[Line 129: The Mantuan Muse--Virgil called Maro in the next line (his full name being, Virgilius Publius Maro) born near Mantua, 70 B.C.] [Lines 130-136: It is said that Virgil first intended to write a poem on the Alban and Roman affairs which he found beyond his powers, and then he imitated Homer: Cum canerem reges et proelia Cynthius aurem Vellit--_Virg. Ecl. VI_] [Line 138: The Stagirite--Aristotle, born at the Greek town of Stageira on the Strymonic Gulf (Gulf of Contessa, in Turkey) 384 B.C., whose treatises on Rhetoric and the Art of Poetry were the earliest development of a Philosophy of Criticism and still continue to be studied. The poet contradicts himself with regard to the principle he is here laying down in lines 271-272 where he laughs at Dennis for Concluding all were desperate sots and fools Who durst depart from Aristotle's rules.] [Line 180: Homer nods--_Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus_, 'even the good Homer nods'--Horace, _Epistola ad Pisones_, 359.] [Lines 183, 184: Secure from flames.--The poet probably alludes to such fires as those in which the Alexandrine and Palatine Libraries were destroyed. From envy's fiercer rage.--Probably he alludes to the writings of such men as Maevius (see note to line 34) and Zoilus, a sophist and grammarian of Amphipolis, who distinguished himself by his criticism on Isocrates, Plato, and Homer, receiving the nickname of _Homeromastic_ (chastiser of Homer). Destructive war--Probably an allusion to the irruption of the barbarians into the south of Europe. And all-involving age; that is, time. This is usually explained as an allusion to 'the long reign of ignorance and superstition in the cloisters,' but it is surely far-fetched, and more than the language will bear.] [Lines 193, 194: 'Round the whole world this dreaded name shall sound, And reach to worlds that must not yet be found,"--COWLEY.] [Line 216: The Pierian spring--A fountain in Pieria, a district round Mount Olympus and the native country of the Muses.] [Line 248: And even thine, O Rome.--The dome of St Peter's Church, designed by Michael Angelo.] [Line 267: La Mancha's Knight.--Don Quixote, a fictitious Spanish knight, the hero of a book written (1605) by Cervantes, a Spanish writer.] [Line 270: Dennis, the son of a saddler in London, born 1657, was a mediocre writer, and rather better critic of the time, with whom Pope came a good deal into collision. Addison's tragedy of _Cato_, for which Pope had written a prologue, had been attacked by Dennis. Pope, to defend Addison, wrote an imaginary report, pretending to be written by a notorious quack mad-doctor of the day, entitled _The Narrative of Dr. Robert Norris on the Frenz of F. D._ Dennis replied to it by his _Character of Mr. Pope_. Ultimately Pope gave him a place in his _Dunciad_, and wrote a prologue for his benefit.] [Line 308: On content.--On trust, a common use of the word in Pope's time.]