TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

ROBERT, EARL OF OXFORD,

AND

EARL MORTIMER.

SUCH

were the notes thy once-lov'd Poet fung,
Till death untimely stopp'd his tuneful tongue.
Oh, just beheld, and lost! admir'd, and mourn'd!
With fofteft manners, gentleft arts adorn'd!
Bleft in each fcience, bleft in every strain;
Dear to the Mufe, to Harley dear-in vain!
For him thou oft haft bid the world attend,
Fond to forget the statesman in the friend :
For Swift and him, defpis'd the farce of state,
The fober follies of the wife and great;
Dextrous, the craving, fawning croud to quit,
And pleas'd to fcape from flattery to wit.
Abfent or dead, ftill let a friend be dear,
(A figh the absent claims, the dead a tear)
Recall thofe nights that clos'd thy toilfome days,
Still hear thy Parnell in his living lays:
Who, careless now, of intereft, fame, or fate,
Perhaps forgets that Oxford e'er was great;
Or, deeming meanest what we greatest call,
Beholds thee glorious only in thy fall.

And fure, if aught below the feats divine
Can touch immortals, 'tis a foul like thine :
B 2

A foul

A foul fupreme, in each hard inftance try'd,,
Above all pain, all anger, and all pride;
The rage of power, the blaft of public breath,
The luft of lucre, and the dread of death.
In vain to deserts thy retreat is made;
The Muse attends thee to thy filent shade:
Tis hers, the brave man's latest steps to trace,
Re-judge his acts, and dignify difgrace,
When interest calls off all her fneaking train,
When all th' oblig'd defert, and all the vain;
She waits, or to the fcaffold, or the cell,
When the laft lingering friend has bid farewell..
Ev'n now the fhades thy evening-walk with bays,
(No hireling fhe, no proftitute to praise)
Ev'n now obfervant of the parting ray,
Eyes the calm fun-fet of thy various day;
Through Fortune's cloud one truly great can fee,
Nor fears to tell, that Mortimer is he.

Sept. 25, 1721.

A. POP E

HESIOD:

WHAT antient times (thofe times we fancy wife)

Have left on long record of woman's rise,

What morals teach it, and what fables hide,
What author wrote it, how that author dy'd,
All these I fing. In Greece they fram'd the tale
(In Greece 'twas thought a woman might be frail);
Ye modern beauties! where the Poet drew
His fofteft pencil, think he dreamt of you;
And, warn'd by him, ye wanton pens beware
How Heaven's concern'd to vindicate the fair.
The cafe was Hefiod's; he the fable writ;
Some think with meaning, fome with idle wit:
Perhaps 'tis either, as the Ladies please;
I wave the conteft, and commence the lays.
In days of yore (no matter where or when,
'Twas ere the low creation swarm'd with men)
That one Prometheus, fprung of heavenly birth,
(Our Author's fong can witness) liv'd on earth:
He carv'd the turf to mold a manly frame,
And frole from Jove his animating flame.
The fly contrivance o'er Olympus ran,
When thus the Monarch of the Stars began.

B 3

Overs'd

Q vers'd in arts! whofe daring thoughts aspire, To kindle clay with never-dying fire!

Enjoy thy glory past, that gift was thinę;

The next thy creature meets, be fairly mine:
And fuch a gift, a vengeance fo defign'd,
As fuits the counfel of a God to find;
A pleafing bofom-cheat, a fpecious ill,
Which felt the curfe, yet covets fill to feel.

He faid, and Vulcan trait the Sire commands,
To temper mortar with ætherial hands;

In fuch a shape to mold a rifing fair,
As virgin goddeffes are proud to wear;
To make her eyes with diamond-water shine,
And form her organs for a voice divine.
'Twas thus the Site ordain'd; the Power obey'd;
And work'd, and wonder'd at the work he made;
The faireft, fofteft, fweetest frame beneath,

Now made to feem, now more than feem to breathe.
As Vulcan ends, the chearful Queen of Charms
Clafp'd the new-panting creature in her arms:
From that embrace a fine complexion spread,
Where mingled whitene's glow'd with fofter red.
Then in a kifs fhe breath'd her various arts,
Of trifling prettily with wounded hearts;
A mind for love, but fill a changing mind;
The lifp affected, and the glance defign'd;
The fweet confufing blush, the fecret wink,
The gentle fwimming walk, the courteous fink;
The ftare for ftrangeness fit, for fcorn the frown;
For decent yielding, looks declining down;

The practis'd languish, where well-feign'd defire
Would own its melting in a mutual fire;
Gay fmiles to comfort; April fhowers to move;
And all the nature, all the art of love.

Gold scepter'd Juno next exalts the fair
Her touch endows her with imperious air,
Self-valuing fancy, highly-crefted pride,
Strong fovereign will, and fome desire to chide ;
For which, an eloquence, that aims to vex,
With native tropes of anger, arms the sex.
Minerva, skilful goddefs, train'd the maid
To twirle the fpindle by the twifting thread;
To fix the loom, inftru&t the reeds to part,
Crofs the long weft, and clofe the web with art,
An ufeful gift; but what profufe expence,
What world of fashions, took its rife from hence!
Young Hermes next, a clofe contriving God,
Her brows encircled with his ferpent rod;
Then plots and fair excufes fill'd her brain,
The views of breaking amorous vows for gain;
The price of favours; the defigning arts
That aim at riches in contempt of hearts;
And, for a comfort in the marriage life,
The little pilfering temper of a wife.

He

Full on the fair his beams Apollo fiung,
And fond perfuafion tipp'd her easy tongue;
gave her words, where oily flattery lays
The pleafing colours of the art of praife;
And wit, to feandal exquifitely prone,
Which frets another's fpleen to cure its own.