OF THE CHARACTERS OF WOMEN.

NOTHING SO true as what you once let fall, "Most women have no Characters at all." Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear,

And best distinguish'd by black, brown, or fair.

Of the Characters of Women.] There is nothing in Mr. Pope's works more highly finished than this Epistle: Yet its success was in no proportion to the pains he took in composing it. Something he chanced to drop in a short advertisement prefixed to it, on its first publication, may perhaps account for the small attention given to it. He said, that no one character in it was drawn from the life. The pub lic believed him on his word, and expressed little curiosity about a Satire, in which there was nothing personal.

Ver. 1. Nothing so true, etc.] The reader perhaps may be disappointed to find that this Epistle, which proposes the same subject with the preceding, is conducted on very different rules of method; for instead of being disposed in the same logical connection, and filled with the like philosophical remarks, it is wholly taken up in drawing a a great variety of capital characters: But if he would reflect, that the two Sexes make but one Species, and consequently, that the Characters of both must be studied and explained on the same principles, he would see, that when the poet had done this in the preceding Epistle, his business here was, not to repeat what he had already delivered, but only to verify and illustrate his doctrine, by every view of that perplexity of Nature, which his philosophy only can explain. If the reader, therefore, will but be at the pains to study these Characters with any degree of attention, as they are here masterly drawn, one important particular (for which the poet has artfully prepared him by the

intro

How many pictures of one Nymph we view, All how unlike each other, all how true!

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introduction) will very forcibly strike his observation; and that is, that all the great strokes in the several Characters of Women are not only infinitely perplexed and discordant, like those in Men, but absolutely inconsistent, and in a much higher degree contradictory. As strange as this may appear, yet he will see that the poet has all the while strictly followed Nature, whose ways, we find by the former Epistle, are not a little mysterious; and a mystery this might have remained, had not our author explained it at ver. 207, where he shuts up his Characters with this philosophical reflection:

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.

If this account be true, we see the perpetual necessity (which is not the case in Men) that Women lie under of disguising their ruling Passion. Now the variety of arts employed to this purpose, must needs draw them into infinite contradictions in those Actions from whence their general and obvious Character is denominated; to verify this observation, let the reader examine all the Characters here drawn, and try whether with this key he cannot discover that all their Contradictions arise from a desire to hide the ruling Passion.

But this is not the worst. The poet afterwards (from ver. 218 to 249) takes notice of another mischief arising from this necessity of hiding their ruling Passions; which is, that generally the end of each is defeated, even there where they are most violently pursued: For the necessity of hiding them inducing an habitual dissipation of mind, Reason, whose office it is to regulate the ruling Passion, loses all its force and direction; and these unhappy victims to their principles, tho' with their attention still fixed upon them, are ever prosecuting the means destructive of their end, and thus becoming ridiculous in youth, and miserable in old age.

Let me not omit to observe the great beauty of the conclusion: It is an Encomium on an imaginary Lady, to whom the Epistle is addressed, and artfully turns upon the fact which makes the subject of the Epistle, the contradiction of a Woman's Character, in which contradiction he shews that all the lustre even of the best Character consists:

And yet, believe me, good as well as ill,
Woman's at best a Contradiction still, etc.

Ver. 5. How many pictures] The poet's purpose here is to shew, that the Characters of Women are generally inconsistent with themselves; and this he illustrates by so happy a Similitude, that we see the folly, described in it, arises from that very principle which gives birth to this inconsistency of Character.

Arcadia's Countess, here, in ermin'd pride,
Is there, Pastora by a fountain side.

Here Fannia, leering on her own good man,
And there, a naked Leda with a Swan.
Let then the fair one beautifully cry,
In Magdalene's loose hair and lifted eye,
Or drest in smiles of sweet Cecilia shine,

With simp❜ring Angels, Palms, and Harps divine;
Whether the Charmer sinner it, or saint it,
If Folly grow romantic, I must paint it.

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Come then, the colours and the ground prepare Dip in the Rainbow, trick her off in Air; Chuse a firm Cloud, before it fall, and in it Catch, ere she change, the Cynthia of this minute. 20 Rufa, whose eye, quick glancing o'er the Park, Attracts each light gay meteor of a Spark, Agrees as ill with Rufa studying Locke, As Sappho's di'monds with her dirty smock; Or Sappho at her toilet's greasy task, With Sappho fragrant at an evʼning Mask: So morning Insects that in muck begun, Shine, buzz, and fly-blow in the setting sun.

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Ver. 7, 8, 10, etc. Arcadia's Countess-Pastora by a fountainLeda with a swan-Magdalene-Cecilia-] Attitudes in which several ladies affected to be drawn, and sometimes one lady in them all. -The poet's politeness and complaisance to the sex is observable in this instance, amongst others, that, whereas in the Characters of Men, he has sometimes made use of real names, in the Characters of Women, always fictitious.

Ver. 20. Catch, ere she change, the Cynthia of this minute:] Alluding to the precept of Fresnoy,

formæ veneres captando fugaces.

Ver. 21. Instances of contrarieties, given even from such Characters as are most strongly marked, and seemingly therefore most consistent; As, I. In the Affected, ver. 21, ęte,

How soft is Silia! fearful to offend;

The frail one's advocate, the weak one's friend.
To her, Calista prov'd her conduct nice;
And good Simplicius asks of her advice.
Sudden, she storms! she raves! You tip the wink,
But spare your censure; Silia does not drink.
All eyes may see from what the change arose,
All eyes may see-a Pimple on her nose.

Papillia, wedded to her am'rous spark,
Sighs for the shades-" How charming is a Park!"
A Park is purchas'd, but the Fair he sees

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All bath'd in tears-" Oh odious, odious Trees!"
Ladies, like variegated Tulips, show;

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'Tis to their Changes half their charms we owe;
Fine by defect, and delicately weak,

Their happy Spots the nice admirer take.
'Twas thus Calypso once each heart alarm'd,
Aw'd without Virtue, without Beauty charm'd;
Her Tongue bewitch'd as oddly as her Eyes,
Less Wit than Mimic, more a Wit than wise;
Strange graces still, and stranger flights she had,
Was just not ugly, and was just not mad;
Yet ne'er so sure our passion to create,
As when she touch'd the brink of all we hate.
Narcissa's nature, tolerably mild,

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To make a wash would hardly stew a child;
Has ev'n been prov'd to grant a Lover's pray'r,
And paid a Tradesman once to make him stare;

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Ver. 29, and 37. II. Contrarieties in the Soft-natured.
Ver. 45. III. Contrarieties in the Cunning and Artful.

Ver. 52. As when she touch'd the brink of all we hate.] Her charms consisted in the singular turn of her vivacity; consequently the stronger she exerted this vivacity, the more forcible must be her attraction. But the point, where it came to excess, would destroy all the delicacy, and expose all the coarseness of sensuality.

Ver. 53. IV. In the Whimsical.

Gave alms at Easter, in a Christian trim,
And made a Widow happy, for a whim.
Why then declare Good-nature is her scorn,
When 'tis by that alone she can be born?
Why pique all mortals, yet affect a name?
A fool to Pleasure, yet a slave to Fame:
Now deep in Taylor and the Book of Martyrs,

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Now drinking Citron with his Grace and Chartres:
Now Conscience chills her, and now Passion burns; 65
And Atheism and Religion take their turns;

A very Heathen in the carnal part,
Yet still a sad, good Christian at her heart.
See Sin in State, majestically drunk;
Proud as a Peeress, prouder as a Punk;
Chaste to her Husband, frank to all beside,
A teeming Mistress, but a barren Bride.

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What then? let Blood and Body bear the fault,
Her Head's untouch'd, that noble Seat of Thought:
Such this day's doctrine-in another fit

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She sins with Poets thro' pure love of Wit.
What has not fir'd her bosom or her brain ?
Cæsar and Tall-boy, Charles and Charlema❜ne.
As Helluo, late Dictator of the Feast,
The nose of Haut-gout, and the tip of Taste,
Critiqu'd your wine, and analyz’d your meat,
Yet on plain pudding deign'd at home to eat:
So Philomedé, lecț'ring all mankind
On the soft Passion, and the Taste refin'd,

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Ver. 57.-in a Christian trim,] This is finely expressed, implying that her very charity was as much an exterior of religion, as the ceremonies of the season. It was not even in a Christian humour, it was only in a Christian trim.

Ver. 69. V. In the Lewd and Vicious.

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 77. What has not fir'd, etc.] In the MS.

In whose mad brain the mixt ideas roll,
Of Tall-boy's breeches, and of Cæsar's soul.