The silver lamp; the fiery spirits blaze:
From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide,
110 While China's earth receives the smoking tide.
At once they gratify their scent and taste,
And frequent cups prolong the rich repast.
Straight hover round the Fair her airy band;
Some, as she sipp'd, the fuming liquor fann'd,
115 Some o'er her lap their careful plumes display'd,
Trembling, and conscious of the rich brocade.
Coffee (which makes the politician wise,
And see thro' all things with his half-shut eyes)
Sent up in vapors to the Baron's brain

120 New stratagems, the radiant Lock to gain.
Ah cease, rash youth! desist ere 't is too late,
Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla's fate!
Chang'd to a bird, and sent to flit in air,
She dearly pays for Nisus' injur'd hair!

125

But when to mischief mortals bend their will,
How soon they find fit instruments of ill!
Just then Clarissa drew with tempting grace
A two-edg'd weapon from her shining case;
So ladies in romance assist their knight,
130 Present the spear, and arm him for the fight.
He takes the gift with rev'rence, and extends
The little engine on his fingers' ends;
This just behind Belinda's neck he spread,
As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head.
135 Swift to the Lock a thousand sprites repair;

A thousand wings by turns blow back the hair;
And thrice they twitch'd the diamond in her ear;
Thrice she look'd back, and thrice the foe drew

near.

Just in that instant, anxious Ariel sought 140 The close recesses of the virgin's thought; 123. See Ovid, Metam. viii. — POPE.

As on the nosegay in her breast reclin'd,
He watch'd th' ideas rising in her mind,
Sudden he view'd, in spite of all her art,
An earthly lover lurking at her heart.
145 Amaz'd, confus'd, he found his pow'r expir'd,
Resign'd to fate, and with a sigh retir'd.

The Peer now spreads the glitt'ring forfex wide, T' inclose the Lock; now joins it, to divide. Ev'n then, before the fatal engine clos'd, 150 A wretched Sylph too fondly interpos'd; Fate urg'd the shears, and cut the Sylph in twain (Put airy substance soon unites again): The meeting points the sacred hair dissever From the fair head, for ever, and for ever!

155

Then flash'd the living lightning from her eyes, And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies. Not louder shrieks to pitying heav'n are cast, When husbands, or when lapdogs breathe their last;

Or when rich China vessels fall'n from high, 160 In glittering dust and painted fragments lie!

"Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine," The victor cried; "the glorious prize is mine! While fish in streams, or birds delight in air, Or in a coach and six the British Fair,

135 As long as Atalantis shall be read,

152. Pope, in a note, refers us to the following passage: —

163-170.

"But the ethereal substance closed,

Not long divisible; and from the gash
A stream of nectarous humor issuing flowed
Sanguine, such as celestial spirits may bleed."

Paradise Lost, vi. 330-334

"Dum juga montis aper, fluvios dum piscis amabit,
Semper honos nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt."
VERGIL, Eclogues, v. 76, 77.

165. Atalantis was a notorious book written by a notorious and consisted mainly of scandal and scurrility.

woman,

Or the small pillow grace a lady's bed; While visits shall be paid on solemn days, When num'rous waxlights in bright order blaze ; While nymphs take treats, or assignations give, 17 So long my honor, name, and praise shall live! What Time would spare, from Steel receives its date,

And monuments, like men, submit to fate!
Steel could the labor of the gods destroy,
And strike to dust th' imperial tow'rs of Troy ;
And hew triumphal arches to the ground.

What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hair should feel

The conqu'ring force of unresisted steel?"

CANTO IV.

BUT anxious cares the pensive nymph oppress'd,
And secret passions labor'd in her breast.
Not youthful kings in battle seiz'd alive,
Not scornful virgins who their charms survive,
5 Not ardent lovers robb'd of all their bliss,
Not ancient ladies when refus'd a kiss,
Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die,
Not Cynthia when her manteau's pinn'd awry,
E'er felt such rage, resentment, and despair,

10 As thou, sad virgin! for thy ravish'd hair.

For, that sad moment when the Sylphs withdrew

176, 177.

"Quid faciant crines, cum ferro talia cedant?"

Catullus, de Com. Berenice. -WARD.

"At regina gravi jamdudum saucia cura
Vulnus alit venis, et caeco carpitur igni."

Eneid, iv. 1.— POPE.

And Ariel weeping from Belinda flew,
Umbriel, a dusky, melancholy sprite,
As ever sullied the fair face of light,
15 Down to the central earth, his proper scene,
Repairs to search the gloomy cave of Spleen.

Swift on his sooty pinions flits the Gnome,
And in a vapor reach'd the dismal dome.
No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows,
20 The dreaded East is all the wind that blows.
Here in a grotto, sheltered close from air,
And screen'd in shades from day's detested glare,
She sighs for ever on her pensive bed,

Pain at her side, and Megrim at her head. 25 Two handmaids wait the throne; alike in place, But diff'ring far in figure and in face.

Here stood Ill-nature like an ancient maid,

Her wrinkled form in black and white array'd;

With store of pray'rs for mornings, nights, and

noons,

30 Her hand is fill'd; her bosom with lampoons.

There Affectation, with a sickly mien,

Shows in her cheek the roses of eighteen,
Practis'd to lisp and hang the head aside,
Faints into airs and languishes with pride;
35 On the rich quilt sinks with becoming woe,
Wrapt in a gown for sickness and for show.
The fair ones feel such maladies as these,
When each new night-dress gives a new disease.
A constant vapor o'er the palace flies,
40 Strange phantoms rising as the mists arise,
Dreadful as hermit's dreams in haunted shades,

24. "The megrims" and "the vapors" (line 59) were fashionable terms in Queen Anne's day for what we call "the blues."

Or bright as visions of expiring maids: Now glaring fiends, and snakes on rolling spires, Pale spectres, gaping tombs, and purple fires; 45 Now lakes of liquid gold, Elysian scenes, And crystal domes, and angels in machines. Unnumber'd throngs on every side are seen, Of bodies chang❜d to various forms by Spleen. Here living Tea-pots stand, one arm held out, 50 One bent; the handle this, and that the spout; A Pipkin there, like Homer's tripod, walks; Here sighs a Jar, and there a Goose-pie talks ; Men prove with child, as pow'rful fancy works, And maids turn'd bottles call aloud for corks. Safe pass'd the Gnome thro' this fantastic band, A branch of healing spleenwort in his hand. Then thus address'd the pow'r -- “ Hail, wayward Queen!

55

Who rule the sex to fifty from fifteen ;
Parent of Vapors, and of female wit,
60 Who give th' hysteric, or poetic fit;
On various tempers act by various ways,
Make some take physic, others scribble plays;
Who cause the proud their visits to delay,
And send the godly in a pet to pray!

65 A nymph there is, that all thy pow'r disdains,
And thousands more in equal mirth maintains.
But, oh! if e'er thy Gnome could spoil a grace
Or raise a pimple on a beauteous face,

Like citron-waters matrons' cheeks inflame, 70 Or change complexions at a losing game;

51. See Iliad, xviii. 372-381.

52. A goose-pie talks. Alludes to a real fact; a lady of distinc

tion imagined herself in this condition. - POPE.

69. Citron-waters, spirits distilled from citron-rind.