To that each Paffion turns, or foon or late;

Love, if it makes her yield, must make her hate :
Superiors? death? and Equals? what a curfe! 135
But an Inferior not dependant? worse.
Offend her, and fhe knows not to forgive;
Oblige her, and fhe'll hate you while you live:
But die, and fhe'll adore you-Then the Buft
And Temple rife-then fall again to duft.
Laft night, her Lord was all that's good and great;
A Knave this morning, and his Will a Cheat.
Strange! by the Means defeated of the Ends,

140

By Spirit robb'd of Pow'r, by Warmth of Friends, By Wealth of Follow'rs! without one diftrefs 145 Sick of herself thro' very selfishness!

Atoffa, curs'd with ev'ry granted pray'r,

Childlefs with all her Children, wants an Heir.
To Heirs unknown defcends th'ungarded store,
Or wanders, Heav'n-directed, to the Poor.

VARIATIONS.

After 148. in the MS.

This Death decides, nor lets the bleffing fall

On any one she hates, but on them all.
Curs'd chance! this only could afflict her more,

If any part should wander to the poor.

NOTES.

150

VER. 150. Or wanders, |luding and referring to the Heav'n-directed, &c.] Al- great principle of his Philo

155

Pictures like thefe, dear Madam, to design, Asks no firm hand, and no unerring line ; Some wand'ring touches, fome reflected light, Some flying ftroke alone can hit 'em right: For how fhould equal Colours do the knack? Chameleons who can paint in white and black? "Yet Cloe fure was form'd without a fpot"Nature in her then err'd not, but forgot. "With ev'ry pleasing, ev'ry prudent part, "Say, what can Cloe want?"-She wants a Heart. She speaks, behaves, and acts juft as fhe 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.

NOTES.

fophy, which he never lofes | to fecure it from being ridifight of, and which teaches, that Providence is inceffantly turning the evils arifing from the follies and vices of men to general good.

VER. 157. "Yet Cloe fure, &c.] The purpose of the poet in this Character is important: It is to fhew that the politic or prudent government of the paffions is not enough to make a Character amiable, nor even

culous, if the end of that government be not pursued, which is the free exercise of the focial appetites after the felfish ones have been fubdued; for that if, tho' reafon govern, the heart be never confulted, we interest ourselves as little in the fortune of fuch a Character, as in any of the foregoing, which paffions or caprice drive up and down at random.

So very reasonable, so 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 chest;
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 fhe may forget.

175

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 thousand are undone.
Would Cloe know if you're alive or dead?
She bids her Footman put it in her head.
Cloe is prudent-Would you too be wise ?
Then never break your heart when Cloe dies. 180
One certain Portrait may (I grant) be feen,
Which Heav'n has varnifh'd out, and made a Queen:
THE SAME FOR EVER! and describ'd by all
With Truth and Goodness, as with Crown and Ball.

NOTES.

VER. 181. One certain Portrait 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 Character; so that the fatire falls not on any particular Character, but on the Character-maker only. See Note on 78, 1 Dialogue 1738.

Poets heap Virtues, Painters Gems at will,

185

And fhow their zeal, and hide their want of skill. 'Tis well-but, Artifts! who can paint or write, To draw the Naked is your true delight.

That Robe of Quality so struts and fwells,

None fee what Parts of Nature it conceals:
Th'exacteft traits of Body or of Mind,

We owe to models of an humble kind.

190

If QUEENSBERRY to ftrip there's no compelling, 'Tis from a Handmaid we must take a Helen. From Peer or Bishop 'tis no easy thing

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 Parson Hale.

VARIATIONS.

After 198. in the MS.

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 she love, and merit verse, have mine.

NOTES.

VER. 198. Mah'met, fervant to the late King, faid

to be the fon of a Turkish Baffa, whom he took at the

200

But grant, in Public Men fometimes are shown,
A Woman's feen in Private life alone:
Our bolder Talents in full light display'd;
Your Virtues open fairest in the fhade.

Bred to disguise, in Public 'tis you hide;

There, none diftinguish 'twixt your Shame or Pride, Weakness or Delicacy; all fo nice,

That each may seem a Virtue, or a Vice.

NOTES.

Siege of Buda, and conftantly kept about his perfon. P.

205

ing, nor can we answer that these are exactly inferted. P.

VER. 203. Bred to dif guife, in Public'tis you hide ;] There is fomething particu

Ibid. Dr Stephen Hales, not more eftimable for his ufeful discoveries as a Na-lar in the turn of this affertural Philosopher, than for tion, as making their difhis exemplary Life and Pa- guifing in public the necefftoral Charity as a Parifh fary effect of their being bred Prieft. to difguife; but if we confider that female Education is an art of teaching not to be, but to appear, we shall have no reason to find fault with the exactness of the expreffion.

VER. 199. But grant, in Public, &c.] In the former Editions, between this and the foregoing lines, a want of Connexion might be perceived, occafioned by the omiffion of certain Examples VER. 206. That each may and Illuftrations to the Max-feem a Virtue, or a Vice.] ims laid down; and tho' For Women are taught Virfome of these have fince tue fo artificially, and Vice been found, viz. the Cha- fo naturally, that, in the racters of Philomedé, Atoffa, nice exercife of them, they Cloe, and fome verfes fol- may be easily mistaken for lowing, others are ftill want- one another. SCRIB.