Alexander Pope was born in London
in 1688. His father Edith Pope was a Roman Catholic linen-merchant, who was
forty-four when Alexander, her only child, was born. Edith Pope belonged to a
large Yorkshire family, which divided along Catholic and Protestant lines. Pope
spent his early childhood at Binfield on the edge of Windsor Forest, and
recalled this period as a golden age. Joseph Spence, a critic, minor poet, and
Pope's biographer, tells that Pope was "a child of a particularly sweet
tempers and had a great deal of sweetness in his look when he was a boy".
Due to his melodious voice, he was nicknamed "the Little Nightingale
Pope's father, the son of an
Anglican priest, had converted to Catholicism, which caused the family many
problems. At the time Catholics suffered from repressive legislation and
prejudices - they were not allowed to enter any universities or held public
employment. Thus Pope had an uneven education, which was often interrupted.
From Twyford School he was expelled after writing a satire on one of the
teachers. At home, Pope's aunt taught him to read. He learnt Latin and Greek
from a local priest and later he acquired knowledge of French and Italian
poetry. Pope also attended clandestine Catholic schools.
Most of his time Pope spend
reading books from his father's library - he "did nothing but write and
read”. While still at school, Pope wrote a play based on speeches from the Iliad. Samuel
Johnson tells that Pope's early epic poem, called Alcander, was burned at the suggestion
of Francis Atterbury.
In 1700,
when his family moved to Binfield in Windsor Forest, Pope contracted
tuberculosis through infected milk. It was probably Pott's disease, a
tubercular affection of the bones. He also suffered from asthma and headaches,
and his humpback was a constant target for his critics in literary battles -
Pope was called a "hunchbacked toad". In middle age he was 4ft 6in
tall and wore a stiffened canvas bodice 4^)
to support his spine.
After moving to London, Pope
published his first major work, An Essay on Criticism.
This
discussion was based on neoclassical doctrines and derived standards of taste
from the order of nature: "Good nature and good sense must ever join; / To
err is human, to forgive divine."
Before becoming one of the
members of Scriblerus Club, Pope associated with antiCatholic Whig friends,
but by 1713 he had moved towards the Tories. His friends among Tory
intellectuals included Jonathan Switft, Gay, Congreve, and Robert Harley, 1st
Earl of Oxford. In 1712 Pope published an early version of THE RAPE OF THE LOCK,
an elegant satire about the battle between the sexes, and follies of a young
woman with her "puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet-doux". The
work was expanded in 1714. Its first version consisted of two cantos (1712) and
the final version five cantos (1714). Rape of the Lock originated from a
quarrel between two families with whom Pope was acquainted. The cause was not
very small - the 7th Lord Petre cut off a lock of Miss Arabella Fermor's hair,
and kept it as a trophy. Although Pope did not admit it, the title of the work
was most likely influenced by Alessandro Tassoni's mock- epic The Rape of the Bucket,
from 1622.
Pope admired Horace and Vergilius and valued them as models
for poetry. His great achievements were the translations of Iliad and Odyssey into
English. The success of the translations enabled him to move to Twickenham from
anti-Catholic pressure of the Jacobites. However, Pope remained a Catholic even
after the death of his father (d. 1717) and mother (d. 1733). Pope's collected
works were published in 1717. He was one of the first professional poets to be
self-sufficient as a result of his non-dramatic writings.
In Twickenham Pope to
studied horticulture and landscape gardening. During his last years, Pope
designed a romantic "grot" (j^ ^ ^j^) in a tunnel, which linked the
waterfront with his back garden. It was walled with shells and pieces of
mirror. Pope's villa, about fifteen miles from London, attracted also a number
of writers, including Swift, whom
Pope helped with the publication of Gulliver's Travels. With his neighbor,
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Pope formed an attachment, but when the friendship
cooled down, he started a lifelong relationship with Martha Blount. Pope had
met Martha and her sister Teresa already in 1711. Later in IMITATIONS OF HORACE
(1733) Pope referred to his former friend Lady Mary as "Sappho" and
wrote: "Give me again my hollow tree, / A crust of bread, and
liberty."
In ESSAY ON MAN (1733-34)
Pope examined the human condition against Miltonic, cosmic background. Although
Pope's perspective is well above our everyday life, and he do not hide his wide
knowledge, the dramatic work suggest than humankind is a part of nature and the
diversity of living forms: "Each beast, each insect, happy in its own: /
Is Heaven unkind to Man, and Man alone?" In MORAL ESSAYS (1731) Pope
separated behavior from character: "Not always actions show the man: we
find / Who does a kindness is not therefore kind." Pope prepared an
edition of his correspondence, altered to his own advantage. With the
translation of the Odyssey,
Pope was eager to take all the credit, trying to avoid mentioning the
contribution of other writers.
In
his time Pope was famous for his witty satires and aggressive, bitter quarrels
with other writers. When his edition of William Shakespeare was attacked, he
answered with the savage burlesque THE DUNCIAD (1728), which was widened in
1742. It ridiculed bad writers, scientists, and critics. "While pensive
poets painful vigils keep, / Sleepless themselves to give their readers
sleep." Pope died on May 30, 1744. Pope left his property to Martha
Blount. Before his death, Pope was mad for a period of time, and he claimed to
see an arm coming through the wall. His last epic poem, Brutus, was
left unfinished.
Modern critics
consider The Rape of
the Lock to be the
supreme example of mock-heroic verse in the English language. Written
in heroic couplets, the
poem was most likely composed during the
late summer of 1711 and first published in the May edition of Lintot's Miscellany
in 1712. The original version of the poem contained 334 lines in two cantos. A
more elaborate version appeared two years later, extending the poem to 794
lines in five cantos; a slight final revision was completed for the poem's
inclusion in Pope's Works
(1717). Inspired by an actual event, The Rape of the Lock recounts the
circumstances surrounding the theft of a lock of a young woman's hair by an
impassioned male admirer, which caused a rift (Aj'j-) between the
families involved. The poem was intended to restore harmonious relations
between the estranged (oa*2£) families. Subtitled “a heroi-comical poem,” The Rape of the Lock
treats the petty matter in full-blown epic style, which results in a great deal
of humor. It uses the elevated heroic language that John Dryden, Pope's
literary forebear, had perfected in his translation of Virgil and incorporates
amusing parodies of passages from John Milton's Paradise Lost, Vergil's Aeneid, and
Homer's Iliad,
which Pope was translating at the time. Celebrated as a achievement of English
originality, The
Rape of the Lock established Pope as a master of metrics and a
sophisticated satirist.
Belinda
gets up after
sleeping and get ready for day’s social
activities. Her guardian sylph, Ariel, warns her in a dream that some disaster
will happen with her today. He promises to protect her to the best of his
abilities. However, Belinda
takes little notes of this warning. After spending a lot of time on dressing
and make up, she travels on the Thames River to Hampton Court Palace, an
ancient royal residence outside of London. Here, a group of wealthy young
people are gathering for a party. Among them is the Baron who has already made
up his mind to steal a lock of Belinda's hair. He rises early to
perform a set of prayers and sacrifices to have success in his aim. When the
partygoers arrive at the palace, they enjoy a tense game of cards. This is
followed by a round of coffee. Then the Baron takes up a pair of scissor and
cut of the lock of Belinda's
hair on third try. Belinda
is furious. Umbriel a mischievous genome (cjj), journeys down to the Cave of
Spleen (^jp ^ ^) to get a sack of sighs and a flask of tears, which he then
pour on the heroin to enflame her anger. Clarissa inflames the fire of rage of Belinda to
take the revenge from the Baron. Belinda starts a quarrel between the
ladies and gentlemen, in which she attempts to recover the curl of hair cut by
the Baron. The lock is lost in the confusion of this mock battle. However, the
poet consoles the grieved Belinda with the suggestion that it has been taken up
into heavens and immortalized as a constellation (^*>^ l£ jjjti^).
Belinda - Belinda is based on the
historical Arabella Fermor, a member of Pope’s circle of prominent Roman
Catholics. Robert, Lord Petre (the Baron in the poem) had precipitated a rift
between their two families by snipping off a lock of her hair.
The Baron - This is the pseudonym (fj
^^j*) for the historical Robert, Lord Petre, the young gentleman in Pope’s
social circle who offended Arabella Fermor and her family by cutting off a lock
of her hair. In the poem’s version of events, Arabella is known as Belinda.
Caryl - The
historical basis for the Caryl character is John Caryll, a friend of Pope and
of the two families that had become estranged over the incident the poem
relates. It was Caryll who suggested that Pope encourage reconciliation by
writing a humorous poem.
Goddess - The
muse who, according to classical convention, inspires poets to write their
verses
Shock - Belinda’s lapdog
Ariel - Belinda’s guardian sylph, who
supervises an army of invisible protective gods.
Umbriel - The chief gnome, who travels
to the Cave of Spleen and returns with bundles of sighs and tears to aggravate
Belinda’s vexation
Brillante - The sylph who is assigned to
guard Belinda’s earrings
Momentilla - The sylph who is assigned
to guard Belinda’s watch
Crispissa - The sylph who is assigned to
guard Belinda’s “favourite Lock”
Clarissa - A woman in attendance at the
Hampton Court party. She lends the Baron the pair of scissors with which he
cuts Belinda’s hair, and later delivers a moralizing lecture.
Thalestris - Belinda’s friend, named for
the Queen of the Amazons and representing the historical Gertrude Morley, a
friend of Pope’s and the wife of Sir George Browne (rendered as her “beau,” Sir
Plume, in the poem). She eggs Belinda on in her anger and demands that the lock
be returned.
Sir Plume -
Thalestris’s “beau,” who makes an ineffectual challenge to the Baron. He
represents the historical Sir George Browne, a member of Pope’s social circle.
0 comments:
Post a Comment