Answers
- Uranus. The two moons are Umbriel and Belinda. Umbriel was
discovered in 1851 by William Lassell but named by John Herschel.
Belinda was discovered in 1986 by Voyager 2. Uranus also has a moon Ariel
(discovered by Lassell, named by
Herschel), but it was named after the spirit in Shakespeare's The
Tempest, not after Pope's sylph. (Other satellites of Uranus
include Bianca, Cordelia, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Miranda, Oberon,
Ophelia, Portia, Puck, Rosalind and Titania.)
- Spencer's Prothalamion. According to the Twickenham
edition of Pope's works (appendix A): "Spencer's
Prothalamion had celebrated the marriage of William Petre,
later second Lord Petre, to Catherine, second daughter of the Earl of
Worcester, along with that of Catherine's sister to Sir Henry Guilford."
- Oscar Wilde. (I found the quote in a book of insults, but no further
citation was given. I have also seen it frequently online, but
never with a complete citation indicating where in Wilde's work the
quote is to be found. If anyone knows the source of
the quote in Wilde's writings, I'd appreciate hearing what it is.) Gayle
Swanson (from South Carolina) was kind enough to send me the likely
source for the original
(correct) version of the quote in Wilde's :
Ernest: The true critic will be rational, at any rate, will he not?
Gilbert: Rational? There are two ways of disliking art, Ernest. One is
to dislike it. The other, to like it rationally.
I'd love to hear from anyone who can tell me how Pope became connected
with the quote (and especially whether or not Wilde had anything to do
with it).
- T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land". The segment was removed from
the poem on the advice of Ezra Pound. Read a
version of the parody.
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