From this account, given with evident intention to raise the lady's
character, it does not appear that she had any claim to praise nor
much to compassion. She seems to have been impatient, violent, and
ungovernable. Her uncle's power could not have lasted long; the
hour of liberty and choice would have come in time. But her desires
were too hot for delay, and she liked self-murder better than
suspense. Nor is it discovered that the uncle, whoever he was, is
with much justice delivered to posterity as "a false guardian." He
seems to have done only that for which a guardian is appointed; he
endeavoured to direct his niece till she should be able to direct
herself. Poetry has not often been worse employed than in
dignifying the amorous fiery of a raving girl.

Not long after he wrote the "Rape of the Lock," the most airy, the
most ingenious, and the most delightful off all his compositions,
occasioned by a frolic of gallantry, rather too familiar, in which
Lord Petre cut off a lock of Mrs. Arabella Fermor's hair. This,
whether stealth or violence, was so much resented that the commerce
of the two families, before very friendly, was interrupted. Mr.
Caryl, a gentleman who, being secretary to King James's queen, had
followed his mistress into France, and who, being the author of Sir
Solomon Single, a comedy, and some translations, was entitled to the
notice of a wit, solicited Pope to endeavour a reconciliation by a
ludicrous poem which might bring both the parties to a better
temper. In compliance with Caryl's request, though his name was for
a long time marked only by the first and last letter, "C--l," a poem
of two cantos, was written (1711), as is said, in a fortnight, and
sent to the offended lady, who liked it well enough to show it; and,
with the usual process of literary transactions, the author,