Arbuthnot, to whom the epistle is addressed.
"405-411"
The first draft of these appeared in a letter to Aaron Hill, September 3, 1731, where Pope speaks of having sent them "the other day to a particular friend," perhaps the poet Thomson. Mrs. Pope, who was very old and feeble, was of course alive when they were first written, but died more than a year before the pa.s.sage appeared in its revised form in this "Epistle".
"412"
An allusion to the promise contained in the fifth commandment.
"415 served a Queen":
Arbuthnot had been Queen Anne"s doctor, but was driven out of his rooms in the palace after her death.
"416 that blessing":
long life for Arbuthnot. It was, in fact, denied, for he died a month or so after the appearance of the "Epistle".
NOTES ON
ODE ON SOLITUDE
Pope says that this delightful little poem was written at the early age of twelve. It first appeared in a letter to his friend, Henry Cromwell, dated July 17, 1709. There are several variations between this first form and that in which it was finally published, and it is probable that Pope thought enough of his boyish production to subject it to repeated revision. Its spirit is characteristic of a side of Pope"s nature that is often forgotten. He was, indeed, the poet of the society of his day, urban, cultured, and pleasure-loving; but to the end of his days he retained a love for the quiet charm of country life which he had come to feel in his boyhood at Binfield, and for which he early withdrew from the whirl and dissipations of London to the groves and the grotto of his villa at Twickenham.
NOTES ON
THE DESCENT OF DULLNESS
In the fourth book of the "Dunciad", Pope abandons the satire on the pretenders to literary fame which had run through the earlier books, and flies at higher game. He represents the G.o.ddess Dullness as "coming in her majesty to destroy Order and Science, and to subst.i.tute the Kingdom of the Dull upon earth." He attacks the pedantry and formalism of university education in his day, the dissipation and false taste of the traveled gentry, the foolish pretensions to learning of collectors and virtuosi, and the daringly irreverent speculations of freethinkers and infidels. At the close of the book he represents the G.o.ddess as dismissing her worshipers with a speech which she concludes with "a yawn of extraordinary virtue." Under its influence "all nature nods," and pulpits, colleges, and Parliament succ.u.mb. The poem closes with the magnificent description of the descent of Dullness and her final conquest of art, philosophy, and religion. It is said that Pope himself admired these lines so much that he could not repeat them without his voice faltering with emotion. "And well it might, sir," said Dr. Johnson when this anecdote was repeated to him, "for they are n.o.ble lines." And Thackeray in his lecture on Pope in "The English Humorists" says:
"In these astonishing lines Pope reaches, I think, to the very greatest height which his sublime art has attained, and shows himself the equal of all poets of all times. It is the brightest ardor, the loftiest a.s.sertion of truth, the most generous wisdom, ill.u.s.trated by the n.o.blest poetic figure, and spoken in words the aptest, grandest, and most harmonious."
EPITAPH ON GAY
John Gay, the idlest, best-natured, and best-loved man of letters of his day, was the special friend of Pope. His early work, "The Shepherd"s Week", was planned as a parody on the "Pastorals" of Pope"s rival, Ambrose Philips, and Pope a.s.sisted him in the composition of his luckless farce, "Three Hours after Marriage". When Gay"s opera "Polly"
was forbidden by the licenser, and Gay"s patrons, the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Queensberry, were driven from court for soliciting subscriptions for him, Pope warmly espoused his cause. Gay died in 1732 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Pope"s epitaph for his tomb was first published in the quarto edition of Pope"s works in 1735--Johnson, in his discussion of Pope"s epitaphs ("Lives of the Poets"), devotes a couple of pages of somewhat captious criticism to these lines; but they have at least the virtue of simplicity and sincerity, and are at once an admirable portrait of the man and a lasting tribute to the poet Gay.
APPENDIX
THE RAPE OF THE LOCK
Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos Sed juvat, hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis.
MART.
FIRST EDITION
CANTO I
What dire offence from am"rous causes springs, What mighty quarrels rise from trivial things, I sing--This verse to C--l, Muse! is due: This, ev"n Belinda may vouchsafe to view: Slight is the subject, but not so the praise, 5 If she inspire, and he approve my lays.
Say what strange motive, G.o.ddess! could compel A well-bred lord t" a.s.sault a gentle belle?