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"Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" is a quotation from Alexander Pope's "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" of January 1735. It alludes to "breaking on the wheel", a form of torture in which victims had their long bones broken by an iron bar while tied to a Catherine wheel.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Expressions& Sayings (W) )〕 The quotation is used to suggest someone is "() superabundant effort in the accomplishment of a small matter". The quotation is sometimes misquoted with "on" in place of "upon". ==Pope's satire== The line "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" forms line 308 of the "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" in which Alexander Pope responded to his physician's word of caution about making satirical attacks on powerful people by sending him a selection of such attacks. It appears in a section on the courtier John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey, who was close to Queen Caroline and was one of Pope's bitterest enemies. The section opens as follows:〔(Representative Poetry Online – Alexander Pope: Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot ): complete poem and commentary〕 :Let Sporus tremble –"What? that thing of silk, :Sporus, that mere white curd of ass's milk? :Satire or sense, alas! can Sporus feel? :Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel? :Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings, :This painted child of dirt that stinks and stings; :Whose buzz the witty and the fair annoys, :Yet wit ne'er tastes, and beauty ne'er enjoys, "Sporus", a male slave favoured by Emperor Nero,〔 was, according to Suetonius, castrated by the emperor, and subsequently married.〔(Ancient History Sourcebook: Suetonius: De Vita Caesarum—Nero, c. 110 C.E. )〕 Pope here refers to accusations made in Pulteney's ''Proper reply to a late scurrilous libel'' of 1731 which led to Hervey challenging Pulteney to a duel. Hervey's decade-long clandestine affair with Stephen Fox would eventually contribute to his downfall.〔(AMPHIBIOUS THING, The Life of Lord Hervey, Lucy Moore – Author, Penguin Books. ) Line 326 of Pope's poem: "Amphibious thing! that acting either part,"]〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Gay Love Letters through the Centuries: Town and Country )〕 As first published the verse referred to Paris, but was changed to Sporus when republished a few months later.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: Pope's Caricature of Lord Hervey )〕 "What? that thing of silk" uses a metaphor of a silkworm spinning that Pope had already used in ''The Dunciad'' to refer to bad poets. "Ass's milk" was at that time a common tonic, and was part of a diet adopted by Hervey. "This painted child" comments on make-up such as rouge used by the handsome Hervey.〔 Another graphic instance of the usage can be found in ''An Introduction to Harmony'' by William Shield (1800), wherein he writes: "Having brought this Introduction to Harmony before that awful Tribunal, the Public, without first submitting it to the inspection of a judicious friend, I shall doubtless merit severe correction from the Critic; but as my attempt has been rather to write a useful Book, than a learned Work, I trust that he will not ''break a Butterfly upon the wheel for not being able to soar with the wings of an Eagle''."〔http://216.129.110.22/files/imglnks/usimg/7/77/IMSLP93456-PMLP192233-Shield_-_Introduction_to_Harmony__1800.pdf〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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