Straight hover round the fair her airy band;
Some, as she sipp'd, the fuming liquor fann'd,
Some o'er her lap their careful plumes display'd,
Trembling, and conscious of the rich brocade. 116
Coffee (which makes the politician wise,

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And see through all things with his half-shut eyes)
Sent up in vapours to the baron's brain
New stratagems, the radiant lock to gain.
Ah cease, rash youth! desist ere 'tis too late;
Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla's fate!
Chang'd to a bird and sent to fit in air,
She dearly pays for Nisus' injured hair.

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But when to mischief mortals bend their will, How soon they find fit instruments of ill! Just then Clarissa drew with tempting grace A two-edg'd weapon from her shining case: So ladies, in romance assist their knight, Present the spear, and arm him for the fight. 130 He takes the gift with rev'rence, and extends The little engine on his fingers' ends; This just behind Belinda's neck he spread, As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head. Swift to the lock a thousand sprites repair,

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A thousand wings, by turns, blow back the hair;
And thrice they twitch'd the diamond in her ear;
Thrice she look'd back, and thrice the foe drew near.
Just in that instant, anxious Ariel sought
The close recesses of the virgin's thought:
As on the nosegay in her breast reclin'd,
He watch'd th' ideas rising in her mind,
Sudden he view'd, in spite of all her art,
An earthly lover lurking at her heart.

Amaz'd, confus'd, he found his pow'r expir'd; 145
Resign'd to fate, and with a sigh retir'd.

The peer now spreads the glitt'ring forfex wide, T' inclose the lock; now joins it to divide. Ev'n then, before the fatal engine clos'd, A wretched sylph too fondly interpos'd; Fate urg'd the sheers, and cut the sylph in twain, (But airy substance soon unites again;)

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The meeting points the sacred hair dissever
From the fair head, for ever, and for ever!

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Then Bash'd the livid light'ning from her eyes, And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies. Not louder shrieks to pitying Heav'n are cast, When husbands, or when lap-dogs, breathe their last; Or when rich China vessels, fall'n from high, In glitt'ring dust and painted fragments lie!

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Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine," The victor cry'd," the glorious prize is mine! While fish in streams, or birds delight in air, Or in a coach and six the British fair, As long as Atalantis shall be read, Or the small pillow grace a lady's bed, While visits shall be paid on solemn days, When numerous waxlights in bright order blaze, While nymphs take treats, or assignations give, So long my honour, name, and praise shall live! 170 What time would spare from steel receives its date, And monunents, like men, submit to fate ! Steel could the labour of the gods destroy, And strike to dust the imperial tow'rs of Troy; Steel could the works of mortal pride confound, 175 And hew triumphal arches to the ground.

What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hair should feel The conquering force of unresisted steel?"

CANTO IV.

Bur 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.

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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,

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Here stood Ill-nature, like an ancient maid,

Her wrinkled form in black and white array'd!

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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 woe,
Wrapt in a gown, for sickness, and for shew. ́
The fair ones feel such maladies as these,
When each new night-dress give a new disease.
A constant vapour o'er the palace flies;
Strange phantoms rising as the mists arise;
Dreadful as hermits' dreams in haunted shades,
Or bright as visions of expiring maids.
Now glaring fiends, and snakes on rolling spires,
Pale spectres, gaping tombs, and purple tires:
Now lakes of liquid gold, Elysian scenes,
And crystal domes, and angels in machines.
Unnumber'd throngs on ev'ry side are scen,
Of bodies chang'd to various forms by Spleen.
Here living tea-pots stand, one arm held out,
One bent; the handle this, and that the spout; 50
A pipkin there, like Homer's tripod walks;
Here sighs a jar, and there a goosepye talks;

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