The Rape of the Lock - Alexander Pope

The tragic event that gives the title to this poem occurs just at the end of Canto III.

Before, we follow a young, beautiful Lady called Belinda in her typical day under the reign of Her Majesty Queen Anna. From the late awakening, urged by the tender lickings of her dog Shock, to the rites of a complicated toilette, whose result is a triumphant sortie along the sunny, silver Thames, heading for Hampton Court.
After, we hear her screams of rage and despair. The Baron, armed with malicious scissors and burning desire, had cut off one of the two shining curls that adorn her ivory neck. She looks for comfort and relief in the arms of Lady Brown, just to find the bitter confirmation of her dishonoured and shameful fate. Then, she addresses to Lord Plume for him to claim her precious lock. His words, not so well articulated, and the ironical but categorical refusal given by the Baron do not leave any hope. She does not succumb to such adverse circumstances. Ignoring the words of common sense and experience spoken by Clarissa, the Lady who offered the sharpened arm to the Baron, Belinda launches a proud assault against the mean, young man. She wins the fight with a clever move, a handful of snuff thrown in his nose, but she cannot have her lock back. This is ascended to the sky to celebrate her name among the brightest stars. Forever.

I will never get tired of the perfect rhyme of these lines. They have the joyful, carefree spirit of a lullaby, the magic, exquisite fancy of a dream and the careful, solid construction of a stately home.
They shape a world of luxury, wealth and amusement where everything is refined and precious. Displayed on the dressing table of this innocent Lady are glowing gems from India and “…Puff, Powders, Patches Bibles, Billet-doux”. They come from the far countries of an expanding empire that indulges, in declining afternoons, in the pampering rites of snuff and coffee. It is a world where elegant men called Florio and Damon are supposed to meet at court to spend in “various talk th’instructive hours” or to play cards. Ladies participated to all these activities with their rich brocade gowns, pricking words and fans; waved with intention and expertise, used as a secret language to be deciphered in the never-ending game of love. Under the glittering surface, it results a vain and superficial world, engaged in frivolous activities and useless chat. Worried for a “…manteau’s pinn’d awry” and a respectability made of appearances, of formal and polite behaviours. The verses celebrate beauty, but a fragile one.

This is a true story. Alexander Pope wrote these lines quickly in 1711. He accepted the invitation of his friend, Mr. Caryl, who wanted to reconcile two Catholic families, the Petres and the Fermors, offering them this amusing poem. They had broken their long friendship after the young Lord Petre had cut off one of the famous locks of Mrs. Arabella Fermor. The poem did not work in this sense but it was a great success. It was published in 1712, then revised and enlarged by Pope in 1714 and again in 1717.

The definitive version includes the Machinery: small, invisible, flying creatures that live in the air, in the earth and in the water. Their duty is to support and guide women:
“Instruct the eyes of young Coquettes to roll,
Teach Infant-cheeks a bidden blush to know
And little hearts to flutter at a Beau.”
They should protect the beautiful Belinda but they fail. The new, exciting emotions that agitate the young girl’s heart, uncertain and changeable as their fluid bodies and colours, cannot be ignored.

Sylphs, as supernatural, magic beings, represent the deities and the angels of the classical tradition. The poem presents all the elements of the epic conventions: the invocation to the muse, the preparation of the hero, the battles and more. Today’s readers probably are not aware of the complexity of the references to Greek and Roman epic contained in these perfect heroic couplets. The choice to use a form, a structure and a language traditionally referred to grand and important events for a trifle subject underlines the mock intention of the poem.

Nature has not a great importance in these verses, but this does not close the matter. With the income of this poem and of the English translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Pope settled in a house outside London, Twickenham. Here, he spent his days writing and gardening. His experience as gardener is considered a turning point for the garden style in England. He left the formal and severe rules of geometric garden to develop the idea of a more natural, pictorial environment that respected the characteristic of the place.
This happened later, after the rape of the lock.

Thrice rung the bell, the slipper knock’d the ground,
And the press’d watch return’d a silver sound.
Belinda still her downy pillow prest,
Her guardian Sylph prolong’d the balmy rest…



Further reading:
The Rape of the Lock, Alexander Pope Oxford University Press, 1990

Photos:
Travel in a garden:
"Belinda embarking for Hampton Court", watercolour by Thomas Stothard from The Rape of the Lock Oxford University Press 1990;
Photos a-side: Hampton Court, August 2001.