Say what ftrange motive, Goddefs! could compel A well-bred Lord t'affault a gentle Belle? O fay what stranger caufe, yet unexplor'd, Could make a gentle Belle reject a Lord? In tafks fo bold, can little men engage, And in foft bofoms dwells fuch mighty Rage? Sol thro' white curtains fhot a tim'rous ray, And ope'd those eyes that muft eclipse the day: Now lap-dogs give themselves the rousing shake, 15 And fleepless lovers, juft at twelve, awake: Thrice rung the bell, the flipper knock'd the ground, And the prefs'd watch return'd a filver found. Belinda ftill her downy pillow preft, Her guardian SYLPH prolong'd the balmy rest: 'Twas He had fummon'd to her filent bed 20 that he made it more confiderable the next year by the addition of the machinery of the Sylphs, and extended it to five Canto's. We shall give the reader the pleasure of feeing in what manner thefe additions were inferted, fo as to feem not to be added, but to grow out of the Poem. See Notes, Cant I. v 19, etc. P. This inution he always efteemed, and justly, the greatest effort of his fkill and art as a Poet. VARIATIONS. VER. II, 12. It was in the first Editions, And dwells fuch rage in fofteft bofoms then, Sol thro' white curtains did his beams difplay, NOTES. VER. 20. Her Guardian Sylph) When Mr. Pope had projected to give this Poem its prefent form, he was obliged to find it NOTES. with its Machinery. For as the fubiect of the Epic Poem confifts of two parts, the metaphyfical and the civil, fo this mock epic, which is of the fatiric kind, and receives its grace from a ludicrous imitation of the other's pomp and folemnity, was to have the fame divifion of the fubje&t, And, as the civil part is intentionally debafed by the choice of an infignificant action: fo fhould the metaphyfical, by the use of some very extravagant fyftem. A rule, which tho' neither Boileau nor Garth have been careful enough to attend to, our Author's good fenfe would not fuffer him to overlook. And that fort of Machinery which his judgment taught him was only fit for his ufe, his admirable invention fupplied. There was but one System in all nature which was to his purpose, the Rosicrusian Philofophy; and this, by the well directed effort of his imagination, he prefently feized upon. The fanatic Alchemifts, in their fearch after the great fecret. had invented a means altogether proportioned to their end. It was a kind of Theological - Philofophy, made up of almost equal mixtures of Pagan Platonism, Chriftian Quietism, and the Jewish Cabbala; a compofition enough to fright Reason from human commerce. This general fyftem, he tells us; he took as he found it in a little French tract called, Le Comte de Gabalis. This book is written in Dialogue, and is a delicate and very ingenious piece of raillery of the Abbe Villiers, upon that invisible fect, of which the ftories that went about at that time, made a great deal of noife at Paris. But, as in this fatirical Dialogue, Mr. P. found feveral whimfies, of a very high myfterious kind, told of the nature of thefe elementary beings, which were very unfit to come into the machinery of fuch a fort of poem, he has with great judgment omitted them; and in their stead, made ufe of the Legendary ftories of Guardian Angels, and the Nursery Tales of the Fairies; which he has artfully accommodated to the reft of the Roficrufian Syftem. And to this, (unless we will be fo uncharitable to believe he intended to give a needless scandal) we must fuppofe he referred, in these two lines, If e'er one Vifion touch'd thy infant thought, Of all the nurse, and all the priest have taught. Thus, by the most beautiful invention imaginable, he has contrived, that, as in the ferious Epic, the popular belief fupports the Machinery; fo, in his mock Epic, the Machinery fhould be contrived to difmount philofophic pride and arrogance. 25 The morning dream that hover'd o'er her head, 35 40 With golden crowns and wreaths of heav'nly flow'rs; VER. 22. NOTES. 45 Belinda fill, etc.) All the verses from hence to the end of this Canto were added afterwards. VFR. 47. As now your own, etc.) He here forfakes the Roficrufian fyftem; which, in this part, is too extravagant even for Poetry; and gives a beautiful fiction of his own, on the Platonic Theology of the continuance of the paffions in another state, when And once inclos'd in Woman's beauteous mould} Thence, by a foft tranfition, we repair From earthly Vehicles to thefe of air. Think not, when Woman's tranfient breath is fled, That all her vanities at once are dead; Succeeding vanities fhe ftill regards, And tho' fhe plays no more, o'erlooks the cards. And love of Ombre, after death furvive. Know farther yet; whoever fair and chafte NOTES. 55 60 65 the mind, before its leaving this, has not been purged and purified by philofophy; which furnishes an occafion for much useful fatire. VER. 68. Is by fome Sylph embrac'd :) Here again the Author refumes a tenet peculiar to the Roficrufian fyftem. But the prin ciple, on which it is founded, was by no means fit to be employed in fuch a fort of poem. VER. 54. 55. IMITATIONS. Que gratia currum Armorumque fuit vivis, quæ cura nitentes Virg. En. vi. For Spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease In courtly balls, and midnight masquerades, 80 Some nymphs there are, too confcious of their face, For life predeftin'd to the Gnome's embrace. These fwell their profpects and exalt their pride, When offers are difdain'd, and love deny'd: Then gay Ideas croud the vacant brain, While Peers, and Dukes, and all their sweeping train, And Garters, Stars, and Coronets appear, And in foft founds, Your Grace falutes their ear. 'Tis thefe that early taint the female foul,Inftruct the eyes of young Coquettes to roll, Teach infant-cheeks a bidden blufh to know, And little hearts to flutter at a Beau. Oft, when the world imagine women ftray, And old impertinence expel by new. 85 90 95 IMITATIONS. VER. 78. Tho' honoar is the word with Men below.) Parody of Homer. VER. 79, their beauty. 100 confciews of their face,) i, e. too fenfible of |