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THE

RAPE OF THE LOCK.

CANTO IV.

THE

RAPE OF THE LOCK.

CANTO IV.

BUT anxious cares the pensive nymph opprest,

And secret passions labour'd in her breast.

Not youthful kings in battle seiz'd alive,

Not scornful virgins who their charms survive,

Not ardent lovers robb'd of all their bliss,

Not ancient ladies when refus'd a kiss,

Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die,

Not Cynthia when her mantua's pinn'd awry,

E'er felt such rage, resentment, and despair,

As thou, sad virgin! for thy ravish'd hair.

For, that sad moment, when the sylphs withdrew,

And Ariel weeping from Belinda flew,

Umbriel, a dusky, melancholy sprite,

As ever sully'd the fair face of light,

Down to the central earth, his proper scene,
Repair'd to search the gloomy cave of Spleen.

Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome,

And in a vapour reach'd the dismal dome.
No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows,

The dreaded east is all the wind that blows.

Here in a grotto, shelter'd close from air,

And screen'd in shades from day's detested glare,

She sighs for ever on her pensive bed,

Pain at her side, and Megrim at her head.

Two handmaids wait the throne; alike in place,

But diff'ring far in figure and in face.

Here stood Ill-nature, like an ancient maid,

Her wrinkled form in black and white array'd!

With store of pray'rs for mornings, nights, and noons,

Her hand is fill'd; her bosom with lampoons.

There Affectation, with a sickly mien,

Shows in her cheek the roses of eighteen,

Practis'd to lisp, and hang the head aside,
Faints into airs, and languishes with pride,

On the rich quilt sinks with becoming wo,
Wrapp'd in a gown, for sickness, and for show.

The fair ones feel such maladies as these,

When each new night-dress gives a new disease.

A constant vapour o'er the palace flies;

Strange phantoms rising as the mists arise;

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