Arch-treasurer of all the graces
Dispersed through fifty lovely faces,
Sovereign of the slipper's order,
With all the rites thereon that border,
Defender of the sylphic faith,
Declare--and thus your monarch saith:
Whereas there is a noble dame,
Whom mortals Countess Temple name,
To whom ourself did erst impart
The choicest secrets of our art,
Taught her to tune the harmonious line
To our own melody divine,
Taught her the graceful negligence,
Which, scorning art and veiling sense,
Achieves that conquest o'er the heart
Sense seldom gains, and never art:
This lady, 'tis our royal will
Our laureate's vacant seat should fill;
A chaplet of immortal bays
Shall crown her brow and guard her lays,
Of nectar sack an acorn cup
Be at her board each year filled up;
And as each quarter feast comes round
A silver penny shall be found
Within the compass of her shoe--
And so we bid you all adieu!

Given at our palace of Cowslip Castle, the shortest night of the
year.

OBERON.

And underneath,

HOTHAMINA.

How shall I tell you the greatest curiosity of the story? The whole plan
and execution of the second act was laid and adjusted by my Lady Suffolk
herself and Will. Chetwynd, Master of the Mint, Lord Bolingbroke's
Oroonoko-Chetwynd;[1] he fourscore, she past seventy-six; and, what is
more, much worse than I was, for added to her deafness, she has been
confined these three weeks with the gout in her eyes, and was actually
then in misery, and had been without sleep. What spirits, and
cleverness, and imagination, at that age, and under those afflicting
circumstances! You reconnoitre her old court knowledge, how charmingly
she has applied it! Do you wonder I pass so many hours and evenings with
her? Alas! I had like to have lost her this morning! They had poulticed
her feet to draw the gout downwards, and began to succeed yesterday, but
to-day it flew up into her head, and she was almost in convulsions with
the agony, and screamed dreadfully; proof enough how ill she was, for
her patience and good breeding makes her for ever sink and conceal what
she feels. This evening the gout has been driven back to her foot, and I
trust she is out of danger. Her loss will be irreparable to me at
Twickenham, where she is by far the most rational and agreeable company
I have.

[Footnote 1: Oroonoko-Chetwynd, M.P.