"A President of the council, or a star and garter will make no more impression upon my mind, at such a time, than the hearing of a bagpipe, or the sight of a poppet-show."
— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by J. Wright
Date
1737
Metaphor
"A President of the council, or a star and garter will make no more impression upon my mind, at such a time, than the hearing of a bagpipe, or the sight of a poppet-show."
Metaphor in Context
When I come to you, 'tis in order to be with you only: A President of the council, or a star and garter will make no more impression upon my mind, at such a time, than the hearing of a bagpipe, or the sight of a poppet-show. I have said to Greatness sometime ago — Tuas tibi res babetoy egomet curabo meas. The Time is not far off when we shall all be upon the level: and I am resolv'd for my part to anticipate that time, and be upon the level with them now: for he is so, that neither seeks nor wants them. Let them have more Virtue and less Pride: and then I'll court them as much as any body: but till they resolve to distinguish themselves some way else than by their outward Trappings, I am determined (and I think I have a right) to be as proud as they are: tho' I trust in God, my pride is neither of so odious a nature as theirs, nor of so mischievous a consequence.
(From the Bishop of Rochester, April 6, 1722, L137, p. 245)
(From the Bishop of Rochester, April 6, 1722, L137, p. 245)
Categories
Provenance
Reading in Google Books
Citation
Text from Letters of Mr. Alexander Pope, and Several of his Friends (London: Printed by J. Wright, 1737). <Link to Google Books>
See also earlier printings of Pope's letters. Pope famously tricked Curll into pirating his correspondence in 1735 under the title Mr. Pope's Literary Correspondence for Thirty Years; from 1704 to 1734, before he issued an authorized edition of his own in 1737 as Letters of Mr. Alexander Pope, and Several of his Friends. See also Curll's Miscellanea of 1727 which also includes letters written by Pope to Henry Cromwell. On Pope's stratagem and the 1737 text, see Raymond Stephanson's "Letters of Mr. Alexander Pope and the Curious Case of Modern Scholarship and the Vanishing Text" Eighteenth-Century Life 31:1 (2007): 1-21. <Link to ECL>
See also earlier printings of Pope's letters. Pope famously tricked Curll into pirating his correspondence in 1735 under the title Mr. Pope's Literary Correspondence for Thirty Years; from 1704 to 1734, before he issued an authorized edition of his own in 1737 as Letters of Mr. Alexander Pope, and Several of his Friends. See also Curll's Miscellanea of 1727 which also includes letters written by Pope to Henry Cromwell. On Pope's stratagem and the 1737 text, see Raymond Stephanson's "Letters of Mr. Alexander Pope and the Curious Case of Modern Scholarship and the Vanishing Text" Eighteenth-Century Life 31:1 (2007): 1-21. <Link to ECL>
Date of Entry
07/08/2013
