POPE. 301 



events and modes of thought with which it is in comical anti 

 pathy, and while it is not degraded, they are shown in their 

 triviality. The clouded cane, as compared with the Homeric 

 spear, indicates the difference of scale, the lower plane of emo 

 tions and passions. The opening of the action, too, is equally 

 good : 



Sol through white curtains shot a timorous ray, 

 And oped those eyes that must eclipse _the day, 

 Now lapdogs give themselves the rousing shake, 

 And sleepless lovers just at twelve awake ; 

 Thrice rung the bell, the slipper knocked the ground, 

 And the pressed watch returned a silver sound. 



The mythology of the Sylphs is full of the most fanciful wit ; 

 indeed, wit infused with fancy is Pope s peculiar merit. The 

 Sylph is addressing Belinda : 



Know, then, unnumbered spirits round thee fly, 



The light militia of the lower sky ; 



These, though unseen, are ever on the wing, 



Hang o er the box and hover round the ring. 



As now your own our beings were of old, 



And once enclosed in woman s beauteous mould ; 



Think not, when woman s transient breath is fled, 



That all her vanities at once are dead ; 



Succeeding vanities she still regards, 



And, though she plays no more, o erlooks the cards. 



For when the fair in all their pride expire, 



To their first elements their souls retire ; 



The sprites of fiery termagants in flame 



Mount up and take a salamander s name ; 



Soft yielding nymphs to water glide away 



And sip, with nymphs, their elemental tea ; 



The graver prude sinks downward to a gnome 



In search of mischief still on earth to roam ; 



The light coquettes in sylphs aloft repair 



And sport and flutter in the fields of air. 



And the contrivance by which Belinda is awakened is also per 

 fectly in keeping with all the rest of the machinery : 



He said : when Shock, who thought she slept too long, 

 Leaped up and waked his mistress with his tongue ; 

 Twas then, Belinda, if report say true, 

 Thy eyes first opened on a billet-doux. 



Throughout this poem the satiric wit of Pope peeps out in the 

 pleasantest little smiling ways, as where, in describing the toilet- 

 table, he says : 



Here files of pins extend their shining rows, 

 Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet-doux. 



Or when, after the fatal lock has been severed, 



Then flashed the living lightning from her eyes, 

 And screams of horror rend the affrighted skies, 

 Not louder shrieks to pitying Heaven are cast 

 When husbands or when lapdogs breathe their last ; 



Or when rich china-vessels, fallen from high, 

 In glittering dust and painted fragments lie 1 



