Now pox on those who fhew a Court in wax !
It ought to bring all courtiers on their backs:
Such painted puppets! fuch a varnish'd_race
Of hollow gew-gaws, only dress and face!
Such waxen noses, stately staring things---

210

No wonder fome folks bow, and think them Kings.
See! where the British youth, engag'd no more
At Fig's, at White's, with felons, or a whore,
Pay their last duty to the Court, and come
All fresh and fragrant, to the drawing-room; 215
In hues as gay, and odours as divine,

As the fair fields they fold to look fo fine.
"That's velvet for a King!" the flatt'rer swears;
'Tis true, for ten days hence 'twill be King Lear's.
Our Court may justly to our stage give rules, 220
That helps it both to fools-coats and to fools.
And why not players ftrut in courtiers cloaths?
For these are actors too, as well as thofe :

Wants reach all states; they beg but better dret, And all is fplendid poverty at best.

NOTES.

225

ing-houfe: Fig's, a Prize-fighter's Academy, where the young Nobility receiv'd inftruction in those days: It was alfo cuftomary for the nobility and gentry to vifit the condemned criminals in Newgate.

P.

VER. 220. our flage give rules,] Alluding to the Chamberlain's Authority.

VOL. IV.

U

At stage, as courts; all are players. Whoe'er looks (For themselves dare not go) o'er Cheapfide books, Shall find their wardrobes inventory. Now

The Ladies come. As pirates (which do know
That there cameweak ships fraught with Cutchanel)
The men board them; and praise (as they think).
well,

Their beauties; they the mens wits; both are bought.
Why good wits ne'er wear fcarlet gowns, I thought
This caufe, Thefe men, mens wits for fpeeches buy,
And women buy all red which fcarlets dye.
He call'd her beauty lime-twigs, her hair net:
She fears her drugs ill lay'd, her hair loose fet.
Wouldn't Heraclitus laugh to fee Macrine
From hat to fhoe, himself at door refine,

As if the Prefence were a Mofque: and lift
His fkirts and hofe, and call his clothes to fhrift,
Making them confefs not only mortal

Great ftains and holes in them, but venial
Feathers and duft, wherewith they fornicate:
And then by Durer's rules furvey the state

NOTES.

i. e. Arrive to worship and magifiracy. The reafon he gives is, that thofe who have wit are forced to fell their stock, infiead of trading with it. This thought, tho' not amifs, our Poet has not paraphrafed. It is obfcurely expreffed, and poffibly it elcaped him.

i. e. Concious that both her complexion and her hair are

230

Painted for fight, and effenc'd for the smell, Like frigates fraught with spice and cochine'l, Sail in the Ladies: how each pyrate eyes So weak a veffel, and fo rich a prize! Top-gallant he, and fhe in all her trim, He boarding her, the striking fail to him: "Dear Countess! you have charms all hearts to hit!" And "Sweet Sir Fopling! you have so much wit!". Such wits and beauties are not prais'd for nought, For both the beauty and the wit are bought. 235 'Twou'd burst ev'n Heraclitus with the spleen, To see those anticks, Fopling and Courtin: The Prefence feems, with things fo richly odd, The mosque of Mahound, or fome queer Pa-god. See them survey their limbs by Durer's rules, 240 Of all beau-kind the best proportion'd fools! Adjust their cloaths, and to confeffion draw Those venial fins, an atom, or a straw ;

NOTES.

borrowed, the fufpects that, when, in the common cant of atterers, he calls her beauty lime-twigs, and her hair a net to catch lovers, he means to infinuate that her colours are coarsely laid on, and her borrowed hair loosely woven.

VER. 240. Durer's rules,] Albert Durer.

Of his each limb, and with ftrings the odds tries
Of his neck to his leg, and wafte to thighs.
So in immaculate clothes, and Symmetry
Perfect as Circles f, with fuch nicety

As a young Preacher at his first time goes
To preach, he enters, and a lady which owes
Him not fo much as good will, he arrefts,
And unto her protefts, protefts, protefts,

So much as at Rome would ferve to have thrown
Ten Cardinals into the Inquifition;

And whispers by Jefu fo oft, that a

Purfuevant would have ravifh'd him away
For faying our Lady's Pfalter. But 'tis fit
That they each other plague, they merit it.
But here comes Glorious that will plague them both,
Who in the other extreme only doth

Call a rough carelefnefs, good fashion:
Whose cloak his fpurs tear, or whom he fpits on,
He cares not, he. His ill words do no harm
To him; he rushes in, as if Arm, arm,

He meant to cry; and though his face be as ill
As theirs which in old hangings whip Chrift, ftill

NOTES.

f Because all the lines drawn from the centre to the circumference are equal.

245

But oh! what terrors muft diftract the foul
Convicted of that mortal crime, a hole;
Or fhould one pound of powder lefs bespread
Those monkey tails that wag behind their head.
Thus finish'd, and corrected to a hair,

They march, to prate their hour before the Fair.
So first to preach a white-glov'd Chaplain goes,
With band of Lily, and with cheek of Rose,
Sweeter than Sharon, in immac'late trim,
Neatnefs itself impertinent in him.

Let but the Ladies fmile, and they are blest : Prodigious! how the things proteft, protest: 255 Peace, fools, or Gonfon will for Papists feize you, If once he catch you at your fefu! Fefu!

Nature made ev'ry Fop to plague his brother, Just as one Beauty mortifies another.

But here's the Captain that will plague them both,
Whofe air cries Arm! whofe very look's an oath :
The Captain's honeft, Sirs, and that's enough,
Tho' his foul's bullet, and his body buff.
He fpits fore-right; his haughty cheft before,
Like batt'ring rams, beats open ev'ry door: 265
And with a face as red, and as awry,

As Herod's hang-dogs in old Tapestry,