SCANDAL AND SENSATION

The mythologizing of a dispute: Scandal in the

Eighteenth Century

WHAT dire Offence from am'rous Causes springs,What mighty Contests rise from trivial Things,I sing -- This Verse to C---, Muse! is due;This, ev'n Belinda may vouchfafe to view:Slight is the Subject, but not so the Praise,If She inspire, and He approve my Lays. Say what strange Motive, Goddess! cou'd compelA well-bred Lord t'assault a gentle Belle?Oh say what stranger Cause, yet unexplor'd,Cou'd make a gentle Belle reject a Lord?And dwells such Rage in softest Bosoms then?And lodge such daring Souls in Little Men?

Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (1714)

BACKGROUND

Arabella Fermor (called Belinda in the poem) and

Lord Petre (Sir Plume)

Scandal when he cut off a lock of her hair

Let to feud between the two families

John Caryll asked Pope to write about it to

reconnect the families

Had the opposite effect

ITEMS FOR THE EXHIBITION

Scandal and Sensation

Manuscript of The Rape of the Lock published in 1714

Currently at Christies

Portrait of Arabella Fermor, painted by GrantCurrently at Rufford Old Hall

Letters from Alexander Pope to John Caryll talking about the incident

THE NARRATIVE OF THE PROJECT

The whole idea behind this project is to look at the idea of what a

scandal was in the Eighteenth Century

Using The Rape of the Lock and Alexander Pope’s approach to

this scandal as a kind of ‘scandal case study’

Using the letter and manuscript as evidence of the distinction

between the ‘real’ occurrence and the heavily dramatized account

Thinking about the study of ‘scandal’ and the elite in the

Eighteenth Century and how this single event fits into this study

AREAS TO RESEARCH

Studies of Alexander Pope and The Rape of the

Lock

Studies of Scandal in the Eighteenth Century

Studies of Alexander Pope’s correspondence

Art history surrounding Eighteenth-Century

portraits

Book history and the proliferation of The Rape of

the Lock in its first full edition

INTERDISCIPLINARY

This research is interdisciplinary as it looks at a

variety of sources – paint, poetry, and a selection of

letters

Literary studies and cultural history are the main

discipline areas studied, although art history comes

into play with the painting and book history is

important when considering the original print

edition