No More Learning

* * * * *


NOTES ON


ODE ON SOLITUDE

Pope says that this delightful little poem was written at the early age
of twelve. It first appeared in a letter to his friend, Henry Cromwell,
dated July 17, 1709. There are several variations between this first
form and that in which it was finally published, and it is probable that
Pope thought enough of his boyish production to subject it to repeated
revision. Its spirit is characteristic of a side of Pope's nature that
is often forgotten. He was, indeed, the poet of the society of his day,
urban, cultured, and pleasure-loving; but to the end of his days he
retained a love for the quiet charm of country life which he had come to
feel in his boyhood at Binfield, and for which he early withdrew from
the whirl and dissipations of London to the groves and the grotto of his
villa at Twickenham.





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NOTES ON


THE DESCENT OF DULLNESS

In the fourth book of the 'Dunciad', Pope abandons the satire on the
pretenders to literary fame which had run through the earlier books, and
flies at higher game. He represents the Goddess Dullness as "coming in
her majesty to destroy Order and Science, and to substitute the Kingdom
of the Dull upon earth. " He attacks the pedantry and formalism of
university education in his day, the dissipation and false taste of the
traveled gentry, the foolish pretensions to learning of collectors and
virtuosi, and the daringly irreverent speculations of freethinkers and
infidels. At the close of the book he represents the Goddess as
dismissing her worshipers with a speech which she concludes with "a yawn
of extraordinary virtue. " Under its influence "all nature nods," and
pulpits, colleges, and Parliament succumb. The poem closes with the
magnificent description of the descent of Dullness and her final
conquest of art, philosophy, and religion. It is said that Pope himself
admired these lines so much that he could not repeat them without his
voice faltering with emotion. "And well it might, sir," said Dr. Johnson
when this anecdote was repeated to him, "for they are noble lines. " And
Thackeray in his lecture on Pope in 'The English Humorists' says:

"In these astonishing lines Pope reaches, I think, to the very
greatest height which his sublime art has attained, and shows himself
the equal of all poets of all times.
It is the brightest ardor, the
loftiest assertion of truth, the most generous wisdom, illustrated by
the noblest poetic figure, and spoken in words the aptest, grandest,
and most harmonious. "





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EPITAPH ON GAY

John Gay, the idlest, best-natured, and best-loved man of letters of his
day, was the special friend of Pope. His early work, 'The Shepherd's
Week', was planned as a parody on the 'Pastorals' of Pope's rival,
Ambrose Philips, and Pope assisted him in the composition of his
luckless farce, 'Three Hours after Marriage'. When Gay's opera 'Polly'
was forbidden by the licenser, and Gay's patrons, the Duke and Duchess
of Queensberry, were driven from court for soliciting subscriptions for
him, Pope warmly espoused his cause. Gay died in 1732 and was buried in
Westminster Abbey. Pope's epitaph for his tomb was first published in
the quarto edition of Pope's works in 1735--Johnson, in his discussion
of Pope's epitaphs ('Lives of the Poets'), devotes a couple of pages of
somewhat captious criticism to these lines; but they have at least the
virtue of simplicity and sincerity, and are at once an admirable
portrait of the man and a lasting tribute to the poet Gay.





* * * * *





APPENDIX


THE RAPE OF THE LOCK


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

MART.



FIRST EDITION




CANTO I


What dire offence from am'rous causes springs,
What mighty quarrels rise from trivial things,
I sing--This verse to C--l, Muse! is due:
This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:
Slight is the subject, but not so the praise, 5
If she inspire, and he approve my lays.

Say what strange motive, goddess! could compel
A well-bred lord t' assault a gentle belle?
O say what stranger cause, yet unexplored,
Could make a gentle belle reject a lord? 10
And dwells such rage in softest bosoms then,
And lodge such daring souls in little men?

Sol through white curtains did his beams display,
And ope'd those eyes which brighter shine than they,
Shock just had giv'n himself the rousing shake, 15
And nymphs prepared their chocolate to take;
Thrice the wrought slipper knocked against the ground,
And striking watches the tenth hour resound.
Belinda rose, and midst attending dames,
Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames: 20
A train of well-dressed youths around her shone,
And ev'ry eye was fixed on her alone:
On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore
Which Jews might kiss and infidels adore.