Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The first two parts of The Rape of The Lock were published in May 1712 and then, two years later, Alexander Pope republished The Rape of The Lock as a five-canto version with 794 lines in total. A Canto is defined as a major division of an epic. Pope wrote The Rape of The Lock as a mock epic and hence, his long narrative poem was written in Heroic couplets. Canto three contains 178 lines most of which are written in iambic pentameter. The irony, juxtaposition, zeugma, simile, allusions to Greek mythology, and to Milton’s Paradise Lost, and personification, are the major literary devices used in this metaphorical satire by Alexander Pope.
Summary of The Rape of The Lock Canto 3 :
Lines 1-24
The third Canto begins as Belinda’s boat arrives at Hampton Court. Pope describes Hampton Court as the prime location where Queen Anne “Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea.” It is a majestic place of political importance where “Britain’s statesmen” deal with matters at home and abroad. The first 8 lines are suffused with zeugma, offering two parallel worlds existing side by side. It is the place where the Queen and her couriers often discuss the most serious issues involving the world’s politics, businesses, and wars. It is the same place where Belinda visits to attend the party, which is the hunting ground for her to enslave men. At Hampton Court, Queen Anne sometimes takes counsel and makes decisions “foredooming" the fall of "Foreign Tyrants," some other times, she enjoys teas and parties. There’s hardly any difference between the two for the politicians of England. The British statesman, Pope says considers both equally important. Pope is much more respectful towards Queen Anne while he ridicules the statesmen who appear to be more indulgent in nymphs of home, like Belinda. The nobles and gentry who hang around the Queen's court are partying, ogling, flirting, eating, and generally making intrigue. Pope describes the court as the epicenter of rumourmongering and gossiping and says, at “every word a reputation dies.”
Belinda is part of this gentry. While all this is going on in the Hampton court, the governmental functions of the court continue, somewhat hurriedly, as they are about to halt for lunch. The “hungry judges” quickly sign sentences and people condemned to death are hanged at the gallows so their jurors can eat sooner. This is a place of corruption. ‘Hungry’ is a metaphor demonstrating that this is a place in which personal greed is placed above justice or empathy. The judges, juries, merchants, and the idle rich get ready for dining, ogling, and flirting, within time as they finish their work at their "Toilette" or dressing table. Their jobs and duties matter little against the charms of the Nymphs looking to hunt them at the party.
Lines 25-100
Lines 25 to 100 describe the card game "Ombre," which was a very popular card game of Pope's day, where players win by taking tricks. Pope uses personification to enliven the cards as they represent the armies fighting each other in mock-epic combat with the opposing players as the general-in-chief, and that is the extended metaphor presented in these 75 lines. The face cards seem like living Kings, Queens, and Jacks commanding an army of numbered cards.
Classical epical poetries always depict spectacular battles between clashing civilizations involving both mortals and gods. The battle at Hampton court involves cards, humans, and Sylphs.
As the Velvet Plain is prepared for the battle of cards, Belinda feels confident and believes she is invincible “And swells her breast with conquests yet to come.” Aerial and his minion Syphs take their place on each of the important cards to help Belinda win all games. These Sylphs used to be coquettes like Belinda who loved Ombre when they were alive.
Belinda’s cards “Draw forth to combat,” and she declares that spades will be trumps. She continues to win initial games. Her first conquerer is “Spadillo.” He “Led off two captive trumps and swept the board.” Her second card is Manilo which again makes a big win. But her third card, ‘Basto’, struggles, yet wins. She then sends the King of Spades to the battleground and makes a huge win.
The Baron, with the blessings of Love, is the strong opponent. Despite the anxious help of Sylphs, Belinda faces struggles against the opponent general. The Baron’s Queen of Spades beats her King of Clubs, and then he plays his high diamond cards, which proves to be a brilliant move that “pierced battalions dis-united fall.” Belinda loses her Queen of Hearts to his Knave of Spades, and she fears she is about to lose. But when he plays his Ace, Belinda surprises her and plays the King of Hearts, and wins again. As the invincible warrior, Belinda roars and celebrates her success.
Lines 101-124
The narrator then laments that these thoughtless mortals know so little of the future. Belinda is careless and unaware of the impending disaster that will come on this “victorious day” and Belinda’s “honors” will be “snatched away.”
A girl’s virginity and chastity are often compared with her reputation or honor. Pope continues the sexual innuendos and makes it sound as if Belinda will lose her virginity forcibly, though it is not clear yet what lies in her fate.
The ‘Ombre’ ends with a thumping win of Belinda and then the party guests gather around the coffee and tea tables. Before the ‘Age of Exploration’ the main drinks of Britain were water, wine, and beer. But the conquests in America, China, and India made the Europeans aware of the tastes of coffee and tea. These were exotic and very precious items back then. Pope makes use of Periphrasis to indirectly refer to these exotic items meant for the highly rich party at Hampton court. "Berries crackle" are roasting coffee beans, and the "grateful liquors" are coffee and tea. Pope introduces irony as the party members enjoy some rare, exotic things, they feel they control all the “altars of Japan” and “China’s earth,” suggesting the expansion of colonies under the British Empire. Pope continues to use zeugma or parallel construction while mentioning the really important things along with the ridiculousness of the party at Hampton court. “Coffee, (which makes the Politician wise,/ And see thro' all things with his half shut Eyes)” suggests the British trade that was blooming. The same Coffee reminds the Baron of his real intentions. He is here to add another trophy to his huge collection. All he could see now is the radiant glittering locks of Belinda. He starts thinking of a plan to act and achieve his most precious desire. The narrator fears that the Baron may meet the fate of Scyla, the daughter of Nisus. It is an allusion to the VIII Book of Ovid’s Metamorphosis which tells the story of King Nisus who had purple hair that made him invincible. His daughter Scyla fell in love with a rival king. She couldn’t marry her lover until her father is defeated in the war. So Scylla decided to cut her father’s purple hair so that her lover may defeat him. This treachery against her own father disgusted her lover and he decided to leave her. The gods then punished her by turning her into a seagull.
Lines 125-146
Pope introduces Clarissa in line 127. She is a friend of Belinda and an accomplice of the Baron. She pulls out a pair of scissors and offers them to the Baron. Pope juxtaposes the scissor with the sword of a knight and offers a simile for Clarissa likening her to ‘Ladies in romance’ who prepare the knight with his weapon before he goes to the battleground. The contrast is that a knight of King Arthur would remain ready to give up his life to defend a woman, but the Baron seeks to steal from and humiliate a woman.
The Baron moves to the back of Belinda, aiming at one of her locks that he desires. However, he couldn’t escape the careful eyes of the Sylphs protecting Belinda. They try to warn and save Belinda by fiddling with her hair and twisting her earring three times, but each time, when Belinda turned and looked back, the Baron expertly got away from her eyes to come back and aim at her lock again. Sylphs couldn’t tell a word to Belinda, as their voices were no more than singing zephyrs.
Clarissa’s assistance to the Baron in his nefarious task shows the rivalry among the women that Pope explores in the poem’s sexual allegory. Clarissa willingly participates in the ‘metaphoric’ rape of Belinda despite being her friend. Pope satirizes the women folk by mentioning that rather than a sisterhood united against male sexual advances, women seek to undermine each other in the competition to find a suitable husband. The metaphoric’ rape of Belinda will ascertain her loss of reputation and honor. Her sexual fall would remove her from the marriage market, ensuring less competition for rich or titled young men such as the Baron.
Hampton Court is a place of rumormongering and gossiping where “At every word a reputation dies.” Thus, Belinda doesn’t need to compromise her virtue to lose her honor. A Blatant attack on her reputation will be enough to make her fall forever and that is what Clarissa wishes. And why these women are unkind and unsympathetic towards each other? It is a further criticism of British society with a sexual double standard in which a woman must attract a husband without compromising her virtue.
Meanwhile, Ariel is adamant to protect Belinda against all possible dangers and thus, he decides to go to her mind and warn her again. As he accesses Belinda’s inner thoughts, but—to his shock—finds “An earthly lover lurking there.” As he observes, he sighs and resigns, leaving Belinda to her fate. She is no more the invincible Nymph. Ariel observes that Belinda has already accepted defeat against that man. She either deserves or wishes to be violated, by that earthly lover, who happens to be the Baron.
Lines 147-174
While Ariel has resigned and accepted his defeat and fall of his coquette, the other Sylphs are still attentive to their posts for protecting Belinda. As the Baron attempts the fourth time, a Sylph comes forward to protect Belinda and faces the scissor. The Sylph is immediately cut into two pieces and he fails to protect the lock of Belinda that the Baron cuts down in the fourth attempt. The Sylph immediately recovers as “airy substance soon unites again”. The final attempt by the Sylph to protect Belinda’s lock is again an allusion to the Book VI of The Paradise Lost by Milton, depicting the battle of archangels against Satan. Pope contrasts the incredibly high-stakes battle and the relatively low-stakes hair snipping, satirizing the triviality of Hampton court.
Belinda’s loss is irreparable. It’s not just hair, her reputation, and her honor has been attacked, and downtrodden. She cries out in horror while the Baron shouts his victory song. Belinda’s cries could tremble the heavens. She cries so loud as women cry when their “Husbands” dies, or their “lapdogs.”
The Baron continues to exalt his victory and claims that his reputation for ‘raping the lock of Belinda will remain forever, or at least till the people will read The New Atlantis, a political satire by Delariver Manly that was published in 1709. In The New Atlantis, a parallel is drawn between the exploitation of females and the political deception of the public. Pope aptly mentions it as his mock epic as the Baron exploits Belinda, the frail.
As Belinda cries inconsolably, the narrator offers consolation by mentioning ‘Steel’ as the apostrophe. The weapons made of steel became the reason for the fall of Troy. The Baron also used a weapon made of steel. If steel could steel weapons bring down the city of Troy, how could Belinda possibly have protected her lock of hair from it? The narrator tries to console Belinda in the last lines.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
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