Part 27 (1/2)

RAPE OF THE LOCK.--The poem which displays most originality of invention is the _Rape of the Lock_. It is, perhaps, the best and most charming specimen of the mock-heroic to be found in English; and it is specially deserving of attention, because it depicts the social life of the period in one of its princ.i.p.al phases. Miss Arabella Fermor, one of the reigning beauties of London society, while on a pleasure party on the Thames, had a lock of her hair surrept.i.tiously cut off by Lord Petre. Although it was designed as a joke, the belle was very angry; and Pope, who was a friend of both persons, wrote this poem to a.s.suage her wrath and to reconcile them. It has all the system and construction of an epic. The poet describes, with becoming delicacy, the toilet of the lady, at which she is attended by obsequious sylphs.

The party embark upon the river, and the fair lady is described in the splendor of her charms:

This nymph, to the destruction of mankind, Nourished two locks, which graceful hung behind In equal curls, and well conspired to deck, With s.h.i.+ning ringlets, the smooth, ivory neck.

Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare.

And beauty draws us by a single hair.

Surrounding sylphs protect the beauty; and one to whom the lock has been given in charge, flutters unfortunately too near, and is clipped in two by the scissors that cut the lock. It is a rather extravagant conclusion, even in a mock-heroic poem, that when the strife was greatest to restore the lock, it flew upward:

A sudden star, it shot through liquid air, And drew behind a radiant trail of hair,

and thus, and always, it

Adds new glory to the s.h.i.+ning sphere.

With these simple and meagre materials, Pope has constructed an harmonious poem in which the sylphs, gnomes, and other sprites of the Rosicrucian philosophy find appropriate place and service. It failed in its princ.i.p.al purpose of reconciliation, but it has given us the best mock-heroic poem in the language. As might have been expected, it called forth bitter criticisms from Dennis; and there were not wanting those who saw in it a political significance. Pope's pleasantry was aroused at this, and he published _A Key to the Lock_, in which he further mystifies these sage readers: Belinda becomes Great Britain; the Baron is the Earl of Oxford; and Thalestris is the d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough.

THE MESSIAH.--In 1712 there appeared in one of the numbers of _The Spectator_, his _Messiah, a Sacred Eclogue_, written with the purpose of harmonizing the prophecy of Isaiah and the singular oracles of the Pollio, or Fourth Eclogue of Virgil. Elevated in thought and grand in diction, the Messiah has kept its hold upon public favor ever since, and portions of it are used as hymns in general wors.h.i.+p. Among these will be recognized that of which the opening lines are:

Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem, rise; Exalt thy towering head and lift thine eyes.

In 1713 he published a poem on _Windsor Forest_, and an _Ode on St.

Cecilia's Day_, in imitation of Dryden. He also furnished the beautiful prologue to Addison's Cato.

TRANSLATION OF THE ILIAD.--He now proposed to himself a task which was to give him more reputation and far greater emolument than anything he had yet accomplished--a translation of the Iliad of Homer. This was a great desideratum, and men of all parties conspired to encourage and reward him.

Chapman's Homer, excellent as it was, was not in a popular measure, and was known only to scholars.

In the execution of this project, Pope labored for six years--writing by day and dreaming of his work at night; translating thirty or forty lines before rising in the morning, and jotting down portions even while on a journey. Pope's polished pentameters, when read, are very unlike the full-voiced hexameters of Homer; but the errors in the translation are comparatively few and unimportant, and his own poetry is in his best vein.

The poem was published by subscription, and was a great pecuniary success.

This was in part due to the blunt importunity of Dean Swift, who said: ”The author shall not begin to print until I have a thousand guineas for him.” Parnell, one of the most accomplished Greek scholars of the day, wrote a life of Homer, to be prefixed to the work; and many of the critical notes were written by Broome, who had translated the Iliad into English prose. Pope was not without poetical rivals. Tickell produced a translation of the first book of the Iliad, which was certainly revised, and many thought partly written, by Addison. A coolness already existing between Pope and Addison was increased by this circ.u.mstance, which soon led to an open rupture between them. The public, however, favored Pope's version, while a few of the _dilettanti_ joined Addison in preferring Tickell's.

The pecuniary results of Pope's labors were particularly gratifying. The work was published in six quarto volumes, and had more than six hundred subscribers, at six guineas a copy: the amount realized by Pope on the first and subsequent issues was upwards of five thousand pounds--an unprecedented payment of bookseller to author in that day.

VALUE OF THE TRANSLATION.--This work, in spite of the criticism of exact scholars, has retained its popularity to the present time. Chapman's Homer has been already referred to. Since the days of Pope numerous authors have tried their hands upon Homer, translating the whole or a part. Among these is a very fine poem by Cowper, in blank verse, which is praised by the critics, but little read. Lord Derby's translation is distinguished for its prosaic accuracy. The recent version of our venerable poet, Wm. C.

Bryant, is acknowledged to be at once scholarly, accurate, and harmonious, and will be of permanent value and reputation. But the exquisite tinkling of Pope's lines, the pleasant refrain they leave in the memory, like the chiming of silver bells, will cause them to last, with undiminished favor, unaffected by more correct rivals, as long as the language itself. ”A very pretty poem, Mr. Pope,” said the great Bentley; ”but pray do not call it Homer.” Despite this criticism of the Greek scholar, the world has taken it for Homer, and knows Homer almost solely through this charming medium.

The Iliad was issued in successive years, the last two volumes appearing in 1720. Of course it was savagely attacked by Dennis; but Pope had won more than he had hoped for, and might laugh at his enemies.

With the means he had inherited, increased by the sale of his poem, Pope leased a villa on the Thames, at Twickenham, which he fitted up as a residence for life. He laid out the grounds, built a grotto, and made his villa a famous spot.

Here he was smitten by the masculine charms of the gifted Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who figures in many of his verses, and particularly in the closing lines of the _Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard_. It was a singular alliance, destined to a speedy rupture. On her return from Turkey, in 1718, where her husband had been the English amba.s.sador, she took a home near Pope's villa, and, at his request, sat for her portrait. When, later, they became estranged, she laughed at the poet, and his coldness turned into hatred.