Plate III

Vol.I. facing p.131.

thepWakorDelia seup

This lock the Muse shall consecrate to Famel, And midst the Stars inscribe Belinda's Name.na

Rape of the Lock.

THE

RAPE of the LOCK.

* Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos ;

Sed juvat, hoc precibus me tribuifse tuis,

MART.

WHAT

CANTO IL
THAT dire offence from am'rous causes

springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things,
I fing—This verse to CARYL, Muse! is due :
This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view :
K 2

Slight

* It appears, by this Motto, that the following Poem was written or published at the Lady's request. But there are some further circumstances not unworthy relating. Mr. Caryl (a Gentleman who was Secretary to Queen Mary, wife of James II, whose fortunes he followed into France, Author of the Comedy of Sir Solomon Single, and of several translations in Dryden's Miscellanies) originally proposed the subject to him in a view of putting an end, by this piece of ridicule, to a quarrel that was risen between two noble Families, those of Lord Petre and of Mrs. Fermor, on the trifling occasion of his having cut off a lack of her hair. The Author sent it to the Lady, with whom he was acquainted ; and she took it so well as to give about copies of it. That first sketch (we learn from one of his Letters) was written in less than a fortnight, in 1711. in two Canto's only, and it was so printed; first, in a Miscellany of Bern. Líntot's, without the name of the Author. But it was received fo well that he made it more considerable. the next year by the

IO

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?
Oh say what stranger cause, yet unexplor'd,
Could make a gentle Belle reject a Lord ?
In talks so bold, can little men engage,
And in soft bosoms dwells such mighty Rage?

Sol thro' white curtains shot a tim'rous ray,
And ope'd those eyes that must eclipse the day :
Now lap-dogs give themselves the rousing shake,
And fleepless lovers, juft at twelve, awake : 16
Thrice rung the bell, the slipper knock'd the ground,
And the press'd watch return'd a filver found.

Belinda

$

addition of the machinery of the Sylphs, and extended it to five Canto's. We shall give the reader the pleasure of seeing in what manner these additions were inserted, so as to feem not to be added, but to grow out of the Pcem. See Notes, Cant. I. v. 19, etc.

P. This insertion he always esteemed, and juftly; the greatest effort of his skill and art as a Poet.

VARIATIONS.
Ver. 11, 12. It was in the first editions,

And dwells such rage in softest bofoms then,

And lodge such daring Souls in little Men?' P.
Ver. 13, etc. Stood thus in the first Edition,

Sol thro' white curtains did his beams display,
And ope'd those eyes which brighter shone than they;
Shock just had giv'n himself the rousing shake,
And Nymphs prepar'd their Chocolate to take;
Thrice the wrought flipper knock'd against the

ground,
Ard Itriking watches the tenth hour resound. P.

21

Belinda still her downy pillow preft,
Her guardian Sylph prolong’d the balmy rest:
'Twas He had summon’d to her filent bed
The morning dream that hover'd o'er her head.
A Youth more glittring than a Birth-night Beau,
(That ey’n in slumber caus'd her cheek to glow)
Seem'd to her ear his winning lips to lay, 25
And thus in whispers said, or seem'd to say.

Fairest of mortals, thou distinguish'd care
Of thousand bright Inhabitants of Air !
If e'er one Vision touch thy infant thoughts
Of all the Nurse and all the Priest have taught;
Of airy Elves by moonlight shadows seen,

31 The silver token, and the circled

green, Or virgins visited by Angel-pow’rs, With golden crowns and wreaths of heav'nly flow'rs; Hear and believe! thy own importance know, 35 Nor bound thy narrow views to things below. Some secret truths, from learned pride conceal'd, To Maids alone and Children are reveald: What tho' no credit doubting Wits may give ? The Fair and Innocent shall still believe.

40 Know then, unnumber'd Spirits round thee fly, The light Militia of the lower sky: These, tho' unseen, are ever on the wing, Hang o'er the Box, and hover round the Ring. Think what an equipage thou hast in Air, 45 And view with scorn two Pages and a Chair. As now your own, our beings were of old, And once inclos'd in Woman's beauteous mould;

Thence Ver. 19. Belinda still, etc.] All the verses from hence to the end of this Canto, were added afterwards.

K 3

Thence, by a soft transition, we repair
From earthly Vehicles to these of air.

50
Think not, when Woman's tranfient breath is fled,
That all her vanities at once are dead;
Succeeding vanities she still regards,
And tho' she plays no more, o'erlooks the cards.
Her joy in gilded Chariots, when alive, 55
And love of Ombre, after death survive.
For when the Fair in all their pride expire,
To their first Elements their Souls retire:
The Sprites of fiery Termagants in Flame
Mount up, and take a Salamander's name. 60
Soft yielding minds to Water glide away,
And fip, with Nymphs, their elemental Tea.
The graver Prude finks downward to a Gnome,
In search of mischief still on Earth to roam.
The light Coquettes in Sylphs aloft repair,

65 And sport and Autter in the fields of Air.

Know farther yet; whoever fair and chaste Rejects mankind, is by some Sylph embrac’d: For Spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease Allume what sexes and what shapes they please. What guards the purity of melting Maids, In courtly balls, and midnight masquerades, Safe from the treach'rous friend, the daring spark, The glance by day, the whisper in the dark, When kind occasion prompts their warm desires, When music foftens, and when dancing fires ? 76

'Tis IMITATIONS.

Quæ gratia currúm
Armorumque fuit vivis, quæ cura nitentes
Pafcero equos, eadem fequitur tellure repollos.

Virg. Æn. vi. P.

VER. 54, 55.