No More Learning

'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.


'120 fable:'

plot.


'123'

What is the difference between "cavil" and "criticise"?


'129 the Mantuan Muse:'

the poetry of Virgil, which Pope thinks the best commentary on Homer. In
what sense is this to be understood?


'130 Maro:'

Virgil, whose full name was Publius Vergilius Maro, Pope here praises
Virgil's well-known imitation of Homer. Since "nature and Homer were the
same," a young poet like Virgil could do nothing better than copy Homer.


'138 the Stagirite:'

Aristotle, a native of Stagyra, was the first and one of the greatest of
literary critics. His "rules" were drawn from the practice of great
poets, and so, according to Pope, to imitate Homer was to obey the
"ancient rules. "


'141'

There are some beauties in poetry which cannot be explained by criticism.


'142 happiness:'

used here to express the peculiar charm of spontaneous poetic expression
as contrasted with "care," 'i. e. ' the art of revising and improving,
which can be taught.
'152 vulgar bounds:'

the limitations imposed upon ordinary writers.


'157 out of . . . rise:'

surpass the ordinary scenes of nature.


'159 Great wits:'

poets of real genius.


'160 faults:'

here used in the sense of irregularities, exceptions to the rules of
poetry. When these are justified by the poet's genius, true critics do
not presume to correct them. In many editions this couplet comes after
l. 151. This was Pope's first arrangement, but he later shifted it to
its present position.


'162 As Kings:'

the Stuart kings claimed the right to "dispense with laws," that is, to
set them aside in special instances. In 1686 eleven out of twelve
English judges decided in a test case that "it is a privilege
inseparably connected with the sovereignty of the king to dispense with
penal laws, and that according to his own judgment. " The English people
very naturally felt that such a privilege opened the door to absolute
monarchy, and after the fall of James II, Parliament declared in 1689
that "the pretended power of suspending of laws . . .