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EPISTLE X.

TO THE SAME,

ON HER LEAVING THE TOWN AFTER THE CORONATION.

THE title to this Epistle in all the editions published during Pope's lifetime is the same as in Warburton's edition; but as the address of the previous Epistle was, up to 1739, To a Young Lady, we have no authoritative statement from the poet, till that year, with respect to the person whom he intended to honour. In 1739 he affixed Miss Blount's name to the Epistle accompanying the present of Voiture's works. By Miss Blount he, of course, meant Martha, for he had long before quarrelled with Teresa; and he thus appeared to give both Epistles to the younger sister. Yet the second was certainly addressed in the first instance to Teresa, as we see by the MS. reading of ver. 7, which Mr. Carruthers has published, and as might be inferred from the appropriation of the fancy names Zephalinda and Parthenissa in the text as it stands. When Teresa fell out of the poet's good graces, she was removed, in the same manner as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, from her poetical throne, and the place of honour was assigned to her younger sister. Whether or not Teresa Blount was really the "Young Lady" to whom the Epistle, accompanying the works of Voiture, was in the first instance addressed, is an open question. If it was written, as Pope pretends, when he was only seventeen (see note 1, p. 217), Teresa Blount would have been at that date a mere child; probably, however, the poet in this, as in many other cases, ante-dated the composition out of vanity; at any rate, he did not reproduce the statement about the author's age in any edition after 1735. Again, if the poem was originally addressed to Teresa, Pope's acquaintance with the Blounts must have begun some time before the commencement of his correspondence with them, for the Epistle is commended by Cromwell in a letter to Pope of 5th December, 1710. Cromwell in that letter says the Epistle "is as faultless as the fair to whom it is addressed, be she never so perfect," an expression which seems to show that he took the "young lady" for an imaginary being. This was very likely the case, and Pope may have appropriated the verses to Teresa Blount, as a compliment, after making her acquaintance.

This Epistle, which with the preceding one and the Epistle to Jervas was published in the folio volume of Poems in 1717, is full of grace and charm. It is conceived in the vein of exquisite and well-bred pleasantry which characterises the Rape of the Lock.

Among Warburton's papers I find a MS. copy of "Lines at the conclusion of Mr. Pope's verses to Mrs. M. B. on her leaving town." The copyist, R. G. (perhaps Richard Graham, who printed Pope's Epistle to Jervas, with his edition of Fresnoy's Art of Painting, before the lines appeared in the quarto of 1717), says, 66 The following were taken from Mr. Pope's original MS., and were never printed." Then follow the sixteen offensive lines first printed by

Warton, beginning "In this strange Town." At the end are the words "Copia vera." I find also in a cutting from the S. J. (St. James's ?) Chronicle, the following letter:

SIR, The enclosed lines were transcribed from the original in the handwriting of Mr. Pope. They were added after the present conclusion of his Address to Miss M. B. on her leaving Town, "As some fond Virgin, &c." I heartily wish I could apologise for their licentiousness as easily I can prove their authenticity.

I am, Sir,

Your most humble servant,

G. R.

Then follow the lines in question. The writer may be the R. G. who made the "true copy" before referred to. Warton probably printed the lines on the authority of this transcript. It will be observed that in both cases the writer speaks of the verses as being added to the "Lines on Miss or Mrs. M. B. leaving Town," as if that were the address in the MS., from which he made the copy. This, however, can hardly be the case, for, as has been said, the MS. Epistle is evidently to Teresa: the copyist presumably is only referring the reader to the title in the published text.

EPISTLE X.

TO THE SAME,

ON HER LEAVING THE TOWN AFTER THE CORONATION.1

3

As some fond virgin, whom her mother's care
Drags from the town to wholesome country air,
Just when she learns to roll a melting eye,
And hear a spark, yet think no danger nigh;
From the dear man unwilling she must sever,
Yet takes one kiss before she parts for ever:
Thus from the world fair Zephalinda flew,‘
Saw others happy, and with sighs withdrew;

1 Of King George I., 1715.-POPE. The Coronation of George I. was really on the 20th Oct., 1714.

2 There is so much likeness (to use Johnson's words on another poem) in the initial comparison, that there is no illustration. As one lady lamented the going out of London, so did another.-WARTON.

3 The word "spark" so frequently used in the eighteenth century in this sense does not occur before the Restoration. Its origin is probably to be traced to the "metaphysical" school of poets, whose peculiar vocabulary gave a kind of "slang" currency to a number of love terms. "Flame" is another instance in point.

Zephalinda was the assumed name of Teresa Blount, under which she

VOL. III.-POETRY.

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