Dear Betty shall the’ important point decide;
Betty! who oft the pain of each has tried;
Impartial, she shall say who suffers most,
By cards' ill usage, or by lovers lost.

Lov. Tell, tell your griefs, attentive will I stay, Though time is precious, and I want some tea. CARD. Behold this equipage, by Mathers

wrought, With fifty guineas (a great penn'worth) bought. See on the toothpick 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 scissars shine, The metal and the workmanship divine. SMIL. 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: 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.

CARD. 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, Though my own secret wish was for the knave: The knave won sonica, which I had chose, And the next pull my septleva I lose. SMIL, But, ah! what aggravates the killing

smart, The cruel thought that stabs me to the heart;

This cursed 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.
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 enlivening red;
I introduced her to the park and plays,
And by my interest Cozens made her stays.
Ungrateful wretch! with mimic airs grown pert,
She dares to steal my favourite lover's heart.
CARD. Wretch that I was, how often have I

swore
When Winnall tallied, I would punt no more!
I know the bite, yet to my ruin run,
And see the foHy which I cannot shun.
SMIL. How many maids have Sharper's vows

deceived boring How many cursed the moment they believed ? Yet his known falsehoods could no warning prove; Ah! what is warning to a maid in love ? [form’d,

CARD. But of what marble must that breast be To gaze on basset and remain unwarm’d? When kings, queens, knaves, are setin decentrank, Exposed 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 rouleaus lie, They strike the soul, and glitter in the eye: Fired 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.

SMIL. 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 my myself, he loves !
Such unfeign’d passion in his looks appears,
I lose all memory 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.
CARD. At the Groom-porter's batter'd bullies

play,
Some dukes at Marybone bowl time away;
But who the bowl or rattling dice compares
To basset's heavenly joys and pleasing cares?

Smil. Soft Simplicetta dotes 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.
Lov. 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.

VERBATIM FROM BOILEAU.

Un jour, dit un auteur, &c.

ONCE (says an author, where I need not say)
Two travellers found an oyster in their way :
Both fierce, both hungry, the dispute grew strong,
While, scale in hand, dame Justice pass'd along.
Before her each with clamour pleads the laws,
Explain’d the matter, and would win the cause.
Dame Justice, weighing long the doubtful right,
Takes, opens, swallows it before their sight.
The cause of strife removed so rarely well,
• There take, (says Justice) take ye each a shell. ·
We thrive at Westminster on fools like you:
'Twas a fat oyster_live in peace-Adieu.'

ANSWER

TO

THE FOLLOWING QUESTION OF MRS. HOWE.
What is prudery?

'Tis a beldam,
Seen with wit and beauty seldom.
"Tis a fear that starts at shadows;
'Tis (no 'tis n't) like Miss Meadows.
'Tis a virgin hard of feature,
Old, and void of all good nature;
Lean and fretful; would seem wise,
Yet plays the fool before she dies.
"Tis an ugly envious shrew,
That rails at dear Lepell and you.

OCCASIONED BY
SOME VERSES

OF

HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. Muse, 'tis enough, at length thy labour ends, And thou shalt live, for Buckingham commends. Let crowds of critics now my verse assail, Let Dennis write, and nameless numbers rail ; This more than pays whole years of thankless pain; Time, health, and fortune, are not lost in vain. Sheffield approves, consenting Phoebus bends, And I and Malice from this hour are friends.

A PROLOGUE TO A PLAY FOR MR. DENNIS'S BENEFIT, in 1733, WHEN HE WAS OLD, BLIND, AND IN GREAT DIS

TRESS, A LITTLE BEFORE HIS DEATH. As when that hero, who in each campaign Had braved the Goth, and many a Vandal slain, Lay fortune-struck, a spectacle of woe! Wept by each friend, forgiven by every foe; Was there a generous, a reflecting mind, But pitied Belisarius old and blind? Was there a chief, but melted at the sight? A common soldier, but who clubb’d his mite? Such, such emotions should in Britons rise, When press’d by want and weakness Dennis lies; Dennis ! who long had warr'd with modern Huns, Their quibbles routed, and defied their puns;