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Disraeli, in the Curiosities of Literature (in his chapter on "Poetical Imitations and Similarities"), more aptly, from Howell: ""Tis a powerful sex: they were too strong for the first, the strongest and wisest man that was; they must needs be strong when one hair of a woman can draw more than an hundred pair of oxen." Howell would seem to be referring to some older proverb or phrase.

186. twelve vast French Romances = the works of Calprenede, Mad. Scuderi, La Fayette, and others; e.g. Cleopatra, Le Grand Cyrus, Clelie, Zayde, &c. &c. Pope may well call them "vast;" e.g. Clelie appeared in ten volumes of 800 pages each. The English translations were published in huge folios. See especially Spectator, No. 37.

193. See Virg. Æn. zi. 794–5.

196. tydes. Comp. Dryden:

"But let not all the gold which Tagus hides,

And pays the sea in tributary tides," &c.

[What is meant by floating?]

44. 197. melting music. Comp. Il Penseroso, 165.

203. Denizens. The old French deinzein (from deins, Latin de intus), means properly one who dwells within, i.e. within the city, or who enjoys its franchise; then generally an inhabitant; then specially a naturalized citizen. Here his Denizens = his fellow-inhabitants.

205. [What are the shrouds of a ship?]

Hymn Nat. 218.

i.

207. [What is the force of insect here ?]

See Paradise Lost, vii. 476-9.

For other meanings of shrouds see note to

208. waft: here in a middle sense. So wave in Il Penseroso, 148.

in clouds of gold. This use of cloud is common enough: e.g. see Paradise Lost, 340: "a pitchy cloud of locusts," &c. For gold see Paradise Lost, i. 483. Comp. "gilded butterfly" (King Lear, V. iii. 12 ; Coriolanus, I. iï. 65, &c.).

210. [What part of speech is half here?]

211. to the wind. See Lycid. 13.

212. filmy. Properly film means a thin skin or pellicle. See Paradise Lost, xi. 412. It is used for a very slender thread: Queen Mab's "lash" was of film. (Romeo and Juliet, I. iv. 63.) Here filmy dew seems to mean the film-like moisture that covers leaves, &c. glittring textures. Milton's "glittering tissues" (Paradise Lost, v. 592). Tissue and texture are radically identical.

213. dipt-tincture. See Paradise Lost, v. 283 and 285.

218. Superior by the head. See Hom. Il. iii. 168:

So Ibid. 193, 227.

ἤτοι μὲν κεφαλῇ καὶ μείζονες ἄλλοι ἔασιν,” κ.τ.λ.

We should now rather say a head."

221. Sylphs and Sylphids. The feminine form sylphid is formed after the analogy of Achæid or Achæad (Iliad, v. 424), Troad, &c. Comp. Hom. II. :

“Αχαΐδες, οὐκέτ' Αχαιοι.”

(Comp. Virg. Æn. ix. 616.) This id or ad is also the Greek feminine patronymic sign. Comp. Nereus and Nereid, &c. (The masculine is ida. Comp. Atreus and Atreides, &c.) This same termination is also specially used to denote a poem or work on some subject specified in the first part of the word: thus Thebaid = poem on Thebes; Æneid = poem on Æneas; Iliad poem on Ilium. (Iliad = a Trojan woman in Æn. i. 480, &c.)

44. 221. This is a parody of Paradise Lost, v. 600:

See also 1. 772.

"Hear, all ye angels, progeny of light,

Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers."

222. Fays, Fairies, Genii, are names of Latin origin. Fays and fairies are romance from the same root, the Latin fatum. Elf is of Teutonic origin; dæmon of Greek.

223. spheres. Sphere-properly = a ball, globe, and then specially a planet (see Hymn Nat.)-seems to be used also for a planet's path, or orbit, or circuit, and so for the area or region of its motion; then generally for any tract or district or province in which any body moves. Comp. Shakspere, 1 Henry IV. V. iv. 65:

"Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere."

So Gonzalo speaks of the moon's sphere. (Tempest, II. i. 182. Moon's sphere Midsummer Night's Dream, II. i. 7.) So Midsummer Night's Dream, II. i. 153: "And certain stars shot madly from their spheres

To hear the sea-maid's music."

moon in

So King John, V. vii. 74:

"Now, now, you stars that move in your right spheres,
Where be your powers?"

&c. &c. The general sense occurs in Antony and Cleopatra, II. vii. 15: "To be call'd into a huge sphere and not to be seen to move in 't," &c. Comp. orb in 1 Henry IV. V. i. 15:

"Will you again unknit

This churlish knot of all-abhorred war,

And move in that obedient orb again

Where you did give a fair and natural light?" &c.

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(Comp. orb in Bacon, apud Johnson.) Comp. the uses of " circle," circuit," 'round." 226. [whiten. Mention other verbs with this termination. What other force has it?] 227. wandring orbs = meteors. See Shakspere, passim. Strictly the term planets (see following line) means 'wanderers;" but it is applied to stars that move along regular and calculated courses.

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230. See Paradise Lost, iv. 555-60, especially 556-7:

"Swift as a shooting star

In autumn thwarts the night."

Comus, 80-1.

I. iii. 15:

athwart. Comp. across, &c. For the simple word, see Troilus and Cressida,

"Trial did draw,

Bias and thwart."

232. See Paradise Lost, xi. 244: "Iris had dipt the woof."

233. main.

The full phrase is the "main sea; SO "main flood" (Merchant of Venice, IV. i. 72); "the main waters" (Ib. V. i. 97).

234. [What is the meaning of kindly here? Comp. "gentle rain," in Merchant of

Venice, IV. i. 185. What is meant by "the kindly fruits of the earth" in the Book of Common Prayer?]

44. 237. [Put these words in their proper order. What objection is there to such an inversion of an English sentence as they now present? Make your answer clear by quoting or making examples.]

[What is meant by the care of Nations? What other meaning might the words possibly have? Comp. I. 240.]

Dryden proposed to introduce the guardian angels of kingdoms into his neverwritten Arthuriad. See Johnson's Life of Dryden. Dryden charged Blackmore with stealing his subject; "only," he adds, "the guardian angels of kingdoms were machines too ponderous for him to manage. Pope, following Dryden in this respect, as in many others, proposed to use the same supernatural agency in his epic on Brutus; but that, too, was never written.

"

239. Fair was commonly used as a substantive in the latter part of the seventeenth and in the eighteenth centuries, after the French; thus Spectator: "Gentlemen who do not design to marry yet pay their devoirs to one particular fair;" but it does not seem to have been adopted so far as to have a plural inflection.

45. 245. A wash. See Vicar of Wakefield, chap. vi.

246. [What is meant by airs here? What other various meanings has the word?] 248. Comp. Spectator: "She was flounced and furbelowed from head to foot, every ribbon was crinkled, and every part of her garment in curl."

Flounce. See note on frounced, Il Pens. 123.

Furbelo = strictly a kind of flounce; commonly, the fringed border of a gown or petticoat. "Furbelows, fringe; any ornamental part of a female['s] dress. Var. dial." (Halliwell's Arch. and Prov. Dict.) Comp. German falbel. Perhaps the -ow is diminutival. Comp. (hole) hollow, (fur) furrow, morrow (= morning), (sper) sparrow (sperhauke = sparrowhawk, Piers Ploughman, Ed. Skeat, vi. 199). Perhaps the spelling of the word points to some popular attempt at an explanation of it.

251. slight. So sleight was variously spelt. We retain the word in the phrase "sleight of hand." In older English it was used much more commonly; e.g. see Shakspere, 3 Henry VI. IV. ii. 20, &c.

254. China jar. China-ware or porcelain was first introduced into Europe in the beginning of the sixteenth century. . . . For a long time it was erroneously believed that China alone furnished the proper kind of clay necessary for its manufacture, and this circumstance, along with the then extremely rude state of the potter's art in Europe, prevented, for nearly two hundred years subsequent to its first introduction, any attempt towards the fabrication of this article in the west," &c. &c. See Pop. Encycl. The great value set upon it about Queen Anne's reign is often referred to by the writers of that time. See Swift's Directions to Servants; Pope's

"And mistress of herself, though china fall."

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See

A visit to a china-shop cured ladies of the vapours:" see Spectator, No. 336. Macaulay's Hist. Eng. chap. xi. : "Mary had acquired at the Hague a taste for the porcelain of China, and amused herself by forming at Hampton a vast collection of hideous images, &c. &c. ... The fashion . . . spread fast and wide," &c. &c. This taste, for which, perhaps there is something more to be said than that it is, in Macaulay's words, "frivolous and inelegant," has still its votaries, but now they are mostly of the opposite sex. See Gay's Epistle to a Lady on her Passion for old China.

255. brocade. "A stuff of gold, silver, or silk, raised and enriched with flowers, foliage, and other ornaments. Formerly it signified only a stuff woven all of gold or silver, in which silk was mixed. At present all stuffs ... are so called if they are worked with flowers or other figures." (Pop. Encycl.) Comp. Gay:

"Should you the rich brocaded suit unfold,

Where rising flow'rs grow stiff with frosted gold."

45. 256. masquerade. See Spectator, Nos. 8, 14. From the Restoration onwards masquerades were extremely popular. They were suppressed by law in 1724, but presently revived with the connivance of the Government. See Fielding's novels, passim.

260. Fans were a notable part of a lady's equipment at this time. In a skilful hand they did much execution on manly bosoms. See Spectator, No. 102: see especially the the fluttering of the fan. Gay devoted a poem to this fatal engine.

261. drops =

the pendants of 1. 286.

265. See Spectator, No. 127.

272. [stop'd. What is meant by stop'd here?

substantives.]

=

passage on

Stopper and stopple are the

274. bodkin originally a small dagger, as in Hamlet. Here, as in our modern usage, a large blunt needle. It also meant an instrument used in dressing the hair; see below, l. 561-3 :

"Was it for this you took such constant care
The bodkin, comb, and essence to prepare ;
For this your locks in paper durance bound."

278. Shrink. See Hymn Nat. 203.

279. Ixion. See Class. Dict.

280. Mill chocolate mill. "Chocolate was introduced into Europe (from Mexico and the Brazils) about A. D. 1520.... It was sold in the London coffee-houses soon after their establishment, 1650." (Haydn's Dict. of Dates.) Mill would seem to have been pronounced meel.

46. 284. orb in orb circle in circle. See The Dunciad, iv. 79, 80:

See note on sphere.

"Not closer, orb in orb, conglob'd are seen

The buzzing bees about the dusky queen."

285. thrid: a various form of thread. See Dunciad, iv. 256.
288. [What is the force of birth here?]

CANTO III.

290. [What is the force of rising?]

291. a structure, &c. = Hampton Court. It was built by Wolsey on the site of the manor-house of the Knights Hospitallers.

292. In the time of William III. and Queen Anne, Hampton Court was frequently the scene of Cabinet meetings. See Macaulay's Hist. Eng. chap. xi. &c.

294. foreign Tyrants

= Louis XIV.

296. Tea was pronounced tay till towards the middle of the eighteenth century, a pronunciation surviving still amongst our lower classes. An advertisement in the Mercurius Politicus for September 20, 1658, speaks of the new "China drink' as "called, by the Chinians tchee, and by other nations tay, alias tea." Locke writes it thé. So bohea was pronounced bohay: see Pope's Ep. to Miss Blount, 1715. For other changes in pronunciation see Trench's English Past and Present. Tea was first brought into Europe from India by the Dutch in 1610. "That it was known [in England] in the time of the Protector was pretty evident, but it was only used as a regalia at high entertainments. Tea was sold at from six to ten guineas the pound. Thomas Garway, the founder of Garraway's Coffee House, first offered it at a more reasonable price, and in 1657 he advertised tea at fifty shillings a pound." (Our English Home.) Waller says wrongly that we owed "the best of herbs," as "the best of queens," to Portugal. It grew gradually into request in England in the latter half of the seventeenth century. Pepys drunk his first dish of tea in 1660. It was still a luxury in Pope's time. See Tatler and Spect. &c. passim. See Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature, Chambers' Book of Days.

46. 300. Comp. Swift's Journal of a Modern Lady:

"Let me now survey

Our madam o'er her evening tea,
Surrounded with the noisy clans

Of prudes, coquettes, and harridans," &c.

[the ball-the visit. What is the force of the here?]

301. speaks the glory. See Lycid. 173.

305. Snuff. "Snuff-taking took its rise in England from the captures made of vast quantities of snuff by Sir George Rooke's expedition to Vigo in 1702." (Haydn's Dict. of Dates.) See the "Advertisement" on the Exercise of the Snuff-box at the end of Spect. No. 138. A letter in Spect. No. 344 dwells on "an impertinent custom the women, the fine women, have lately fallen into, of taking snuff." See Swift's Polite Conversation:

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Col. [Atwit]. Miss, will you take a pinch of snuff?

"Miss [Notable]. No, Colonel; you must know I never take snuff but when I'm angry. "Lady Answerall. Yes, yes, she can take snuff, but she has never a box to put it in.'

[supply. Is the plural defensible?]

313. [thirst of fame. What should we say?]

47. 321. Matadore. "One of the three principal cards in the games of ombre and quadrille, which are always the two black aces, and the deuce in spades and clubs and the seventh in hearts and diamonds.' ." (Johnson.)

329. succinct "tucked or girded up." (Johnson.) See Milton's Paradise Lost,

iii. 643:

"His habit fit for speed succinct."

330. halbert = pole-axe. See Shakspere, Comedy of Errors, V. i. 185.

334. trump is a corruption of triumph.

335. sable Matadores. See l. 321.

336. The game was, as has been said, of Spanish origin.

349. Pam knave of clubs.

353. It will be seen Belinda has now won four tricks.

354. the field the battle, as in Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 105:

=

"What though the field be lost?

All is not lost."

359. boots is used personally with regard to circle and limbs, impersonally to that long, &c. See Lycid. 64. So "avails" is used both personally and impersonally.

the regal circle = "the circle of my glory " (Shakspere, King John, V. i. 2); “the

hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king" (Richard II. III. ii. 161).

362. the globe the orb, a symbol of dominion usually accompanied by a sceptre.

48. 368. strow: a very common variant of strew.

374. In heaps on heaps. See Judges xv. 16.

376. It will be seen that the Baron has now won four tricks.

380. Codille "is when those who defend the pool make more tricks than those who defend the game, which is called winning the codille." (Boyle.)

388. the long canals. The grounds of Hampton Court were laid out according to the Dutch taste.

392. Comp. Virg. Æn. x. 501-5.

394. the mill the coffee-mill. Coffee was introduced into England shortly before the middle of the seventeenth century. "A Greek named Canopius visited Oxford in 1637, and, in preference to the Ipocrase and ale of the College buttery, quaffed a dark decoction strange to the Oxonians. Evelyn perhaps saw him drink the first cup of coffee ever drank in England." (Our English Home.) The first coffee-house is said to have been opened at Oxford by a man

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