The light Coquettes in Sylphs aloft repair,
And sport and flutter in the fields of Air.

65

Know farther yet; whoever fair and chaste Rejects mankind, is by some Sylph embrac'd : For Spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease Assume what sexes and what shapes they please. 70 What guards the purity of melting Maids, In courtly balls, and midnight masquerades, Safe from the treach'rous friend, the daring spark, The glance by day, the whisper in the dark, When kind occasion prompts their warm desires, 75 When music softens, and when dancing fires? 'Tis but their Sylph, the wise Celestials know, Though Honour is the word with Men below. Some nymphs there are, too conscious of their face.

For life predestin'd to the Gnomes embrace. 80

NOTES.

Ver. 67. Know farther yet;] Marmontel has, on this idea, framed one of his most popular Tales. I must again and again repeat, that it is on account of the exquisite skill, and humour, and pleasantry, of the use made of the machinery of the Sylphs, that this poem has excelled all the heroi-comic poems in all languages. The Ver-vert of Gresset, in point of delicate satire, is perhaps next to it, but far inferior for the want of such machinery.

Ver. 68. is by some Sylph embrac'd:] Here again the Author resumes the Rosicrusian system. But this tenet, peculiar to that wild philosophy, was founded on a principle very unfit to be employed in such a sort of poem, and therefore suppressed, though a less judicious writer would have been tempted to expatiate upon it. W.

Ver. 78. Though Honour is the word with Men below.] Parody of Homer. W.

These swell their prospects and exalt their pride,
When offers are disdain'd, and love deny'd :
Then gay Ideas crowd the vacant brain,

While Peers, and Dukes, and all their sweeping train, And Garters, Stars, and Coronets, appear,

85

And in soft sounds, YOUR GRACE salutes their ear.
'Tis these that early taint the female soul,
Instruct the eyes of young Coquettes to roll,
Teach Infant-cheeks a bidden blush to know,
And little hearts to flutter at a Beau.

90

Oft, when the world imagine women stray,
The Sylphs through mystic mazes guide their way,
Through all the giddy circle they pursue,
And old impertinence expel by new.
What tender maid but must a victim fall

To one man's treat, but for another's ball?
When Florio speaks, what virgin could withstand,
If gentle Damon did not squeeze her hand?
With varying vanities, from ev'ry part,

95

They shift the moving Toyshop of their heart; 100

NOTES.

Ver. 99. With varying vanities,] "The freaks and humours, and spleen and vanity, of women (says Dr. Johnson), as they embroil families in discord, and fill houses with disquiet, do more to obstruct the happiness of life in a year, than the pride, ambition, and discord, of the clergy (as described in the Lutrin), in many centuries." I cannot possibly assent to this observation of Dr. Johnson; who must surely have forgotten, what he must often have read and lamented, the cruelties, the confusions, the murders, the massacres, the rage, and fury, in which Ecclesiastical History, to the disgrace of genuine Christianity, so much abounds. His zeal therefore, and desire to place the Rape of the Lock above the Lutrin, on this account, } is ill founded. He might have recollected, that Grotius, in

Where wigs with wigs, with sword-knots swordknots strive,

Beaux banish beaux, and coaches coaches drive.
This erring mortals Levity may call,
Oh blind to truth! the Sylphs contrive it all.
Of these am I, who thy protection claim,
A watchful sprite, and Ariel is my name.
Late, as I rang'd the crystal wilds of air,
In the clear mirror of thy ruling Star
I saw, alas! some dread event impend,
Ere to the main this morning sun descend,

But heav'n reveals not what, or how, or where :
Warn'd by the Sylph, oh pious maid, beware!
This to disclose is all thy guardian can:
Beware of all, but most beware of Man!

105

110

He said; when Shock, who thought she slept too

long, 115 Leap'd up, and wak'd his mistress with his tongue.

NOTES.

his Annals, relates that more than one hundred thousand Protestants perished in the Netherlands, by the executioner of Charles V.

Ver. 108. In the clear mirror] The language of the Platonis, the writers of the intelligible world of Spirits, &c. P.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 101,

"Jam clypeus clypeis, umbone repellitur umbo,
Ense minax ensis, pede pes, et cuspide cuspis," &c. Stat.

W.

Ver. 113. This to disclose, &c.] There is much pleasantry in the conduct of this scene. The Rosicrusian Doctrine was delivered only to adepts, with the utmost caution, and under the most solemn injunctions of secrecy. It is here communicated to a Woman, and in that way of conveyance, which a Woman most delights to make the subject of her conversation; that is to say, her Dreams. W.

'Twas then, Belinda, if report say true,

Thy eyes first open'd on a Billet-doux ;
Wounds, Charms, and Ardours, were no sooner read,
But all the vision vanish'd from thy head.

And now, unveil'd, the Toilet stands display'd,
Each silver Vase in mystic order laid,

120

NOTES.

Ver. 121. And now, unveil'd, &c.] The translation of these verses, containing the description of the toilet, by our Author's friend Dr. Parnell, deserve, for their humour, to be here inserted. P.

"Et nune dilectum speculum, pro more retectum,
Emicat in mensa, quæ splendet pyxide densa:
Tum primum lympha se purgat candida Nympha,
Jamque sine menda, cœlestis imago videnda,
Nuda caput, bellos retinet, regit, implet ocellos.
Hæc stupet implorans, ceu cultus numen adorans.
Inferior claram Pythonissa apparet ad aram,
Fertque tibi caute, dicatque Superbia ! laute,
Dona venusta; oris, quæ cunctis, pleno laboris,
Excerpta explorat, dominamque deamque decorat.
Pyxide devota, se pandit hic India tota,
Et tota ex ista transpirat Arabia cista ;
Testudo hic flectit dum se mea Lesbia pectit;
Atque elephas lente, te pectit Lesbia dente;
Hunc maculis noris, nivei jacet ille coloris.
Hic jacet et munde, mundus muliebris abunde;
Spinula resplendens æris longo ordine pendens,
Pulvis suavis odore, et epistola suavis amore,
Induit arma ergo Veneris pulcherrima virgo;
Pulchrior in præsens tempus de tempore crescens,
Jam reparat risus, jam surgit gratia visus,
Jam promit cultu, mirac'la latentia vultu;
Pigmina jam miscet, quo plus sua Purpura gliscet,
Et geminans bellis splendet mage fulgor ocellis.
Stant Lemures muti, Nymphæ intentique saluti,
Hic figit Zonam, capiti locat ille Coronam,
Hæc manicis formam, plicis dat et altera normam,

First, rob'd in white, the Nymph intent adores,
With head uncover'd, the Cosmetic pow'rs.
A heav'nly Image in the glass appears,
To that she bends, to that her eyes she rears;
Th' inferior Priestess, at her altar's side,
Trembling begins the sacred rites of Pride.
Unnumber'd treasures ope at once, and here
The various off'rings of the world appear;
From each she nicely culls with curious toil,
And decks the Goddess with the glitt'ring spoil.
This casket India's glowing gems unlocks,
And all Arabia breathes from yonder box.
The tortoise here and elephant unite,

125

130

135

Transform'd to combs, the speckled and the white.

NOTES.

Et tibi, vel Betty tibi vel nitidissima Letty!

Gloria factorum temere conceditur horum."

Some of these Latin lines are exceptionable, and not classical. Ver. 122. Each silver Vase] Parnell accidentally hearing Pope repeat this description of the Toilet, privately turned them into these Monkish Latin verses, and Pope, to whom he immediately communicated them, was astonished at the resemblance, till Parnell undeceived him. Mr. Harte told me, that Dryden had been imposed on by a similar little stratagem. One of his friends translated into Latin verse, printed, and pasted on the bottom of an old hat-box, a translation of that celebrated passage,

"To die is landing on some silent shore," &c. and that Dryden, on opening the box, was alarmed and amazed. Ver. 131. From each she] Evidently from Addison's Spectator, No. 69; "the single dress of a woman of quality is often the product of a hundred climates. The muff and the fan come together from the different ends of the earth. The scarf is sent from the Torrid Zone, and the Tippet from beneath the Pole. The brocade petticoat arises out of the mines of Peru, and the diamond necklace out of the bowels of Indostan."