I introduc'd her to the Park and Plays;
And, by my int'rest, Cozens made her Stays.
Ungrateful wretch, with mimic airs grown pert,
She dares to steal my Fav'rite Lover's heart.

CARDELIA.

Wretch that I was, how often have I swore,
When WINNALL tally'd, I would punt no more?
I know the Bite, yet to my Ruin run;
And see the Folly, which I cannot shun.

SMILINDA.

How many Maids have SHARPER'S vows deceiv'd?
How many curs'd the moment they believ'd?

Yet his known Falsehoods could no Warning prove:
Ah! what is warning to a Maid in Love?

CARDELIA.

But of what marble must that breast be form'd,
To gaze on Basset, and remain unwarm'd?

When Kings, Queens, Knaves, are set in decent rank;
Expos'd in glorious heaps the tempting Bank,
Guineas, Half-Guineas, all the shining train;
The Winner's pleasure, and the Loser's pain :
In bright Confusion open Rouleaux lie,
They strike the Soul, and glitter in the Eye.
Fir'd by the sight, all Reason I disdain;
My Passions rise, and will not bear the rein.
Look upon Basset, you who Reason boast;
And see if Reason must not there be lost.

SMILINDA.

What more than marble must that heart compose,
Can hearken coldly to my SHARPER'S VOWS?
Then, when he trembles! when his Blushes rise!
When awful Love seems melting in his Eyes!

With eager beats his Mechlin Cravat moves:

He Loves, I whisper to myself, 'He Loves!'
Such unfeign'd Passion in his Looks appears,
I lose all Mem'ry of my former Fears;
My panting heart confesses all his charms,
I yield at once, and sink into his arms:

Think of that moment, you who Prudence boast;
For such a moment, Prudence well were lost.

CARDELIA.

At the Groom-Porter's, batter'd Bullies play,
Some DUKES at Mary-Bone bowl Time away1.

100

[The Duke of Buckinghamshire (Sheffield) Cunningham's London. As to the Groom-Porwas in the habit of frequenting the bowling-alley ter's, cf. note to Dunciad, Bk. I. v. 309.] behind the manor-house of Marylebone parish.

1

But who the Bowl, or ratt'ling Dice compares
To Basset's heav'nly Joys, and pleasing Cares?

SMILINDA.

Soft SIMPLICETTA doats upon a Beau;
PRUDINA likes a Man, and laughs at Show.
Their several graces in my SHARPER meet;
Strong as the Footman, as the Master sweet.

LOVET.

Cease your contention, which has been too long;
I grow impatient, and the Tea's too strong.
Attend, and yield to what I now decide;
The Equipage shall grace SMILINDA'S Side:
The Snuff-Box to CARDELIA I decree,
Now leave complaining, and begin your Tea.

105

ΠΟ

TO LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU.

[Originally published in a Miscellany of the year 1720.]

Impertinent schools,

With musty dull rules,

Have reading to females denied;

So Papists refuse

The Bible to use,

III.

'Twas a woman at first
(Indeed she was curst)

In knowledge that tasted delight,
And sages agree

The laws should decree

To the first possessor the right.

IV.

Then bravely, fair dame,
Resume the old claim,

Which to your whole sex does belong;

And let men receive,

From a second bright Eve,

Lest flocks should be wise as their guide. The knowledge of right and of wrong.

V.

But if the first Eve

Hard doom did receive,

When only one apple had she,

What a punishment new

Shall be found out for you,

Who tasting, have robb'd the whole tree?

EXTEMPORANEOUS LINES,

ON THE PICTURE OF LADY MARY W. MONTAGU,
BY KNELLER.

[Bowles, from Dallaway's Life of Lady M. W. M.]

THE

HE playful smiles around the dimpled mouth,
That happy air of majesty and truth;
So would I draw (but oh! 'tis vain to try,
My narrow genius does the power deny ;)
The equal lustre of the heav'nly mind,
Where ev'ry grace with every virtue's join'd;
Learning not vain, and wisdom not severe,
With greatness easy, and with wit sincere;
With just description show the work divine,
And the whole princess in my work should shine.

IMITATION OF TIBULLUS.

5

10

POPE, in his letters to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in the East, expresses a desire, real or fanciful, to meet her. 'But if my fate be such,' he says, 'that this body of mine (which is as ill matched to my mind as any wife to her husband) be left behind in the journey, let the epitaph of Tibullus be set over it.' Carruthers. [The letter is in Bowles, Vol. VIII. The original is Tibull. Lib. I. Eleg. IV. 55-6.]

Who crossed half Europe, led by Wortley's eyes.

EPITAPHS

ON JOHN HUGHES AND SARAH DREW.

[POPE, in a letter to Lady M. W. Montagu, Sept. 1st, 1718, written from Stanton-Harcourt, Lord Harcourt's seat in Oxfordshire, relates the anecdote of the death of two lovers 'as constant as ever were found in romance,' by name John Hewet and Sarah Drew, who were simultaneously struck by lightning at a harvesthome; and sends her two epitaphs composed by him, of which the critics have chosen the godly one.' (See Lord Wharncliffe's Letters, &c. II. 100.) Lady Mary (Nov. 1st, ejusd. ann.) returned a decidedly cynical answer, with an epitaph of

her own, commencing,

'Here lie John Hughes and Sarah Drew;

Perhaps you'll say, What's that to you?'

and concluding, after a doubt whether perchance ''twas not kindly done,' considering the chances of married life,

'Now they are happy in their doom,

For Pope has wrote upon their tomb."

According to Gay's letter to Mr F— (Aug. 9th, 1718), Lord Harcourt, appre

་

hensive that the country people would not understand even the godly epitaph, determined to substitute one with something of Scripture in it, and with as little of poetry as Hopkins and Sternhold.' This prose epitaph was also written by Pope.] WHEN Eastern lovers feed the fun'ral fire,

WHEN
Won the same pile the faithful fair expire:

On

Here pitying Heav'n that virtue mutual found,
And blasted both, that it might neither wound.
Hearts so sincere th' Almighty saw well pleas'd,
Sent his own lightning, and the victims seiz'd.

I.

THINK not, by rig'rous judgment seiz'd,
A pair so faithful could expire;

Victims so pure Heav'n saw well pleas'd,
And snatch'd them in celestial fire.

II.

LIVE well, and fear no sudden fate;
When God calls virtue to the grave,
Alike 'tis justice, soon or late,

Mercy alike to kill or save.

Virtue unmov'd can hear the call,

And face the flash that melts the ball.

5

IO

15

ON THE COUNTESS OF BURLINGTON CUTTING PAPER. [THE lady of Pope's friend, to whom Ep. IV. of the Moral Essays is addressed. Her maiden name was Lady Dorothy Saville.]

PALLAS grew vapourish once, and odd,

She would not do the least right thing,

Either for goddess, or for god,

Nor work, nor play, nor paint, nor sing.

Jove frown'd, and, "Use," he cried, "those eyes

So skilful, and those hands so taper;

Do something exquisite and wise-"

5

She bow'd, obey'd him,-and cut paper.

This vexing him who gave her birth,

Thought by all heaven a burning shame;
What does she next, but bids, on earth,
Her Burlington do just the same.

Pallas, you give yourself strange airs;

But sure you'll find it hard to spoil
The sense and taste of one that bears

The name of Saville and of Boyle.

Alas! one bad example shown;

How quickly all the sex pursue!
See, madam, see the arts o'erthrown,
Between John Overton and you!

IC

15

20

ON A PICTURE OF QUEEN CAROLINE,

DRAWN BY LADY BURLINGTON.

EACE, flattering Bishop1! lying Dean2!
This portrait only paints the Queen!

PEA

THE LOOKING-GLASS.

ON MRS PULTENEY3,

scornful mien, and various toss of air,

WITH
Fantastic, vain, and insolently fair,

Grandeur intoxicates her giddy brain,

She looks ambition, and she moves disdain.
Far other carriage grac'd her virgin life,
But charming Gy's lost in P- -y's wife.
Not greater arrogance in him we find,

And this conjunction swells at least her mind:
O could the sire renown'd in glass, produce
One faithful mirror for his daughter's use!
Wherein she might her haughty errors trace,
And by reflection learn to mend her face:
The wonted sweetness to her form restore,

Be what she was, and charm mankind once more!

ON CERTAIN LADIES.

THEN other fair ones to the shades go down,

Still Chloe, Flavia, Delia, stay in town:

Those ghosts of beauty wandering here reside,
And haunt the places where their honour died.

Dr Gilbert. Carruthers. [Or it might be Gumley of Isleworth, who had gained his fortune

Hoadley.]

2 Dr Alured Clarke. Id.

3 [Anna Maria Gumley, daughter of John

by a glass manufactory, was married to Pulteney, afterwards Earl of Bath.]