EPISTLE ΤΟ MRS. BLOUNT, WITH THE WORKS OF VOITURE. IN thefe gay thoughts the Loves and Graces fhine, And all the Writer lives in ev'ry line; His eafy Art may happy Nature seem,, Sure to charm all was his peculiar fate, NOTES. 5 10 Ev'n VER. 1. In thefe gay] The works of Voiture, after having been idolized in France, are now juftly funk into neglect and oblivion. WARTON. VER 12. As fmiling Infants, &c.] There is a beautiful paffage of this fort in Temple's Effays:-" After all, life is like a froward child, that must be trifled with, and played with, till it falls afleep, and then the care is over." Ev'n rival Wits did Voiture's death deplore, And the gay mourn'd who never mourn'd before; The trueft hearts for Voiture heav'd with fighs, Voiture was wept by all the brightest Eyes: The Smiles and Loves had dy'd in Voiture's death, Let the ftrict life of graver mortals be And, if it can, at once both please and preach. Have Humour, Wit, a native Ease and Grace, NOTES. པ་ 15 20 25 30 Too VER. 19. The Smiles] Alluding to an elegant epitaph on Voiture: "Etrufca Veneres, Camœnæ Iberæ, Hermes Gallicus, et Latina Siren; Rifus, Deliciæ, et Dicacitates, Many curious particulars of his life may be found in the enter taining Miscellanies of Vigneul Marville, vol. ii. p. 409. Corneille was invited to read his Polyeucte at the Hotel de Rambouillet, where the wits of that time affembled, and where Voiture prefided. It was coldly received; and Voiture was fent to tell Corneille in gentle terms, that it was the opinion of his friends that Polyeucte would not fucceed. Such judges were the most fashionable wits of France! WARTON. VER. 19. The Smiles and Loves, &c.] This is a poor conceit and unworthy of Pope; it is more like Cowley, Marvel, and Waller. Too much your Sex is by their forms confin'd, Severe to all, but most to Womankind ; Custom, grown blind with Age, must be your guide; Made Slaves by honour, and made Fools by fhame. But sets up one, a greater in their place : The Gods, to curfe Pamela with her pray'rs, 35 40 45 She glares in Balls, front Boxes, and the Ring, But, Madam, if the fates withstand, and you I 56 Truft Trust not too much your now refistless charms, Thofe, Age or Sickness, foon or late, difarms: бо Good-humour only teaches charms to last, Still makes new conquests, and maintains the past; Our hearts may bear its flender chain a day; 65 Thus Voiture's early care still shone the same, And Monthaufier was only chang'd in name : 70 By this, ev'n now they live, ev'n now they charm, Their Wit still sparkling, and their flames still warm. Now crown'd with Myrtle, on th' Elyfian coaft, Amid thofe Lovers, joys his gentle Ghost: Pleas'd, while with fmiles his happy lines you view, And finds a fairer Ramboüillet in you. 76 The NOTES. VER. 69. Thus Voiture's early care] Mademoiselle Paulet. POPE. VER. 76. And finds a fairer Our author's attachment to this lady ended but with his life. Yet it is faid, fhe gave him many hours of uneafinefs and difquiet. She occafioned an unhappy breach betwixt him and his old friend Allen, because he would not lend his coach to carry her to a mass-house at Bath during his mayoralty. The characteristical difference betwixt Voiture and Balfac is well expreffed by Boileau, in two letters written' under their names, from the Elyfian Fields to the Duc de Vivonne, in p. 155, of vol. iii. of his works. And Boileau, fpeaking often of ab furd |