of its poetry, to devote themselves to the study of 'The Rape of the Lock'. DEDICATION 'Mrs. Arabella': the title of Mrs. was still given in Pope's time to unmarried ladies as soon as they were old enough to enter society. 'the Rosicrucian doctrine': the first mention of the Rosicrucians is in a book published in Germany in 1614, inviting all scholars to join the ranks of a secret society said to have been founded two centuries before by a certain Christian Rosenkreuz who had mastered the hidden wisdom of the East. It seems probable that this book was an elaborate hoax, but it was taken seriously at the time, and the seventeenth century saw the formation of numerous groups of "Brothers of the Rosy Cross." They dabbled in alchemy, spiritualism, and magic, and mingled modern science with superstitions handed down from ancient times. Pope probably knew nothing more of them than what he had read in 'Le Comte de Gabalis'. This was the work of a French abbe, de Montfaucon Villars (1635-1673), who was well known in his day both as a preacher and a man of letters. It is really a satire upon the fashionable mystical studies, but treats in a tone of pretended seriousness of secret sciences, of elemental spirits, and of their intercourse with men. It was translated into English in 1680 and again in 1714. CANTO I Lines '1-2' Pope opens his mock-epic with the usual epic formula, the statement of the subject. Compare the first lines of the 'Iliad', the 'AEneid', and 'Paradise Lost'. In l. 7 he goes on to call upon the "goddess," i.e. the muse, to relate the cause of the rape. This, too, is an epic formula. Compare 'AEneid', I, 8, and 'Paradise Lost', I, 27-33. '3 Caryl': see Introduction, p. 83. In accordance with his wish his name was not printed in the editions of the poem that came out in Pope's lifetime, appearing there only as C----or C----l. '4 Belinda': a name used by Pope to denote Miss Fermor, the heroine of 'The Rape of the Lock'. '12' This line is almost a translation of a line in the 'AEneid' (I, 11), where Virgil asks if it be possible that such fierce passions (as Juno's) should exist in the minds of gods. '13 Sol': a good instance of the fondness which Pope shared with most poets of his time for giving classical names to objects of nature. This trick was supposed to adorn and elevate poetic diction. Try to find other instances of this in 'The Rape of the Lock'. Why is the sun's ray called "tim'rous"? '16' It was an old convention that lovers were so troubled by their passion that they could not sleep. In the 'Prologue to the Canterbury Tales' (ll. 97-98), Chaucer says of the young squire: So hote he lovede, that by nightertale He sleep namore than dooth a nightingale. Pope, of course, is laughing at the easy-going lovers of his day who in spite of their troubles sleep very comfortably till noon. '17'