On a Certain Lady at Court. Poems: 1718-27. Alexander Pope. 1903. Complete Poetical Works

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Alexander Pope (1688–1744). Complete Poetical Works. 1903.

Poems: 1718–27

On a Certain Lady at Court

Catharine Howard, one of Queen Caroline’s waiting-women; afterward Countess of Suffolk and mistress to George II. Her identification as the Chloe of Moral Essays, II., makes it easier to believe Walpole’s statement that this lady once reprieved a condemned criminal that ‘an experiment might be made on his ears for her benefit.’

I KNOW the 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,	5
Not grave thro’ Pride, nor gay thro’ Folly,
An equal mixture of Good-humour,
And sensible soft Melancholy.

‘Has she no faults then (Envy says), sir?’
Yes, she has one, I must aver:	10
When all the world conspires to praise her,
The woman’s deaf and does not hear.

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