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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;
And when she sees her Friend in deep despair,
Observes how much a Chintz exceeds Mohair. 170

* Forbid it Heav'n, a Favour or a Debt

175

She e'er should cancel-but she may forget.
Safe is your Secret still in Cloe's ear;
But none of Cloe's fhall 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. 180
One certain Portrait may (I grant) be seen,
Which Heav'n has varnish'd out, and made a Queen :
THE SAME FOR EVER! and describ'd by all
With Truth and Goodness, as with Crown and Ball.

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,
None fee what Parts of Nature it conceals :

190

Th'exactest traits of Body or of Mind,
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

To draw the man who loves his God, or King:
Alas! I copy (or my draught would fail)
From honest Mah'met, or plain Parson Hale.

VARIATIONS.

After y 198. in the MS.

195

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 the love, and merit verse, have mine.

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,
A Woman's seen in Private life alone:
Our bolder Talents in full light display'd;
Your Virtues open fairest in the shade.

Bred to disguise, in Public 'tis you hide;

There, none diftinguish 'twixt your Shame or Pride,

Weakness or Delicacy; all so nice,
That each may feem a Virtue, or a Vice.

NOTES.

205

Siege of Buda, and con- | ing, nor can we answer that
stantly kept about his per- these are exactly inserted. P.
fon. P.
VER. 203. Bred to dif-
guise, in Public'tis you hide;]
There is something particu-

Ibid. Dr Stephen Hales,
not more eftimable for his
useful discoveries as a Na-lar in the turn of this affer-

tural Philosopher, than for
his exemplary Life and Pa-
storal Charity as a Parish
Prieft.

VER. 199. But grant, in
Public, &c.] In the former
Editions, between this and
the foregoing lines, a want
of Connexion might be per-
ceived, occafioned by the
omiffion of certain Examples
and Illustrations to the Max-
ims laid down; and tho'
some of these have fince
been found, viz. the Cha-
racters of Philomedé, Atossa,
Cloe, and some verses fol-
lowing, others are still want- |

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;
In Women, two almost divide the Kind.

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 :

At last, to follies Youth could scarce defend, 235 It grows their Age's prudence to pretend;

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