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ON RECEIVING FROM THE RIGHT HON. THE LADY FRANCES SHIRLEY A STANDISH AND TWO PENS - 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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ON RECEIVING FROM THE RIGHT HON. THE LADY FRANCES SHIRLEY A STANDISH AND TWO PENS

Lady Frances Shirley was daughter of Earl Ferrers, a neighbor of Pope’s at Twickenham.

    • Yes, I beheld th’ Athenian Queen
    • Descend in all her sober charms;
    • ‘And take’ (she said, and smiled serene),
    • ‘Take at this hand celestial arms:
    • ‘Secure the radiant weapons wield;
    • This golden lance shall guard Desert,
    • And if a Vice dares keep the field,
    • This steel shall stab it to the heart.’
    • Awed, on my bended knees I fell,
    • Received the weapons of the sky;10
    • And dipt them in the sable well,
    • The fount of Fame or Infamy.
    • ‘What well? what weapons?’ (Flavia cries,)
    • ‘A standish, steel and golden pen!
    • It came from Bertrand’s, not the skies;
    • I gave it you to write again.
    • ‘But, Friend, take heed whom you attack;
    • You ’ll bring a House (I mean of Peers)
    • Red, blue, and green, nay white and black,
    • L[ambeth] and all about your ears.
    • ‘You ’d write as smooth again on glass,
    • And run, on ivory, so glib,
    • As not to stick at Fool or Ass,
    • Nor stop at Flattery or Fib.
    • Athenian Queen! and sober charms!
    • I tell ye, fool, there ’s nothing in ’t:
    • ’T is Venus, Venus gives these arms;
    • In Dryden’s Virgil see the print.
    • ‘Come, if you ’ll be a quiet soul,
    • That dares tell neither Truth nor Lies,
    • I ’ll lift you in the harmless roll
    • Of those that sing of these poor eyes.’