412 POPE. 



"clouded cane," as compared with the Homeric spear, 

 indicates the difference of scale, the lower plane of 

 emotions and passions. The opening of the action, too, 

 ia 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 tb.ee 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 perfectly in keeping with all the rest of the machin 

 ery : 



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

 Leaped up and waked his mistress with his tongue; 

 'T was then, Belinda, if report say true, 

 Thy eyes first opened on a billet-doux." 



