Four knaves in garbs succinct, a trusty band,
Caps on their heads, and halberts in their hand;
And party-colour'd troops, a shining train,
Drawn forth to combat on the velvet plain.

The skilful nymph reviews her force with care— 'Let spades be trumps!' she said, and trumps they were. Now move to war her sable Matadores,

In show like leaders of the swarthy Moors.

Spadillio first, unconquerable lord!

Led off two captive trumps, and swept the board;

As many more Manillio forced to yield,

And marched a victor from the verdant field:
Him Basto follow'd; but his fate, more hard,
Gain'd but one trump and one plebeian card.
With his broad sabre next, a chief in years,
The hoary majesty of Spades appears ;
Puts forth one manly leg, to sight reveal'd;
The rest, his many-colour'd robe conceal'd.
The rebel Knave, who dares his prince engage,
Proves the just victim of his royal rage.

Ev'n mighty Pam, that kings and queens o'erthrew,
And mow'd down armies in the fights of Lu;- Loc
Sad chance of war! now destitute of aid,
Falls undistinguished by the victor Spade;

Thus far both armies to Belinda yield,
Now to the baron fate inclines the field,
His warlike Amazon her host invades,

The imperial consort of the crown of Spades.
The Clubs' black tyrant first her victim died,
Spite of his haughty mien and barbarous pride ;
What boots the regal circle on his head,
His giant limbs, in state unwieldly spread;
That long behind he trails his pompous robe,
And, of all monarchs only grasps the globe ?

!

The baron now his Diamonds pours apace
The embroider'd king, who shows but half his face,
And his refulgent queen, with powers combined,
Of broken troops, an easy conquest find.
Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, in wild disorder seen,
With throngs promiscuous strew the level green.
Thus when dispersed a routed army runs,

Of Asia's troops, and Afric's sable sons,
With like confusion different nations fly,
Of various habit, and of various die;

The pierc'd battalions disunited fall,

In heaps on heaps; one fate o'erwhelms them all.
The Knave of Diamonds tries his wily arts,

And wins (oh shameful chance!) the Queen of Hearts,
At this, the blood the virgin's cheek forsook,

A livid paleness spreads o'er all her look ;

She sees, and trembles at th' approaching ill,
Just in the jaws of ruin, and Codille.
And now (as oft in some distemper'd state)
On one nice trick depends the general fate:
An ace of Hearts step forth: the king unseen
Lurk'd in her hand, and mourn'd his captive queen:
He springs to vengeance with an eager pace,
And falls like thunder on the prostrate ace.
The nymph, exulting, fills with shouts the sky;
The walls, the woods, and long canals reply.
O thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate,

Too soon dejected, and too soon elate,
Sudden these honours sball be snatch'd away,
And curs'd for ever this victorious day.

For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crown'd,

The berries crackle, and the mill turns round;

On shining altars of Japan they raise

The silver lamp; the fiery spirits blaze;
From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide,

While China's earth receives the smoking tide:
At once they gratify their scent and taste,
And frequent cups prolong the rich repast.
Straight hover round the fair her airy band;
Some, as she sipp'd, the fuming liquor fann'd,
Some o'er her lap their careful plumes display'd,
Trembling, and conscious of the rich brocade.
Coffee (which makes the politician wise,
And see thro' all things with his half shut eyes)
Sent up in vapours to the baron's brain
New stratagems, the radiant lock to gain.
Ah cease, rash youth! desist ere 'tis too late;
Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla's fate!
Chang'd to a bird, and sent to flit in air,
She dearly pays for Nisus' injur'd hair!

But when to mischief mortals bend their will,
How soon they find fit instruments of ill!
Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting grace
A two-edg'd weapon from her shining case
So ladies, in romance, assist their knight,
Present the spear, and arm him for the fight.
He takes the gift with rev'rence, and extends
The little engine on his fingers' ends;
This just behind Belinda's neck he spread,
As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head.
Swift to the lock a thousand sprites repair,

A thousand wings, by turns, blow back the hair;
And thrice they twitch'd the diamond in her ear;

Thrice she look'd back, and thrice the foe drew near.
Just in that instant, anxious Ariel sought

The close recesses of the virgin's thought

さ

As on the nosegay in her breast reclin'd,
He watch'd the ideas rising in her mind,
Sudden he view'd, in spite of all her art,
An earthly lover lurking at her heart.
Amaz'd, confus'd, he found his pow'r expir'd!
Resign'd to fate, and with a sigh retired.

The peer now spreads the glitt'ring forfex wide,
T' inclose the lock; now joins it to divide.
E'en then, before the fatal engine clos'd,
A wretched sylph too fondly interpos'd:
Fate urg'd the sheers, and cut the sylph in twain
(But airy substance soon unites again :)
The meeting points the sacred hair dissever
From the fair head, for ever and for ever!

Then flash'd the living lightning from her eyes,
And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies.
Not louder shrieks to pitying heav'n are cast,
When husbands, or when lap-dogs, breathe their last;
Or when rich China vessels, fall'n from high,
In glitt'ring dust and painted fragments lie!

'Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine,'
The victor cried: 'the glorious prize is mine!
While fish in streams, or birds delight in air,
Or in a coach and six the British fair,

As long as Atalantis shall be read,
Or the small pillow grace a lady's bed,
While visits shall be paid on solemn days,

When num'rous wax-lights in bright order blaze,
While nymphs take treats, or assignations give,
So long my honour, name, and praise shall live!
What time would spare, from steel receives its date,
And monuments like men submit to fate!

Steel could the labour of the gods destroy,

And strike to dust the imperial tow'rs of Troy

Steel could the works of mortal pride confound,
And hew triumphal arches to the ground.

What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hair should feel
The conq'uring force of unresisted steel?'

CANTO IV

But anxious cares the pensive nymph oppress'd,
And secret passions labour'a in her breast.
Not youthful kings in battle seized alive,
Not scornful virgins who their charms survive,
Not ardent lovers robb'd of all their bliss,
Not ancient ladies when refused a kiss,
Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die,
Not Cynthia when her manteau's pinn'd awry,
E'er felt such rage, resentment, and despair,
As thou, sad virgin! for thy ravish'd hair.

For, that sad moment, when the sylphs withdrew,
And Ariel weeping from Belinda flew,
Umbriel, a dusky, melancholy sprite,
As ever sullied the fair face of light,
Down to the central earth, his proper scene,
Repair'd to search the gloomy cave of Spleen.
Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome,
And in a vapour reached the dismal dome.
No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows,
The dreaded east is all the wind that blows.
Here in a grotto, shelter'd close from air,
And screen'd in shades from day's detested glare,
She sighs for ever on her pensive bed,

Pain at her side, and Megrim at her head.

Two handmaids wait the throne: alike in place

But differing far in figure and in face.

Here stood Ill-nature like an ancient maid,

Her wrinkled form in black and white array'd:

With store of prayers, for mornings, nights, and noons,
Her hand is fill'd; her bosom with lampoons.
There Affectation, with a sickly mien,
Shows in her cheeu the roses of eighteen;
Practis'd to lisp, and hang the head aside,
Faints into airs and languishes with pride,
On the rich quilt sinks with becoming wo,
Wrapt in a gown, for sickness, and for show.
The fair ones feel such maladies as these,
When each new night-dress gives a new disease.
A constant vapour o'er the palace flies;
Strange phantoms rising as the mists arise;

Dreadful as hermits' dreams in haunted shades,
Or bright as visions of expiring maids.
Now glaring fiends, and snakes on rolling spires,
Pale spectres, gaping tombs, and purple fires:
Now lakes of liquid gold, Elysian scenes,
And crystal domes, and angels in machines.
Unn'imber'd throngs on ev'ry side are seen,
Of bodies chang'd to various forms by spleen.
Here living tea-pots stand, one arm held out,
One bent; the handle this, and that the spout;
A pipkin there, like Homer's tripod, walks;
Here sighs a jar, and there a goose-pie talks:
Men prove with child, as pow'rful fancy works
And maids, turn'd bottles, call aloud for corks.
Safe past the gnome through this fantastic band,
A branch of healing spleenwort in his hand.
Then thus address'd the pow'r 'Hail, wayward
Who rule the sex to fifty from fifteen: [Queen
Parent of vapours and of female wit,
Who gave th' hysteric or poetic fit,

On various tempers act by various ways,

Make some take physic, others scribble plays;
Who cause the proud their visits to delay,
And send the godly in a pet to pray:

A nymph there is that all thy power disdains,
And thousands more in equal mirth maintains.
But oh! if e'er thy gnome could spoil a grace,
Or raise a pimple on a beauteous face,
Like citron-waters matrons' cheeks inflame,
Or change complexions at a losing game;
If e'er with airy horns I planted heads,
Or rumpled petticoats, or tumbled beds,
Or caus'd suspicion when no soul was rude,
Or discomposed the head-dress of a prude,
Or e'er to costive lap-dogs gave disease,
Which not the tears of brightest eyes could ease;
Hear me, and touch Belinda with chagrin;
That single act gives half the world the spleen.'
The goddess, with a discontented air,

Seems to reject him, though she grants his pray'ı.
A wondrous bag with both her hands she binds,
Like that where once Ulysses held the winds;
There she collects the force of female lungs,
Sighs, sobs, and passions, and the war of tongues.
A vial next she fills with fainting fears,

Soft sorrows, melting griefs, and flowing tears.

The gnome rejoicing bears her gifts away,

Spreads his black wings, and slowly mounts to day.

Sunk in Thalestries" arms the nymph he found,

Her eyes dejected, and her hair unbound