Note 38 — SPRING:
Reading edition
Pope had at first written,
The lovely Chloris beckons from the plain, Then hides in shades from her deluded swain.
"Objection," he says, in the paper he submitted to Walsh, "that hides without the accusative herself is not good English, and that from her deluded swain is needless. Alteration:
The wanton Chloris beckons from the plain, Then, hid in shades, eludes her eager swain.
Quære. If wanton be more significant than lovely; if eludes be properer in this case than deluded; if eager be an expressive epithet to the swain who searches for his mistress?"
Walsh. "Wanton applied to a woman is equivocal, and therefore not proper. Eludes is properer than deluded. Eager is very well."