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 With Truth and Goodness, as with Crown and Ball. Poets heap Virtues, Painters Gems at will, And shew their zeal, and hide their want of skill. 185 190 195 200 Your virtues open fairest in the shade. 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, The Love of Pleasure, and the Love of Sway. [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.] Mahmet, servant to the late King [George 1.], 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 205 210 215 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. 6 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 die2. At last, to follies Youth could scarce defend, Still round and round the Ghosts of Beauty glide, 220 225 230 235 240 245 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 Ring", 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.j [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, 270 275 280 Be this a Woman's Fame: with this unblest, When those blue eyes first open'd on the sphere; 285 And gave you Beauty, but deny'd the Pelf That buys your sex a Tyrant o'er itself. The gen'rous God, who Wit and Gold refines, 290 92.] Kept Dross for Duchesses, the world shall know it, [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: '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 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 and me? 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.] Both fairly owning Riches, in effect, No grace of Heav'n or token of th' Elect; To Ward', to Waters 2, Chartres 3, and the Devil 4: 1 John Ward, of Hackney, Esq.; Member of Parliament, being prosecuted by the Duchess of Buckingham, and convicted of Forgery, was first expelled the House, and then stood in the Pillory on the 17th of March, 1727. He was suspected of joining in a conveyance with Sir John Blunt, to secrete fifty thousand pounds of that Director's Estate, forfeited to the South-Sea Company by Act of Parliament. The company recovered the fifty thousand pounds against Ward; but he set up prior conveyances of his real estate to his brother and son, and conceal'd all his personal, which was computed to be one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. These conveyances being also set aside by a bill in Chancery, Ward was imprisoned, and hazarded the forfeiture of his life, by not giving in his effects till the last day, which was that of his examination. During his confinement, his amusement was to give poison to dogs and cats, and to see them expire by slower or quicker torments. To sum up the worth of this gentleman, at the several ara's of his life, At his standing in the Pillory he was worth above two hundred thousand pounds; at his commitment to Prison, he was worth one hundred and fifty thousand; but has been since so far diminished in his reputation, as to be thought a worse man by fifty or sixty thousand. P. [From Pope's intimate acquaintance with Mr Ward's career, it might almost be suspected that he is the same who is enumerated among Pope's friends in Gay's poem.] 2 Mr Waters, the third of these worthies, was a man no way resembling the former in his military, but extremely so in his civil capacity; his great fortune having been rais'd by the like diligent attendence on the necessities of others. But this gentleman's history must be deferred till his death, when his worth may be known more certainly. P. 3 Fr. Chartres, a man infamous for all manner of vices. When he was an ensign in the army, he was drumm'd out of the regiment for a cheat; he was next banish'd Brussels, and drumm'd out of Ghent on the same account. After a hundred tricks at the gaming tables, he took to lending of money at exorbitant interest and on great penalties, accumulating premium, interest, and capital into a new capital, and seizing to a minute when the payments became due; in a word, by a constant attention to the vices, wants, and follies of mankind, he acquired an immense forHis house was a perpetual bawdy-house. He was twice condemn'd for rapes, and pardoned: but the last time not without imprisonment in Newgate, and large confiscations. He tune. 20 died in Scotland in 1731, aged 62. The populace at his funeral rais'd a great riot, almost tore the body out of the coffin, and cast dead dogs, &c. into the grave along with it. The following Epitaph contains his character very justly drawn by Dr Arbuthnot; HERE continueth to rot In spite of AGE and INFIRMITIES, His matchless IMPUDENCE from the second. Nor was he more singular in the undeviating Pravity of his Manners Than successful in Accumulating WEALTH. He was the only Person of his Time, Oh Indignant Reader! Think not his Life useless to Mankind! PROVIDENCE Conniv'd at his execrable Designs, To give to After-ages A conspicuous PROOF and EXAMPLE, Of how small Estimation is EXORBITANT WEALTH in the Sight of GOD, By his bestowing it on the most UNWORTHY of ALL MORTALS. This Gentleman was worth seven thousand pounds a year estate in Land, and about one hundred thousand in Money. P. 4 and the Devil.] Alluding to the vulgar opinion, that all mines of metal and subterraneous treasures are in the guard of the Devil: which seems to have taken its rise from the pagan fable of Plutus the God of Riches. Warburton. [The name of Pluton, given to the God beneath the surface who sends forth the wealth of corn, probably originated in the Eleusinian Mysteries.] 5 [Commodious, i.e. accommodating.] |