No More Learning

'303 Sporus':

a favorite of Nero, used here for Lord Hervey. See introduction to this
poem, p. 128.


'304 ass's milk':

Hervey was obliged by bad health to keep a strict diet, and a cup of
ass's milk was his daily drink.


'308 painted child':

Hervey was accustomed to paint his face like a woman.


'317-319'

Pope is thinking of Milton's striking description of Satan "squat like a
toad" by the ear of the sleeping Eve ('Paradise Lost', IV, 800). In this
passage "Eve" refers to Queen Caroline with whom Hervey was on intimate
terms. It is said that he used to have a seat in the queen's hunting
chaise "where he sat close behind her perched at her ear. "


'322 now master up, now miss':

Pope borrowed this telling phrase from a pamphlet against Hervey written
by Pulteney, a political opponent, in which the former is called "a
pretty little master-miss. "


'326 the board':

the Council board where Hervey sat as member of the Privy Council.


'328-329'

An allusion to the old pictures of the serpent in Eden with a snake's
body and a woman's, or angel's, face.


'330 parts':

talents, natural gifts.


'338-339'

An allusion to Pope's abandoning the imaginative topics to his early
poems, as the 'Pastorals' and 'The Rape of the Lock', and turning to
didactic verse as in the 'Essay on Man', and the 'Moral Epistles'.


'347'

An allusion to a story circulated, in an abusive pamphlet called 'A Pop
upon Pope', that the poet had been whipped for his satire and that he
had cried like a child.


'349'

Dull and scandalous poems printed under Pope's name, or attributed to
him by his enemies.
'351 the pictur'd shape':

Pope was especially hurt by the caricatures which exaggerated his
personal deformity.


'353 A friend in exile':

probably Bishop Atterbury, then in exile for his Jacobite opinions.


'354-355'

Another reference to Hervey who was suspected of poisoning the mind of
the King against Pope.


'361 Japhet':

Japhet Crooke, a notorious forger of the time. He died in prison in
1734, after having had his nose slit and ears cropped for his crimes;
see below, l. 365.


'363 Knight of the post':

a slang term for a professional witness ready to, swear to anything for
money. A knight of the shire, on the other hand, is the representative
of a county in the House of Commons.


'367 bit':

tricked, taken in, a piece of Queen Anne slang. The allusion is probably
to the way in which Lady Mary Wortley Montague allowed Pope to make love
to her and then laughed at him.


'369 friend to his distress':

in 1733, when old Dennis was in great poverty, a play was performed for
his benefit, for which Pope obligingly wrote a prologue.


'371'

Colley Gibber, actor and poet laureate. Pope speaks as if it were an act
of condescension for him to have drunk with Gibber. --'Moore': James
Moore Smythe (see note on l. 23), whom Pope used to meet at the house of
the Blounts. He wrote a comedy, 'The Rival Modes', in which he
introduced six lines that Pope had written.