The POEM on the LADY'S DRESSING-ROOM having given Offence to a few fqueamish Ladies, and fome fine Gentlemen, it was thought proper to publish the following DEFENCE.

A

Modest Defence, &c.

A

Poem, or Pamphlet, published in this Kingdom without a Name, will not long want one, if the Paper maketh any Noise. There is a certain Perfon of Distinction among us, who is conjectured to have written many Things, both in Profe and Verfe, for the Service of the Nation, which, undoubtedly, were published with his own Confent. It is alfo believed, that he hath compofed others occafionally, for the Amusement of himself, and a few intimate Friends; which, by the Indiscretion of others, were, from ftolen and uncorrect Copies, dragged into Light.

But

But, I hold it for certain, that a much greater Number have, by the Boldness of Printers, and the Want of Judgment in Readers, been charged upon that Author wherein he never had the smallest Finger, as I am affured he hath often declared; and, which is remarkable, was as free in difowning fome Writings charged upon him, of which he had no Reason to be ashamed, as he could be of the meaneft Productions of Hibernian Grubstreet.

As to thofe fatal Verfes, called the Lady's Dreffing-Room, which have fo highly inflamed the whole Sex, (except a very few of better Judgment) as I can by no Means justify the vulgar Opinion, that feemeth to fix it upon a Perfon, fo well known for Works of a very different Nature; fo I cannot but lament the prevailing ill Taste among us, which is not able to discover that useful Satyr running through every Line, and the Matter as decently wrapped up, as it is poffible the Subject could

bear.

Cleanlinefs hath, in all polite Ages and Nations, been esteemed the chief corporeal Perfection in Women; as it is well known to those who are converfant with the antient Poets.

And fo it is ftill among the young People of Judgment and Sobriety, when they are difpofed to marry. And I do not doubt, but that there is a great Number of young Ladies in this Town and Kingdom, who, in reading that

Poem,

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Poem, find great Complacency in their own. Minds, from a Consciousness, that the fatyrical Part in the Lady's Dreffing-Room, doth not in the least affect them.

Wherefore it is manifeft, that no Poem was ever written with a better Design for the Service of the Sex: Wherein our Author hath obferved, to a Tittle, the Precepts of his Mafter Horace; or, indeed, rather hath gone very far beyond him, in the Article of Decency.

That great Poet, inftructing us what Actions are fittest to be produced openly upon the Scene, and which are most proper to be only related to the Audience, goeth many Lengths beyond the Author of the Lady's Dreffing-Room; for at the fame Inftant when he fayeth, fome Actions fhould not appear as done upon the Stage, he allows they may be recited with Pleasure and Elegance; and yet when he cometh to Particulars, his Recital is extreamly grofs, and fo are his very Precepts which forbid the Actions: That if our infinitely more modeft Author had. imitated his Master's Stile, the whole World might, with great Appearance of Reason, have been up in Arms against him.

Therefore, to fet these two Poets in a true Light, I have ventured, for the Satisfaction of both Sexes, to translate, as literally as I could, ten Lines in Horace, upon the very fame Sub'ject, which our Author hath handled with a Decency fo far. fuperior to his Roman Master.

Το

To justify the Truth of my Tranflation, I defire all fine Gentlemen and Ladies will ар peal from me to the Information of the Learned, that I may be wholly clear from the least Cenfure of mifrepresenting fo great an Authority; for, indeed, if I have been guilty of any Fault, it is in palliating the grofs Expreffions in the Original, and foftening them very much to the Politeness of the present Age.:

The Latin is Word for Word, as follows:

Aut agitur res in fcenis, aut acta refertur. Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, Quam quæ funt oculis fubjecta fidelibus, & qua Ipfe fibi tradit fpectator. Non tamen intus Digna geri promes in fcenam : Multaq; tolles Ex oculis, quæ mox narret facundia præfens. Nec pueros coram populo Medea trucidet; Aut humana palam coquat exta nefarius Atreus. Aut in avem Progne vertetur, Cadmus in anguem. Quodcunq; oftendis mihi fic, incredulus odi.

The literal Tranflation whereof is thus:

Some Ladies do their Need before your Face; Some only tell the Action and the Place. Our Mind is lefs provok'd by what it hears, Than when the Fact before our Eyes appears.