AN EPISTLE TO DR ARBUTHNOT(1735) Called by Warburton ‘The prologue to the satires’, it
has traditionally been printed before The Imitations of Horace
in editions of Pope, though this order breaks chronological
sequence. It was evidently put together in a hurry because the
doctor was dying. Many of its parts had already long been
written. In a note to the first edition, Pope says: ‘This epistle
contains an apology for the author and his writings.’
Advertisement
4 persons of rank and fortune Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu (‘Sappho’) in conjunction with Lord Hervey
(‘Lord Fanny’ and here ‘Sporus’). For their verses
published in 1733 see Pope: The Critical Heritage,
pp. 269–72.
1 John Pope’s servant, John Serle.
3 dog-star Sirius appears in the season of the late
summer heat. The associations are with madness and
poetry readings in ancient Rome.
4 Bedlam Bethlehem hospital, the madhouse.
Parnassus the mountain sacred to the Muses.
8 grot his grotto running underneath the road
connecting the house to his garden.
10 barge Twickenham was situated by the Thames.
13 Mint a sanctuary for debtors, who were safe from
arrest elsewhere too on Sundays.
18 engross copy a legal document.
23 Arthur Arthur Moore, MP. His son James Moore
became a poet and dramatist.
25 Cornus a fictitious name derived from the Latin for
horns, so meaning cuckold.
29 drop or nostrum medicine.
40 nine years the advice of Horace in his Art of Poetry,
line 388.
41 Drury Lane associated with prostitutes and starving
poets.
43 Ter m The publishing season coincided with the legal
terms.