But die, and she'll adore you-Then the Bust By Spirit robb'd of Pow'r, by Warmth of Friends, 140 145 150 155 Say, what can Chloe want?"-She wants a Heart. 160 165 As never yet to love, or to be lov'd. She, while her Lover pants upon her breast, 170 Observes how much a Chintz exceeds Mohair". 175 180 This alludes to a temple she erected with a bust of Queen Anne in it, which mouldered away in a few years. Wilkes. 2 After v. 148, in the MS. 'This Death decides, nor lets the blessing fall On any one she hates, but on them all. Curs'd chance! this only could afflict her more, If any part should wander to the poor.' Warburton. 3 [Pitt (the elder) was then one of the poor; 4 and to him Heaven directed a portion of the wealth of the haughty Dowager. Macaulay.] Lady Suffolk. Warton. [This great lady, whose friendship was courted by Swift, Pope, Arbuthnot and Gay, is described by Lord Stanhope as 'placid, good-natured, and kind-hearted, but very deaf, and not remarkable for wit.' She was the mistress of George II.] [Mohair, a stuff made of camel's or other uncommon hair.] 'Tis well-but, Artists! who can paint or write, And shew their zeal, and hide their want of skill. With Truth and Goodness, as with Crown and Ball. Poets heap Virtues, Painters Gems at will, One certain Portrait may (I grant) be seen, Which Heav'n has varnish'd out, and made a Queen: THE SAME FOR EVER! and describ'd by all 135 To draw the Naked is your true delight. 190 If QUEENSBURY1 to strip there's no compelling, 'Tis from a Handmaid we must take a Helen, From Peer or Bishop 'tis no easy thing 195 To draw the man who loves his God, or King: Alas! I copy (or my draught would fail) From honest Mah'met 2, or plain Parson Hale3. But grant, in Public Men sometimes are shown*, A Woman's seen in Private life alone: 200 Our bolder Talents in full light display'd; Your virtues open fairest in the shade. Bred to disguise, in Public 'tis you hide; There, none distinguish 'twixt your Shame or Pride, That each may seem a Virtue, or a Vice 5. In Women, two almost divide the kind; Those, only fix'd, they first or last obey, 205 210 That, Nature gives; and where the lesson taught? Is but to please, can Pleasure seem a fault? [The Duchess of Queensbury, the correspondent of Swift and the untiring patroness of Gay. Her commanding position as a leader of fashion is illustrated by an amusing anecdote of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's, who speaks of the Duchess at the head of a tribe of dames insisting upon admission to the House of Lords on an occasion when for want of room ladies had been excluded from the Chamber.] 2 Mahmet, servant to the late King [George I.], said to be the son of a Turkish Bassa, whom he took at the Siege of Buda, and constantly kept about his person. P. 3 Dr Stephen Hale, not more estimable for his useful discoveries as a natural philosopher, than for his exemplary Life and Pastoral Charity as a Parish Priest. P. But grant, in Public, &c.] In the former Editions, between this and the foregoing lines, a want of Connexion might be perceived, oc 215 casioned by the omission of certain Examples and Illustrations to the Maxims laid down; and tho' some of these have since been found, viz. the Characters of Philomedé, Atossa, Chloe, and some verses following, others are still wanting, nor can we answer that these are exactly inserted. 5 That each may seem a Virtue, or a Vice.] For Women are taught Virtue so artificially, and Vice so naturally, that, in the nice exercise of them, they may be easily mistaken for one another. Scriblerus. "The former part having shewn, that the particular Characters of Women are more various than those of Men, it is nevertheless observed, that the general Characteristic of the sex, as to the ruling Passion, is more uniform. P. 7 This is occasioned partly by their Nature, partly their Education, and in some degree by Necessity. P. But every Woman is at heart a Rake: Yet mark the fate of a whole Sex of Queens1! Nor leave one sigh behind them when they die. 220 225 230 235 As Hags hold Sabbaths, less for joy than spite, 240 Still round and round the Ghosts of Beauty glide; And haunt the places where their Honour died. 245 Ah! Friend! to dazzle let the Vain design"; To raise the Thought, and touch the Heart be thine! 250 That Charm shall grow, while what fatigues the Ring7, 255 Oh! blest with Temper, whose unclouded ray What are the Aims and the Fate of this Sex?-I. As to Power. P. 2 Copied from Young, Satire V. Warton. 3 II. As to Pleasure. P. [The Hags' or Witches' Sabbath is properly the Walpurgis-night, preceding May-day.] 5 [For the history of these lines see note to lines To Martha Blount on her birthday in the Miscellaneous Poems.] 6 Advice for their true Interest. P. 7 [The fashionable promenade in the Park, made in the reign of Charles I. and partially destroyed at the time of the formation of the Serpentine by order of Queen Caroline.] 8 [These four lines were originally addressed to Miss Judith Cowper, preceded by this triplet; 'Though sprightly Sappho force our love and praise, A softer wonder my pleas'd soul surveys: The mild Erinna blushing in her bays.'] See Carruthers' Life. She, who can love a Sister's charms, or hear 260 265 And yet, believe me, good as well as ill, 270 275 285 Be this a Woman's Fame: with this unblest, 285 And gave you Beauty, but deny'd the Pelf 92.1 The gen'rous God, who Wit and Gold refines, Kept Dross for Duchesses, the world shall know it 4, [Codille: cf. Rape of the Lock, Canto III. v. 2 Addison has touched this subject with his usual exquisite humour in the Lover, No 10, quoting Epictetus, to comfort a Lady that labours under this heavy calamity. Warton. 3 [Warton compares Swift's: 290 'Jove mix'd up all, and his best clay employ'd, Then call'd the happy composition-Floyd.'] 4 [Yet it was for Martha Blount, to whom these compliments are addressed, that Pope seems to have taken the dross of the Duchess of Marlborough. V. ante.] EPISTLE III.1 TO ALLEN LORD BATHURST 2. ARGUMENT. Of the Use of RICHES. THAT it is known to few, most falling into one of the extremes, Avarice or Profusion, v. 1, &c. The point discuss'd, whether the invention of Money has been more commodious or pernicious to Mankind, v. 21 to 77. That Riches, either to the Avaricious or the Prodigal, cannot afford Happiness, scarcely Necessaries, v. 89—160. That Avarice is an absolute Frenzy, without an End or Purpose, v. 113, &c. 152. Conjectures about the Motives of Avaricious men, v. 121 to 153. That the conduct of men, with respect to Riches, can only be accounted for by the ORDER OF PROVIDENCE, which works the general Good out of Extremes, and brings all to its great End by perpetual Revolutions, v. 161 to 178. How a Miser acts upon Principles which appear to him reasonable, v. 179. How a Prodigal does the same, v. 199. The due Medium, and true use of Riches, v. 219. The Man of Ross, v. 250. The fate of the Profuse and the Covetous, in two examples; both miserable in Life and in Death, v. 300, &c. The Story of Sir Balaam, v. 339 to the end. P. WHO HO shall decide, when Doctors disagree, But I, who think more highly of our kind, This Epistle was written after a violent outcry against our Author, on a supposition that he had ridiculed a worthy nobleman merely for his wrong taste. He justified himself upon that article in a letter to the Earl of Burlington; at the end of which are these words: "I have learnt that there are some who would rather be wicked than ridiculous: and therefore it may be safer to attack vices than follies. I will therefore leave my betters in the quiet possession of their idols, their groves, and their high places; and change my subject from their pride to their meanness, from their vanities to their miseries; and as the only certain way to avoid misconstructions, to lessen offence, and not to multiply ill-natured 5 10 15 applications, I may probably, in my next, make use of real names instead of fictitious ones." P. 2 [Allen Apsley Lord Bathurst, a Tory peer, was one of the most intimate of Pope's friends and associates. 'He united,' says Carruthers, a sort of French vivacity'['Bathurst impetuous, whom you and I strive who shall love the most,' is the mention of him in Gay's catalogue of Pope's friends] 'to English principles, and mingled freely in society till past ninety, living to walk under the shade of lofty trees which Pope and he had planted, and to see his son Lord Chancellor of England.’ He died in the year 1774, at the age of 91.] 3 [Momus (derisive blame) is personified as a god in the Theogony of Hesiod.] |