The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Editor’s Note
• Biographical Sketch
• Early Poems
• Ode On Solitude
• A Paraphrase (on Thomas À Kempis, L. III. C. 2)
• To the Author of a Poem Entitled Successio [ ]
• The First Book of Statius’s Thebais Translated In the Year 1703
• Imitations of English Poets
• Chaucer
• Spenser [ ] the Alley
• Waller On a Lady Singing to Her Lute
• Cowley the Garden
• Weeping
• Earl of Rochester On Silence
• Earl of Dorset Artemisia
• Dr. Swift the Happy Life of a Country Parson
• Pastorals
• Discourse On Pastoral Poetry
• I: Spring; Or, Damon [ ] to Sir William Trumbull
• II: Summer; Or, Alexis to Dr. Garth
• III: Autumn; Or, Hylas and Ægon [ ] to Mr. Wycherley
• IV: Winter; Or, Daphne [ ] to the Memory of Mrs. Tempest
• Windsor Forest [ ] to the Right Hon. George Lord Lansdown
• Paraphrases From Chaucer
• January and May: Or, the Merchant’s Tale
• The Wife of Bath Her Prologue
• The Temple of Fame [ ]
• Translations From Ovid
• Sappho to Phaon From the Fifteenth of Ovid’s Epistles
• The Fable of Dryope [ ] From the Ninth Book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses
• Vertumnus and Pomona From the Fourteenth Book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses
• An Essay On Criticism [ ]
• Part I
• Part Ii
• Part Iii
• Poems Written Between 1708 and 1712
• Ode For Music On St. Cecilia’s Day
• Argus
• The Balance of Europe
• The Translator
• On Mrs. Tofts, a Famous Opera-singer
• Epistle to Mrs. Blount, With the Works of Voiture.
• The Dying Christian to His Soul
• Epistle to Mr. Jervas [ ] With Dryden’s Translation of Fresnoy’s Art of Painting
• Impromptu to Lady Winchilsea Occasioned By Four Satirical Verses On Women Wits, In the Rape of the Lock
• Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady
• Messiah
• The Rape of the Lock an Heroi-comical Poem [ ]
• Canto I
• Canto Ii
• Canto Iii
• Canto Iv
• Canto V
• Poems Written Between 1713 and 1717
• Prologue to Mr. Addison’s Cato
• Epilogue to Mr. Rowe’s Jane Shore Designed For Mrs. Oldfield
• To a Lady, With the Temple of Fame
• Upon the Duke of Marlborough’s House At Woodstock
• Lines to Lord Bathurst
• Macer [ ] a Character
• Epistle to Mrs. Teresa Blount On Her Leaving the Town After the Coronation
• Lines Occasioned By Some Verses of His Grace the Duke of Buckingham
• A Farewell to London [ ] In the Year 1715
• Imitation of Martial
• Imitation of Tibullus
• The Basset-table [ ] an Eclogue
• Epigram On the Toasts of the Kit-cat Club [ ] Anno 1716
• The Challenge a Court Ballad
• The Looking-glass On Mrs. Pulteney
• Prologue, Designed For Mr. D’urfey’s Last Play
• Prologue to the ‘three Hours After Marriage’
• Prayer of Brutus From Geoffrey of Monmouth
• To Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
• Extemporaneous Lines On a Portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Painted By Kneller
• Eloisa to Abelard [ ]
• Poems Written Between 1718 and 1727
• An Inscription Upon a Punch-bowl In the South Sea Year, For a Club: Chased With Jupiter Placing Callisto In the Skies, and Europa With the Bull
• Epistle to James Craggs, Esq. Secretary of State
• A Dialogue
• Verses to Mr. C. St. James’s Palace, London, Oct. 22
• To Mr. Gay Who Had Congratulated Pope On Finishing His House and Gardens
• On Drawings of the Statues of Apollo, Venus, and Hercules Made For Pope By Sir Godfrey Kneller
• Epistle to Robert Earl of Oxford and Mortimer Prefixed to Parnell’s Poems
• Two Choruses to the Tragedy of Brutus
• To Mrs. M. B. On Her Birthday
• Answer to the Following Question of Mrs. Howe
• On a Certain Lady At Court
• To Mr. John Moore Author of the Celebrated Worm-powder
• The Curll Miscellanies Umbra
• Poems Suggested By Gulliver
• Later Poems
• On Certain Ladies
• Celia
• Prologue to a Play For Mr. Dennis’s Benefit, In 1733, When He Was Old, Blind, and In Great Distress, a Little Before His Death
• Song, By a Person of Quality Written In the Year 1733
• Verses Left By Mr. Pope On His Lying In the Same Bed Which Wilmot, the Celebrated Earl of Rochester, Slept In At Adderbury, Then Belonging to the Duke of Argyle, July 9th, 1739
• On His Grotto At Twickenham Composed of Marbles, Spars, Gems, Ores, and Minerals
• On Receiving From the Right Hon. the Lady Frances Shirley a Standish and Two Pens
• On Beaufort House Gate At Chiswick
• To Mr. Thomas Southern On His Birthday, 1742
• Epigram
• 1740: A Poem [ ]
• Poems of Uncertain Date
• To Erinna
• Lines Written In Windsor Forest
• Verbatim From Boileau First Published By Warburton In 1751
• Lines On Swift’s Ancestors
• On Seeing the Ladies At Crux Easton Walk In the Woods By the Grotto Extempore By Mr. Pope
• Inscription On a Grotto, the Work of Nine Ladies
• To the Right Hon. the Earl of Oxford Upon a Piece of News In Mist [mist’s Journal] That the Rev. Mr. W. Refused to Write Against Mr. Pope Because His Best Patron Had a Friendship For the Said Pope
• Epigrams and Epitaphs
• On a Picture of Queen Caroline Drawn By Lady Burlington
• Epigram Engraved On the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness
• Lines Written In Evelyn’s Book On Coins
• From the Grub-street Journal
• I: Epigram
• II: Epigram
• III: Mr. J. M. S[myth]e Catechised On His One Epistle to Mr. Pope
• IV: Epigram On Mr. M[oo]re’s Going to Law With Mr. Giliver: Inscribed to Attorney Tibbald
• V: Epigram
• VI: Epitaph On James Moore-smythe
• VII: A Question By Anonymous
• VIII: Epigram
• IX: Epigram
• Epitaphs
• On Charles Earl of Dorset In the Church of Withyam, Sussex
• On Sir William Trumbull One of the Principal Secretaries of State to King William Iii
• On the Hon. Simon Harcourt Only Son of the Lord Chancellor Harcourt
• On James Craggs, Esq. In Westminster Abbey
• On Mr. Rowe In Westminster Abbey
• On Mrs. Corbet Who Died of a Cancer In Her Breast
• On the Monument of the Hon. R. Digby and of His Sister Mary Erected By Their Father, Lord Digby, In the Church of Sherborne, In Dorsetshire, 1727.
• On Sir Godfrey Kneller In Westminster Abbey, 1723
• On General Henry Withers In Westminster Abbey, 1729
• On Mr. Elijah Fenton At Easthamstead, Berks, 1729
• On Mr. Gay In Westminster Abbey, 1730
• Intended For Sir Isaac Newton In Westminster Abbey
• On Dr. Francis Atterbury Bishop of Rochester, Who Died In Exile At Paris, 1732
• On Edmund Duke of Buckingham Who Died In the Nineteenth Year of His Age, 1735
• For One Who Would Not Be Buried In Westminster Abbey
• Another On the Same
• On Two Lovers Struck Dead By Lightning
• Epitaph
• An Essay On Man [ ]
• In Four Epistles to Lord Bolingbroke
• The Design
• Epistle I of the Nature and State of Man, With Respect to the Universe
• Epistle Ii of the Nature and State of Man With Respect to Himself As an Individual
• Epistle Iii of the Nature and State of Man With Respect to Society
• Epistle Iv of the Nature and State of Man, With Respect to Happiness
• Moral Essays
• Advertisement
• Epistle I [ ] to Sir Richard Temple, Lord Cobham
• Epistle Ii [ ] to a Lady of the Characters of Women
• Epistle Iii [ ] to Allen, Lord Bathurst
• Epistle IV: To Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington of the Use of Riches
• Epistle V: To Mr. Addison Occasioned By His Dialogues On Medals
• Universal Prayer Deo Opt. Max.
• Satires
• Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot [ ] Being the Prologue to the Satires
• Satires, Epistles, and Odes of Horace Imitated [ ]
• Advertisement
• The First Satire of the Second Book of Horace
• The Second Satire of the Second Book of Horace [ ]
• The First Epistle of the First Book of Horace [ ]
• The Sixth Epistle of the First Book of Horace [ ]
• The First Epistle of the Second Book of Horace [ ]
• The Second Epistle of the Second Book of Horace [ ]
• Satires of Dr. John Donne, Dean of St. Paul’s, Versified [ ]
• Epilogue to the Satires [ ] In Two Dialogues. Written In 1738
• The Sixth Satire of the Second Book of Horace [ ]
• The Seventh Epistle of the First Book of Horace [ ]
• The First Ode of the Fourth Book of Horace [ ]
• The Ninth Ode of the Fourth Book of Horace
• The Dunciad In Four Books
• Martinus Scriblerus of the Poem
• Preface Prefixed to the Five First Imperfect Editions of the Dunciad, In Three Books, Printed At Dublin and London, In Octavo and Duodecimo, 1727.
• The Publisher to the Reader
• A Letter to the Publisher Occasioned By the First Correct Edition of the Dunciad
• Advertisement to the First Edition With Notes, Quarto, 1729
• Advertisement to the First Edition of the Fourth Book of the Dunciad, When Printed Separately In the Year 1742
• Advertisement to the Complete Edition of 1743
• The Dunciad [ ] to Dr. Jonathan Swift
• Book I
• Book Ii [ ]
• Book Iii [ ]
• Book Iv [ ]
• Translations From Homer the Iliad
• Pope’s Preface
• Book I: The Contention of Achilles and Agamemnon
• Book II: The Trial of the Army and Catalogue of the Forces
• Book III: The Duel of Menelaus and Paris
• Book IV: The Breach of the Truce, and the First Battle
• Book V: The Acts of Diomed
• Book VI: The Episodes of Glaucus and Diomed, and of Hector and Andromache
• Book VII: The Single Combat of Hector and Ajax
• Book VIII: The Second Battle, and the Distress of the Greeks
• Book IX: The Embassy to Achilles
• Book X: The Night Adventure of Diomede and Ulysses
• Book XI: The Third Battle, and the Acts of Agamemnon
• Book XII: The Battle At the Grecian Wall
• Book XIII: The Fourth Battle Continued, In Which Neptune Assists the Greeks. the Acts of Idomeneus
• Book XIV: Juno Deceives Jupiter By the Girdle of Venus
• Book XV: The Fifth Battle, At the Ships; and the Acts of Ajax
• Book XVI: The Sixth Battle: the Acts and Death of Patroclus
• Book XVII: The Seventh Battle, For the Body of Patroclus.—the Acts of Menelaus
• Book XVIII: The Grief of Achilles, and New Armour Made Him By Vulcan
• Book XIX: The Reconciliation of Achilles and Agamemnon
• Book XX: The Battle of the Gods, and the Acts of Achilles
• Book XXI: The Battle In the River Scamander
• Book XXII: The Death of Hector
• Book XXIII: Funeral Games In Honour of Patroclus
• Book XXIV: The Redemption of the Body of Hector
• Pope’s Concluding Note.
• The Odyssey
• Book III: The Interview of Telemachus and Nestor
• Book V: The Departure of Ulysses From Calypso
• Book VII: The Court of AlcinoÜs
• Book IX: The Adventures of the Cicons, Lotophagi, and Cyclops
• Book X: Adventures With Æolus, the LÆstrygons, and Circe
• Book XIII: The Arrival of Ulysses In Ithaca
• Book XIV: The Conversation With EumÆus
• Book XV: The Return of Telemachus
• Book XVII: Book XXI: The Bending of Ulysses’ Bow
• Book XXII: The Death of the Suitors
• Book XXIV: Postscript By Pope
• Appendix
• A. a Glossary of Names of Pope’s Contemporaries Mentioned In the Poems.
• Bibliographical Note

MESSIAH

Written, according to Courthope, in 1712.

ADVERTISEMENT

In reading several passages of the prophet Isaiah, which foretell the coming of Christ, and the felicities attending it, I could not but observe a remarkable parity between many of the thoughts and those in the Pollio of Virgil. This will not seem surprising, when we reflect that the Eclogue was taken from a Sibylline prophecy on the same subject. One may judge that Virgil did not copy it line by line, but selected such ideas as best agreed with the nature of Pastoral Poetry, and disposed them in that manner which served most to beautify his piece. I have endeavoured the same in this imitation of him, though without admitting any thing of my own; since it was written with this particular view, that the reader, by comparing the several thoughts, might see how far the images and descriptions of the Prophet are superior to those of the Poet. But as I fear I have prejudiced them by my management, I shall subjoin the passages of Isaiah, and those of Virgil, under the same disadvantage of a literal translation.

• • Ye Nymphs of Solyma! begin the song:
  • To heav’nly themes sublimer strains belong.
  • The mossy fountains, and the sylvan shades,
  • The dreams of Pindus, and th’ Aonian maids,
  • Delight no more—O Thou my voice inspire
  • Who touch’d Isaiah’s hallow’d lips with fire!
• • Rapt into future times, the bard begun:
  • A virgin shall conceive, a virgin bear a son!1
  • From Jesse’s2 root behold a branch arise,
  • Whose sacred flower with fragrance fills the skies;10
  • Th’ ethereal spirit o’er its leaves shall move,
  • And on its top descends the mystic dove.
  • Ye Heav’ns!3 from high the dewy nectar pour,
  • And in soft silence shed the kindly shower!
  • The sick4 and weak the healing plant shall aid,
  • From storms a shelter, and from heat a shade.
  • All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail,
  • Returning Justice5 lift aloft her scale;
  • Peace o’er the world her olive wand extend,
  • And white-robed Innocence from Heav’n descend.20
  • Swift fly the years, and rise th’ expected morn!
  • O spring to light, auspicious babe! be born.
  • See Nature hastes her earliest wreaths to bring,6
  • With all the incense of the breathing spring:
  • See lofty Lebanon7 his head advance,
  • See nodding forests on the mountains dance:
  • See spicy clouds from lowly Saron rise,
  • And Carmel’s flow’ry top perfumes the skies!
  • Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers;1
  • Prepare the way!2 a God, a God appears!
  • A God, a God! the vocal hills reply;31
  • The Rocks proclaim th’ approaching Deity.
  • Lo, Earth receives him from the bending skies!
  • Sink down, ye Mountains, and, ye valleys, rise;
  • With heads declin’d, ye Cedars, homage pay;
  • Be smooth, ye Rocks; ye rapid floods, give way;
  • The Saviour comes, by ancient bards foretold!
  • Hear him,3 ye deaf, and all ye blind, behold!
• • He from thick films shall purge the visual ray,
  • And on the sightless eyeball pour the day:40
  • ’T is he th’ obstructed paths of sound shall clear,
  • And bid new music charm th’ unfolding ear:
  • The dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego,
  • And leap exulting like the bounding roe.
  • No sigh, no murmur, the wide world shall hear,
  • From every face he wipes off every tear.
  • In4 adamantine chains shall Death be bound,
  • And Hell’s grim tyrant feel th’ eternal wound.
  • As the good Shepherd5 tends his fleecy care,
  • Seeks freshest pasture and the purest air,
  • Explores the lost, the wand’ring sheep directs,51
  • By day o’ersees them, and by night protects;
  • The tender lambs he raises in his arms,
  • Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms;
  • Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage,
  • The promis’d Father6 of the future age.
  • No more shall7 nation against nation rise,
  • Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes,
  • Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover’d o’er,
  • The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more;
  • But useless lances into scythes shall bend,61
  • And the broad falchion in a ploughshare end.
  • Then palaces shall rise; the joyful8 son
  • Shall finish what his short-lived sire begun;
  • Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield,
  • And the same hand that sow’d shall reap the field:
  • The swain in barren9 deserts with surprise
  • See lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise;10
  • And start, amidst the thirsty wilds, to hear
  • New falls of water murm’ring in his ear.70
  • On rifted rocks, the dragon’s late abodes,
  • The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods;
  • Waste1 sandy valleys, once perplex’d with thorn,
  • The spiry fir and shapely box adorn;
  • To leafless shrubs the flow’ring palms succeed,
  • And od’rous myrtle to the noisome weed.
  • The lambs2 with wolves shall graze the verdant mead,
  • And boys in flow’ry bands the tiger lead;3
  • The steer and lion at one crib shall meet,
  • And harmless serpents4 lick the pilgrim’s feet;80
  • The smiling infant in his hand shall take
  • The crested basilisk and speckled snake,
  • Pleas’d, the green lustre of the scales survey,
  • And with their forky tongue shall innocently play.
  • Rise, crown’d with light, imperial Salem,5 rise!6
  • Exalt thy tow’ry head, and lift thy eyes!
  • See a long race7 thy spacious courts adorn;
  • See future sons and daughters, yet unborn,
  • In crowding ranks on every side arise,
  • Demanding life, impatient for the skies!90
  • See barb’rous nations8 at thy gates attend,
  • Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend!
  • See thy bright altars throng’d with prostrate kings,
  • And heap’d with products of Sabæan9 springs;
  • For thee Idume’s spicy forests blow,
  • And seeds of gold in Ophir’s mountains glow;
  • See Heav’n its sparkling portals wide display,
  • And break upon thee in a flood of day!
  • No more the rising sun10 shall gild the morn,
  • Nor ev’ning Cynthia fill her silver horn;
  • But lost, dissolv’d in thy superior rays,101
  • One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze
  • O’erflow thy courts: the light himself shall shine
  • Reveal’d, and God’s eternal day be thine!
  • The seas11 shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,
  • Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;
  • But fix’d his word, his saving power remains;—
  • Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns!

THE RAPE OF THE LOCK AN HEROI-COMICAL POEM[ ]

• Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos;
• Sed juvat, hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis.

• Mart. Epig. xii. 84.

‘It appears by this motto,’ says Pope, in a footnote supplied for Warburton’s edition, ‘that the following poem was written or published at the lady’s request. But there are some other circumstances not unworthy relating. Mr. Caryll (a gentleman who was secretary to Queen Mary, wife of James II., whose fortunes he followed into France, author of the comedy of Sir Solomon Single, and of several translations in Dryden’s Miscellanies) originally proposed it to him in a view of putting an end, by this piece of ridicule, to a quarrel that was risen between two noble families, those of Lord Petre and Mrs. Fermor, on the trifling occasion of his having cut off a lock of her hair. The author sent it to the lady, with whom he was acquainted; and she took it so well as to give about copies of it. That first sketch (we learn from one of his letters) was written in less than a fortnight, in 1711, in two cantos only, and it was so printed first, in a Miscellany of Bern. Lintot’s, without the name of the author. But it was received so well that he made it more considerable the next year by the addition of the machinery of the Sylphs, and extended it to five cantos.’

TO MRS. ARABELLA FERMOR

Madam,—

It will be in vain to deny that I have some regard for this piece, since I dedicate it to you. Yet you may bear me witness it was intended only to divert a few young ladies, who have good sense and good humour enough to laugh not only at their sex’s little unguarded follies, but at their own. But as it was communicated with the air of a secret, it soon found its way into the world. An imperfect copy having been offer’d to a bookseller, you had the good-nature for my sake, to consent to the publication of one more correct: this I was forced to, before I had executed half my design, for the Machinery was entirely wanting to complete it.

The Machinery, Madam, is a term invented by the critics, to signify that part which the Deities, Angels, or Dæmons, are made to act in a poem: for the ancient poets are in one respect like many modern ladies; let an action be never so trivial in itself, they always make it appear of the utmost importance. These Machines I determined to raise on a very new and odd foundation, the Rosicrucian doctrine of Spirits.

I know how disagreeable it is to make use of hard words before a lady; but it is so much the concern of a poet to have his works understood, and particularly by your sex, that you must give me leave to explain two or three difficult terms. The Rosicrucians are a people I must bring you acquainted with. The best account I know of them is in a French book called La Comte de Gabalis, which, both in its title and size, is so like a novel, that many of the fair sex have read it for one by mistake. According to these gentlemen, the four elements are inhabited by Spirits, which they call Sylphs, Gnomes, Nymphs, and Salamanders. The Gnomes, or Dæmons of earth, delight in mischief; but the Sylphs, whose habitation is in the air, are the best-conditioned creatures imaginable; for, they say, any mortal may enjoy the most intimate familiarities with these gentle spirits, upon a condition very easy to all true adepts,—an inviolate preservation of chastity.

As to the following cantos, all the passages of them are as fabulous as the Vision at the beginning, or the Transformation at the end (except the loss of your hair, which I always mention with reverence). The human persons are as fictitious as the airy ones; and the character of Belinda, as it is now managed, resembles you in nothing but in beauty.

If this poem had as many graces as there are in your person or in your mind, yet I could never hope it should pass thro’ the world half so uncensured as you have done. But let its fortune be what it will, mine is happy enough, to have given me this occasion of assuring you that I am, with the truest esteem, Madam,

Your most obedient, humble servant,

A. Pope.

IMITATIONS

[1] Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 6.

• ‘Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna;
• Jam nova progenies cœlo demittitur alto.
• Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri,
• Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras. . . .
• Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem.’

‘Now the virgin returns, now the kingdom of Saturn returns, now a new progeny is sent down from high heaven. By means of thee, whatever relics of our crimes remain, shall be wiped away, and free the world from perpetual fears. He shall govern the earth in peace, with the virtues of his father.’

Isaiah, ch. vii. ver. 14. ‘Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.’ Chap. ix. ver. 6, 7. ‘Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given . . . the Prince of Peace: of the increase of his government, and of his peace, there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it, with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.’

[2 ] Isaiah, ch. xi. ver. 1.

[3 ] Ch. xlv. ver. 8.

[4 ] Ch. xxv. ver. 4.

[5 ] Ch. ix. ver. 7.

[6 ] Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 18.

• ‘At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu,
• Errantes hederas passim cum baccare tellus,
• Mixtaque ridenti colocasia fundet acantho—
• Ipsa tibi blandos fundent cunabula flores.’

‘For thee, O child, shall the earth, without being tilled, produce her early offerings; winding ivy, mixed with baccar, and colocasia with smiling acanthus. Thy cradle shall pour forth pleasing flowers about thee.’

Isaiah, ch. xxxv. ver. 1. ‘The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad . . . and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.’ Ch. lx. ver. 13. ‘The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together to beautify the place of my sanctuary.’

[7 ] Isaiah, ch. xxxv. ver. 2.

IMITATIONS

[1] Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 48, Ecl. v. ver. 62.

• ‘Aggredere o magnos, aderit jam tempus, honores,
• Cara deum soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum!
• Ipsi lætitia voces ad sidera jactant
• Intonsi montes, ipsæ jam carmina rupes,
• Ipsa sonant arbusta, Deus, deus ille, Menalca!’

‘O come and receive the mighty honours: the time draws nigh, O beloved offspring of the Gods, O great increase of Jove! . . . The uncultivated mountains send shouts of joy to the stars, the very rocks sing in verse, the very shrubs cry out, A God, a God.’

Isaiah, chap. xl. ver. 3, 4. ‘The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a high way for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.’ Chap. xliv. ver. 23. ‘Break forth into singing, ye mountains! O forest, and every tree therein! for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob.’

[2 ] Ch. xl. ver. 3, 4.

[3 ] Isaiah, ch. xlii. ver. 18; ch. xxxv. ver. 5, 6.

[4 ] Ch. xxv. ver. 8.

[5 ] Ch. xl. ver. 11.

[6 ] Ch. ix. ver. 6.

[7 ] Isaiah, ch. ii. ver. 4.

[8 ] Ch. lxv. ver. 21, 22.

[9 ] Ch. xxxv. ver. 1, 7.

[10 ] Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 28.

• ‘Molli paulatim flavescet campus arista,
• Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva,
• Et duræ quercus sudabunt roscida mella.’

‘The fields shall grow yellow with ripened ears, and the red grape shall hang upon the wild brambles, and the hard oaks shall distil honey like dew.’

Isaiah, chap. xxxv. ver. 7. ‘The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.’—Chap. lv. ver. 13. ‘Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree.’

[1 ] Isaiah, ch. xli. ver. 19, and ch. lv. ver. 13.

[2 ] Ch. xi. ver. 6, 7, 8.

[3 ] Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 21.

• ‘Ipsæ lacte domum referent distenta capellæ
• Ubera, nec magnos metuent armenta leones. . . .
• Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba veneni
• Occidet.’—

‘The goats shall bear to the fold their udders distended with milk: nor shall the herds be afraid of the greatest lions. The serpent shall die, and the herb that conceals poison shall die.’

Isaiah, chap. xi. ver. 6, &c. ‘The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.—And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.’

[4 ] Ch. lxv. ver. 25.

[5 ] Isaiah, ch. lx. ver. 1.

[6 ] The thoughts of Isaiah, which compose the latter part of the poem, are wonderfully elevated, and much above those general exclamations of Virgil, which make the loftiest parts of his Pollio.

• ‘Magnus ab integro sæclorum nascitur ordo
• —toto surget gens aurea mundo!
• —incipient magni procedere menses!
• Aspice, venturo lætantur ut omnia sæclo!’ &c.

The reader needs only to turn to the passages of Isaiah here cited.

[7 ] Ch. lx. ver. 4.

[8 ] Ch. lx. ver. 3.

[9 ] Ch. lx. ver. 6.

[10 ] Isaiah ch. lx. ver. 19, 20.

[11 ] Ch. li. ver. 6, and ch. liv. ver. 10.

[Page 88.]The Rape of the Lock.Canto I.