No More Learning

"Equivocal generation" is the old term used to denote
spontaneous generation of this sort. Pope applies it here to critics
without proper training who spring spontaneously from the mire of
ignorance.


'44 tell:'

count.


'45'

The idea is that a vain wit's tongue could out-talk a hundred ordinary
men's.


'53 pretending wit:'

presuming, or ambitious mind.


'56-58 memory . . . understanding imagination. '

This is the old threefold division of the human mind. Pope means that
where one of these faculties is above the average in any individual,
another of them is sure to fall below. Is this always the case?


'63 peculiar arts:'

special branches of knowledge.


'73'

In what sense can nature be called the source, the end, and the test of
art?


'76 th' informing soul:'

the soul which not only dwells in, but animates
and molds the body.
'80-81'

What two meanings are attached to "wit" in this couplet?


'84 'Tis more:'

it is more important.

'the Muse's steed:'

Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology, was supposed to be the
horse of the Muses and came to be considered a symbol of poetic genius.


'86 gen'rous:'

high-bred.


'88'

What is the difference between "discovered" and "devised"?


'94 Parnassus' top:'

the Muses were supposed to dwell on the top of Parnassus, a mountain in
Greece. Great poets are here thought of as having climbed the mountain
to dwell with the Muses.


'96'

What is (cf. text) "the immortal prize"?


'99 She',

i. e. learned Greece, especially Greek criticism, which obtained the
rules of poetry from the practice of great poets, and, as it were,
systematized their inspiration.


'104 following wits':

later scholars.


'105'

What is meant by "the mistress" and "the maid" in this line?


'109 Doctor's bills:'

prescriptions.


'112'

These are the prosy commentators on great poets, whose dreary notes
often disgust readers with the original.