Pope Flashcards
Rape of the Lock: Pope born
1688
Rape of the Lock: Pope dies
1744
Rape of the Lock: short version written
1712
Rape of the Lock: long version written
1717
Rape of the Lock: science
Rosicrucianism
Rape of the Lock: hierarchy, cosmos
playing with scale
Rape of the Lock: imperial vantage
contrast of scale; the downfall of epic; tortoise and elephant combs, symbols of empire
Rape of the Lock: genre
mock epic
Rape of the Lock: list epic features
- Feast (coffee at lacquered tables)
- Battle (ombre)
- Swarthy Moor (Matadore in ombre)
- Queen of Amazons (Thalestris)
- Moralizing interjections (“O thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate… Sudden these honors shall be snatched away”)
Rape of the Lock: addressed to
John Caryll, who suggested it
Rape of the Lock: tone
light, mild, charming reproach (let’s laugh about this)
Rape of the Lock: billet-doux are
love letters
Rape of the Lock: ombre is
a card game (matadores, spadillio, manillio, basto)
Rape of the Lock: setting
At Belinda’s place first, then Hampton Court near the Thames
Rape of the Lock: The Baron
(Lord Petre, Arabella’s suitor) cuts lock
Rape of the Lock: Belinda
(Arabella Fermor) has lock cut
Rape of the Lock: Clarissa
woman in attendance at Hampton Court party, helps Baron by giving scissors, delivers moralizing lecture at the end
Rape of the Lock: Ariel
Guardian Sylph (sylphs - spirits of coquettes)
Rape of the Lock: Shock
lapdog poodle
Rape of the Lock: Betty
Belinda’s maid
Rape of the Lock: name some of the sylphs
Zephyretta, Brillante, Momentilla, Crispissa, Ariel
Rape of the Lock: Zephyretta, Brillante, Momentilla, Crispissa, Ariel
the sylphs
Rape of the Lock: Umbriel
chief gnome, retrieves tears and sighs from Cave of Spleen to vex B
Rape of the Lock: Thalestris
(Gertrude Morley, friend of Pope’s) – Belinda’s friend who eggs her on to wrath, i.e. Queen of Amazons
Rape of the Lock: based on actual episode between
two prominent Catholic families (P wanted to prevent ridicule)
Rape of the Lock: 1712 version
334 lines; a great success
Rape of the Lock: second version started in 1713 and published in 1717. How long, compared to first?
2-3 times as long
Rape of the Lock: second version started in 1713 and published in 1717. Written against whose advice? Why this advice?
Addison’s; thought it was perfect
Rape of the Lock: second version started in 1713 and published in 1717. Adds what?
Epic “machinery” (supernatural agents in epic action) of Sylphs; Belinda’s toilet; card game; Cave of Spleen
Rape of the Lock: Pope the first writer to build
a lucrative life-long career of his writing
Rape of the Lock: in 1706-1711 Pope is friends with
Congreve, Walsh, Steele, Addison (Whigs)
Rape of the Lock: Pope’s friends (Congreve, Walsh, Steele, Addison) are
Whigs
Rape of the Lock: Pope later adopts new friends:
Swift, Dr. Arbuthnot, John Gay, Thomas Parnell (Tories)
Rape of the Lock: Pope’s friends (Swift, Dr. Arbuthnot, John Gay, and Thomas Parnell) were
Tories
Rape of the Lock: Scriblerus Club
written with tories Swift, Dr. Arbuthnot, John Gay, Thomas Parnell; fosters satiric temper that appears in Gulliver’s Travels, The Beggar’s Opera, The Dunciad
Rape of the Lock: Martinus Scriblerus
In 1714 Pope, Swift, Dr. Arbuthnot, John Gay, Thomas Parnell write a biography of a learned fool, Martnius Scriblerus, who writes commentary on educated nonsense
Rape of the Lock: references the monarch,
Anne (Anna). Sometimes she takes tea at Hampton Court
Rape of the Lock: Test Act
(1673): all denominations except Anglicanism suffered legal restrictions and penalties (for example, Petre could not take his place in the House of Lords as a Catholic)
Rape of the Lock: what recent law is important to understanding this piece?
Test Act (1673)
Rape of the Lock: name a source P draws on, aside from epics
Le Comte de Gabalis: where Rosicrucian spirits discussed (Pope explains in intro letter; says it’s so much like a novel many ladies have read it by mistake)
Rape of the Lock: quote about the impending disaster, “Whether the nymph shall break…”
“Whether the nymph shall break Diana’s law, / Or some frail china jar receive a flaw . . . Or whether Heaven has doomed that Shock must fall.”
Rape of the Lock: taste
B’s toilet; the abundance of items, superfluities, which are a hodge podge of items related to imperial wealth; requires taste (i.e. discrimination) to sort out important from unimportant. The lock isn’t important.
Rape of the Lock: talking point, contrast of scale
Most epics, imperial vantage point greater than the enemy’s is a triumph; here the vantage point is so much wider that the result is comical.
Rape of the Lock: Rosicrucianism (i.e. sylphs, gnomes, nymphs, salamanders)
17th-c. cultural movement seeking esoteric order to the universe (Giardono Bruno, hermeticism)
o Frances Yates, “Yates Thesis”: beginnings of science
