Opposition newspaper from the period.

Throughout a lot of these he seems to hit really hard on hypocrisy between words and actions, or in this case between actions and intentions.

This is such a weird place for life insurance to show up that I honestly don't know what to say about it, I just wasn't expecting it at all???

This just sounds like a Ben Franklin quote, do we know where he took this from?

This whole section reminds me of the gothic recipe from Walker's Hibernian Magazine for January 1798 ("take an old castle, half of it ruinous")

Empire?

This is such a great addition.

Franklin with those sick burns

Is learning in mourning?

Ha

Interesting transition, a dream inside of a fantasy

"Then the LORD God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.'"

This is the first time I could guess at the gender.

This sounds like a scene from Romances of the period.

Political and publishing coming into more direct contact again.

Would Franklin count as an outlier? I assume he would be much more well read than most teens a the time.

George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne of Bideford, was an English poet, playwright, and politician, who served in the House of Lords and was the British Secretary of War from 1710-1712. He was also an early patron of Pope, hence the dedication.

The following segment is a reference to Milton's Paradise Lost where various evil things are personified and placed in hell, such as Sin and Death.

The Incas.

Freed from the Spanish.

Black or darkly colored.

Unfamiliar, strange, or foreign.

The red cross of St. George seen on the British flag.

The Oracle was a classical figure who was said to give prophecies and interpret the words of the god Apollo.

Whitehall Palace burned down in 1698, and took many great pieces of art with it. A replacement, however, was never built.

London and Westminster.

Most likely referring to the "fifty new churches" of Queen Anne, who commissioned them due to London's increasing size.

The Roman word for a country-house, many new homes were being built along the Thames at around this time due to imperial expansion and other factors.

The next part is Pope describing great building projects in English history.

The Iber is an old Roman name for the Ebro river in Spain, while the Ister is the Danube river, which flows through several countries in central Europe.

The Ganges is a large, sacred river in India.

The Rhine is a river in northern Europe that flows primarily through Germany.

The Volga is the longest river in Europe and is situated in Russia.

The Nile was said to flow from heaven.

The Hermus river, in Turkey, was said to have sands made of gold along its shores.

The Tiber river runs through Rome and is paralleled with the Thames.

Full of eddies or whirlpools.

From this point on Pope is listing various tributaries of the Thames.

The river Colne.

The Thames was personified as the offspring of two other rivers, the Thame and the Isis. This idea would later become popular in Victorian London.

A Roman name for London.

Queen Anne saw the end of the War of Spanish Succession with the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1711.

Purple deaths referring to the Plague of 1665, the Great fire of London, and all the civil wars that followed. Many believed that these events were God's revenge for the beheading of Charles I.

Refers to Charles I, who was beheaded in 1649 and buried in the same tomb as Henry VIII.

Latin for "Land's End," a place in Cornwall.

King Edward IV was the ruler who deposed Henry VI, they are buried quite close to each other in Windsor Castle.

Henry VI was the ruler that saw England through the end of the Hundred Years War, and also the king at the start of the War of the Roses. He was eventually deposed and murdered in the tower of London.

Antonio Verrio was a mid to late 17th century painter whose murals decorate parts of Windsor Castle.

Edward III had a large military victory at Crecy in France.

Probably reffering to King Edward III of England (ruled 1327-1377) who started the Hundred Years War and was known for his remarkable military feats.

Geraldine and Myra were fictitious women to whom both Surrey and Granville addressed their love poetry.

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, was one of the founders of rennaisance poetry and was a first cousin of both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, the second and fifth wives of King Henry VIII.

"Honours" and "silver star" are references to the Order of the Garter, though Granville was never admitted to it.

Upon Cowley's death, his body was floated down the Thames to London, and buried in Westminster Abbey.

Abraham Cowley was another mid 17th century poet, and is considered a poetic prodigy, with his first great work being published when he was only 10 years old.

A mid 17th century poet, John Denham is best known for his poem Cooper's Hill

Cooper's hill overlooks London and Windsor Castle, and was the focus of John Denham's poem of the same name, which is of the same kind as Windsor Forest.

Scipio - Scipio Africanus was the Roman General who defeated Hannibal. </p>

Atticus - Quintus Caecilius Pomponianus was a Roman editor and banker who is best known as being a good friend of Cicero, to whom he wrote under the cognomen Atticus.

Trumbal - Sir William Trumbull was an English ambassador and secretary of state who was close friends with both John Dryden and Pope.

All three of these men are connected by the fact that they retired peacefully from public life.

Various mythologies state that the stars are either the souls of the dead, or that they are made of the same substance.

To roam without restraint, to wander.

In the chemistry of the time, exalting meant to intensify or render more powerful.

Jupiter in Roman mythology and Zeus in Greek, he was the king of the gods.

The Po, Eridanus in Latin, is a large river which flows across northern Italy. It is also connected with the Eridanus constellation, which was said to be caused by Phaethon as he careened across the sky in his father Apollo's chariot, hence its winding appearance.

Foliage.

This is another allusion to Ovid, this time to the myth of Io, which starts by describing several rivers and streams flowing down to the sea from the mountains. This description serves as a means of transitioning from the myth of Dapne to the myth of Io, as the rivers are unsure of whether or congratulate or console Daphne's father for her transformation, with only Io's father being absent, thus setting up the story explaining his absence.

To bathe or wash, in the 13th century it also referred to being covered in blood or sweat, creating a slightly dated irony in this line as Diana is actually bathing in Lodona's body (of water).

Wandered.

Pope is creating a myth about a nymph named Lodona, whose father is the Thames. The river Loddon is a tributary of the Thames, hence the distinction. This myth is derived from the story of Apollo and Daphne told in Ovid's Metamorphoses, as the daughter of a river god is chased by a lustful god. Even the language itself is copied directly from Ovid, with only the names changed. This happens most obviously in lines 186-194 which is a direct copy of the Ovidian myth, with Thames supstituted in for Peneus.

Another name for Diana.

Green with vegetation.

Pope is comparing his Lodona to the mythological figure Diana.

A reference to the writings of Ovid which lasted long after his death.

A river that runs through London.

A calf high or knee high boot.

Most likely referring to either Queen Anne or Queen Elizabeth I.

Artemis/Diana was the Greco-Roman goddess of the hunt, wild animals, and virginity. She was also the twin sister of Apollo.

One of the regional units of Greece, it was the mythological home of Pan and celebrated as a perfect, unspoiled wilderness in European arts.

A sign of the zodiac, Cancer begins on the summer solstice (~June 20th) and, in this case, marks the transition from spring to summer.

Archaic word for "stag" or "deer."

The Greco-Roman god Apollo was said to pull the sun across the sky in his chariot.

Coils.

A bright, rich purple or crimson color.

A warm or temperate climate with connotations of marriage and procreation.

Any small, short-billed, gregarious birds of the Charadriidae family, they are usually found near water, but also in grasslands and forests.

Someone who exclusively hunts birds.

The gathering or assembling of a group of people at a certain place.

One of the brightest stars in the night sky, it was associated with rain and storms.

The camouflage that was meant to keep him hidden.

To enclose or hem in with a hostile force, also to cover or surround with a garment (in this case the nets).

Thicket or other small clump of shrubbery.

A very old name for the isles of Britain, it is associated with the proto-European word for white and may hint at the white shores of Dover.

Once the dogs found the partridges, the hunters would throw nets over them to capture them.

To observe intently.

In the 18th century gales were regarded as the vehicles of odors.

Uneven or rutted ground.

Ground nesting game-birds often associated with pheasants and quails, this lines serves as a transition back into the themes of royal hunting.

At the time, there was a belief that the organs of the body produced subtle spirits that helped it to function properly, in this line Pope is saying that in this golden age a combination of youth and purer spirits caused men to roam the hills more freely. The idea of spirits comes up in Pope's other works as well, such as An Essay on Criticism lines 77 and 208.

A country or farm laborer, originally an old English word for a young man who attends to a knight, the late 16th century saw a change in meaning towards rustic workers such as shepherds and foresters.

George Granville, Pope's patron for this piece, is commanding the muses to help Pope write. These two lines parody the lines from Virgil shown above.

William the Second, commonly known as William Rufus, ruled from 1087 to 1100, when he was fatally shot by an arrow during a royal hunt.

Refers to the earlier invasions of Britain before the Norman conquest.

Under feudalism, a vassal was someone who held land under terms of homage or allegiance to another.

William the Conqueror.

Chancel or choir stalls, usually near the altar and separated from the rest of the church.

Churches.

In Hebrew and Christian tradition Nimrod was the king who built the tower of Babel to usurp God. It should be noted that this may be a reference to Milton's Paradise Lost, XII 24-44, where he also draws parallels between the English monarchy and the biblical story.

From "despot," read as "beast or subject slain were equal crimes under a tyrannical reign."

Game from royal hunting grounds would often ravage nearby farms, thus rendering the farmer's efforts "in vain."

Most likely referring to the Norman kings who set up the laws regarding royal hunting grounds.

Trespassers on royal hunting grounds were tried in special forest courts, often cruelly. Examples include bowmen having fingers cut off and poachers being blinded.

Queen Anne ruled from 1702-1714 and was the last Stuart ruler of England.

"Ceres' gifts" refer to the grain which is both waving in the wind and being harvested by the reaper.

Ceres was the Roman god of agriculture and fertility.

Flora was the Roman god of flowers and Spring.

Pan was the Greek god of wildlife, shepherds, and, in many tales, a companion of the nymphs. He takes the form of a satyr and therefore has the upper body of a human and the legs and torso of a goat.

Pomona was the Roman god of fruit trees and was a wood nymph.

The classical home of the Greek and Roman gods, the nine Muses were also said to live at its base. Mount Olympus is situated in the center of Greece.

In the aftermath of the Nine-Years War (1688-1697) England became the dominant colonial power in the world.

Many spices and other rare plants were imported from the Indies during this time period. Pope makes a reference in the next line to the power of the English navy at the time by bringing up the oak cargo ships that transfer these Indian plants.

Wild heather turns purple in the summer.

A reddish-brown color.

Traditional European gardens were incredibly neat and logically arranged, but the introduction of the sharawadgi aesthetic led to many gardens becoming more "organic" in appearance. In this line Pope is furthering the idea of Windsor Forest being the ideal garden by moving from the idea of Eden to more modern gardening techniques.

A reference to John Milton's Paradise Lost, which was published around fifty years before Pope began work on Windsor Forest.

The Garden of Eden, described in the Christian book of Genesis, is the paradise where the first humans were said to live.

The nine muses of Greek and Roman mythology were said to bring inspiration in the fields of literature, science, and art. Many classical writers begin their works with an invocation to the muses, as does Pope here when he asks the Muses to "invite my lays."

Windsor Castle was supposedly constructed at the site of King Arthur's round table and served as a royal residence and burial ground.

From latin "silva" for forests or woods. Sylvan maids refer to the naiads and dryads of Greek and Roman mythology.

"I do not sing unbidden: of you, Varus, our tamarisks (shrubs) and our groves all sing; there is not a any page more pleasing to Apollo himself than those which the name Varus is prescribed" from Virgil's Eclogues book VI lines 9-12. (rough translation)

Windsor Forest is a royal preserve to the west of London. Historically a royal hunting ground, the park began to change into more of a garden and retreat during the 18th century due to the efforts of Charles II and others.