Note 54 — SPRING:
Reading edition
It was thus in the manuscript:
Nay, tell me first what region canst thou find In which by thistles lilies are outshined? If all thy skill can make the meaning known, The prize, the victor's prize, shall be thy own.—Wakefield.
Pope submitted the first two lines to Walsh in conjunction with the version in the text. "Quære, which of these couplets is better expressed, and better numbers? and whether it is better here to use thistle or thistles, lily or lilies, singular or plural? The epithet more happy refers to something going before." Walsh. "The second couplet [the text] is best; and singular, I think better than plural."