Aubrey Beardsley: Illustrations for The Rape of the Lock

The Rape of the Lock is one of the most famous English-language examples of the mock-epic. Published in its first version in 1712, when Alexander Pope was only 23 years old, the poem served to forge his reputation as a poet and remains his most frequently studied work.
Aubrey Beardsley completed the ten Rape of the Lock drawings and a cover design for the first edition in just a few months despite his increasingly poor health. During his short and brilliant career he became notorious for his illustrations in two ‘decadent’ periodicals of the period, The Yellow Book and The Savoy. Beardsley's illustrations in these two periodicals will be shown in later posts.

Frontispiece: The Morning Dream

Twas he has summon'd to her silent Bed
The Morning Dream that hover'd o'er her Head.
A Youth more glitt'ring than a Birth-Night Beau. . .

Headpiece for the first canto: ‘The Billet-Doux’

‘The Toilet’ – Belinda at her dressing table.

The Baron's Prayer

The Barge

‘The Rape of the Lock’; on the left side of the picture you see the baron snipping off a lock of Belinda’s hair with a pair of scissors.

The Advent'rous Baron the bright locks admir'd;
He saw, he wish'd, and to the prize aspired.

The Cave of Spleen

A constant vapour o'er the Place flies;
Strange Phantoms rising as the Mists arise.

‘The Battle of the Beaux and Belles’ – Belinda confronts the Baron.

The New Star

 Design for Front Cover

 Aubrey Beardsley, Self-Portrait