Each girl, when pleas'd with what is taught, Will have the teacher in her thought. The nymph in sober words intreats A truce with all sublime conceits;
For why such raptures, flights, and fancies, To her who durst not read romances? In lofty style to make replies, Which he had taught her to despise? But when her tutor will affect Devotion, duty, and respect, He fairly abdicates his throne, The government is now her own: But though her arguments were strong, At least could hardly wish them wrong, Howe'er it came he could not tell, But sure she never talk'd so well. His pride began to interpose; Preferr'd before a crowd of beaus! So bright a nymph to come unsought! Such wonder by his merit wrought! "Tis merit must with her prevail; He never knew her judgment fail: She noted all she ever read, And had a most discerning head. 'Tis an old maxim in the schools, That vanity's the food of fools; Yet now-and-then your men of wit Will condescend to take a bit.
So when Cadenus could not hide, He chose to justify his pride. When Miss delights in her spinnet, A fiddler may a fortune get: A blockhead with melodious voice In boarding-schools can have his choice; And oft the dancing-master's art Climbs from the toe to touch the heart. In learning let a nymph delight, The pedant gets a mistress by't. Cadenus, to his grief and shame, Could scarce oppose Vanessa's flame,
Where hot and cold, where sharp and sweet
In all their equipages meet;
Where pleasures mix'd with pains appear, Sorrow with joy, and hope with fear;
Wherein his dignity and age
Forbid Cadenus to engage;
But friendship in its greatest height, A constant, rational delight,
On virtue's basis fix'd to last,
When love's allurements long are past, Which gently warms, but cannot burn, He gladly offers in return:
His want of passion will redeem With gratitude, respect, esteem; With that devotion we bestow, When goddesses appear below. While thus Cadenus entertains Vanessa in exalted strains,
Constr'ing the passion she had shown Much to her praise, more to his own; Nature in him had merit plac'd, In her a most judicious taste: Love, hitherto a transient guest, Ne'er held possession in his breast; So long attending at the gate, Disdain'd to enter in so late. Love why do we one passion call, When 'tis a compound of them all? He has a forfeiture incurr'd; She vows to take him at his word, And hopes he will not think it strange If both should now their stations change. The nymph will have her turn to be The tutor, and the pupil he; Though she already can discern, Her scholar is not apt to learn, Or wants capacity to reach The science she designs to teach;
Wherein his genius was below The skill of every common beau, Who, though he cannot spell, is wise Enough to read a lady's eyes, And will each accidental glance Interpret for a kind advance.
But what success Vanessa met Is to the world a secret yet: Whether the nymph, to please her swain, Talks in a high romantic strain,
Or whether he at last descends To like with less seraphic ends; Or, to compound the business, whether They temper love and books together; Must never to mankind be told, Nor shall the conscious Muse unfold. Mean-time the mournful queen of Love Led but a weary life above:
She ventures now to leave the skies, Grown by Vanessa's conduct wise; For though by one perverse.event Pallas had cross'd her first intent, Though her design was not obtain'd, Yet had she much experience gain'd, And by the project vainly tried, Could better now the cause decide.. She gave due notice that both parties, Coram regina proz' die Martis, Should at their peril, without fail, Come and appear, and save their bail. All met; and, silence thrice proclaim'd, One lawyer to each side was nam'd. The judge discover'd in her face Resentments for her late disgrace, And, full of anger,, shame, and grief, Directed them to mind their brief,
Nor spend their time to show their reading; She'd have a summary proceeding.
She gather'd under every head
The sum of what each lawyer said,
Gave her own reasons last, and then Decreed the cause against the Men.
But in a weighty case like this, To show she did not judge amiss, Which evil tongues might else report, She made a speech in open court, Wherein she grievously complains How she was cheated by the swains;" On whose petition, (humbly showing That women were not worth the wooing, And that, unless the sex would mend, The race of lovers soon must end) She was at lord-knows-what expense To form a nymph of wit and sense, A model for her sex design'd, Who never could one lover find. She saw her favour was misplac'd; The fellows had a wretched taste; She needs must tell them to their face, They were a senseless, stupid race; And, were she to begin again, She'd study to reform the Men, Or add some grains of folly more To Women than they had before, To put them on an equal foot; And this, or nothing else, would do't: This might their mutual fancy strike, Since every being loves its like.
But now, repenting what was done, She left all business to her son; She puts the world in his possession, And let him use it at discretion.'
The crier was order'd to dismiss The court, so made his last' Oyes.' The goddess would no longer wait, But, rising from her chair of state, Left all below at six and sev'n, Harness'd her doves, and flew to heav'n.
STELLA'S BIRTH-DAY, 1720.
LL travellers at first incline
Where'er they see the fairest sign, And if they find the chambers neat, And like the liquor and the meat, Will call again, and recommend The Angel-Inn to every friend.
What though the painting grows decay'd? The house will never lose its trade;
Nay, though the treacherous tapster Thomas Hangs a new Angel two doors from us, As fine as dauber's hands can make it, In hopes that strangers may mistake it, We think it both a shame and sin To quit the true old Angel-Inn. Now this is Stella's case in fact; An angel's face a little crack'd; (Could poets, or could painters fix How angels look at thirty-six :) This drew us in at first to find In such a form an angel's mind, And every virtue now supplies The fainting rays of Stella's eyes. See at her levee crowding swains, Whom Stella freely entertains With breeding, humour, wit, and sense, And puts them but to small expence ; Their mind so plentifully fills, And makes such reasonable bills, So little gets for what she gives, We really wonder how she lives! And, had her stock been less, no doubt She must have long ago run out.
Then who can think we'll quit the place When Doll hangs out a newer face, Or stop and light at Chloe's Head, With scraps and leavings to be fed? Then, Chloe, still go on to prate Of thirty-six and thirty-eight;
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