165 So very reasonable, so unmov'd, As never yet to love, or to be lov'd. She, while her Lover pants upon her breaft, Can mark the figures on an Indian cheft; * Forbid it Heav'n, a Favour or a Debt 175 She e'er should cancel-but she may forget. NOTES. VER. 181. One certain Portrait - the same 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; so that the fatire falls not on any particular Character, but on the Character-maker only. See Note on 78, 1 Dialogue 1738. 1 185 Poets heap Virtues, Painters Gems at will, And show 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. That Robe of Quality so struts and swells, 190 Th'exactest traits of Body or of Mind, 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 To draw the man who loves his God, or King: VARIATIONS. After y 198. in the MS. 195 Fain I'd in Fulvia spy the tender Wife ; NOTES. VER. 198. Mah'met, fervant to the late King, faid to be the son of a Turkish Bassa, whom he took at the ! 200 But grant, in Public Men sometimes are shown, Bred to disguise, in Public 'tis you hide; There, none diftinguish 'twixt your Shame or Pride, Weakness or Delicacy; all so nice, NOTES. 205 Siege of Buda, and con- | ing, nor can we answer that Ibid. Dr Stephen Hales, tural Philosopher, than for VER. 199. But grant, in tion, as making their difguising in public the necefsary effect of their being bred to disguise; but if we confider that female Education is an art of teaching not to be, but to appear, we shall have no reason to find fault with the exactness of the expreffion. VER. 206. That each may seem a Virtue, or a Vice.] For Women are taught Virtue so artificially, and Vice so naturally, that, in the nice exercise of them, they may be easily mistaken for one another. SCRIB. In Men, we various Ruling Passions find; In Women, two almost divide the kind; Those, only fix'd, they first or last obey, The Love of Pleasure, and the Love of Sway. 210 That, Nature gives; and where the lesson taught Is but to please, can Pleasure seem a fault? Experience, this; by Man's oppression curst, They feek the second not to lose the first. Men, some to Bus'ness, some to Pleasure take; But ev'ry Woman is at heart a Rake: Men, some to Quiet, some to public Strife; But ev'ry Lady would be Queen for life. VARIATIONS. VER. 207. in the first Edition, In sev'ral Men we sev'ral passions find; NOTES. 216 VER. 207. The former | cation, and in some degree part having shewn, that the particular Characters of Women are more various than those of Men, it is nevertheless observed, that the general Characteristic of the sex, as to the ruling Paffion, is more uniform. P. VER. 211. This is occafioned partly by their Nature, and partly their Edu by Neceffity. P. VER. 213. Experience this, &c.] The ironical apology continued: That the Second is, as it were, forced upon them by the tyranny and oppression of man, in order to fecure the first. VER. 216. But ev'ry Woman is at heart a Rake:] "Some men (says the Poet) Yet mark the fate of a whole Sex of Queens ! Pow'r all their end, but Beauty all the means: 220 In Youth they conquer, with so wild a rage, As leaves them scarce a subject in their Age: For foreign glory, foreign joy, they roam; No thought of peace or happiness at home. But Wisdom's triumph is well-tim'd Retreat, 225 As hard a science to the Fair as Great! Beauties like Tyrants, old and friendless grown, Yet hate repose, and dread to be alone, Worn out in public, weary ev'ry eye, Nor leave one figh behind them when they die. 230 Pleasures the sex, as children Birds, pursue, Still out of reach, yet never out of view; Sure, if they catch, to spoil the Toy at most, To covet flying, and regret when loft : |