Alexander Pope: Selected Poetry and Prose

361 Denham...Waller Sir John Denham (1615–69) and
Edmund Waller (1606–87) often called precursors of
the major Augustans because of their similar classical
interests and their use of the heroic couplet.
366 Zephyr a light spring breeze.
370 Ajax Homer’s hero who wields a mighty stone at
Iliad, XII, 453–60 (Pope’s translation).
372 Camilla Virgil’s heroine renowned for her fleetness of
foot. See Dryden’s Aeneis, VII, 1100–3.
374 Timotheus a Theban lyricist who in Dryden’s poem
‘Alexander’s feast’ plays before Alexander the Great
‘the son of Lybian Jove’. See the letter to Cromwell
on versification for further comment.
419 hackney ‘doing or ready to do work, or hire, hireling’
(OED).
444 Scotists and Thomists the followers of John Duns
Scotus (medieval theologian of the thirteenth century)
in conflict with those of Thomas Aquinas, who lived
slightly earlier. Renaissance humanists reacted against
the subtle disputation of the scholastic theologians.
Dunce is derived from Scotus’s name.
445 Duck-lane site of second-hand bookshops.
463 Blackmores and...Milbourns feeble poets and critics
who had attacked Dryden.
465 Zoilus hyper-critic of Homer.
468 Sol the sun, one of the many images of light in the
Essay.
513 Crowns or garlands were awarded to distinguished
soldiers when generals celebrated a Roman triumph.
529 flagitious times profligate or vicious times.
536 easy monarch Charles II, king from 1660–85. His
association with prostitutes was notorious and his
mistresses were many. The court took its tone from
the monarch.
538 Jilts kept mistresses.
541 mask worn by women in the Restoration theatre.
544 foreign reign that of the Dutchman William of
Orange from 1688–1702.
545 Socinus Laelius Socinus (1525–62). Socinians rejected
the doctrine of the divinity of Christ.