Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which literary form best describes "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot"?

   • Epic Poetry
   • Pastoral Elegy
   • Dramatic Monologue
   • Lyric Ode
   • Correct answer: Verse Satire

   Correct! The poem is a verse satire written as a poetic letter (epistle) to Pope's friend Dr. Arbuthnot. It uses wit, irony, and character portraits to mock literary culture and defend Pope's career.

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2. 2

   Question 2. After the savage portraits of Atticus and Sporus, why does Pope turn to his own conduct and to his parents' quiet, honest lives?

   • To argue that his noble birth and inherited rank give him every right to judge others
   • To apologize to his victims and promise his friend that he will give up satire
   • Correct answer: To show his satire comes from a truthful character, not malice, so it can be trusted
   • To prove that his father once moved in court circles and knew the people he attacks

   Pope has been accused of attacking his enemies out of spite. So after the portraits he defends the satirist himself: he "stooped to truth, and moralised his song," flattered no one, and wrote for virtue rather than fame. His father, who never went to court and knew "No language, but the language of the heart," stands as the source of that honesty. The poem's turn makes the case that the satire can be trusted because the man behind it can.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Why did Pope write this poem?

   • Correct answer: He was defending himself against personal attacks while honoring a dying friend who had urged him to moderate his satire
   • He was commissioned by the royal court to write an official literary history of England, celebrating every poet of his age
   • He was answering a public challenge from Addison, who had dared him to defend his satire before London's literary society
   • He wanted to establish himself as a serious moral poet after years of light verse, and to regain the favor of the royal court

   Pope composed the epistle in 1734 after learning that his close friend Dr. Arbuthnot was gravely ill. Arbuthnot had urged Pope to soften his satire, and the poem serves as both a defense of Pope's literary career against attacks by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Lord Hervey, and a farewell tribute to his physician friend.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What famous phrase originated in the "Atticus" portrait?

   • A little learning is a dangerous thing
   • To err is human, to forgive divine
   • Correct answer: Damn with faint praise
   • Fools rush in where angels fear to tread

   "Damn with faint praise" comes from the Atticus portrait in this poem: "Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, / And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer." All four phrases are by Pope, but only this one is from the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot.

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5. 5

   Question 5. In the "Atticus" portrait, what is Pope's main criticism of Joseph Addison?

   • Addison was a plagiarist who stole ideas from younger writers and published them under his own name as original work
   • Correct answer: Addison was a brilliant writer whose jealousy and cowardice made him undermine rivals rather than openly compete with them
   • Addison had abandoned literature entirely for a political career, wasting his talent while lesser writers became famous
   • Addison was a harsh critic who publicly ridiculed promising young poets and deliberately destroyed their reputations in London

   Pope portrays Atticus/Addison as genuinely talented but fatally flawed by jealousy. He can 'bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne' and undermines rivals through indirect means — faint praise, civil sneers, and strategic hesitation — rather than honest competition.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What real person is satirized as "Sporus" in the poem?

   • Colley Cibber, the Poet Laureate
   • Joseph Addison, the essayist
   • Edmund Curll, the pirate publisher
   • Correct answer: Lord Hervey, a courtier and political writer

   "Sporus" is John Hervey, Baron Hervey of Ickworth. Pope chose the name deliberately — Sporus was a young man whom Emperor Nero castrated and married. The portrait is the most savage in the poem, calling Hervey a 'painted child of dirt' and a toad whispering venom at the ear of Eve.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What does the character "Bufo" represent in the poem?

   • Correct answer: A vain literary patron who feeds on flattery but lets real talent starve
   • A rival poet who steals Pope's ideas and publishes them first
   • A dishonest publisher who pirates Pope's works without permission
   • A corrupt politician who censors any literature that mocks the government's ministers

   Bufo (Latin for 'toad') represents the vain literary patron, likely based on the Earl of Halifax. He is 'fed with soft dedication all day long' but pays poets in port wine or empty praise. Pope's deadliest line: 'He helped to bury whom he helped to starve.'

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8. 8

   Question 8. What does 'Bufo' literally mean in Latin?

   • Fool
   • Patron
   • Flatterer
   • Correct answer: Toad

   Bufo means 'toad' in Latin. Pope chose the name to suggest someone bloated, sedentary, and repulsive — the patron sits 'full-blown' and 'puffed by every quill,' swelling with flattery like a toad inflating itself.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What is the effect of the dialogue form between P. (Pope) and A. (Arbuthnot)?

   • It shows that Arbuthnot rejects Pope's entire approach to poetry and wants him to abandon satire completely
   • Correct answer: It allows Pope to appear provoked into his attacks rather than initiating them, making his satire seem reluctant and justified
   • It demonstrates that Pope and Arbuthnot have fundamentally different views about literature, which they never reconcile
   • It creates a formal debate structure where both speakers receive equal time and equal weight, allowing readers to judge between them

   Arbuthnot serves as a dramatic foil — his cautious interruptions ('Hold! for God's sake — you'll offend') provoke Pope into justifying ever more savage attacks. This makes the satire appear reluctant rather than malicious, a brilliant rhetorical strategy.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does "Nostrum" mean in this story?

    • A poetic device for creating irony
    • A type of classical verse form
    • Correct answer: A quack remedy or patent medicine
    • A legal document or formal complaint

    A 'nostrum' is a quack remedy or patent medicine. Pope uses it with dark humor — asking what medicine can cure the 'plague' of bad poets pestering him, while addressing a real physician who had treated Pope's chronic illnesses for years.

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11. 11

    Question 11. How does Pope describe his own early development as a writer?

    • He claims he was educated by strict classical tutors who forced him to memorize long passages of Latin poetry
    • Correct answer: He says he began writing naturally as a child — 'I lisped in numbers, for the numbers came' — without abandoning any duty
    • He describes himself as a failed playwright who turned to poetry out of desperation after theaters rejected his plays
    • He says he was inspired by reading Addison's essays in The Spectator as an ambitious young man

    Pope presents his poetic gift as natural and innocent: 'I lisped in numbers, for the numbers came.' He emphasizes that he 'left no calling for this idle trade, / No duty broke, no father disobeyed' — positioning poetry as his innate vocation, not a reckless choice.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does "Coxcomb" mean in this story?

    • Correct answer: A vain, conceited man; a fop
    • A foreign diplomat or ambassador
    • A serious literary critic
    • A patron of the arts

    A coxcomb is a vain, foolish person excessively concerned with appearance. Pope complains that 'every coxcomb perks them in my face' — conceited nobodies thrust themselves at him, assuming familiarity with England's most famous poet.

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13. 13

    Question 13. Pope compares Sporus to several animals. Which of these is NOT one of them?

    • A spaniel
    • A toad
    • Correct answer: A serpent
    • A butterfly

    Pope calls Sporus a butterfly ('Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?'), a bug with gilded wings, a spaniel that 'civilly delights in mumbling of the game they dare not bite,' and a toad at the ear of Eve. While the toad allusion echoes Satan in Paradise Lost, Pope never calls Sporus a serpent directly.

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14. 14

    Question 14. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • Pope orders his servant John to shut the door against pestering poets at the poem's opening.

      Happened

      The poem famously opens: 'Shut, shut the door, good John! fatigued, I said, / Tie up the knocker, say I'm sick, I'm dead.'

    • Arbuthnot agrees with all of Pope's attacks and encourages him to be even more savage.

      Didn't happen

      Arbuthnot plays the cautious foil, repeatedly warning Pope: 'Good friend, forbear! you deal in dangerous things' and 'Hold! for God's sake — you'll offend.'

    • Pope says he turned to satire after being provoked by dishonest critics and personal attacks.

      Happened

      Pope presents his career as moving from 'pure description' to satire only after critics like Gildon and Dennis attacked him: 'If wrong, I smiled; if right, I kissed the rod.'

    • Pope admits that he wrote satire primarily to make money and gain social status.

      Didn't happen

      Pope insists the opposite: 'Not fortune's worshipper, nor fashion's fool, / Not lucre's madman, nor ambition's tool.' He claims moral purpose, not profit, drives his writing.

    • The poem ends with Pope paying tribute to his honest father and caring for his dying mother.

      Happened

      The closing section is a sincere family tribute. Pope describes his father as one who 'knew no schoolman's subtle art, / No language, but the language of the heart' and prays to 'extend a mother's breath.'

    • Pope describes himself as tall, physically imposing, and feared by his literary rivals.

      Didn't happen

      Pope actually jokes about his small stature: 'I cough like Horace, and, though lean, am short.' He suffered from a spinal deformity that left him only 4½ feet tall.

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15. 15

    Question 15. The poem is written in heroic couplets. What are heroic couplets?

    • Four-line stanzas with an ABAB rhyme scheme, the common form of English folk ballads
    • Free verse arranged in couplets, with no fixed meter or regular rhyme scheme
    • Unrhymed lines written in iambic pentameter, like the blank verse of Shakespeare and Milton
    • Correct answer: Pairs of rhymed lines in iambic pentameter, the dominant verse form of Augustan poetry

    Heroic couplets are pairs of rhymed lines in iambic pentameter (ten syllables, five stressed). Pope was the undisputed master of this form, varying it with enjambment and caesura to create conversational rhythms within the tight structure.

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16. 16

    Question 16. What does Pope argue about the moral purpose of satire in this poem?

    • Satire should only target political figures and courtiers, never fellow writers or literary critics
    • All satire is inherently cruel, and Pope admits he writes it primarily to take revenge on his personal enemies
    • Satire is purely for entertainment and should never be taken seriously by readers or by its victims
    • Correct answer: True satire serves virtue by attacking vice, not individuals — and a good satirist spares the innocent

    Pope positions himself as a moral satirist: 'Cursed be the verse, how well soe'er it flow / That tends to make one worthy man my foe.' He claims his attacks target vice, not people — 'a nameless character can never be found out but by its truth and likeness.'

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17. 17

    Question 17. What does "Fustian" mean in this story?

    • Correct answer: Pompous, inflated, pretentious writing
    • A type of satirical verse form
    • Simple, everyday language used in poetry
    • Elegant, polished literary style

    Fustian means pompous, inflated, or pretentious speech or writing. Pope uses it to describe writers whose bloated language isn't really poetry at all — it's 'prose run mad.' The word originally referred to a coarse cloth, suggesting cheap imitation.

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18. 18

    Question 18. Why does Pope compare himself to Midas's barber?

    • Like the barber who turned everything to gold, Pope claims his writing enriches everything it touches
    • Correct answer: Like the barber who discovered Midas had ass's ears, Pope says he cannot keep silent about the foolishness around him
    • Like the barber who was punished by the gods, Pope fears divine retribution for his satire
    • Like the barber who served a king, Pope positions himself as a servant to royal literary taste

    In the myth, Midas's barber (or queen) discovered the king had ass's ears and was 'forced to speak, or burst.' Pope uses this to justify his satire: surrounded by fools and frauds, he simply cannot stay silent. The truth must come out.

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19. 19

    Question 19. Which literary club united Pope, Arbuthnot, and Jonathan Swift?

    • The Grub Street Journal
    • The Spectator Club
    • Correct answer: The Scriblerus Club
    • The Kit-Cat Club

    The Scriblerus Club (c. 1714) was a satirical literary group dedicated to mocking 'the abuses of human learning.' Members included Pope, Arbuthnot, Swift, John Gay, and Thomas Parnell. Their collaborative spirit deeply influenced all their individual works.

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20. 20

    Question 20. How does Pope describe his father in the poem's closing section?

    • As a wealthy aristocrat who used his political connections to launch Pope's literary career
    • As a brilliant scholar who educated Pope in Latin and Greek and trained him in classical philosophy
    • Correct answer: As an honest, simple man who never went to court, never lied, and knew 'no language, but the language of the heart'
    • As a stern disciplinarian who disapproved of Pope's choice to become a writer and wanted him to study law

    Pope's father is portrayed as the moral opposite of the literary world's corruption: 'by nature honest, by experience wise, / Healthy by temperance, and by exercise.' He 'walked innoxious through his age' — a man of integrity whose simplicity shames the vain, dishonest writers Pope has been satirizing.

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21. 21

    Question 21. What literary device is at work in the line 'Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike'?

    • Correct answer: Antithesis — opposing ideas (willing/afraid, wound/strike) are balanced to expose contradiction
    • Hyperbole — the violence of 'wound' and 'strike' is exaggerated for comic effect
    • Personification — abstract qualities like fear are given human emotions and actions
    • Alliteration — the repeated 'w' sounds (willing/wound) create a musical, rhythmic effect

    Antithesis places contrasting ideas in balanced grammatical structures. Here, 'willing' opposes 'afraid' and 'wound' opposes 'strike,' capturing Atticus/Addison's core contradiction: he wants to harm rivals but lacks the courage to do it openly. (The line also uses alliteration, but antithesis is the dominant device.)

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22. 22

    Question 22. What does "Venal" mean in this story?

    • Venomous and spiteful; full of malice
    • Exceptionally talented and respected
    • Easily forgiven; minor and pardonable
    • Correct answer: Willing to act dishonestly for money; corrupt

    Venal means susceptible to bribery or corruption. Gildon's 'venal quill' means his pen was for hire — he attacked Pope not from genuine literary conviction but because someone paid him to. Pope's response was characteristically cutting: 'I wished the man a dinner, and sat still.'

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