86

Or suck the mists in grosser air below,
Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,
Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main,
Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain;
Others on earth o'er human race preside,
Watch all their ways, and all their actions
guide:

Of these the chief the care of nations own, And guard with arms divine the British throne.

"Our humbler province is to tend the fair, Not a less pleasing, though less glorious care; To save the powder from too rude a gale, Nor let th' imprisoned essences exhale; To draw fresh colours from the vernal flowers; To steal from rainbows, ere they drop in showers, 96 A brighter wash; to curl their waving hairs, Assist their blushes, and inspire their airs; Nay, oft in dreams, invention we bestow, To change a flounce, or add a furbelow. "This day, black omens threat the brightest fair

100

130

Or alum styptics with contracting power
Shrink his thin essence like a rivelled 2 flower;
Or, as Ixion fixed, the wretch shall feel
The giddy motion of the whirling mill,3
In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow, 135
And tremble at the sea that froths below!"

He spoke; the spirits from the sails descend;

Some, orb in orb, around the nymph extend; Some thrid the mazy ringlets of her hair;

Some hang upon the pendants of her ear; 140 With beating hearts the dire event they wait, Anxious, and trembling for the birth of fate.]*

ΙΟ

Hither the heroes and the nymphs resort,
To taste awhile the pleasures of a court;
In various talk th' instructive hours they
passed,

Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last;
One speaks the glory of the British Queen,
And one describes a charming Indian screen;
A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes;
At every word a reputation dies.

16

Snuff, or the fan, supply each pause of chat, With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that.

Meanwhile, declining from the noon of day, The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray; 20 The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, And wretches hang that jurymen may dine; The merchant from th' Exchange returns in peace,

And the long labours of the toilet cease.

2 [Belinda now, whom thirst of fame invites, 25
Burns to encounter two adventurous knights,
At ombre singly to decide their doom;
And swells her breast with conquests yet to

come.

Straight the three bands prepare in arms to join,

Each band the number of the sacred nine.3 30
Soon as she spreads her hand, th' aërial guard
Descend, and sit on each important card:
First, Ariel perched upon a Matadore,
Then each, according to the rank they bore;
For sylphs, yet mindful of their ancient race,
Are, as when women, wondrous fond of place.
Behold, four kings in majesty revered,
With hoary whiskers and a forky beard;
And four fair queens whose hands sustain a
flower,

The expressive emblem of their softer power;
Four knaves in garbs succinct, a trusty band,
Caps on their heads, and halberts in their
hand;

And parti-coloured troops, a shining train,
Draw forth to combat on the velvet plain.

42

56

As many more Manillio1 forced to yield
And marched a victor from the verdant field.
Him Basto2 followed, but his fate more hard
Gained but one trump and one plebeian card.
With his broad sabre next, a chief in years,
The hoary majesty of spades appears,
Puts forth one manly leg, to sight revealed,
The rest, his many-coloured robe concealed.
The rebel knave, who dares his prince engage,
Proves the just victim of his royal rage.
E'en mighty Pam,3 that kings and queens o'er-
threw,

60

And mowed down armies in the fights of Loo,4
Sad chance of war! now destitute of aid,
Falls undistinguished by the victor spade!

Thus far both armies to Belinda yield; 65
Now to the baron fate inclines the field.
His warlike Amazon her host invades,
The imperial consort of the crown of spades;
The club's black tyrant first her victim died,
Spite of his haughty mien, and barbarous
pride.

70

What boots the regal circle on his head,
His giant limbs, in state unwieldy spread;
That long behind he trails his pompous robe,
And, of all monarchs, only grasps the globe?
The baron now his diamonds pours apace;
Th' embroidered king who shows but half his
face,
76

And his refulgent queen, with powers combined,

Of broken troops an easy conquest find.
Clubs, diamonds, hearts, in wild disorder seen,
With throngs promiscuous strew the level
green.5

80

Thus when dispersed a routed army runs,
Of Asia's troops, and Afric's sable sons,
With like confusion different nations fly,
Of various habit, and of various dye,
The pierced battalions disunited fall,
In heaps on heaps; one fate o'erwhelms them
all.

85

The knave of diamonds tries his wily arts, And wins (oh shameful chance!) the queen of hearts.

At this the blood the virgin's check forsook, A livid paleness spreads o'er all her look; 90 She sees, and trembles at th' approaching ill, Just in the jaws of ruin, and codille.

1 deuce of spades, the next highest 2ace of clubs, third trump. These three are called "matadores." 3 knave of clubs another game, in which Pam is the highest card 5 the card table a term signifying the defeat of the single player

He springs to vengeance with an eager pace, And falls like thunder on the prostrate ace. The nymph exulting fills with shouts the sky; The walls, the woods, and long canals reply.

Oh thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate, Too soon dejected, and too soon elate. 102 Sudden, these honours shall be snatched away, And cursed forever this victorious day.] 1

1

105

For lo the board with cups and spoons is crowned, The berries2 crackle, and the mill turns round; On shining altars of Japan3 they raise The silver lamp; the fiery spirits blaze: From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide, While China's earth receives the smoking tide: At once they gratify their scent and taste, 111 And frequent cups prolong the rich repast. Straight hover round the fair her airy band; Some, as she sipped, the fuming liquor fanned, Some o'er her lap their careful plumes displayed,

115

Trembling, and conscious of the rich brocade.
Coffee (which makes the politician wise,
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. 120
Ah, cease, rash youth! desist ere 'tis too late,
Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla's fate!
Changed to a bird, and sent to flit in air,
She dearly pays for Nisus' injured hair! 5

But when to mischief mortals bend their will, 125

How soon they find fit instruments of ill!
Just then Clarissa drew with tempting grace
A two-edged weapon from her shining case:
So ladies in romance assist their knight, 129
Present the spear, and arm him for the fight.
He takes the gift with reverence, 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, A thousand wings, by turns, blow back the hair;

4

135

1 Here ends the third addition. 2 coffee-berries 3 japanned tables porcelain 5 Cf. Gayley, p. 6 Here begins the fourth addition.

219.

And thrice they twitched the diamond in her ear;

Thrice she looked back, and thrice the foe drew near.

Just in that instant, anxious Ariel sought
The close recesses of the virgin's thought; 140
As on the nosegay in her breast reclined,
He watched th' ideas rising in her mind,
Sudden he viewed, in spite of all her art,
An earthly lover lurking at her heart.
Amazed, confused, he found his power ex-
pired,
Resigned to fate, and with a sigh retired.]1
The peer now spreads the glittering forfex2
wide,

3

145

T' inclose the lock; now joins it, to divide. [E'en then, before the fatal engine closed, A wretched sylph too fondly interposed; 150 Fate urged the shears, and cut the sylph in twain,

(But airy substance soon unites again).] 4 The meeting points the sacred hair dissever From the fair head, forever, and forever!

Then flashed the living lightning from her eyes, 155 And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies.

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! "Let wreaths of triumph now my temples

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, Repaired to search the gloomy cave of Spleen.2 Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome, And in a vapour reached the dismal dome. No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows, The dreaded east is all the wind that blows. Here in a grotto, sheltered close from air, And screened in shades from day's detested glare,

21

She sighs forever on her pensive bed,
Pain at her side, and Megrim 3 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 arrayed;

With store of prayers, for mornings, nights, and noons

31

45

seen,

55

ward queen!

66

60,

On various tempers act by various ways, Make some take physic, others scribble plays; Who cause the proud their visits to delay, And send the godly in a pet to pray.

64

A nymph there is, that all thy power disdains, And thousands more in equal mirth maintains,

But oh! if e'er thy gnome could spoil a grace,
Or raise a pimple on a beauteous face,

Like citron-waters matrons' cheeks inflame,
70
Or change complexions at a losing game;
If e'er with airy horns I planted heads,
Or rumpled petticoats, or tumbled beds,
Or caused suspicion when no soul was rude,
Or discomposed the head-dress of a prude,
Or e'er to costive lap-dog gave disease,
Which not the tears of brightest eyes could

could walk. from citron rinds.

hypochondria

a liquor distilled

For this with fillets strained your tender head,
And bravely bore the double loads of lead? 4
Gods! shall the ravisher display your hair,
While the fops envy, and the ladies stare!
Honour forbid! at whose unrivalled shrine
Ease, pleasure, virtue, all our sex resign. 106
Methinks already I your tears survey,
Already hear the horrid things they say,
Already see you a degraded toast,
And all your honour in a whisper lost!
How shall I, then, your helpless fame defend?
'Twill then be infamy to seem your friend!
And shall this prize, th' inestimable prize,
Exposed through crystal to the gazing eyes,
And heightened by the diamond's circling

rays,

IIO

"It grieves me much," replied the peer again, "Who speaks so well should ever speak in vain.

But by this lock, this sacred lock, I swear. (Which never more shall join its parted hair; Which never more its honours shall renew, 135 Clipped from the lovely head where late it grew)

That while my nostrils draw the vital air, This hand, which won it, shall forever wear." He spoke, and speaking, in proud triumph spread

The long-contended honours of her head. 140 [But Umbriel, hateful gnome! forbears not

so;

He breaks the vial whence the sorrows flow.]* Then see! the nymph in beauteous grief appears,

Her eyes half languishing, half drowned in tears;

On her heaved bosom hung her drooping head, Which, with a sigh, she raised; and thus she said:

146 "Forever curs'd be this detested day, Which snatched my best, my favourite curl away!

Happy! ah, ten times happy had I been,
If Hampton Court these eyes had never seen!
Yet am not I the first mistaken maid, 151
By love of courts to numerous ills betrayed.
Oh, had I rather unadmired remained
In some lone isle or distant northern land;
Where the gilt chariot never marks the way,

1 the bells of St. Mary-le-bow, in the older and unfashionable part of London 2 mottled, cf. Tatler, No. 103. 3-3 The seventh addition.