1     What dire offence from am'rous causes springs,
2     What mighty contests rise from trivial things,
3     I sing--This verse to Caryl, Muse! is due:
4     This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:
5     Slight is the subject, but not so the praise,
6     If she inspire, and he approve my lays.

7         Say what strange motive, Goddess! could compel
8     A well-bred lord t' assault a gentle belle?
9     O say what stranger cause, yet unexplor'd,
10   Could make a gentle belle reject a lord?
11   In tasks so bold, can little men engage,
12   And in soft bosoms dwells such mighty rage?

13       Sol thro' white curtains shot a tim'rous ray,
14   And op'd those eyes that must eclipse the day;
15   Now lap-dogs give themselves the rousing shake,
16   And sleepless lovers, just at twelve, awake:
17   Thrice rung the bell, the slipper knock'd the ground,
18   And the press'd watch return'd a silver sound.
19   Belinda still her downy pillow press'd,
20   Her guardian sylph prolong'd the balmy rest:
21   'Twas he had summon'd to her silent bed
22   The morning dream that hover'd o'er her head;
23   A youth more glitt'ring than a birthnight beau,
24   (That ev'n in slumber caus'd her cheek to glow)
25   Seem'd to her ear his winning lips to lay,
26   And thus in whispers said, or seem'd to say.

27       "Fairest of mortals, thou distinguish'd care
28   Of thousand bright inhabitants of air!
29   If e'er one vision touch'd thy infant thought,
30   Of all the nurse and all the priest have taught,
31   Of airy elves by moonlight shadows seen,
32   The silver token, and the circled green,
33   Or virgins visited by angel pow'rs,
34   With golden crowns and wreaths of heav'nly flow'rs,
35   Hear and believe! thy own importance know,
36   Nor bound thy narrow views to things below.
37   Some secret truths from learned pride conceal'd,
38   To maids alone and children are reveal'd:
39   What tho' no credit doubting wits may give?
40   The fair and innocent shall still believe.
41   Know then, unnumber'd spirits round thee fly,
42   The light militia of the lower sky;
43   These, though unseen, are ever on theg,
44   Hang o'er the box, and hover round the Ring.
45   Think what an equipage thou hast in air,
46   And view with scorn two pages and a chair.
47   As now your own, our beings were of old,
48   And once inclos'd in woman's beauteous mould;
49   Thence, by a soft transition, we repair
50   From earthly vehicles to these of air.
51   Think not, when woman's transient breath is fled,
52   That all her vanities at once are dead;
53   Succeeding vanities she still regards,
54   And tho' she plays no more, o'erlooks the cards.
55   Her joy in gilded chariots, when alive,
56   And love of ombre, after death survive.
57   For when the fair in all their pride expire,
58   To their first elements their souls retire:
59   The sprites of fiery termagants in flame
60     Mount up, and take a Salamander's name.
61   Soft yielding minds to water glide away,
62   And sip with Nymphs, their elemental tea.
63   The graver prude sinks downward to a Gnome,
64   In search of mischief still on earth to roam.
65   The light coquettes in Sylphs aloft repair,
66   And sport and flutter in the fields of air.

67       Know further yet; whoever fair and chaste
68   Rejects mankind, is by some sylph embrac'd:
69   For spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease
70   Assume what sexes and what shapes they please.
71   What guards the purity of melting maids,
72   In courtly balls, and midnight masquerades,
73   Safe from the treach'rous friend, the daring spark,
74   The glance by day, the whisper in the dark,
75   When kind occasion prompts their warm desires,
76   When music softens, and when dancing fires?
77   'Tis but their sylph, the wise celestials know,
78   Though honour is the word with men below.

79       Some nymphs there are, too conscious of their face,
80   For life predestin'd to the gnomes' embrace.
81   These swell their prospects and exalt their pride,
82   When offers are disdain'd, and love denied:
83   Then gay ideas crowd the vacant brain,
84   While peers, and dukes, and all their sweeping train,
85   And garters, stars, and coronets appear,
86   And in soft sounds 'Your Grace' salutes their ear.
87   'Tis these that early taint the female soul,
88   Instruct the eyes of young coquettes to roll,
89   Teach infant cheeks a bidden blush to know,
90   And little hearts to flutter at a beau.

91       Oft, when the world imagine women stray,
92   The Sylphs through mystic mazes guide their way,
93   Thro' all the giddy circle they pursue,
94   And old impertinence expel by new.
95   What tender maid but must a victim fall
96   To one man's treat, but for another's ball?
97   When Florio speaks, what virgin could withstand,
98   If gentle Damon did not squeeze her hand?
99   With varying vanities, from ev'ry part,
100 They shift the moving toyshop of their heart;
101 Where wigs with wigs, with sword-knots sword-knots strive,
102 Beaux banish beaux, and coaches coaches drive.
103 This erring mortals levity may call,
104 Oh blind to truth! the Sylphs contrive it all.

105     Of these am I, who thy protection claim,
106 A watchful sprite, and Ariel is my name.
107 Late, as I rang'd the crystal wilds of air,
108 In the clear mirror of thy ruling star
109 I saw, alas! some dread event impend,
110 Ere to the main this morning sun descend,
111 But Heav'n reveals not what, or how, or where:
112 Warn'd by the Sylph, oh pious maid, beware!
113 This to disclose is all thy guardian can.
114 Beware of all, but most beware of man!"

115     He said; when Shock, who thought she slept too long,
116 Leap'd up, and wak'd his mistress with his tongue.
117 'Twas then, Belinda, if report say true,
118 Thy eyes first open'd on a billet-doux;
119 Wounds, charms, and ardors were no sooner read,
120 But all the vision vanish'd from thy head.

121     And now, unveil'd, the toilet stands display'd,
122 Each silver vase in mystic order laid.
123 First, rob'd in white, the nymph intent adores
124 With head uncover'd, the cosmetic pow'rs.
125 A heav'nly image in the glass appears,
126 To that she bends, to that her eyes she rears;
127 Th' inferior priestess, at her altar's side,
128 Trembling, begins the sacred rites of pride.
129 Unnumber'd treasures ope at once, and here
130 The various off'rings of the world appear;
131 From each she nicely culls with curious toil,
132 And decks the goddess with the glitt'ring spoil.
133 This casket India's glowing gems unlocks,
134 And all Arabia breathes from yonder box.
135 The tortoise here and elephant unite,
136 Transform'd to combs, the speckled and the white.
137 Here files of pins extend their shining rows,
138 Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billet-doux.
139 Now awful beauty puts on all its arms;
140 The fair each moment rises in her charms,
141 Repairs her smiles, awakens ev'ry grace,
142 And calls forth all the wonders of her face;
143 Sees by degrees a purer blush arise,
144 And keener lightnings quicken in her eyes.
145 The busy Sylphs surround their darling care;
146 These set the head, and those divide the hair,
147 Some fold the sleeve, whilst others plait the gown;
148 And Betty's prais'd for labours not her own.

Screen Design (Electronic Edition):

Sian Meikle (University of Toronto Library)

Scanning:

Sharine Leung (Centre for Computing in the Humanities)

Form:

couplets

1.

First published anonymously in Lintot's Miscellany in May 1712, but revised, expanded, and published separately under Pope's name on March 2, 1714. To this edition Pope added the following dedicatory letter:

To Mrs. Arabella Fermor
Madam,
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 Dæmons 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 Dæmons of Earth delight in mischief; but the Sylphs, whose habitation is in the air, are the best-conditioned 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,
A. Pope

The Rape of the Lock was written at the request of John Caryl, a Catholic man of letters and Pope's lifelong friend and correspondent. In the year 1711, Robert, Lord Petre (the Baron of the poem), a relative of Caryl's, caused a serious quarrel by the theft of a lock of Miss Arabella Fermor's hair (Pope's Belinda). Caryl requested a jesting poem to laugh the families out of their anger, and Pope obliged with the 1712 two-canto version of The Rape of the Lock, which had only 334 lines. The version of 1714 exploited far more fully the idea of a "heroi-comical" poem. This involved the addition of the "celestial machinery," of Rosicrucian spirits--the sylphs. Other epic or "heroic" analogues added in 1714 included Belinda's toilet (the arming for battle), the card game of ombre (epic games), and the Cave of Spleen (descent to the underworld).

The present version contains one other addition made in 1717, Clarissa's speech in Canto V, which Pope said (with some irony) opened "more clearly the moral of the poem." The importance of The Rape of the Lock and its proper comprehension by its audience was underlined by a prose publication called the Key to the Lock. In this work, Pope, writing under the pseudonym of Esdras Barnevelt, carries on a comic attack on the poem, pointing out some of the religious overtones, such as the sylphs as guardian angels, Belinda's toilet as a parody of the Mass. Nolueram, Belinda .... I didn't wish to violate your locks, Belinda, but I'm happy to have granted this to your prayers (Martial, Epigrams, XII, 84).

17.

Thrice rung ... the ground. Belinda's summons to her maid employs the triple repetition common in epic poetry.

18.

press'd watch: a watch which sounded the immediately preceding hour or quarter hour when it was pressed. These watches enabled one to tell time when it was too dark to see.

21 ff.

The gods often communicate with the epic hero through dreams (e.g., Aeneid, III, 147 ff.).

23.

birth-night beau: dressed in the splendid apparel used for a royal birthday celebration.

27-28.

Epic heroes are always under the protection or guardianship of higher powers.

32.

silver token: coin left by the fairies in the shoes of grass covered with "fairy-ring," circles of dark, coarse grass, supposed to mark the place where the fairies have been dancing.

44.

box: theatre box.

Ring: the circular driveway in Hyde Park frequented by ladies of fashion.

46.

chair: sedan chair.

50.

vehicles: bodies (Pope intends a pun linking vehicles with equipage and chair).

55.

chariots: an eighteenth-century four-wheeled carriage but used in this context because of its epic appropriateness to the heroic action.

56.

ombre: see below, III, 27 ff.

57-66.

For when.... Air. This passage refers to the theory of personality which relates the basic kinds of temperament to the predominance of one or another of the four elements (air, fire, water, earth). Although the theory at times has been more generally held, it formed part of the Rosicrucian speculations from which Pope borrows his machinery.

61-62.

away ... tea: a perfect rhyme in Pope's day (pronounced {_e}i).

70.

Assume ... please: cf. the angels in Paradise Lost.

79.

nymphs: here used in the sense of maidens. Cf. dedicatory letter and line 62 where it refers to one of the four orders of Rosicrucian spirits.

105.

who thy protection claim: i.e., claim the right to protect thee.

106.

Ariel: "a word from the Vulgate ... rendered altar" (OED). The name is used in the Old Testament as a man's name and also occurs in Isaiah 29: 1-9, where it means "lion of God" and is applied to Jerusalem. Milton used the name for a rebel angel and Shakespeare for his benign aery spirit in The Tempest. In magical literature, the name is used for a spirit that controls the elements or planets.

108.

In the clear mirror: "[Pope] The language of the Platonists, the writers of the intelligible world of spirits, etc."

112.

pious: dutiful, godly.

115.

Shock. The shock or shough was a special kind of lap-dog, hairy, curled, and rough all over. (Pope puns on the usual meaning of the word.)

119.

Wounds ... ardors: i.e., the exaggerated expression of the billet-doux.

121 ff.

In the Key to the Lock (see introduction above), Pope calls attention to the parallel between these sacred rites of pride and the Mass. Belinda is the priestess; the maid, the inferior priestess or acolyte. Pope also has in mind the hero arming for battle.

148.

Betty: a generic name for a lady's maid.