Not with more glories, in th' ethereal plain,The sun first rises o'er the purpled main,Than, issuing forth, the rival of his beams[393]Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames.[394]Fair nymphs, and well-dressed youths around her shone,5But ev'ry eye was fixed on her alone.On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore,Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore.Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose,Quick as her eyes, and as unfixed as those;10Favours to none, to all she smiles extends;Oft she rejects, but never once offends.Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike,And, like the sun, they shine on all alike.Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride,15Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide;If to her share some female errors fall,Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.[395]This nymph, to the destruction of mankind,Nourished two locks, which graceful hung behind20In equal curls, and well conspired to deck,With shining ringlets, the smooth iv'ry neck.Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains,And mighty hearts are held in slender chains.With hairy springes we the birds betray,25Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey,Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare,And beauty draws us with a single hair.[396]Th' advent'rous baron the bright locks admired;He saw, he wished, and to the prize aspired.30Resolved to win, he meditates the way,By force to ravish, or by fraud betray;For when success a lover's toil attends,Few ask, if fraud or force attained his ends.[397]For this, ere Phœbus rose, he had implored35Propitious heav'n, and ev'ry pow'r adored,But chiefly Love—to Love an altar built,Of twelve vast French romances, neatly gilt.There lay three garters, half a pair of gloves,And all the trophies of his former loves;40With tender billets-doux he lights the pyre,And breathes three am'rous sighs to raise the fire.Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent eyesSoon to obtain, and long possess the prize:The pow'rs gave ear, and granted half his pray'r,45The rest, the winds dispersed in empty air.[398]But now secure the painted vessel glides,The sun-beams trembling on the floating tides:[399]While melting music steals upon the sky,And softened sounds along the waters die;[400]50Smooth flow the waves, the zephyrs gently play,Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay.All but the sylph—with careful thoughts oppressed,Th' impending woe sat heavy on his breast.[401]He summons straight his denizens of air;55The lucid squadrons round the sails repair:Soft o'er the shrouds aërial whispers breathe,That seemed but zephyrs to the train beneath.Some to the sun their insect-wings unfold,Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold;60Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight,Their fluid bodies half dissolved in light.Loose to the wind their airy garments flew,Thin glitt'ring textures of the filmy dew,[402]Dipped in the richest tincture of the skies,[403]65Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes;While ev'ry beam new transient colours flings,Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings.Amid the circle, on the gilded mast,Superior by the head, was Ariel placed;70His purple pinions opening to the sun,He raised his azure wand, and thus begun."Ye sylphs and sylphids, to your chief give ear!Fays, fairies, genii, elves, and demons, hear!Ye know the spheres, and various tasks assigned75By laws eternal to th' aërial kind.Some in the fields of purest ether play,And bask and whiten in the blaze of day.Some guide the course of wand'ring orbs on high,[404]Or roll the planets through the boundless sky.[405]80Some less refined, beneath the moon's pale lightPursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,[406]Or suck the mists in grosser air below,Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main,85Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain.Others on earth o'er human race preside,Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide:Of these the chief the care of nations own,And guard with arms divine the British throne.[407]90"Our humbler province is to tend the fair,Not a less pleasing, though less glorious care;To save the powder from too rude a gale,Nor let th' imprisoned essences exhale;To draw fresh colours from the vernal flow'rs;95To steal from rainbows ere they drop in show'rsA brighter wash; to curl their waving hairs,Assist their blushes, and inspire their airs;Nay oft, in dreams, invention we bestow,To change a flounce, or add a furbelow.[408]100"This day, black omens threat the brightest fairThat e'er deserved a watchful spirit's care;Some dire disaster, or by force, or slight;But what, or where, the fates have wrapped in night.Whether the nymph shall break Diana's law,105Or some frail china jar receive a flaw;Or stain her honour, or her new brocade;Forget her pray'rs, or miss a masquerade;Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball;Or whether heav'n has doomed that Shock must fall.110Haste then, ye spirits! to your charge repair:The flutt'ring fan be Zephyretta's care;The drops to thee, Brillante,[409]we consign;And, Momentilla, let the watch be thine;Do thou, Crispissa,[410]tend her fav'rite lock;115Ariel himself shall be the guard of Shock.[411]"To fifty chosen Sylphs, of special note,We trust th' important charge, the petticoat:Oft have we known that seven-fold fence[412]to fail,Though stiff with hoops and armed with ribs of whale;120Form a strong line about the silver bound,And guard the wide circumference around.[413]"Whatever spirit, careless of his charge,His post neglects, or leaves the fair at large,Shall feel sharp vengeance soon o'ertake his sins,125Be stopped in vials, or transfixed with pins;Or plunged in lakes of bitter washes lie,Or wedged, whole ages, in a bodkin's eye:Gums and pomatums shall his flight restrain,While clogged he beats his silken wings in vain;130Or alum styptics with contracting pow'rShrink his thin essence like a rivelled flow'r:[414]Or, as Ixion fixed, the wretch shall feelThe giddy motion of the whirling mill,[415]In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow,135And tremble at the sea that froths below!"[416]He spoke; the spirits from the sails descend:Some, orb in orb, around the nymph extend;Some thrid the mazy ringlets of her hair;Some hang upon the pendants of her ear;140With beating hearts the dire event they wait,Anxious, and trembling for the birth of fate.
Not with more glories, in th' ethereal plain,The sun first rises o'er the purpled main,Than, issuing forth, the rival of his beams[393]Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames.[394]Fair nymphs, and well-dressed youths around her shone,5But ev'ry eye was fixed on her alone.On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore,Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore.Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose,Quick as her eyes, and as unfixed as those;10Favours to none, to all she smiles extends;Oft she rejects, but never once offends.Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike,And, like the sun, they shine on all alike.Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride,15Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide;If to her share some female errors fall,Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.[395]This nymph, to the destruction of mankind,Nourished two locks, which graceful hung behind20In equal curls, and well conspired to deck,With shining ringlets, the smooth iv'ry neck.Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains,And mighty hearts are held in slender chains.With hairy springes we the birds betray,25Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey,Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare,And beauty draws us with a single hair.[396]Th' advent'rous baron the bright locks admired;He saw, he wished, and to the prize aspired.30Resolved to win, he meditates the way,By force to ravish, or by fraud betray;For when success a lover's toil attends,Few ask, if fraud or force attained his ends.[397]For this, ere Phœbus rose, he had implored35Propitious heav'n, and ev'ry pow'r adored,But chiefly Love—to Love an altar built,Of twelve vast French romances, neatly gilt.There lay three garters, half a pair of gloves,And all the trophies of his former loves;40With tender billets-doux he lights the pyre,And breathes three am'rous sighs to raise the fire.Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent eyesSoon to obtain, and long possess the prize:The pow'rs gave ear, and granted half his pray'r,45The rest, the winds dispersed in empty air.[398]But now secure the painted vessel glides,The sun-beams trembling on the floating tides:[399]While melting music steals upon the sky,And softened sounds along the waters die;[400]50Smooth flow the waves, the zephyrs gently play,Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay.All but the sylph—with careful thoughts oppressed,Th' impending woe sat heavy on his breast.[401]He summons straight his denizens of air;55The lucid squadrons round the sails repair:Soft o'er the shrouds aërial whispers breathe,That seemed but zephyrs to the train beneath.Some to the sun their insect-wings unfold,Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold;60Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight,Their fluid bodies half dissolved in light.Loose to the wind their airy garments flew,Thin glitt'ring textures of the filmy dew,[402]Dipped in the richest tincture of the skies,[403]65Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes;While ev'ry beam new transient colours flings,Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings.Amid the circle, on the gilded mast,Superior by the head, was Ariel placed;70His purple pinions opening to the sun,He raised his azure wand, and thus begun."Ye sylphs and sylphids, to your chief give ear!Fays, fairies, genii, elves, and demons, hear!Ye know the spheres, and various tasks assigned75By laws eternal to th' aërial kind.Some in the fields of purest ether play,And bask and whiten in the blaze of day.Some guide the course of wand'ring orbs on high,[404]Or roll the planets through the boundless sky.[405]80Some less refined, beneath the moon's pale lightPursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,[406]Or suck the mists in grosser air below,Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main,85Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain.Others on earth o'er human race preside,Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide:Of these the chief the care of nations own,And guard with arms divine the British throne.[407]90"Our humbler province is to tend the fair,Not a less pleasing, though less glorious care;To save the powder from too rude a gale,Nor let th' imprisoned essences exhale;To draw fresh colours from the vernal flow'rs;95To steal from rainbows ere they drop in show'rsA brighter wash; to curl their waving hairs,Assist their blushes, and inspire their airs;Nay oft, in dreams, invention we bestow,To change a flounce, or add a furbelow.[408]100"This day, black omens threat the brightest fairThat e'er deserved a watchful spirit's care;Some dire disaster, or by force, or slight;But what, or where, the fates have wrapped in night.Whether the nymph shall break Diana's law,105Or some frail china jar receive a flaw;Or stain her honour, or her new brocade;Forget her pray'rs, or miss a masquerade;Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball;Or whether heav'n has doomed that Shock must fall.110Haste then, ye spirits! to your charge repair:The flutt'ring fan be Zephyretta's care;The drops to thee, Brillante,[409]we consign;And, Momentilla, let the watch be thine;Do thou, Crispissa,[410]tend her fav'rite lock;115Ariel himself shall be the guard of Shock.[411]"To fifty chosen Sylphs, of special note,We trust th' important charge, the petticoat:Oft have we known that seven-fold fence[412]to fail,Though stiff with hoops and armed with ribs of whale;120Form a strong line about the silver bound,And guard the wide circumference around.[413]"Whatever spirit, careless of his charge,His post neglects, or leaves the fair at large,Shall feel sharp vengeance soon o'ertake his sins,125Be stopped in vials, or transfixed with pins;Or plunged in lakes of bitter washes lie,Or wedged, whole ages, in a bodkin's eye:Gums and pomatums shall his flight restrain,While clogged he beats his silken wings in vain;130Or alum styptics with contracting pow'rShrink his thin essence like a rivelled flow'r:[414]Or, as Ixion fixed, the wretch shall feelThe giddy motion of the whirling mill,[415]In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow,135And tremble at the sea that froths below!"[416]He spoke; the spirits from the sails descend:Some, orb in orb, around the nymph extend;Some thrid the mazy ringlets of her hair;Some hang upon the pendants of her ear;140With beating hearts the dire event they wait,Anxious, and trembling for the birth of fate.
Not with more glories, in th' ethereal plain,The sun first rises o'er the purpled main,Than, issuing forth, the rival of his beams[393]Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames.[394]Fair nymphs, and well-dressed youths around her shone,5But ev'ry eye was fixed on her alone.On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore,Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore.Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose,Quick as her eyes, and as unfixed as those;10Favours to none, to all she smiles extends;Oft she rejects, but never once offends.Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike,And, like the sun, they shine on all alike.Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride,15Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide;If to her share some female errors fall,Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.[395]This nymph, to the destruction of mankind,Nourished two locks, which graceful hung behind20In equal curls, and well conspired to deck,With shining ringlets, the smooth iv'ry neck.Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains,And mighty hearts are held in slender chains.With hairy springes we the birds betray,25Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey,Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare,And beauty draws us with a single hair.[396]Th' advent'rous baron the bright locks admired;He saw, he wished, and to the prize aspired.30Resolved to win, he meditates the way,By force to ravish, or by fraud betray;For when success a lover's toil attends,Few ask, if fraud or force attained his ends.[397]For this, ere Phœbus rose, he had implored35Propitious heav'n, and ev'ry pow'r adored,But chiefly Love—to Love an altar built,Of twelve vast French romances, neatly gilt.There lay three garters, half a pair of gloves,And all the trophies of his former loves;40With tender billets-doux he lights the pyre,And breathes three am'rous sighs to raise the fire.Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent eyesSoon to obtain, and long possess the prize:The pow'rs gave ear, and granted half his pray'r,45The rest, the winds dispersed in empty air.[398]But now secure the painted vessel glides,The sun-beams trembling on the floating tides:[399]While melting music steals upon the sky,And softened sounds along the waters die;[400]50Smooth flow the waves, the zephyrs gently play,Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay.All but the sylph—with careful thoughts oppressed,Th' impending woe sat heavy on his breast.[401]He summons straight his denizens of air;55The lucid squadrons round the sails repair:Soft o'er the shrouds aërial whispers breathe,That seemed but zephyrs to the train beneath.Some to the sun their insect-wings unfold,Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold;60Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight,Their fluid bodies half dissolved in light.Loose to the wind their airy garments flew,Thin glitt'ring textures of the filmy dew,[402]Dipped in the richest tincture of the skies,[403]65Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes;While ev'ry beam new transient colours flings,Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings.Amid the circle, on the gilded mast,Superior by the head, was Ariel placed;70His purple pinions opening to the sun,He raised his azure wand, and thus begun."Ye sylphs and sylphids, to your chief give ear!Fays, fairies, genii, elves, and demons, hear!Ye know the spheres, and various tasks assigned75By laws eternal to th' aërial kind.Some in the fields of purest ether play,And bask and whiten in the blaze of day.Some guide the course of wand'ring orbs on high,[404]Or roll the planets through the boundless sky.[405]80Some less refined, beneath the moon's pale lightPursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,[406]Or suck the mists in grosser air below,Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main,85Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain.Others on earth o'er human race preside,Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide:Of these the chief the care of nations own,And guard with arms divine the British throne.[407]90"Our humbler province is to tend the fair,Not a less pleasing, though less glorious care;To save the powder from too rude a gale,Nor let th' imprisoned essences exhale;To draw fresh colours from the vernal flow'rs;95To steal from rainbows ere they drop in show'rsA brighter wash; to curl their waving hairs,Assist their blushes, and inspire their airs;Nay oft, in dreams, invention we bestow,To change a flounce, or add a furbelow.[408]100"This day, black omens threat the brightest fairThat e'er deserved a watchful spirit's care;Some dire disaster, or by force, or slight;But what, or where, the fates have wrapped in night.Whether the nymph shall break Diana's law,105Or some frail china jar receive a flaw;Or stain her honour, or her new brocade;Forget her pray'rs, or miss a masquerade;Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball;Or whether heav'n has doomed that Shock must fall.110Haste then, ye spirits! to your charge repair:The flutt'ring fan be Zephyretta's care;The drops to thee, Brillante,[409]we consign;And, Momentilla, let the watch be thine;Do thou, Crispissa,[410]tend her fav'rite lock;115Ariel himself shall be the guard of Shock.[411]"To fifty chosen Sylphs, of special note,We trust th' important charge, the petticoat:Oft have we known that seven-fold fence[412]to fail,Though stiff with hoops and armed with ribs of whale;120Form a strong line about the silver bound,And guard the wide circumference around.[413]"Whatever spirit, careless of his charge,His post neglects, or leaves the fair at large,Shall feel sharp vengeance soon o'ertake his sins,125Be stopped in vials, or transfixed with pins;Or plunged in lakes of bitter washes lie,Or wedged, whole ages, in a bodkin's eye:Gums and pomatums shall his flight restrain,While clogged he beats his silken wings in vain;130Or alum styptics with contracting pow'rShrink his thin essence like a rivelled flow'r:[414]Or, as Ixion fixed, the wretch shall feelThe giddy motion of the whirling mill,[415]In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow,135And tremble at the sea that froths below!"[416]He spoke; the spirits from the sails descend:Some, orb in orb, around the nymph extend;Some thrid the mazy ringlets of her hair;Some hang upon the pendants of her ear;140With beating hearts the dire event they wait,Anxious, and trembling for the birth of fate.
CANTO III.
Close by those meads, for ever crowned with flow'rs,[417]Where Thames with pride surveys his rising tow'rs,There stands a structure of majestic frame,Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name.Here Britain's statesmen oft the fall foredoom5Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home;Here thou, greatAnna! whom three realms obey,Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea.[418]Hither the heroes and the nymphs resort,To taste awhile the pleasures of a court;10In various talk th' instructive hours they passed,Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last;[419]One speaks the glory of the British Queen,And one describes a charming Indian screen;[420]A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes;15At ev'ry word a reputation dies.Snuff, or the fan, supply each pause of chat,[421]With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that.Meanwhile, declining from the noon of day,The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray;[422]20The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,And wretches hang that jury-men may dine;[423]The merchant from th' Exchange returns in peace,And the long labours of the toilet cease.[424]Belinda now, whom thirst of fame invites,[425]25Burns to encounter two advent'rous knights,At ombre singly to decide their doom;[426]And swells her breast with conquests yet to come.Straight the three bands prepare in arms to join,Each band the number of the sacred nine.[427]30Soon as she spreads her hand, th' aërial guardDescend, and sit on each important card:First Ariel perched upon a Matadore,[428]Then each according to the rank they bore;For sylphs, yet mindful of their ancient race,35Are, as when women, wondrous fond of place.Behold, four kings, in majesty revered,With hoary whisky and a forky beard;And four fair queens whose hands sustain a flow'r,Th' expressive emblem of their softer pow'r;40Four knaves in garbs succinct,[429]a trusty band;Caps on their heads, and halberts in their hand;And parti-coloured troops, a shining train,Draw forth to combat on the velvet plain.The skilful nymph reviews her force with care:45Let spades be trumps! she said, and trumps they were.[430]Now move to war her sable Matadores,[431]In show like leaders of the swarthy Moors.Spadillio first, unconquerable lord![432]Led off two captive trumps, and swept the board.50As many more Manillio forced to yield,And marched a victor from the verdant field.Him Basto followed, but his fate more hardGained but one trump and one plebeian card.With his broad sabre next, a chief in years,55The hoary majesty of spades appears,[433]Puts forth one manly leg, to sight revealed,The rest, his many-coloured robe concealed.The rebel knave, who dares his prince engage,Proves the just victim of his royal rage.60Ev'n mighty Pam, that kings and queens o'erthrew,And mowed down armies in the fights of loo,[434]Sad chance of war! now destitute of aid,Falls undistinguished by the victor spade!Thus far both armies to Belinda yield;65Now to the baron fate inclines the field.His warlike Amazon her host invades,Th' imperial consort of the crown of spades.The club's black tyrant first her victim died,Spite of his haughty mien, and barb'rous pride:70What boots the regal circle on his head,[435]His giant limbs, in state unwieldy spread;That long behind he trails his pompous robe,And of all monarchs only grasps the globe?The baron now his diamonds pours apace!75Th' embroidered king who shows but half his face,And his refulgent queen, with pow'rs combined,Of broken troops, an easy conquest find.Clubs, diamonds, hearts, in wild disorder seen,With throngs promiscuous strew the level green.80Thus when dispersed a routed army runs,Of Asia's troops, and Afric's sable sons,With like confusion different nations fly,Of various habit, and of various dye;The pierced battalions disunited fall,85In heaps on heaps; one fate o'erwhelms them all.The knave of diamonds tries his wily arts,And wins (oh shameful chance!) the queen of hearts.At this, the blood the virgin's cheek forsook,A livid paleness spreads o'er all her look;90She sees, and trembles at th' approaching ill,Just in the jaws of ruin, and codille.[436]And now (as oft in some distempered state)On one nice trick depends the gen'ral fate:An ace of hearts steps forth: the king unseen95Lurked in her hand, and mourned his captive queen:He springs to vengeance with an eager pace,And falls like thunder on the prostrate ace.[437]The nymph exulting fills with shouts the sky;The walls, the woods, and long canals reply.[438]100Oh thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate,[439]Too soon dejected, and too soon elate.Sudden these honours shall be snatched away,And cursed for ever this victorious day.For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crowned,[440]105The berries crackle, and the mill turns round;[441]On shining altars of japan they raiseThe silver lamp; the fiery spirits blaze:From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide,While China's earth receives the smoking tide:110At once they gratify their scent and taste,And frequent cups prolong the rich repast.Straight hover round the fair her airy band;Some, as she sipped, the fuming liquor fanned,Some o'er her lap their careful plumes displayed,115Trembling, and conscious of the rich brocade.Coffee (which makes the politician wise,And see through all things with his half-shut eyes)[442]Sent up in vapours to the baron's brainNew stratagems, the radiant lock to gain.120Ah cease, rash youth! desist ere 'tis too late,Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla's fate!Changed to a bird, and sent to flit in air,She dearly pays for Nisus' injured hair![443]But when to mischief mortals bend their will,125How soon they find fit instruments of ill![444]Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting graceA two-edged weapon from her shining case:So ladies in romance assist their knight,Present the spear, and arm him for the fight.130He takes the gift with rev'rence, and extendsThe little engine on his fingers' ends;This just behind Belinda's neck he spread,As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head.[445]Swift to the lock a thousand sprites repair,135A thousand wings, by turns, blow back the hair;And thrice they twitched the diamond in her ear;Thrice she looked back, and thrice the foe drew near.[446]Just in that instant, anxious Ariel soughtThe close recesses of the virgin's thought:140As on the nosegay in her breast reclined,He watched th' ideas rising in her mind,Sudden he viewed in spite of all her art,An earthly lover lurking at her heart.Amazed, confused, he found his pow'r expired,145Resigned to fate, and with a sigh retired.The peer now spreads the glitt'ring forfex wide,T' inclose the lock; now joins it, to divide.Ev'n then, before the fatal engine closed,A wretched sylph too fondly interposed;150Fate urged the shears, and cut the sylph in twain,(But airy substance soon unites again,)[447]The meeting points the sacred hair disseverFrom the fair head, for ever, and for ever!Then flashed the living lightning from her eyes,155And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies.Not louder shrieks to pitying heav'n are cast,When husbands, or when lap-dogs breathe their last;Or when rich china vessels fall'n from high,In glitt'ring dust, and painted fragments lie!160"Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine,"(The victor cried,) "the glorious prize is mine!While fish in streams, or birds delight in air,[448]Or in a coach and six the British fair,As long as Atalantis[449]shall be read,165Or the small pillow grace a lady's bed,[450]While visits shall be paid on solemn days,When num'rous wax-lights in bright order blaze,While nymphs take treats, or assignations give,So long my honour, name, and praise shall live!"[451]170What time would spare, from steel receives its date,And monuments, like men, submit to fate![452]Steel could the labour of the gods destroy,[453]And strike to dust th' imperial tow'rs of Troy;Steel could the works of mortal pride confound,175And hew triumphal arches to the ground.[454]What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hairs should feelThe conqu'ring force of unresisted steel?[455]
Close by those meads, for ever crowned with flow'rs,[417]Where Thames with pride surveys his rising tow'rs,There stands a structure of majestic frame,Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name.Here Britain's statesmen oft the fall foredoom5Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home;Here thou, greatAnna! whom three realms obey,Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea.[418]Hither the heroes and the nymphs resort,To taste awhile the pleasures of a court;10In various talk th' instructive hours they passed,Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last;[419]One speaks the glory of the British Queen,And one describes a charming Indian screen;[420]A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes;15At ev'ry word a reputation dies.Snuff, or the fan, supply each pause of chat,[421]With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that.Meanwhile, declining from the noon of day,The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray;[422]20The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,And wretches hang that jury-men may dine;[423]The merchant from th' Exchange returns in peace,And the long labours of the toilet cease.[424]Belinda now, whom thirst of fame invites,[425]25Burns to encounter two advent'rous knights,At ombre singly to decide their doom;[426]And swells her breast with conquests yet to come.Straight the three bands prepare in arms to join,Each band the number of the sacred nine.[427]30Soon as she spreads her hand, th' aërial guardDescend, and sit on each important card:First Ariel perched upon a Matadore,[428]Then each according to the rank they bore;For sylphs, yet mindful of their ancient race,35Are, as when women, wondrous fond of place.Behold, four kings, in majesty revered,With hoary whisky and a forky beard;And four fair queens whose hands sustain a flow'r,Th' expressive emblem of their softer pow'r;40Four knaves in garbs succinct,[429]a trusty band;Caps on their heads, and halberts in their hand;And parti-coloured troops, a shining train,Draw forth to combat on the velvet plain.The skilful nymph reviews her force with care:45Let spades be trumps! she said, and trumps they were.[430]Now move to war her sable Matadores,[431]In show like leaders of the swarthy Moors.Spadillio first, unconquerable lord![432]Led off two captive trumps, and swept the board.50As many more Manillio forced to yield,And marched a victor from the verdant field.Him Basto followed, but his fate more hardGained but one trump and one plebeian card.With his broad sabre next, a chief in years,55The hoary majesty of spades appears,[433]Puts forth one manly leg, to sight revealed,The rest, his many-coloured robe concealed.The rebel knave, who dares his prince engage,Proves the just victim of his royal rage.60Ev'n mighty Pam, that kings and queens o'erthrew,And mowed down armies in the fights of loo,[434]Sad chance of war! now destitute of aid,Falls undistinguished by the victor spade!Thus far both armies to Belinda yield;65Now to the baron fate inclines the field.His warlike Amazon her host invades,Th' imperial consort of the crown of spades.The club's black tyrant first her victim died,Spite of his haughty mien, and barb'rous pride:70What boots the regal circle on his head,[435]His giant limbs, in state unwieldy spread;That long behind he trails his pompous robe,And of all monarchs only grasps the globe?The baron now his diamonds pours apace!75Th' embroidered king who shows but half his face,And his refulgent queen, with pow'rs combined,Of broken troops, an easy conquest find.Clubs, diamonds, hearts, in wild disorder seen,With throngs promiscuous strew the level green.80Thus when dispersed a routed army runs,Of Asia's troops, and Afric's sable sons,With like confusion different nations fly,Of various habit, and of various dye;The pierced battalions disunited fall,85In heaps on heaps; one fate o'erwhelms them all.The knave of diamonds tries his wily arts,And wins (oh shameful chance!) the queen of hearts.At this, the blood the virgin's cheek forsook,A livid paleness spreads o'er all her look;90She sees, and trembles at th' approaching ill,Just in the jaws of ruin, and codille.[436]And now (as oft in some distempered state)On one nice trick depends the gen'ral fate:An ace of hearts steps forth: the king unseen95Lurked in her hand, and mourned his captive queen:He springs to vengeance with an eager pace,And falls like thunder on the prostrate ace.[437]The nymph exulting fills with shouts the sky;The walls, the woods, and long canals reply.[438]100Oh thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate,[439]Too soon dejected, and too soon elate.Sudden these honours shall be snatched away,And cursed for ever this victorious day.For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crowned,[440]105The berries crackle, and the mill turns round;[441]On shining altars of japan they raiseThe silver lamp; the fiery spirits blaze:From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide,While China's earth receives the smoking tide:110At once they gratify their scent and taste,And frequent cups prolong the rich repast.Straight hover round the fair her airy band;Some, as she sipped, the fuming liquor fanned,Some o'er her lap their careful plumes displayed,115Trembling, and conscious of the rich brocade.Coffee (which makes the politician wise,And see through all things with his half-shut eyes)[442]Sent up in vapours to the baron's brainNew stratagems, the radiant lock to gain.120Ah cease, rash youth! desist ere 'tis too late,Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla's fate!Changed to a bird, and sent to flit in air,She dearly pays for Nisus' injured hair![443]But when to mischief mortals bend their will,125How soon they find fit instruments of ill![444]Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting graceA two-edged weapon from her shining case:So ladies in romance assist their knight,Present the spear, and arm him for the fight.130He takes the gift with rev'rence, and extendsThe little engine on his fingers' ends;This just behind Belinda's neck he spread,As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head.[445]Swift to the lock a thousand sprites repair,135A thousand wings, by turns, blow back the hair;And thrice they twitched the diamond in her ear;Thrice she looked back, and thrice the foe drew near.[446]Just in that instant, anxious Ariel soughtThe close recesses of the virgin's thought:140As on the nosegay in her breast reclined,He watched th' ideas rising in her mind,Sudden he viewed in spite of all her art,An earthly lover lurking at her heart.Amazed, confused, he found his pow'r expired,145Resigned to fate, and with a sigh retired.The peer now spreads the glitt'ring forfex wide,T' inclose the lock; now joins it, to divide.Ev'n then, before the fatal engine closed,A wretched sylph too fondly interposed;150Fate urged the shears, and cut the sylph in twain,(But airy substance soon unites again,)[447]The meeting points the sacred hair disseverFrom the fair head, for ever, and for ever!Then flashed the living lightning from her eyes,155And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies.Not louder shrieks to pitying heav'n are cast,When husbands, or when lap-dogs breathe their last;Or when rich china vessels fall'n from high,In glitt'ring dust, and painted fragments lie!160"Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine,"(The victor cried,) "the glorious prize is mine!While fish in streams, or birds delight in air,[448]Or in a coach and six the British fair,As long as Atalantis[449]shall be read,165Or the small pillow grace a lady's bed,[450]While visits shall be paid on solemn days,When num'rous wax-lights in bright order blaze,While nymphs take treats, or assignations give,So long my honour, name, and praise shall live!"[451]170What time would spare, from steel receives its date,And monuments, like men, submit to fate![452]Steel could the labour of the gods destroy,[453]And strike to dust th' imperial tow'rs of Troy;Steel could the works of mortal pride confound,175And hew triumphal arches to the ground.[454]What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hairs should feelThe conqu'ring force of unresisted steel?[455]
Close by those meads, for ever crowned with flow'rs,[417]Where Thames with pride surveys his rising tow'rs,There stands a structure of majestic frame,Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name.Here Britain's statesmen oft the fall foredoom5Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home;Here thou, greatAnna! whom three realms obey,Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea.[418]Hither the heroes and the nymphs resort,To taste awhile the pleasures of a court;10In various talk th' instructive hours they passed,Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last;[419]One speaks the glory of the British Queen,And one describes a charming Indian screen;[420]A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes;15At ev'ry word a reputation dies.Snuff, or the fan, supply each pause of chat,[421]With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that.Meanwhile, declining from the noon of day,The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray;[422]20The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,And wretches hang that jury-men may dine;[423]The merchant from th' Exchange returns in peace,And the long labours of the toilet cease.[424]Belinda now, whom thirst of fame invites,[425]25Burns to encounter two advent'rous knights,At ombre singly to decide their doom;[426]And swells her breast with conquests yet to come.Straight the three bands prepare in arms to join,Each band the number of the sacred nine.[427]30Soon as she spreads her hand, th' aërial guardDescend, and sit on each important card:First Ariel perched upon a Matadore,[428]Then each according to the rank they bore;For sylphs, yet mindful of their ancient race,35Are, as when women, wondrous fond of place.Behold, four kings, in majesty revered,With hoary whisky and a forky beard;And four fair queens whose hands sustain a flow'r,Th' expressive emblem of their softer pow'r;40Four knaves in garbs succinct,[429]a trusty band;Caps on their heads, and halberts in their hand;And parti-coloured troops, a shining train,Draw forth to combat on the velvet plain.The skilful nymph reviews her force with care:45Let spades be trumps! she said, and trumps they were.[430]Now move to war her sable Matadores,[431]In show like leaders of the swarthy Moors.Spadillio first, unconquerable lord![432]Led off two captive trumps, and swept the board.50As many more Manillio forced to yield,And marched a victor from the verdant field.Him Basto followed, but his fate more hardGained but one trump and one plebeian card.With his broad sabre next, a chief in years,55The hoary majesty of spades appears,[433]Puts forth one manly leg, to sight revealed,The rest, his many-coloured robe concealed.The rebel knave, who dares his prince engage,Proves the just victim of his royal rage.60Ev'n mighty Pam, that kings and queens o'erthrew,And mowed down armies in the fights of loo,[434]Sad chance of war! now destitute of aid,Falls undistinguished by the victor spade!Thus far both armies to Belinda yield;65Now to the baron fate inclines the field.His warlike Amazon her host invades,Th' imperial consort of the crown of spades.The club's black tyrant first her victim died,Spite of his haughty mien, and barb'rous pride:70What boots the regal circle on his head,[435]His giant limbs, in state unwieldy spread;That long behind he trails his pompous robe,And of all monarchs only grasps the globe?The baron now his diamonds pours apace!75Th' embroidered king who shows but half his face,And his refulgent queen, with pow'rs combined,Of broken troops, an easy conquest find.Clubs, diamonds, hearts, in wild disorder seen,With throngs promiscuous strew the level green.80Thus when dispersed a routed army runs,Of Asia's troops, and Afric's sable sons,With like confusion different nations fly,Of various habit, and of various dye;The pierced battalions disunited fall,85In heaps on heaps; one fate o'erwhelms them all.The knave of diamonds tries his wily arts,And wins (oh shameful chance!) the queen of hearts.At this, the blood the virgin's cheek forsook,A livid paleness spreads o'er all her look;90She sees, and trembles at th' approaching ill,Just in the jaws of ruin, and codille.[436]And now (as oft in some distempered state)On one nice trick depends the gen'ral fate:An ace of hearts steps forth: the king unseen95Lurked in her hand, and mourned his captive queen:He springs to vengeance with an eager pace,And falls like thunder on the prostrate ace.[437]The nymph exulting fills with shouts the sky;The walls, the woods, and long canals reply.[438]100Oh thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate,[439]Too soon dejected, and too soon elate.Sudden these honours shall be snatched away,And cursed for ever this victorious day.For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crowned,[440]105The berries crackle, and the mill turns round;[441]On shining altars of japan they raiseThe silver lamp; the fiery spirits blaze:From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide,While China's earth receives the smoking tide:110At once they gratify their scent and taste,And frequent cups prolong the rich repast.Straight hover round the fair her airy band;Some, as she sipped, the fuming liquor fanned,Some o'er her lap their careful plumes displayed,115Trembling, and conscious of the rich brocade.Coffee (which makes the politician wise,And see through all things with his half-shut eyes)[442]Sent up in vapours to the baron's brainNew stratagems, the radiant lock to gain.120Ah cease, rash youth! desist ere 'tis too late,Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla's fate!Changed to a bird, and sent to flit in air,She dearly pays for Nisus' injured hair![443]But when to mischief mortals bend their will,125How soon they find fit instruments of ill![444]Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting graceA two-edged weapon from her shining case:So ladies in romance assist their knight,Present the spear, and arm him for the fight.130He takes the gift with rev'rence, and extendsThe little engine on his fingers' ends;This just behind Belinda's neck he spread,As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head.[445]Swift to the lock a thousand sprites repair,135A thousand wings, by turns, blow back the hair;And thrice they twitched the diamond in her ear;Thrice she looked back, and thrice the foe drew near.[446]Just in that instant, anxious Ariel soughtThe close recesses of the virgin's thought:140As on the nosegay in her breast reclined,He watched th' ideas rising in her mind,Sudden he viewed in spite of all her art,An earthly lover lurking at her heart.Amazed, confused, he found his pow'r expired,145Resigned to fate, and with a sigh retired.The peer now spreads the glitt'ring forfex wide,T' inclose the lock; now joins it, to divide.Ev'n then, before the fatal engine closed,A wretched sylph too fondly interposed;150Fate urged the shears, and cut the sylph in twain,(But airy substance soon unites again,)[447]The meeting points the sacred hair disseverFrom the fair head, for ever, and for ever!Then flashed the living lightning from her eyes,155And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies.Not louder shrieks to pitying heav'n are cast,When husbands, or when lap-dogs breathe their last;Or when rich china vessels fall'n from high,In glitt'ring dust, and painted fragments lie!160"Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine,"(The victor cried,) "the glorious prize is mine!While fish in streams, or birds delight in air,[448]Or in a coach and six the British fair,As long as Atalantis[449]shall be read,165Or the small pillow grace a lady's bed,[450]While visits shall be paid on solemn days,When num'rous wax-lights in bright order blaze,While nymphs take treats, or assignations give,So long my honour, name, and praise shall live!"[451]170What time would spare, from steel receives its date,And monuments, like men, submit to fate![452]Steel could the labour of the gods destroy,[453]And strike to dust th' imperial tow'rs of Troy;Steel could the works of mortal pride confound,175And hew triumphal arches to the ground.[454]What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hairs should feelThe conqu'ring force of unresisted steel?[455]
CANTO IV.
But anxious cares the pensive nymph oppressed,[456]And secret passions laboured in her breast.Not youthful kings in battle seized alive,Not scornful virgins who their charms survive,Not ardent lovers robbed of all their bliss,5Not ancient ladies when refused a kiss,Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die,[457]Not Cynthia when her manteau's pinned awry,E'er felt such rage, resentment, and despair,As thou, sad virgin! for thy ravished hair.10For, that sad moment, when the sylphs withdrew,[458]And Ariel weeping from Belinda flew,Umbriel, a dusky, melancholy sprite,As ever sullied the fair face of light,Down to the central earth, his proper scene,15Repaired to search the gloomy cave of Spleen.Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome,[459]And in a vapour reached the dismal dome.No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows,The dreaded east is all the wind that blows.[460]20Here in a grotto, sheltered close from air,And screened in shades from day's detested glare,[461]She sighs for ever on her pensive bed,Pain at her side, and Megrim[462]at her head.Two handmaids wait[463]the throne: alike in place,25But diff'ring far in figure and in face.Here stood Ill-nature like an ancient maid,Her wrinkled form in black and white arrayed;With store of pray'rs, for mornings, nights, and noons,Her hand is filled; her bosom with lampoons.30There Affectation with a sickly mien,Shows in her cheek the roses of eighteen,Practised to lisp, and hang the head aside,Faints into airs, and languishes with pride,On the rich quilt sinks with becoming woe,35Wrapped in a gown, for sickness, and for show.The fair ones feel such maladies as these,When each new night-dress gives a new disease.[464]A constant vapour o'er the palace flies;Strange phantoms rising as the mists arise;40Dreadful, as hermits' dreams in haunted shades,Or bright, as visions of expiring maids.[465]Now glaring fiends, and snakes on rolling spires,[466]Pale spectres, gaping tombs, and purple fires:Now lakes of liquid gold, Elysian scenes,45And crystal domes, and angels in machines.[467]Unnumbered throngs, on ev'ry side are seen,Of bodies changed to various forms by Spleen.[468]Here living tea-pots stand, one arm held out,One bent; the handle this, and that the spout:50A pipkin there, like Homer's tripod walks;[469]Here sighs a jar, and there a goose-pye talks;[470]Men prove with child, as pow'rful fancy works,[471]And maids turned bottles, call aloud for corks.[472]Safe past the gnome through this fantastic band,55A branch of healing spleenwort in his hand.[473]Then thus addressed the pow'r—"Hail, wayward queen!Who rule[474]the sex to fifty from fifteen:Parent of vapours[475]and of female wit,Who give th' hysteric, or poetic fit,60On various tempers act by various ways,Make some take physic, others scribble plays;Who cause the proud their visits to delay,And send the godly in a pet to pray;A nymph there is, that all thy pow'r disdains,65And thousands more in equal mirth maintains.But oh! if e'er thy gnome could spoil a grace,Or raise a pimple on a beauteous face,Like citron-waters[476]matrons' cheeks inflame,Or change complexions at a losing game;70If e'er with airy horns I planted heads,Or rumpled petticoats, or tumbled beds,Or caused suspicion when no soul was rude,Or discomposed the head-dress of a prude,Or e'er to costive lap-dog gave disease,75Which not the tears of brightest eyes could ease:Hear me, and touch Belinda with chagrin,That single act gives half the world the spleen."The goddess with a discontented airSeems to reject him, though she grants his pray'r.80A wondrous bag with both her hands she binds,Like that where once Ulysses held the winds;There she collects the force of female lungs,Sighs, sobs, and passions, and the war of tongues.A phial next she fills with fainting fears,85Soft sorrows, melting griefs, and flowing tears.The gnome rejoicing bears her gifts away,Spreads his black wings, and slowly mounts to day.Sunk in Thalestris' arms the nymph he found,Her eyes dejected, and her hair unbound.90Full o'er their heads the swelling bag he rent,And all the furies issued at the vent.Belinda burns with more than mortal ire,And fierce Thalestris fans the rising fire."O wretched maid!" she spread her hands, and cried,95(While Hampton's echoes, "Wretched maid!" replied)"Was it for this you took such constant careThe bodkin, comb, and essence to prepare?For this your locks in paper durance bound?For this with tort'ring irons wreathed around?100For this with fillets strained your tender head,And bravely bore the double loads of lead?[477]Gods! shall the ravisher display your hair,While the fops envy, and the ladies stare!Honour forbid! at whose unrivalled shrine105Ease, pleasure, virtue, all our sex resign.[478]Methinks already I your tears survey,Already hear the horrid things they say,Already see you a degraded toast,And all your honour in a whisper lost!110How shall I, then, your helpless fame defend?'Twill then be infamy to seem your friend!And shall this prize, th' inestimable prize,Exposed through crystal to the gazing eyes,And heightened by the diamond's circling rays,115On that rapacious hand for ever blaze?Sooner shall grass in Hyde-Park Circus grow,[479]And wits take lodgings in the sound of Bow;Sooner let earth, air, sea, to chaos fall,Men, monkeys, lap-dogs, parrots, perish all!"120She said; then raging to Sir Plume[480]repairs,And bids her beau demand the precious hairs:(Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain,And the nice conduct of a clouded cane)[481]With earnest eyes, and round unthinking face,125He first the snuff-box opened, then the case,And thus broke out—"My Lord, why, what the devil!Zounds! damn the lock! 'fore Gad, you must be civil.Plague on't! 'tis past a jest—nay prithee, pox!Give her the hair"—he spoke, and rapped his box.130"It grieves me much," replied the peer again,"Who speaks so well should ever speak in vain,But by this lock, this sacred lock I swear,[482](Which never more shall join its parted hair;Which never more its honours shall renew,135Clipped from the lovely head where late it grew)That while my nostrils draw the vital air,[483]This hand, which won it, shall for ever wear."He spoke, and speaking, in proud triumph spreadThe long-contended honours of her head.[484]140But Umbriel, hateful gnome! forbears not so;He breaks the phial whence the sorrows flow.[485]Then see! the nymph in beauteous grief appears,Her eyes half languishing, half drowned in tears;On her heaved bosom hung her drooping head,145Which, with a sigh, she raised; and thus she said."For ever cursed be this detested day,Which snatched my best, my fav'rite curl away!Happy! ah ten times happy had I been,[486]If Hampton-Court these eyes had never seen!150Yet am not I the first mistaken maid,By love of courts to num'rous ills betrayed.Oh had I rather unadmired remainedIn some lone isle, or distant northern land;Where the gilt chariot never marks the way,155Where none learn ombre, none e'er taste bohea!There kept my charms concealed from mortal eye,Like roses, that in deserts bloom and die.What moved my mind with youthful lords to roam?O had I stayed, and said my pray'rs at home!160'Twas this the morning omens seemed to tell,[487]Thrice from my trembling hand the patch-box[488]fell;The tott'ring china shook without a wind,Nay, Poll sat mute, and Shock was most unkind!A sylph too warned me of the threats of fate,165In mystic visions, now believed too late!See the poor remnants of these slighted hairs!My hands shall rend what ev'n thy rapine spares:These in two sable ringlets taught to break,Once gave new beauties to the snowy neck;[489]170The sister-lock now sits uncouth, alone,And in its fellow's fate foresees its own;[490]Uncurled it hangs, the fatal shears demands,And tempts, once more, thy sacrilegious hands.Oh hadst thou, cruel! been content to seize175Hairs less in sight, or any hairs but these!"
But anxious cares the pensive nymph oppressed,[456]And secret passions laboured in her breast.Not youthful kings in battle seized alive,Not scornful virgins who their charms survive,Not ardent lovers robbed of all their bliss,5Not ancient ladies when refused a kiss,Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die,[457]Not Cynthia when her manteau's pinned awry,E'er felt such rage, resentment, and despair,As thou, sad virgin! for thy ravished hair.10For, that sad moment, when the sylphs withdrew,[458]And Ariel weeping from Belinda flew,Umbriel, a dusky, melancholy sprite,As ever sullied the fair face of light,Down to the central earth, his proper scene,15Repaired to search the gloomy cave of Spleen.Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome,[459]And in a vapour reached the dismal dome.No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows,The dreaded east is all the wind that blows.[460]20Here in a grotto, sheltered close from air,And screened in shades from day's detested glare,[461]She sighs for ever on her pensive bed,Pain at her side, and Megrim[462]at her head.Two handmaids wait[463]the throne: alike in place,25But diff'ring far in figure and in face.Here stood Ill-nature like an ancient maid,Her wrinkled form in black and white arrayed;With store of pray'rs, for mornings, nights, and noons,Her hand is filled; her bosom with lampoons.30There Affectation with a sickly mien,Shows in her cheek the roses of eighteen,Practised to lisp, and hang the head aside,Faints into airs, and languishes with pride,On the rich quilt sinks with becoming woe,35Wrapped in a gown, for sickness, and for show.The fair ones feel such maladies as these,When each new night-dress gives a new disease.[464]A constant vapour o'er the palace flies;Strange phantoms rising as the mists arise;40Dreadful, as hermits' dreams in haunted shades,Or bright, as visions of expiring maids.[465]Now glaring fiends, and snakes on rolling spires,[466]Pale spectres, gaping tombs, and purple fires:Now lakes of liquid gold, Elysian scenes,45And crystal domes, and angels in machines.[467]Unnumbered throngs, on ev'ry side are seen,Of bodies changed to various forms by Spleen.[468]Here living tea-pots stand, one arm held out,One bent; the handle this, and that the spout:50A pipkin there, like Homer's tripod walks;[469]Here sighs a jar, and there a goose-pye talks;[470]Men prove with child, as pow'rful fancy works,[471]And maids turned bottles, call aloud for corks.[472]Safe past the gnome through this fantastic band,55A branch of healing spleenwort in his hand.[473]Then thus addressed the pow'r—"Hail, wayward queen!Who rule[474]the sex to fifty from fifteen:Parent of vapours[475]and of female wit,Who give th' hysteric, or poetic fit,60On various tempers act by various ways,Make some take physic, others scribble plays;Who cause the proud their visits to delay,And send the godly in a pet to pray;A nymph there is, that all thy pow'r disdains,65And thousands more in equal mirth maintains.But oh! if e'er thy gnome could spoil a grace,Or raise a pimple on a beauteous face,Like citron-waters[476]matrons' cheeks inflame,Or change complexions at a losing game;70If e'er with airy horns I planted heads,Or rumpled petticoats, or tumbled beds,Or caused suspicion when no soul was rude,Or discomposed the head-dress of a prude,Or e'er to costive lap-dog gave disease,75Which not the tears of brightest eyes could ease:Hear me, and touch Belinda with chagrin,That single act gives half the world the spleen."The goddess with a discontented airSeems to reject him, though she grants his pray'r.80A wondrous bag with both her hands she binds,Like that where once Ulysses held the winds;There she collects the force of female lungs,Sighs, sobs, and passions, and the war of tongues.A phial next she fills with fainting fears,85Soft sorrows, melting griefs, and flowing tears.The gnome rejoicing bears her gifts away,Spreads his black wings, and slowly mounts to day.Sunk in Thalestris' arms the nymph he found,Her eyes dejected, and her hair unbound.90Full o'er their heads the swelling bag he rent,And all the furies issued at the vent.Belinda burns with more than mortal ire,And fierce Thalestris fans the rising fire."O wretched maid!" she spread her hands, and cried,95(While Hampton's echoes, "Wretched maid!" replied)"Was it for this you took such constant careThe bodkin, comb, and essence to prepare?For this your locks in paper durance bound?For this with tort'ring irons wreathed around?100For this with fillets strained your tender head,And bravely bore the double loads of lead?[477]Gods! shall the ravisher display your hair,While the fops envy, and the ladies stare!Honour forbid! at whose unrivalled shrine105Ease, pleasure, virtue, all our sex resign.[478]Methinks already I your tears survey,Already hear the horrid things they say,Already see you a degraded toast,And all your honour in a whisper lost!110How shall I, then, your helpless fame defend?'Twill then be infamy to seem your friend!And shall this prize, th' inestimable prize,Exposed through crystal to the gazing eyes,And heightened by the diamond's circling rays,115On that rapacious hand for ever blaze?Sooner shall grass in Hyde-Park Circus grow,[479]And wits take lodgings in the sound of Bow;Sooner let earth, air, sea, to chaos fall,Men, monkeys, lap-dogs, parrots, perish all!"120She said; then raging to Sir Plume[480]repairs,And bids her beau demand the precious hairs:(Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain,And the nice conduct of a clouded cane)[481]With earnest eyes, and round unthinking face,125He first the snuff-box opened, then the case,And thus broke out—"My Lord, why, what the devil!Zounds! damn the lock! 'fore Gad, you must be civil.Plague on't! 'tis past a jest—nay prithee, pox!Give her the hair"—he spoke, and rapped his box.130"It grieves me much," replied the peer again,"Who speaks so well should ever speak in vain,But by this lock, this sacred lock I swear,[482](Which never more shall join its parted hair;Which never more its honours shall renew,135Clipped from the lovely head where late it grew)That while my nostrils draw the vital air,[483]This hand, which won it, shall for ever wear."He spoke, and speaking, in proud triumph spreadThe long-contended honours of her head.[484]140But Umbriel, hateful gnome! forbears not so;He breaks the phial whence the sorrows flow.[485]Then see! the nymph in beauteous grief appears,Her eyes half languishing, half drowned in tears;On her heaved bosom hung her drooping head,145Which, with a sigh, she raised; and thus she said."For ever cursed be this detested day,Which snatched my best, my fav'rite curl away!Happy! ah ten times happy had I been,[486]If Hampton-Court these eyes had never seen!150Yet am not I the first mistaken maid,By love of courts to num'rous ills betrayed.Oh had I rather unadmired remainedIn some lone isle, or distant northern land;Where the gilt chariot never marks the way,155Where none learn ombre, none e'er taste bohea!There kept my charms concealed from mortal eye,Like roses, that in deserts bloom and die.What moved my mind with youthful lords to roam?O had I stayed, and said my pray'rs at home!160'Twas this the morning omens seemed to tell,[487]Thrice from my trembling hand the patch-box[488]fell;The tott'ring china shook without a wind,Nay, Poll sat mute, and Shock was most unkind!A sylph too warned me of the threats of fate,165In mystic visions, now believed too late!See the poor remnants of these slighted hairs!My hands shall rend what ev'n thy rapine spares:These in two sable ringlets taught to break,Once gave new beauties to the snowy neck;[489]170The sister-lock now sits uncouth, alone,And in its fellow's fate foresees its own;[490]Uncurled it hangs, the fatal shears demands,And tempts, once more, thy sacrilegious hands.Oh hadst thou, cruel! been content to seize175Hairs less in sight, or any hairs but these!"
But anxious cares the pensive nymph oppressed,[456]And secret passions laboured in her breast.Not youthful kings in battle seized alive,Not scornful virgins who their charms survive,Not ardent lovers robbed of all their bliss,5Not ancient ladies when refused a kiss,Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die,[457]Not Cynthia when her manteau's pinned awry,E'er felt such rage, resentment, and despair,As thou, sad virgin! for thy ravished hair.10For, that sad moment, when the sylphs withdrew,[458]And Ariel weeping from Belinda flew,Umbriel, a dusky, melancholy sprite,As ever sullied the fair face of light,Down to the central earth, his proper scene,15Repaired to search the gloomy cave of Spleen.Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome,[459]And in a vapour reached the dismal dome.No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows,The dreaded east is all the wind that blows.[460]20Here in a grotto, sheltered close from air,And screened in shades from day's detested glare,[461]She sighs for ever on her pensive bed,Pain at her side, and Megrim[462]at her head.Two handmaids wait[463]the throne: alike in place,25But diff'ring far in figure and in face.Here stood Ill-nature like an ancient maid,Her wrinkled form in black and white arrayed;With store of pray'rs, for mornings, nights, and noons,Her hand is filled; her bosom with lampoons.30There Affectation with a sickly mien,Shows in her cheek the roses of eighteen,Practised to lisp, and hang the head aside,Faints into airs, and languishes with pride,On the rich quilt sinks with becoming woe,35Wrapped in a gown, for sickness, and for show.The fair ones feel such maladies as these,When each new night-dress gives a new disease.[464]A constant vapour o'er the palace flies;Strange phantoms rising as the mists arise;40Dreadful, as hermits' dreams in haunted shades,Or bright, as visions of expiring maids.[465]Now glaring fiends, and snakes on rolling spires,[466]Pale spectres, gaping tombs, and purple fires:Now lakes of liquid gold, Elysian scenes,45And crystal domes, and angels in machines.[467]Unnumbered throngs, on ev'ry side are seen,Of bodies changed to various forms by Spleen.[468]Here living tea-pots stand, one arm held out,One bent; the handle this, and that the spout:50A pipkin there, like Homer's tripod walks;[469]Here sighs a jar, and there a goose-pye talks;[470]Men prove with child, as pow'rful fancy works,[471]And maids turned bottles, call aloud for corks.[472]Safe past the gnome through this fantastic band,55A branch of healing spleenwort in his hand.[473]Then thus addressed the pow'r—"Hail, wayward queen!Who rule[474]the sex to fifty from fifteen:Parent of vapours[475]and of female wit,Who give th' hysteric, or poetic fit,60On various tempers act by various ways,Make some take physic, others scribble plays;Who cause the proud their visits to delay,And send the godly in a pet to pray;A nymph there is, that all thy pow'r disdains,65And thousands more in equal mirth maintains.But oh! if e'er thy gnome could spoil a grace,Or raise a pimple on a beauteous face,Like citron-waters[476]matrons' cheeks inflame,Or change complexions at a losing game;70If e'er with airy horns I planted heads,Or rumpled petticoats, or tumbled beds,Or caused suspicion when no soul was rude,Or discomposed the head-dress of a prude,Or e'er to costive lap-dog gave disease,75Which not the tears of brightest eyes could ease:Hear me, and touch Belinda with chagrin,That single act gives half the world the spleen."The goddess with a discontented airSeems to reject him, though she grants his pray'r.80A wondrous bag with both her hands she binds,Like that where once Ulysses held the winds;There she collects the force of female lungs,Sighs, sobs, and passions, and the war of tongues.A phial next she fills with fainting fears,85Soft sorrows, melting griefs, and flowing tears.The gnome rejoicing bears her gifts away,Spreads his black wings, and slowly mounts to day.Sunk in Thalestris' arms the nymph he found,Her eyes dejected, and her hair unbound.90Full o'er their heads the swelling bag he rent,And all the furies issued at the vent.Belinda burns with more than mortal ire,And fierce Thalestris fans the rising fire."O wretched maid!" she spread her hands, and cried,95(While Hampton's echoes, "Wretched maid!" replied)"Was it for this you took such constant careThe bodkin, comb, and essence to prepare?For this your locks in paper durance bound?For this with tort'ring irons wreathed around?100For this with fillets strained your tender head,And bravely bore the double loads of lead?[477]Gods! shall the ravisher display your hair,While the fops envy, and the ladies stare!Honour forbid! at whose unrivalled shrine105Ease, pleasure, virtue, all our sex resign.[478]Methinks already I your tears survey,Already hear the horrid things they say,Already see you a degraded toast,And all your honour in a whisper lost!110How shall I, then, your helpless fame defend?'Twill then be infamy to seem your friend!And shall this prize, th' inestimable prize,Exposed through crystal to the gazing eyes,And heightened by the diamond's circling rays,115On that rapacious hand for ever blaze?Sooner shall grass in Hyde-Park Circus grow,[479]And wits take lodgings in the sound of Bow;Sooner let earth, air, sea, to chaos fall,Men, monkeys, lap-dogs, parrots, perish all!"120She said; then raging to Sir Plume[480]repairs,And bids her beau demand the precious hairs:(Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain,And the nice conduct of a clouded cane)[481]With earnest eyes, and round unthinking face,125He first the snuff-box opened, then the case,And thus broke out—"My Lord, why, what the devil!Zounds! damn the lock! 'fore Gad, you must be civil.Plague on't! 'tis past a jest—nay prithee, pox!Give her the hair"—he spoke, and rapped his box.130"It grieves me much," replied the peer again,"Who speaks so well should ever speak in vain,But by this lock, this sacred lock I swear,[482](Which never more shall join its parted hair;Which never more its honours shall renew,135Clipped from the lovely head where late it grew)That while my nostrils draw the vital air,[483]This hand, which won it, shall for ever wear."He spoke, and speaking, in proud triumph spreadThe long-contended honours of her head.[484]140But Umbriel, hateful gnome! forbears not so;He breaks the phial whence the sorrows flow.[485]Then see! the nymph in beauteous grief appears,Her eyes half languishing, half drowned in tears;On her heaved bosom hung her drooping head,145Which, with a sigh, she raised; and thus she said."For ever cursed be this detested day,Which snatched my best, my fav'rite curl away!Happy! ah ten times happy had I been,[486]If Hampton-Court these eyes had never seen!150Yet am not I the first mistaken maid,By love of courts to num'rous ills betrayed.Oh had I rather unadmired remainedIn some lone isle, or distant northern land;Where the gilt chariot never marks the way,155Where none learn ombre, none e'er taste bohea!There kept my charms concealed from mortal eye,Like roses, that in deserts bloom and die.What moved my mind with youthful lords to roam?O had I stayed, and said my pray'rs at home!160'Twas this the morning omens seemed to tell,[487]Thrice from my trembling hand the patch-box[488]fell;The tott'ring china shook without a wind,Nay, Poll sat mute, and Shock was most unkind!A sylph too warned me of the threats of fate,165In mystic visions, now believed too late!See the poor remnants of these slighted hairs!My hands shall rend what ev'n thy rapine spares:These in two sable ringlets taught to break,Once gave new beauties to the snowy neck;[489]170The sister-lock now sits uncouth, alone,And in its fellow's fate foresees its own;[490]Uncurled it hangs, the fatal shears demands,And tempts, once more, thy sacrilegious hands.Oh hadst thou, cruel! been content to seize175Hairs less in sight, or any hairs but these!"
CANTO V.