The daily Anodyne, and nightly Draught, To kill those foes to Fair ones, Time and Thought But what are these to great Atoffa's mind? 115 Scarce once herself, by turns all Womankind! Who, with herself, or others, from her birth Finds all her life one warfare upon earth: Shines, in expofing Knaves, and painting Fools, No Thought advances, but her Eddy Brain goes again. Full fixty years the World has been her Trade, The wifeft Fool much Time has ever made. So much the Fury ftill out-ran the Wit, 120 125 The Pleasure mifs'd her, and the Scandal hit. Who breaks with her, provokes Revenge from Hell, But he's a bolder man who dares be well. 130 Her ev'ry turn with Violence purfu'd, VARIATIONS. After 122. in the MS. Opprefs'd with wealth and wit, abundance fad! Superiors? death! and Equals? what a curse; 135 But an Inferior not dependant? worse. 140 Offend her, and she knows not to forgive; Atoffa, curs'd with ev'ry granted pray'r, Pictures like thefe, dear Madam, to defign, 150 VER. 150. Or wanders, Heav'n-directed, etc.] Alluding and referring to the great principle of his Philosophy, which he never lofes fight of, and which teaches, that Providence is inceffantly turning the evils arifing from the follies and vices of men to general good. This Death decides, nor lets the bleffing fall If any part fhould wander to the poor. 155 Some wand'ring touches, fome reflected light, VER. 156. Chameleons who can paint in white and black ?] There is one thing that does a very diftinguished honour to the accuracy of our poet's judgment, of which, in the courfe of these observations, I have given many inftances, and shall here explain in what it confifts; it is this, that the Similitudes in his didactic poems, of which he is not fparing, and which are all highly poetical, are always chofen with fuch exquifite difcernment of Nature, as not only to illustrate the particular point he is upon, but to establish the general principles he would inforce ; fo, in the inftance before us, he compares the inconftancy and contradiction in the Characters of Women, to the change of colours in the Chameleon; yet 'tis nevertheless the great principle of this poem to fhew that the general Characteristic of the Sex, as to the Ruling Paffions, which they all have, is more uniform than that in Man: Now for this purpofe, all Nature could not have fupplied fuch another illuftration as this of the Chameleon; for tho' it inftantaneously affumes much of the colour of every subject on which it chances to be placed, yet, as the most accurate Virtuofi have obferved, it has two native colours of its own, which (like the two ruling paffions in the Sex) amidst all thefe changes are never totally discharged, but, tho' often difcoloured by the neighbourhood of adventitious ones, fill make the foundation, and give a tincture to all those which, from thence, it occafionally aflumes. VER. 157. "Yet Chloe fure, etc.] The purpofe of the poet in this Character is important: It is to fhew that the politic or "With ev'ry pleafing, ev'ry prudent part, 66 Say, what can Chloe want ?"-She wants a Heart. As never yet to love, or to be lov'd. 165 She, while her Lover pants upon her breast, 175 She e'er should cancel-but she may forget. prudent government of the paffions is not enough to make a Character amiable, nor even to fecure it from being ridiculous, if the end of that government be not purfued, which is the free exercife of the focial appetites after the selfish ones have been fubdued; for that if, tho' reafon govern, the heart be never confulted, we intereft ourselves as little in the fortune of fuch a Character, as in any of the foregoing, which paffions or caprice drive up and down at random. One certain Portrait may (I grant) be seen, Which Heav'n has varnish'd out, and made a Queen: THE SAME FOR EVER! and defcrib'd by all With Truth and Goodness, as with Crown and Ball. Poets heap Virtues, Painters Gems at will, 185 And fhow their zeal, and hide their want of skill. 'Tis well-but, Artifts! who can paint or write, To draw the Naked is your true delight. That Robe of Quality so struts and fwells, None fee what Parts of Nature it conceals; Th' exacteft traits of Body or of Mind, 190 We owe to models of an humble kind. If QUEENSBERRY to ftrip there's no compelling, To draw the man who loves his God, or King: 195 VER. 181. One certain Portrait-the fame for ever!] This is intirely ironical, and conveys under it this general moral truth, that there is, in life, no fuch thing as a perfect Character; fo that the fatire falls not on any particular Character, or Station, but on the Character-maker only. See Note on 78. 1 Dialogue 1738. VER. 198. Mab'met, fervant to the late King. VARIATIONS. After 199. in the MS. Fain I'd in Fulvia spy the tender Wife; I cannot prove it on her, for my life: |