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THE TRANSLATOR.

OZELL, at Sanger's call, invoked his Muse

For who to sing for Sanger could refuse?
His numbers such as Sanger's self might use.
Reviving Perrault, murdering Boileau, he
Slander'd the ancients first, then Wycherley;
Which yet not much that old bard's anger raised,
Since those were slander'd most, whom Ozell praised.
Nor had the gentle satire caused complaining,
Had not sage Rowe pronounced it entertaining:
How great must be the judgment of that writer
Who the Plain Dealer damns, and prints the Biter!

[Sanger was a bookseller who published Ozell's translation of Boileau's Lutrin, which Rowe considered entertaining. The Plain Dealer is Wycherley's best comedy; the Biter, a very indifferent one, by Rowe. As to Ozell, he will be found in the Dunciad.]

THE THREE GENTLE SHEPHERDS.

[The three shepherds-two of whom Pope never tired of satirising—were Ambrose Philips, Eustace Budgell, and Henry Carey. What poor Carey had done to irritate the poet does not appear. He, too, had ridiculed Philips's namby-pamby verses; and his song of Sally in our Alley, should have formed a passport to favour. Addison, however, had praised it in the Spectator, and to this circumstance probably Carey owed his being ranked with the Whig poets. In the last line Pope alludes to Curll's boast, that in prose he was equal to Pope, but in poetry Pope had a particular knack! Mr. Pope, he said, is no more a gentleman than Mr. Curll, nor more eminent as a poet than he as a bookseller.]

OF gentle Philips will I ever sing,

With gentle Philips shall the valleys ring;

My numbers too for ever will I vary,
With gentle Budgell and with gentle Carey.
Or if in ranging of the names I judge ill,
With gentle Carey and with gentle Budgell:
Oh! may all gentle bards together place ye,
Men of good hearts, and men of delicacy.
May satire ne'er befool ye, or beknave ye,
And from all wits that have a knack, God save ye.

THE CHALLENGE.

A COURT BALLAD. [1716.]

To the tune of "To all you Ladies now at Land," &c.

I.

To one fair lady out of Court,

And two fair ladies in,

Who think the Turk and Pope a sport,
And wit and love no sin!

Come, these soft lines, with nothing stiff in,
To Bellenden, Lepell, and Griffin.1

With a fa, la, la.

II.

What passes in the dark third row,
And what behind the scene,
Couches and crippled chairs I know,
And garrets hung with green;
I know the swing of sinful hack,
Where many damsels cry alack.
With a fa, la, la.

III.

Then why to Courts should I repair,
Where 's such ado with Townshend? 2
To hear each mortal stamp and swear,
And every speech with "zounds" end;
To hear 'em rail at honest Sunderland,3
And rashly blame the realm of Blunderland.
With a fa, la, la.

1 [Ladies of the Court of the Princess Caroline. Mary Bellenden became the wife of Colonel Campbell (afterwards Duke of Argyll), and Mary Lepell married Lord Hervey. Both marriages took place in October, 1720, and the Court was thus deprived of its most popular and beautiful ornaments.]

2 [Lord Townshend, a rough but popular minister, who was then out of favour with the Court, and had a rupture with his colleague, Stanhope, which ended in his being forced to resign.]

3 [The Earl of Sunderland, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, had been charged with encouraging the native Irish, and appointing them to public offices.

IV.

Alas! like Schutz I cannot pun,
Like Grafton court the Germans;
Tell Pickenbourg how slim she's grown,
Like meadows run to sermons;
To court ambitious men may roam,
But I and Marlborough stay at home.
With a fa, la, la.

V.

In truth, by what I can discern
Of courtiers, 'twixt you three,

Some wit you have, and more may learn
From Court, than Gay or me:
Perhaps, in time, you'll leave high diet,
To sup with us on milk and quiet.
With a fa, la, la.

VI.

At Leicester Fields, a house full high,
With door all painted green,
Where ribbons wave upon the tie,
(A milliner, I mean;)

There may you meet us three to three,
For Gay can well make two of me.
With a fa, la, la.

VII.

But should you catch the prudish itch,
And each become a coward,

Bring sometimes with you Lady Rich,5
And sometimes Mistress Howard;

Hence the talk concerning" Blunderland." Sunderland exchanged the LordLieutenancy for the Privy Seal in 1715, and was afterwards Prime Minister. His death took place in 1722.]

4 [Augustus Schutz, Equerry to Prince George. The "Grafton" mentioned in the next line was the Duke of Grafton, the second duke, who was one of the Lords of the Bedchamber in 1714, and next year of the Privy Council. "C 'Pickenbourg" and "Meadows" were maids of honour, the latter a sister of Sir Sidney Meadows.]

5 [Lady Rich, one of the correspondents of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, was the wife of Sir Robert Rich, Bart. She was a daughter of Colonel Griffin, and sister of Miss Griffin, of the Princess's establishment, alluded to in the

For virgins, to keep chaste, must go
Abroad with such as are not so.
With a fa, la, la.

VIII.

And thus, fair maids, my ballad ends:
God send the king safe landing;
And make all honest ladies friends
To armies that are standing;
Preserve the limits of those nations,
And take off ladies' limitations.
With a fa, la, la.

ROXANA; OR, THE DRAWING-ROOM.

AN ECLOGUE.1

ROXANA, from the Court returning late,

Sigh'd her soft sorrow at St. James's gate:
Such heavy thoughts lay brooding in her breast,
Not her own chairmen with more weight oppress'd :
They curse the cruel weight they 're doom'd to bear;
She, in more gentle sounds, express'd her care.

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first stanza. Mistress Howard," afterwards Countess of Suffolk, is of course the person alluded to in the next line. Neither Lady Rich nor Mrs. Howard would be much gratified by the poet's attentions in this ballad.]

1 [This and the following poem, though included in Pope's works, seem fairly to belong to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and form part of her Town Eclogues. Mr. Dallaway, in his memoir of Lady Mary, says, "Both Pope and Gay suggested many additions and alterations, which were certainly not adopted by Lady Mary; and as copies, including their corrections, have been found among the papers of these poets, their editors have attributed three out of six to them. The Basset Table and the Drawing Room are given to Pope, and The Toilet to Gay." The younger Richardson relates, that when Lady Mary showed Pope a paper of her verses in which he wished to make some trifling alterations, she said, "No, Pope, no touching, for then whatever is good for anything will pass for yours, and the rest for mine." Pope stated to Spence that Lydia (The Toilet) was almost wholly Gay's, only five or six lines being "new set" in it by Lady Mary. "It was that," he adds, " which gave the hint; and she wrote the other five eclogues;" consequently, Pope wrote none of them himself.]

"Was it for this, that I these roses wear?
For this, new-set the jewels for my hair?
Ah princess! with what zeal have I pursued!
Almost forgot the duty of a prude.

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This king, I never could attend too soon;
I miss'd my prayers, to get me dress'd by noon.
For thee, ah! what for thee did I resign?
My passions, pleasures, all that e'er was mine:
I've sacrificed both modesty and ease;
Left operas, and went to filthy plays:
Double-entendres shock'd my tender ear;
Yet even this, for thee, I chose to bear:
In glowing youth, when nature bids be gay,
And every joy of life before me lay;
By honour prompted, and by pride restrain'd,
The pleasures of the young my soul disdain'd:

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