"But would your Charms to diftant times ex"tend;

"Let Kneller paint them, and let POPE com"mend."

Mr. POPE's next poetical compofition, was an Effay to the memory of an unfortunate Lady, which came warm from the heart, and does honour to his fenfibility.

This lady is fuppofed to have been the fame perfon, to whom the Duke of Buckingham addreffed fome lines on her intentions of retiring into a monaftery, which defign is alfo hinted at in one of Mr. POPE's Letters, where he fays, addreffing himself, as it is prefumed, to this very perfon: "If you are refolved, in revenge to rob the world of fo much example as you may afford it, I believe your defign will be "vain: for even in a monaftery, your devo"tions cannot carry you fo far towards the next "world, as to make this lofe fight of you: "but you will be like a ftar, that, while it is "fixed in heaven, shines over all the earth. "Wherefoever providence fhall dispose of the "most valuable thing I know, I fhall ever folwith fincereft wifhes; and my "beft thoughts will be perpetually waiting upon you, when you never hear of me or them. "Your own guardian angels cannot be more

"low

you

my

conftant or more filent.'

This unfortunate lady, as Mr. POPE very properly calls her, was diftinguifhed by her rank, fortune

K 3

fortune and beauty, and was committed to the guardianship of an uncle, who gave her an education fuitable to her expectations; but while she was yet very young, he was fuppofed to have entertained a partiality for a young gentleman of inferior degree, which occafioned her to refuse a match which her guardian pro¬ posed to her.

It was not long before her correfpondence with this gentleman was difcovered by means of fpies, whom her guardian had employed to watch over her conduct, and when he upbraided her with this fecret intercourfe, fhe had too much truth and honour to deny the charge.

The uncle, finding her affections fo rooted, that he had not power to withdraw them, forced her abroad, where fhe was received with the respect due to her quality, but confined from the fight of every one but the dependants of this rigid guardian.

Her defpondent lover tranfmitted feveral letters on the faith of repeated affurances, that they would be privately delivered to her, but his hopes were betrayed, and his letters, inftead of being prefented to the object of his affections, were fent to England, and only served to render her confinement more ftrait and fevere.

In this miferable and hopeless condition, she languifhed a confiderable time in fickness and forrow,

forrow, till at length fhe put an end to her life with a fword which fhe bribed a woman fervant to procure her, and was found yet warm upon the ground.

Being, by the laws of the place, denied Chriftian fepulture, fhe was interred without the leaft folemnity, being caft into the common earth, without any mournful attendants to perform the laft duties of affection, and only followed by fome young people in the neighbourhood, who beftrewed her grave with flowers.

Such a moving catastrophe might have infpired a favage with fenfibility; but in Mr. POPE it awakened all the power of the Pathos. With what awful folemnity he fuddenly commands our attention, and calls forth all our fympathy, in the very opening, where he fancies to behold the apparition of the bleeding fair.

"What beck'ning Ghoft, along the moonlight "fhade

"Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade? "'Tis fhe!--but why that bleeding bofom "gor'd,

"Why dimly gleams the visionary sword? "Oh ever beauteous, ever friendly! tell, "Is it, in heav'n, a crime to love too well? "To bear too tender, or too firm a heart, "To act a Lover's, or a Roman's part? "Is there no bright reversion in the fky, For those who greatly think, or bravely die?"

The indignation he expreffes against the inhuman guardian is very ftriking and affecting.

"But thou, falfe Guardian of a charge too "good,

"Thou, mean deferter of thy brother's blood! "See on these ruby lips the trembling breath, "These cheeks now fading at the blaft of "death."

Then follows a fudden execration, so forcible, that it instantly strikes the mind with terror.

"Thus, if eternal Juftice rules the ball, "Thus fhall your wives, and thus your chil"dren fall."

The poet farther defcribing the fudden vengeance which fhall await fuch inhumanity, breaks forth into the following bold profopopocia.

2

"There paffengers fhall ftand, and pointing

66

(While the long fun'rals blacken all the way) "Lo! thefe were they, whofe fouls the Furies ❝fteel'd,

"And curs'd with hearts unknowing how to "yield.

"Thus, un'amented pafs the proud away,

"The gaze of fools, and pageant of a day! “So perish all, whofe breaft ne'er learn'd to

glow

"For others good, or melt at others woe."

How

How inimitably has the poet contrived to temper the horror of the dire execrations he vented, by clofing with a paffage of exquifite humanity and fympathy!

With what inexpreffible tendernefs likewife, and with what moving accents does he aggravate her deplorable fate, by introducing the affecting circumftance of her dying in a foreign land, unattended by any mournful friend to grace her obfequies.

"No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear "Pleas'd thy pale ghoft, or grac'd thy mourn"ful bier.

"By foreign hands thy dying eyes were clos'd, By foreign hands thy decent limbs compos'd, "By foreign hands thy humble grave adorn'd, By ftrangers honour'd, and by strangers

"mourn'd!"

The forcible repetition of the word foreign, has, as the critic obferves, an admirable effect conftantly to recall to mind the aggravating circumftance which the poet would impress on the reader's fenfibility.

There is another, though not fo obvious, beauty in these lines. It is obfervable that in all thefe lines, except the laft, the pause is uniformly at the fourth fyllable; and this farther contributes to rivet in the mind the feveral parts or amplifications of the mournful circumftance which the poet describes. For as an acute

critic