common. satire. Bolingbroke, a judge of the subject, thought it the master-piece of POPE. But the bitterness of the satire is not always concealed in a laugh. The characters are lively, though unI scarcely remember one of them in our comic writers of the best order. The ridicule is heightened by many such strokes of humour, carried even to the borders of extravagance, as that in the second line, here quoted. The female foibles have been the subject of, perhaps, more wit, in every language, than any other topic that can be named. The sixth satire of Juvenal, though detestable for its obscenity, is undoubtedly the most witty of all his sixteen ; and is curious for the picture it exhibits of the private lives of the Roman ladies. POPE confines himself to paint those inconsistencies of conduct, to which a volatile fancy is thought to incline the sex. And this he exemplifies in the contrarieties that may be discovered in the characters of the AFFECTED, the SOFT-NATURED, the WHIMSICAL, the LEWD and VICIOUS, the WITTY and REFINED. In this comprehensive view is, perhaps, included each species of female folly and absurdity, which is the proper object of ridicule. 1 ridicule. If this Epistle yields, in any respect, to the tenth satire of Boileau on the same subject, it is in the delicacy and variety of the transitions, by which the French writer passes from one character to another, always connecting each with the foregoing. Boileau, speaking of La Bruyere, that one of the most difficult parts of composition was the art of transition. That we may see how happily POPE has caught the manner of Boileau, let us survey one of his portraits: it shall be that of his learned lady. It was a common saying of Qui s'offrira d'abord? c'est cette Scavante, D'ou vient qu'elle a l'œil trouble, & le teint si terni ? C'est que sur le calcal, dit-on, de Cassini, Un Astrolabe en main, elle a dans sa goûtiere Il suivre Jupiter passé le nuit entiere: 14. No * Which last line is a little gross and offensive: as it must be confessed are some of POPE. There is not a single stroke of 14. No thought advances, but her eddy brain The pleasure miss'd her, and the scandal hit.* These spirited lines are part of a character designed for the famous Duchess of Marlborough, whom SWIFT had also severely satirized in the Examiner. Her beauty, her abilities, her political intrigues, are sufficiently known.† The violence of this sort in Young's Satires on Women. I wish the delicacy and reservedness of four or five Ladies now living, who have real learning and taste, would permit me to insert their names in this place, as a contrast to this affected character in Boileau. *Ver. 121. Epist. ii. + See the account of her own conduct, drawn up under her own eye and direction, by Mr. HOOKE, author of the Roman History, of the Life of Fenelon, and of the translation of the Travels of Cyrus. Dr. KING, of St. Mary Hall, in Oxford, informed me, that this elegant translation was made at Dr. Cheyne's house at Bath, and that he himself had often been Hooke's Amanuensis on this occasion, who dictated his translatiou to him with uncommon facility and rapidity. The Duchess rewarded Hooke with 5000l. for his trouble; but violence of her temper frequently broke out into wonderful and ridiculous indecencies. In the last illness of the great Duke, her husband, when Dr. Mead left his chamber, the Duchess, disliking his advice, followed him down stairs, swore at him bitterly, and was going to tear off his periwig. Her friend, Dr. Hoadly, bishop of Winchester, was present at this scene. These lines were shewn to her Grace as if they were intended for the portrait of the Duchess of Buckingham; but she soon stopped the person that was reading them to her, and called out aloud, "I cannot be so imposed upon-I see plainly enough for whom they are designed;" and abused POPE most plentifully on the subject; though she was afterwards reconciled to, and courted him. This character, together with those of PHILOMEDE and CLOE, were first published in this edition of POPE. They are all animated with but quarrelled with him afterwards, because, as she affirmed, he attempted to convert her to Popery. Hooke was a Mystic, and a Quietist, and a warm disciple of Fenelon. It was he who brought a Catholic priest to take our author's confession on his death-bed. The priest had scarce departed, when Bolingbroke, coming over from Battersea, flew into a great fit of passion and indignation on the occasion. with the most poignant wit. That of Cloe is particularly just and happy, who is represented as content merely and only to dwell in decencies, and satisfied to avoid giving offence; and is one of those many insignificant and useless beings, Who want, as thro' blank life they dream along, as says the ingenious author of the Universal Passion; a work that abounds in wit, observation on life, pleasantry, delicacy, urbanity, and the most well-bred raillery, without a single mark of spleen and ill-nature. These were the first characteristical satires in our language, and are written with an ease and familiarity of style, very different from this author's other works. The four first were published in folio, in the year 1725;* and the fifth and sixth, incomparably the * In these, the characters of Clarinda, of Xantippe the violent lady, of Delia the chariot-driver, of Master Betty the huntress, of Daphne the critic, of Lemira the sick lady, of the female Philosopher, of the Theologist, of the languid lady, of Thalestris the swearer, of Lyce the old beauty, of Lavinia, of a nymph of spirit, of Julia the manager, of Alicia the sloven, of Clio the slanderer, of the affected Asturia, of the female Atheist, |