Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel ? - Wikipedia Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel ? `` 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. The quotation is used to suggest someone is `` ( employing ) 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 : 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. 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. As first published the verse referred to Paris, but was changed to Sporus when republished a few months later. `` 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. '' Modern Use William Rees - Mogg, as editor of The 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 for Rolling Stones members Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. The philosopher Mary Midgley used a variation on the phrase in an article in the journal Philosophy written to counter a review praising The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, where she cuttingly said that she had `` not attended to Dawkins, thinking it unnecessary to break a butterfly upon a wheel. '' A film titled Butterfly on a Wheel was released in 2007. In the US the title of the movie was changed to Shattered. References Jump up ^ `` Expressions& Sayings ( W ) ''. Scorpio Tales. Retrieved 2 August 2012. Jump up ^ Brewer, E.C. ( 1 June 2001 ). Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Wordsworth Editions Ltd. p. 173. ISBN 1840223103. ^ Jump up to : Representative Poetry Online -- Alexander Pope : Epistles to Several Persons : Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot : complete poem and commentary Jump up ^ Ancient History Sourcebook : Suetonius : De Vita Caesarum -- Nero, c. 110 C.E. Jump up ^ AMPHIBIOUS THING, The Life of Lord Hervey, Lucy Moore -- Author, Penguin Books. Line 326 of Pope 's poem : `` Amphibious thing ! that acting either part, '' ) Archived 11 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ `` Gay Love Letters through the Centuries : Town and Country ''. rictornorton.co.uk. Jump up ^ `` Homosexuality in Eighteenth - Century England : Pope 's Caricature of Lord Hervey ''. rictornorton.co.uk. Jump up ^ http://216.129.110.22/files/imglnks/usimg/7/77/IMSLP93456-PMLP192233-Shield_-_Introduction_to_Harmony__1800.pdf Jump up ^ Booth, Stanley ( 2000 ). The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones ( 2nd edition ). A Capella Books. pp. 271 -- 278. ISBN 1 - 55652 - 400 - 5. Jump up ^ Gene Juggling Mary Midgley, 1979. Philosophy 54, no. 210, pp. 439 -- 458. Jump up ^ IMDB : Butterfly on a Wheel Alexander Pope Plays Three Hours After Marriage ( 1717 ) Essays `` Peri Bathous, Or the Art of Sinking in Poetry '' ( 1727 ) Poetry `` Ode on Solitude '' ( 1700 ) Messiah ( English poem ) ( 1709 ) An Essay on Criticism ( 1711 ) Messiah ( Latin poem ) ( 1712 ) The Rape of the Lock ( 1712 ) The Temple of Fame ( 1715 ) Eloisa to Abelard ( 1717 ) `` Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady '' ( 1717 ) The Dunciad ( 1728 -- 9, 1742 -- 3 ) An Essay on Man ( 1734 ) Moral Essays ( 1731 - 35 ) Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot ( 1735 ) Related Popeswood Binfield Scriblerus Club Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus `` Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel ? '' Heroic couplet People Martha Blount John Caryll Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Who_breaks_a_butterfly_upon_a_wheel%3F&oldid=826196197 '' Categories : 1735 works Metaphors referring to animals Metaphors referring to insects Works by Alexander Pope Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links EngvarB from September 2013 Use dmy dates from September 2013 Talk About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 17 February 2018, at 19 : 54 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel meaning
Answer: to suggest someone is "[employing] superabundant effort in the accomplishment of a small matter"