[628]The altar of Paraclete, says Mr. Berrington, did not then exist. They were not professed at the same time or place; one was at Argenteuil, the other at St. Denys.—-Warton.[629]Abelard to Heloisa: "I accompanied you with terror to the foot of the altar, and while you stretched out your hand to touch the sacred cloth, I heard you pronounce distinctly those fatal words which for ever separated you from all men."[630]Her kissing the veil with "cold lips" strongly marks her want of that fervent zeal and devotion which should influence those votaries who renounce the world. The presages, likewise, which attended the rites are finely imagined,—the trembling of the shrines, and the pallid hue of the lamps as if they were conscious of the reluctant sacrifice she was making.—Ruffhead.[631]Prior, in Henry and Emma, has a verse of similar pauses, and similar phraseology:Thy lips all trembling, and thy cheeks all pale.—Wakefield.[632]Abelard to Heloisa: "I saw your eyes when you spoke your last farewell fixed upon the cross." Heloisa to Abelard: "It was your command only, and not a sincere vocation, as is imagined, that shut me up in these cloisters." The two passages combined suggested the line in the text.[633]Heloisa to Abelard: "You may see me, hear my sighs, and be a witness of all my sorrows, without incurring any danger, since you can only relieve me with tears and words."[634]Roscoe remarks that the lines which follow cannot be justified by anything in the letters of Eloisa. Sentiments equally gross are however expressed both in the original Latin and in the adulterated translation which was Pope's authority.[635]Concannen's Match at Football, Canto iii.:And drank in poison from her lovely eye.Creech, at the beginning of his Lucretius:Where on thy bosom he supinely lies,And greedily drinks love at both his eyes.—Wakefield.Smith's Phædra and Hippolytus, Act i.:Drank gorging in the dear delicious poison.—Steevens.[636]"If thou canst forget me, think at least upon thy flock," says Wakefield, in explanation of the train of thought; and he adds a passage from a letter of Eloisa in which she terms the monastery Abelard's "new plantation," and assures him that frequent watering is essential to the tender plants.[637]Heloisa to Abelard: "The innocent sheep, tender as they are, would yet follow you through deserts and mountains."[638]He founded the monastery.—Pope.Heloisa to Abelard: "You only are the founder of this house. You by inhabiting here have given fame and sanctity to a place known before only for robbers and murderers."[639]So Dryden says of Absalom,And Paradise was opened in his face.The original of the image in the text is in Isaiah li. 3:He will make her wilderness like Eden,And her desert like the garden of Jehovah.Whence Milton derived it, Par. Reg. i. 7:And Eden raised in the waste wilderness.—Wakefield.[640]The writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes Boileau, Le Moine:Là les salons sont peints, les meubles sont dorésDes larmes et du sang des pauvres devorés.[641]Heloisa to Abelard: "These cloisters owe nothing to public charities; our walls were not raised by the usury of publicans, nor their foundations laid on base extortion. The God whom we serve sees nothing but innocent riches, and harmless votaries whom you have placed here."[642]There were no benefactors whose praises were celebrated in the services, but the building was vocal only with the praise of the Deity.[643]Our author imitates Milton:And storied windows richly dightCasting a dim religious light.—Wakefield.[644]Dryden had said of his Good Parson:His eyes diffused a venerable grace.—Wakefield.[645]Mrs. Rowe on the Creation:And kindling glories brighten all the skies.—Wakefield.[646]By pretending that she desires Abelard to visit the Paraclete in obedience to the call of her sister nuns.[647]Heloisa to Abelard: "But why should I entreat you in the name of your children? Is it possible I should fear obtaining anything of you when I ask in my own name? And must I use any other prayers than my own to prevail upon you?"[648]From the superscription of Heloisa's letter to Abelard: "To her lord, her father, her husband, her brother; his servant, his child, his wife, his sister, and to express all that is humble, respectful, and loving to her Abelard, Heloisa writes this."[649]Our poet is indebted to a translation of the Virgilian cento of Ausonius in Dryden's Miscellanies, vi. p. 143:My love, my life,And every tender name in one, my wife.—Wakefield.[650]Mr. Mills, a clergyman, who visited the Paraclete about the year 1765, says, "Mr. Pope's description is ideal. I saw neither rocks, nor pines, nor was it a kind of ground which ever seemed to encourage such objects."[651]Addison's translation of book iii, of the Æneis:The hollow murmurs of the winds that blow.[652]The little river Ardusson glittered along the valley of the Paraclete.—Mills.[653]Philips, in his fourth Pastoral:Nor dropping waters which from rocks distil,And welly grots with tinkling echoes fill.—Wakefield.[654]Milton's Penseroso:When the gust hath blown his fillEnding on the rustling leaves.—Wakefield.[655]Dryden, Virg. Geo. iv. 432:When western winds on curling waters play.[656]Dryden, Virg. Æn. iii. 575:Most upbraidThe madness of the visionary maid.—Wakefield.[657]Milton's Penseroso:To arched walks of twilight groves.—Wakefield.[658]Waller's version of Æneid iv.:A death-like quiet, and deep silence fell.Dryden's Astræa Redux:A dreadful quiet felt.—Wakefield.Charles Bainbrigg on the death of Edward King:AbyssumTerribilis requies et vasta silentia cingant.—Steevens.[659]Fenton in his version of Sappho to Phaon:With him the caves were cool, the grove was green,But now his absence withers all the scene.—Wakefield.[660]Dryden's Theodore and Honoria:With deeper brown the grove was overspread.—Steevens.Dryden, Æn. vii. 40:The Trojan from the main beheld a wood,Which thick with shades and a brown horror stood.—Wakefield.[661]In allusion to this sacrifice of herself at his will she says in her first letter: "You are of all mankind most abundantly indebted to me; and particularly for that proof of absolute submission to your commands in thus destroying myself at your injunction."—Wakefield.[662]Heloisa to Abelard: "Death only can make me leave the place where you have fixed me, and then too my ashes shall rest there, and wait for yours."[663]Abelard to Heloisa: "I hope you will be contented when you have finished this mortal life to be buried near me. Your cold ashes need then fear nothing."[664]Heloisa to Abelard: "Among those who are wedded to God I serve a man. What a prodigy am I! Enlighten me, O Lord! Does thy grace or my despair draw these words from me?"[665]Heloisa to Abelard: "I am sensible I am in the temple of chastity only with the ashes of that fire which has consumed us."[666]This couplet, and its wretched rhymes, seem derived from an elegy of Walsh in Dryden's Miscellanies:I know I ought to hate you for the fault;But oh! I cannot do the thing I ought.—Wakefield.[667]Heloisa to Abelard: "I am here a sinner, but one, who far from weeping for her sins, weeps only for her lover; far from abhorring her crimes endeavours only to add to them, and then who pleases herself continually with the remembrance of past actions when it is impossible to renew them." And again: "I, who have experienced so many pleasures in loving you feel, in spite of myself, that I cannot repent of them, nor forbear enjoying them over again as much as is possible by recollecting them in my memory." Abelard, in the translation of the letters, expresses the same sentiment: "Love still preserves its dominion in my fancy, and entertains itself with past pleasures."[668]Abelard to Heloisa: "To forget in the case of love is the most necessary penitence, and the most difficult."[669]Dryden's Cymon and Iphigenia:Then impotent of mind, with altered senseShe hugged th' offender, and forgave th' offence.—Wakefield.[670]Abelard to Heloisa: "How can I separate from the person I love the passion I must detest? Will the tears I shed be sufficient to render it odious to me? It is difficult in our sorrow to distinguish penitence from love."[671]Heloisa to Abelard: "A heart which has been so sensibly affected as mine cannot soon be indifferent. We fluctuate long between love and hatred before we can arrive at a happy tranquillity." Abelard to Heloisa: "In such different disquietudes I contradict myself; I hate you; I love you."[672]Heloisa to Abelard: "God has a peculiar right over the hearts of great men. When he pleases to touch them he ravishes them, and lets them not speak nor breathe but for his glory."[673]Heloisa to Abelard: "Yes, Abelard, I conjure you teach me the maxims of divine love. Oh! for pity's sake help a wretch to renounce her desires, herself, and, if it be possible, even to renounce you."[674]Heloisa to Abelard: "When I shall have told you what rival hath ravished my heart from you, you will praise my inconstancy, and will pray this rival to fix it. By this you may judge that it is God alone that takes Heloise from you. What other rival could take me from you? Could you think me guilty of sacrificing the virtuous and learned Abelard to any other but God?"[675]Horace, Epist. Lib. i. xi. 9:Oblitusque meorum, obliviscendus et illis.My friends forgetting, by my friends forgot.—Wakefield.[676]Taken from Crashaw.—Pope.Wakefield gives the complete couplet from Crashaw's Description of a religious House:A hasty portion of prescribed sleep;Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep.[677]The idea of the "wings of seraphs shedding perfumes" is from Milton, Par. Lost, v. 286, where Raphael "shakes heavenly fragrance" from "his plumes," and Dryden in his Tyrannic Love, Act v., mentions the perfumes, the spousals, and the celestial music as accompaniments of the death of St. Catherine:Æthereal music did her death prepare,Like joyful sounds of spousals in the air;A radiant light did her crowned temple gild,And all the place with fragrant scents was filled;Of charming notes we heard the last rebounds,And music dying in remoter sounds.[678]Adapted from Dryden's Britannia Redivivus:As star-light is dissolved awayAnd melts into the brightness of the day.[679]Dryden's Cinyras and Myrrha, translated from Ovid:For guilty pleasure gives a double gust.[680]Heloisa to Abelard: "I will own to you what makes the greatest pleasure I have in my retirement. After having passed the day in thinking of you, full of the dear idea I give myself up at night to sleep. Then it is that Heloise, who dares not without trembling think of you by day, resigns herself entirely to the pleasure of hearing you, and speaking to you. I see you Abelard, and glut my eyes with the sight. Sometimes forgetting the perpetual obstacles to our desires, you press me to make you happy, and I easily yield to your transports. Sleep gives me what your enemies' rage has deprived you of, and our souls, animated with the same passion, are sensible of the same pleasure. But, oh, you delightful illusions, soft errors, how soon do you vanish away! At my awaking I open my eyes, and see no Abelard; I stretch out my arms to take hold of him, but he is not there; I call upon him, he hears me not."[681]Dryden, Æneis, iv. 677, supplied the idea:She seems, alone,To wander in her sleep through ways unknown,Guideless and dark; or in a desert plainTo seek her subjects, and to seek in vain.[682]The writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes the same expression from Steele's Miscellanies:No more severely kind affect to putThat lovely anger on.[683]Heloisa to Abelard: "You are happy, Abelard, and your misfortunes have been the occasion of your finding rest. The punishment of your body has cured the deadly wounds of your soul. I am a thousand times more to be lamented than you; I must resist those fires which love kindles in a young heart."[684]Dryden's Ovid, Met. i.:Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow,And bade the congregated waters flow.—Wakefield.[685]Sir William Davenant's Address to the Queen:Smooth as the face of waters first appeared,Ere tides began to strive, or winds were heard;Kind as the willing saints, and calmer farThan in their sleeps forgiven hermits are.—Wakefield.[686]Heloisa to Abelard: "When we love pleasures we love the living and not the dead." In all editions till that of 1736 this couplet followed:Cut from the root my perished joys I see,And love's warm tide for ever stopped in thee.[687]Hudibras, Part ii. Canto i. 309:Love in your heart as idly burnsAs fire in antique Roman urnsTo warm the dead, and vainly lightThose only that see nothing by 't.—Wakefield.[688]Heloisa to Abelard: "Whatever endeavours I use, on whatever side I turn me, the sweet idea still pursues me, and every object brings to my mind what I ought to forget. Even into holy places before the altar, I carry with me the memory of our guilty loves. They are my whole business."[689]Abelard to Heloisa: "In spite of severe fasts your image appears to me, and confounds all my resolutions."[690]Sedley's verses on Don Alonzo:The gentle nymph,Drops tears with every bead.—Wakefield.The force of the line is, however, in the phrase "too soft" which Pope has added. "With every bead I drop a tear of tender love instead of a tear of bitter repentance."[691]Smith's Phædra and Hippolytus, Act i.:All the idle pomp,Priests, altars, victims swam before mysight.—Steevens.[692]How finely does this glowing imagery introduce the transition,While prostrate here, &c.—Bowles.[693]The whole of this paragraph is from Abelard's letter to Heloisa:"I am a miserable sinner prostrate before my judge, and with my face pressed to the earth I mix my tears and sighs in the dust when the beams of grace and reason enlighten me. Come, see me in this posture and solicit me to love you! Come, if you think fit, and in your holy habit thrust yourself between God and me, and be a wall of separation! Come and force from me those sighs, thoughts, and vows which I owe to him only! Assist the evil spirits and be the instrument of their malice! But rather withdraw yourself and contribute to my salvation."[694]Abelard to Heloisa: "Let me remove far from you, and obey the apostle who hath said, fly."[695]Wakefield quotes the lines of Hopkins to a lady, where, speaking of her beauties, he entreats that she willDrive 'em somewhere, as far as pole from pole;Let winds between us rage, and waters roll.[696]Abelard to Heloisa: "It will always be the highest love to show none: I here release you of all your oaths and engagements to me."[697]The combination "heavenly-fair" is also found in Sandys, Congreve, and Tickell.—Wakefield.[698]"Low-thoughted care" is from Milton's Comus.—Warton.[699]This resembles a passage in Crashaw:Fair hope! our earlier heaven.—Wakefield.[700]"It should," says Mr. Mills, "benearher cell. The doors of all cells open into the common cloister. In that cloister are often tombs." Steevens adds the frivolous objection that the "Paraclete had been too recently founded for monuments of the dead to be expected there." Heloisa had been five years abbess when she wrote her first letter to Abelard, and it is certainly not an extravagant supposition that a death might have occurred among the nuns in that space of time.[701]Dryden's Palamon and Arcite:And issuing sighs that smoked along the wall.—Wakefield.Addison's translation of a passage from Claudian:Oft in the winds is heard a plaintive soundOf melancholy ghosts that hover round.[702]Fenton's translation of Sappho to Phaon:Here, while by sorrow lulled to sleep I lay,Thus said the guardian nymph, or seemed to say.—Wakefield.Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. Sc. 4:Hark! you are called: some say, the Genius soCries, "Come!" to him that instantly must die.[703]Pope owes much throughout this poem to the character of Dido as drawn by Virgil, and this passage seems directly formed upon one in Dryden, Æn. iv. 667:Oft when she visited this lonely domeStrange voices issued from her husband's tomb:She thought she heard him summon her away,Invite her to his grave, and chide her stay.The imitation of the passage in Ovid, Epist. vii. 101, similar to this from Virgil, is still more palpable:Hinc ego me sensi noto quater ore citari:Ipse sono tenui dixit, "Elissa, veni!"Nulla mora est; venio; venio, tibi debita conjux.—Wakefield.[704]It is well contrived that this invisible speaker should be a person that had been under the very same kind of misfortunes with Eloisa.—Warton.[705]Dryden's version of the latter part of the third book of Lucretius:But all is there serene in that eternal sleep.—Wakefield.[706]In the first edition:I come ye ghosts.—Wakefield.[707]Ogilby, Virg. Æn. xi.:And to the dead our last sad duties pay.Dryden, Æn. xi. 322:Perform the last sad office to the slain.—Wakefield.[708]Dryden's Aurengezebe at the commencement of Act iv.:I thought before you drew your latest breath,To sooth your passage, and to soften death.[709]Oldham's translation of Bion on the death of Adonis:Kiss, while I watch thy swimming eye-balls roll,Watch thy last gasp, and catch thy springing soul.Dryden's Virg. Æn. iv. 984:While I in deathLay close my lips to hers, and catch the flying breath.And in his Cleomenes, the end of Act iv.:———sucking in each other's latest breath.—Wakefield.[710]Rowe's ode to Delia:When e'er it comes, may'st thou be by,Support my sinking frame, and teach me how to die.—Wakefield.[711]Dryden Æn., xi. 1194:And from her cheeks the rosy colour flies.[712]Abelard to Heloisa: "You shall see me to strengthen your piety by the horror of this carcase, and my death, then more eloquent than I can be, will tell you what you love when you love a man."[713]Spenser, Faerie Queen, i. 4, 45:Cause of my new grief, cause of new joy.—Wakefield.[714]Abelard and Eloisa were interred in the same grave, or in monuments adjoining, in the monastery of the Paraclete. He died in the year 1142, she in 1163 [4].—Pope.Abelard and Heloisa are said to have been both sixty-three when they died. They were buried in the same crypt, but it was not till 1630, or near five hundred years after the death of Heloisa, that their remains were consigned to the same grave. Then their bones are reported to have been put into a double coffin, divided by a partition of lead. They subsequently underwent various disinterments and removals, till in 1817 the alleged relics were transferred to the cemetery of Père-Lachaise, at Paris, and have not since been disturbed.[715]Dryden, in his translation of Canace to Macareus:I restrained my criesAnd drunk the tears that trickled from my eyes.—Wakefield.[716]Milton, Il Penseroso:There let the pealing organ blowTo the full-voiced choir below.[717]"Dreadful sacrifice" is the ritual term. So in the History of Loretto, 1608, ch. 20, p. 278, "The priest, as the use is, assisted the cardinal in the time of the dreadful sacrifice."—Steevens.[718]Warton says that the eight concluding lines of the Epistle "are rather flat and languid." It is indeed an absurd supposition that a woman who had been speaking the fervid language of christianity should imagine that her state in the world beyond the grave would be that of a "pensive ghost," and that her consolation would consist in having her woes "well-sung" on earth. And it is in the tremendous conflict between piety and passion, while divine and human love are contending fiercely for the mastery, that she finds relief in this unsubstantial idea that some future lover would make her the subject of a poem.[719]The last line is imitated from Addison's Campaign.Marlb'rough's exploits appear divinely bright—Raised of themselves their genuine charms they boast,And those who paint them truest, praise them most.This Pope had in his thoughts; but not knowing how to use what was not his own, he spoiled the thought when he had borrowed it. Martial exploits may be painted; perhaps woes may be painted; but they are surely not painted by being well sung: it is not easy to paint in song, or to sing in colours.—Johnson.[720]Roscoe supposes Richardson to have asserted that there was an "entire discrepancy between the Essay on Man as published, and the original manuscripts," and to have implied that the change was from "infidelity" to its opposite. This is not the statement of Richardson. He says, on the contrary, that when the "exceptionable passages" were pointed out Pope "did not think of altering them," and "never dreamed of adopting" a more orthodox "scheme" for his Essay till after "its fatalism and deistical tendency" had excited that "general alarm" which could not precede the publication of the poem, and which only, in fact, commenced some three years later. Richardson is enforcing his charge against Warburton of inventing forced meanings, and the instance would contradict the accusation if Pope had altered his language from deism to orthodoxy before he printed the work. The commentary would then have expressed the natural sense of the text. The change of which Richardson speaks was not in the Essay itself, but in the interpretation Pope put upon it. While he was composing the poem he accepted the deistical construction of the Richardsons; and when he was terrified at the "general alarm" he endorsed the christian construction of Warburton.
[628]The altar of Paraclete, says Mr. Berrington, did not then exist. They were not professed at the same time or place; one was at Argenteuil, the other at St. Denys.—-Warton.
[628]The altar of Paraclete, says Mr. Berrington, did not then exist. They were not professed at the same time or place; one was at Argenteuil, the other at St. Denys.—-Warton.
[629]Abelard to Heloisa: "I accompanied you with terror to the foot of the altar, and while you stretched out your hand to touch the sacred cloth, I heard you pronounce distinctly those fatal words which for ever separated you from all men."
[629]Abelard to Heloisa: "I accompanied you with terror to the foot of the altar, and while you stretched out your hand to touch the sacred cloth, I heard you pronounce distinctly those fatal words which for ever separated you from all men."
[630]Her kissing the veil with "cold lips" strongly marks her want of that fervent zeal and devotion which should influence those votaries who renounce the world. The presages, likewise, which attended the rites are finely imagined,—the trembling of the shrines, and the pallid hue of the lamps as if they were conscious of the reluctant sacrifice she was making.—Ruffhead.
[630]Her kissing the veil with "cold lips" strongly marks her want of that fervent zeal and devotion which should influence those votaries who renounce the world. The presages, likewise, which attended the rites are finely imagined,—the trembling of the shrines, and the pallid hue of the lamps as if they were conscious of the reluctant sacrifice she was making.—Ruffhead.
[631]Prior, in Henry and Emma, has a verse of similar pauses, and similar phraseology:Thy lips all trembling, and thy cheeks all pale.—Wakefield.
[631]Prior, in Henry and Emma, has a verse of similar pauses, and similar phraseology:
Thy lips all trembling, and thy cheeks all pale.—Wakefield.
[632]Abelard to Heloisa: "I saw your eyes when you spoke your last farewell fixed upon the cross." Heloisa to Abelard: "It was your command only, and not a sincere vocation, as is imagined, that shut me up in these cloisters." The two passages combined suggested the line in the text.
[632]Abelard to Heloisa: "I saw your eyes when you spoke your last farewell fixed upon the cross." Heloisa to Abelard: "It was your command only, and not a sincere vocation, as is imagined, that shut me up in these cloisters." The two passages combined suggested the line in the text.
[633]Heloisa to Abelard: "You may see me, hear my sighs, and be a witness of all my sorrows, without incurring any danger, since you can only relieve me with tears and words."
[633]Heloisa to Abelard: "You may see me, hear my sighs, and be a witness of all my sorrows, without incurring any danger, since you can only relieve me with tears and words."
[634]Roscoe remarks that the lines which follow cannot be justified by anything in the letters of Eloisa. Sentiments equally gross are however expressed both in the original Latin and in the adulterated translation which was Pope's authority.
[634]Roscoe remarks that the lines which follow cannot be justified by anything in the letters of Eloisa. Sentiments equally gross are however expressed both in the original Latin and in the adulterated translation which was Pope's authority.
[635]Concannen's Match at Football, Canto iii.:And drank in poison from her lovely eye.Creech, at the beginning of his Lucretius:Where on thy bosom he supinely lies,And greedily drinks love at both his eyes.—Wakefield.Smith's Phædra and Hippolytus, Act i.:Drank gorging in the dear delicious poison.—Steevens.
[635]Concannen's Match at Football, Canto iii.:
And drank in poison from her lovely eye.
Creech, at the beginning of his Lucretius:
Where on thy bosom he supinely lies,And greedily drinks love at both his eyes.—Wakefield.
Where on thy bosom he supinely lies,And greedily drinks love at both his eyes.—Wakefield.
Where on thy bosom he supinely lies,And greedily drinks love at both his eyes.—Wakefield.
Smith's Phædra and Hippolytus, Act i.:
Drank gorging in the dear delicious poison.—Steevens.
[636]"If thou canst forget me, think at least upon thy flock," says Wakefield, in explanation of the train of thought; and he adds a passage from a letter of Eloisa in which she terms the monastery Abelard's "new plantation," and assures him that frequent watering is essential to the tender plants.
[636]"If thou canst forget me, think at least upon thy flock," says Wakefield, in explanation of the train of thought; and he adds a passage from a letter of Eloisa in which she terms the monastery Abelard's "new plantation," and assures him that frequent watering is essential to the tender plants.
[637]Heloisa to Abelard: "The innocent sheep, tender as they are, would yet follow you through deserts and mountains."
[637]Heloisa to Abelard: "The innocent sheep, tender as they are, would yet follow you through deserts and mountains."
[638]He founded the monastery.—Pope.Heloisa to Abelard: "You only are the founder of this house. You by inhabiting here have given fame and sanctity to a place known before only for robbers and murderers."
[638]He founded the monastery.—Pope.
Heloisa to Abelard: "You only are the founder of this house. You by inhabiting here have given fame and sanctity to a place known before only for robbers and murderers."
[639]So Dryden says of Absalom,And Paradise was opened in his face.The original of the image in the text is in Isaiah li. 3:He will make her wilderness like Eden,And her desert like the garden of Jehovah.Whence Milton derived it, Par. Reg. i. 7:And Eden raised in the waste wilderness.—Wakefield.
[639]So Dryden says of Absalom,
And Paradise was opened in his face.
The original of the image in the text is in Isaiah li. 3:
He will make her wilderness like Eden,And her desert like the garden of Jehovah.
He will make her wilderness like Eden,And her desert like the garden of Jehovah.
He will make her wilderness like Eden,And her desert like the garden of Jehovah.
Whence Milton derived it, Par. Reg. i. 7:
And Eden raised in the waste wilderness.—Wakefield.
[640]The writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes Boileau, Le Moine:Là les salons sont peints, les meubles sont dorésDes larmes et du sang des pauvres devorés.
[640]The writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes Boileau, Le Moine:
Là les salons sont peints, les meubles sont dorésDes larmes et du sang des pauvres devorés.
Là les salons sont peints, les meubles sont dorésDes larmes et du sang des pauvres devorés.
Là les salons sont peints, les meubles sont dorésDes larmes et du sang des pauvres devorés.
[641]Heloisa to Abelard: "These cloisters owe nothing to public charities; our walls were not raised by the usury of publicans, nor their foundations laid on base extortion. The God whom we serve sees nothing but innocent riches, and harmless votaries whom you have placed here."
[641]Heloisa to Abelard: "These cloisters owe nothing to public charities; our walls were not raised by the usury of publicans, nor their foundations laid on base extortion. The God whom we serve sees nothing but innocent riches, and harmless votaries whom you have placed here."
[642]There were no benefactors whose praises were celebrated in the services, but the building was vocal only with the praise of the Deity.
[642]There were no benefactors whose praises were celebrated in the services, but the building was vocal only with the praise of the Deity.
[643]Our author imitates Milton:And storied windows richly dightCasting a dim religious light.—Wakefield.
[643]Our author imitates Milton:
And storied windows richly dightCasting a dim religious light.—Wakefield.
And storied windows richly dightCasting a dim religious light.—Wakefield.
And storied windows richly dightCasting a dim religious light.—Wakefield.
[644]Dryden had said of his Good Parson:His eyes diffused a venerable grace.—Wakefield.
[644]Dryden had said of his Good Parson:
His eyes diffused a venerable grace.—Wakefield.
[645]Mrs. Rowe on the Creation:And kindling glories brighten all the skies.—Wakefield.
[645]Mrs. Rowe on the Creation:
And kindling glories brighten all the skies.—Wakefield.
[646]By pretending that she desires Abelard to visit the Paraclete in obedience to the call of her sister nuns.
[646]By pretending that she desires Abelard to visit the Paraclete in obedience to the call of her sister nuns.
[647]Heloisa to Abelard: "But why should I entreat you in the name of your children? Is it possible I should fear obtaining anything of you when I ask in my own name? And must I use any other prayers than my own to prevail upon you?"
[647]Heloisa to Abelard: "But why should I entreat you in the name of your children? Is it possible I should fear obtaining anything of you when I ask in my own name? And must I use any other prayers than my own to prevail upon you?"
[648]From the superscription of Heloisa's letter to Abelard: "To her lord, her father, her husband, her brother; his servant, his child, his wife, his sister, and to express all that is humble, respectful, and loving to her Abelard, Heloisa writes this."
[648]From the superscription of Heloisa's letter to Abelard: "To her lord, her father, her husband, her brother; his servant, his child, his wife, his sister, and to express all that is humble, respectful, and loving to her Abelard, Heloisa writes this."
[649]Our poet is indebted to a translation of the Virgilian cento of Ausonius in Dryden's Miscellanies, vi. p. 143:My love, my life,And every tender name in one, my wife.—Wakefield.
[649]Our poet is indebted to a translation of the Virgilian cento of Ausonius in Dryden's Miscellanies, vi. p. 143:
My love, my life,And every tender name in one, my wife.—Wakefield.
My love, my life,And every tender name in one, my wife.—Wakefield.
My love, my life,And every tender name in one, my wife.—Wakefield.
[650]Mr. Mills, a clergyman, who visited the Paraclete about the year 1765, says, "Mr. Pope's description is ideal. I saw neither rocks, nor pines, nor was it a kind of ground which ever seemed to encourage such objects."
[650]Mr. Mills, a clergyman, who visited the Paraclete about the year 1765, says, "Mr. Pope's description is ideal. I saw neither rocks, nor pines, nor was it a kind of ground which ever seemed to encourage such objects."
[651]Addison's translation of book iii, of the Æneis:The hollow murmurs of the winds that blow.
[651]Addison's translation of book iii, of the Æneis:
The hollow murmurs of the winds that blow.
[652]The little river Ardusson glittered along the valley of the Paraclete.—Mills.
[652]The little river Ardusson glittered along the valley of the Paraclete.—Mills.
[653]Philips, in his fourth Pastoral:Nor dropping waters which from rocks distil,And welly grots with tinkling echoes fill.—Wakefield.
[653]Philips, in his fourth Pastoral:
Nor dropping waters which from rocks distil,And welly grots with tinkling echoes fill.—Wakefield.
Nor dropping waters which from rocks distil,And welly grots with tinkling echoes fill.—Wakefield.
Nor dropping waters which from rocks distil,And welly grots with tinkling echoes fill.—Wakefield.
[654]Milton's Penseroso:When the gust hath blown his fillEnding on the rustling leaves.—Wakefield.
[654]Milton's Penseroso:
When the gust hath blown his fillEnding on the rustling leaves.—Wakefield.
When the gust hath blown his fillEnding on the rustling leaves.—Wakefield.
When the gust hath blown his fillEnding on the rustling leaves.—Wakefield.
[655]Dryden, Virg. Geo. iv. 432:When western winds on curling waters play.
[655]Dryden, Virg. Geo. iv. 432:
When western winds on curling waters play.
[656]Dryden, Virg. Æn. iii. 575:Most upbraidThe madness of the visionary maid.—Wakefield.
[656]Dryden, Virg. Æn. iii. 575:
Most upbraidThe madness of the visionary maid.—Wakefield.
Most upbraidThe madness of the visionary maid.—Wakefield.
Most upbraidThe madness of the visionary maid.—Wakefield.
[657]Milton's Penseroso:To arched walks of twilight groves.—Wakefield.
[657]Milton's Penseroso:
To arched walks of twilight groves.—Wakefield.
[658]Waller's version of Æneid iv.:A death-like quiet, and deep silence fell.Dryden's Astræa Redux:A dreadful quiet felt.—Wakefield.Charles Bainbrigg on the death of Edward King:AbyssumTerribilis requies et vasta silentia cingant.—Steevens.
[658]Waller's version of Æneid iv.:
A death-like quiet, and deep silence fell.
Dryden's Astræa Redux:
A dreadful quiet felt.—Wakefield.
Charles Bainbrigg on the death of Edward King:
AbyssumTerribilis requies et vasta silentia cingant.—Steevens.
AbyssumTerribilis requies et vasta silentia cingant.—Steevens.
AbyssumTerribilis requies et vasta silentia cingant.—Steevens.
[659]Fenton in his version of Sappho to Phaon:With him the caves were cool, the grove was green,But now his absence withers all the scene.—Wakefield.
[659]Fenton in his version of Sappho to Phaon:
With him the caves were cool, the grove was green,But now his absence withers all the scene.—Wakefield.
With him the caves were cool, the grove was green,But now his absence withers all the scene.—Wakefield.
With him the caves were cool, the grove was green,But now his absence withers all the scene.—Wakefield.
[660]Dryden's Theodore and Honoria:With deeper brown the grove was overspread.—Steevens.Dryden, Æn. vii. 40:The Trojan from the main beheld a wood,Which thick with shades and a brown horror stood.—Wakefield.
[660]Dryden's Theodore and Honoria:
With deeper brown the grove was overspread.—Steevens.
Dryden, Æn. vii. 40:
The Trojan from the main beheld a wood,Which thick with shades and a brown horror stood.—Wakefield.
The Trojan from the main beheld a wood,Which thick with shades and a brown horror stood.—Wakefield.
The Trojan from the main beheld a wood,Which thick with shades and a brown horror stood.—Wakefield.
[661]In allusion to this sacrifice of herself at his will she says in her first letter: "You are of all mankind most abundantly indebted to me; and particularly for that proof of absolute submission to your commands in thus destroying myself at your injunction."—Wakefield.
[661]In allusion to this sacrifice of herself at his will she says in her first letter: "You are of all mankind most abundantly indebted to me; and particularly for that proof of absolute submission to your commands in thus destroying myself at your injunction."—Wakefield.
[662]Heloisa to Abelard: "Death only can make me leave the place where you have fixed me, and then too my ashes shall rest there, and wait for yours."
[662]Heloisa to Abelard: "Death only can make me leave the place where you have fixed me, and then too my ashes shall rest there, and wait for yours."
[663]Abelard to Heloisa: "I hope you will be contented when you have finished this mortal life to be buried near me. Your cold ashes need then fear nothing."
[663]Abelard to Heloisa: "I hope you will be contented when you have finished this mortal life to be buried near me. Your cold ashes need then fear nothing."
[664]Heloisa to Abelard: "Among those who are wedded to God I serve a man. What a prodigy am I! Enlighten me, O Lord! Does thy grace or my despair draw these words from me?"
[664]Heloisa to Abelard: "Among those who are wedded to God I serve a man. What a prodigy am I! Enlighten me, O Lord! Does thy grace or my despair draw these words from me?"
[665]Heloisa to Abelard: "I am sensible I am in the temple of chastity only with the ashes of that fire which has consumed us."
[665]Heloisa to Abelard: "I am sensible I am in the temple of chastity only with the ashes of that fire which has consumed us."
[666]This couplet, and its wretched rhymes, seem derived from an elegy of Walsh in Dryden's Miscellanies:I know I ought to hate you for the fault;But oh! I cannot do the thing I ought.—Wakefield.
[666]This couplet, and its wretched rhymes, seem derived from an elegy of Walsh in Dryden's Miscellanies:
I know I ought to hate you for the fault;But oh! I cannot do the thing I ought.—Wakefield.
I know I ought to hate you for the fault;But oh! I cannot do the thing I ought.—Wakefield.
I know I ought to hate you for the fault;But oh! I cannot do the thing I ought.—Wakefield.
[667]Heloisa to Abelard: "I am here a sinner, but one, who far from weeping for her sins, weeps only for her lover; far from abhorring her crimes endeavours only to add to them, and then who pleases herself continually with the remembrance of past actions when it is impossible to renew them." And again: "I, who have experienced so many pleasures in loving you feel, in spite of myself, that I cannot repent of them, nor forbear enjoying them over again as much as is possible by recollecting them in my memory." Abelard, in the translation of the letters, expresses the same sentiment: "Love still preserves its dominion in my fancy, and entertains itself with past pleasures."
[667]Heloisa to Abelard: "I am here a sinner, but one, who far from weeping for her sins, weeps only for her lover; far from abhorring her crimes endeavours only to add to them, and then who pleases herself continually with the remembrance of past actions when it is impossible to renew them." And again: "I, who have experienced so many pleasures in loving you feel, in spite of myself, that I cannot repent of them, nor forbear enjoying them over again as much as is possible by recollecting them in my memory." Abelard, in the translation of the letters, expresses the same sentiment: "Love still preserves its dominion in my fancy, and entertains itself with past pleasures."
[668]Abelard to Heloisa: "To forget in the case of love is the most necessary penitence, and the most difficult."
[668]Abelard to Heloisa: "To forget in the case of love is the most necessary penitence, and the most difficult."
[669]Dryden's Cymon and Iphigenia:Then impotent of mind, with altered senseShe hugged th' offender, and forgave th' offence.—Wakefield.
[669]Dryden's Cymon and Iphigenia:
Then impotent of mind, with altered senseShe hugged th' offender, and forgave th' offence.—Wakefield.
Then impotent of mind, with altered senseShe hugged th' offender, and forgave th' offence.—Wakefield.
Then impotent of mind, with altered senseShe hugged th' offender, and forgave th' offence.—Wakefield.
[670]Abelard to Heloisa: "How can I separate from the person I love the passion I must detest? Will the tears I shed be sufficient to render it odious to me? It is difficult in our sorrow to distinguish penitence from love."
[670]Abelard to Heloisa: "How can I separate from the person I love the passion I must detest? Will the tears I shed be sufficient to render it odious to me? It is difficult in our sorrow to distinguish penitence from love."
[671]Heloisa to Abelard: "A heart which has been so sensibly affected as mine cannot soon be indifferent. We fluctuate long between love and hatred before we can arrive at a happy tranquillity." Abelard to Heloisa: "In such different disquietudes I contradict myself; I hate you; I love you."
[671]Heloisa to Abelard: "A heart which has been so sensibly affected as mine cannot soon be indifferent. We fluctuate long between love and hatred before we can arrive at a happy tranquillity." Abelard to Heloisa: "In such different disquietudes I contradict myself; I hate you; I love you."
[672]Heloisa to Abelard: "God has a peculiar right over the hearts of great men. When he pleases to touch them he ravishes them, and lets them not speak nor breathe but for his glory."
[672]Heloisa to Abelard: "God has a peculiar right over the hearts of great men. When he pleases to touch them he ravishes them, and lets them not speak nor breathe but for his glory."
[673]Heloisa to Abelard: "Yes, Abelard, I conjure you teach me the maxims of divine love. Oh! for pity's sake help a wretch to renounce her desires, herself, and, if it be possible, even to renounce you."
[673]Heloisa to Abelard: "Yes, Abelard, I conjure you teach me the maxims of divine love. Oh! for pity's sake help a wretch to renounce her desires, herself, and, if it be possible, even to renounce you."
[674]Heloisa to Abelard: "When I shall have told you what rival hath ravished my heart from you, you will praise my inconstancy, and will pray this rival to fix it. By this you may judge that it is God alone that takes Heloise from you. What other rival could take me from you? Could you think me guilty of sacrificing the virtuous and learned Abelard to any other but God?"
[674]Heloisa to Abelard: "When I shall have told you what rival hath ravished my heart from you, you will praise my inconstancy, and will pray this rival to fix it. By this you may judge that it is God alone that takes Heloise from you. What other rival could take me from you? Could you think me guilty of sacrificing the virtuous and learned Abelard to any other but God?"
[675]Horace, Epist. Lib. i. xi. 9:Oblitusque meorum, obliviscendus et illis.My friends forgetting, by my friends forgot.—Wakefield.
[675]Horace, Epist. Lib. i. xi. 9:
Oblitusque meorum, obliviscendus et illis.
My friends forgetting, by my friends forgot.—Wakefield.
[676]Taken from Crashaw.—Pope.Wakefield gives the complete couplet from Crashaw's Description of a religious House:A hasty portion of prescribed sleep;Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep.
[676]Taken from Crashaw.—Pope.
Wakefield gives the complete couplet from Crashaw's Description of a religious House:
A hasty portion of prescribed sleep;Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep.
A hasty portion of prescribed sleep;Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep.
A hasty portion of prescribed sleep;Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep.
[677]The idea of the "wings of seraphs shedding perfumes" is from Milton, Par. Lost, v. 286, where Raphael "shakes heavenly fragrance" from "his plumes," and Dryden in his Tyrannic Love, Act v., mentions the perfumes, the spousals, and the celestial music as accompaniments of the death of St. Catherine:Æthereal music did her death prepare,Like joyful sounds of spousals in the air;A radiant light did her crowned temple gild,And all the place with fragrant scents was filled;Of charming notes we heard the last rebounds,And music dying in remoter sounds.
[677]The idea of the "wings of seraphs shedding perfumes" is from Milton, Par. Lost, v. 286, where Raphael "shakes heavenly fragrance" from "his plumes," and Dryden in his Tyrannic Love, Act v., mentions the perfumes, the spousals, and the celestial music as accompaniments of the death of St. Catherine:
Æthereal music did her death prepare,Like joyful sounds of spousals in the air;A radiant light did her crowned temple gild,And all the place with fragrant scents was filled;Of charming notes we heard the last rebounds,And music dying in remoter sounds.
Æthereal music did her death prepare,Like joyful sounds of spousals in the air;A radiant light did her crowned temple gild,And all the place with fragrant scents was filled;Of charming notes we heard the last rebounds,And music dying in remoter sounds.
Æthereal music did her death prepare,Like joyful sounds of spousals in the air;A radiant light did her crowned temple gild,And all the place with fragrant scents was filled;Of charming notes we heard the last rebounds,And music dying in remoter sounds.
[678]Adapted from Dryden's Britannia Redivivus:As star-light is dissolved awayAnd melts into the brightness of the day.
[678]Adapted from Dryden's Britannia Redivivus:
As star-light is dissolved awayAnd melts into the brightness of the day.
As star-light is dissolved awayAnd melts into the brightness of the day.
As star-light is dissolved awayAnd melts into the brightness of the day.
[679]Dryden's Cinyras and Myrrha, translated from Ovid:For guilty pleasure gives a double gust.
[679]Dryden's Cinyras and Myrrha, translated from Ovid:
For guilty pleasure gives a double gust.
[680]Heloisa to Abelard: "I will own to you what makes the greatest pleasure I have in my retirement. After having passed the day in thinking of you, full of the dear idea I give myself up at night to sleep. Then it is that Heloise, who dares not without trembling think of you by day, resigns herself entirely to the pleasure of hearing you, and speaking to you. I see you Abelard, and glut my eyes with the sight. Sometimes forgetting the perpetual obstacles to our desires, you press me to make you happy, and I easily yield to your transports. Sleep gives me what your enemies' rage has deprived you of, and our souls, animated with the same passion, are sensible of the same pleasure. But, oh, you delightful illusions, soft errors, how soon do you vanish away! At my awaking I open my eyes, and see no Abelard; I stretch out my arms to take hold of him, but he is not there; I call upon him, he hears me not."
[680]Heloisa to Abelard: "I will own to you what makes the greatest pleasure I have in my retirement. After having passed the day in thinking of you, full of the dear idea I give myself up at night to sleep. Then it is that Heloise, who dares not without trembling think of you by day, resigns herself entirely to the pleasure of hearing you, and speaking to you. I see you Abelard, and glut my eyes with the sight. Sometimes forgetting the perpetual obstacles to our desires, you press me to make you happy, and I easily yield to your transports. Sleep gives me what your enemies' rage has deprived you of, and our souls, animated with the same passion, are sensible of the same pleasure. But, oh, you delightful illusions, soft errors, how soon do you vanish away! At my awaking I open my eyes, and see no Abelard; I stretch out my arms to take hold of him, but he is not there; I call upon him, he hears me not."
[681]Dryden, Æneis, iv. 677, supplied the idea:She seems, alone,To wander in her sleep through ways unknown,Guideless and dark; or in a desert plainTo seek her subjects, and to seek in vain.
[681]Dryden, Æneis, iv. 677, supplied the idea:
She seems, alone,To wander in her sleep through ways unknown,Guideless and dark; or in a desert plainTo seek her subjects, and to seek in vain.
She seems, alone,To wander in her sleep through ways unknown,Guideless and dark; or in a desert plainTo seek her subjects, and to seek in vain.
She seems, alone,To wander in her sleep through ways unknown,Guideless and dark; or in a desert plainTo seek her subjects, and to seek in vain.
[682]The writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes the same expression from Steele's Miscellanies:No more severely kind affect to putThat lovely anger on.
[682]The writer in the Gentleman's Magazine quotes the same expression from Steele's Miscellanies:
No more severely kind affect to putThat lovely anger on.
No more severely kind affect to putThat lovely anger on.
No more severely kind affect to putThat lovely anger on.
[683]Heloisa to Abelard: "You are happy, Abelard, and your misfortunes have been the occasion of your finding rest. The punishment of your body has cured the deadly wounds of your soul. I am a thousand times more to be lamented than you; I must resist those fires which love kindles in a young heart."
[683]Heloisa to Abelard: "You are happy, Abelard, and your misfortunes have been the occasion of your finding rest. The punishment of your body has cured the deadly wounds of your soul. I am a thousand times more to be lamented than you; I must resist those fires which love kindles in a young heart."
[684]Dryden's Ovid, Met. i.:Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow,And bade the congregated waters flow.—Wakefield.
[684]Dryden's Ovid, Met. i.:
Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow,And bade the congregated waters flow.—Wakefield.
Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow,And bade the congregated waters flow.—Wakefield.
Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow,And bade the congregated waters flow.—Wakefield.
[685]Sir William Davenant's Address to the Queen:Smooth as the face of waters first appeared,Ere tides began to strive, or winds were heard;Kind as the willing saints, and calmer farThan in their sleeps forgiven hermits are.—Wakefield.
[685]Sir William Davenant's Address to the Queen:
Smooth as the face of waters first appeared,Ere tides began to strive, or winds were heard;Kind as the willing saints, and calmer farThan in their sleeps forgiven hermits are.—Wakefield.
Smooth as the face of waters first appeared,Ere tides began to strive, or winds were heard;Kind as the willing saints, and calmer farThan in their sleeps forgiven hermits are.—Wakefield.
Smooth as the face of waters first appeared,Ere tides began to strive, or winds were heard;Kind as the willing saints, and calmer farThan in their sleeps forgiven hermits are.—Wakefield.
[686]Heloisa to Abelard: "When we love pleasures we love the living and not the dead." In all editions till that of 1736 this couplet followed:Cut from the root my perished joys I see,And love's warm tide for ever stopped in thee.
[686]Heloisa to Abelard: "When we love pleasures we love the living and not the dead." In all editions till that of 1736 this couplet followed:
Cut from the root my perished joys I see,And love's warm tide for ever stopped in thee.
Cut from the root my perished joys I see,And love's warm tide for ever stopped in thee.
Cut from the root my perished joys I see,And love's warm tide for ever stopped in thee.
[687]Hudibras, Part ii. Canto i. 309:Love in your heart as idly burnsAs fire in antique Roman urnsTo warm the dead, and vainly lightThose only that see nothing by 't.—Wakefield.
[687]Hudibras, Part ii. Canto i. 309:
Love in your heart as idly burnsAs fire in antique Roman urnsTo warm the dead, and vainly lightThose only that see nothing by 't.—Wakefield.
Love in your heart as idly burnsAs fire in antique Roman urnsTo warm the dead, and vainly lightThose only that see nothing by 't.—Wakefield.
Love in your heart as idly burnsAs fire in antique Roman urnsTo warm the dead, and vainly lightThose only that see nothing by 't.—Wakefield.
[688]Heloisa to Abelard: "Whatever endeavours I use, on whatever side I turn me, the sweet idea still pursues me, and every object brings to my mind what I ought to forget. Even into holy places before the altar, I carry with me the memory of our guilty loves. They are my whole business."
[688]Heloisa to Abelard: "Whatever endeavours I use, on whatever side I turn me, the sweet idea still pursues me, and every object brings to my mind what I ought to forget. Even into holy places before the altar, I carry with me the memory of our guilty loves. They are my whole business."
[689]Abelard to Heloisa: "In spite of severe fasts your image appears to me, and confounds all my resolutions."
[689]Abelard to Heloisa: "In spite of severe fasts your image appears to me, and confounds all my resolutions."
[690]Sedley's verses on Don Alonzo:The gentle nymph,Drops tears with every bead.—Wakefield.The force of the line is, however, in the phrase "too soft" which Pope has added. "With every bead I drop a tear of tender love instead of a tear of bitter repentance."
[690]Sedley's verses on Don Alonzo:
The gentle nymph,Drops tears with every bead.—Wakefield.
The gentle nymph,Drops tears with every bead.—Wakefield.
The gentle nymph,Drops tears with every bead.—Wakefield.
The force of the line is, however, in the phrase "too soft" which Pope has added. "With every bead I drop a tear of tender love instead of a tear of bitter repentance."
[691]Smith's Phædra and Hippolytus, Act i.:All the idle pomp,Priests, altars, victims swam before mysight.—Steevens.
[691]Smith's Phædra and Hippolytus, Act i.:
All the idle pomp,Priests, altars, victims swam before mysight.—Steevens.
All the idle pomp,Priests, altars, victims swam before mysight.—Steevens.
All the idle pomp,Priests, altars, victims swam before mysight.—Steevens.
[692]How finely does this glowing imagery introduce the transition,While prostrate here, &c.—Bowles.
[692]How finely does this glowing imagery introduce the transition,
While prostrate here, &c.—Bowles.
[693]The whole of this paragraph is from Abelard's letter to Heloisa:"I am a miserable sinner prostrate before my judge, and with my face pressed to the earth I mix my tears and sighs in the dust when the beams of grace and reason enlighten me. Come, see me in this posture and solicit me to love you! Come, if you think fit, and in your holy habit thrust yourself between God and me, and be a wall of separation! Come and force from me those sighs, thoughts, and vows which I owe to him only! Assist the evil spirits and be the instrument of their malice! But rather withdraw yourself and contribute to my salvation."
[693]The whole of this paragraph is from Abelard's letter to Heloisa:
"I am a miserable sinner prostrate before my judge, and with my face pressed to the earth I mix my tears and sighs in the dust when the beams of grace and reason enlighten me. Come, see me in this posture and solicit me to love you! Come, if you think fit, and in your holy habit thrust yourself between God and me, and be a wall of separation! Come and force from me those sighs, thoughts, and vows which I owe to him only! Assist the evil spirits and be the instrument of their malice! But rather withdraw yourself and contribute to my salvation."
[694]Abelard to Heloisa: "Let me remove far from you, and obey the apostle who hath said, fly."
[694]Abelard to Heloisa: "Let me remove far from you, and obey the apostle who hath said, fly."
[695]Wakefield quotes the lines of Hopkins to a lady, where, speaking of her beauties, he entreats that she willDrive 'em somewhere, as far as pole from pole;Let winds between us rage, and waters roll.
[695]Wakefield quotes the lines of Hopkins to a lady, where, speaking of her beauties, he entreats that she will
Drive 'em somewhere, as far as pole from pole;Let winds between us rage, and waters roll.
Drive 'em somewhere, as far as pole from pole;Let winds between us rage, and waters roll.
Drive 'em somewhere, as far as pole from pole;Let winds between us rage, and waters roll.
[696]Abelard to Heloisa: "It will always be the highest love to show none: I here release you of all your oaths and engagements to me."
[696]Abelard to Heloisa: "It will always be the highest love to show none: I here release you of all your oaths and engagements to me."
[697]The combination "heavenly-fair" is also found in Sandys, Congreve, and Tickell.—Wakefield.
[697]The combination "heavenly-fair" is also found in Sandys, Congreve, and Tickell.—Wakefield.
[698]"Low-thoughted care" is from Milton's Comus.—Warton.
[698]"Low-thoughted care" is from Milton's Comus.—Warton.
[699]This resembles a passage in Crashaw:Fair hope! our earlier heaven.—Wakefield.
[699]This resembles a passage in Crashaw:
Fair hope! our earlier heaven.—Wakefield.
[700]"It should," says Mr. Mills, "benearher cell. The doors of all cells open into the common cloister. In that cloister are often tombs." Steevens adds the frivolous objection that the "Paraclete had been too recently founded for monuments of the dead to be expected there." Heloisa had been five years abbess when she wrote her first letter to Abelard, and it is certainly not an extravagant supposition that a death might have occurred among the nuns in that space of time.
[700]"It should," says Mr. Mills, "benearher cell. The doors of all cells open into the common cloister. In that cloister are often tombs." Steevens adds the frivolous objection that the "Paraclete had been too recently founded for monuments of the dead to be expected there." Heloisa had been five years abbess when she wrote her first letter to Abelard, and it is certainly not an extravagant supposition that a death might have occurred among the nuns in that space of time.
[701]Dryden's Palamon and Arcite:And issuing sighs that smoked along the wall.—Wakefield.Addison's translation of a passage from Claudian:Oft in the winds is heard a plaintive soundOf melancholy ghosts that hover round.
[701]Dryden's Palamon and Arcite:
And issuing sighs that smoked along the wall.—Wakefield.
Addison's translation of a passage from Claudian:
Oft in the winds is heard a plaintive soundOf melancholy ghosts that hover round.
Oft in the winds is heard a plaintive soundOf melancholy ghosts that hover round.
Oft in the winds is heard a plaintive soundOf melancholy ghosts that hover round.
[702]Fenton's translation of Sappho to Phaon:Here, while by sorrow lulled to sleep I lay,Thus said the guardian nymph, or seemed to say.—Wakefield.Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. Sc. 4:Hark! you are called: some say, the Genius soCries, "Come!" to him that instantly must die.
[702]Fenton's translation of Sappho to Phaon:
Here, while by sorrow lulled to sleep I lay,Thus said the guardian nymph, or seemed to say.—Wakefield.
Here, while by sorrow lulled to sleep I lay,Thus said the guardian nymph, or seemed to say.—Wakefield.
Here, while by sorrow lulled to sleep I lay,Thus said the guardian nymph, or seemed to say.—Wakefield.
Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. Sc. 4:
Hark! you are called: some say, the Genius soCries, "Come!" to him that instantly must die.
Hark! you are called: some say, the Genius soCries, "Come!" to him that instantly must die.
Hark! you are called: some say, the Genius soCries, "Come!" to him that instantly must die.
[703]Pope owes much throughout this poem to the character of Dido as drawn by Virgil, and this passage seems directly formed upon one in Dryden, Æn. iv. 667:Oft when she visited this lonely domeStrange voices issued from her husband's tomb:She thought she heard him summon her away,Invite her to his grave, and chide her stay.The imitation of the passage in Ovid, Epist. vii. 101, similar to this from Virgil, is still more palpable:Hinc ego me sensi noto quater ore citari:Ipse sono tenui dixit, "Elissa, veni!"Nulla mora est; venio; venio, tibi debita conjux.—Wakefield.
[703]Pope owes much throughout this poem to the character of Dido as drawn by Virgil, and this passage seems directly formed upon one in Dryden, Æn. iv. 667:
Oft when she visited this lonely domeStrange voices issued from her husband's tomb:She thought she heard him summon her away,Invite her to his grave, and chide her stay.
Oft when she visited this lonely domeStrange voices issued from her husband's tomb:She thought she heard him summon her away,Invite her to his grave, and chide her stay.
Oft when she visited this lonely domeStrange voices issued from her husband's tomb:She thought she heard him summon her away,Invite her to his grave, and chide her stay.
The imitation of the passage in Ovid, Epist. vii. 101, similar to this from Virgil, is still more palpable:
Hinc ego me sensi noto quater ore citari:Ipse sono tenui dixit, "Elissa, veni!"Nulla mora est; venio; venio, tibi debita conjux.—Wakefield.
Hinc ego me sensi noto quater ore citari:Ipse sono tenui dixit, "Elissa, veni!"Nulla mora est; venio; venio, tibi debita conjux.—Wakefield.
Hinc ego me sensi noto quater ore citari:Ipse sono tenui dixit, "Elissa, veni!"Nulla mora est; venio; venio, tibi debita conjux.—Wakefield.
[704]It is well contrived that this invisible speaker should be a person that had been under the very same kind of misfortunes with Eloisa.—Warton.
[704]It is well contrived that this invisible speaker should be a person that had been under the very same kind of misfortunes with Eloisa.—Warton.
[705]Dryden's version of the latter part of the third book of Lucretius:But all is there serene in that eternal sleep.—Wakefield.
[705]Dryden's version of the latter part of the third book of Lucretius:
But all is there serene in that eternal sleep.—Wakefield.
[706]In the first edition:I come ye ghosts.—Wakefield.
[706]In the first edition:
I come ye ghosts.—Wakefield.
[707]Ogilby, Virg. Æn. xi.:And to the dead our last sad duties pay.Dryden, Æn. xi. 322:Perform the last sad office to the slain.—Wakefield.
[707]Ogilby, Virg. Æn. xi.:
And to the dead our last sad duties pay.
Dryden, Æn. xi. 322:
Perform the last sad office to the slain.—Wakefield.
[708]Dryden's Aurengezebe at the commencement of Act iv.:I thought before you drew your latest breath,To sooth your passage, and to soften death.
[708]Dryden's Aurengezebe at the commencement of Act iv.:
I thought before you drew your latest breath,To sooth your passage, and to soften death.
I thought before you drew your latest breath,To sooth your passage, and to soften death.
I thought before you drew your latest breath,To sooth your passage, and to soften death.
[709]Oldham's translation of Bion on the death of Adonis:Kiss, while I watch thy swimming eye-balls roll,Watch thy last gasp, and catch thy springing soul.Dryden's Virg. Æn. iv. 984:While I in deathLay close my lips to hers, and catch the flying breath.And in his Cleomenes, the end of Act iv.:———sucking in each other's latest breath.—Wakefield.
[709]Oldham's translation of Bion on the death of Adonis:
Kiss, while I watch thy swimming eye-balls roll,Watch thy last gasp, and catch thy springing soul.
Kiss, while I watch thy swimming eye-balls roll,Watch thy last gasp, and catch thy springing soul.
Kiss, while I watch thy swimming eye-balls roll,Watch thy last gasp, and catch thy springing soul.
Dryden's Virg. Æn. iv. 984:
While I in deathLay close my lips to hers, and catch the flying breath.
While I in deathLay close my lips to hers, and catch the flying breath.
While I in deathLay close my lips to hers, and catch the flying breath.
And in his Cleomenes, the end of Act iv.:
———sucking in each other's latest breath.—Wakefield.
[710]Rowe's ode to Delia:When e'er it comes, may'st thou be by,Support my sinking frame, and teach me how to die.—Wakefield.
[710]Rowe's ode to Delia:
When e'er it comes, may'st thou be by,Support my sinking frame, and teach me how to die.—Wakefield.
When e'er it comes, may'st thou be by,Support my sinking frame, and teach me how to die.—Wakefield.
When e'er it comes, may'st thou be by,Support my sinking frame, and teach me how to die.—Wakefield.
[711]Dryden Æn., xi. 1194:And from her cheeks the rosy colour flies.
[711]Dryden Æn., xi. 1194:
And from her cheeks the rosy colour flies.
[712]Abelard to Heloisa: "You shall see me to strengthen your piety by the horror of this carcase, and my death, then more eloquent than I can be, will tell you what you love when you love a man."
[712]Abelard to Heloisa: "You shall see me to strengthen your piety by the horror of this carcase, and my death, then more eloquent than I can be, will tell you what you love when you love a man."
[713]Spenser, Faerie Queen, i. 4, 45:Cause of my new grief, cause of new joy.—Wakefield.
[713]Spenser, Faerie Queen, i. 4, 45:
Cause of my new grief, cause of new joy.—Wakefield.
[714]Abelard and Eloisa were interred in the same grave, or in monuments adjoining, in the monastery of the Paraclete. He died in the year 1142, she in 1163 [4].—Pope.Abelard and Heloisa are said to have been both sixty-three when they died. They were buried in the same crypt, but it was not till 1630, or near five hundred years after the death of Heloisa, that their remains were consigned to the same grave. Then their bones are reported to have been put into a double coffin, divided by a partition of lead. They subsequently underwent various disinterments and removals, till in 1817 the alleged relics were transferred to the cemetery of Père-Lachaise, at Paris, and have not since been disturbed.
[714]Abelard and Eloisa were interred in the same grave, or in monuments adjoining, in the monastery of the Paraclete. He died in the year 1142, she in 1163 [4].—Pope.
Abelard and Heloisa are said to have been both sixty-three when they died. They were buried in the same crypt, but it was not till 1630, or near five hundred years after the death of Heloisa, that their remains were consigned to the same grave. Then their bones are reported to have been put into a double coffin, divided by a partition of lead. They subsequently underwent various disinterments and removals, till in 1817 the alleged relics were transferred to the cemetery of Père-Lachaise, at Paris, and have not since been disturbed.
[715]Dryden, in his translation of Canace to Macareus:I restrained my criesAnd drunk the tears that trickled from my eyes.—Wakefield.
[715]Dryden, in his translation of Canace to Macareus:
I restrained my criesAnd drunk the tears that trickled from my eyes.—Wakefield.
I restrained my criesAnd drunk the tears that trickled from my eyes.—Wakefield.
I restrained my criesAnd drunk the tears that trickled from my eyes.—Wakefield.
[716]Milton, Il Penseroso:There let the pealing organ blowTo the full-voiced choir below.
[716]Milton, Il Penseroso:
There let the pealing organ blowTo the full-voiced choir below.
There let the pealing organ blowTo the full-voiced choir below.
There let the pealing organ blowTo the full-voiced choir below.
[717]"Dreadful sacrifice" is the ritual term. So in the History of Loretto, 1608, ch. 20, p. 278, "The priest, as the use is, assisted the cardinal in the time of the dreadful sacrifice."—Steevens.
[717]"Dreadful sacrifice" is the ritual term. So in the History of Loretto, 1608, ch. 20, p. 278, "The priest, as the use is, assisted the cardinal in the time of the dreadful sacrifice."—Steevens.
[718]Warton says that the eight concluding lines of the Epistle "are rather flat and languid." It is indeed an absurd supposition that a woman who had been speaking the fervid language of christianity should imagine that her state in the world beyond the grave would be that of a "pensive ghost," and that her consolation would consist in having her woes "well-sung" on earth. And it is in the tremendous conflict between piety and passion, while divine and human love are contending fiercely for the mastery, that she finds relief in this unsubstantial idea that some future lover would make her the subject of a poem.
[718]Warton says that the eight concluding lines of the Epistle "are rather flat and languid." It is indeed an absurd supposition that a woman who had been speaking the fervid language of christianity should imagine that her state in the world beyond the grave would be that of a "pensive ghost," and that her consolation would consist in having her woes "well-sung" on earth. And it is in the tremendous conflict between piety and passion, while divine and human love are contending fiercely for the mastery, that she finds relief in this unsubstantial idea that some future lover would make her the subject of a poem.
[719]The last line is imitated from Addison's Campaign.Marlb'rough's exploits appear divinely bright—Raised of themselves their genuine charms they boast,And those who paint them truest, praise them most.This Pope had in his thoughts; but not knowing how to use what was not his own, he spoiled the thought when he had borrowed it. Martial exploits may be painted; perhaps woes may be painted; but they are surely not painted by being well sung: it is not easy to paint in song, or to sing in colours.—Johnson.
[719]The last line is imitated from Addison's Campaign.
Marlb'rough's exploits appear divinely bright—Raised of themselves their genuine charms they boast,And those who paint them truest, praise them most.
Marlb'rough's exploits appear divinely bright—Raised of themselves their genuine charms they boast,And those who paint them truest, praise them most.
Marlb'rough's exploits appear divinely bright—Raised of themselves their genuine charms they boast,And those who paint them truest, praise them most.
This Pope had in his thoughts; but not knowing how to use what was not his own, he spoiled the thought when he had borrowed it. Martial exploits may be painted; perhaps woes may be painted; but they are surely not painted by being well sung: it is not easy to paint in song, or to sing in colours.—Johnson.
[720]Roscoe supposes Richardson to have asserted that there was an "entire discrepancy between the Essay on Man as published, and the original manuscripts," and to have implied that the change was from "infidelity" to its opposite. This is not the statement of Richardson. He says, on the contrary, that when the "exceptionable passages" were pointed out Pope "did not think of altering them," and "never dreamed of adopting" a more orthodox "scheme" for his Essay till after "its fatalism and deistical tendency" had excited that "general alarm" which could not precede the publication of the poem, and which only, in fact, commenced some three years later. Richardson is enforcing his charge against Warburton of inventing forced meanings, and the instance would contradict the accusation if Pope had altered his language from deism to orthodoxy before he printed the work. The commentary would then have expressed the natural sense of the text. The change of which Richardson speaks was not in the Essay itself, but in the interpretation Pope put upon it. While he was composing the poem he accepted the deistical construction of the Richardsons; and when he was terrified at the "general alarm" he endorsed the christian construction of Warburton.
[720]Roscoe supposes Richardson to have asserted that there was an "entire discrepancy between the Essay on Man as published, and the original manuscripts," and to have implied that the change was from "infidelity" to its opposite. This is not the statement of Richardson. He says, on the contrary, that when the "exceptionable passages" were pointed out Pope "did not think of altering them," and "never dreamed of adopting" a more orthodox "scheme" for his Essay till after "its fatalism and deistical tendency" had excited that "general alarm" which could not precede the publication of the poem, and which only, in fact, commenced some three years later. Richardson is enforcing his charge against Warburton of inventing forced meanings, and the instance would contradict the accusation if Pope had altered his language from deism to orthodoxy before he printed the work. The commentary would then have expressed the natural sense of the text. The change of which Richardson speaks was not in the Essay itself, but in the interpretation Pope put upon it. While he was composing the poem he accepted the deistical construction of the Richardsons; and when he was terrified at the "general alarm" he endorsed the christian construction of Warburton.