ALEXANDER POPE

440. On a certain Lady at Court

T KNOW a thing that 's most uncommon ;

• (Envy, be silent and attend !)

I know a reasonable woman,

Handsome and witty, yet a friend.

Not warp'd by passion, awed by rumour ;

Not grave through pride, nor gay through folly ; An equal mixture of good-humour

And sensible soft melancholy.

4 Has she no faults then (Envy says), Sir ? '

Yes, she has one, I must aver: When all the world conspires to praise her.

The woman 's deaf, and does not hear.

��441. Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady

VVTHAT beck'ning ghost, along the moonlight shade

Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade ? J Tis she ! but why that bleeding bosom gored, Why dimly gleams the visionary sv/ord ? O, 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 sky For those who greatly think, or bravely die ?

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