As came into her fancy first;

Nam'd half the rates, and lik'd the worst.

385

To fcandal next- -What awkward thing
Was that last Sunday in the ring?
I'm forry Mopfa breaks fo faft;
I faid, her face would never last.
Corinna, with that youthful air,
Is thirty, and a bit to spare :
Her fondnefs for a certain Earl
Began when I was but a girl!
Phillis, who but a month ago

Was marry'd to the Tunbridge beau,
I faw coquetting t'other night

In public with that odious knight!

They railly'd next Vaneffa's dress:

That gown was made for old queen Bess.

Dear Madam, let me fee

your head:

Don't you intend to put on red?

A petticoat without a hoop!

390

395

400

Sure, you are not asham'd to stoop!

With handfome garters at your knees,

No inatter what a fellow fees.

Fill'd with difdain, with rage inflam'd,
Both of herself and fex afham'd,
The nymph ftood filent out of spight,
Nor would vouchfafe to fet them right.
Away the fair detractors went,
And gave by turns their cenfures vent.
She's not fo handfome in my eyes:
For wit, I wonder where it lies!

405

410

She's

She's fair and clean, and that's the most :

I'll undertake, my little Nancy
In flounces hath a better fancy!
With all her wit, I would not afk
Her judgement, how to buy a mask.
We begg'd her but to patch her face,
She never hit one proper place;
Which every girl at five years old
Can do as foon as she is told.

I own, that out-of-fashion ftuff
Becomes the creature well enough.

420

425

The girl might pafs, if we could get her
To know the world a little better.

(To know the world! a modern phrase

430

For vifits, ombre, balls, and plays.)

Thus, to the world's perpetual thame,

The Queen of Beauty loft her aim;

Too late with grief the understood,

Pallas had done more harm than good;.
For great examples are but vain,

435

Where ignorance begets difdain.
Both fexes, arm'd with guilt and fpite,
Against Vanessa's power unite :

To copy her, few nymphs afpir'd;
Her virtues fewer fwains admir'd.

440

So ftars beyond a certain height
Give mortals neither heat nor light.
Yet fome of either fex, endow'd
With gifts fuperior to the croud,

445

With virtue, knowledge, taste, and wit,

She condefcended to admit :

With pleating arts she could reduce

Mens talents to their proper use ;

And with address each genius held

To that wherein it moft excell'd;

Thus, making others' wisdom known,

Could please them, and improve her own.
A modeft youth said something new;

450

She plac'd it in the strongest view.

455

All humble worth the ftrove to raise ;
Would not be prais'd, yet lov'd to praise.
The learned met with free approach,

Although they came not in a coach:
Some clergy too fhe would allow,
Nor quarrel'd at their awkward bow;
But this was for Cadenus' fake,
A gownman of a different make;
Whom. Pallas, once Vaneffa's tutor,
Had fix'd on for her coadjutor.

But Cupid, full of mischief, longs
To vindicate his mother's wrongs.
On Pallas all attempts are vain :
One way he knows to give her pain;
Vows on Vaneffa's heart to take
Due vengeance, for her patron's fake.

460

465

470

Thofe

Thofe early feeds by Venus fown,

In fpite of Pallas, now were grown;
And Cupid hop'd, they would improve
By time, and ripen into love.

The boy made use of all his craft,

In vain difcharging many a fhaft,

Pointed at colonels, lords, and beaux :
Cadenus warded off the blows;

For, placing ftill fome book betwixt,

The darts were in the cover fix'd,

Or, often blunted and recoil'd,

475

480

On Plutarch's Morals ftruck, were fpoil'd.
The Queen of Wisdom could foresee,

But not prevent, the Fates' decree :
And human caution tries in vain
To break that adamantine chain.
Vaneffa, though by Pallas taught,
By Love invulnerable thought,
Searching in books for wifdom's aid,
Was, in the very search, betray'd.
Cupid, though all his darts were loft,
Yet ftill refolv'd to fpare no coft:
He could not answer to his fame
The triumphs of that stubborn dame,
A nymph fo hard to be fubdued,
Who neither was coquette nor prude.
I find, faid he, fhe wants a doctor,
Both to adore her, and inftru&t her:
I'll give her what fhe most admires,
Among those venerable fires.

13

485

490

495

500

Cadenus

Her fex, with univerfal voice,
Muft laugh at her capricious choice.
Cadenus many things had writ:

Vanessa much esteem'd his wit,
And call'd for his poetic works:

510

Mean time the boy in fecret lurks;

And, while the book was in her hand,
The urchin from his private stand

515

Took aim, and shot with all his strength

A dart of fuch prodigious length,
It pierc'd the feeble volume through,
And deep transfix'd her bofom too.

Declin'd in health, advanc'd in years.
She fancies mufick in his tongue;

530

Nor farther looks, but thinks him young.

What