Note 372 — RAPE OF THE LOCK.
Reading edition
This passage is a palpable imitation of the exordium of the Æneis, and particularly the last line.
———tantæne animis cœlestibus iræ? And dwell such passions in cœlestial minds?—Wakefield.
It was in the first editions:
And dwells such rage in softest bosoms then, And lodge such daring souls in little men?—Pope.
The second line of the rejected reading was from Addison's translation of the fourth Georgic:
Their little bodies lodge a mighty soul.
Pope probably altered the couplet in consequence of an objection of the author of the Supplement to the Profound, who remarked upon the mean effect which resulted from throwing the rhyme upon "then;" "for the rhyme," says Dr. Trapp, "draws out the sound of little and ignoble words, and makes them observed."