No More Learning

'45'

In the 'Iliad' (Bk. XX) the gods are represented as taking sides for the
Greeks and Trojans and fighting among themselves. Pallas opposes Ares,
or Mars; and Hermes, Latona.


'48 Olympus:'

the hill on whose summit the gods were supposed to dwell, often used for
heaven itself.


'50 Neptune:'

used here for the sea over which Neptune presided.


'53 a sconce's height:'

the top of an ornamental bracket for holding candles.


'61'

Explain the metaphor in this line.


'64'

The quotation is from a song in an opera called 'Camilla'.


'65'

The Maeander is a river in Asia Minor. Ovid ('Heroides', VII, 1-2)
represents the swan as singing his death-song on its banks.


'68'

Chloe: a fanciful name. No real person is meant.


'71'

The figure of Jove weighing the issue of a battle in his scales is found
in the 'Iliad', VIII, 69-73. Milton imitated it in 'Paradise Lost', IX,
996-1004. When the men's wits mounted it showed that they were lighter,
less important, than the lady's hair, and so were destined to lose the
battle.
'89-96'

This pedigree of Belinda's bodkin is a parody of Homer's account of
Agamemnon's scepter ('Iliad', II, 100-108).


'105-106'

In Shakespeare's play Othello fiercely demands to see a handkerchief
which he has given his wife, and takes her inability to show it to him
as a proof of her infidelity.


'113'

the lunar sphere: it was an old superstition that everything lost on
earth went to the moon. An Italian poet, Ariosto, uses this notion in a
poem with which Pope was familiar ('Orlando Furioso', Canto XXXIV), and
from which he borrowed some of his ideas for the cave of Spleen.


'122'

Why does Pope include "tomes of casuistry" in this collection?


'125'

There was a legend that Romulus never died, but had been caught up to
the skies in a storm. Proculus, a Roman senator, said that Romulus had
descended from heaven and spoken to him and then ascended again (Livy,
I, 16).


'129' Berenice's Locks:

Berenice was an Egyptian queen who dedicated a lock of hair for her
husband's safe return from war. It was said afterward to have become a
constellation, and a Greek poet wrote some verses on the marvel.


'132'

Why were the Sylphs pleased?


'133' the Mall:

the upper side of St. James's park in London, a favorite place at this
time for promenades.


'136' Rosamonda's lake:

a pond near one of the gates of St. James's park, a favorite rendezvous
for lovers.


'137' Partridge:

an almanac maker of Pope's day who was given to prophesying future
events. Shortly before this poem was written Swift had issued a mock
almanac foretelling that Partridge would die on a certain day.