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TO MR. GAY,

WHO HAD CONGRATULATED POPE ON FINISHING HIS HOUSE AND GARDEN.

AH, friend! 'tis true-this truth you lovers know;
In vain my structures rise, my gardens grow;
In vain fair Thames reflects the double scenes
Of hanging mountains and of sloping greens:
Joy lives not here, to happier seats it flies,
And only dwells where Wortley casts her eyes.
What are the gay parterre, the chequer'd shade,
The morning bower, the evening colonnade,
But soft recesses of uneasy minds,
To sigh, unheard in, to the passing winds?
So the struck deer in some sequester'd part
Lies down to die, the arrow at his heart:
He, stretch'd unseen in coverts hid from day,
Bleeds drop by drop, and pants his life away.

10

IMPROMPTU, TO LADY WINCHELSEA.

OCCASIONED BY FOUR SATIRICAL VERSES ON WOMEN WITS, IN THE RAPE OF THE LOCK.'

In vain you boast poetic names of yore,
And cite those Sapphos we admire no more:
Fate doom'd the fall of every female wit;
But doom'd it then, when first Ardelia writ.
Of all examples by the world confess'd,
I knew Ardelia could not quote the best;
Who, like her mistress on Britannia's throne,
Fights and subdues in quarrels not her own.
To write their praise you but in vain essay :
E'en while you write, you take that praise away:
Light to the stars the sun does thus restore,
But shines himself till they are seen no more.

11

TO THE

RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF OXFORD.

Upon. a piece of news in Mist, that the Rev. Mr. W. refused to write against Mr. Pope, because his best patron had a friendship for the said Mr. P.

WESLEY, if Wesley 'tis they mean,
They say, on Pope would fall,
Would his best patron let his pen
Discharge his inward gall.

What patron this, a doubt must be,
Which none but you can clear,
Or Father Francis + 'cross the sea,
Or else Earl Edward here.

That both were good must be confess'd;
And much to both he owes ;

But which to him will be the best,
The Lord of Oxford knows.

10

TO LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGUE.

I.

IN beauty or wit,

No mortal as yet

To question your empire has dared;

But men of discerning

Have thought that in learning

To yield to a lady was hard.

II.

Impertinent schools,
With musty dull rules,

Have reading to females denied:

* Mist's Journal. See Dunciad, Bk. I. 1. 208.
+ Rev. Samuel Wesley.

Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, then in exile.

So Papists refuse
The Bible to use,

Lest flocks should be wise as their guide.

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 of possessors 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,

The knowledge of right and of wrong.

V.

But if the first Eve

Hard doom did receive,

When only one apple had she;
What punishment new

Shall be found out for you,

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Who, tasting, have robb'd the whole tree? 30

TO THE AUTHOR OF A POEM

ENTITLED

'SUCCESSIO.'

BEGONE, ye critic, and restrain your spite;
Codrus writes on, and will for ever write.
The heaviest Muse the swiftest course has gone;
As clocks run fastest when most lead is on.

What though no bees around your cradle flew,
Nor on your lips distill'd their golden dew;
Yet have we oft discover'd in their stead

A swarm of drones that buzz'd about your head.
When you, like Orpheus, strike the warbling lyre,
Attentive blocks stand round you and admire. 10
Wit pass'd through thee no longer is the same,
As meat digested takes a different name;
But sense must sure thy safest plunder be,
Since no reprisals can be made on thee.

Thus thou may'st rise; and in thy daring flight, Though ne'er so weighty, reach a wondrous height:

So, forced from engines, lead itself can fly,
And ponderous slugs move nimbly through the
sky.

Sure Bavius copied Mævius to the full,
And Chærilus* taught Codrus to be dull:
Therefore, dear friend, at my advice give o'er
This needless labour; and contend no more
To prove a dull succession' to be true;
Since 'tis enough we find it so in you.

20

ON RECEIVING FROM

LADY FRANCES SHIRLEY+

A STANDISH AND TWO PENS.

YES, I beheld the Athenian queen
Descend in all her sober charms;
And 'take,' she said, and smiled serene,
'Take at this hand celestial arms :

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Secure the radiant weapons wield:
This golden lance shall guard desert ;
And if a vice dares keep the field,

This steel shall stab it to the heart.'

* Probably Shadwell.

+ A celebrated beauty, fourth daughter of the Earl of Ferrers.

Awed, on my bended knees I fell;
Received the weapons of the sky;
And dipp'd them in the sable well,
The fount of fame or infamy.

'What well? what weapon?' Flavia cries:
'A standish, steel and golden pen!
It came from Bertrand's, not the skies;
I gave it you to write again.

10

'But, friend, take heed whom you attack;
You'll bring a house, I mean of peers,
Red, blue, and green, nay, white and black,
L- and all, about your ears.

"You'd write as smooth again on glass;
And run, on ivory, so glib,
As not to stick at fool or ass,
Nor stop at flattery or fib.

"Athenian queen!" and "sober charms!"
I tell ye, fool, there's nothing in 't ;
"Tis Venus, Venus gives these arms;
In Dryden's Virgil see the print.
'Come, if you'll be a quiet soul,
That dares tell neither truth nor lies,
I'll 'list you in the harmless roll

Of those that sing of these poor eyes.'

20

30

ON A CERTAIN LADY AT COURT.†

I KNOW the thing that's most uncommon ;(Envy be silent, and attend!)

I know a reasonable woman,

Handsome and witty, yet a friend:

A famous toy-shop at Bath.

+ Mrs. Howard, of Marble-hill, bed-chamber woman to Queen Caroline, and afterwards Countess of Suffolk.

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