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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) ?
Cries, “Ah! how charming, if there's no such place!”
Or who in sweet vicissitude appears
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.

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

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1 The Duchess of Montagu. Warton., [She fully undermined hy Harley and his instrument was an intimate friend of Lady Mary Wortley Abigail Hill, a relative of the Duchess and bedMontagu's, who speaks of her ‘tender esteem' for chamber-woman to the Queen; and in 1712, the Duchess. ]

Marlborough was dismissed from all his employ2 (A kind of liqueur.)

ments. The Duchess survived his death (in 1722) 31 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 referAuence 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 in- chosen.] fluence of Marlborough (created Duke in 1702) 4 After V. 122, in the MS. became for a time absolute;

and was imperiously Oppress'd with wealth and wit, abundance sad! maintained at home by his Duchess while he was One makes her poor, the other makes her mad.' gaining laurels abroad. It was at last success

Warburton.

But die, and .she'll adore you—Then the Bust
And Temple rise—then fall again to dust.
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 3.
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,
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,
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.

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i This alludes to a temple she erected with and to him Heaven directed a portion of the a bust of Queen Anne in it, which mouldered wealth of the haughty Dowager. Macaulay.) away in a few years. Wilkes.

* Lady Suffolk.

Warton. (This great lady, * After v. 148, in the MS.

whose friendship was courted by Swift, Pope, "This Death decides, nor lets the blessing fall Arbuthnot and Gay, is described by Lord StanOn any one she hates, but on them all. hope as 'placid, good-natured, and kind-hearted, Curs'd chance! this only could afflict her more, but very deaf, and not remarkable for wit.' She If any part should wander to the poor.' was the mistress of George II.)

Warburton. 5 [Mohaır, a stuff made of camel's or other 3 [Pitt (the elder) was then one of the poor; uncommon hair.)

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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,
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.
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
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:
Our bolder Talents in full light display'd ;
Your virtues open fairest in the shade.
Bred to disguise, in Public 'tis you hide;
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.

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 to loose the first.

Men, some to Bus'ness, some to Pleasure take;

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*[The Duchess of Queensbury, the corre- casioned by the omission of certain Examples spondent of Swift and the untiring patroness of and Illustrations to the Maxims laid down; and Gay: Her commanding position as a leader of tho' some of these have since been found, viz. fashion is illustrated by an amusing anecdote of the Characters of Philomedé, A tossa, Chloe, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's, who speaks of some verses following, others are still wanting, the Duchess at the head of a tribe of dames in- nor can we answer that these are exactly insisting upon admission to the House of Lords serted. on an occasion when for want of room ladies 5 That each may seem a Virtue, or a Vice.! had been excluded from the Chamber.]

For Women are taught Virtue so artificially, and · Mah' met, servant to the late King (George Vice so naturally, that, in the nice exercise of 1.), said to be the son of a Turkish Bassa, whom them, they may be easily mistaken for one anhe took at the Siege of Buda, and constantly other. Scriblerus. kept about his person. P.

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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 Queens?!
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) !

Ah! Friend! to dazzle let the Vain design 6 ;
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.

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

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She, who can love a Sister's charms, or hear
Sighs for a daughter with unwounded ear;

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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 Fortane fly which way they will;

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Disdains all loss of Tickets, or Codille 1 :
Spleen, Vapours, or Small-pox, above them all,
And Mistress of herself, tho' China fall

And yet, believe me, good as well as ill,
Woman's at best a Contradiction still.

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Hear'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;
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,
Kept Dross for Duchesses, the world shall know it 4,

To you gave Sense, Good-humour, and a Poet, [Codille ; cf. Rape of the Lock, Canto 11. v. Jove mix'd up all, and his best clay employ'd, 92.]

Then call’d the happy composition-Floyd.') ? Addison has touched this subject with his 4 [Yet it was for Martha Blount, to whom usual exquisite humour in the Lover, No 10, these compliments are addressed, that Pope seems quoting Epictetus, to comfort a Lady that labours to have taken the dross of the Duchess of Marlunder this heavy calamity. Warton,

borough. V. ante.] 3 [Warton compares Swift's:

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