RAPE OF THE LOCK

Domain	Definition
Literature	Rape of the Lock Lord Petre, in a thoughtless moment of frolic gallantry, cut off a lock of Arabella Fermor's hair; and this liberty gave rise to a bitter feud between the two families, which Alexander Pope has worked up into the best heroic-comic poem of the language. The first sketch was published in 1712 in two cantos. The machinery of sylphs and gnomes is most happily conceived. Pope, under the name of Esdras Barnevelt, apothecary, says the poem is a covert satire on Queen Anne and the Barrier Treaty. In the poem the lady is called Belinda, and the poet says she wore on her neck two curls, one of which the baron cut off with a pair of scissors borrowed of Clarissa. Belinda, in anger, demanded back the ringlet, but it had flown to the skies and become a meteor there. (See Coma Berenices .) "Say what strange motive, goddess, could compel A well-bred ford to assault a gentle belle; O say, what stranger cause, yet unexplored, Could make a gentle belle reject a lord." Introduction to the Poem. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Specialty Definition: Rape of the Lock

The Rape of the Lock is a mock-epic poem written by Alexander Pope and published in May 1712. The story is originally based on two families of Roman Catholics who were known to Pope.

The poem features Belinda - possibly based on Arabella Fermor, and the Baron - Possibly based on Lord Petre and the stealing of one of her locks of hair:

The Peer now spreads the glittering Forfex wide,
T' inclose the Lock; now joins it, to divide.
Ev'n then, before the fatal Engine clos'd,
A wretched Sylph too fondly interpos'd;
Fate urged the Sheers, and cut the Sylph in twain,
(But Airy Substance soon unites again)
The meeting Points the sacred Hair dissever
From the fair Head, for ever and for ever!

- Canto III, Alexander Pope

External Link

Rape of the lock homepage

Anagrams: RAPE OF THE LOCK

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-e-e-f-h-k-l-o-o-p-r-t"
	-3 letters: coleoptera.
	-4 letters: cooperate, heatproof, leakproof, parfleche, percolate, tracheole, trochleae.
	-5 letters: apothece, calthrop, caretook, chelator, chlorate, corelate, ecofreak, ephorate, fletcher, footpace, footrace, forelock, forepeak, kreplach, lakeport, oothecae, oothecal, pectoral, perfecta, perfecto, plethora, pocketer, poechore, porthole, potlache, praefect, praelect, reaphook, reclothe, relocate, retackle, trochlea.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.