Part 14 (1/2)

The lady on awaking rang a little hand-bell that stood on a table by her bed to call her maid. Then as the maid did not appear at once she tapped impatiently on the floor with the heel of her slipper. The watch in the next line was a repeater.

'19'

All the rest of this canto was added in the second edition of the poem.

See pp. 84-86. Pope did not notice that he describes Belinda as waking in I. 14 and still asleep and dreaming in ll. 19-116.

'20 guardian Sylph':

compare ll. 67-78.

'23 a Birth-night Beau':

a fine gentleman in his best clothes, such as he would wear at a ball on the occasion of a royal birthday.

'30'

The nurse would have told Belinda the old tales of fairies who danced by moonlight on rings in the greensward, and dropped silver coins into the shoes of tidy little maids. The priest, on the other hand, would have repeated to her the legend of St. Cecilia and her guardian angel who once appeared in bodily form to her husband holding two rose garlands gathered in Paradise, or of St. Dorothea, who sent an angel messenger with a basket of heavenly fruits and flowers to convert the pagan Theophilus.

'42 militia':

used here in the general sense of ”soldiery.”

'44 the box':

in the theater.

'the ring':

the drive in Hyde Park, where the ladies of society took the air.

'46 a chair':

a sedan chair in which ladies used to be carried about. Why is Belinda told to scorn it?

'50'

What is the meaning of ”vehicles” in this line?

'56 Ombre':