Sporus Passage

Pope is a well known poet of the eighteenth century. Though he has written many kinds of poetry he is known best for his satires. An Epistle to Dr.Arbuthnot  is a typical verse satire of Pope. In it he attacks the poetasters and a few other contemporary writers with whom he was not in good terms.

In Sporus passage Pope attacks Lord Hervey. Pope appears once to have been friendly with Hervey. When Lord Hervey along with Lady Mary Wortley Montague launched his attack on Pope, the friendship between Pope and Lord Hervey began to break. Pope wrote his Epistle mainly as a reply to them.

Sporus was the name of the Eunuch love of the Emperor Nero. Pope deliberately calls Lord Hervey as Sporus as he too shared some of the qualities of Sporus. He is beautiful and corruptive as Lucifer.  He is a person of malicious nature.  His speeches are half-vulgar and half-poisonous.  He is a mere puppet in the hands of other. Her is base flatterer and possesses the characteristics of both man and woman. Being weak in health, Lord Hervey drinks ass’s milk and being ugly in appearance, he applies rogue to his face.

It is said that this indignant, scurrilous and malicious satire against Lord Hervey is harsh. But it is to be noted here that Lord Hervey deserves this bitter satire as he has made a devastating remark about Pope  in his Verses Addressed to the Imitator of Horace.