"The Pulley": Rundles, Ropes, and Ladders in John Wilkins, Ramon Lull, and George Herbert

Since 1941, when F.E. Hutchinson's edition of The Works of George Herbert was published, various commentators have referred to the Pandora myth as a way to understand the narrative of "The Pulley," one of the most famous poems in The Temple.¹ Louis L. Martz agrees that the poem is, at least in part, informed by "the story of Pandora," which tells how Zeus gave this first mortal woman a box of gifts, all of which escaped except Hope.² Mary Ellen Rickey develops the classical allusion to show how "The Pulley" argues "the superiority of God's care for His people to that of classical figures for their subjects."³ Helen Vendler reinvents this commentary to include the central question addressed by the poem, which is "not how it is that man has Hope (as in the story of Pandora) but rather how it is that man is depressed."⁴ Richard Strier picks up this thread, studying how Herbert employs the Narcissus myth (as opposed to the story of Pandora) as a way of expressing a kind of "anti-humanism."⁵ With few exceptions, commentators studying the poem insist that its informing principle is some version of the Pandora story. My essay veers in another direction, studying how John Wilkins's description of pulleys and Ramon Lull's treatise on the divine dignities inform Herbert's witty conclusion.

John Wilkins on Archimedes's Concept of Mechanical Advantage

It is highly unlikely that George Herbert ever met the much younger John Wilkins (1614-72). In 1624, when Herbert's name appeared on the official printed lists for Parliament at Oxford, Wilkins was a mere boy studying Latin and Greek with Edward Sylvester, who kept a private school in the Parish of All Saints in Oxford. Amy Charles's observation that Herbert's "name does not appear in the Commons Journals for this session" is evidence that he did not even attend.⁶ Because Wilkins's most important works were not published until after Herbert's death, we can assume no connection between the two. Nevertheless, his Mathematicall magick. Or, The wonders that may be performed by mechanicall geometry (1648) explains what Herbert and his contemporaries, those with more or less Latin and Greek, had already learned about pulleys and other machines from Archimedes. Because Wilkins's treatise was written in English, it appealed to a wider audience than just the learned few. Also appealing were his illustrations of pulleys, each of which demonstrated Archimedes's concept of a good mechanical advantage. These showed how different combinations of pulleys and ropes will produce different effects. If we review Wilkins's work alongside Herbert's poem, we begin to understand how the metaphor fits the situation.

Archimedes (287-212 B.C.), it will be remembered, once startled Syracusans by single-handedly moving a great ship. As if by magic, he simply pulled on the end of a rope. Wilkins shows how things previously thought magical are really quite ordinary, in the sense that they function according to certain natural laws. "The Pulley," he declares, "is of such ordinary use, that it needs not any particular description."⁷ Nevertheless, he proceeds to explain the differences among various kinds of pulleys in regard to composition and function. All require rundles, or wooden rollers, which are instruments for hanging the cords bearing the weights. Some pulleys are composed of two rundles, some more. Some pulleys are activated by a force that pulls up, some by a force that pulls down. Which direction will determine the mechanical advantage, that is, the ratio of output force and input force used to activate the device. But mechanical advantage will also be determined by the number of rundles and ropes. A good mechanical advantage results when less force is required to lift more weight.

Wilkins begins his treatise with the simple pulley, which requires that a person pull down on the end of a rope with the same amount of force as the weight on the other end. (The weight of the rope itself is negligible.) He explains...