--wither'd Murther,
--thus with hia stealthy pace,
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, tow'rds his design
moves like a ghost.--]

This was the reading of this passage [ravishing sides] in all the
editions before that of Mr. Pope, who for _sides_, inserted in the text
_strides_, which Mr. Theobald has tacitly copied from him, though a more
proper alteration might perhaps have been made. A _ravishing stride_ is
an action of violence, impetuosity, and tumult, like that of a savage
rushing at his prey; whereas the poet is here attempting to exhibit an
image of secrecy and caution, of anxious circumspection and guilty
timidity, the _stealthy pace_ of a _ravisher_ creeping into the chamber
of a virgin, and of an assassin approaching the bed of him whom he
proposes to murder, without awaking him; these he describes as _moving
like ghosts_, whose progression is so different from _strides_, that it
has been in all ages represented te be, as Milton expresses it,

_Smooth sliding without step_.

This hemiatic will afford the true reading of this place, which is, I
think, to be corrected thus:

--_and wither'd Murder_.
--_thus with his_ stealthy _pace_.
_With Tarquin ravishing_, slides _tow'rds his design_,
_Moves like a ghost_.--

_Tarquin_ is in this place the general name of a ravisher, and the sense
is, Now is the time in which every one is a-sleep, but those who are