The word "machine" here has an
old-fashioned technical sense.
old-fashioned technical sense.
Alexander Pope
53, calls it "the distemper of the great
and the polite. "
'17 the Gnome':
Umbriel, who in accordance with his nature now proceeds to stir up
trouble. Compare Canto I, ll. 63-64.
'20'
The bitter east wind which put every one into a bad humor was supposed
to be one of the main causes of the spleen.
'23 She':
the goddess of the spleen. Compare l. 79.
'84 Megrim':
headache.
'29 store':
a large supply.
'38 night-dress':
the modern dressing-gown. The line means that whenever a fashionable
beauty bought a new dressing-gown she pretended to be ill in order to
show her new possession to sympathetic friends who called on her.
'40 phantoms':
these are the visions, dreadful or delightful, of the disordered
imagination produced by spleen.
'43 snakes on rolling spires':
like the serpent which Milton describes in 'Paradise Lost', IX, 501-502,
"erect amidst his circling spires. "
'46 angels in machines':
angels coming to help their votaries.
The word "machine" here has an
old-fashioned technical sense. It was first used to describe the
apparatus by which a god was let down upon the stage of the Greek
theater. Since a god was only introduced at a critical moment to help
the distressed hero, the phrase, "deus ex machina," came to mean a god
who rendered aid. Pope transfers it here to angels.
'47 throngs':
Pope now describes the mad fancies of people so affected by spleen as to
imagine themselves transformed to inanimate objects.
'51 pipkin':
a little jar. Homer ('Iliad', XVIII, 373-377) tells how Vulcan had made
twenty wonderful tripods on living wheels that moved from place to place
of their own accord.
'52'
Pope in a note to this poem says that a lady of his time actually
imagined herself to be a goose-pie.
'56 A branch':
so AEneas bore a magic branch to protect him when he descended to the
infernal regions ('AEneid', VI, 136-143).
'Spleenwort':
a sort of fern which was once supposed to be a remedy against the spleen.
'58 the sex':
women.
'59 vapours':
a form of spleen to which women were supposed to be peculiarly liable,
something like our modern hysteria. It seems to have taken its name from
the fogs of England which were thought to cause it.
'65 a nymph':
Belinda, who had always been so light-hearted that she had never been a
victim of the spleen.
'89 Citron-waters':
a liqueur made by distilling brandy with the rind of citrons. It was a
fashionable drink for ladies at this time.
and the polite. "
'17 the Gnome':
Umbriel, who in accordance with his nature now proceeds to stir up
trouble. Compare Canto I, ll. 63-64.
'20'
The bitter east wind which put every one into a bad humor was supposed
to be one of the main causes of the spleen.
'23 She':
the goddess of the spleen. Compare l. 79.
'84 Megrim':
headache.
'29 store':
a large supply.
'38 night-dress':
the modern dressing-gown. The line means that whenever a fashionable
beauty bought a new dressing-gown she pretended to be ill in order to
show her new possession to sympathetic friends who called on her.
'40 phantoms':
these are the visions, dreadful or delightful, of the disordered
imagination produced by spleen.
'43 snakes on rolling spires':
like the serpent which Milton describes in 'Paradise Lost', IX, 501-502,
"erect amidst his circling spires. "
'46 angels in machines':
angels coming to help their votaries.
The word "machine" here has an
old-fashioned technical sense. It was first used to describe the
apparatus by which a god was let down upon the stage of the Greek
theater. Since a god was only introduced at a critical moment to help
the distressed hero, the phrase, "deus ex machina," came to mean a god
who rendered aid. Pope transfers it here to angels.
'47 throngs':
Pope now describes the mad fancies of people so affected by spleen as to
imagine themselves transformed to inanimate objects.
'51 pipkin':
a little jar. Homer ('Iliad', XVIII, 373-377) tells how Vulcan had made
twenty wonderful tripods on living wheels that moved from place to place
of their own accord.
'52'
Pope in a note to this poem says that a lady of his time actually
imagined herself to be a goose-pie.
'56 A branch':
so AEneas bore a magic branch to protect him when he descended to the
infernal regions ('AEneid', VI, 136-143).
'Spleenwort':
a sort of fern which was once supposed to be a remedy against the spleen.
'58 the sex':
women.
'59 vapours':
a form of spleen to which women were supposed to be peculiarly liable,
something like our modern hysteria. It seems to have taken its name from
the fogs of England which were thought to cause it.
'65 a nymph':
Belinda, who had always been so light-hearted that she had never been a
victim of the spleen.
'89 Citron-waters':
a liqueur made by distilling brandy with the rind of citrons. It was a
fashionable drink for ladies at this time.
