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THE BASSET-TABLE [ ] AN ECLOGUE - Alexander Pope, The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope [1903]

Edition used:

The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Cambridge Edition, ed. Henry W. Boynton (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1903).

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THE BASSET-TABLE[ ]

AN ECLOGUE

This mock pastoral was one of three which made up the original volume of Town Eclogues, published anonymously in 1716. Three more appeared in a later edition. It is now known that only the Basset-Table is Pope’s, the rest being the work of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.

cardelia, smilinda, lovet

Card.

  • The Basset-Table spread, the Tallier come,
  • Why stays Smilinda in the dressing-room?
  • Rise, pensive nymph! the Tallier waits for you. }

Smil.

  • Ah, madam! since my Sharper is untrue, }
  • I joyless make my once adored Alpeu. }
  • I saw him stand behind Ombrelia’s chair, }
  • And whisper with that soft deluding air, }
  • And those feign’d sighs which cheat the list’ning Fair. }

Card.

  • Is this the cause of your romantic strains?
  • A mightier grief my heavy heart sustains:
  • As you by love, so I by Fortune crost;11
  • One, one bad Deal, three Septlevas have lost.

Smil.

  • Is that the grief which you compare with mine?
  • With ease the smiles of fortune I resign:
  • Would all my gold in one bad Deal were gone,
  • Were lovely Sharper mine, and mine alone.

Card.

  • A lover lost is but a common care,
  • And prudent nymphs against that change prepare:
  • The Knave of Clubs thrice lost: Oh! who could guess19
  • This fatal stroke, this unforeseen distress?

Smil.

  • See Betty Lovet! very àpropos;
  • She all the cares of love and play does know.
  • Dear Betty shall th’ important point decide;
  • Betty! who oft the pain of each has tried;
  • Impartial she shall say who suffers most,
  • By cards’ ill usage, or by lovers lost.

Lov.

  • Tell, tell your griefs; attentive will I stay,
  • Though time is precious, and I want some tea.

Card.

  • Behold this equipage, by Mathers wrought,
  • With fifty guineas (a great pen’worth) bought.30
  • See on the toothpick Mars and Cupid strive,
  • And both the struggling figures seem alive.
  • Upon the bottom shines the Queen’s bright face;
  • A myrtle foliage round the thimble case.
  • Jove, Jove himself does on the scissors shine:
  • The metal, and the workmanship, divine.

Smil.

  • This snuff-box—once the pledge of Sharper’s love,
  • When rival beauties for the present strove;
  • At Corticelli’s he the raffle won;39
  • Then first his passion was in public shown:
  • Hazardia blush’d, and turn’d her head aside,
  • A rival’s envy (all in vain) to hide.
  • This snuffbox—on the hinge see brilliants shine—
  • This snuffbox will I stake, the Prize is mine.

Card.

  • Alas! far lesser losses than I bear
  • Have made a soldier sigh, a lover swear.
  • And oh! what makes the disappointment hard,
  • ’T was my own Lord that drew the fatal card.
  • In complaisance I took the Queen he gave,
  • Tho’ my own secret wish was for the Knave.50
  • The Knave won Sonica, which I had chose,
  • And the next pull my Septleva I lose.

Smil.

    • But ah! what aggravates the killing smart,
    • The cruel thought that stabs me to the heart,
    • This curs’d Ombrelia, this undoing Fair,
    • By whose vile arts this heavy grief I bear,
    • She, at whose name I shed these spiteful tears,
    • She owes to me the very charms she wears.
    • An awkward thing when first she came to town,
    • Her shape unfashion’d, and her face unknown:60
    • She was my friend; I taught her first to spread
    • Upon her sallow cheeks enlivening red;
    • I introduced her to the park and plays,
    • And by my int’rest Cozens made her Stays.
    • Ungrateful wretch! with mimic airs grown pert,
    • She dares to steal my favourite lover’s heart.

Card.

  • Wretch that I was, how often have I swore,
  • When Winnall tallied, I would punt no more!
  • I know the bite, yet to my ruin run,
  • And see the folly which I cannot shun.70

Smil.

  • How many maids have Sharper’s vows deceiv’d?
  • How many curs’d the moment they believ’d?
  • Yet his known falsehoods could no warning prove:
  • Ah! what is warning to a maid in love?

Card.

  • But of what marble must that breast be form’d,
  • To gaze on Basset, and remain unwarm’d?
  • When Kings, Queens, Knaves, are set in decent rank,
  • Exposed in glorious heaps the tempting Bank,
  • Guineas, half-guineas, all the shining train,
  • The winner’s pleasure, and the loser’s pain.80
  • In bright confusion open Rouleaux lie,
  • They strike the soul, and glitter in the eye:
  • Fired by the sight, all reason I disdain,
  • My passions rise, and will not bear the rein.
  • Look upon Basset, you who reason boast,
  • And see if reason must not there be lost.

Smil.

  • What more than marble must that heart compose
  • Can harken coldly to my Sharper’s vows?
  • Then when he trembles! when his blushes rise!
  • When awful love seems melting in his eyes!90
  • With eager beats his Mechlin cravat moves:
  • ‘He loves’—I whisper to myself, ‘He loves!’
  • Such unfeign’d passion in his looks appears,
  • I lose all mem’ry of my former fears;
  • My panting heart confesses all his charms,
  • I yield at once, and sink into his arms.
  • Think of that moment, you who Prudence boast;
  • For such a moment Prudence well were lost.

Card.

Smil.

  • Soft Simplicetta dotes upon a beau;
  • Prudina likes a man, and laughs at show:
  • Their several graces in my Sharper meet,
  • Strong as the footman, as the master sweet.

Lov.

  • Cease your contention, which has been too long;
  • I grow impatient, and the tea ’s too strong.
  • Attend, and yield to what I now decide;
  • The equipage shall grace Smilinda’s side;110
  • The snuffbox to Cardelia I decree;
  • Now leave complaining, and begin your tea.

[Page 104.]The Basset-Table.

[Line 99.] The Groom-Porter was an officer in the King’s household, who, under a provision exempting royalty from the laws against gambling, was enabled to provide a resort for London gamesters.

[Line 100.]Some dukes at Mary-bone. The reference is supposed to have been to the Duke of Buckinghamshire, who frequented a bowling-alley in Marylebone parish.