Chafte to her Husband, frank to all befide,

A teeming Mistress, but a barren Bride.

What then? let Blood and Body bear the fault, Her Head's untouch'd, that noble feat of Thought: Such this day's doctrine-in another fit

75

She fins with Poets through pure Love of Wit.
What has not fir'd her bofom or her brain?
Cæfar and Tall-boy, Charles and Charlemaʼne.
As Helluo, late Dictator of the Feast,
The Nofe of Hautgout and the Tip of Tafte,
Critiqu'd your wine, and analyz'd your meat,
Yet on plain Pudding deign'd at home to eat :
So Philomedé, lect'ring all mankind,

On the foft Paffion, and the Taste refin'd,
Th' Addrefs, the Delicacy-stoops at once,
And makes her hearty meal upon a Dunce.
Flavia's a Wit, has too much sense to pray;
To toast our wants and wishes, is her way;
Nor asks of God, but of her Stars, to give
The mighty bleffing, "While we live, to live."
Then all for Death, that Opiate of the foul!
Lucretia's dagger, Rofamonda's bowl.
Say, what can cause such impotence of mind?
A Spark too fickle, or a Spouse too kind.

80

85

99

Wife

VARIATIONS.

VER. 77. What has not fir'd, &c.] In the MS.
In whofe mad brain the mixt ideas roll
Of Tall-boy's breeches, and of Cæfar's foul.

NOTES.

VER. 87. VI. Contrarieties in the Witty and Refined.

POPE.

Wife Wretch! with pleasures too refin❜d to please;

With too much Spirit to be e'er at ease:

96

With too much Quickness ever to be taught;

With too much Thinking to have common Thought:

You purchase Pain with all that Joy can give,
And die of nothing but a Rage to live.

100

Turn then from Wits; and look on Simo's Mate,
No Afs fo meek, no Afs fo obftinate.
Or her, that owns her Faults, but never mends,
Because she's honest, and the best of Friends.
Or her, whose life the Church and Scandal share,
For ever in a Paffion, or a Pray'r.

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Or her, who laughs at Hell, but (like her Grace)
Cries, "Ah! how charming if there's no fuch place!"
Or who in fweet viciffitude appears,

Of Mirth and Opium, Ratafie and Tears,
The daily Anodine, and nightly Draught,
To kill thofe foes to fair ones, Time and Thought.
Woman and Fool are two hard things to hit;

For true No-meaning puzzles more than Wit.

NOTES.

But

VER. 107. Or her, who laughs at Hell,]
"Shall pleasures of a short duration chain

A Lady's foul in everlasting pain?

Will the Great Author us poor worms destroy
For now and then a fip of tranfient joy?
No; He's for ever in a fmiling mood;

He's like themselves; or how could he be good?

From Young, Sat. 5. The perfon Pope intended to ridicule was the Duchefs of Montague.

WARTON.

VER. 113. Woman and Fool, &c.] Here the Poet's honeft panegyriser is again alarmed at his want of politenefs for the Ladies.

"The

But what are these to great Atoffa's mind? 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 expofing Knaves, and painting Fools, Yet is, whate'er she hates and ridicules.

115

120

NOTES.

No

"The Author at this time," he observes, "feems to have been so much out of temper with the fair fex, that he cannot long keep within the bounds of decorum." Ruffhead.

VER. 115. great Atoffa's mind?] Atoffa is a name mentioned in Herodotus, and faid to be a follower of Sappho. She was daughter of Cyrus and fifter of Cambyfes, and married Darius. She is also named in the Perfæ of Æfchylus. She is faid to be the first that wrote Epiftles. See Bentley on Phalaris, p. 385. and Dodwell against Bentley. WARTON.

VER. 120. Yet is, whate'er fhe hates] Thefe fpirited lines, that paint a fingular character, are defigned for the famous Duchefs of Marlborough, whom Swift had also feverely fatirized in the Exa miner. Her beauty,. her abilities, her political intrigues, are fufficiently known. The violence of her temper frequently broke out into wonderful and ridiculous indecencies. In the laft illness of the great Duke her husband, when Dr. Mead left his chamber, the Duchess, disliking his advice, followed him down stairs, swore at him bitterly, and was going to tear off his periwig. Her friend Dr. Hoadley, Bishop of Winchester, was prefent at this scene. These lines were fhewn to her Grace as if they were intended for the portrait of the Duchefs of Buckingham; but she soon stopped the perfon who was reading them to her, as the Duchefs of Portland informed me, and called out aloud, "I cannot be fo impofed upon: I fee plainly enough for whom they are defigned:" and abused Pope most plentifully on the subject, though fhe was afterwards reconciled to him, and courted him, and gave him a thoufand pounds to suppress this portrait, which he accepted, it is faid, by the perfuafion of Mrs. M. Blount; and, after the Duchefs's death, it was printed in a folio fheet, 1746, and afterwards here inferted with those of Philomedé and Cloe. This is the greatest

No Thought advances, but her Eddy Brain
Whisks it about, and down it goes again.
Full fixty years the World has been her Trade,
The wifeft Fool much Time has ever made.
From loveless Youth to unrefpected Age,
No Paffion gratify'd, except her Rage.

So much the Fury still out-ran the Wit,

125

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

Who breaks with her, provokes Revenge from Heil,

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

130

Her ev'ry turn with Violence purfu'd,

No more a storm her Hate than Gratitude:

VARIATIONS.

To

After Ver. 122. in the MS.

Opprefs'd with wealth and wit, abundance fad!
One makes her poor, the other makes her mad.

NOTES.

These three portraits are That of Cloe is particucontent merely and only

blemish* in our Poet's moral character. all animated with the most poignant wit. larly juft and happy, who is represented as to dwell in decencies, and fatisfied to avoid giving offence; and is one of those many infignificant and useless beings,

"Who want, as thro' blank life they dream along,

Senfe to be right, and paffion to be wrong."

As fays the ingenious author of the Univerfal Paffion; a work that abounds in wit, obfervation on life, pleasantry, delicacy, urbanity, and the most well-bred raillery, without a fingle mark of fpleen and ill-nature. These were the first characteristical fatires in our language, and are written with an eafe and familiarity of ftyle very different from this author's other works. The four first were published in folio, in the year 1725; and the fifth and fixth, 1727. WARTON.

* A blemish!--call it rather, if it be fact, the mofl fhameful dereliction of every thing that was manly and honourable.

To that each Paffion turns, or foon or late;
Love, if it makes her yield, muft make her hate:
Superiors? death! and Equals? what a curfe!
But an Inferior not dependant? worse.
Offend her, and fhe knows not to forgive;
Oblige her, and she'll hate you while you live:
But die, and fhe'll adore you-Then the Bust
And Temple rife-then fall again to dust.

135

140

Laft

NOTES.

VER. 139. But die, and she'll adore you-]" It is feldom," fays Mr. Walpole," the public receives information on princes and favourites from the fountain-head. Flattery or invective is apt to pervert the relation of others. It is from their pens alone, whenever they are fo gracious, like the lady in queftion, as to have a paffion for fame and approbation, that we learn exactly how trifling, and foolish, and ridiculous their views and actions were, and how often the mischief they did proceeded from the moft inadequate caufes. We happen to know indeed, though he was no author, that the Duke of Buckingham's repulfes, in very impertinent amours, involved King James and King Charles in national quarrels with Spain and France. From her Grace of Marlborough we may collect, that Queen Anne was driven to change her miniftry, and, in confequence, the fate of Europe, because fhe dared to affect one bed-chamber woman as fhe had done another. The Duchess could not comprehend how the coufins, Sarah Jennings and Abigail Hill, could ever enter into competition, though the one did but kneel to gather up the clue of favour which the other had haughtily toffed away, and which fhe could not recover by putting the Whole Duty of Man into the Queen's hands to teach her friendship. This favourite Duchefs, who, like the proud Duke of Efpernon, lived to brave the fucceffors in a court where fhe had domineered, wound up her capricious life, where it seems fhe had begun it, with air apology for her conduct. The piece, though weakened by the prudence of those who were to correct it, though maimed by her Grace's own corrections, and though great part of it is rather the annals of a wardrobe than of a reign, yet

has