Like eastern kings a lazy state they keep;
And, close confined to their own palace, sleep.
From these perhaps, ere Nature bade her die,
Fate snatch'd her early to the pitying sky.
As into air the purer spirits flow,

And separate from their kindred dregs below;
So flew the soul to its congenial place,
Nor left one virtue to redeem her race.

30

But thou, false guardian of a charge too good, Thou mean deserter of thy brother's blood! See on these ruby lips the trembling breath, These cheeks now fading at the blast of death: Cold is that breast which warm'd the world before, And those love-darting eyes must roll no more. Thus, if eternal justice rules the ball, Thus shall your wives, and thus your children fall: On all the line a sudden vengeance waits,

And frequent hearses shall besiege your gates: There passengers shall stand, and pointing say, While the long funerals blacken all the way, 40 'Lo! these were they, whose souls the Furies steel'd,

And cursed with hearts unknowing how to yield.'
Thus unlamented pass the proud away,

The gaze of fools, and pageant of a day!
So perish all, whose breast ne'er learn'd to glow
For others' good, or melt at others' woe.
What can atone, O ever-injured shade!
Thy fate unpitied, and thy rites unpaid?
No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear
Pleased thy pale ghost, or graced thy mournful
bier.

By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed, 51
By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed,
By foreign hands thy humble grave adorn'd,
By strangers honour'd, and by strangers mourn'd!
What though no friends in sable weeds appear;
Grieve for an hour, perhaps, then mourn a year,
And bear about the mockery of woe

To midnight dances and the public show?

THE

RAPE OF THE LOCK.*

Nolueram, Belinda, tuos violare capillos;
Sed juvat hoc precibus ine tribuisse tuis.-MART.

CANTO I.

WHAT dire offence from amorous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things,
I sing. This verse to Caryl,+ Muse! is due:
This, e'en Belinda may vouchsafe to view:
Slight is the subject, but not so the praise,
If she inspire, and he approve my lays.

Say what strange motive, goddess! could compel A well-bred lord to assault a gentle belle?

*The origin of the poem is thus given by Pope: "The stealing of a lock of Miss Belle Fermor's hair by Lord Petre was taken too seriously, and caused an estrangement between the two families, though they had lived so long in great friendship before. A common acquaintance and wellwisher to both desired me to write a poem; to make a jest of it, and laugh them together again: it was with this view that I wrote the Rape of the Lock,' which was well received, and had its effect in the two families: nobody but Sir George Brown was angry, and he was a good deal so, and for a long time; he could not bear that Sir Plume should talk nothing but nonsense."

The poem was first published in 1712, in Two Cantos and afterwards in 1714, when it had been enlarged to Five Cantos by the introduction of sylphs, gnomes, &c.

Caryl proposed the subject. The characters introduced into this poem are Miss Arabella Fermor, as Belinda: Lord Petre, the Baron : Mrs. Morley, Thalestris: and her brother, Sir George Brown, Sir Plume.