2-880-177 - Shirley Markham Collection/Heritage Images

The Barge, 1895-1896. Baroque scene: a woman with an elaborate hairstyle is attended by two men in a boat with ornate decoration. 'Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames; Fair nymphs, and well-dressed youths around her shone; But ev'ry eye was fixed on her alone'. Illustration for "The Rape of the Lock" by Alexander Pope, published privately by Leonard Smithers in 1896. Rape in this context refers not to sexual violence but to the theft and carrying away of a lock of hair, from the Latin rapere: to snatch, to grab, to carry off. From "The Best of Beardsley" edited by R. A. Walker, [The Bodley Head, London, 1948]