PAPER 4: Alexander Pope

Question 1

Key info

Answer 1

Catholic, Tory, stunted growth, formalist writer, Scriblerus Club member.

Question 2

Key works

Answer 2

Pastorals
Essay on criticism
Dunciad
The rape of the lock
Epistle to Arbuthnot

Question 3

Key ideas

Answer 3

FORM - heroic couplet. Art & nature as one; order vs. chaos; high/low registers according to subject; ancients vs. moderns; mock-heroic.

Question 4

Critics:

Answer 4

Jones: mock-heroic suitable for the Augustans because of its inbuilt “critical apparatus”
Rogers: pope prided himself on being independent and not reliant on patronage (because he had subscriptions).
Deutsch: Turned all genres into satire by the end of his career.
Sitter: believed artifice/stylisation helped poet to be colloquial. Departures from regularity: significant therefore.

Question 5

The Dunciad: key info

Answer 5

1728. Mock heroic about writers and court corruption; mocking apparatus and prolegomena of critics.

Question 6

The Dunciad: Key themes

Answer 6

Pun “Illiad”.

Mock-heroic; courtly conduct; art of writing; rulership/authority; miltonic imagery.

Question 7

The Dunciad - ideas

Answer 7

Nobility undercut; criticism personified (swift also); ignorance of moderns/hacks; shows chaos of reality all at once. Imposes order by structure - books with small ideas building up within.

Question 8

The Dunciad, Book 1 - quotes

Answer 8

“Dulness o’er all possessed her ancient right,/ daughter of chaos and eternal night”

Dunce trying to write - “plunged for his sense, but found no bottom there,/ yet wrote and floundered on, in mere despair” “round him much embryo, much abortion lay” “all he stole”

Question 9

The Dunciad - book 2 - quotes

Answer 9

Dullness puts img of poet in front of the audience: “with pert flat eyes she windowed well it’s head;/ a brain of feathers and a heart of lead”
- competition between the courtiers ensues:
“learn, my sons, the wondrous power of noise”, the victor: “who sings so loudly, and so long”, next: “here prove who… the most in love of dirt excell” “A pig of lead to him who dives the best”
Eventually critics send all to sleep.

Question 10

The Dunciad - book 3 - quotes

Answer 10

Landscape over which the best poet presides - shown to the king poet by “vision true”

Question 11

The Dunciad - book 4 - quotes

Answer 11

Dullness on her throne - “beneath her footstool, science groans in chains,/ and wit dreads exile, penalties and pains”
“May you, may Cam, and Isis preach it long!/ the RIGHT DIVINE of kings to govern wrong.”

Question 12

The Rape of the Lock - key facts

Answer 12

1714, heroi-comical poem, 5 cantos, real story and arbitrating purpose

Question 13

TROTL - key themes + ideas

Answer 13

Love; courtship, supernatural/mythical; gender; aesthetics/cosmetics; theft; superficiality and melodrama of court/society.

Question 14

TROTL - quotes C1

Answer 14

Opening lines: “what dire offence from amorous causes springs,/ what mighty contests rise from trivial things”
L of religion - “and now, unveiled, the toilet stands displayed,/ each silver base in mystic order laid”. Maid: “inferior priestess”. L of war: “now awful beauty puts on all its arms”

Question 15

TROTL - c2

Answer 15

The lock: the “prize”
“Resolved to win, he mediates the way,/ by force to ravish, or by fraud betray”
“With tender billet-Doux he lights the pyre,/ and breathes three amorous sighs to raise the fire”
Protecting sylphs: “or stain her honour, or her new brocade”

Question 16

TROTL - c3

Answer 16

At court “Anna” “dost sometimes counsel take - and sometimes tea”
“The peer now spreads the glittering forfex wide,/ t’enclose the lock; now joins it, to divide”

Question 17

TROTL - c5

Answer 17

(C4 = sylphs going to cave of spleen) Fight to regain the lock - “a beau and a witling perished in the throng,/ one died in metaphor, and one in song”
Belinda crying - “not fierce Othello in so loud a strain/ roared for the handkerchief that caused his pain”
Lost lock - “this lock, the muse shall consecrate to fame,/ and ‘midst the stars inscribe Belinda’s name.”

Question 18

The temple of fame - about

Answer 18

1715. From Chaucer’s House of Fame. Longer “dream vision”

Question 19

Temple of fame - key themes/ideas

Answer 19

Gods/supernatural/myths, fame/glory/heroism, power, history, illogic of those who achieve fame, fame bestowed by speech - gossips? Praise and slander both via speech…

Question 20

Temple of fame - quotes

Answer 20

Happening to artists on the walls of the temple: “critics I saw their names deface,/ and fix their own, with labour, in their place”
Hierarchy in temple: “chief were those, who not for empire fought,/ but with their toils their people’s safety bought”
People seeking fame: “their pleas were different, their request the same:/ for good and bad alike are fond of fame”
“Thus her blind sister, fickle fortune reigns,/ and, undiscerning, scatters crowns and chains”
Negative rumours - “in every ear it spread, on every tongue it grew”

Question 21

The Pastorals - about

Answer 21

1709, four sections for the four seasons - shepherds dialogue on different goddesses.

Question 22

The Pastorals - quotes

Answer 22

Spring - “no lambs or sheep for victims I’ll impart,/ thy victim, love, shall be the shepherd’s heart”
“While a kind glance at her pursuer flies,/ how much at variance are her feet and eyes!” Silvia.
Summer - “on me loves fiercer flames for ever prey,/ by night he scorches, as he burns by day”
Autumn - repetition of “go, gentle gales, and bear my sighs away!”
Winter - “no daphne’s dead, and beauty is no more!” (Repeated)

Question 23

Epistle to Arbuthnot - key info

Answer 23

Published 1735, satire, heroic couplets, just before Arbuthnot died. Most autobiographical work by Pope.
Essence of piece: defence of satire and his writing.

Question 24

Epistle to A - quotes

Answer 24

Defending satire - “whom have I hurt? Has poet yet, or peer,/ lost the arched eyebrow, or Parnassian sneer?”
“I sought no homage from the race that write”
Calls critics/modern writers “amphibious things”

Question 25

An essay on criticism - about

Answer 25

1711, not really analytical but a compilation of Pope’s opinions on writing. Verse essay, Horatian mode (ie. gentle and fun, not harsh). 3 parts.

Question 26

An essay on criticism - quotes

Answer 26

Rules of writing: “nature methodised”
“Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,/ much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found”
“For different styles with different subjects sort,/ as several garbs with country, town, and court” (clothes/writing - self presentation!)
“Be silent always when you doubt your sense”

ADVICE? - imperatives & memorable form?