"Their Conscience is a Worm within, / That gnaws them Night and Day."
— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for E. Curll
Date
1716
Metaphor
"Their Conscience is a Worm within, / That gnaws them Night and Day."
Metaphor in Context
That Statesmen have the Worm, is seen
By all their winding Play;
Their Conscience is a Worm within,
That gnaws them Night and Day.
Ah Moore! they Skill were well employ'd,
And greater Gain would rise,
Could'st thou but make the Courtier void
The Worm that never dies!
O learned Friend of Abchurch-Lane,
Who sett'st our Entrails free!
Vain is thy Art, thy Powder vain,
Since Worms shall eat ev'n thee.
(ll. 25-36, pp. 298-9 in Butt's edition)
By all their winding Play;
Their Conscience is a Worm within,
That gnaws them Night and Day.
Ah Moore! they Skill were well employ'd,
And greater Gain would rise,
Could'st thou but make the Courtier void
The Worm that never dies!
O learned Friend of Abchurch-Lane,
Who sett'st our Entrails free!
Vain is thy Art, thy Powder vain,
Since Worms shall eat ev'n thee.
(ll. 25-36, pp. 298-9 in Butt's edition)
Categories
Provenance
Reading; found again reading Craftsman, No. 39.
Citation
Written and 1716 and published (piratically) the same year. 2 entries in ESTC (1716).
See To the Ingenious Mr. Moore, Author of the Celebrated Worm-Powder. By Mr. Pope. (London: Printed for E. Curll at the Dial and Bible against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet, 1716). <Link to ESTC>
See also Court Poems. Viz; 1. The Basset-Table. An Eclogue. II. The Drawing-Room. III. The Toilet. A Copy of Verses to the Ingenious Mr. Moore, Author of the Celebrated Worm-Powder. All Four by Mr. Pope. To Which is Added W.T. to Fair Clio. (Dublin: Reprinted by S. Powell, at the Sign of the Printing-Press, in Copper-Alley; for G. Risk, Bookseller, at the Sign of the London in Dames-Street, 1716). <Link to ECCO>
Text from John Butt, ed. The Poems of Alexander Pope (New Haven: Yale UP, 1963).
See To the Ingenious Mr. Moore, Author of the Celebrated Worm-Powder. By Mr. Pope. (London: Printed for E. Curll at the Dial and Bible against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet, 1716). <Link to ESTC>
See also Court Poems. Viz; 1. The Basset-Table. An Eclogue. II. The Drawing-Room. III. The Toilet. A Copy of Verses to the Ingenious Mr. Moore, Author of the Celebrated Worm-Powder. All Four by Mr. Pope. To Which is Added W.T. to Fair Clio. (Dublin: Reprinted by S. Powell, at the Sign of the Printing-Press, in Copper-Alley; for G. Risk, Bookseller, at the Sign of the London in Dames-Street, 1716). <Link to ECCO>
Text from John Butt, ed. The Poems of Alexander Pope (New Haven: Yale UP, 1963).
Date of Entry
11/11/2013
