THE CHALLENGE.

A COURT BALLA D.

To the Tune of "To all you Ladies now at Land, &c."

I.

o one fair lady out of court,

T°

And two fair ladies in,

Who think the Turk* and Popet a sport,

And wit and love no fin;

Come, these soft lines, with nothing stiff in,
To Bellenden, Lepell‡, and Griffin.

With a fa, la, la.

NOTES.

II. What

* Warton has a note upon these words, Urick, the little Turk." One is tempted to fay, in the language of the Author of the Critic, "The interpreter is the hardest to be underflood of the two." The expreffion of the "Turk and the Pope," is very common; it is here applied equivocally, to the author, and perhaps to one of the Turks, who came to England with George the Firft.

†The Author.

Miss Lepell has been fpoken of before. Mary Bellenden, the most beautiful and lovely woman of her time, maid of honour to Caroline when Princefs of Wales, was daughter of Lord Bellenden. She is thus defcribed, fays Mr. Coxe, in an old ballad, made upon the quarrel between George the First and the Prince of Wales at the chriftening, when the Prince and all his household were ordered to quit St. James's:

"But Bellenden we needs must praise,
Who, as down ftairs fhe jumps,
Sings, "Over Hills, and far away,"
Defpifing doleful dumps."

This lovely and elegant woman rejected the addreffes of the Prince, and efpoufed in 1720 John Campbell then groom of the bed chamber to the Prince of Wales, and afterwards Duke of Argyle. See Coxe's Memoirs.

II.

What paffes in the dark third row,
And what behind the scene,
Couches and crippled chairs I know,

And garrets hung with green;

I know the swing of finful hack,

Where

damfels cry many

alack.

With a fa, la, la.

III.

Then why to courts fhould I repair,
Where's fuch ado with Townshend?
To hear each mortal stamp and fwear,
And ev'ry speech with Zounds end;
To hear 'em rail at honeft Sunderland,
And rafhly blame the realm of Blunderland*.
With a fa, la, la.

IV.

Alas! like Schutz I cannot pun,
Like Grafton court the Germans;
Tell Pickenbourg how flim she's

grown,

Like Meadows† run to fermons ; To court ambitious men may roam, But I and Marlbro' stay at home.

With a fa, la, la.

NOTES.

*Ireland.

+ Mentioned before in the Verfes to Mrs. Howe.

V. In

V.

In truth, by what I can discern,
Of courtiers 'twixt you three,
Some wit you have, and more may learn
From court, than Gay or Me:
Perhaps, in time, you'll leave high diet,
To fup with us on milk and quiet.
With a fa, la, la.

VI.

At Leicester-Fields, a house full high,
With door all painted green,
Where ribbons wave upon the tye,
(A Milliner I mean ;)

There may you meet us three to three,
For Gay can well make two of Me.
With a fa, la, la.

VII.

But fhou'd you catch the prudifh itch,
And each become a coward,
Bring fometimes with you lady Rich *,

And fometimes miftrefs Howard † ;

For virgins to keep chafte muft

go

Abroad with fuch as are not so,

With a fa, la, la.

VIII. And

NOTES.

• Lady Rich was a correfpondent of Lady M. W. Montagu. + Mrs. Howard, miftrefs to George II. afterwards Countess of Suffolk. See "Verfes to a Lady at Court," in this Volume.

VIII.

And thus, fair maids, my ballad ends;
God fend the king safe landing*;
And make all honest ladies friends
To armies that are standing;
Preferve the limits of those nations,
And take off ladies limitations.

With a fa, la, la.

NOTES.

This Ballad was written anno 1717.

NOTWITHSTANDING Pope's affected contempt of the Court, he was proud of the acquaintance of some of the beautiful young women belonging to it.

In 1776 were published, two small volumes, intitled, Additions to Pope's Work. Warton has filently adopted all the notes, and the information that the Turk, alluded to in the first stanza, was little Ulrick." Are we to infer that Warton was the editor of the two volumes I have mentioned?

The Ladies mentioned in this Ballad, Pope [peaks of in a letter: “I met the Prince, with all his Ladies on horseback, coming from hunting.

"Mrs. B-(Bellenden) and Mrs. L-(Lepell) took me into protection (contrary to the law against harbouring Papists), and gave me a dinner.” Letters to feveral Ladies.

THE THREE GENTLE SHEPHERDS.

OF gentle Philips will I ever fing,

With gentle Philips fhall the vallies ring.

My numbers too for ever will I vary,
With gentle Budgell, and with gentle Carey.
Or if in ranging of the names I judge ill,
With gentle Carey and with gentle Budgell,
Oh! may all gentle bards together place ye,
Men of good hearts, and men of delicacy.
May fatire ne'er befool ye, or beknave ye,

5

And from all wits that have a knack, God fave ye. 10

R. 4. Carey,]

NOTES.

Ambrofe Philips.

Euftace Budgell.

Henry Carey.

VER. 10. And from al wits that have a knack,] Curl faid, that in profe he was equal to Pope, but that in verfe Pope had merely a particular knack.