Then flashed the living lightning from her eyes,
And screams of horror rend the affrighted skies.
Not louder shrieks to pitying heaven are cast,
When husbands or when lapdogs breathe their last;1
Or when rich China vessels, fallen from high,

In glittering dust and painted fragments lie!

Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine, (The victor cried,) the glorious prize is mine!

155

160

What time would spare, from steel receives its date,
And monuments, like men, submit to fate!
Steel could the labor of the gods destroy,

165

And strike to dust the imperial towers of Troy;

Steel could the works of mortal pride confound,

And hew triumphal arches to the ground.

What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hairs should feel
The conquering force of unresisted steel?

1 Note the suggestion in this antithesis.

170

CANTO IV.

BUT anxious cares the pensive nymph oppressed,
And secret passions labored in her breast.
Not youthful kings in battle seized alive,
Not scornful virgins who their charms survive,
Not ardent lovers robbed of all their bliss,
Not ancient ladies when refused a kiss,
Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die,
Not Cynthia when her manteau 's pinned awry,
E'er felt such rage, resentment, and despair,

As thou, sad virgin! for thy ravished hair.

For, that sad moment, when the sylphs withdrew,
And Ariel weeping from Belinda flew,
Umbriel,1 a dusky, melancholy sprite,
As ever sullied the fair face of light,

Down to the central earth, his proper scene,

Repaired to search the gloomy Cave of Spleen.2
Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome,
And in a vapor reached the dismal dome.
No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows,
The dreaded east 3 is all 4 the wind that blows.

Here in a grotto, sheltered close from air,

And screened in shades from day's detested glare,

1 Why is the name appropriate?

2 What trope is this description of the Cave of Spleen, with its inhabitants,

etc.?

3 Why the east wind?

4 "All," only.

She sighs forever on her pensive bed,

Pain at her side, and Megrim 1 at her head.

Two handmaids wait the throne: alike in place,
But differing far in figure and in face.

25

Here stood Ill-nature like an ancient maid,

Her wrinkled form in black and white arrayed;

With store of prayers, for mornings, nights, and noons,
Her hand is filled; her bosom with lampoons.2

There Affectation, with a sickly mien,

Shows in her cheek the roses of eighteen,
Practiced to lisp, and hang the head aside,
Faints into airs, and languishes with pride,
On the rich quilt sinks with becoming woe,
Wrapped in a gown, for sickness, and for show.3
The fair ones feel such maladies as these,
When each new nightdress gives a new disease.
A constant vapor o'er the palace flies;
Strange phantoms rising as the mists arise;
Dreadful, as hermits' dreams in haunted shades,
Or bright, as visions of expiring maids.

Now glaring fiends, and snakes on rolling spires,
Pale specters, gaping tombs, and purple fires:
Now lakes of liquid gold, Elysian scenes,
And crystal domes, and angels in machines.

Unnumbered throngs on every side are seen,
Of bodies changed to various forms by Spleen.
Here living teapots stand, one arm held out,
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.

1 A nervous headache.

30

35

40

45

50

2 Lines 29, 30. Note the antithesis. 'Lampoon was originally a drinking song; hence, because such songs usually contained personal slander

or satire, it now signifies a scurrilous or satiric poem.

3 The same idea is repeated in line 38, but less delicately.

4 Cf. Homer's Iliad, Bryant's translation, XVIII. line 470.

Safe passed the gnome through this fantastic band,

A branch of healing spleenwort1 in his hand.

54

Then thus addressed the power: "Hail, wayward Queen!
Who rule the sex to fifty from fifteen;

Parent of vapors, and of female wit,

Who give the 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;

A nymph there is, that all thy power 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 2 matrons' cheeks inflame,
Or change complexions at a losing game;
If e'er with airy horns I planted heads,

Or rumpled petticoats, or tumbled beds,

60

65

70

Or caused suspicion when no soul was rude,

Or discomposed the headdress of a prude,
Or e'er to lazy lapdog gave disease,

Which not the tears of brightest eyes could ease;

Hear me, and touch Belinda with chagrin,3

75

That single act gives half the world the spleen."

The Goddess 4 with a discontented air
Seems to reject him, though she grants his prayer.
A wondrous bag with both her hands she binds,
Like that where once Ulysses held the winds;5
There she collects the force of female lungs,

80

Sighs, sobs, and passions, and the war of tongues.

1 A fern of the genus Asplenium-as the name suggests, a plant used for

remedy of disorders of the spleen.

2 Spirits distilled from the rind of citrons.

indulgence.

Its use was a fashionable

3 " Chagrin," shagreen. Explain the relation. 4 Who?

5 Returning to Greece after the fall of Troy, Ulysses found shelter on the

A vial next she fills with fainting fears,

Soft sorrows, melting griefs, and flowing tears.
The gnome rejoicing bears her gifts away,

Spreads his black wings, and slowly mounts to day.

1

Sunk in Thalestris' 1 arms the nymph he found,
Her eyes dejected, and her hair unbound.

Full o'er their heads the swelling bag he rent,

And all the Furies issued at the vent.

Belinda burns with more than mortal ire,
And fierce Thalestris fans the rising fire.

"O wretched maid!" she spread her hands, and cried

85

90

4

(While Hampton's echoes, "Wretched maid!" replied),
"Was it for this you took such constant care
The bodkin, comb, and essence to prepare?
For this your locks in paper durance 2 bound?
For this with torturing irons 3 wreathed around?
For this with fillets strained your tender head,
And bravely bore the double loads of lead? 5
Gods! shall the ravisher display your hair,
While the fops envy and the ladies stare!
Honor forbid! at whose unrivaled shrine
Ease, pleasure, virtue, all our sex resign.
Methinks already I your tears survey,
Already hear the horrid things they say,
Already see you a degraded toast,

6

And all your honor in a whisper lost!

95

100

105

How shall I, then, your helpless fame defend?
'Twill then be infamy to seem your friend!

island of Æolus, the god of the winds. Upon his departure he was given a

bag in which were inclosed all the winds except the western.

1 Mrs. Morley, sister of Sir George Brown, who is the "Sir Plume" mentioned below.

2 What is meant here?

4 Headbands.

3 Curling tongs.

5 Curl papers fastened with lead.

6 It was customary in so-called high society for fops to "toast" a lady of their set who was a noted beauty.