TO MR. POPE.

IN ANSWER TO A COPY OF VERSES OCCASIONED BY A LITTLE DISPUTE UPON 4 LINES IN THE RAPE OF

THE LOCK.

By ye Right Honorable the Countess of WINCHELSEA.*

We rule the world, our lives long race,

Men but assume that right;

First slaves to every tempting face,

Then martyrs to our spight.

* Authoress of several excellent little pieces of poetry. She is thus addressed by Rowe:

Say from what sacred fountain, Nymph divine,
The treasures flow which in thy verse do shine?
With what strange inspiration art thou blest,

What more than Delphick ardour warms thy breast?

†Those parts which are printed in Italicks are written by Pope, to be substituted for those in the brackets.

3.

You of one Orpheus sure have read,
Who would like you have writt,
Had he in London town been bred,
And pollish'd to his wit.

4.

But he, poor soul! thought all was well,
And great should be his fame;

When he had left his wife in hell,

And birds and beasts could tame.

5.

Yet vent'ring then, with scoffing rhymes,

The women to incense, Resenting heroines of those times Soon punished the offence.

Our sordid earth ne'er bred so bright a flame,
But from the skies, thy kindred skies it came.
To numbers great, like thine, the angelick choir,
In joyous concert, tune the golden lyre;
Viewing with pitying eyes our cares, with thee
They wisely own that "All is vanity."

Ev'n all the joys that mortal minds can know,

And find Adelia's verse the least vain thing below.

6.

And as thro' Hebrus roll'd his scull,
And Harpe besmear'd with blood,

dele

They, clashing as the waves grew full,

Still harmonised the flood.

7.

But you our follies gently treat,

And spin so fine the thread,

You need not fear his awkward fate ;

The Lock wont cost the Head.*

• The following are the verses alluded to in the title of this poem, they are addressed

TO LADY WINCHELSEA, OCCASIONED BY 4 VERSES IN THE RAPE OF THE LOCK," BY MR. POPE.

66

In vain you boast poetick names of yore,
And-cite those Sapphoes we admire no more;
Fate doom'd the fall of ev'ry female wit,
But doom'd it then when first Adelia writ.
Of all examples by the world confest,
I knew Ardelia could not quote the best;
Who, like her mistress on Britannia's throne,
Fights & subdues in quarrels not her own.
To write their praise you but in vain assay;
Ev'n while you write you take that praise away.
Light to the stars the sun does thus restore,
And shines himself till they are seen no more.

8.

Our admiration you command,
For all [that's gone] before;
What next we look for at your hand

Can only raise itt more.

9.

Yett sooth the ladies, I advise,

As me to pride you've wrought, [We're born to wit; but to be wise]* [By admonition's taught.]

you sung

FRAGMENT BY POPE.

13.

Then he went to the side-board and call'd for

much liquor,

And glass after glass he drank quicker and

quicker,

So that Heidegger quoth,

Nay, saith on his oath,

Of two hogsheads of burgundy Satan drank both.

* These two last lines are deficient in the original copy, in her ladyship's hand-writing; they are added from a copy in the manuscripts of Dr. Birch.

Then like an A

8.

the devil appear'd,

And strait the whole table of dishes he clear'd;

Then a friar; then a nun;

And then he put on

A face all the company took for his own.

Ev'n thine, O false Heidegger, who wert so

wicked

To let in the Devil*.

AN INSCRIPTION

UPON A PUNCH BOWL, BOUGHT IN THE SOUTH SEA YEAR, FOR A CLUB- CHASED WITH JUPITER PLACING CALLISTA IN THE SKIES, AND EUROPA WITH THE BULL.

Come, fill the South Sea Goblet full,

The Gods shall of our stock take care, Europa pleas'd, accepts the Bull,

And Jove with joy puts off the Bear.†

* This appears, by the frequent mention of Heydegger, to be part of a long poem on Masquerades; which he brought into such vogue, that in May 1729, the grand jury represented him and his masquerades as nuisances.

†This Epigram of Mr. Pope was communicated by the Rev. Dr. Warburton to THO. BIRCH.

and is now copied from the manuscript to which the above note is appended.