-------- Original Message --------
Because of my foolish reading of the Pope poem, I went back and checked
the
original printing of Erasmus Darwin's Botanic Garden. My student,
Tiffany
DeRewal, originally found the reference to "pale fire" in a Project
Gutenberg version of the poem. Google Books also scans it as "pale
fire."
But a check of the original reveals without doubt that the actual line
is "Bore his pale sire, and led his lovely boy," which makes much more
sense since Aeneas is supposed to be carrying his father on his back
during
this scene, while leading his boy by the hand.
I wonder how many more sires have become fires over the years.
Matt Roth