135

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;
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 reclined,
He watch'd the ideas rising in her mind,
Sudden he view'd, in spite of all her art,
An earthly lover lurking at her heart.
Amazed, confused, he found his power expired;
Resign'd to fate, and with a sigh retired.

140

146

The peer now spreads the glittering forfex wide, To inclose the lock; now joins it, to divide. Ev'n then, before the fatal engine closed, A wretched sylph too fondly interposed:

150

Fate urged the sheers, and cut the sylph in twain,

But airy substance soon unites again :

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

Then flash'd the living lightning from her

155

eyes, And screams of horror rend the affrighted skies.

152 But airy substance. A note by Pope quotes Milton for this idea. Warton pronounces that to be a parody, which was probably meant as an authority. The conception was open to burlesque ; and Pope might have been glad to shelter himself under the broad wings of Milton.

POPE.

I.

H

Not louder shrieks to pitying Heaven are cast, When husbands or when lap-dogs breathe their last;

Or when rich China vessels, fallen from high,
In glittering dust and painted fragments lie.

160

Let wreaths of triumph now my temples
twine,'

The victor cried: the glorious prize is mine!
While fish in streams, or birds delight in air,
Or in a coach and six the British fair;

165

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 wax-lights in bright order blaze;
While nymphs take treats, or assignations give,
So long my honor, name, and praise shall live!
What time would spare, from steel receives its

date;

And monuments, like men, submit to fate.
Steel could the labor of the gods destroy,
And strike to dust the imperial towers of Troy;
Steel could the works of mortal pride confound,
And hew triumphal arches to the ground.

163 While fish in streams, &c.

171

176

Dum juga montis aper, fluvios dum piscis amabit,
Semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt.
Virg. Ecl. v. 76.

165 As long as Atalantis. The profligate book of a profligate woman, Mrs. Manley, daughter of sir Roger Manley, governor of Guernsey, and author of the first volume of the Turkish Spy.' Mrs. Manley, possessing some abilities and more effrontery, lived for some years among the literary circles, and wrote some plays; but at length falling into habits of open vice, she died neglected and obscure.

What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hairs should

feel

The conquering force of unresisted steel?'

177 What wonder, &c.

Ille quoque eversus mons est, &c.

Quid faciant crines, cum ferro talia cedant?

Catull. de com. Berenices.

CANTO IV.

BUT anxious cares the pensive nymph oppress'd,
And secret passions labor'd in her breast.
Not youthful kings in battle seized alive,
Not scornful virgins who their charms survive,
Not ardent lovers robb'd of all their bliss,
Not ancient ladies when refused a kiss,
Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die,
Not Cynthia when her manteau's pinn'd awry,
E'er felt such rage, resentment, and despair,
As thou, sad virgin! for thy ravish'd hair.

10

For, that sad moment, when the sylphs with

drew,

And Ariel weeping from Belinda flew,
Umbriel, a dusky, melancholy sprite,
As ever sullied the fair face of light,

15

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 vapor 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,

At regina gravi, &c.-Virg. Æneid, iv. 1.

20

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 differing far in figure and in face.

26

Here stood Ill-nature like an ancient maid,
Her wrinkled form in black and white array'd:
With store of prayers, for mornings, nights, and

noons,

Her hand is fill'd; her bosom with lampoons. 30 There Affectation, with a sickly mien,

35

Shows in her cheek the roses of eighteen ;
Practised 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 vapor 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 fires:
Now lakes of liquid gold, Elysian scenes,
And crystal domes, and angels in machines.

Unnumber'd throngs, on every side are seen,
Of bodies changed to various forms by Spleen.

40

45

41 Dreadful as hermits' dreams. Warburton thinks that Pope here insinuates hypochondriasis as the source of the Romish visions. But Pope was decorous, if not sincere; and it is improbable that he would offer this direct insult to the favorite traditions of the breviary.