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But fate and Jove had stopped the Baron’s ears. In vain Thalestris with reproach assails, For who can move when fair Belinda fails? Not half so fixed the Trojan could remain, While Anna begged and Dido raged in vain. Meaning. This description of Belinda’s pleading with the Baron to return her stolen lock at the beginning of Canto V is another instance of Pope playing off the classical epic tradition for comic effect. Here he is referencing Virgil’s Latin epic The Aeneid, in which the Trojan hero Aeneas is called on by Jupiter (also known as “Jove” in English) to leave his lover Dido and sail away to found Rome. The devastated Dido and her sister Anna beg Aeneas to stay, but having failed to persuade him, Dido ultimately kills herself. In this passage, the adamant Baron takes on the role of Aeneas, Thalestris becomes Anna, and Belinda becomes Dido. But while the situation in The Aeneid is incredibly high stakes, the situation Pope has created is contrastingly low stakes, creating a comical discord in the comparison he creates between them. It is also possible to detect the recurring theme of morality at work here. Pope repeatedly challenges the Christian idea that it’s always possible to differentiate good from evil throughout the poem by introducing a variety of forces, such as the sylphs, which interfere with the mortals’ actions. This in turn makes it difficult to judge those mortals for their actions. In this passage, Pope once again reminds the reader that the mortals are not totally in control, since he compares the Baron to Aeneas (who was influenced by the god “Jove”) and compares Belinda to Dido (who was tricked into falling in love by the god Cupid). Aeneas and Dido were thus not totally responsible for their own actions, and this comparison with the Baron and Belinda reminds the reader that they, too, are not totally responsible for their actions, meaning they cannot be straightforwardly judged for them.