus in 1741. Meanwhile, he conceived the idea of a parodic treatise ironically praising bad poetry of all kinds, and in 1728 – the same year that Gay’s Beggar’s Opera had a triumphant success on stage, and a couple of months before the first version of the ‘Dunciad’ – he and Swift brought out a volume of Miscellanies that included Peri Bathous. The title of Longinus’ much-admired Greek treatise On the Sublime is Peri Houpsos in Greek; since bathous (or ‘bathos’) can mean ‘depth’, the suggestion was that the Ancients had soared up to the sublime but had neglected to descend to the ridiculous. Swift and Arbuthnot both contributed to Peri Bathous, of which approximately one-fifth is given here, but the bulk of the work was Pope’s.

  1. morbid secretion: Discharge of diseased fluid; as in Swift’s satire The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit, aberrant mental behaviour is ascribed to physiological disturbance.

  2. issue: Discharge (of mucus).

  3. evacuation: A medical term: ‘the practice of emptying the body by physic’ (Dictionary).

  4. nascimur poetae: We are born poets.

  5. pruritus: Itching.

  6. conceive: Punning on the double meaning of ‘have an idea’ and ‘get pregnant’.

  7. peccant humour: Diseased bodily fluid.

  8. purulent metre: ‘purulent: consisting of pus or the running of wounds’ (Dictionary); puns on the medical term ‘purulent matter’.

  9. the Ministry: The cabinet of the prime minister and his colleagues.

  10. Horace: In Ars Poetica, 373–4, Horace says that neither gods nor men can tolerate mediocrity in poets.

  11. vivacité de pesanteur: Quickness in sinking (French).

  12. an English author … sinking: Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor III, v, 12, spoken by Falstaff after being thrown into a river.

  13. lessen the book: i.e. make it shorter, and hence less profitable to the author.

  14. his feet in butter: ‘When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil’ (Job 29:6 in the King James Version; the Roman Catholic Douay Bible, which Pope may sometimes have used, has ‘washed my feet’).

  15. With teats … feet: Richard Blackmore, Job (a poetic adaptation of the biblical book). On Blackmore, see ‘Essay on Criticism’, 463n.

  16. In flaming … blue: Blackmore, Prince Arthur.

  17. His eye-balls … mane: Labelled ‘anonymous’ by Pope, and probably written by himself.

  18. They brandish … end: Blackmore, Prince Arthur. staves: Staffs or sticks. osier: Willow branches used to make baskets.

  19. Periphrase: ‘circumlocution; use of many words to express the sense of one’ (Dictionary).

  20. A waving … fed: Blackmore, Job.

  21. ‘No light … visible’: Paradise Lost, I, 63.

  22. He roared … him: Vetus autor (Pope’s note), old author, i.e. probably by himself.

  23. The silver … black: Likewise probably by Pope.

  24. The obscureness … light: Lewis Theobald, The Double Falsehood. On Theobald, see ‘Arbuthnot’, 164n.

  25. Up to … sky: Blackmore, Prince Arthur.

  26. Behold … eyes: ‘anonymous’ (Pope’s note), so probably by himself.

  27. Ye gods … happy: Probably by Pope.

  28. circumbendibus: A made-up Latin word (by Dryden) meaning a roundabout method.

  29. prospect: View.

  30. I’d call … high: ‘anonymous’ (Pope’s note), so probably by himself.

  31. Under … yoke: Edmund Waller, Upon the Late Storm.

  32. And thou … Mar: ‘anonymous’ (Pope’s note), so probably by himself.

  33. Finical: ‘foppish; pretending to superfluous elegance’ (Dictionary).

  34. Won by … away: Blackmore, Job.

  35. When watchful … granary: Ibid.

  36. Oaks … by: John Dennis, Upon Our Victory at Sea.

  37. The sparkling … while: From an anonymous poem in a miscellany published by Jacob Tonson. liquor: Liquid.

  38. BUSKIN: Shoe worn by Greek tragic actors in order to appear taller.

  39. engine: ‘a
ny means used to bring to pass, or to effect’ (Dictionary).

  40. breech: Buttocks.

  41. For whom … enter: Probably by Pope, as are all the remaining quotations with the exception of the two noted below.

  42. Advance … yonder: Shakespeare, The Tempest, I, ii, 409–10.

  43. Wax … trust: Theobald, The Double Falsehood (referring to sealing wax).

  44. Bacchus … Ceres: The god of wine and the goddess of the harvest, hence of grain.

  45. Receipt: Recipe. This chapter is a revised version of an essay in the Guardian, no. 78, which Pope had published in 1713.

  46. undertakers: Persons who undertake a task.

  47. Molière … dinner: In The Miser, III, i.

  48. Fable: Story, plot.

  49. Geoffrey of Monmouth: Twelfth-century chronicler of British traditions, including the Arthurian legends.

  50. Don Belianis: Hero of a Spanish chivalric romance.

  51. an honest man: A number of theorists claimed that an epic hero had to be morally upright.

  52. Machines: See ‘Preface to the Iliad’, note 14.

  53. volatile Mercury: Mercury, the brisk messenger of the gods, gave his name to the unstable or ‘volatile’ metal mercury.

  54. Tasso: Torquato Tasso, sixteenth-century Italian poet, author of Gerusalemme Liberata.

  55. Nec … inciderit: ‘And let no god intervene, unless the knot is worthy of such a deliverer’ (Ars Poetica, 191–2).

  56. Eurus … Boreas: The east, west, south, and north winds.

  57. quantum sufficit: As much as is sufficient, phrase commonly used in medical prescriptions.

  58. Theory of the Conflagration: Thomas Burnet’s Sacred Theory of the Earth (1681) predicted a ‘general conflagration’ that would occur at the end of the world.

  59. succedaneum: Substitute; often used of food, and thus appropriate for the epic ‘recipe’.

  60. Bookseller: Publisher (who would also keep a bookshop).

  SELECTED LETTERS

  Pope’s letters were artfully composed, carefully varied in style to suit the various recipients, and in many cases clearly intended for publication. Since it would have seemed unpardonable vanity for a living person to publish his own letters, in 1735 he successfully schemed to get some of his early correspondence into the hands of the unscrupulous publisher Edmund Curll, who believed he was outwitting Pope by bringing out an unauthorized collection. Pope was then, of course, free to bring out an ‘authentic’ edition of his own, in which he occasionally revised letters and even assigned them to different recipients than the original ones. The examples here (of which the first is the only one abridged) give insight into some of the relationships that were so important to him throughout his life.

  1. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: Pope was indulging in a somewhat artificial flirtation with Lady Mary, who had recently departed for Constantinople where her husband would be ambassador. This letter exhibits the elegantly amorous style that Pope picked up from older friends whose taste had been formed during the Restoration. In later years he and Lady Mary became implacable enemies.

  2. accidents: Unexpected occurrences (not mishaps); nothing is known of the news that ‘afflicted’ Pope.

  3. period: Final word or phrase in a sentence.

  4. spleenatic enthusiasts: Persons afflicted by the spleen, i.e. melancholics and those subject to ‘enthusiasm’, religious fervour.

  5. Teresa and Martha Blount: The sisters were Catholic neighbours whom Pope met when all three were still in their teens. He was at first most attracted to the charming but self-centred and fickle Teresa, to whom ‘Epistle to Mrs Teresa Blount’ is addressed, and afterwards formed a lifelong friendship with Martha, known as ‘Patty’, to whom Epistle II ‘To a Lady’ is dedicated.

  6. my unhappiness: Probably referring to the death of Pope’s father that year.

  7. wait upon you: Pay you a visit.

  8. men of my make: Pope had heard of a queen who had a fondness for a deformed dwarf in her court.

  9. Mr Caryll: John Caryll, Pope’s lifelong friend: see ‘Rape of the Lock’, I, 3 and note.

  10. bower: A pretty glade in Pope’s garden at Twickenham.

  11. Downs: Rolling, grassy hills nearby.

  12. Lord B.: Pope’s close friend Henry St John, Lord Bolingbroke, dedicatee of ‘Essay on Man’ and source of some of its ideas.

  13. Commerce … play pretty high: A card game, which they play for high stakes.

  14. valley of Jehosaphat: According to the prophet Joel, the site of the Last Judgement.

  15. Edward Blount: A distant relative of Martha and Teresa, whose Devonshire estate Pope had visited.

  16. wilderness: Another part of Pope’s garden, made to appear uncultivated and wild.

  17. perspective glass: Telescope, which would make objects seem smaller if viewed in reverse.

  18. camera obscura: Literally, ‘dark room’; a lens would throw images from outside on a wall in the way Pope describes.

  19. Hujus … tace: Verses by the Renaissance scholar-poet Cardinal Pietro Bembo, followed by Pope’s translation of them.

  20. lave: Wash.

  21. John Gay: Poet and playwright for whom Pope felt deep affection; he had scored an immense success with The Beggar’s Opera two years previously, and was now living comfortably with his patrons, the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry. See also ‘Epistle to T. Blount’, 47n.

  22. old man of Verona: Probably alluding to the poem De Sene Veronensi by the Roman poet Claudian.

  23. loss of poor Mr Gay: Gay had died four months previously, at the age of 47.

  24. whatever Is, is Right: The final words of ‘Essay on Man’, I.

  25. Epitaph: See ‘Arbuthnot’, 258n.

  26. coming over hither: From Ireland to England; it never happened, and apart from two short visits in 1726 and 1727, Pope never saw Swift at all after he took up his position as Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin in 1714.

  27. characters: (Satiric) character sketches.

  28. performance: The Verses, savagely abusive of Pope, mentioned in the Advertisement to ‘Arbuthnot’.

  29. that poem: ‘Essay on Man’.

  30. the system: The ambitious Opus Magnum which Pope still hoped to create.

  31. exercitandi gratia: For the sake of keeping in practice.

  32. another of Horace’s: Pope’s imitation of Satire, II, ii (in this volume).

  33. our poor Lady: A mutual friend, Lady Suffolk.

  34. in folio: On large sheets of paper.

  35. a few years before us: Swift was 28 years older than Pope.

  36. your memory: Swift was experiencing the first symptoms of the dementia that would devastate his final years; as it turned out he outlived Pope by a year, dying in 1745.

  37. carcase … hinder me: Pope had just emerged from a long bedridden episode at Lord Oxford’s house in London.

  38. Dawley … this place: Dawley Farm, Bolingbroke’s manor in Middlesex, and Pope’s villa at Twickenham, respectively.

  39. paper … Arbuthnot: ‘Arbuthnot’, which would be published in a few weeks’ time.

  40. broke: Broken in health; he would die less than three months later.

  41. three Treatises: the first three Epistles of the ‘Essay on Man’.

  42. that work printed: Bolingbroke’s writings on various subjects were not printed until after he and Pope were dead.

  43. I had written … Bath: i.e. I would have sent you a letter in care of that gentleman from Bath.

  44. William Warburton: Clergyman whom Pope had not yet met, who won his gratitude by defending ‘Essay on Man’ in a series of Letters against Jean-Pierre de Crousaz (see ‘Dunciad’, IV, 198n.); Warburton later became Bishop of Gloucester and Pope’s literary executor and editor.