[The second stanza of this has been omitted.]

EAR, damn'd distracting town,
farewell!

DEAR

Thy fools no more I'll tease:
This year in peace, ye critics, dwell,
Ye harlots, sleep at ease!

Soft B and rough C- -s adieu,
Earl Warwick make your moan,
The lively H
-k and you
May knock up whores alone1.
To drink and droll be Rowe allow'd
Till the third watchman's toll;
Let Jervas gratis paint, and Frowde
Save three-pence and his soul,

Farewell, Arbuthnot's raillery
On every learned sot;

The love of arts lies cold and dead
In Halifax's urn:

And not one Muse of all he fed
Has yet the grace to mourn 5.

My friends, by turns, my friends con-
found,

Betray, and are betrayed:
Poor Y- -r's sold for fifty pound,
And B- -11 is a jade.

Why make I friendships with the great,
When I no favour seek?

Or follow girls, seven hours in eight?
I us'd but once a week.
Still idle, with a busy air,

Deep whimsies to contrive;

And Garth, the best good Christian he, The gayest valetudinaire,
Although he knows it not.

Lintot, farewell! thy bard must go;
Farewell, unhappy Tonson!
Heaven gives thee for thy loss of Rowe,

Lean Philips, and fat Johnson3.
Why should I stay? Both parties rage;
My vixen mistress squalls;
The wits in envious feuds engage:

And Homer (damn him!) calls*.

of George II., who, according to Horace Walpole, quoted by Carruthers, granted the reprieve of a condemned malefactor, in order that an experiment might be made on his ears for her benefit.]

[Cs is evidently Craggs; and H-k, as Carruthers interprets the hiatus, Lord Hinchinbrook, a young nobleman of spirit and fashion.]

2 Rowe had the year before, on the accession of George I., been made Poet Laureate, one of the land-surveyors of the port of London, Clerk of the Closet to the Prince of Wales, and Secre

Most thinking rake, alive.
Solicitous for others' ends,

Though fond of dear repose;
Careless or drowsy with my friends,
And frolic with my foes.
Luxurious lobster-nights, farewell,

For sober, studious days!
And Burlington's delicious meal,

For salads, tarts, and pease!

Adieu to all, but Gay alone,
Whose soul, sincere and free,
Loves all mankind, but flatters none,
And so may starve with me.

THE BASSET-TABLE.

AN ECLOGUE.

ONLY this of all the Town Eclogues was Mr Pope's; and is here printed from a copy corrected by his own hand.—The humour of it consists in this, that the one is in love with the Game, and the other with the Sharper. Warburton. [The original edition of the Town Eclogues was published in 1716 anonymously, and consisted of three eclogues, written to parody the Pastorals of Pope and Philips, entitled respectively the Basset-Table, the Drawing-Room, and The Toilet. They were first ascribed to Gay, to whose mock pastorals they bear much resemblance. Three others were added by the same hand which had written all the Town Eclogues except the Basset-Table, viz. that of Lady M. W. Montagu.]

CARDELIA. SMILINDA.

CARDELIA.

HE Basset-Table spread, the Tallier come1;

Rise, pensive Nymph, the Tallier waits for you:

SMILINDA.

Ah, Madam, since my SHARPER is untrue,

I joyless make my once ador'd Alpeu.

I saw him stand behind OMBRELIA'S Chair,

And whisper with that soft, deluding air,

And those feign'd sighs which cheat the list'ning Fair.

CARDELIA.

Is this the cause of your Romantic strains?

5

A mightier grief my heavy heart sustains.

As You by Love, so I by Fortune cross'd;
One, one bad Deal, Three Septleva's have lost.

SMILINDA.

Is that the grief, which you compare with mine?
With ease, the smiles of Fortune I resign:
Would all my gold in one bad Deal were gone,
Were lovely SHARPER mine, and mine alone.

15

CARDELIA.

A Lover lost, is but a common care;

And prudent Nymphs against that change prepare:

The KNAVE OF CLUBS thrice lost: Oh! who could guess
This fatal stroke, this unforeseen Distress?

1[Basset was a game commonly played in England at the period after the Restoration; and in France in the reign of Louis XIV., who issued

20

an ordinance prohibiting it and similar games. Chatto.]

SMILINDA.

See BETTY LOVET! very à propos,

She all the cares of Love and Play does know:
Dear BETTY shall th' important point decide;
BETTY, who oft the pain of each has try'd;
Impartial, she shall say who suffers most,
By Cards Ill Usage, or by Lovers lost.

LOVET.

Tell, tell your griefs; attentive will I stay, Tho' Time is precious, and I want some Tea. CARDELIA.

25

Behold this Equipage, by Mathers wrought,
With Fifty Guineas (a great Pen'worth) bought.
See, on the Tooth-pick, Mars and Cupid strive;
And both the struggling figures seem alive.
Upon the bottom shines the Queen's bright Face;
A Myrtle Foliage round the Thimble-Case.
Jove, Jove himself, does on the Scissors shine;
The Metal, and the Workmanship, divine!

30

35

SMILINDA.

This Snuff-Box,-once the pledge of SHARPER's love, When rival beauties for the Present strove;

At Corticelli's he the Raffle won;

Then first his Passion was in public shown:

40

HAZARDIA blush'd, and turn'd her Head aside,

A Rival's envy (all in vain) to hide.

This Snuff-Box, -on the Hinge see Brilliants shine:

This Snuff-Box will I stake; the Prize is mine.

CARDELIA.

Alas! far lesser losses than I bear,
Have made a Soldier sigh, a Lover swear.
And Oh! what makes the disappointment hard,
'Twas my own Lord that drew the fatal Card.
In complaisance, I took the Queen he gave;
Tho' my own secret wish was for the Knave.
The Knave won Sonica, which I had chose;
And, the next Pull, my Septleva I lose.

SMILINDA.

45

50

But ah! what aggravates the killing smart,
The cruel thought, that stabs me to the heart;
This curs'd OMBRELIA, this undoing Fair,
By whose vile arts this heavy grief I bear;
She, at whose name I shed these spiteful tears,
She owes to me the very charms she wears.

55

An awkward Thing, when first she came to Town;
Her Shape unfashion'd, and her Face unknown:
She was my friend; I taught her first to spread
Upon her sallow cheeks enliv'ning red:

бо

I introduc'd her to the Park and Plays;
And, by my int'rest, Cozens made her Stays.
Ungrateful wretch, with mimic airs grown pert,
She dares to steal my Fav'rite Lover's heart.

CARDELIA.

Wretch that I was, how often have I swore,
When WINNALL tally'd, I would punt no more?
I know the Bite, yet to my Ruin run;
And see the Folly, which I cannot shun.

SMILINDA.

How many Maids have SHARPER'S vows deceiv'd?
How many curs'd the moment they believ'd?
Yet his known Falsehoods could no Warning prove:
Ah! what is warning to a Maid in Love?

CARDELIA.

But of what marble must that breast be form'd,
To gaze on Basset, and remain unwarm'd?

When Kings, Queens, Knaves, are set in decent rank;
Expos'd in glorious heaps the tempting Bank,
Guineas, Half-Guineas, all the shining train;
The Winner's pleasure, and the Loser's pain:
In bright Confusion open Rouleaux lie,
They strike the Soul, and glitter in the Eye.
Fir'd by the sight, all Reason I disdain;

My Passions rise, and will not bear the rein.
Look upon Basset, you who Reason boast;
And see if Reason must not there be lost.

SMILINDA.

What more than marble must that heart compose,
Can hearken coldly to my SHARPER'S Vows?
Then, when he trembles! when his Blushes rise!
When awful Love seems melting in his Eyes!
With eager beats his Mechlin Cravat moves:
He Loves,'-I whisper to myself, He Loves !'
Such unfeign'd Passion in his Looks appears,
I lose all Mem'ry of my former Fears;
My panting heart confesses all his charms,
I yield at once, and sink into his arms:
Think of that moment, you who Prudence boast;
For such a moment, Prudence well were lost.

CARDELIA.

At the Groom-Porter's, batter'd Bullies play,
Some DUKES at Mary-Bone bowl Time away1.

65

70

80

8&

9:

100

1 [The Duke of Buckinghamshire (Sheffield) Cunningham's London. As to the Groom-Por was in the habit of frequenting the bowling-alley ter's, cf. note to Dunciad, Bk. I. v. 309.] behind the manor-house of Marylebone parish.

But who the Bowl, or ratt'ling Dice compares
To Basset's heav'nly Joys, and pleasing Cares?

SMILINDA.

Soft SIMPLICETTA doats upon a Beau;
PRUDINA likes a Man, and laughs at Show.
Their several graces in my SHARPER meet;
Strong as the Footman, as the Master sweet.

LOVET.

Cease your contention, which has been too long;
I grow impatient, and the Tea's too strong.
Attend, and yield to what I now decide;
The Equipage shall grace SMILINDA'S Side:
The Snuff-Box to CARDELIA I decree,
Now leave complaining, and begin your Tea.

105

ΠΙΟ

TO LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU.

[Originally published in a Miscellany of the year 1720.]

Impertinent schools,

With musty dull rules,

Have reading to females denied ;

So Papists refuse

The Bible to use,

III.

'Twas a woman at first
(Indeed she was curst)

In knowledge that tasted delight,
And sages agree

The laws should decree

To the first possessor the right.

IV.

Then bravely, fair dame,
Resume the old claim,

Which to your whole sex does belong;

And let men receive,

From a second bright Eve,

Lest flocks should be wise as their guide. The knowledge of right and of wrong.

V.

But if the first Eve

Hard doom did receive,

When only one apple had she,

What a punishment new

Shall be found out for you,

Who tasting, have robb'd the whole tree?