She said: the pitying audience melt in tears,
 But Fate and Jove had stopped the baron's ears.[491]
 In vain Thalestris with reproach assails,
 For who can move when fair Belinda fails?
 Not half so fixed the Trojan could remain, 5
 "While Anna begged and Dido raged in vain.[492]
 Then grave Clarissa[493] graceful waved her fan;
 Silence ensued, and thus the nymph began.
 "Say, why are beauties praised and honoured most,[494]
 The wise man's passion, and the vain man's toast?[495] 10
 Why decked with all that land and sea afford,
 Why angels called, and angel-like adored?[496]
 Why round our coaches crowd the white-gloved beaux,[497]
 Why bows the side-box from its inmost rows?[498]
 How vain are all these glories, all our pains, 15
 Unless good sense preserve what beauty gains:
 That men may say, when we the front box grace,
 Behold the first in virtue as in face!
 Oh! if to dance all night, and dress all day,
 Charmed the small-pox, or chased old age away; 20
 Who would not scorn what housewifes' cares produce,
 Or who would learn one earthly thing of use?
 To patch, nay ogle, might become a saint,
 Nor could it sure be such a sin to paint.
 But since, alas! frail beauty must decay, 25
 Curled or uncurled, since locks will turn to grey;
 Since painted, or not painted, all shall fade,
 And she who scorns a man, must die a maid;
 What then remains but well our pow'r to use,
 And keep good humour still whate'er we lose? 30
 And trust me, dear! good humour can prevail,
 When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail.
 Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll;
 Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
 So spoke the dame, but no applause ensued;[499] 35
 Belinda frowned, Thalestris called her prude.
 To arms, to arms! the fierce virago cries,[500]
 And swift as lightning to the combat flies.
 All side in parties, and begin th' attack;
 Fans clap, silks rustle, and tough whalebones crack; 40
 Heroes' and heroines' shouts confus'dly rise,
 And base and treble voices strike the skies.[501]
 No common weapons in their hands are found,
 Like gods they fight, nor dread a mortal wound.
 So when bold Homer makes the gods engage,[502] 45
 And heav'nly breasts with human passions rage;
 'Gainst Pallas, Mars; Latona, Hermes arms;
 And all Olympus rings with loud alarms:
 Jove's thunder roars, heav'n trembles all around,
 Blue Neptune storms, the bellowing deeps resound: 50
 Earth shakes her nodding tow'rs, the ground gives way,
 And the pale ghosts start at the flash of day![503]
 Triumphant Umbriel on a sconce's height[504]
 Clapped his glad wings, and sate to view the fight.[505]
 Propped on their bodkin spears,[506] the sprites survey 55
 The growing combat, or assist the fray.
 While through the press enraged Thalestris flies,
 And scatters death around from both her eyes,
 A beau and witling perished in the throng,
 One died in metaphor, and one in song.[507] 60
 "O cruel nymph! a living death I bear,"[508]
 Cried Dapperwit, and sunk beside his chair.
 A mournful glance Sir Fopling upwards cast,
 "Those eyes are made so killing"[509]—was his last.
 Thus on Mæander's flow'ry margin lies[510] 65
 Th' expiring swan, and as he sings he dies.
 When bold Sir Plume had drawn Clarissa down,
 Chloe stepped in, and killed him with a frown;
 She smiled to see the doughty hero slain,
 But, at her smile, the beau revived again. 70
 Now Jove suspends his golden scales in air,[511]
 Weighs the men's wits against the lady's hair;
 The doubtful beam long nods from side to side;
 At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside.
 See fierce Belinda on the baron flies, 75
 With more than usual lightning in her eyes:
 Nor feared the chief th' unequal fight to try,
 Who sought no more than on his foe to die.
 But this bold lord with manly strength endued,
 She with one finger and a thumb subdued; 80
 Just where the breath of life his nostrils drew,
 A charge of snuff the wily virgin threw;
 The gnomes direct, to ev'ry atom just,
 The pungent grains of titillating dust.[512]
 Sudden, with starting tears each eye o'erflows, 85
 And the high dome re-echoes to his nose.
 "Now meet thy fate," incensed Belinda cried,
 And drew a deadly bodkin from her side.
 (The same, his ancient personage to deck,[513]
 Her great great grandsire wore about his neck, 90
 In three seal-rings; which after, melted down,
 Formed a vast buckle for his widow's gown:
 Her infant grandame's whistle next it grew,
 The bell she jingled, and the whistle blew;
 Then in a bodkin[514] graced her mother's hairs, 95
 Which long she wore, and now Belinda wears.)
 "Boast not my fall," he cried, "insulting foe!
 Thou by some other shalt be laid as low:
 Nor think, to die dejects my lofty mind;
 All that I dread is leaving you behind! 100
 Rather than so, ah let me still survive,
 And burn in Cupid's flames—but burn alive."[515]
 "Restore the Lock!" she cries; and all around
 "Restore the Lock!" the vaulted roofs rebound.[516]
 Not fierce Othello in so loud a strain 105
 Roared for the handkerchief that caused his pain.
 But see how oft ambitious aims are crossed,
 And chiefs contend till all the prize is lost!
 The lock, obtained with guilt, and kept with pain,
 In ev'ry place is sought, but sought in vain: 110
 With such a prize no mortal must be blessed,
 So heav'n decrees! with heav'n who can contest?
 Some thought it mounted to the lunar sphere,
 Since all things lost on earth are treasured there.[517]
 There heroes' wits are kept in pond'rous vases,[518] 115
 And beaus' in snuff-boxes and tweezer-cases.
 There broken vows, and death-bed alms[519] are found,
 And lovers' hearts with ends of ribbon bound,
 The courtier's promises, and sick man's pray'rs,
 The smiles of harlots, and the tears of heirs,[520] 120
 Cages for gnats, and chains to yoke a flea,
 Dried butterflies, and tomes of casuistry.
 But trust the muse—she saw it upward rise,
 Though marked by none but quick, poetic eyes:[521]
 (So Rome's great founder to the heav'ns withdrew, 125
 To Proculus alone confessed in view)
 A sudden star, it shot through liquid air,
 And drew behind a radiant trail of hair.[522]
 Not Berenice's locks first rose so bright,
 The heav'ns bespangling with dishevelled light. 130
 The sylphs behold it kindling as it flies,
 And pleased pursue its progress through the skies.[523]
 This the beau monde shall from the Mall survey,
 And hail with music its propitious ray;[524]
 This the bless'd lover shall for Venus take, 135
 And send up vows from Rosamonda's lake;[525]
 This Partridge[526] soon shall view in cloudless skies,
 When next he looks through Galileo's eyes;[527]
 And hence th' egregious wizard shall foredoom
 The fate of Louis, and the fall of Rome. 140
 Then cease, bright nymph! to mourn thy ravished hair,
 Which adds new glory to the shining sphere!
 Not all the tresses that fair head can boast,
 Shall draw such envy as the lock you lost.
 For after all the murders of your eye,[528] 145
 When, after millions slain,[529] yourself shall die;
 When those fair suns shall set, as set they must,
 And all those tresses shall be laid in dust,
 This lock the muse shall consecrate to fame,
 And 'midst the stars inscribe Belinda's name. [530] 150

THE

RAPE OF THE LOCK.

Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos
 Sed juvat, hoc precibus me tribuisse tuis.—Mart.

First Edition.

THE

RAPE OF THE LOCK.

CANTO I.

What dire offence from am'rous causes springs,
 What mighty quarrels rise from trivial things,
 I sing—This verse to C——l, Muse! is due:
 This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:
 Slight is the subject, but not so the praise, 5
 If she inspire, and he approve my lays.
 Say what strange motive, goddess! could compel
 A well-bred lord t'assault a gentle belle?
 O say what stranger cause, yet unexplored,
 Could make a gentle belle reject a lord? 10
 And dwells such rage in softest bosoms then,
 And lodge such daring souls in little men?
 Sol through white curtains did his beams display,
 And ope'd those eyes which brighter shine than they,
 Shock just had giv'n himself the rousing shake, 15
 And nymphs prepared their chocolate to take;
 Thrice the wrought slipper knocked against the ground,
 And striking watches the tenth hour resound.
 Belinda rose, and midst attending dames,
 Launched on the bosom of the silver Thames: 20
 A train of well-dressed youths around her shone,
 And 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, 25
 Quick as her eyes, and as unfixed as those:
 Favours 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. 30
 Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride,
 Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide:
 If to her share some female errors fall,
 Look on her face, and you'll forgive 'em all.
 This nymph, to the destruction of mankind, 35
 Nourished two locks, which graceful hung behind
 In equal curls, and well conspired to deck
 With shining ringlets her smooth iv'ry neck.
 Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains,
 And mighty hearts are held in slender chains. 40
 With hairy springes we the birds betray,
 Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey,
 Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare,
 And beauty draws us with a single hair.
 Th' adventurous baron the bright locks admired; 45
 He saw, he wished, and to the prize aspired.
 Resolved 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. 50
 For this, ere Phœbus rose, he had implored
 Propitious heav'n, and every pow'r adored,
 But chiefly Love—to Love an altar built,
 Of twelve vast French romances, neatly gilt.
 There lay the sword-knot Sylvia's hands had sewn 55
 With Flavia's busk that oft had wrapped his own:
 A fan, a garter, half a pair of gloves,
 And all the trophies of his former loves.
 With tender billets-doux he lights the pire,
 And breathes three am'rous sighs to raise the fire. 60
 Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent eyes
 Soon to obtain, and long possess the prize:
 The pow'rs gave ear, and granted half his pray'r,
 The rest the winds dispersed in empty air.
 Close by those meads, for ever crowned with flow'rs 65
 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 foredoom
 Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home; 70
 Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
 Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea.
 Hither our nymphs and heroes did resort,
 To taste awhile the pleasures of a court;
 In various talk the cheerful hours they passed, 75
 Of who was bit, or who capotted last;
 This speaks the glory of the British queen,
 And that describes a charming Indian screen;
 A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes;
 At ev'ry word a reputation dies. 80
 Snuff, or the fan, supply each pause of chat,
 With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that.
 Now when, declining from the noon of day,
 The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray;
 When hungry judges soon the sentence sign, 85
 And wretches hang that jurymen may dine;
 When merchants from th' Exchange return in peace,
 And the long labours of the toilet cease,
 The board's with cups and spoons, alternate, crowned,
 The berries crackle, and the mill turns round; 90
 On shining altars of japan they raise
 The silver lamp, and fiery spirits blaze:
 From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide,
 While China's earth receives the smoking tide.
 At once they gratify their smell and taste, 95
 While frequent cups prolong the rich repast.
 Coffee (which makes the politician wise,
 And see through all things with his half-shut eyes)
 Sent up in vapours to the baron's brain
 New stratagems, the radiant lock to gain. 100
 Ah 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!
 But when to mischief mortals bend their mind, 105
 How soon fit instruments of ill they find!
 Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting grace
 A two-edged weapon from her shining case:
 So ladies, in romance, assist their knight,
 Present the spear, and arm him for the fight; 110
 He takes the gift with rev'rence, and extends
 The little engine on his fingers' ends;
 This just behind Belinda's neck he spread,
 As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head.
 He first expands the glitt'ring forfex wide 115
 T' enclose the lock; then joins it, to divide;
 One fatal stroke the sacred hair does sever
 From the fair head, for ever, and for ever!
 The living fires come flashing from her eyes,
 And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies. 120
 Not louder shrieks by dames to heav'n are cast,
 When husbands die, or lapdogs breathe their last;
 Or when rich china vessels, fall'n from high,
 In glitt'ring dust and painted fragments lie!
 "Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine," 125
 The victor cried, "the glorious prize is mine!
 While fish in streams, or birds delight in air,
 Or in a coach and six the British fair,
 As long as Atalantis shall be read,
 Or the small pillow grace a lady's bed, 130
 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!"
 What time would spare, from steel receives its date, 135
 And monuments, like men, submit to fate!
 Steel did the labour of the gods destroy,
 And strike to dust th' aspiring tow'rs of Troy;
 Steel could the works of mortal pride confound,
 And hew triumphal arches to the ground. 140
 What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hairs should feel
 The conqu'ring force of unresisted steel?

CANTO II.

But anxious cares the pensive nymph oppressed,
 And secret passions laboured in her breast.
 Not youthful kings in battle seized alive,
 Not scornful virgins who their charms survive,
 Not ardent lover robbed of all his bliss, 5
 Not ancient lady when refused a kiss,
 Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die,
 Not Cynthia when her manteau's pinned awry,
 E'er felt such rage, resentment, and despair,
 As thou, sad virgin! for thy ravished hair. 10
 While her racked soul repose and peace requires,
 The fierce Thalestris fans the rising fires.
 "O wretched maid!" she spread her hands, and cried,
 (And Hampton's echoes, "Wretched maid!" replied)
 "Was it for this you took such constant care 15
 Combs, bodkins, leads, pomatums to prepare?
 For this your locks in paper durance bound?
 For this with tort'ring irons wreathed around?
 Oh had the youth been but content to seize
 Hairs less in sight, or any hairs but these! 20
 Gods! shall the ravisher display this hair,
 While the fops envy, and the ladies stare!
 Honour forbid! at whose unrivalled shrine
 Ease, pleasure, virtue, all, our sex resign.
 Methinks already I your tears survey, 25
 Already hear the horrid things they say,
 Already see you a degraded toast,
 And all your honour in a whisper lost!
 How shall I, then, your helpless fame defend?
 'Twill then be infamy to seem your friend! 30
 And shall this prize, th' inestimable prize,
 Exposed through crystal to the gazing eyes,
 And heightened by the diamond's circling rays,
 On that rapacious hand for ever blaze?
 Sooner shall grass in Hyde Park Circus grow, 35
 And wits take lodgings in the sound of Bow;
 Sooner let earth, air, sea, to chaos fall,
 Men, monkeys, lapdogs, parrots, perish all!"
 She said; then raging to Sir Plume repairs,
 And bids her beau demand the precious hairs: 40
 Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain,
 And the nice conduct of a clouded cane,
 With earnest eyes, and round unthinking face,
 He first the snuff-box opened, then the case,
 And thus broke out—"My lord, why, what the devil! 45
 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.
 "It grieves me much," replied the peer again,
 "Who speaks so well should ever speak in vain: 50
 But by this lock, this sacred lock, I swear,
 (Which never more shall join its parted hair;
 Which never more its honours shall renew,
 Clipped from the lovely head where once it grew)
 That, while my nostrils draw the vital air, 55
 This hand, which won it, shall for ever wear."
 He spoke, and speaking, in proud triumph spread
 The long-contended honours of her head.
 But see! the nymph in sorrow's pomp appears,
 Her eyes half-languishing, half drowned in tears; 60
}
{  Now livid pale her cheeks, now glowing red,
 {  On her heaved bosom hung her drooping head,
 {  Which 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; 65
 Happy! ah ten times happy had I been,
 If Hampton Court these eyes had never seen!
 Yet am not I the first mistaken maid,
 By love of courts to num'rous ills betrayed.
 O had I rather unadmired remained 70
 In some lone isle, or distant northern land,
 Where the gilt chariot never marked the way,
 Where none learn ombre, none e'er taste bohea!
 There kept my charms concealed from mortal eye,
 Like roses, that in deserts bloom and die. 75
 What moved my mind with youthful lords to roam?
 O had I stayed, and said my pray'rs at home!
 'Twas this the morning omens did foretell,
 Thrice from my trembling hand the patchbox fell;
 The tott'ring china shook without a wind, 80
 Nay, Poll sat mute, and Shock was most unkind!
 See the poor remnants of this slighted hair!
 My hands shall rend what ev'n thy own did spare:
 This in two sable ringlets taught to break,
 Once gave new beauties to the snowy neck; 85
 The sister-lock now sits uncouth, alone,
 And in its fellow's fate foresees its own;
 Uncurled it hangs, the fatal shears demands,
 And tempts once more thy sacrilegious hands."
 She said: the pitying audience melt in tears; 90
 But fate and Jove had stopped the baron's ears.
 In vain Thalestris with reproach assails,
 For who can move when fair Belinda fails?
 Not half so fixed the Trojan could remain,
 While Anna begged and Dido raged in vain. 95
 "To arms, to arms!" the bold Thalestris cries,
 And swift as lightning to the combat flies.
 All side in parties, and begin th' attack;
 Fans clap, silks rustle, and tough whalebones crack;
 Heroes' and heroines' shouts confus'dly rise, 100
 And bass and treble voices strike the skies;
 No common weapons in their hands are found,
 Like gods they fight, nor dread a mortal wound.
 So when bold Homer makes the gods engage,
 And heav'nly breasts with human passions rage, 105
 'Gainst Pallas, Mars; Latona, Hermes arms,
 And all Olympus rings with loud alarms;
 Jove's thunder roars, heav'n trembles all around,
 Blue Neptune storms, the bellowing deeps resound:
 Earth shakes her nodding tow'rs, the ground gives way, 110
 And the pale ghosts start at the flash of day!
 While through the press enraged Thalestris flies,
 And scatters death around from both her eyes,
 A beau and witling perished in the throng,
 One died in metaphor, and one in song. 115
 "O cruel nymph; a living death I bear,"
 Cried Dapperwit, and sunk beside his chair.
 A mournful glance Sir Fopling upwards cast,
 "Those eyes are made so killing"—was his last.
 Thus on Mæander's flow'ry margin lies 120
 Th' expiring swan, and as he sings he dies.
 As bold Sir Plume had drawn Clarissa down,
 Chloe stepped in, and killed him with a frown;
 She smiled to see the doughty hero slain,
 But at her smile the beau revived again. 125
 Now Jove suspends his golden scales in air,
 Weighs the men's wits against the lady's hair;
 The doubtful beam long nods from side to side;
 At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside.
 See fierce Belinda on the baron flies, 130
 With more than usual lightning in her eyes:
 Nor feared the chief th' unequal fight to try,
 Who sought no more than on his foe to die.
 But this bold lord, with manly strength endued,
 She with one finger and a thumb subdued: 135
 Just where the breath of life his nostrils drew,
 A charge of snuff the wily virgin threw;
 Sudden, with starting tears each eye o'erflows,
 And the high dome re-echoes to his nose.
 "Now meet thy fate," th' incensed virago cried, 140
 And drew a deadly bodkin from her side.
 "Boast not my fall," he said, "insulting foe!
 Thou by some other shalt be laid as low;
 Nor think to die dejects my lofty mind;
 All that I dread is leaving you behind! 145
 Rather than so, ah let me still survive,
 And still burn on, in Cupid's flames, alive."
 "Restore the lock!" she cries; and all around
 "Restore the lock!" the vaulted roofs rebound.
 Not fierce Othello in so loud a strain 150
 Roared for the handkerchief that caused his pain.
 But see how oft ambitious aims are crossed,
 And chiefs contend till all the prize is lost!
 The lock, obtained with guilt, and kept with pain,
 In ev'ry place is sought, but sought in vain: 155
 With such a prize no mortal must be blessed,
 So heav'n decrees! with heav'n who can contest?
 Some thought it mounted to the lunar sphere,
 Since all that man e'er lost is treasured there.
 There heroes' wits are kept in pond'rous vases, 160
 And beaux' in snuff-boxes and tweezer-cases.
 There broken vows, and death-bed alms are found,
 And lovers' hearts with ends of ribbon bound,
 The courtier's promises, and sick man's pray'rs,
 The smiles of harlots, and the tears of heirs, 165
 Cages for gnats, and chains to yoke a flea,
 Dried butterflies, and tomes of casuistry.
 But trust the muse—she saw it upward rise,
 Though marked by none but quick poetic eyes:
 (Thus Rome's great founder to the heav'ns withdrew, 170
 To Proculus alone confessed in view)
 A sudden star, it shot through liquid air,
 And drew behind a radiant trail of hair.
 Not Berenice's locks first rose so bright,
 The skies bespangling with dishevelled light. 175
}
{  This the beau monde shall from the Mall survey,
 {  As through the moonlight shade they nightly stray,
 {  And hail with music its propitious ray;
 This Partridge soon shall view in cloudless skies,
 When next he looks through Galileo's eyes; 180
 And hence th' egregious wizard shall foredoom
 The fate of Louis, and the fall of Rome.
 Then cease, bright nymph! to mourn thy ravished hair,
 Which adds new glory to the shining sphere!
 Not all the tresses that fair head can boast, 185
 Shall draw such envy as the lock you lost.
 For after all the murders of your eye,
 When, after millions slain, yourself shall die;
 When those fair suns shall set, as set they must,
 And all those tresses shall be laid in dust, 190
 This lock the muse shall consecrate to fame,
 And 'midst the stars inscribe Belinda's name.

ELEGY
TO THE MEMORY OF
AN UNFORTUNATE LADY.

See the Duke of Buckingham's verses to a Lady designing to retire into a Monastery compared with Mr. Pope's Letters to several Ladies, p. 206 [86], quarto edition. She seems to be the same person whose unfortunate death is the subject of this poem.[531]—Pope.

The unfortunate lady seems to have been a particular favourite of our poet. Whether he himself was the person she was removed from I am not able to say, but whoever reads his verses to her memory will find she had a very great share in him. This young lady who was of quality, had a very large fortune, and was in the eye of our discerning poet a great beauty, was left under the guardianship of an uncle, who gave her an education suitable to her title; for Mr. Pope declares she had titles, and she was thought a fit match for the greatest peer. But very young she contracted an acquaintance, and afterwards some degree of intimacy, with a young gentleman, who is only imagined, and, having settled her affections there, refused a match proposed to her by her uncle. Spies being set upon her, it was not long before her correspondence with her lover of lower degree was discovered, which, when taxed with by her uncle, she had too much truth and honour to deny. The uncle finding that she could not, nor would strive to withdraw her regard from him, after a little time forced her abroad, where she was received with all due respect to her quality, but kept up from the sight or speech of anybody but the creatures of this severe guardian, so that it was impossible for her lover even to deliver a letter that might ever come to her hand. Several were received from him with promises to get them privately delivered to her, but those were all sent to England, and only served to make them more cautious who had her in care. She languished here a considerable time, went through a great deal of sickness and sorrow, wept and sighed continually. At last wearied out, and despairing quite, the unfortunate lady, as Mr. Pope justly calls her, put an end to her own life. Having bribed a woman servant to procure her a sword, she was found dead upon the ground, but warm. The severity of the laws of the place where she was in denied her Christian burial, and she was buried without solemnity, or even any to wait on her to her grave except some young people of the neighbourhood, who saw her put into common ground, and strewed her grave with flowers, which gave some offence to the priesthood, who would have buried her in the highway, but it seems their power there did not extend so far.—Ayre.

From this account, given with the evident intention to raise the lady's character, it does not appear that she had any claim to praise, nor much to compassion. She seems to have been impatient, violent and ungovernable. Her uncle's power could not have lasted long; the hour of liberty and choice would have come in time. But her desires were too hot for delay, and she liked self-murder better than suspense. Nor is it discovered that the uncle, whoever he was, is with much justice delivered to posterity as "a false guardian." He seems to have done only that for which a guardian is appointed; he endeavoured to direct his niece till she should be able to direct herself. Poetry has not often been worse employed than in dignifying the amorous fury of a raving girl. The verses have drawn much attention by the illaudable singularity of treating suicide with respect; and they must be allowed to be written in some parts with vigorous animation, and in others with gentle tenderness; nor has Pope produced any poem in which the sense predominates more over the diction. But the tale is not skilfully told; it is not easy to discover the character of either the lady or her guardian. Pope praises her for the dignity of ambition, and yet condemns the uncle to detestation for his pride. The ambitious love of a niece may be opposed by the interest, malice, or envy of an uncle, but never by his pride. On such an occasion a poet may be allowed to be obscure, but inconsistency never can be right.—Johnson.

I have in my possession a letter to Dr. Johnson, containing the name of the lady, and a reference to a gentleman well known in the literary world for her history. Him I have seen, and from a memorandum of some particulars to the purpose, communicated to him by a lady of quality, he informs me that the unfortunate lady's name was Withinbury, corruptly pronounced Winbury; that she was in love with Pope, and would have married him; that her guardian, though she was deformed in her person, looking upon such a match as beneath her, sent her to a convent, and that a noose, and not a sword, put an end to her life.—Sir John Hawkins.

The Elegy to the Memory of an unfortunate lady, as it came from the heart, is very tender and pathetic—more so, I think, than any other copy of verses of our author. The true cause of the excellence of this elegy is, that the occasion of it was real,—so true is the maxim that nature is more powerful than fancy, and that we can always feel more than we can imagine; and that the most artful fiction must give way to truth, for this lady was beloved by Pope. After many and wide enquiries I have been informed that her name was Wainsbury, and that—which is a singular circumstance—she was as ill-shaped and deformed as our author. Her death was not by a sword, but, what would less bear to be told poetically, she hanged herself. Johnson has too severely censured this elegy when he says, "that it has drawn much attention by the illaudable singularity of treating suicide with respect." She seems to have been driven to this desperate act by the violence and cruelty of her uncle and guardian, who forced her to a convent abroad, and to which circumstance Pope alludes in one of his letters.—Warton.

The real history of the lady distinguished by the epithet "unfortunate" in Pope's exquisite elegy, is still involved in mysterious uncertainty. One thing is plain, that he wished little should be known. It is remarkable that Caryll asks the question in two letters, but Pope returns no answer. It is in vain, after the fruitless enquiry of Johnson and Warton, perhaps, to attempt further elucidation; but I should think it unpardonable not to mention what I have myself heard, though I cannot vouch for its truth. The story which was told to Condorcet by Voltaire, and by Condorcet to a gentleman of high birth and character, from whom I received it, is this:—that her attachment was not to Pope, or to any Englishman of inferior degree, but to a young French prince of the blood royal, Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Berry, whom, in early youth, she had met at the court of France. The verses certainly seem unintelligible, unless they allude to some connection to which her highest hopes, though nobly connected herself, could not aspire. What other sense can be given to these words: