The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems Part 40

An allusion to a story circulated, in an abusive pamphlet called 'A Pop upon Pope', that the poet had been whipped for his satire and that he had cried like a child.

'349'

Dull and scandalous poems printed under Pope's name, or attributed to him by his enemies.

'351 the pictur'd shape':

Pope was especially hurt by the caricatures which exaggerated his personal deformity.

'353 A friend in exile':

probably Bishop Atterbury, then in exile for his Jacobite opinions.

'354-355'

Another reference to Hervey who was suspected of poisoning the mind of the King against Pope.

'361 j.a.phet':

j.a.phet Crooke, a notorious forger of the time. He died in prison in 1734, after having had his nose slit and ears cropped for his crimes; see below, l. 365.

'363 Knight of the post':

a slang term for a professional witness ready to, swear to anything for money. A knight of the shire, on the other hand, is the representative of a county in the House of Commons.

'367 bit':

tricked, taken in, a piece of Queen Anne slang. The allusion is probably to the way in which Lady Mary Wortley Montague allowed Pope to make love to her and then laughed at him.

'369 friend to his distress':

in 1733, when old Dennis was in great poverty, a play was performed for his benefit, for which Pope obligingly wrote a prologue.

'371'

Colley Gibber, actor and poet laureate. Pope speaks as if it were an act of condescension for him to have drunk with Gibber.--'Moore': James Moore Smythe (see note on l. 23), whom Pope used to meet at the house of the Blounts. He wrote a comedy, 'The Rival Modes', in which he introduced six lines that Pope had written. Pope apparently had given him leave to do so, and then retracted his permission. But Moore used them without the permission and an undignified quarrel arose as to the true authorship of the pa.s.sage.

'373 Welsted',

a hack writer of the day, had falsely charged Pope with being responsible for the death of the lady who is celebrated in Pope's 'Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady'.

'374-375'

There is an allusion here that has never been fully explained. Possibly the pa.s.sage refers to Teresa Blount whom Pope suspected of having circulated slanderous reports concerning his relations with her sister.

'376-377'

Suffered Budgell to attribute to his (Pope's) pen the slanderous gossip of the 'Grub Street Journal',--a paper to which Pope did, as a matter of fact, contribute--and let him (Budgell) write anything he pleased except his (Pope's) will. Budgell, a distant cousin of Addison's, fell into bad habits after his friend's death. He was strongly suspected of having forged a will by which Dr. Tindal of Oxford left him a considerable sum of money. He finally drowned himself in the Thames.

'378 the two Curlls':

Curll, the bookseller, and Lord Hervey whom Pope here couples with him because of Hervey's vulgar abuse of Pope's personal deformities and obscure parentage.

'380 Yet why':

Why should they abuse Pope's inoffensive parents? Compare the following lines.

'383'

Moore's own mother was suspected of loose conduct.

'386-388 Of gentle blood ... each parent':

Pope a.s.serted, perhaps incorrectly, that his father belonged to a gentleman's family, the head of which was the Earl of Downe. His mother was the daughter of a Yorkshire gentleman, who lost two sons in the service of Charles I (cf. l. 386).

'389 Bestia':

probably the elder Horace Walpole, who was in receipt of a handsome pension.

'391'

An allusion to Addison's unhappy marriage with the Countess of Warwick.

'393 The good man':

Pope's father, who as a devout Roman Catholic refused to take the oath of allegiance (cf. l. 395), or risk the equivocations sanctioned by the "schoolmen," 'i.e'. the Catholic casuists of the day (l. 398).

'404 Friend':