Another REASONABLE AFFLICTION.

FROM

her own

native France as old Alifon paft,

She reproach'd English Nell with neglect or with
malice,

That the flattern had left, in the hurry and hafte,
Her lady's complexion and eye-brows at Calais.

ANOTHER.

HER eye-brow-box one morning loft,

(The best of folks are ofteneft croft),

Sad Helen thus to Jenny faid

(Her carelefs but afflicted maid),

Put me to bed then, wretched Jane;
Alas! when fhall I rife again?

I can behold no mortal now:

For what's an eye without a brow

ON THE SAME SUBJECT.

Na dark corner of the house

IN

Poor Helen fits, and fobs, and cries;

She will not fee her loving spouse,
Nor her more dear picquet allies :
Unless the find her eye-brows,
She'll e'en weep out her eyes.

ON

ON THE SAME.

HELEN was juft flipt into bed:

Her eye-brows on the toilet lay:
Away the kitten with them fled,
As fees belonging to her prey.

For this misfortune careless Jane, Affure yourself, was loudly rated: And madam, getting up again,

With her own hand the mouse-trap baited.

On little things, as fages write, Depends our human joy or forrow: If we don't catch a mouse to-night, Atas no eye-brows for to-morrow.

PHYLLIS'S

AGE.

How old may Phyllis be, you ask,

Whose beauty thus all hearts engages?

To answer is no easy task :

For she has really two ages.

Stiff in brocade, and pinch'd in ftays,
Her patches, paint, and jewels on;
All day let Envy view her face,

And Phyllis is but twenty-one.

Paint, patches, jewels laid afide,
At night Aftronomers agree,
The evening has the day bely'd;
And Phyllis is fome forty-three.

WH

FORMA BONUM FRAGILE.

HAT a frail thing is Beauty, fays baron Le Cras,
Perceiving his Mistress had one eye of glass :

And scarcely had he spoke it;

When the more confus'd, as more angry she grew,
By a negligent rage prov'd the maxim too true :
She dropt the eye, and broke it.

A N

EPIGRAM.

Written to the Duke de NoAILLES.

AIN the concern which you exprefs,

VAIN

That uncall'd Alard will poffefs

Your house and coach, both day and night,
And that Macbeth was haunted lefs

By Banquo's restless spright.

With fifteen thousand pounds a year,
Do you complain, you cannot bear
An ill, you may fo foon retrieve?
Good Alard, faith, is modefter
By much than you believe.

3

Lend

Lend him but fifty Louis-d'or;
And you fhall never see him more :
Take the advice; probatum eft.
Why do the Gods indulge our ftore,
But to fecure our rest?

EPILOGUE to SMITH'S PHEDRA and HIPPOLYTUS, Spoken by Mrs. OLDFIELD, who acted ISMENA. LADIES, to-night your pity I implore

For one, who never troubled you before
An Oxford-man, extremely read in Greek,
Who from Euripides makes Phædra speak;
And comes to town to let us Moderns know,
How women lov'd two thousand years ago.

If that be all, said I, e’en burn your play :
Egad! we know all that as well as they :
Shew us the youthful, handsome charioteer,
Firm in his feat, and running his career;
Our fouls would kindle with as generous flames,
As e'er infpir'd the antient Grecian dames :
Every Ifmena would refign her breast;
And every dear Hippolytus be bleft.

But, as it is, fix flouncing Flanders mares
Are e'en as good as any two of theirs :
And, if Hippolytus can but contrive
To buy the gilded chariot, John can drive.

Now of the buftle you have seen to-day,
And Phædra's morals in this scholar's play,

Something

Something at least in justice should be said ;
But this Hippolytus fo fills one's head-
Well! Phædra liv'd as chastely as she cou'd;
For fhe was Father Jove's own flesh and blood.
Her aukward love indeed was oddly fated;
She and her Poly were too near related;
And yet that fcruple had been laid afide,
If honeft Thefeus had but fairly dy'd:

But when he came, what needed he to know,
But that all matters stood in ftatu quo ?

There was no harm, you fee; or, grant there were,

She might want conduct; but he wanted care.
'Twas in a husband little less than rude,
Upon his wife's retirement to intrude-
He should have sent a night or two before,
That he would come exact at fuch an hour
Then he had turn'd all tragedy to jest;
Found every thing contribute to his reft;
The picquet-friend difmifs'd, the coaft all clear,
And spouse alone impatient for her dear.

But, if these gay reflections come too late,
To keep the guilty Phædra from her fate;
If

your more ferious judgement must condemn The dire effects of her unhappy flame :

Yet, ye
chafte matrons, and ye tender fair,
Let Love and Innocence engage your care:
My spotlefs flames to your protection take;
And fpare poor Phædra for Ifmena's fake.

A CRI