Aristotle, insisted that the combat was the best part of the story and must be acted, even if a special theater had to be built for the purpose, or the play given in the open fields. Pope quotes this anecdote to show how some critics in spite of their professed acceptance of general rules are so prejudiced in favor of a minor point as to judge a whole work of art from one standpoint only.

270 Dennis: John Dennis, a playwright and critic of Pope's time. Pope and he were engaged in frequent quarrels, but this first reference to him in Pope's works is distinctly complimentary. The line probably refers to some remarks by Dennis on the Grecian stage in his Impartial Critic, a pamphlet published in 1693.

273 nice: discriminating; in l. 286 the meaning is "over-scrupulous," "finicky."

276 unities: according to the laws of dramatic composition generally accepted in Pope's day, a play must observe the unities of subject, place, and time. That is, it must have one main theme, not a number of diverse stories, for its plot; all the scenes must be laid in one place, or as nearly so as possible; and the action must be begun and finished within the space of twenty-four hours.

286 Curious: fastidious, over-particular.

288 by a love to parts: by too diligent attention to particular parts of a work of art, which hinders them from forming a true judgment of the work as a whole.

289 Conceit: an uncommon or fantastic expression of thought. "Conceits” had been much sought after by the poets who wrote in the first half of the seventeenth century.

297 True Wit: here opposed to the "conceit" of which Pope has been speaking. It is defined as a natural idea expressed in fit words.

299 whose truth. . . find: of whose truth we find ourselves at once convinced.

308 take upon content: take for granted.

311-317 Show how Pope uses the simile of the "prismatic glass" to distinguish between "false eloquence" and true expression."

319 decent: becoming.

328 Fungoso: a character in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour. He is the son of a miserly farmer, and tries hard, though all in vain, to imitate the dress and manners of a fine gentleman. 329 These sparks: these would-be dandies.

337 Numbers: rhythm, meter.

341 haunt Parnassus: read poetry.-ear: note that in Pope's day this word rhymed with "repair" and "there."

open vowels,"

344 These: critics who care for the meter only in poetry insist on the proper number of syllables in a line, no matter what sort of sound or sense results. For instance, they do not object to a series of " i.e. hiatuses caused by the juxtaposition of such words as "tho" and "oft," "the" and "ear." Line 345 is composed especially to show how feeble a rhythm results from such a succession of " open vowels.” They do not object to bolstering up a line with "expletives," such as “do” in l. 346, nor to using ten "low words," i.e. short, monosyllabic words to make up a line.

347 With this line Pope passes unconsciously from speaking of bad critics to denouncing some of the errors of bad poets, who keep on using hackneyed phrases and worn-out metrical devices.

356 Alexandrine: a line of six iambic feet, such as 1. 357, written especially to illustrate this form. Why does Pope use the adjective 66 needless " here?

361 Denham's strength

Waller's sweetness: Waller and Denham were poets of the century before Pope; they are almost forgotten to-day, but were extravagantly admired in his time. Waller began and Denham continued the fashion of writing in "closed ' heroic couplets, i.e. in verses where the sense is for the most part contained within one couplet and does not run over into the next as had been the fashion in earlier verse. Dryden said that "the excellence and dignity of rhyme were never fully known till Mr. Waller taught it," and the same critic spoke of Denham's poetry as "majestic and correct."

370 Ajax: one of the heroes of the Iliad. He is represented more than once as hurling huge stones at his enemies. Note that Pope has endeavored in this and the following line to convey the sense of effort and struggle. What means does he employ? Do you think he succeeds?

372 Camilla: a heroine who appears in the latter part of the Æneid fighting against the Trojan invaders of Italy. Virgil says that she was so swift of foot that she might have run over a field of wheat without breaking the stalks, or across the sea without wetting her feet. Pope attempts in l. 373 to reproduce in the sound and movement of his verse the sense of swift flight.

374 Timotheus: a Greek poet and singer who was said to have played

and sung before Alexander the Great. The reference in this passage is to Dryden's famous poem, Alexander's Feast.

376 the son of Libyan Jove: Alexander the Great, who boasted that he was the son of Jupiter. The famous oracle of Jupiter Ammon situated in the Libyan desert was visited by Alexander, who was said to have learned there the secret of his parentage.

383 Dryden: this fine compliment is paid to a poet whom Pope was proud to acknowledge as his master. "I learned versification wholly from Dryden's works," he once said. Pope's admiration for Dryden dated from early youth, and while still a boy he induced a friend to take him to see the old poet in his favorite coffee-house.

391 admire: not used in our modern sense, but in its original meaning, “to wonder at." According to Pope, it is only fools who are lost in wonder at the beauties of a poem; wise men “approve,” i.e. test and pronounce them good.

396-397 Pope acknowledged that in these lines he was alluding to the uncharitable belief of his fellow-Catholics that all outside the fold of the Catholic church were sure to be damned.

400 sublimes: purifies.

404 each: each age.

415 joins with Quality: takes sides with "the quality," i.e. people of rank.

429 Are so clever that they refuse to accept the common and true belief, and so forfeit their salvation.

441 Sentences: the reference is to a medieval treatise on Theology, by Peter Lombard, called the Book of Sentences. It was long used as a university text-book.

444 Scotists and Thomists: mediæval scholars, followers respectively of Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas. A long dispute raged between their disciples. In this couplet Pope points out that the dispute is now forgotten, and the books of the old disputants lie covered with cobwebs in Duck-lane, a street in London where second-hand books were sold in Pope's day. He calls the cobwebs kindred," because the arguments of Thomists and Scotists were as fine spun as a spider's web.

449 "The latest fashionable folly is the test, or the proof, of a quick, up-to-date wit." In other words, to be generally accepted an author must accept the current fashion, foolish though it may be.

457 This was especially true in Pope's day when literature was so

closely connected with politics that an author's work was praised or blamed not upon its merits, but according to his, and the critic's, politics.

459 Parsons, Critics, Beaus: Dryden, the head of English letters in the generation before Pope, had been bitterly assailed on various charges by parsons, like Jeremy Collier, critics like Milbourn, and fine gentlemen like the Duke of Buckingham. But his works remained when the jests that were made against them were forgotten.

463 Sir Richard Blackmore, a famous doctor in Dryden's day, was also a very dull and voluminous writer. He attacked Dryden in a poem called A Satire against Wit. Luke Milbourn was a clergyman of the same period, who abused Dryden's translation of Virgil.

465 Zoilus: a Greek critic who attacked Homer.

481 The English language and the public taste had changed very rapidly during the century preceding Pope. He imagined that these changes would continue so that no poet's reputation would last longer than a man's life, "bare threescore," and Dryden's poetry would come to be as hard to understand and as little read as Chaucer's at that time. It is worth noting that both Dryden and Pope rewrote parts of Chaucer in modern English.

506-507 Explain why "wit" is feared by wicked men and shunned by the virtuous, hated by fools, and undone or ruined by knaves. 521 sacred: accursed, like the Latin sacer.

527 spleen: bad temper.

534 the fat age: the reign of Charles II, as ll. 536-537 show, when literature became notoriously licentious.

538 Jilts... statesmen: loose women like Lady Castlemaine and the Duchess of Portsmouth had great influence on the politics of Charles II's time, and statesmen of that day like Buckingham and Etheredge wrote comedies.

541 Mask: it was not uncommon in Restoration times for ladies to wear a mask in public, especially at the theater. Here the word is used to denote the woman who wore a mask.

544 a Foreign reign: the reign of William III, a Dutchman. Pope, as a Tory and a Catholic, hated the memory of William, and here asserts, rather unfairly, that his age was marked by an increase of heresy and infidelity.

545 Socinus: the name of two famous heretics, uncle and nephew, of the sixteenth century, who denied the divinity of Christ.

549 Pope insinuates here that the clergy under William III hated

an absolute monarch so much that they even encouraged their hearers to question the absolute power of God.

551 admir'd: see note 1. 391.

552 Wit's Titans: wits who defied heaven as the old Titans did the gods. The reference is to a group of freethinkers who came into prominence in King William's reign.

556 scandalously nice: so over-particular as to find cause for scandal where none exists.

557 mistake an author into vice: mistakenly read into an author vicious ideas which are not really to be found in his work.

575 Things that men really do not know must be brought forward modestly as if they had only been forgotten for a time.

577 That only: good-breeding alone.

585 Appius: a nickname for John Dennis, taken from his tragedy, Appius and Virginia, which appeared two years before the Essay on Criticism. Lines 585-587 hit off some of the personal characteristics of this hot-tempered critic. "Tremendous" was a favorite word with Dennis.

588 tax: blame, find fault with.

591 In Pope's time noblemen could take degrees at the English universities without passing the regular examinations.

617 Dryden's Fables published in 1700 represented the very best narrative poetry of the greatest poet of his day. D'Urfey's Tales, on the other hand, published in 1704 and 1706, were collections of dull and obscene doggerel by a wretched poet.

618 With him: according to "the bookful blockhead."

619 Garth: a well-known doctor of the day, who wrote a much admired mock-heroic poem called The Dispensary. His enemies asserted that he was not really the author of the poem.

623 Such foolish critics are just as ready to pour out their opinions on a man in St. Paul's cathedral as in the bookseller's shops in the square around the church, which is called St. Paul's churchyard.

632 proud to know: proud of his knowledge.

636 humanly: an old form for "humanely."

642 love to praise: a love of praising men.

648 Mæonian Star: Homer. Mæonia, or Lydia, was a district in Asia which was said to have been the birthplace of Homer.

652 conquered Nature: Aristotle was a master of all the knowledge of nature extant in his day.