Ah cease, rash youth! desist ere 'tis too late, But when to mischief mortals bend their will, 125 130 As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head.8 135 A thousand wings, by turns, blow back the hair; 140 The close recesses of the virgin's thought: Amazed, confused, he found his power expired, 145 The peer now spreads the glitt'ring forfex wide, T'inclose the lock; now joins it, to divide. 150 Fate urged the shears, and cut the sylph in twain, (But airy substance soon unites again)9 7 Vide Ovid, Metam. viii. 8 In the first edition it was thus: "As o'er the fragrant stream she bends her head, All that is between was added afterwards. 9 See Milton, lib. iv. of Satan cut asunder by the angel Michael. The meeting points the sacred hair dissever Then flash'd the living lightning from her eyes, "Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine, 155 160 165 170 What Time would spare, from steel receives its date, And monuments, like men, submit to fate! Steel could the labour of the gods destroy, And strike to dust th' imperial towers of Troy; Steel could the works of mortal pride confound, 175 And hew triumphal arches to the ground. What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hairs should feel12 10 Ver. 163, 170, "Dum juga montis aper, fluvios dum piscis amabit, Semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt."-Virg. 11 A famous book written about that time by a woman: full of court and party scandal; and in a loose effeminacy of style and sentiment, which well suited the debauched taste of the better vulgar. [Mrs. Manley, the authoress of the "New Atalantis," was a remarkable person in her own times, and claimed attention as a novelist, a dramatist, a political writer, and a woman of intrigue. She is frequently mentioned in Swift's Journal to Stella; and when the Dean relinquished the Examiner Mrs. Manley continued it, with the assistance of Swift and other Tory wits. She was the daughter of Sir Roger Manley, Governor of Guernsey. After a gay and busy life she sunk into a connection with Alderman Barber, in whose house she died in 1724.] 12 "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,1 And secret passions labour'd in her breast. 5 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 withdrew,2 And Ariel weeping from Belinda flew, Umbriel, a dusky, melancholy sprite, As ever sullied the fair face of light, Down to the central earth, his proper scene, 15 Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome, 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, 1 "At regina gravi," &c.-Virg. Æn. iv. 20 25 2 All the lines from hence to the ninety-fourth verse, that describe the House of Spleen, are not in the first edition; instead of them followed only these: "While her rack'd soul repose and peace requires, The fierce Thalestris fans the rising fires," and continued at the ninety-fourth verse of this canto. With store of prayers, for mornings, nights, and noons, 30 Her hand is fill'd; her bosom with lampoons. There Affectation, with a sickly mien, Now glaring fiends, and snakes on rolling spires, Unnumber'd throngs on every side are seen 3 35 40 45 50 Safe pass'd the gnome through this fantastic band, 55 A branch of healing spleen-wort in his hand. Parent of vapours, and of female wit, Who give th' hysteric or poetic fit; 60 On various tempers act by various ways, Make some take physic, others scribble plays; Who cause the proud their visits to delay, A nymph there is, that all thy power disdains, 65 And thousands more in equal mirth maintains. 3 See Hom. Iliad. xviii. of Vulcan's walking tripods. 4 Alludes to a real fact, a lady of distinction imagined herself in this condition. 5 [See Beaumont and Fletcher's "Loyal Subject," act iv. sc. 2.] |