How The Rape of the Lock drew on The Aeneid
A documented line of influence: Alexander Pope demonstrably engaged Virgil’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Aeneid
Virgil · 19 BCE
Ancient RomeThe influenced
The Rape of the Lock
Alexander Pope · 1714
PoetsRelevance
8/10
On The Rape of the Lock’s page
- The whole joke of The Rape of the Lock runs on Virgil — Pope is mock-soldering a society scandal onto the frame of the Aeneid
- Belinda's trip up the Thames burlesques Aeneas's voyage up the Tiber, and her grief in Canto IV echoes Dido's in Aeneid IV
- The mockery only fully registers if you know the epic it's deflating — read Virgil first and every inflated line gets funnier
On The Aeneid’s page
- Pope took Virgil's grandeur and aimed it at a stolen lock of hair — The Rape of the Lock is a five-canto burlesque of the Aeneid
- Belinda's barge up the Thames stands in for Aeneas's voyage up the Tiber; Hampton Court replaces Carthage
- Canto IV opens on her grief in the key of Dido's, and her petticoat becomes a mock shield — epic armament shrunk to the dressing table