Note 50 — MESSIAH,
Reading edition
Pope's line may have been suggested by Ovid's description of the transformation of Cadmus and his wife into snakes. Of Cadmus it is said, Met. iv. 595, that
ille suæ lambebat conjugis ora;
and of husband and wife, when the change in both was complete, that
Nunc quoque nec fugiunt hominem, nec vulnere lædunt.