And bravely drove his rivals down
With coach and fix, and house in town.
The bashful nymph no more with ftands,
Because her dear pappa commands.
The charming couple now unites :
Proceed we to the marriage-rites.

Imprimis, at the temple-porch
Stood Hymen with a flaming torch :
The fmiling Cyprian goddess brings
Her infant loves with purple wings;
And pigeons billing, fparrows treading,
Fair emblems of a fruitful wedding.
The mufes next in order follow,
Conducted by their 'fquire, Apollo:
Then Mercury with filver tongue,
And Hebe, goddess ever young.
Behold, the bridegroom and his bride

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Walk hand in hand, and fide by fide;

Luna was abfent, on pretence

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Her time was not till nine months hence.

THE rites perform'd, the parfon paid,

In ftate return'd the grand parade;
With loud huzza's from all the boys,
That now the pair must crown their joys.

BUT still the hardest part remains.
Strephon had long perplex'd his brains,

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A veil which the Roman brides covered themselves with when they were going to be married.

A marriage-fong.

Diana goddess of midwives.

How with fo high a nymph he might
Demean himself the wedding-night:
For as he view'd his perfon round,
Mere mortal flesh was all he found:
His hand, his neck, his mouth and feet,
Were duly wash'd to keep them sweet;
(With other parts that fhall be nameless,
The ladies elfe might think me fhameless.)
The weather and his love were hot;
And should he struggle, I know what-
Why, let it go, if I must tell it-

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Was unfufceptible of stain;

He'll fweat, and then the nymph may fmell it.
While fhe, a goddess, dy'd in grain,

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And, Venus-like, her fragrant skin
Exhal'd ambrofia from within.
Can fuch a deity endure

A mortal human touch impure?
How did the humbled fwain deteft
His prickly beard, and hairy breaft!-
His nightcap border'd round with lace.
Could give no foftnefs to his face.

YET if the goddess could be kind,
What endless raptures muft he find!
And goddeffes have now and then
Cóme down to vifit mortal men;
To vifit and to court them too :
A certain goddefs, God knows who,
(As in a book he heard it read),
'Took Col'nel Peleus to her bed.
But what if he should lofe his life
By vent'ring on his heav'nly wife?
For Strephon could remember well,
That once he heard a schoolboy tell,
How Semele of mortal race
By thunder died in Jove's embrace:

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And what if daring Strephon dies
By lightning fhot from Chloe's eyes.

WHILE thefe reflections fill'd his head,
The bride was put in form to bed :
He follow'd, ftript, and in he crept,
But awfully his distance kept.

Now ponder will, ye parents dear;
Forbid your daughters guzzling bear;
And make them ev'ry afternoon
Forbear their tea, or drink it foon;
That ere to bed they venture up,
They may discharge it ev'ry sup;
If not, they muft in evil plight
Be often forc'd to rife at night.
Keep them to wholfome food confin'd,
Nor let them tafte what causes wind:
('Tis this the fage of Samos means,
Forbidding his difciples beans).
O! think what evils muft enfue;

Mifs Moll the jade will burn it blue :,
And when the once has got the art,

She cannot help it for her heart;
But out it flies, ev'n when he meets
Her bridegroom in the wedding-fheets.
Carminative + and diurétic ||

Will damp all paffion fympathetic;
And love fuch nicety requires,
One blast will put out all his fires.
Since hufbands get behind the fcene,

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The wife should study to be clean;

Nor give the smallest room to guess

The time when wants of nature press;

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A well-known precept of Pythagoras, not to cat beans; which has been variously interpreted, and is fuppofed to contain fome allegorical meaning.

+ Medicines to break wind.

Medicines to provoke urine,

Proceeding on, the lovely goddess
Unlaces next her steel-ribb'd bodice,
Which, by the operator's skill,

Prefs down the lumps, the hollows fill.
Up goes her hand, and off fhe flips
The bolsters that fupply her hips.
With gentleft touch the next explores
Her fhancres, iffues, running fores;
Effects of many a fad disaster,
And then to each applies a plaifter:
But muft, before the goes to bed,
Rub off the daubs of white and red,
And smooth the furrows in her front
With greafy paper ftuck upon't.)

She takes a bolus ere fhe fleeps;

And then between two blankets creeps.
With pains of love tormented lies;
Or if the chance to close her eyes,
Of Bridewell and the Compter dreams,
And feels the lash, and faintly screams;
Or by a faithless bully drawn,
At fome hedge tavern lies in pawn ;
Or to Jamaica feems transported
Alone *, and by no planter courted;
Or, near Fleet-ditch's oozy brinks,
Surrounded with a hundred ftinks,
Belated, feems on watch to lie,
And fnap fome cully paffing by;

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Or, ftruck with fear, her fancy runs

CORINNA wakes. A dreadful fight!
Behold the ruins of the night!

A wicked rat her plaifter ftole,
Half eat, and dragg'd it to his hole.
The cryftal eye, alas! was mifs'd;

And pufs had on her plumpers p-fs'd.

A pigeon pick'd her iffue-peas:

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And fhock her treffes fill'd with fleas.

THE nymph, tho' in this mangled plight, Muft ev'ry morn her limbs unite.

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But how fhall I defcribe her arts
To recollect the fcatter'd parts ?
Or fhew the anguifh, toil, and pain,
Of gath'ring up herself again?
The bashful mufe will never bear
In fuch a scene to interfere.
Corinna in the morning dizen'd,

Who fees, will spue; who smells, be poison'd.

OF

STREPHON and CHLOE*.
Written in the year 1731.

Chloe all the town has rung,
By ev'ry fize of poets fung:
So beautiful a nymph appears
But once in twenty thousand years;
By nature form'd with nicest care,
And faultlefs to a fingle hair.

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* This poem has among others been cenfured for indelicacy; but with no better reafon than a medicine would be rejected for its ill taste. By attending to the marriage of Strephon and Chloe, the reader is neceffarily led to confider the effect of that grofs familiarity in which it is to be feared many married persons think they have a right to indulge themselves: he who is difgufted at the picture, feels the force of the precept, not to disgust another by his practice: and let it never be forgotten, that nothing quenches defire like indelicacy; and that when defire has been thus quenched, kindness will inevitably grow cold. Hawkef.