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النشر الإلكتروني

DEDICATION

ΤΟ

MRS. ARABELLA FERMOR.

MADAM,

T will be in vain to deny that I have some regard for this piece, since I dedicate it to you. Yet you may bear me witness, it was intended only to divert a few young ladies, who have good sense and good humour enough to laugh not only at their sex's little unguarded follies, but at their own. But as it was communicated with the air of a secret, it soon found its way into the world. An imperfect copy having been offered to a bookseller, you had the good nature for my sake to consent to the publication of one more correct: this I was forced to before I had executed half my design, for the machinery was entirely wanting to complete it.

The machinery, Madam, is a term invented by the critics, to signify that part which the Deities, Angels, or Demons, are made to act in a Poem. For the ancient Poets are in one respect like many modern ladies: let an action be never so trivial in itself, they always make it appear of the utmost importance. These machines I determined to raise on a very new and odd foundation, the Rosicrucian doctrine of Spirits.

I know how disagreeable it is to make use of hard words before a lady; but 'tis so much the concern of a Poet to have his works understood,

and particularly by your sex, that you must give me leave to explain two or three difficult terms.

The Rosicrucians are a people I must bring you acquainted with. The best account I know of them is in a French book called Le Comte de Gabalis, which, both in its title and size, is so like a novel, that many of the fair sex have read it for one by mistake. According to these gentlemen, the four elements are inhabited by Spirits which they call Sylphs, Gnomes, Nymphs, and Salamanders. The Gnomes, or Demons of Earth, delight in mischief; but the Sylphs, whose habitation is in the air, are the best conditioned creatures imaginable. For they say, any mortals may enjoy the most intimate familiarities with these gentle Spirits, upon a condition very easy to all true adepts, an inviolate preservation of chastity.

As to the following Cantos, all the passages of them are as fabulous as the vision at the beginning, or the transformation at the end, except the loss of your hair, which I always mention with reverence. The human persons are as fictitious as the airy ones; and the character of Belinda, as it is now managed, resembles you in nothing but in beauty.

If this Poem had as many graces as there are in your person, or in your mind, yet I could never hope it should pass through the world half so uncensured as you have done. But let its fortune be what it will, mine is happy enough, to have given me this occasion of assuring you that I am, with the truest esteem,

Madam,

Your most obedient, humble servant,
A. POPE.

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Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos;
Sed juvat, hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis.-MART.

CANTO I.

CHAT dire offence from amorous causes springs,

What mighty contests rise from
trivial things,

I sing this verse to Caryll, Muse! is due:
This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view;
Slight is the subject, but not so the praise,
If she inspire, and he approve my lays.

5

Say what strange motive, goddess! could compel

A well-bred lord to assault a gentle belle ?
0
say what stranger cause, yet unexplored,
Could make a gentle belle reject a lord?

IO

1 The first sketch of this poem was written in less than a fortnight's time in 1711, in two cantos, and so printed in a miscellany without the name of the author. The machines were not inserted till a year after, when he published it, and annexed the dedication.-P.

The original poem was published in 1712, and the revised form not till 1714. For an account of the origin of this poem see the Memoir, p. xiv.

In tasks so bold, can little men engage,
And in soft bosoms dwells such mighty rage ?
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: 16
Thrice rung the bell, the slipper knocked the
ground,

21

2

25

And the pressed watch returned a silver sound.
Belinda still her downy pillow pressed,1
Her guardian Sylph prolonged the balmy rest:
'Twas he had summoned to her silent bed
The morning dream that hovered o'er her head ;
A youth more glittering than a birth-night beau,
(That even in slumber caused her cheek to glow)
Seemed to her ear his winning lips to lay,
And thus in whispers said, or seemed to say:
"Fairest of mortals, thou distinguished care
Of thousand bright inhabitants of air!
If e'er one vision touched thy infant thought,
Of all the nurse and all the priest have taught;
Of airy elves by moonlight shadows seen,
The silver token, and the circled green,
Or virgins visited by angel-powers,
With golden crowns and wreaths of heavenly
.flowers;

31

34

Hear and believe! thy own importance know,
Nor bound thy narrow views to things below.
Some secret truths, from learned pride con-
cealed,

To maids alone and children are revealed:

1 All the verses from hence to the end of this Canto were added afterwards.-P.

2 Alluding to the custom of wearing exceptionally fine dresses at court on the birthdays of any of the royal family.

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