Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?”
- Source
- Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot
- Date
- 1735
Meaning of “Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?”
The rhetorical question mocks disproportionate retaliation by comparing an elaborate punishment with the crushing of something slight and fragile.
Where does it come from?
An Epistle from Mr. Pope to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735 first-edition scan), printed page 15 / scan leaf 21, line 297. “Who breaks a Butterfly upon a Wheel?” occurs inside the hostile “Paris” / Lord Hervey satire and questions disproportionate punishment. The first edition capitalizes “Butterfly” and “Wheel”; the frozen catalog capitalization is normalized, and the personal/polemical context remains explicit.
