"They shift the moving Toyshop of their Heart; / Where Wigs with Wigs, with Sword-knots Sword-knots strive, / Beaus banish Beaus, and Coaches Coaches drive"
— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Bernard Lintott
Date
1714 [1712, 1717]
Metaphor
"They shift the moving Toyshop of their Heart; / Where Wigs with Wigs, with Sword-knots Sword-knots strive, / Beaus banish Beaus, and Coaches Coaches drive"
Metaphor in Context
Oft when the World imagine Women stray,
The Sylphs thro' mystick Mazes guide their Way,
Thro' all the giddy Circle they pursue,
And old Impertinence expel by new.
What tender Maid but must a Victim fall
To one Man's Treat, but for another's Ball?
When Florio speaks, what Virgin could withstand,
If gentle Damon did not squeeze her Hand?
With varying Vanities, from every Part,
They shift the moving Toyshop of their Heart;
Where Wigs with Wigs, with Sword-knots Sword-knots strive,
Beaus banish Beaus, and Coaches Coaches drive.
This erring Mortals Levity may call,
Oh blind to Truth! the Sylphs contrive it all.
(ll. 91-104)
The Sylphs thro' mystick Mazes guide their Way,
Thro' all the giddy Circle they pursue,
And old Impertinence expel by new.
What tender Maid but must a Victim fall
To one Man's Treat, but for another's Ball?
When Florio speaks, what Virgin could withstand,
If gentle Damon did not squeeze her Hand?
With varying Vanities, from every Part,
They shift the moving Toyshop of their Heart;
Where Wigs with Wigs, with Sword-knots Sword-knots strive,
Beaus banish Beaus, and Coaches Coaches drive.
This erring Mortals Levity may call,
Oh blind to Truth! the Sylphs contrive it all.
(ll. 91-104)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
First published in 1712, in Miscellaneous Poems and Translations, in two cantos [reissued in 1714]. Five-Canto version in 1714, with additions in 1717. At least 26 entries in ESTC (1714, 1715, 1716, 1718, 1720, 1722, 1723, 1729, 1751, 1758, 1762, 1777, 1790, 1792, 1794, 1798, 1799, 1800).
The Rape of the Lock. An Heroi-Comical Poem. In Five Canto's. Written by Mr. Pope. (London: Printed for Bernard Lintott, at the Cross-Keys in Fleetstreet, 1714). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO-TCP>
Poem complete in 1717: The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope (London: Printed by W. Bowyer, for Jacob Tonson at Shakespear’s Head in the Strand, and Bernard Lintot between the Temple-Gates in Fleetstreet, 1717). <Link to ESTC>
Reading The Poems of Alexander Pope, ed. John Butt (New Haven: Yale UP, 1963). Also, ed. Cynthia Wall, The Rape of the Lock (Boston and New York: Bedford Books, 1998).
The Rape of the Lock. An Heroi-Comical Poem. In Five Canto's. Written by Mr. Pope. (London: Printed for Bernard Lintott, at the Cross-Keys in Fleetstreet, 1714). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO-TCP>
Poem complete in 1717: The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope (London: Printed by W. Bowyer, for Jacob Tonson at Shakespear’s Head in the Strand, and Bernard Lintot between the Temple-Gates in Fleetstreet, 1717). <Link to ESTC>
Reading The Poems of Alexander Pope, ed. John Butt (New Haven: Yale UP, 1963). Also, ed. Cynthia Wall, The Rape of the Lock (Boston and New York: Bedford Books, 1998).
Date of Entry
01/24/2006
