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Because she's honest, and the best of Friends.

Or her, whose life the Church and Scandal share,
For ever in a Passion, or a Pray'r.

Or her, who laughs at Hell, but (like her Grace)1
Cries, "Ah! how charming, if there's no such place!"
Or who in sweet vicissitude appears

2

Of Mirth and Opium, Ratafie and Tears,
The daily Anodyne, and nightly Draught,

To kill those foes to Fair ones, Time and Thought.

Woman and Fool are two hard things to hit;
For true No-meaning puzzles more than Wit.

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But what are these to great Atossa's mind 3?
Scarce once herself, by turns all Womankind!
Who, with herself, or others, from her birth
Finds all her life one, warfare upon earth:
Shines in exposing Knaves, and painting Fools,
Yet is, whate'er she hates and ridicules.
No Thought advances, but her Eddy Brain
Whisks it about, and down it goes again.

Full sixty years the World has been her Trade,

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The wisest Fool much Time has ever made.
From loveless youth to unrespected age,
No Passion gratify'd except her Rage.

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So much the Fury still out-ran the Wit,

The Pleasure miss'd her, and the Scandal hit.

Who breaks with her, provokes Revenge from Hell,

But he's a bolder man who dares be well.

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Her ev'ry turn with Violence pursu'd,

Nor more a storm her Hate than Gratitude:
To that each Passion turns, or soon or late;

Love, if it makes her yield, must make her hate:
Superiors? death! and Equals? what a curse!
But an Inferior not dependant? worse.
Offend her, and she knows not to forgive;
Oblige her, and she'll hate you while you live:

1 The Duchess of Montagu. Warton. [She was an intimate friend of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's, who speaks of her 'tender esteem' for the Duchess.]

2 [A kind of liqueur.]

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fully undermined hy Harley and his instrument Abigail Hill, a relative of the Duchess and bedchamber-woman to the Queen; and in 1712, Marlborough was dismissed from all his employments. The Duchess survived his death (in 1722) 3 [The Duchess of Marlborough. See note on for 22 years; and in her Vindications of his conp. 236. Her maiden name was Sarah Jennings; duct and her own has left materials for modifying and Colonel Churchill was her third husband. some at least among the extravagant charges As Lady Churchill she acquired an irresistible in- brought against both. With Pope's caustic referfluence over the Princess Anne, to whom she was ences to every doubtful point in her career and appointed First Lady of the Bedchamber, and character should be compared the equally unwith whom for twenty years she carried on a cor- merciful prose attacks of Swift in the Exarespondence under the loving pseudonym of Mrs miner, Nos. 16, 19, 49, &c. It may be added Freeman. It was through her that Churchill rose that the name of Atossa, the ambitious daughter to power and place and became Earl of Marl- of Cyrus and mother of Xerxes, is admirably borough. After Queen Anne's accession the influence of Marlborough (created Duke in 1702) became for a time absolute; and was imperiously maintained at home by his Duchess while he was gaining laurels abroad. It was at last success

chosen.]

4 After v. 122, in the MS.

Oppress'd with wealth and wit, abundance sad! One makes her poor, the other makes her mad.' Warburton.

But die, and she'll adore you-Then the Bust
And Temple rise-then fall again to dust1.
Last night, her Lord was all that's good and great;
A Knave this morning, and his Will a Cheat.
Strange! by the Means defeated of the Ends,
By Spirit robb'd of Pow'r, by Warmth of Friends,
By Wealth of Follow'rs! without one distress
Sick of herself thro' very selfishness!
Atossa, curs'd with ev'ry granted pray'r,
Childless with all her Children, wants an Heir ".
To Heirs unknown descends th' unguarded store,
Or wanders, Heav'n-directed, to the Poor 3.
Pictures like these, dear Madam, to design,
Asks no firm hand, and no unerring line;
Some wand'ring touches, some reflected light,
Some flying stroke alone can hit 'em right:
For how should equal Colours do the knack?
Chameleons who can paint in white and black?
"Yet Chloe sure was form'd without a spot'
Nature in her then err'd not, but forgot.
"With ev'ry pleasing, ev'ry prudent part,

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Say, what can Chloe want?"-She wants a Heart.
She speaks, behaves, and acts just as she ought;
But never, never, reach'd one gen'rous Thought.
Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour,
Content to dwell in Decencies for ever.
So very reasonable, so unmov'd,

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As never yet to love, or to be lov'd.

She, while her Lover pants upon her breast,
Can mark the figures on an Indian chest ;
And when she sees her Friend in deep despair,
'Observes how much a Chintz exceeds Mohair 5.
Forbid it Heav'n, a Favour or a Debt
She e'er should cancel-but she may forget.
Safe is your Secret still in Chloe's ear;
But none of Chloe's shall you ever hear.
Of all her Dears she never slander'd one,
But cares not if a thousand are undone.
Would Chloe know if you're alive or dead?
She bids her Footman put it in her head.
Chloe is prudent-Would you too be wise?
Then never break your heart when Chloe dies.

1 This alludes to a temple she erected with a bust of Queen Anne in it, which mouldered away in a few years. Wilkes,

2 After v. 148, in the MS.

'This Death decides, nor lets the blessing fall
On any one she hates, but on them all.
Curs'd chance! this only could afflict her more,
If any part should wander to the poor.'

Warburton. 3 [Pitt (the elder) was then one of the poor;

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and to him Heaven directed a portion of the wealth of the haughty Dowager. Macaulay.]

4 Lady Suffolk. Warton. [This great lady, whose friendship was courted by Swift, Pope, Arbuthnot and Gay, is described by Lord Stanhope as 'placid, good-natured, and kind-hearted, but very deaf, and not remarkable for wit.' She was the mistress of George II.]

[Mohair, a stuff made of camel's or other uncommon hair.]

One certain Portrait may (I grant) be seen,

Which Heav'n has varnish'd out, and made a Queen: THE SAME FOR EVER! and describ'd by all

With Truth and Goodness, as with Crown and Ball. Poets heap Virtues, Painters Gems at will,

And shew their zeal, and hide their want of skill.

'Tis well-but, Artists! who can paint or write,

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To draw the Naked is your true delight.
That robe of Quality so struts and swells,
None see what Parts of Nature it conceals:
Th' exactest traits of Body or of Mind,
We owe to models of an humble kind.

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If QUEENSBURY1 to strip there's no compelling,

'Tis from a Handmaid we must take a Helen, From Peer or Bishop 'tis no easy thing

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To draw the man who loves his God, or King:

Alas! I copy (or my draught would fail)
From honest Mah'met, or plain Parson Hale3.

But grant, in Public Men sometimes are shown*,

A Woman's seen in Private life alone:

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There, none distinguish 'twixt your Shame or Pride,
Weakness or Delicacy; all so nice,

That each may seem a Virtue, or a Vice 5.
In Men, we various Ruling Passions find 6;

In Women, two almost divide the kind;

Those, only fix'd, they first or last obey,
The Love of Pleasure, and the Love of Sway.

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That, Nature gives; and where the lesson taught? Is but to please, can Pleasure seem a fault? Experience, this; by Man's oppression curst, They seek the second not to loose the first. Men, some to Bus'ness, some to Pleasure take;

[The Duchess of Queensbury, the correspondent of Swift and the untiring patroness of Gay. Her commanding position as a leader of fashion is illustrated by an amusing anecdote of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's, who speaks of the Duchess at the head of a tribe of dames insisting upon admission to the House of Lords on an occasion when for want of room ladies had been excluded from the Chamber.]

Mahmet, servant to the late King [George 1.], said to be the son of a Turkish Bassa, whom he took at the Siege of Buda, and constantly kept about his person. P.

3 Dr Stephen Hale, not more estimable for his useful discoveries as a natural philosopher, than for his exemplary Life and Pastoral Charity as a Parish Priest. P.

But grant, in Public, &c.] In the former Editions, between this and the foregoing lines, a want of Connexion might be perceived, oc

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casioned by the omission of certain Examples and Illustrations to the Maxims laid down; and tho' some of these have since been found, viz. the Characters of Philomedé, Atossa, Chloe, and some verses following, others are still wanting, nor can we answer that these are exactly inserted.

5 That each may seem a Virtue, or a Vice.] For Women are taught Virtue so artificially, and Vice so naturally, that, in the nice exercise of them, they may be easily mistaken for one another. Scriblerus.

6 The former part having shewn, that the particular Characters of Women are more various than those of Men, it is nevertheless observed, that the general Characteristic of the sex, as to the ruling Passion, is more uniform. P.

7 This is occasioned partly by their Nature, partly their Education, and in some degree by Necessity. P.

But every Woman is at heart a Rake:
Men, some to Quiet, some to public Strife;
But ev'ry Lady would be Queen for life.

Yet mark the fate of a whole Sex of Queens1!
Pow'r all their end, but Beauty all the means:
In Youth they conquer, with so wild a rage,
As leaves them scarce a subject in their Age:
For foreign glory, foreign joy, they roam;
No thought of peace or happiness at home.
But Wisdom's triumph is well-tim'd_Retreat,
As hard a science to the Fair as Great!
Beauties, like Tyrants, old and friendless grown,
Yet hate repose, and dread to be alone,
Worn out in public, weary ev'ry eye,

Nor leave one sigh behind them when they die.
Pleasures the sex, as children Birds, pursue 3,
Still out of reach, yet never out of view;
Sure, if they catch, to spoil the Toy at most,
To covet flying, and regret when lost:
At last, to follies Youth could scarce defend,
It grows their Age's prudence to pretend;
Asham'd to own they gave delight before,
Reduc'd to feign it, when they give no more:
As Hags hold Sabbaths, less for joy than spite,,
So these their merry, miserable Night;

Still round and round the Ghosts of Beauty glide,
And haunt the places where their Honour died.
See how the World its Veterans rewards!
A Youth of Frolics, an old Age of Cards;
Fair to no purpose, artful to no end,
Young without Lovers, old without a Friend;
A Fop their Passion, but their Prize a Sot;
Alive, ridiculous, and dead, forgot!

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Ah! Friend! to dazzle let the Vain design ® ;

To raise the Thought, and touch the Heart be thine!
That Charm shall grow, while what fatigues the Ring",
Flaunts and goes down, an unregarded thing:
So when the Sun's broad beam has tir'd the sight,
All mild ascends the Moon's more sober light,
Serene in Virgin Modesty she shines,
And unobserv'd the glaring Orb declines 8.

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Oh! blest with Temper, whose unclouded ray
Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day;

What are the Aims and the Fate of this Sex?-I. As to Power. P.

2 Copied from Young, Satire V. Warton. 3 II. As to Pleasure.

P.

[The Hags' or Witches' Sabbath is properly the Walpurgis-night, preceding May-day.]

5 [For the history of these lines see note to lines To Martha Blount on her birthday in the Miscellaneous Poems.]

6 Advice for their true Interest. P.

7 [The fashionable promenade in the Park, made in the reign of Charles I. and partially destroyed at the time of the formation of the Serpentine by order of Queen Caroline.]

8 [These four lines were originally addressed to Miss Judith Cowper, preceded by this triplet; "Though sprightly Sappho force our love and praise, A softer wonder my pleas'd soul surveys: The mild Erinna blushing in her bays.'] See Carruthers' Life.

She, who can love a Sister's charms, or hear
Sighs for a daughter with unwounded ear;
She, who ne'er answers till a Husband cools,
Or, if she rules him, never shews she rules;
Charms by accepting, by submitting sways,
Yet has her humour most, when she obeys;
Let Fops or Fortune fly which way they will;
Disdains all loss of Tickets, or Codille1:
Spleen, Vapours, or Small-pox, above them all,
And Mistress of herself, tho' China fall 2.

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And yet, believe me, good as well as ill,
Woman's at best a Contradiction still.
Heav'n, when it strives to polish all it can
Its last best work, but forms a softer Man;
Picks from each sex, to make the Fav'rite blest,
Your love of Pleasure, or desire of Rest:
Blends, in exception to all gen'ral rules,

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Your Taste of Follies, with our Scorn of Fools:
Reserve with Frankness, Art with Truth ally'd,
Courage with Softness, Modesty with Pride;
Fix'd Principles, with Fancy ever new;
Shakes all together, and produces- You 3.

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Be this a Woman's Fame: with this unblest,
Toasts live a scorn, and Queens may die a jest.
This Phoebus promis'd (I forget the year)

When those blue eyes first open'd on the sphere;
Ascendant Phoebus watch'd that hour with care,
Averted half your Parents' simple Pray'r;

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And gave you Beauty, but deny'd the Pelf
That buys your sex a Tyrant o'er itself.

The gen'rous God, who Wit and Gold refines,
And ripens Spirits as he ripens Mines,

92.]

Kept Dross for Duchesses, the world shall know it 4,
To you gave Sense, Good-humour, and a Poet.

1[Codille; cf. Rape of the Lock, Canto III. v.

2 Addison has touched this subject with his usual exquisite humour in the Lover, No 10, quoting Epictetus, to comfort a Lady that labours under this heavy calamity. Warton,

3 [Warton compares Swift's:

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'Jove mix'd up all, and his best clay employ'd, Then call'd the happy composition-Floyd.'] 4 [Yet it was for Martha Blount, to whom these compliments are addressed, that Pope seems to have taken the dross of the Duchess of Marlborough. V. ante.]

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