Question

Now meet thy fate, incens'd Belinda cry'd,

And drew a deadly bodkin from her side.
(The same, his ancient personage to deck,
Her great great grandsire wore about his neck,
In three seal-rings; which after, melted down,
Form'd a vast buckle for his widow's gown:
Her infant grandame's whistle next it grew,
The bells she jingled, and the whistle blew;
Then in a bodkin grac'd her mother's hairs,
Which long she wore, and now Belinda wears.)
These lines gently mock the epic convention of _____.

the arming of the epic hero
the ancestry of the warrior
the genealogy of the weapon
the posing of the epic question

Answer 1

the genealogy of the weapon

This description of Belinda's dagger in this poem mocks the epic convention where an author would trace the genealogy of a weapon back as far as possible. The tone here is less serious than most epics would use, but still traces the dagger back through everyone else in her family that had possession of it.