As came into her fancy first;

Nam'd half the rates, and lik'd the worst.

385

To scandal next-What awkward thing
Was that laft Sunday in the ring?
I'm forry Mopfa breaks fo fast;
I faid, her face would never last.
Corinna, with that youthful air,
Is thirty, and a bit to spare:
Her fondnefs for a certain Earl
Began when I was but a girl!
Phillis, who but a month ago
Was marry'd to the Tunbridge beau,
I faw coquetting t'other night
In public with that odious knight!

They railly'd next Vaneffa's dress :

390

395

That gown was made for old queen Befs.

Dear Madam, let me fee your head :

Don't you intend to put on red?

A petticoat without a hoop!

400

Sure, you are not afham'd to ftoop!

With handfome garters at your knees,
No inatter what a fellow fees.

Fill'd with difdain, with rage inflam'd,

405

Both of herself and sex asham'd,
The nymph ftood filent out of spight,
Nor would vouchfafe to fet them right.
Away the fair detractors went,
And gave by turns their cenfures vent.
She's not fo handfome in my eyes:
For wit, I wonder where it lies!

410

She's

She's fair and clean, and that's the most :

I'll undertake, my little Nancy
In flounces hath a better fancy!
With all her wit, I would not afk
Her judgement, how to buy a mask.
We begg'd her but to patch her face,
She never hit one proper place;
Which every girl at five years old
Can do as foon as the is told.
I own, that out-of-fashion stuff
Becomes the creature well enough.
The girl might pafs, if we could get her
To know the world a little better.
(To know the world! a modern phrase

Thus, to the world's perpetual fhame,

420

425

430

For vifits, ombre, balls, and plays.)

The Queen of Beauty loft her aim;

Too late with grief she understood,

Pallas had done more harm than good;.

435

For great examples are but vain,

Where ignorance begets difdain.
Both fexes, arm'd with guilt and spite,
Against Vaneffa's power unite :

To copy her, few nymphs aspir'd;
Her virtues fewer fwains admir'd.

440

So ftars beyond a certain height
Give mortals neither heat nor light.
Yet fome of either sex, endow'd

With gifts fuperior to the croud,

445

With virtue, knowledge, taste, and wit,

She condefcended to admit :

With pleating arts fhe could reduce

Mens talents to their proper ufe i

And with address each genius held
To that wherein it moft excell'd;

Thus, making others' wisdom known,

Could please them, and improve her own.
A modest youth faid something new;

450

She plac'd it in the strongest view.

455

All humble worth the ftrove to raise ;

Would not be prais'd, yet lov'd to praise.
The learned met with free approach,

Although they came not in a coach:

Some clergy too fhe would allow,
Nor quarrel'd at their awkward bow;

460

But this was for Cadenus' fake,
A gownman of a different make;
Whom. Pallas, once Vaneffa's tutor,
Had fix'd on for her coadjutor.

But Cupid, full of mischief, longs
To vindicate his mother's wrongs.
On Pallas all attempts are vain :
One way he knows to give her pain ;
Vows on Vaneffa's heart to take
Due vengeance, for her patron's fake.

465

470

Thofe

Thofe early feeds by Venus fown,

In spite of Pallas, now were grown ;
And Cupid hop'd, they would improve
By time, and ripen into love.

The boy made ufe of all his craft,

In vain discharging many a fhaft,

Pointed at colonels, lords, and beaux :
Cadenus warded off the blows;

For, placing ftill fome book betwixt,

The darts were in the cover fix'd,

Or, often blunted and recoil'd,

475

480

On Plutarch's Morals ftruck, were fpoil'd.
The Queen of Wisdom could forefee,

But not prevent, the Fates' decree :
And human caution tries in vain
To break that adamantine chain.
Vaneffa, though by Pallas taught,
By Love invulnerable thought,
Searching in books for wifdom's aid,
Was, in the very search, betray'd.
Cupid, though all his darts were loft,
Yet ftill refolv'd to spare no cost:
He could not answer to his fame
The triumphs of that stubborn dame,
A nymph fo hard to be fubdued,
Who neither was coquette nor prude.
I find, faid he, fhe wants a doctor,
Both to adore her, and inftru&t her:
I'll give her what fhe most admires,
Among those venerable fires.

13

485

490

495

500

Cadenus

Muft laugh at her capricious choice.
Cadenus many things had writ:

Vanessa much esteem'd his wit,
And call'd for his poetic works:

510

Mean time the boy in fecret lurks;

And, while the book was in her hand,
The urchin from his private stand

515

Took aim, and shot with all his ftrength

A dart of fuch prodigious length,
It pierc'd the feeble volume through,
And deep transfix'd her bofom too.

Some lines, more moving than the rest,

520

Stuck to the point that pierc'd her breast,

And, borne directly to the heart,

With pains unknown, increas'd her smart.

Vaneffa, not in years a score,

Dreams of a gown of forty-four;

525

Imaginary charms can find

In eyes with reading almost blind :

Cadenus now no more appears
Declin'd in health, advanc'd in years.
She fancies mufick in his tongue;

Nor farther looks, but thinks him young..

530

What