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XIV.

A female reign like thine,

O ANNA, British heroine !

To thee afflicted empires fly for aid,
Where'er tyrannic ftandards are display'd,
From the wrong'd Iber to the threaten'd Rhine
Thee, where the golden-fanded Tagus flows
Beneath fair Ulyfiippo's walls,

The frighted Lufitanian calls;

Thee, they who drink the Seine, with those
Who plough Iberian fields, implore,

To give the lab'ring world repose,
And univerfal peace restore :

Thee, Gallia, mournful to furvive the fate

Of her fall'n grandeur and departed state;
By fad experience taught to own,
That virtue is a noble way to rise,
A furer paffage to the skies,
Than Pelion upon Offa thrown:
For they, who impiously prefume

To grasp at heav'n, by Jove's eternal doom,
A prey to thunder fhall become ;

Or, fent in Ætna's fiery cave to groan,
Gain but an higher fall, a mountain for their tomb.

1 The old name of Lisbon, faid to be built by Ulyffes. One of the mountains where Jupiter lodged the giants.

SIX

TOWN ECLOGUES.

By the Right Hon. Lady Mary Wortley Montague b.

R

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Sigh'd her foft forrows at St. JAMES's gate.

Such heavy thoughts lay brooding in her breast,
Not her own chairmen with more weight opprefs'd;

a Four only of thefe Eclogues are the production of Lady M. W. Montague. Thursday was written by Mr. Pope, and Friday by Mr. Gay.

This witty and agreeable writer, was the eldest daughter of Evelyn, the first Duke of Kingfton, by Lady Mary Fielding, fifter to Bafil Earl of Denbigh. She was married to Edward Wortley Montague, Efq; whom he accompanied in his Embafy to Conftantinople, in the year 1716. During her refidence at that place, he became acquainted with the art of Inoculation for the Small-pox, and had the fortitude to permit one of the first trials of its efficacy, to be made on her own children. On her return to England, she greatly facilitated the introduction of the prefent falutary practice of cure in that disorder. She died 21st August 1762.:

At the time thefe pieces of court fcandal were originally published, it was generally imagined, that real perfons were intended to be exposed and ridiculed by them. By the name of Roxana, the Dutchess of Roxborough was fuppofed to be pointed at.

They

They groan the cruel load they're doom'd to bear;
She in these gentle founds express'd her care.
Was it for this that I these roses wear,
"For this new-fet the jewels for my hair?

"Ah! princess! with what zeal have I pursu'd!
Almost forgot the duty of a prude.

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Thinking I never could attend too foon,

"I've mifs'd my prayers to get me drefs'd by noon. "For thee, ah! what for thee did I refign?

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My pleasures, paffions, all that e'er was mine. "I facrific'd both modesty and ease,

"Left operas, and went to filthy plays;
• Double entendres fhock'd my tender ear,
"Yet even this for thee I chose to bear.
"In glowing youth, when nature bids be gay,
"And every joy of life before me lay,
"By honour prompted, and by pride reftrain'd;
"The pleasures of the young my foul disdain'd;
"Sermons I fought, and with a mien fevere
"Cenfur'd my neighbours, and said daily pray'r.
"Alas! how chang'd!—with the fame fermon-mien
"That once I pray'd, the What-d'ye-call't I've feen,
"Ah! cruel princefs, for thy fake I've loft
"That reputation which fo dear had coft
"I, who avoided every public place,

"When bloom and beauty bade me fhow my face

d A Farce by Mr. Gay, acted at Drury Lane 1715.

Now

e

"Now near thee conftant every night abide
* With never-failing duty by thy fide,
Myfelf and daughters ftanding on a row,
"To all the foreigners a goodly fhow!
"Oft had your drawing-room been fadly thin,
"And merchants' wives close by the chair been seen ;
"Had not I amply fill'd the empty space,
"And fav'd your highnefs from the dire difgrace.
"Yet COQUETILLA's artifice prevails,
"When all my merit and my duty fails;
That COQUETILLA, whofe deluding airs
"Corrupts our virgins, and our youth enfnares;
"So funk her character, so loft her fame,
"Scarce vifited before your highness came:
"Yet for the bed-chamber 'tis her you chufe,
"When Zeal and Fame and Virtue you refufe.
"Ah! worthy choice! not one of all your train
"Whom cenfure blasts not, and dishonours ftain.
"Let the nice hind now fuckle dirty pigs,
"And the proud pea-hen hatch the cuckoo's eggs!
"Let IRIS leave her paint and own her age,
"And grave SUFFOLKA wed a giddy page!
"A greater miracle is daily view'd,

"A virtuous princefs with a court fo lewd.

"I know thee, Court! with all thy treach'rous wiles, "Thy falfe careffes and undoing smiles!

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"Ah! princefs, learn'd in all the courtly arts
"To cheat our hopes, and yet to gain our hearts!

"Large lovely bribes are the great statesman's aim
"And the neglected patriot follows fame.
"The prince is ogled; fome the king purfue;
"But your ROXANA only follows You.
"Defpis'd ROXANA, ceafe, and try to find
"Some other, fince the princess proves unkind
"Perhaps it is not hard to find at court,
"If not a greater, a more firm support."

TUESDAY.

ST. JAMES'S Coffee-Houfe.

SILLIANDER and PATCH.

HOU, who fo many favours haft receiv'd,

THOU

Wond'rous to tell, and hard to be believ'd,
Oh! HERTFORD 2, to my lays attention lend,
Hear how two lovers boaftingly contend:
Like thee fuccefsful, fuch their bloomy youth,
Renown'd alike for gallantry and truth.

a Algernon Earl of Hertford, afterwards Duke of Somerfet. He died 7th February, 1749-50.

St.

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