The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems Part 18

'147 Forfex':

a Latin word meaning scissors.

'152'

Pope borrowed this idea from Milton, who represents the wound inflicted on Satan, by the Archangel Michael as healing immediately--

Th' ethereal substance closed Not long divisible.

 

--'Paradise Lost', VI, 330-331.

'165 Atalantis': 'The New Atalantis',

a four-volume "cornucopia of scandal" involving almost every public character of the day, was published by a Mrs. Manley in 1709. It was very widely read. The Spectator found it, along with a key which revealed the ident.i.ties of its characters, in the lady's library already mentioned ('Spectator', No. 37).

'166 the small pillow':

a richly decorated pillow which fas.h.i.+onable ladies used to prop them up in bed when they received morning visits from gentlemen. Addison gives an account of such a visit in the 'Spectator', No. 45.

'167 solemn days':

days of marriage or mourning, on which at this time formal calls were paid.

'173 the labour of the G.o.ds':

the walls of Troy built by Apollo and Neptune for King Laomedon.

'178 unresisted':

irresistible.

CANTO IV

'8 Cynthia':

a fanciful name for any fas.h.i.+onable lady. No individual is meant.

'manteau':

a loose upper garment for women.

'16 Spleen':

the word is used here as a personification of melancholy, or low spirits. It was not an uncommon affectation in England at this time. A letter to the 'Spectator', No. 53, calls it "the distemper of the great and the polite."

'17 the Gnome':

Umbriel, who in accordance with his nature now proceeds to stir up trouble. Compare Canto I, ll. 63-64.

'20'

The bitter east wind which put every one into a bad humor was supposed to be one of the main causes of the spleen.

'23 She':

the G.o.ddess of the spleen. Compare l. 79.

'84 Megrim':

headache.

'29 store':

a large supply.

'38 night-dress':

the modern dressing-gown. The line means that whenever a fas.h.i.+onable beauty bought a new dressing-gown she pretended to be ill in order to show her new possession to sympathetic friends who called on her.

'40 phantoms':

these are the visions, dreadful or delightful, of the disordered imagination produced by spleen.

'43 snakes on rolling spires':

like the serpent which Milton describes in 'Paradise Lost', IX, 501-502, "erect amidst his circling spires."

'46 angels in machines':

angels coming to help their votaries. The word "machine" here has an old-fas.h.i.+oned technical sense. It was first used to describe the apparatus by which a G.o.d was let down upon the stage of the Greek theater. Since a G.o.d was only introduced at a critical moment to help the distressed hero, the phrase, "deus ex machina," came to mean a G.o.d who rendered aid. Pope transfers it here to angels.