Chapter 14

Lines '1-2'

Pope opens his mock-epic with the usual epic formula, the statement of the subject. Compare the first lines of the 'Iliad', the 'AEneid', and 'Paradise Lost'. In l. 7 he goes on to call upon the "goddess," i.e. the muse, to relate the cause of the rape. This, too, is an epic formula. Compare 'AEneid', I, 8, and 'Paradise Lost', I, 27-33.

'3 Caryl':

see Introduction, p. 83. In accordance with his wish his name was not printed in the editions of the poem that came out in Pope's lifetime, appearing there only as C----or C----l.

'4 Belinda':

a name used by Pope to denote Miss Fermor, the heroine of 'The Rape of the Lock'.

'12'

This line is almost a translation of a line in the 'AEneid' (I, 11), where Virgil asks if it be possible that such fierce passions (as Juno's) should exist in the minds of gods.

'13 Sol':

a good instance of the fondness which Pope shared with most poets of his time for giving classical names to objects of nature. This trick was supposed to adorn and elevate poetic diction. Try to find other instances of this in 'The Rape of the Lock'.

Why is the sun's ray called "tim'rous"?

'16'

It was an old convention that lovers were so troubled by their passion that they could not sleep. In the 'Prologue to the Canterbury Tales' (ll. 97-98), Chaucer says of the young squire:

So hote he lovede, that by nightertale He sleep namore than dooth a nightingale.

Pope, of course, is laughing at the easy-going lovers of his day who in spite of their troubles sleep very comfortably till noon.

'17'

The lady on awaking rang a little hand-bell that stood on a table by her bed to call her maid. Then as the maid did not appear at once she tapped impatiently on the floor with the heel of her slipper. The watch in the next line was a repeater.

'19'

All the rest of this canto was added in the second edition of the poem. See pp. 84-86. Pope did not notice that he describes Belinda as waking in I. 14 and still asleep and dreaming in ll. 19-116.

'20 guardian Sylph':

compare ll. 67-78.

'23 a Birth-night Beau':

a fine gentleman in his best clothes, such as he would wear at a ball on the occasion of a royal birthday.

'30'

The nurse would have told Belinda the old tales of fairies who danced by moonlight on rings in the greensward, and dropped silver coins into the shoes of tidy little maids. The priest, on the other hand, would have repeated to her the legend of St. Cecilia and her guardian angel who once appeared in bodily form to her husband holding two rose garlands gathered in Paradise, or of St. Dorothea, who sent an angel messenger with a basket of heavenly fruits and flowers to convert the pagan Theophilus.

'42 militia':

used here in the general sense of "soldiery."

'44 the box':

in the theater.

'the ring':

the drive in Hyde Park, where the ladies of society took the air.

'46 a chair':

a sedan chair in which ladies used to be carried about. Why is Belinda told to scorn it?

'50'

What is the meaning of "vehicles" in this line?

'56 Ombre':

the fashionable game of cards in Pope's day. See his account of a game in Canto III and the notes on that passage.

'57-67'

See 'Introduction', p. 85.

'69-70'

Compare 'Paradise Lost', I, 423-431.

'79'

conscious of their face: proud of their beauty.

'81 These':

the gnomes who urge the vain beauties to disdain all offers of love and play the part of prudes.

'85 garters, stars, and coronets':

the garter is the badge of the Knights of the Garter, an order founded by Edward III, to which only noble princes and noblemen of the highest rank were admitted. "Stars" are the jeweled decorations worn by members of other noble orders. "Coronets" are the inferior crowns worn by princes and nobles, not by sovereigns.

'86 "Your Grace"':

the title bestowed in England on a duchess--The idea in this passage,