"Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" is a quotation fromAlexander Pope's "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" of January 1735.
It alludes to "breaking on the wheel", a form oftorture in which victims had theirlong bones broken by an iron bar while tied to aCatherine wheel.[1] The quotation is used to suggest someone is "[employing] superabundant effort in the accomplishment of a small matter".[2] The quotation is sometimes misquoted with "on" in place of "upon".
The line appears in a section criticizing the courtierJohn Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey, who was close toQueen Caroline and was one of Pope's bitterest enemies.[3] The section also refers to accusations ofhomosexuality against Hervey. They were originally made inWilliam Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath'sProper reply to a late scurrilous libel of 1731, which had led to Hervey challenging Pulteney to aduel. Hervey's decade-long clandestine affair with Stephen Fox would eventually contribute to his downfall.[4][5] Despite Pope's claims, Hervey should not be considered homosexual, as he was known to bebisexual.[6]
The line "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" forms line 308 of the "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" in whichAlexander Pope responded to his physician's word of caution about makingsatirical attacks on powerful people by sending him a selection of such attacks. It appears in a section on the courtierJohn Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey, who was close toQueen Caroline and was one of Pope's bitterest enemies. The section opens as follows:[3]
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 EmperorNero,[3] was, according toSuetonius,castrated by the emperor, and subsequently married.[7] Pope here refers to accusations made inPulteney'sProper 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.[8][9] As first published the verse referred toParis, but was changed to Sporus when republished a few months later.[10]
"What? that thing of silk" uses a metaphor of a silkworm spinning that Pope had already used inThe 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.[3]
Another graphic instance of the usage can be found inAn Introduction to Harmony byWilliam 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 notbreak a Butterfly upon the wheel for not being able to soar with the wings of an Eagle."[11]
William Rees-Mogg, as editor ofThe Times newspaper, used the "on a wheel" version of the quotation as the heading (set in capital letters) for an editorial on 1 July 1967 about the"Redlands" court case, which had resulted in prison sentences forRolling Stones membersKeith Richards andMick Jagger.[12]
The philosopherMary Midgley used a variation on the phrase in an article in the journalPhilosophy written to counter a review praisingThe Selfish Gene byRichard Dawkins, where she said that she had "not attended to Dawkins, thinking it unnecessary to break a butterfly upon a wheel."[13]
British rock bandThe Mission released a single entitled "Butterfly on a Wheel" in 1990,[14] and "Break a Butterfly on a Wheel" is the penultimate track onSimilarities, a compilation album by Scottish rock trioBiffy Clyro.[15] The phrase has been used in the lyrics of songs including "Soul Asylum" byThe Cult (from the 1989 albumSonic Temple),[16] "Paradise" byColdplay,[17] and "Falling Down" byOasis.[18]
A film titledButterfly on a Wheel was released in 2007.[19]
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