Full fixty years the World has been her Trade,
The wisest Fool much Time has ever made.

From loveless youth to unrespected age,
No Passion gratify'd except her Rage.

125

So much the Fury still out-ran the Wit,

The Pleasfure miss'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 pursu'd,

Nor more a storm her Hate than gratitude:
To that, each Paffion turns, or foon or late;
Love, if it makes her yield, must make her hate:
Superiors? death! and Equals? what a curse; 135

But an Inferior not dependant? worse.
Offend her, and she knows not to forgive;
Oblige her, and she'll hate you while you live:
But die, and she'll adore you-Then the Bust
And Temple rise-then fall again to dust.
Last night, her Lord was all that's good and great;
A Knave this morning, and his Will a Cheat.

140

Strange! by the Means defeated of the Ends,
By Spirit robb'd of Pow'r, by Warmth of Friends,
By Wealth of Follow'rs! without one distress 145

Sick of herself thro' very selfishness !
Atossa, curs'd with ev'ry granted pray'r,

Childless with all her Children, wants an Heir.
VARIATIONS.

After ver. 148 in the MS.

This Death decides, nor lets the blessing fall
On any one the hates, but on them all.

To Heirs unknown descends th' unguarded store,
Or wanders, Heav'n-directed, to the Poor.

Pictures like these, dear Madam, to design,
Asks no firm hand, and no unerring line;
Some wand'ring touches, some reflected light,
Some flying stroke alone can hit 'em right:
For how should equal Colours do the knack?
Chameleons who can paint in white and black?

VARIATIONS.

Curs'd chance! this only could afflict her more,
If any part should wander to the poor.

NOTES.

150

155

VER. 150. Or wanders, Heav'n-directed, &c.] Alluding and referring to the great principle of his Philofophy, which he never loses fight of; and which teaches, that Providence is incessantly turning the evils, arifing from the follies and vices of men, to general good.

VER. 156. Chameleons who can paint in white and black?] There is one thing that does a very distinguished honour to the accuracy of our Poet's judgment, of which, in the course of these observations, I have given many instances. I shall here explain in what it confifts; it is this, that the Similitudes in his didactic poems, of which he is not sparing, and which are all highly poetical, are always chosen with such exquisite difcernment of Nature, as not only to illustrate the particular point he is upon, but to establish the general principles he would enforce; so, in the instance before us, he compares the inconstancy 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 shew that the general characteriftic of the sex, as to the ruling passions, which they all have, is more uniform than that in man: Now for this

" Yet Cloe sure was form'd without a spot."Nature in her then err'd not, but forgot. "With ev'ry pleasing, ev'ry prudent part, "Say, what can Cloe want?"-She wants a Heart. She speaks, behaves, and acts just as she ought; 161 But never, never, reach'd one gen'rous Thought.

Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour,
Content to dwell in Decencies for ever.

So very reasonable, so unmov'd,
As never yet to love, or to be lov'd.

165

She, while her lover pants upon her breast,
Can mark the figures on an Indian chest:

NOTES.

purpose, all Nature could not have fupplied fuch another illustration as this of the chameleon; for tho' it instantaneously affumes much of the colour of every fubject on which it chances to be placed, yet, as the most accurate of the Virtuosi have observed, it has two native colours of its own, which, (like the two ruling passions in the Sex, see ver. 208.) amidst all these changes, are never totally discharged; but, tho' often discoloured by the neighbourhood of adventitious ones, ftill make the foundation, and give a tincture to all those which, from thence, it occasionally assumes.

VER. 157. " Yet Cloe fure, &c.] The purpose of the Poet in this character is important: it is to shew, that the politic or prudent government of the passions is not enough to make a character amiable, nor even to secure it from being ridiculous, if the end of that government be not pursued; which is the free exercise of the social appetites, after the selfish ones have been fubdued; for that if, tho' reason govern, the heart be never confulted, we interest ourselves as little in the fortune of such a character, as in VOL. III.

R

175

And when she fees her Friend in deep despair,
Observes how much a Chintz exceeds Mohair. 170
Forbid it Heav'n, a Favour or a Debt
She e'er should cancel ! - but she may forget.
Safe is your Secret still in Cloe's ear;
But none of Cloe's shall you ever hear.
Of all her Dears she never flander'd one,
But cares not if a thousand are undone.
Would Cloe know if you're alive or dead?
She bids her Footman put it in her head.
Cloe is prudent-Would you too be wife:
Then never break your heart when Cloe dies.
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,
And shew their zeal, and hide their want of skill.
'Tis well-but, Artists; who can paint or write,
To draw the Naked is your true delight.

NOTES.

3

180

185

any of the foregoing, which passions or caprice drive up and down at random.

VER. 181. One certain Portrait-the fame for ever-] This is entirely ironical; and conveys under it this general moral truth, that there is, in life, no such thing as perfect character; fo that the fatire falls not on any particular Character, or Station; but on the Character-maker only. See Note on ver. 78. 1 Dialogue 1738,

a

:

That Robe of Quality so struts and swells,
None fee what Parts of Nature it conceals:
Th' exactest traits of Body or of Mind,

190

We owe to models of an humble kind.

If QUEENSBERRY to strip there's no compelling, 'Tis from a Handmaid we must take a Helen.

From Peer or Bishop 'tis no easy thing

195

To draw the man who loves his God, or King:..

Alas! I copy (or my draught would fail)

From honeft Mah'met, or plain Parfon Hale.

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 198. in the MS.

Fain I'd in Fulvia spy the tender Wife;
I cannot prove it on her, for my life:
And, for a noble pride, I blush no less,
Instead of Berenice to think on Bess.
Thus while immortal Cibber only fings
(As * and H ** y preach) for queens and kings,
The nymph, that ne'er read Milton's mighty line,
May, if she love, and merit verse, have mine.

What, Love verse, and not read Milton? the Ladies will say. Yes. This is the very truth the Poet would infinuate. He supposes it, not to be the love of verse, but of the fashion, which engages them in this amusement. He therefore promises that the fair reader who is without AFFECTATION, and is yet mistress of the most amiable of those female virtues which that ridiculous vice quickly eradicates, shall have his verse, to make her amends for her unfashionable modesty.

NOTES.

VER. 198. Mah'met, servant to the late King, faid to be the fon of a Turkish Bassa, whom he took at the Siege of Buda, and constantly kept about his person.

P.