MrPope, his life and times . nd the suckingchild shall play on the hole of the asp, and theweaned child shall put his hand on the den of thecockatrice. Pope, no doubt, found it quite an easy taskto transform the prophecy into smooth, melodiousverse : The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead,And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead ;The steer and lion at one crib shall meet,And harmless serpents lick the pilgrims smiling infant in his hand shall takeThe crested basilisk and speckled snake,Pleased, the green lustre of the scales survey,And with their forky tongues shall innoce
MrPope, his life and times . nd the suckingchild shall play on the hole of the asp, and theweaned child shall put his hand on the den of thecockatrice. Pope, no doubt, found it quite an easy taskto transform the prophecy into smooth, melodiousverse : The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead,And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead ;The steer and lion at one crib shall meet,And harmless serpents lick the pilgrims smiling infant in his hand shall takeThe crested basilisk and speckled snake,Pleased, the green lustre of the scales survey,And with their forky tongues shall innocently play.^ A little later in the month of May appearedthe Miscellany of Bernard Lintot, upon which Gay He shall feed His flock like a shepherd is rendered, As thegood shepherd tends his fleecy care. Again, The wildernessand the solitary place shall be glad for them ; and the desertshall rejoice and blossom as the rose is thus paraphrased : The swain in barren deserts with surpriseSees lilies spring, and sudden verdure From an engraving by C Knight after the painting by Sir ?eter FERMOR. ** The Messiah * 63 had written his laudatory verses. This containedPopes paraphrase of The Wife of Bath, his trans-lation of the first book of the Thebais of Statius,the Lines to a Young Lady, and the originaldraft of what was to prove the most popular ofhis works, The Rape of the Lock. ^ The draftconsisted of only two cantos, and had been dashedoff, so the poet declared, in a fortnight. Thepoem itself must be considered in its completedstate ; it will be sufficient here to glance at theincidents which led to its composition. The young Lord Petre had playfully cut a lockfrom the head of that famous beauty, Miss ArabellaFermor, daughter of Mr. Fermor of families were Catholics, and both were friendsof the Carylls. A quarrel arising out of the theft,Caryll suggested that Pope should write a good-humoured skit on the subject, in the hope ofreconcihng the parties
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