Part 26 (2/2)

'391' admire:

not used in our modern sense, but in its original meaning, ”to wonder at.” According to Pope, it is only fools who are lost in wonder at the beauties of a poem; wise men ”approve,” 'i.e.' test and p.r.o.nounce them good.

'396-397'

Pope acknowledged that in these lines he was alluding to the uncharitable belief of his fellow-Catholics that all outside the fold of the Catholic church were sure to be d.a.m.ned.

'400 sublimes:'

purifies.

'404 each:'

each age.

'415 joins with Quality:'

takes sides with ”the quality,” 'i.e.' people of rank.

'429'

Are so clever that they refuse to accept the common and true belief, and so forfeit their salvation.

'441 Sentences:'

the reference is to a mediaeval treatise on Theology, by Peter Lombard, called the 'Book of Sentences'. It was long used as a university text-book.

'444 Scotists and Thomists:'

mediaeval scholars, followers respectively of Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas. A long dispute raged between their disciples. In this couplet Pope points out that the dispute is now forgotten, and the books of the old disputants lie covered with cobwebs in Duck-lane, a street in London where second-hand books were sold in Pope's day. He calls the cobwebs ”kindred,” because the arguments of Thomists and Scotists were as fine spun as a spider's web.

'449'

”The latest fas.h.i.+onable folly is the test, or the proof, of a quick, up-to-date wit.” In other words, to be generally accepted an author must accept the current fas.h.i.+on, foolish though it may be.

'457'

This was especially true in Pope's day when literature was so closely connected with politics that an author's work was praised or blamed not upon its merits, but according to his, and the critic's, politics.

'459 Parsons, Critics, Beaus':

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