Pope, who for _sides_, inserted in the text
_strides_, which Mr. Theobald has tacitly copied from him, though a more
proper alteration might perhaps have been made. A _ravishing stride_ is
an action of violence, impetuosity, and tumult, like that of a savage
rushing at his prey; whereas the poet is here attempting to exhibit an
image of secrecy and caution, of anxious circumspection and guilty
timidity, the _stealthy pace_ of a _ravisher_ creeping into the chamber
of a virgin, and of an assassin approaching the bed of him whom he
proposes to murder, without awaking him; these he describes as _moving
like ghosts_, whose progression is so different from _strides_, that it
has been in all ages represented te be, as Milton expresses it,
_Smooth sliding without step_.
This hemiatic will afford the true reading of this place, which is, I
think, to be corrected thus:
--_and wither'd Murder_.
--_thus with his_ stealthy _pace_.
_With Tarquin ravishing_, slides _tow'rds his design_,
_Moves like a ghost_.--
_Tarquin_ is in this place the general name of a ravisher, and the sense
is, Now is the time in which every one is a-sleep, but those who are
employed in wickedness; the witch who is sacrificing to Hecate, and the
ravisher, and the murderer, who, like me, are stealing upon their prey.
When the reading is thus adjusted, he wishes with great propriety, in
the following lines, that the _earth_ may not _hear his steps_.
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