Part 19 (1/2)

'47 throngs':

Pope now describes the mad fancies of people so affected by spleen as to imagine themselves transformed to inanimate objects.

'51 pipkin':

a little jar. Homer ('Iliad', XVIII, 373-377) tells how Vulcan had made twenty wonderful tripods on living wheels that moved from place to place of their own accord.

'52'

Pope in a note to this poem says that a lady of his time actually imagined herself to be a goose-pie.

'56 A branch':

so aeneas bore a magic branch to protect him when he descended to the infernal regions ('aeneid', VI, 136-143).

'Spleenwort':

a sort of fern which was once supposed to be a remedy against the spleen.

'58 the s.e.x':

women.

'59 vapours':

a form of spleen to which women were supposed to be peculiarly liable, something like our modern hysteria. It seems to have taken its name from the fogs of England which were thought to cause it.

'65 a nymph':

Belinda, who had always been so light-hearted that she had never been a victim of the spleen.

'89 Citron-waters':

a liqueur made by distilling brandy with the rind of citrons. It was a fas.h.i.+onable drink for ladies at this time.

'71'

Made men suspicious of their wives.

'82 Ulysses':