and a brilliant
fishwoman exchanging compliments at Billingsgate; but some of his
verses--they were amongst the most famous lyrics of the time, and
pronounced equal to Horace by his contemporaries--may give an idea of his
power, of his grace, of his daring manner, his magnificence in compliment,
and his polished sarcasm. He writes as if he was so accustomed to conquer,
that he has a poor opinion of his victims. Nothing's new except their
faces, says he: "every woman is the same." He says this in his first
comedy, which he wrote languidly(70) in illness, when he was an "excellent
young man". Richelieu at eighty could have hardly said a more excellent
thing.

When he advances to make one of his conquests it is with a splendid
gallantry, in full uniform and with the fiddles playing, like Grammont's
French dandies attacking the breach of Lerida.

"Cease, cease to ask her name," he writes of a young lady at the Wells at
Tunbridge, whom he salutes with a magnificent compliment--

Cease, cease to ask her name,
The crowned Muse's noblest theme,
Whose glory by immortal fame
Shall only sounded be.
But if you long to know,
Then look round yonder dazzling row,
Who most does like an angel show
You may be sure 'tis she.

Here are lines about another beauty, who perhaps was not so well pleased
at the poet's manner of celebrating her--

When Lesbia first I saw, so heavenly fair,
With eyes so bright and with that awful air,
I thought my heart would durst so high aspire
As bold as his who snatched celestial fire.
But soon as e'er the beauteous idiot spoke,
Forth from her coral lips such folly broke;
Like balm the trickling nonsense heal'd my wound,
And what her eyes enthralled, her tongue unbound.

Amoret is a cleverer woman than the lovely Lesbia, but the poet does not
seem to respect one much more than the other; and describes both with
exquisite satirical humour--

Fair Amoret is gone astray,
Pursue and seek her every lover;
I'll tell the signs by which you may
The wandering shepherdess discover.

Coquet and coy at once her air,
Both studied, though both seem neglected;
Careless she is with artful care,
Affecting to be unaffected.

With skill her eyes dart every glance,
Yet change so soon you'd ne'er suspect them;
For she'd persuade they wound by chance,
Though certain aim a