Note 244 — AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM. (continued 2)
Reading edition
Pope may have derived this comparison from the "Epilogue, written by a person of honour," to Dryden's Secret Love:
But t'other day I heard this rhyming fop Say critics were the whips, and he the top: For as a top spins best the more you baste her, So ev'ry lash you give, he writes the faster,
The author of the Epilogue was more exact than Pope, whose application of the simile is inaccurate, for the top is in full spin when it is popularly said to be asleep.