Note 1490 — AN ESSAY ON MAN, IN FOUR EPISTLES (continued 3)
Reading edition
This seems not to be proper; the words "flaunt" and "flutter" might with more propriety have changed places.—Johnson.
The satirical aggravation here is conducted with great dexterity by an interchange of terms: the gaudy word "flaunt" properly belongs to the sumptuous dress, and that of "flutter" to the tattered garment.—Wakefield.
Wakefield did not perceive that the language no longer fitted the facts; for though flimsy rags flutter, the stiff brocade did not. Pope avoided the inconsistency in his first draught:
Oft of two brothers one shall be surveyed Flutt'ring in rags, one flaunting in brocade.