Vulgar words in The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 (Page 1)

This book at a glance

ass x 10
bastard x 1
blockhead x 9
buffoon x 4
damn x 15
            
knock up x 1
pimp x 2
piss x 1
slut x 1
whore x 20
            

Page 1

~   ~   ~   Sentence 145   ~   ~   ~

But 'tis the fall degrades her to a whore: Let greatness own her and she's mean no more.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 324   ~   ~   ~

The coxcomb bird, so talkative and grave, That from his cage cries 'Cuckold,' 'Whore,' and 'Knave,' Though many a passenger he rightly call, You hold him no philosopher at all.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 347   ~   ~   ~

What made (says Montaigne, or more sage Charron[2]) Otho a warrior, Cromwell a buffoon?

~   ~   ~   Sentence 393   ~   ~   ~

Then turns repentant, and his God adores With the same spirit that he drinks and whores; Enough if all around him but admire, 190 And now the punk applaud, and now the friar.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 399   ~   ~   ~

When Catiline by rapine swell'd his store; When Cæsar made a noble dame a whore;[9] In this the lust, in that the avarice Were means, not ends; ambition was the vice.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 473   ~   ~   ~

100 Turn then from wits; and look on Simo's mate, No ass so meek, no ass so obstinate.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 621   ~   ~   ~

70 Shall then Uxorio, if the stakes he sweep, Bear home six whores and make his lady weep?

~   ~   ~   Sentence 644   ~   ~   ~

[30] To some, indeed, Heaven grants the happier fate, T' enrich a bastard, or a son they hate.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 647   ~   ~   ~

Yet, to be just to these poor men of pelf, Each does but hate his neighbour as himself: Damn'd to the mines, an equal fate betides The slave that digs it, and the slave that hides.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 704   ~   ~   ~

Is there a lord, who knows a cheerful noon Without a fiddler, flatterer, or buffoon?

~   ~   ~   Sentence 705   ~   ~   ~

240 Whose table, wit, or modest merit share, Unelbow'd by a gamester, pimp, or player?

~   ~   ~   Sentence 783   ~   ~   ~

A nymph of quality admires our knight; He marries, bows at court, and grows polite: Leaves the dull cits, and joins (to please the fair) The well-bred cuckolds in St James's air: First, for his son a gay commission buys, Who drinks, whores, fights, and in a duel dies: 390 His daughter flaunts a viscount's tawdry wife; She bears a coronet and pox for life.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 831   ~   ~   ~

or finer whore.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,370   ~   ~   ~

Indulge the vigour of your mounting blood, And let gray fools be indolently good, Who, past all pleasure, damn the joys of sense, With reverend dulness and grave impotence.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,486   ~   ~   ~

590 For know, sir knight, of gentle blood I came; I loathe a whore, and startle at the name.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,537   ~   ~   ~

'If this be struggling, by this holy light, 'Tis struggling with a vengeance (quoth the knight): So Heaven preserve the sight it has restored, As with these eyes I plainly saw thee whored; Whored by my slave--perfidious wretch!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,667   ~   ~   ~

To her I told whatever could befall: Had but my husband piss'd against a wall, 270 Or done a thing that might have cost his life, She--and my niece--and one more worthy wife, Had known it all: what most he would conceal, To these I made no scruple to reveal.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,756   ~   ~   ~

Grown old in rhyme, 'twere barbarous to discard Your persevering, unexhausted bard; Damnation follows death in other men, But your damn'd poet lives and writes again.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,763   ~   ~   ~

20 He says, poor poets lost, while players won, As pimps grow rich, while gallants are undone.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,766   ~   ~   ~

Let ease, his last request, be of your giving, Nor force him to be damn'd to get his living.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,768   ~   ~   ~

Blockheads with reason men of sense abhor; But fool 'gainst fool, is barbarous civil war.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,771   ~   ~   ~

Condemn a play of theirs, and they evade it; Cry, 'Damn not us, but damn the French, who made it.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,787   ~   ~   ~

You might have held the pretty head aside, Peep'd in your fans, been serious thus, and cried-- 'The play may pass--but that strange creature, Shore, I can't--indeed now--I so hate a whore--' Just as a blockhead rubs his thoughtless skull, And thanks his stars he was not born a fool; So from a sister sinner you shall hear, 'How strangely you expose yourself, my dear!'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,883   ~   ~   ~

6 'You'd write as smooth again on glass, And run, on ivory, so glib, As not to stick at fool or ass,[65] Nor stop at flattery or fib.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,029   ~   ~   ~

1 Dear, damn'd, distracting town, farewell!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,032   ~   ~   ~

Earl Warwick, make your moan, The lively H----k and you May knock up whores alone.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,039   ~   ~   ~

Both parties rage; My vixen mistress squalls; The wits in envious feuds engage; And Homer (damn him!)

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,243   ~   ~   ~

never neighbour call'd me slut: Was Flimnap's dame more sweet in Lilliput?

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,714   ~   ~   ~

Why, in truth, and it is worthy observation, the unequal contention of an old, dull, debauched buffoon Cyclops, with the heaven-directed favourite of Minerva; who, after having quietly borne all the monster's obscene and impious ribaldry, endeth the farce in punishing him with the mark of an indelible brand in his forehead.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,744   ~   ~   ~

'Don't you think,' argueth he, 'to say only a man has his whore,[207] ought to go for little or nothing?

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,748   ~   ~   ~

But here, in justice both to the poet and the hero, let us further remark, that the calling her his whore implieth she was his own, and not his neighbour's.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,751   ~   ~   ~

For how much self-denial was exerted not to covet his neighbour's whore?

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,857   ~   ~   ~

[261]) an ill run at play Blank'd his bold visage, and a thin third day; Swearing and supperless the hero sate, Blasphemed his gods, the dice, and damn'd his fate.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,897   ~   ~   ~

Works damn'd, or to be damn'd (your father's fault)!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,920   ~   ~   ~

Know, Eusden thirsts no more for sack or praise; He sleeps among the dull of ancient days; Safe, where no critics damn, no duns molest, Where wretched Withers, Ward, and Gildon[283] rest, And high-born Howard,[284] more majestic sire, With fool of quality completes the quire, Thou, Cibber!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,993   ~   ~   ~

Know, Eusden, &c. In the former edition-- Know, Settle, cloy'd with custard and with praise, Is gather'd to the dull of ancient days, Safe where no critics damn, no duns molest, Where Gildon, Banks, and high-born Howard rest.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,087   ~   ~   ~

Three cat-calls be the bribe Of him whose chattering shames the monkey tribe: And his this drum whose hoarse heroic bass Drowns the loud clarion of the braying ass.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,093   ~   ~   ~

So swells each windpipe; ass intones to ass, Harmonic twang!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,134   ~   ~   ~

Around him wide a sable army stand, A low-born, cell-bred, selfish, servile band, Prompt or to guard or stab, to saint or damn, Heaven's Swiss, who fight for any god, or man.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,179   ~   ~   ~

20 Benlowes,[349] propitious still to blockheads, bows; And Shadwell nods the poppy[350] on his brows.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,238   ~   ~   ~

Each cygnet sweet, of Bath and Tunbridge race, Whose tuneful whistling makes the waters pass: Each songster, riddler, every nameless name, All crowd, who foremost shall be damn'd to fame.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,248   ~   ~   ~

Blockheads with reason wicked wits abhor, But fool with fool is barbarous civil war.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,306   ~   ~   ~

like a rolling stone, Thy giddy dulness still shall lumber on, Safe in its heaviness, shall never stray, But lick up every blockhead in the way.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,359   ~   ~   ~

In the former edition-- Too safe in inborn heaviness to stray, And lick up every blockhead in the way.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,425   ~   ~   ~

100 There march'd the bard and blockhead, side by side, Who rhymed for hire, and patronised for pride.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,491   ~   ~   ~

I see advance Whore, pupil, and laced governor from France.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,502   ~   ~   ~

But chief her shrine where naked Venus keeps, And Cupids ride the lion of the deeps;[413] Where, eased of fleets, the Adriatic main Wafts the smooth eunuch and enamour'd swain, 310 Led by my hand, he saunter'd Europe round, And gather'd every vice on Christian ground; Saw every court, heard every king declare His royal sense of operas or the fair; The stews and palace equally explored, Intrigued with glory, and with spirit whored; Tried all hors-d'oeuvres, all liqueurs defined, Judicious drank, and greatly-daring dined;[414] Dropp'd the dull lumber of the Latin store, Spoil'd his own language, and acquired no more; 320 All classic learning lost on classic ground; And last turned air, the echo of a sound!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,504   ~   ~   ~

330 Her too receive (for her my soul adores), So may the sons of sons of sons of whores Prop thine, O empress!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,658   ~   ~   ~

It will be found a true observation, though somewhat surprising, that when any scandal is vented against a man of the highest distinction and character, either in the state or in literature, the public in general afford it a most quiet reception; and the larger part accept it as favourably as if it were some kindness done to themselves: whereas, if a known scoundrel or blockhead but chance to be touched upon, a whole legion is up in arms, and it becomes the common cause of all scribblers, booksellers, and printers whatsoever.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,939   ~   ~   ~

[476] An Ass.--A camel will take upon him no more burden than is sufficient for his strength, but there is another beast that crouches under all.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,945   ~   ~   ~

[481]--Some great poets are positive blockheads.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,977   ~   ~   ~

An Ape.--Let us take the initial letter of his Christian name, and the initial and final letters of his surname, viz., A P E, and they give you the same idea of an ape as his face,[505] &c. An Ass.--It is my duty to pull off the lion's skin from this little ass.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,355   ~   ~   ~

[9] 'Noble dame a whore:' the sister of Cato, and mother of Brutus.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,421   ~   ~   ~

[65] 'Fool or ass:' 'The Dunciad.'--P.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,589   ~   ~   ~

[207] Alluding to these lines in the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot: 'And has not Colley still his lord and whore, His butchers, Henley, his freemasons, Moore?'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,820   ~   ~   ~

He was introduced as a buffoon to Leo, and promoted to the honour of the laurel--a jest which the court of Rome and the pope himself entered into so far as to cause him to ride on an elephant to the Capitol, and to hold a solemn festival on his coronation, at which it is recorded the poet himself was so transported as to weep for joy.

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