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T. HE

RAPE of the LOCK.

CANTO I.

HAT dire Offence from am'rous caufes
fprings,

WHA

What mighty contests rife from trivial things,
I fing This verfe to C, Mufe! is due:
This, ev'n Belinda may vouchfafe to view:
Slight is the subject, but not so the praise,
If She infpire, and He approve my lays.

Say what strange motive, Goddefs! could compel
A well-bred Lord t'affault a gentle Belle?
Oh fay what stranger caufe, yet unexplor❜d,
Cou'd make a gentle Belle reject a Lord?

And

115

And dwells fuch rage in foftest bofoms then?
And lodge fuch daring fouls in Little men?

Sol thro' white curtains fhot a tim'rous ray,
And op'd thofe eyes that must eclipse the day;
Now lapdogs give themselves the rowfing shake,
And fleepless lovers, juft at twelve, awake:
Thrice rung the bell, the flipper knock'd the ground,
And the prefs'd watch return'd a filver found.
Belinda ftill her downy pillow prest,

Her guardian Sylph prolong'd the balmy rest.
'Twas he had fummon'd to her filent bed
The Morning-dream that hover'd o'er her head.
A Youth more glitt'ring than a Birth-night Beau,
(That ev'n in flumber caus'd her cheek to glow)
Seem'd to her ear his winning lips to lay,
And thus in whispers faid, or feem'd to fay.
Fairest of mortals, thou diftinguish'd care
Of thousand bright Inhabitants of Air!

If e'er one vision touch'd thy infant thought,
Of all the Nurfe and all the Priest have taught,
Of airy Elves by moonlight fhadows seen,

The filver token, and the circled green,

4

Or

Or virgins vifited by Angel-pow'rs,

With golden crowns and wreaths of heav'nly flow'rs,
Hear and believe! thy own importance know,
Nor bound thy narrow views to things below.
Some fecret truths from Learned Pride conceal'd,
To Maids alone and Children are reveal'd:
What tho' no credit doubting Wits may give?
The Fair and Innocent fhall ftill believe.
Know then, unnumber'd Spirits round thee fly,
The light Militia of the lower sky;
Thefe, tho' unfeen, are ever on the wing,
Hang o'er the Box, and hover round the Ring:
Think what an Equipage thou haft in air,
And view with fcorn two Pages and a Chair:
As now your own, our beings were of old,
And once inclos'd in Woman's beauteous mold;
Thence, by a foft transition, we repair
From earthly Vehicles to thefe of air.

Think not, when Woman's tranfient breath is fled,
That all her vanities at once are dead:

Succeeding vanities fhe ftill regards,

And tho' fhe plays no more, o'erlooks the cards.

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Her joy in gilded Chariots, when alive,
And love of Ombre, after death furvive.
For when the Fair in all their pride expire,
To their first Elements the Souls retire:
The Sprites of fiery Termagants in flame
Mount up, and take a Salamander's name.
Soft yielding minds to water glide away,
And fip, with Nymphs, their elemental Tea.
The graver Prude finks downward to a Gnome,
In fearch of mischief still on earth to roam.
The light Coquettes in Sylphs aloft repair,
And sport and flutter in the fields of air,

Know farther yet; whoever fair and chafte
Rejects mankind, is by fome Sylph embrac'd:
For Spirits, freed from mortal laws, with case
Affume what fexes and what fhapes they please.
What guards the purity of melting Maids,
In courtly Balls, and midnight Masquerades,
Safe from the treach'rous friend, and daring fpark,
The glance by day, the whisper in the dark;
When kind occafion prompts their warm defires,
When music foftens, and when dancing fires?

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