TREPHON AND CHLOE. 1731.

F Chloe all the town has rung,

OF

By every fize of poets fung

So beautiful a nymph appears
But once in twenty thousand years; .
By Nature form'd with nicest care,
And faultless to a single hair.

Her graceful mien, her shape, and face,
Confefs'd her of no mortal race:
And then fo nice, and fo genteel;
Such cleanlinefs from head to heel:
No humours grofs, or frowzy fteams,
No noifome whiffs, or fweaty ftreams,.
Before, behind, above, below,
Could from her taintlefs body flow:
Would fo difcreetly things difpofe,

None ever faw her pluck a rose.
Her dearest comrades never caught her

Squat on her hams, to make maid's water:
You'd fwear, that fo divine a creature

Felt no neceffities of nature.

In fummer had the walk'd the town,

Her arm-pits would not ftain her gown:

At country-dances not a nofe

Could in the dog-days fmell her toes.

Her milk-white hands, both palms and backs,,

Like ivory dry, and soft as wax.

Her

Her hands, the fofteft ever felt,

Though cold would burn, though dry would melt.

Dear Venus, hide this wondrous maid,

Nor let her loose to fpoil your trade.
While the ingroffes every fwain,

You but o'er half the world can reign.

Think what a cafe all men are now in,
What ogling, fighing, toasting, vowing!
What powder'd wigs! what flames and darts!
What hampers full of bleeding hearts!
What fword-knots! what poetic strains!
What billet-doux, and clouded canes !
But Strephon figh'd fo loud and ftrong,
He blew a fettlement along;

And bravely drove his rivals down
With coach and fix, and house in town.
The bafhful nymph no more withstands,
Because her dear papa commands.
The charming couple now unites :
Proceed we to the marriage-rites.
Imprimis, at the temple-porch
Stood Hymen with a flaming torch :
The fmiling Cyprian Goddefs brings
Her infant-loves with purple wings :
And pigeons billing, fparrows treading,
Fair emblems of a fruitful wedding.
The Muses next in order follow,
Conducted by their fquire, Apollo:
Then Mercury with filver tongue;
And Hebe, goddess ever young.“

5

Behold,

Behold, the bridegroom and his bride
Walk hand in hand, and fide by fide;
She by the tender Graces dreft,

But he by Mars, in scarlet vest.

The nymph was cover'd with her flammeum,
And Phoebus fung th' epithalamium.

And laft, to make the matter fure,
Dame Juno brought a priest demure.
Luna was abfent, on pretence

Her time was not till nine months hence.
The rites perform'd, the parfon paid,
In ftate return'd the grand parade;
With loud huzza's from all the boys,
That now the pair must crown their joys.
But ftill the hardest part remains :
Strephon had long perplex'd his brains,
How with fo high a nymph he might
Demean himself the wedding-night:
For, as he view'd his perfon round,
Mere mortal flesh was all he found:
His hand, his neck, his mouth, and feet,
Were duly wash'd, to keep them sweet
(With other parts that shall be nameless,
The ladies elfe might think me shameless).
The weather and his love were hot;

And, fhould he struggle, I know what

Why, let it go, if I must tell it—

He'll fweat, and then the nymph may fmell it;

While fhe, a goddess dy'd in grain,

Was unfufceptible of stain,

And,

And, Venus-like, her fragrant skin
Exhal'd ambrofia from within.
Can fuch a deity endure

A mortal human touch impure?
How did the humbled fwain deteft
His prickly beard, and hairy breast !
His night-cap, border'd round with lace,
Could give no foftness to his face.

Yet, if the Goddefs could be kind,
What endless raptures must he find 1
And Goddeffes have now and then
Come down to vifit mortal men;
To vifit and to court them too :
A certain Goddess, God knows who,.
(As in a book he heard it read)
Took Colonel Peleus to her bed.
But what if he fhould lofe his life
By venturing on his heavenly wife?
(For Strephon could remember well,
That once he heard a fchool-boy tell,,
How Semele of mortal race

By thunder died in Jove's embrace.)
And what if daring Strephon dies
By lightning fhot from Chloe's eyes ?
While these reflections fill'd his head,
The bride was put in form to bed:
He follow'd, ftript, and in he crept,
But awfully his distance kept.

Now ponder well, ye parents dear;
Forbid your daughters guzzling beer;

And

And make them every afternoon

Forbear their tea, or drink it foon;
That, ere to bed they venture up,

They may discharge it every sup;
If not, they must in evil plight
Be often forc'd to rife at night.
Keep them to wholesome, food confin'd,
Nor let them. tafte what causes wind:
('Tis this the fage of Samos means,
Forbidding his difciples beans.)
O think what evils muft enfue;
Mifs. Moll the jade will burn it blue:
And, when fhe once has got the art,
She cannot help it for her heart;
But out it flies, ev'n when fhe meets
Her bridegroom in the wedding-fheets.
Carminative and diuretic

Will damp all paffion fympathetic:
And Love fuch nicety requires,

One blast will put out all his fires.
Since husbands
get behind the fcene,

The wife should study to be clean;
Nor give the fmallest room to guess
The time when wants of nature press ;
But after marriage practise more
Decorum than fhe did before;
To keep her spouse deluded ftill,
And make him fancy what he will.

In bed we left the married pair:
'Tis time to fhew how things went there.

Strephon,