Such late was Walsh-the Muse's judge and friend, Not free from faults, nor yet too vain to mend. THE RAPE OF THE LOCK. An Heroi-Comical Poem, WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1712. MADAM, TO MRS. ARABELLA FERMOR. It will be in vain to deny that I have some regard for this piece, since I dedicate it to you. Yet you may bear me witness, it was intended only to divert a few young ladies, who have good sense and good humour enough to laugh not only at their sex's little unguarded follies, but at their own. But as it was communicated with the air of a secret, it soon found its way into the world. An imperfect copy having been offered to a bookseller, you had the good-nature for my sake to consent to the publication of one more correct: this I was forced to, before I had executed half my design, for the machinery was entirely wanting to complete it. The machinery, Madam, is a term invented by the critics, to signify that part which the deities, angels or demons, are made to act in a poem : for the ancient poets are in one respect like many modern ladies; let an action be never so trivial in itself, they always make it appear of the utmost importance. These machines I determined to raise on a very new and odd foundation, the Rosicrucian doctrine of spirits. I know how disagreeable it is to make use of hard words before a lady; but 'tis so much the concern of a poet to have his works understood, and particularly by your sex, that you must give me leave to explain two or three difficult terms. The Rosicrucians are a people I must bring you acquainted with. The best account I know of them is in a French book called Le Comte de Gabalis, which both in its title and size is so like a novel, that many of the fair sex have read it for one by mistake. According to these gentlemen, the four elements are inhabited by spirits, which they call sylphs, gnomes, nymphs, and salamanders. The gnomes, or demons of earth, delight in mischief; but the sylphs, whose habitation is in the air, are the bestconditioned creatures imaginable. For they say, any mortals may enjoy the most intimate familiarities with these gentle spirits, upon a condition very easy to all true adepts, an inviolate preservation of chastity. As to the following cantos, all the passages of them are as fabulous as the vision at the beginning, or the transformation at the end (except the loss of your hair, which I always mention with reverence). The human persons are as fictitious as the airy ones; and the character of Belinda, as it is now managed, resembles you in nothing but in beauty. If this poem had as many graces as there are in your person, or in your mind, yet I could never hope it should pass through the world half so uncensured as you have done. But let its fortune be what it will, mine is happy enough, to have given me this occasion of assuring you that I am, with the truest esteem, Madam, Your most obedient, humble servant, Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos; A. POPE. Sed juvat, hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis."-MART. CANTO FIRST. WHAT dire offence from amorous causes springs, Say what strange motive, goddess! could compel W Sol through white curtains shot a timorous ray *, "It appears by this motto, that the following poem was written or published at the lady's request. But there are some further circumstances not unworthy relating. Mr. Caryl (a gentleman who was secretary to Queen Mary, wife of James II. whose fortunes he followed into France, author of the comedy of Sir Solomon Single, and of several translations in Dryden's Miscellanies) originally proposed the subject to him, with a view of putting an end, by this piece of ridicule, to a quarrel that had risen between two.noble families, those of Lord Petre and of Mrs. Fermor, on the trifling occasion of his having cut off a lock of her hair. The author sent it to the lady, with whom he was acquainted; and she took it so well as to give about copies of it. That first sketch (we learn from one his letters) was written in less than a fortnight, in 1711, in two cantos only, and it was so printed; first, in a Miscellany of Bern. Lintot's, without the name of the author. But it was received so well, that he made it more considerable the next year by the addition of the machinery of the sylphs, and extended it to five cantos. We shall give the reader the pleasure of seeing in what manner these additions were inserted, so as to seem not to be added, but to grow out of the poem. See notes, cant. i. ver. 19, &c. The characters introduced in this poem were Mr. Caryl, just before mentioned; Mrs. Arabella Fermor, under the name of Belinda; the Baron was Lord Petre, of small stature, who soon after married a great heiress, Mrs. Warmsley, and died leaving a posthumous son; Thalestris was Mrs. Morly; Sir Plume was her brother, Sir George Brown of Berkshire. w It was in the first editions, And dwells such rage in softest bosoms then, * Ver. 13, &c., stood thus in the first edition, Sol through white curtains did his beams display, And oped those eyes which brighter shone than they: And oped those eyes that must eclipse the day: Her guardian SYLPH prolonged the balmy rest: If e'er one vision touch'd thy infant thought, Or virgins visited by angel-powers With golden crowns and wreaths of heavenly flowers ; Think not, when woman's transient breath is fled, Shock just had given himself the rousing shake, And nymphs prepared their chocolate to take; Thrice the wrought slipper knock'd against the ground, y All the verses from hence to the end of this canto were added afterwards. Succeeding vanities she still regards, And though she plays no more, o'erlooks the cards. Know further yet; whoever fair and chaste Some nymphs there are, too conscious of their face, For life predestined to the gnomes' embrace. These swell their prospects and exalt their pride, When offers are disdain'd, and love denied: Then gay ideas crowd the vacant brain, While peers, and dukes, and all their sweeping train, And in soft sounds, YOUR GRACE salutes their ear. Oft, when the world imagine women stray, "Quæ gratia currûm Armorumque fuit vivis, quæ cura nitentes Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos." VIRG. Æneid. vi. |