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But grant, in Public Men fometimes are shown, A Woman's feen in Private life alone:

200

Our bolder Talents in full light difplay'd;
Your Virtues open faireft in the shade.
Bred to disguise, in Public 'tis you hide;
There, none diftinguish 'twixt your Shame or Pride,

VARIATIONS,

After 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 blufh no lefs,
Inftead 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.

the fon of a Turkish Bassa, whom he took at the Siege of Buda, and conftantly kept about his perfon. P.

Ibid. Dr. Stephen Hale, not more eftimable for his useful difcoveries as a natural Philofopher, than for his exemplary Life and Paftoral Charity as a Parish Priest.

VER. 199. But grant, in Public, &c.] In the former Editions, between this and the foregoing lines, a want of Connexion might be perceived, occafioned by the emiffion of certain Examples and Illuftrations to the Maxims laid down; and tho' fome of these have fince been found, viz. the Characters of Philomede, Atoffa, Cloe, and fome verfes following, others are ftill wanting, nor can we anfwer that these are exactly inferted. P.

VER. 203. Bred to difguife, in Public 'tis you hide;] There is fomething particular in the turn of this affertion, as making their difguifing in public the neceffary effect of their being bred to difguife; but if we confider that female Education is an art VOL. III.

Weakness or. Delicacy; all fo nice,

That each may seem a Virtue, or a Vice.
In Men, we various Ruling Paffions find;
In Women, two almoft divide the kind;

Thofe, only fix'd, they first or laft obey,

205

The Love of Pleasure, and the Love of Sway. 210 That, Nature gives; and where the leffon taught Is but to please, can Pleasure seem a fault?

VARIATIONS.

VER. 207. in the firft Edition,.

In fev'ral Men we fev'ral paffions find ;
In Women, two almoft divide the Kind..

NOTES.

of teaching not to be, but to appear, we fhall' have no reason to find fault with the exactnefs of the expreflion.

VER. 206. That each may feem a Virtue or a Vice.] For Women are taught Virtue fo artificially, and Vice fo naturally, that, in the nice exercise of them, they may be easily mistaken for one another. SCRIBL.

VER. 207. The former part having fhewn, that the particu lar Characters of Women are more various than those of Men, it is nevertheless obferved, that the general Characteristic of the fex, as to the ruling Paffion, is more uniform. P..

VER. 211. This is occafioned partly by their Nature, partly their Education, and in fome degree by Neceffity. P.

VER. 211, 212.—and where the leffon taught Is but to please, can, &c.] The delicacy of the poet's addrefs is here obfervable, in his manner of informing us what this Pleafure is, which makes one of the two objects of Woman's ruling Paffion. He does it in an ironical apology for it, arifing from its being a Pleasure of the beneficent and communicative kind, and not merely selfish, like those which the other sex generally pursues.

4

Experience, this; by Man's oppreffion curst,
They seek the second not to lofe the first.

216

Men, fome to Bus'ness, fome to Pleasure take; But ev'ry Woman is at heart a Rake: Men, fome to Quiet, fome to public Strife;

But ev'ry Lady would be Queen for life.

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 fo 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 fcience to the Fair as Great!

Beauties, like Tyrants, old and friendless grown, Yet hate repose, and dread to be alone,

NOTES.

VER. 213. Experience this, &c.] The ironical apology continued: That the Second is, as it were, forced upon them by the tyranny and oppreffion of man, in order to fecure the firft.

VER. 216. But ev'ry Woman is at heart a Rake :] "Some "men (fays the Poet) take to bufinefs, fome to pleasure, but "every woman would willingly make pleasure her business:" which being the peculiar characteristic of a Rake, we must needs think that he includes (in his ufe of the word here) no more of the Rake's ill qualities than are implied in this definition, of one who makes pleasure his business.

VER. 219. What are the Aims and the Fate of this Sex? -I. As to Power. P.

She who ne'er answers till a Husband cools,
Or, if fhe rules him, never fhews fhe rules;
Charms by accepting, by fubmitting sways,
Yet has her humour most, when the obeys;
Let Fops or Fortune fly which way they will; 265
Difdains all lofs of Tickets, or Codille;

Spleen, Vapours, or Small-pox, above them all,
And Mistress of herself, tho' China fall.

279

And yet, believe me, good as well as ill, Woman's at beft a Contradiction still, Heav'n, when it strives to polish all it can Its laft beft work, but forms a fofter Man; Picks from each fex, to make the Fav'rite bleft, Your love of Pleasure, our defire of Reft; Blends, in exception to all gen'ral rules,

275

Your taste of Follies, with our Scorn of Fools: Referve with Frankness, Art with Truth ally'd, Courage with Softnefs, Modefty with Pride;

NOTES.

VER. 269. The picture of an estimable Woman, with the heft kind of contrarieties, created out of the poet's imagination; who therefore feigned thofe circumftances of a Hufband, a Daughter, and love for a Sifter, to prevent her being mistaken for any of his acquaintance. And having thus made his Woman, he did, as the ancient poets were wont, when they had madę their Muse, invoke, and addrefs his poem to, her.

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286

Be this a Woman's Fame: with this unbleft,
Toasts live a scorn, and Queens may die a jest.
This Phoebus promis'd (I forget the year)
When those blue eyes first open'd on the sphere;
Afcendant Phœbus watch'd that hour with care,
Averted half your Parents' fimple Pray'r;
And gave you Beauty, but deny'd the Pelf
That buys your sex a Tyrant o'er itself.
The gen'rous God, who Wit and Gold refines,
And ripens Spirits as he ripens Mines,
Kept Drofs for Ducheffes, the world shall know it,
To you gave Senfe, Good-humour, and a Poet.

NOTES.

290

VER. 285. &c. Afcendant Phoebus watch'd that hour with care, Averted half your Parents' fimple Pray'r; And gave you Beauty, but deny'd the Pelf] The poet concludes his Epiftle with a fine Moral, that deferves the ferious attention of the public: It is this, that all the extravagances of thefe vicious Characters here defcribed, are much inflamed by a wrong Education, hinted at in 203; and that even the best are rather fecured by a good natural than by the prudence and providence of parents; which obfervation is conveyed under the fublime claffical machinery of Phoebus in the afcendant, watching the natal hour of his favourite, and averting the ill effects of her parents mistaken fondness: For Phoebus, as the god of Wit, confers Genius; and, as one of the aftronomical influences, defeats the adventitious byas of education.

In conclufion, the great Moral from both thefe Epiftles together is, that the two rarest things in all Nature are a DISINTERESTED MAN, and a REASONABLE WOMAN.

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