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THE RAPE OF THE LOCK.

Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos;

Sed juvat, hoc precibus me tribuiffe tuis. MART.

WHAT

CANTO I.

IAT dire offence from am'rous causes springs, What mighty contefts rife from trivial things, I fing-This verse to CARYL, Mufe! is due: This, ev'n Belinda may vouchfafe to view:

NOTES.

Slight

a It appears by this Motto, that the following Poem was written or publifhed at the Lady's requeft. But there are fome further circumftances not unworthy relating. Mr. Caryl (a Gentleman who was Secretary to Queen Mary, wife of James II. whofe fortunes he followed into France, Author of the Comedy of Sir Solomon Single, and of feveral tranflations in Dryden's Mifcellanies) originally propofed the subject to him, in a view of putting an end, by this piece of ridicule, to a quarrel that was rifen between two noble Families, thofe of Lord Petre and of Mrs Fermor, on the trifling occafion of his having cut off a lock of her hair. The Author fent it to the Lady, with whom he was acquainted; and she took it so well as to give about copies of it. That firft sketch (we learn from one of his Letters) was writlen in lefs than a fortnight, in 1711, in two Cantos only, and it was fo printed; firft, in a Mifcellany of Bern. Lintot's, without the name of the Author. But it was received fo well, that he made it more confiderable the next year by the addition of the machinery of the Sylphs, and extended it to five Cantos. We fhall give the reader the pleasure of seeing in what manner these additions were inferted, fo as to feem not to be added, but to grow out of the Poem. See Notes, Cant. I. ver. 19, &c.

POPE.

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Slight is the fubject, but not fo the praise,
If She inspire, and He approve my lays.

Say what ftrange motive, Goddefs! could compel
A well-bred Lord t' affault a gentle Belle?
O fay what stranger cause, yet unexplor❜d,
Could make a gentle Belle reject a Lord?
In tasks fo bold, can little men engage,
And in foft bofoms, dwell fuch mighty Rage?

5

10

Sol through white curtains fhot a tim'rous ray, And oped those eyes that muft eclipse the day : Now lap-dogs give themselves the rousing shake, 15 And fleepless lovers, juft at twelve, awake:

VARIATIONS.

VER. II, 12. It was in the first editions,

Thrice

And dwells fuch rage in softest bosoms then,
And lodge fuch daring Souls in little Men?

POPE

VER. 13, &c. flood thus in the first edition,

Sol through white curtains did his beams display,
And ope'd thofe eyes which brighter fhone than they:
Shock juft had given himself the roufing shake,
And Nymphs prepar'd their Chocolate to take;
Thrice the wrought flipper knock'd against the ground,
And ftriking watches the tenth hour refound.

POPE.

NOTES.

VER. 10. Could make a gentle Belle

"The characters intro

duced in this poem were Mr. Caryl, just before mentioned; Belinda was Mrs. Arabella Fermor; the Baron was Lord Petre, of fmall ftature, who soon after married a great heirefs, Mrs. Warmfley, and died leaving a pofthumous fon; Thaleftris was Mrs. Morly; Sir Plume was her brother, Sir George Brown, of Berkfhire." Copied from a MS. in a book prefented by R. Lord Bur lington, to Mr William Sherwin. WARTON.

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The Sir Plume of the Rape of the Lock.

From a Picture by Sir Peter Lely,

in the Collection of W. Fermor. Esq. Tusmore, Oxfordshire .

Published by Cadell & Davies, Strand, and the other Proprietors, May 1.1807.

Thrice rung the bell, the flipper knock'd the ground,
And the prefs'd watch return'd a filver found.
Belinda ftill her downy pillow preft,

Her guardian SYLPH prolong'd the balmy rest:
'Twas He had fummon'd to her filent bed
The morning-dream that hover'd o'er her head,
A Youth more glitt'ring than a Birth-night Beau,
(That e'en in flumber caus'd her cheek to glow)

NOTES.

20

Seem'd

VER. 18. filver found.] Boileau, at an entertainment given by Segrais, was engaged to read his Lutrin; when he came to this paffage in the first canto,

"Les cloches dans les airs de leur voix argentines," Chapelle, who was one of the company, and who, as usual, had drank freely, ftopt him, and objected strongly to the expreffion, filver founds. Boileau difregarded his objections, and continued to read; but Chapelle again interrupting him, "You are drunk," faid Boileau; "I am not fo much intoxicated with wine (re turned Chapelle) as you are with your own verfes." It is a fingular circumftance, that Boileau was buried in the very spot on which the Lutrin flood. WARTON.

"Siver found," is a combination often used by the early English Poets. Spenfer ufes it, Shakespear, Dryden, and our Author very frequently. Hence Shakespear's humourous dialogue in Romeo and Juliet :

"Peter. Why mufic with her filver found? -What say you, Simon Catling?

I Muf. Marry, Sir; because filver hath a fweet found.'
Peter. Pretty!-What fay you, Hugh Rebeck?-

2 Muf. I fay, filver found; becaufe Muficians found for filver.
Peter. Pretty too!-What fay you, James Sound post?
3 Muf. Faith, I know not what to fay."

(Act 4th.) VER. 19. Belinda ftill, &c.] All the verses from hence to the end of this Canto were added afterwards.

POPE.

VER. 20. Her guardian SYLPH] When Mr. Pope had projected to give The Rape of the Lock its prefent form of a mock-heroic poem, he was obliged to find it with its machinery. WARBURTON.

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