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a French book call'd Le Comte de Gabalis, which both in its title and fize is fo like a Novel, that many of the Fair Sex have read it for one by mistake. According to thefe Gentlemen, the four Elements are inhabited by Spirits, which they call Sylphs, Gnomes, Nymphs, and Salamanders. The Gnomes or Dæmons of Earth delight in mifchief; but the Sylphs, whofe habitation is in the Air, are the beft condition'd creatures imaginable. For they fay, any mortals may enjoy the most intimate familiarities with thefe gentle Spirits, upon a condition very eafy to all true Adepts, an inviolate prefervation of Chastity.

As to the following Canto's, all the paffages of them are as fabulous, as the Vifion at the beginning, or the Transformation at the end; (except the lofs of your Hair, which I always mention with reverence.) The Human perfons are as fictitious as the Airy ones; and the character of Belinda, as it is now manag'd, refembles you in nothing but in Beauty.

If this Poem had as many Graces as there are in your Perfon, or in your Mind, yet I could never hope it fhould pafs thro' the world half fo Uncenfur'd as You have done. But let its fortune be what it will, mine is happy enough, to have given me this occafion of af. furing you that I am, with the trueft efteem,

MADAM,

Your most obedient, Humble Servant,

A. POPE.

THE

RAPE of the LOCK.

Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos;
Sed juvat hoc precibus me tribuiffe tuis. MART.

CANTO I

HAT dire offence from am'rous causes

WE

fprings,

What mighty contests rise from trivial things,
I fing---This verse to CARYL, Muse! is due;
This ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:

NOTES.

It appears by this Motto, that the following Poem was written or published at the Lady's requeft. But there are some further circumstances 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 several translations in Dryden's Mifcellanies) originally proposed the subject to him in a view of putting an end, by this piece of ridicule, to a quarrel that was risen 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 fo well as to give about copies of it. That firft sketch, (we learn from one of his Letters) was written in lefs than a fortnight, in 1711. in two Canto's

Slight is the subject, but not so the praise,
If She infpire, and He approve my lays.

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Say what strange motive, Goddess! could compel A well-bred Lord t'affault a gentle Belle? O fay what stranger caufe, yet unexplor'd, Could make a gentle Belle reject a Lord? In tafks fo bold, can little men engage, And in foft bofoms dwells fuch mighty Rage? Sol thro' white curtains fhot a tim❜rous ray, And ope'd those eyes that must eclipse the day:

VARIATIONS.

VER, 11, 12. It was in the first editions,

And dwells fuch rage in softest bosoms then, And lodge fuch daring Souls in little Men? P. VER. 13. etc. Stood thus in the first Edition, Sol thro' white curtains did his beams difplay, And ope'd those eyes which brighter fhone than they; Shock juft had giv'n himself the rousing 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. P.

NOTES.

tot'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 Canto's. We fhall give the reader the pleafure of feeing in what manner thefe additions were inferted, fo as to feem not to be added, but to grow out of the Poem. See Notes, Cant. I. * 19, etc. P.

This infertion he always efteemed, and juftly, the greatest effort of his fki and art as a Poet.

Now lap-dogs give themselves the roufing shake,
And fleepless lovers, juft at twelve, awake: 16
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 prest,
Her guardian SYLPH prolong'd the balmy reft:
"Twas He had fummon'd to her filent bed

21

The morning dream that hover'd o'er her head,

NOTES.

VER. 22. Belinda ftill, etc.] All the verfes from hence to the end of this Cantò were added afterwards. P.

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VER. 20. Her Guardian Sylph] When Mr. Pope had pro jected to give this Poem its prefent form, he was obliged to find it with its Machinery. For as the subject of the Epic Poem confifts of two parts, the metaphysical and the civil; so this mock epic, which is of the fatiric kind, and receives its grace from a ludicrous imitation of the other's pomp and folemnity, was to have the fame divifion of the fubject. And, as the civil part is intentionally debafed by the choice of an infignificant action: fo fhould the metaphyfical, by the ufe of fome very extravagant fyftem. A rule, which tho' neither Boileau nor Garth have been careful enough to attend to, our Author's good fenfe would not suffer him to overlook. And that fort of Machinery which his judgment taught him was only fit for his ufe, his admirable invention fupplied. There was but one Syftem in all nature which was to his purpose, the Reficrufian Philofophy; and this, by the well directed effort of his imagination, he prefently feized upon. The fanatic Alchemifts, in their fearch after the great fecret, had 'invented a means altogether proportioned to their end. It was a kind of Theological-Philofophy, made up of almoft equal mixtures of Pagan Platonifin, Chriftian Quietifm, and the Jewish Cabbala; a compofition enough to fright Reafon from human commerce. This general fyftem, he tells us, he took as he found it in a little French tract called, Le Comte de Gabalis. This

A Youth more glitt'ring than a Birth-night Beau,
(That ev'n in flumber caus'd her cheek to glow).
Seem'd to her ear his winning lips to lay,
25

And thus in whispers faid, or feem'd to say.
Fairest of mortals, thou distinguish'd care
Of thousand bright Inhabitants of Air!
If e'er one Vision touch thy infant thought,
Of all the Nurse and all the Priest have taught;
Of airy Elves by moonlight fhadows feen,
The filver token, and the circled green,

Or virgins vifited by Angel-pow'rs,

31

With golden crowns and wreaths of heav'nly flow'rs;

NOTES.

ous piece of raillery of the Abbe Villiers, upon that invifible fect, of which the stories that went about at that time, made a great deal of noise at Paris. But, as in this fatirical Dialogue, Mr. P. found feveral whimfies, of a very high mysterious kind, told of the nature of these elementary beings, which were very unfit to come into the machinery of fuch a fort of poem, he has with great judgment omitted them; and in their ftead, made use of the Legendary ftories of Guardian Angels, and the Nursery Tales of the Fairies; which he has artfully accommodated to the reft of the Roficrufian Syftem. And to this, (unless we will be fo uncharitable to believe he intended to give a needless scandal) we muft fuppofe he referred, in these two lines,

If e'er one Vifion touch'd thy infant thought,

Of all the nurse, and all the priest have taught. Thus, by the most beautiful invention imaginable, he has contrived, that, as in the ferious Epic, the popular belief supports the Machinery; fo, in his mock Epic, the Machinery fhould be contrived to difmount philofophic pride and arrogance,

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