[485] These two lines are additional; and assign the cause of the different operation on the passions of the two ladies. The poem went on before without that distinction, as without any machinery, to the end of the Canto.—Pope.
At ver. 91, Umbriel empties the bag which contains the angry passions over the heads of Thalestris and Belinda. At ver. 142 he breaks the phial of sorrow over Belinda alone, whence Belinda's anger is turned to grief, and Thalestris remains indignant.
[486] A parody of Virg. Æn. iv. 657:
Felix heu nimium felix! si litora tantum
Nunquam Dardaniæ tetigissent nostra carinæ.—Wakefield.
[487] Pope originally wrote:
'Twas this the morning omens did foretell.
He altered the verse, together with one or two others of the same kind, to get rid of the "did".
[488] Butler, the poet, says that the object of black patches was to make the complexion look fairer by the contrast. Dryden has a similar idea in Palamon and Arcite:
Some sprinkled freckles on his face were seen
Whose dusk set off the whiteness of his skin.
[489] Prior's Henry and Emma: