Rape of the Lock
Preserved but no longer current.
Lord Petre, in a thought- less moment of frolic gallantry, cut off a lock of Arabella Fermor's hair, and this liberty gave rise to the bitter feud between the two families which Alexander Pope worked up into the best heroic-comic poem of the language. The first sketch was published in 1712 in two cantos, and the complete work, in- cluding the most happily conceived machinery of sylphs and gnomes, in five cantos in 1714.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Rape of the Lock” mean?
Lord Petre, in a thought- less moment of frolic gallantry, cut off a lock of Arabella Fermor's hair, and this liberty gave rise to the bitter feud between the two families which Alexander Pope worked up into the best heroic-comic poem of the language. The first sketch was published in 1712 in two cantos, and the complete work, in- cluding the most happily conceived machinery of sylphs and gnomes, in five cantos in 1714.
Is “Rape of the Lock” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.