No More Learning

1725 Edits Shakespeare.

1726 Finishes translation of 'Odyssey'.

1727-8 'Miscellanies' by Pope and Swift.

1728-9 'Dunciad'.

1731-2 'Moral Essays': 'Of Taste', 'Of the Use of Riches'.

1733-4 'Essay on Man'.

1733-8 'Satires and Epistles'.

1735 'Works'.

1735 'Letters' published by Curll.

1741 'Works in Prose'; vol. II. includes the correspondence with Swift.

1742 Fourth book of 'Dunciad'.

1742 Revised 'Dunciad'.

1744 Died, May 30.
1751 First collected edition, published by Warburton, 9 vols.





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SELECTIONS FROM POPE





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THE RAPE OF THE LOCK



AN HEROI-COMICAL POEM



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


Mart, [Epigr, XII. 84. ]


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 offer'd to a
Bookseller, you had the good-nature for my sake to consent to the
publication of one more correct: This I was forc'd to, before I had
executed half my design, for the Machinery was entirely wanting to
compleat it.

The Machinery, Madam, is a term invented by the Critics, to signify that
part which the Deities, Angels, or Daemons 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't is 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 call'd '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 Daemons of Earth
delight in mischief; but the Sylphs whose habitation is in the Air, are
the best-condition'd creatures imaginable.