EL EGY

TO THE

DUTCHESS of R

ΤΗ

HOU lovely Nave to a rude husband's will,

By Nature us'd so well, by him so ill ! For all that grief we see your mind endure, Your glass presents you with a pleasing cure. Those maids you envy for their happier state, To have your form, would gladly have your fate; And of like slavery each wife complains, Without such beauty's help to bear her chains. Husbands like him we ev'ry-where may see; But where can we behold a wife like thee?

While to a tyrant you by fate are ty'd, By love you tyrannize o'er all beside: Those eyes, tho' weeping, can no pity move; Worthy our grief! more worthy of our love! You, while so fair (do fortune what she please) Can be no more in pain, than we at ease : Unless, unsatisfied with all our vows, Your vain ambition so unbounded grows, That you repine a husband should escape Th’united force of such a face and shape. If so, alas! for all those charming pow'rs, Your case is just as desperate as ours.

Expect that birds should only sing to you,
And, as you walk, that ev'ry tree should bow;
Expect those statues, as you pass, should burn;
And that with wonder men should statues turn;
Such beauty is enough to give things life,
But not to make a husband love his wife :
A husband, worse than statues, or than trees;
Colder than those, less sensible than these.
Then from so dull a care your thoughts remove,
And waste not fighs you only owe to love.
'Tis pity, fighs from such a brealt should part,
Unless to ease fome doubtful lover's heart;
Who dies because he must too juftly prize
What yet the dull possessor does despise.
Thus precious jewels among Indians grow,
Who nor their use, nor wondrous value know;
But we for those bright treasures tempt the main,
And hazard life for what the fools disdain.

A LETTER from SÉ A.

F

AIR EST, if time and absence can incline
Your heart to wand'ring thoughts no more than

mine;
Then shall my hand, as changeless as my mind,
From your glad eyes a kindly welcome find;
Then, while this note my constancy assures,
You'll be almost as pleas’d, as I with yours.
And trust me, when I feel that kind relief,
Absence itself a while suspends its grief:
So may it do with you, but straight return;
For it were cruel not sometimes to mourn
His fate, who this long time he keeps away,
Mourns all the night, and lighs out all the day;
Grieving yet more, when he reflects that you
Must not be happy, or must not be true.
But since to me it seems a blacker fate
To be inconstant, than unfortunate;
Remember all those vows between us past,
When I from all I value parted last;
May you alike with kind impatience burn,
And something miss, till I with joy return;
And soon may pitying Heav'n that blessing give,
As in the hopes of that alone I live.

LOVE'S SLAVERY.

GRAN

RAVE fops my envy now beget,

Who did my pity move; They, by the right of wanting wit,

Are free from cares of love.

Turks honour fools, because they are

By that defect secure From slavery and toils of

war, Which all the rest endure.

So I, who suffer cold neglect

And wounds from CeziA's eyes, Begin extremely to respect

These fools that seem so wise.

'Tis true, they fondly set their hearts

On things of no delight;
To pass all day for men of parts,

They pass alone the night :

But Celia never breaks their rest;

Such fervants she disdains; And so the fops are dully blest,

While I endure her chains.

The DRE A M.

R

EAD Y to throw me at the feet

Of that fair nymph whom I adore, Impatient those delights to meet, Which I enjoy'd the night before ;

By her wonted scornful brow,

Soon the fond mistake I find; Ixion mourn’d his error so,

When Juno's form the cloud resign'd.

Sleep, to make its charms more priz'd

Than waking joys, which most prevail, Had cunningly it self disguis’d

In a shape that could not fail.

my

There

Celia's snowy arms, Breasts, and other parts more dear, Exposing new and unknown charms,

To my transported soul appear.

Then you

so much kindness show, My despair deluded flies; And indulgent dreams bestow

What your cruelty denies,