Who, with herself, or others, from her birth

Finds all her life one warfare

upon earth:

120

Shines, in expofing Knaves, and painting Fools
Yet is, whate'er fhe hates and ridicules.
No Thought advances, but her Eddy Brain
Whisks it about, and down it goes again.
Full fixty years the World has been her Trade,
The wifest Fool much Time has ever made.
From loveless youth to unrefpected age,
No Paffion gratify'd except her Rage.

So much the Fury ftill out-ran the Wit,

125

The Pleasure mifs'd her, and the Scandal hit. Who breaks with her,provokes Revenge from Hell, But he's a bolder man who dares be well.

130

Her ev'ry turn with Violence purfu'd,
Nor more a storm her Hate than gratitude;
To that each Paffion turns, or foon or late;
Love, if it makes her yield, must make her hate:
Superiors? death! and Equals? what a curse; 134
But an Inferior not dependant? worse.

VARIATIONS,

After 122. in the MS.

Opprefs'd with wealth and wit, abundance fad!
One makes her poor, the other makes her mad.

you

live:

Offend her, and she knows not to forgive;
Oblige her, and she'll hate you while
But die, and she'll adore you---Then the Bust
And Temple rise---then fall again to dust. 140
Last night, her Lord was all that's good and great;
A Knave this morning, and his Will a Cheat.
Strange! by the Means defeated of the Ends,
By Spirit robb'd of Pow'r, by Warmth of Friends,
By Wealth of Follow'rs! without one distress 145
Sick of herself thro' very felfishness!

Atoffa, curs'd with ev'ry granted pray'r,
Childless with all her Children, wants an Heir.
To Heirs unknown defcends th'unguarded store,
Or wanders, Heav'n-directed, to the Poor. 150
Pictures like these, dear Madam, to design,
Afks no firm hand, and no unerring line;

VARIATIONS.

After 148. in the MS.

This Death decides, nor lets the bleffing fall
On any one she hates, but on them all.

Curs'd chance! this only could afflict her more,

If any part should wander to the poor.

NOTES.

VER. 150. Or wanders, Heav'n-directed, &c.] Alluding and referring to the great principle of his Philofophy, which he never lofes fight of, and which teaches, that Providence is inceffantly turning the evils arifing from the follies and vices of men to general good.

Some wand'ring touches, fome reflected light,
Some flying ftroke alone can hit 'em right:
For how should equal Colours do the knack? 155
Chameleons who can paint in white and black?

"Yet Cloe fure was form'd without a spot"--Nature in her then err'd not, but forgot.

NOTES.

VER. 156. Chameleons who can paint in white and black?] There is one thing that does a very diftinguished honour to the accuracy of our poet's judgment, of which, in the course of these obfervations, I have given many inftances, and fhall here explain in what it confifts; it is this, that the Similitudes in his didactic poems, of which he is not fparing, and which are all highly poetical, are always chofen with fuch exquifite difcernment of Nature, as not only to illuftrate the particular point he is upon, but to eftablifh the general principles he would inforce; fo, in the inftance before us, he compares the inconftancy and contradiction in the Characters of Women, to the change of colours in the Chameleon; yet 'tis nevertheless the great principle of this poem to fhew that the general Characteristic of the Sex, as to the Ruling Paffions, which they all have, is more uniform than that in Man: Now for this purpose, all Nature could not have fupplied fuch another illuftration as this of the Chameleon; for tho' it inftantaneously affumes much of the colour of every fubject on which it chances to be placed, yet, as the moft accurate Virtuofi have observed, it has two native colours of its own, which (like the two ruling paffions in the Sex) amidst all thefe changes are never totally difcharged, but, tho' often difcoloured by the neighbourhood of adventitious ones, ftill make the foundation, and give a tincture to all thofe which, from thence, it occafionally affumes.

VER, 157. "Yet Cloe fure &c.] The purpofe of the poet in this Character is important: It is to fhew that the politic or prudent government of the paffions is not enough to make a Character amiable, nor even to fecure it from being ridiculous, if the end of that government be not purfued, which is the

"With ev'ry pleasing, ev'ry prudent part,

СС

Say, what can Cloe want?"---She wants a Heart. She speaks, behaves, and acts just as she ought; 161 But never, never, reach'd one gen'rous Thought. Virtue fhe finds too painful an endeavour,

Content to dwell in Decencies for ever.
So very reasonable, fo unmov'd,
As never yet to love, or to be lov'd.

her breast,

165

She, while her Lover pants upon
Can mark the figures on an Indian cheft;
And when she fees her Friend in deep despair,
Obferves how much a Chintz exceeds Mohair. 170
Forbid it Heav'n, a Favour or a Debt

She e'er should cancel---but she may forget,

Safe is Secret ftill in Cloe's ear;
your

But none of Cloe's fhall you ever hear.
Of all her Dears fhe never flander'd one,
But cares not if a thousand are undone.
Would Cloe know if you're alive or dead?
She bids her Footman put it in her head.

NOTES.

175

free exercise of the focial appetites after the felfifh ones have been fubdued; for that if, tho' reafon govern, the heart be never confulted, we intereft ourfelves as little in the fortune of fuch a Character, as in any of the foregoing, which paffions or caprice drive up and down at random.

Cloe is prudent---Would you too be wife?
Then never break your heart when Cloe dies. 180
One certain Portrait may (I grant) be seen,
Which Heav'n has varnish'd out, and made a Queen:
THE SAME FOR EVER! and defcrib'd by all
With Truth and Goodness, as with Crown and Ball.
Poets heap Virtues, Painters Gems at will,

185

And show their zeal, and hide their want of skill.
"Tis well---but, Artifts; who can paint or write,
To draw the Naked is your true delight.
That Robe of Quality fo ftruts and fwells,
None fee what Parts of Nature it conceals: 190
Th'exactest traits of Body or of Mind,

We owe to models of an humble kind.

If QUEENSBERRY to ftrip there's no compelling, "Tis from a Handmaid we must take a Helen. From Peer or Bishop 'tis no easy thing

195

To draw the man who loves his God, or King: Alas! I copy, (or my draught would fail) From honeft Mah'met, or plain Parfon Hale.

NOTES.

VER. 181. One certain Portrait-the fame for ever!-] This is intirely ironical, and conveys under it this general moral truth, that there is, in life, no fuch thing as a perfect Character; fo that the fatire falls not on any particular Character, or Station, but on the Character-maker only. See Note on 78. 1 Dialogue 1738.

VER. 198. Mah'met, fervant to the late King, faid to be