I know the court, with all its treach'rous wiles, 50 Mr. DALLAWAY says, this Eclogue was written in the year 175, and he gives very fatisfactory reasons for attributing it to Lady Mary Montagu. I am inclined to think, by Roxana was meant the Duchefs of Marlborough. It is well known, that after the acceffion of George the First, the Duke was among the dissa. tisfied; for, though he was appointed Commander in Chief, yet he did not enjoy the smallest share of confidence or power. The Duchess, no doubt, partook of his spleen. The "Princess" was Caroline, then Princess of Wales; and Cockatilla, Mrs. Howard, made bed-chamber woman to the Princess. This is my idea, but it is of little consequence to illustrate a poem, which Pope, perhaps, never wrote. TO LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU. IN beauty, or wit, I. No mortal as yet To question your empire has dar'd; But men of difcerning Have thought that in learning, To yield to a Lady was hard. II. Impertinent schools, With musty dull rules, Have reading to females deny'd: So papists refuse The Bible to use, Lest flocks shou'd be wife as their guide. III. 'Twas a woman at first, (Indeed she was curst) In knowledge that tafted delight, The laws shou'd decree To the first poffeffor the right. 5 10 15 IV. Then IV. Then bravely, fair dame, Which to your whole fex does belong; From a second bright Eve, V. But if the first Eve Hard doom did receive, When only one apple had she, What a punishment new Who tasting, have robb'd the whole tree? NOTES. 20 25 30 VER. 30. Who tasling, have robb'd the whole tree?] This extraordinary Lady, the object of Pope's attachment in his early years, and of his most virulent invective afterwards, was indeed a Lady of sense, spirit, and talents, as well as of great beauty. Her letters, in unaffected language, good sense, and natural humour, are as much fuperior to Pope's, as his verses are superior to her's. Her maiden name was Mary Pierrepoint; she was the daughter of Evelyn, Duke of Kingston, and Lady Mary Fielding, daughter of William Earl of Denbigh. She was born at Thoresby, in Nottinghamshire, about the year 1690. "The first dawn of her genius opened so aufpiciously, that her Father resolved to cultivate the advantages of Nature by a fedulous attention to her early education. Under the same preceptors as her brother, Viscount Newark, she acquired the elements of the Greek, Latin, and French languages with the greatest success. Her Her studies were afterwards superintended by Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, and her tranflation of Epictetus received his emenda. tion." Dallaway's Memoirs of Lady Her husband was an intimate friend of Addison and of Steel. She went with him on his embassy to Constantinople, and, after his re. call, lived at Twickenham. Pope's admiration ended in disgust and averfion. Her latter years were passed in Italy, and her letters from thence are very interesting, though there is no fatisfactory account given why she was feparated from her country so many years. EXTEMPORANEOUS LINES, On the Picture of Lady MARY W. MONTAGU by KNELLER. [From Dallaway's Life of Lady Mary.] THE playful fmiles around the dimpled mouth, 5 And the whole princess in my work should shine. 10 NOTES. VER. I. The playful fmiles, Sc.] Her face and appearance were so altered by age, that she says for many years she never looked in a glass. She received her travelling countrymen, who paid their respects to her in Italy, veiled, or in a mask. She lived to fee the Nobleman who married her daughter, highest in the confidence of his present Majesty; and whatever might have been her faults, her tender and affectionate correspondence with her daughter, no one can read without a tear of respect and sympathy. |