Practis'd to lifp, and hang the head afide,
Faints into airs, and languishes with pride,
On the rich quilt finks with becoming woe,
Wrapt in a gown, for sickness, and for show.
The fair-ones feel fuch maladies as these,
When each new night-dress gives a new disease.
A conftant Vapour o'er the palace flies;
Strange phantoms rifing as the mists arise;
Dreadful, as hermits' dreams in haunted fhades,
Or bright, as vifions of expiring maids.
Now glaring fiends, and fnakes on rolling fpires,
Pale spectres, gaping tombs, and purple fires:
Now lakes of liquid gold, Elyfian scenes,
And crystal domes, and Angels in machines.

35

40

45

Unnumber'd throngs, on ev'ry fide are seen, Of bodies chang❜d to various forms by Spleen. Here living Tea-pots ftand, one arm held out, One bent; the handle this, and that the spout: 50 A Pipkin there, like Homer's Tripod walks;

Here fighs a Jar, and there a Goose-pye talks ;

NOTES.

VER. 41. Dreadful, as hermits' dreams in haunted fhades,
Or bright, as vifions of expiring maids.]

Men

The Poet by this comparison would infinuate, that the tempta. tions of the mortified Reclufes in the Church of Rome, and the extatic vifions of their female Saints, were as much the effects

IMITATIONS.

of

VER. 51. Homer's Tripod walks ;] See Hom. Iliad. xviii. of Vulcan's walking Tripods.

POPE.

VER. 52. and there a Goofe-pye talks ;] Alludes to a real fact, a Lady of distinction imagined herself in this condition.

POPE.

Men

prove

with child, as pow'rful fancy works,

And maids turn'd bottles, call aloud for corks.

Safe past the Gnome through this fantastic band, A branch of healing Spleenwort in his hand. Then thus address'd the pow'r-Hail, wayward Queen!

56

Who rule the fex to fifty from fifteen:

Parent of vapours and of female wit,

Who give th' hyfteric, or poetic fit,

бо

On various tempers act by various ways,
Make fome take phyfic, others fcribble plays;
Who cause the proud their vifits to delay,

And fend the godly in a pet to pray.

65

A nymph there is, that all thy pow'r difdains,
And 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 matrons' cheeks inflame,
Or change complexions at a lofing Game;
If e'er with airy horns I planted heads,
Or rumpled petticoats, or tumbled beds,

70

NOTES.

Or

of hypochondriac diforders, the Spleen, or, what was then the fashionable word, the Vapours, as any of the imaginary trans. formations he speaks of afterwards. WARBURTON.

VER. 53. Men prove with child,] Van Swieten, in his Com. mentaries on Boerhaave, relates, that he knew a man who had ftudied till he fancied his legs to be of glafs; his maid bringing wood to his fire, threw it carelefsly down; our fage was angry and terrified for his legs of glafs; the girl, out of patience with his megrims, gave him a blow with a log on the parts affected; he inftantly started up in a rage, and from that moment recovered the use of his glafs legs! WARTON.

Or caus'd fufpicion when no foul was rude,
Or discompos'd the head-dress of a Prude,
Or e'er to coftive lap-dog gave disease,

Which 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 air

Seems to reject him, tho' fhe grants his pray'r.
A wond'rous Bag with both her hands she binds,
Like that where once Ulyffes held the winds;
There the collects the force of female lungs,
Sighs, fobs, and paffions, and the war of tongues.
A Vial next she fills with fainting fears,

75

80

85

Soft forrows, melting griefs, and flowing tears.
The Gnome rejoicing bears her gifts away,
Spreads his black wings, and flowly mounts to day.
Sunk in Thalestris' arms the nymph he found,

Her eyes dejected, and her hair unbound.

go

Full o'er their heads the fwelling bag he rent,

And all the Furies iffu'd at the vent.

Belinda burns with more than mortal ire,

And fierce Thaleftris fans the rifing fire.

94

O wretched maid! fhe spread her hands, and cry'd,

(While Hampton's echoes, Wretched maid! reply'd) Was it for this you took fuch constant care

The bodkin, comb, and effence to prepare?
For this your Locks in paper durance bound?
For this with tort'ring irons wreath'd around?

99

For

For this with fillets ftrain'd your tender head?
And bravely bore the double loads of lead?
Gods! fhall the ravisher difplay your hair,
While the Fops envy, and the Ladies stare!
Honour forbid! at whose unrival'd fhrine
Ease, pleasure, virtue, all our fex refign.
Methinks already I your tears furvey,
Already hear the horrid things they say,
Already see you a degraded toast,
And all your honour in a whisper loft!

How fhall I, then, your hapless fame defend?
"Twill then be infamy to feem your friend!
And shall this prize, th' inestimable prize,
Expos'd through crystal to the gazing eyes,
And heighten'd by the diamond's circling rays, 115
On that rapacious hand for ever blaze?
Sooner fhall grafs in Hyde-park Circus grow,
And wits take lodgings in the found of Bow;
Sooner let earth, air, fea, to Chaos fall,
Men, monkeys, lap-dogs, parrots, perifh all!

She faid; then raging to Sir Plume repairs,
And bids her beau demand the precious hairs:

NOTES.

120

(Sir

He was

VER. 121. Sir Plume repairs,] Sir George Brown. the only one of the Party who took the thing feriously. He was angry that the Poet fhould make him talk nothing but nonsense; and in truth one could not well blame him. WARBURTON.

An engraving of Sir Plume, with feven other figures, by Hogarth, was executed on the lid of a gold fnuff-box, and prefented to one of the parties concerned; the original impreffion of a print of it was fold, at Mr. Gulton's fale, for thirty-three pounds. WARTON.

(Sir Plume, of amber fnuff-box justly vain,
And the nice conduct of a clouded cane)
With earnest eyes, and round unthinking face, 125
He first the fnuff-box open'd, then the cafe,

And thus broke out-" My Lord, why, what the devil!
"Z-ds! damn the Lock! 'fore Gad, you must be civil
"Plague on't! 'tis past a Jeft-nay prithee, pox!
"Give her the hair"-he fpoke, and rapp'd his box.
It grieves me much (reply'd the Peer again) 131
Who fpeaks fo well fhould ever speak in vain.
But by this Lock, this facred Lock I fwear,
(Which never more shall join its parted hair;
Which never more its honours fhall renew,
Clip'd from the lovely head where late it grew)
That while my noftrils draw the vital air,
This hand, which won it, fhall for ever wear.
He spoke, and speaking, in proud triumph spread
The long-contended honours of her head.

But Umbriel, hateful Gnome! forbears not fo; He breaks the Vial whence the forrows flow.

NOTES.

VER. 141. But Umbriel, hateful Gnome! forbears not fo
He breaks the Vial whence the forrows flow.]

135

140

Then

These two lines are additional; and affign the cause of the different operation on the Paffions of the two Ladies. The poem went on before without that diftin&tion, as without any Machinery, to the end of the Canto.

IMITATIONS.

POPE

VER. 133. But by this Lock,] In allufion to Achilles's oath

in Homer, ll. i.

POPE.