"147 Forfex":
a Latin word meaning scissors.
"152"
Pope borrowed this idea from Milton, who represents the wound inflicted on Satan, by the Archangel Michael as healing immediately--
Th" ethereal substance closed Not long divisible.
--"Paradise Lost", VI, 330-331.
"165 Atalantis": "The New Atalantis",
a four-volume "cornucopia of scandal" involving almost every public character of the day, was published by a Mrs. Manley in 1709. It was very widely read. The Spectator found it, along with a key which revealed the ident.i.ties of its characters, in the lady"s library already mentioned ("Spectator", No. 37).
"166 the small pillow":
a richly decorated pillow which fashionable ladies used to prop them up in bed when they received morning visits from gentlemen. Addison gives an account of such a visit in the "Spectator", No. 45.
"167 solemn days":
days of marriage or mourning, on which at this time formal calls were paid.
"173 the labour of the G.o.ds":
the walls of Troy built by Apollo and Neptune for King Laomedon.
"178 unresisted":
irresistible.
CANTO IV
"8 Cynthia":
a fanciful name for any fashionable lady. No individual is meant.
"manteau":
a loose upper garment for women.
"16 Spleen":
the word is used here as a personification of melancholy, or low spirits. It was not an uncommon affectation in England at this time. A letter to the "Spectator", No. 53, calls it "the distemper of the great and the polite."
"17 the Gnome":
Umbriel, who in accordance with his nature now proceeds to stir up trouble. Compare Canto I, ll. 63-64.
"20"
The bitter east wind which put every one into a bad humor was supposed to be one of the main causes of the spleen.
"23 She":
the G.o.ddess of the spleen. Compare l. 79.
"84 Megrim":
headache.
"29 store":
a large supply.
"38 night-dress":
the modern dressing-gown. The line means that whenever a fashionable beauty bought a new dressing-gown she pretended to be ill in order to show her new possession to sympathetic friends who called on her.
"40 phantoms":
these are the visions, dreadful or delightful, of the disordered imagination produced by spleen.
"43 snakes on rolling spires":
like the serpent which Milton describes in "Paradise Lost", IX, 501-502, "erect amidst his circling spires."
"46 angels in machines":
angels coming to help their votaries. The word "machine" here has an old-fashioned technical sense. It was first used to describe the apparatus by which a G.o.d was let down upon the stage of the Greek theater. Since a G.o.d was only introduced at a critical moment to help the distressed hero, the phrase, "deus ex machina," came to mean a G.o.d who rendered aid. Pope transfers it here to angels.