"With ev'ry pleafing, ev'ry prudent part,

1

Say, what can Cloe want?"-She wants a Heart, She speaks, behaves, and acts just as she ought; 161 But never, never, reach'd one gen'rous Thought. Virtue fhe finds too painful an endeavour,

Content to dwell in Decencies for ever.
So very reasonable, fo unmov'd,

As never yet to love, or to be lov'd.

165

She, while her Lover pants upon her breast,
Can mark the figures on an Indian cheft;
And when she fees her Friend in deep despair,
Obferves how much a Chintz exceeds Mohair. 170

Forbid it Heav'n, a Favour or a Debt

She e'er fhould cancel-but the may forget.
Safe is your Secret ftill in Cloe's ear;

But none of Cloe's fhall

you ever hear.

Of all her Dears fhe never flander'd one,
But cares not if a thoufand are undone.

Would Cloe know if you're alive or dead?
She bids her Footman put it in her head.

NOTES.

175

ones have been fubdued; for I fortune of fuch a Character, as

that if, tho' reafon govern, the heart be never confulted, we intereft ourselves as little in the

in any of the foregoing, which paffions or caprice drive up and down at random.

Cloe is prudent-Would you too be wife?
Then never break your heart when Cloe dies. 180

185

One certain Portrait may (I grant) be seen, Which Heav'n has varnish'd out, and made a Queen: THE SAME FOR EVER! and defcrib'd by all With Truth and Goodnefs, as with Crown and Ball. Poets heap Virtues, Painters Gems at will, And show their zeal, and hide their want of skill. 'Tis well-but, Artists! who can paint or write, To draw the Naked is your true delight. That Robe of Quality so struts and swells, None fee what Parts of Nature it conceals: Th'exacteft traits of Body or of Mind, We owe to models of an humble kind. If QUEENSBERRY to ftrip there's no compelling, 'Tis from a Handmaid we must take a Helen. From Peer or Bishop 'tis no eafy thing

190

195

To draw the man who loves his God, or King:
Alas! I copy (or my draught would fail)
From honeft Mah'met, or plain Parfon Hale.

NOTES.

VER. 181. One certain Por- | Character; fo that the satire trait-the fame for ever!-] This is intirely ironical, and conveys under it this general moral truth, that there is, in life, no fuch thing as a perfect

falls not on any particular Charafter, but on the Charactermaker only. See Note on 78. I Dialogue 1738.

VER. 198. Mah'met, fer

200

But grant, in Public Men fometimes are shown, A Woman's feen in Private life alone: Our bolder Talents in full light difplay'd; Your Virtues open faireft in the shade. Bred to difguife, in Public 'tis you hide; There, none diftinguish 'twixt

your

VARIATIONS.

After 198. in the MS.

Shame or Pride,

Fain I'd in Fulvia fpy the tender Wife,
I cannot prove it on her, for my life:
And, for a noble pride, I blush no less,
Inftead of Berenice, to think on Bess.
Thus while immortal Cibber only fings
(As* and H**y preach) for queens and kings,
The nymph, that ne'er read Milton's mighty line,
May, if the love, and merit verfe, have mine.

NOTES.

vant to the late King, faid to be the fon of a Turkish Bafla, whom he took at the Siege of Buda, and constantly kept about his perfon. P.

Ibid. Dr. Stephen Hale, not more eftimable for his ufeful difcoveries as a natural Philofopher, than for his exemplary Life and Paftoral Charity as a Parish Priest.

VER. 199. But grant, in Public, &c. In the former Ediditions, between this and the foregoing lines, a want of Connexion might be perceived, occafioned by the omiffion of cer

tain Examples and Illuftrations to the Maxims laid down; and tho' fome of these have fince been found, viz. the Characters of Philomedé, Atoffa, Cloe, and fome verfes following, others are still wanting, nor can we answer that these are exactly inferted.

VER. 203. Bred to disguife, in Public 'tis you bide; There is fomething particular in the turn of this affertion, as making their difguiling in public the neceflary effect of their being bred to difguife; but if we confider that female Education

Weakness or Delicacy; all fo nice,

That each may feem a Virtue, or a Vice.
In Men, we various Ruling Paffions find;
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. 210
That, Nature gives; and where the lesson taught
Is but to please, can Pleasure seem a fault?

VARIATIONS.

in the first Edition,

In fev'ral Men we fev'ral paffions find;
In Women, two almoft divide the Kind.

NOTES.

Experience, this; by Man's oppreffion curft,
They feek the fecond not to lose the first.

Men, fome to Bus'nefs, fome to Pleasure take; But ev'ry Woman is at heart a Rake:

Men, fome to Quiet, fome to public Strife;

But ev'ry Lady would be Queen for life.

216

Yet mark the fate of a whole Sex of Queens! Pow'r all their end, but Beauty all the means: 220 In Youth they conquer, with fo wild a rage, As leaves them scarce a fubject in their Age:. For foreign glory, foreign joy, they roam; No thought of peace or happiness at home. But Wisdom's triumph is well-tim'd Retreat, 225 As hard a fcience to the Fair as Great! Beauties, like Tyrants, old and friendless grown, Yet hate repofe, and dread to be alone,