Portrait of a finifhed Coquette. not attempt as a rival, let me obtain as a friend. The whole world is your's; fend me back this only man Í value. He loves you, Celinda, and you command that paffion beyond all I must be mad to think of ftanding against you; but I throw my caufe into your hands. You have declared an affection for me, and you may feize this occafion to exert it. In all the affliction I have hitherto felt, I never mentioned the cause to him; I never will name it; I leave all to you. He will be concerned to give me pain, and be will be the more fenfible of it, when you fhall paint my feelings to him. He loved me once; plead with him to pity me now. The esteem and the refpect he has for you will give force and weight to your words, which mar, alas! muft want; as they will be accused, however gentle they may be, of paffionate expreffion. Only pretend to think me amiable, and he will really believe I am. Your perfuafions will bring him back, when my complaints would be called reproaches." 29 “You' fee how fhe doats on me !--She demands the re-poffeffion of my heart; and fhe fhall have it. You have promised your commands to me, and I obey them: forgive me, my dear Celinda, and forget me." He was going, but Celinda ftopped him." I have not spoke to you yet about this affair," said she haftily. Yes you have, you have indeed, Madam," replied he, without waiting for another word," and you have reafon. I have begged your pardon, and I go to obey you; to throw myself at Cynthia's feet. I have been shamefully to blame! You fhall be obeyed, Madam: Cynthia fhall be rewarded, if my love can reward her, for you shall fee me even more fond of her than I would have been of you." The hufband returned to keep hia word: it was eafy to fee in his countenance the truth of his profeffions, and the certainty of his permanent fidelity. An act of difcretion reclaimed him, who would only have been made defperate by reproaches, and t gave the affurance of a life of happinefs. Celinda took the melancholy wife into her arms, and mingled her firft tears with her's. She told her the You are not aware, perhaps, of the was charming; fwore to her fidelity; fentiments of Celinda; but you will and tranfported with the acknowledg- fmile to hear them. You fancy the ment of her fuperior beauty, (almost was charmed with all this? By no intoxicated with the idea of fo emi-means. Celinda is a coquette. She bent a rival's fubmiffively begging quarter of her attractions) promised her, with repeated careffes, her utinoft fervices. had rather all the wives and husbands on earth were fent to deftruction, than lofe one of all those lovers, not one of whom she ever defigned to favour. The wife was fcarce gone, when the I came in last night juft after the husband returned. Joy fparkled in fcene, and I heard the ftory as I have his eyes, and he told her his purfuit told it you." The man," continued was at an end." I will no longer be fhe, " was in earneft: he went, he flew troublefome to you, Madam," faid from me without giving me time to anhe: "pray pardon me for having e- fwer a fyllable. I fat immoveable: he. ver been fo. I admire you, but it is had fixed me to the fopha. I found without paffion. You are virtue it-myfelf a dupe to a dull marriage-paffelf: I have been perfect folly. Ifion. If the wife had been prefent heard, in the next room, all that my wife faid to you.-What a woman! what fweetnefs !-what affection! Have I not reafon to exclaim with Brutus, that moment, she would not have made fo cafy a purchase of my engagements. I never allowed her to be handfome, but upon her acknowledging me more fo. The ftupidity of the husband did not fee the conditions. She triumphs--but I will mortify her yet!— The 30 The Burying-place of the The man's a fool; but I'll bring him | Paraclete was fituate, the captain an back again; and I will not part with him eafily." Would you peruse at length the portrait of a true coquette, hear her account of her own heart in this whole matter. I taxed her with levity and with cruelty in the defign: but she told me neither belonged to her. fwered, "that man in the purple livery is fervant to the abbefs, is come here for letters, parcels, and other like commiffions from Paris, as ufual, on the arrival of our boat, and he will conduct you there." The moon fhone very bright, and it being near the vintage, I do confefs I never had a more elegant evening walk.-I foon found, as the clock ftruck ten, on our approach to the con vent, that it would be impoffible to reconnoitre any thing that night: but my walk was fo far of fervice, befides exercife, that the fervant had taken care to spread the report of a gentleman who was come from England, purposely, as he thought and said, on a pilgrimage to the Paraclete, fo that next morning, I found every thing prepared to receive a ftranger, according to all the laws of convents, which are often hofpitals (hofpitaliers) as abounding in all the acts of hofpitality. "The fellow," faid fhe, ".explained himself to me a month ago by his eyes. I faw it, and I paffed fentence upon him-that he fhould figh in vain. I have more difcretion than to give up my virtue: but I have more wit than to part with my lovers. I am a woman, and there is no being a woman without being a coquette. Romance defcribes thofe that are not, but that's a chimera: there's no fuch character in nature. All true women are as I am. When I fee 'tis one of my shandfome days, I let my lover fee me, and I treat him like a dog. I know there's no danger.: I defy him to forfake me: I am too charming for neg- You may imagine even the environs le. Upon thefe occafions I give my of the Paraclete gave me pleasure, rigour its whole career; and when I though I could not be admitted till am lefs handfome, I am more humble. next day. The little river ArdufI keep them in order.-But part with fon glittered along the valley; and as adover! I would fooner lofe a tooth !" vineyards generally produce, many You will laugh at the vifionary con-glow-worms, no wonder the nightinquerefs even they laugh at her who gales were inhabitants, as that is their Hatter her. The wife is the principal favourite food-And it may be a hint character in the above fcene, and her to frail beauty, that the brightness of story has its moral; for if it does not the faid reptile, is a fure step to its defucceed one way it will the other. ftruction. I am, Sir, Your most obedient fervant, Part of a LETTER written by a Gentle. man on his Travels through FRANCE, containing curious Particulars relating to the Burying-place of the celebrated ABELARD and ELOISE. Though early at the convent next breakfaft provided in the Pere St. Romorning, I found an elegant fummer main's apartment, who was then officiating at matins.-I rather chose to enter the church, and was furprised to find the great altar due weft, contrary to all rules of church building; and only countenanced by one in Lombardtreet, which is north and fouth. On my ftanding up at the grille (which feparates the choir from the N my landing at Nogent fur church) one of the filters (whofe office Seine, it was very natural to is to receive alms, and to bear mef with for a little exercife after a boat-fages of bufinefs to any individual in confinement for near three days, and the convent, fo practifed in all nunon alking how far off the convent of neries) afked me if I wanted any par ticular celebrated Abelard and Eloife. ticular perfon; I told her my errand was only to fee the church, on which fhe retired to her ftall and devotion. The Pere St. Romain having finished the fervice and undreit himfelf, (I obferved while he laid by his robes in the facriftry, he repeated very faft, certain forms, alluding to the quitting all garments in the grave) took me by the hand into his apartment, where I found another chaplain, yet neither fo polite or fo learned as himfelf: his fame, even at Paris, being concurrent with what I found during my whole ftay. cond quited her cell (more efpecially in that The fuperftructure of the Paraclete After the ufual refreshment, he faid, that the abbefs, being in her eighty-feyear, feldom rofe till noon, but that he begged I would ftay till I faw her: for fhe was my country woman, though early called to be a convert from England, and was allied to the extinct families of Lifford and Stafford. She was aunt to the prefent duke of Rochefoucault, fifter to the great cardinal and being fifth in 'fucceffion, abbefs of that convent, pleafed herfelf, in hoping it would become a kind of patrimony, and that his majefty (it being a royal abbey) would graciously beltow it on that name whenever the was called away; which the hourly expected, and daily wifhed. ! As a further proof of this, the arms of the Rochefoucault family are over each gate-way: and on any reparation, or new erections on the premifes, the faid method is always practifed. Adjoining is a low building now inhabited by a miller, which has fome marks of real antiquity, and St. Romain concurred with me in the fentiment. It feems to have been the public hall, where Abelard might have given his lectures for in the walls on each fide, are fmall apertures, fo hori zontal, that it has ftrong appearances of benches; which never rife theatrically in thefe buildings abroad. Before dinner St. Romain walked with me round the demefne- Mr. Pope's defcription is ideal; and to poetical minds eafily conveyed: but I faw neither rocks nor pines, nor was it a kind of ground which ever feemed to encourage fuch objects on the contrary, it was in a vale, and the mountains, like the Alps, generally produce views of this kind. I cannot but fay too, that the line "See in her cell fad Eloifa fpread," hould be near her cell; the doors of qua After dinner I had the honour of When the Abbefs gave me leave to * This Lester was first printed in the Year all cells I 32 The predominant Paffion in Woman. · The remains of these unfortunate | other in favour of her complexion! lovers, Abelard and Eloifa, whofe and I have known a phyfician of bodies are ftill entire, are depofited learning and fenfe, after a fevere in a niche in the abacial vault; but application to his ftudies for feas it was by torch light, I could ill veral years at the univerfity, and a remark more than that Eloifa appear-courfe of travels into moft countries ed taller than Abelard. A fmall in Europe, owe the firft raising of plinth of brick or ftone, preferved his fortune to a cosmetic wash. them from being trampled on; and the vault, being fmall, feemed much crowded. Before I arrived at this manfion of the dead, they fhewed me all the vaulted part of the former church, and private chapel, which were now filled with wine: magazines of this kind are often erected, even for fale, where convents are not wealthy enough in lands or public ftock to fupport themselves. And in countries where wine is not the manufacture, they have refort to boarders, or penñoners, to maintain themfelves; the value of money being altered, as in all countries. In this convent are only twenty-two fifters. For the LADY'S MAGAZINE. This has given me occafion to confider how fo univerfal a difpofition in woman kind, which fprings from a laudable motive, the defire of pleafing, and proceeds upon an opinion not entirely without foundation, that nature may be affifted, may, indeed, be turned to advantage by art. And it would be an acceptable fervice, I think, to take them out of the hands of quacks and pretenders, and to prevent their impofing upon themfelves, by difcovering to them the true fecret and art-but no myftery-of improving beauty. In order to this, before I touch upon it directly, it will be neceffarỳ to lay down a few preliminary maxims: 1. No woman can be handfome by the force of features alone, any more than he can be witty only by the An ESSAY on the predominant PASSION help of speech. TH in WOMAN. 2. Pride deftroys all fymmetry and grace; and affectation is a more terrible enemy to fine faces than the fmall-pox. 3. No woman is capable of being beautiful, who is not incapable of be ing falfe. 4. What would be odious in a friend, is deformity in a miftrefs. HE celebrated Monfieur St. Evremont concludes one of his eflays with affirming, that the laft fighs of a handfome woman are not fo much for the lofs of her life, as the lofs of her beauty. This raillery is, perhaps, carried too far; it is, however, turned upon a very obvious remark, that woman's ftrongest paf- From thefe few leading principles, fion is for her own beauty, and that thus laid down, it will be easy to fhe values it as her favourite diftinc-prove, that the true art of affifting tior. From hence it is, that all arts which attempt to improve or preferve it, meet with fo general a reception among the fair fex. To fay nothing of many falfe helps, and fmuggled wares of beauty, which are daily vended in this great metropolis, there is not, I fuppofe, a maiden gentle-woman of a good family in any county of South or North Britain, who is unfurnished with fome receipt r beauty confifts in embellishing the whole perfon by the proper ornaments of virtuous and commendable qualities. By this help alone it is, that thofe who are the favourite work of nature, or, as Mr. Dryden expreffes it, "The porcelain clay of human kind," become animated, and are in a capacity of exerting their charms: and thofe who feem to have been neg lected by her, like models wrought 1 J Sketch of the Life of Jane Shore. 33 in hade, are capable, in a great mea- | object fimilar to that I have been de It is, methinks, a low and degrading idea of that fex, which was created to refine the joys, and foften the cares of humanity, by the most agreeable participation, to confider them merely as objects of fight: this is abridging them of their natural ex a level Underneath this flone doth lie, As much virtue as could die; and of with their pictures at Sir JANE Shore was daughter to a ci Jofhua's. How much nobler is the beauty being her chief portion, the contemplation of beauty heightened by was induced to marry, much against virtue, commanding our esteem and her inclination, Mr. Matthew Shore, lave, while it attracts our admira-a Goldfmith, in Lombard-ftreet, a tion? how faint and fpiritlefs are the perfon extremely rich, but much ad charms of a coquette, when compared vanced in years. The fame of this with the real lovelinefs of Amanda's lady, far from being confined within innocence, piety, good humour, and the limits of the city, foon reached teady adherence to the language of the ears of Majefty, for Edward IV. trath-thefe are virtues which give made his addreffes to her, and won additional foftnefs to the fex, and ren- her. Her husband left England, fhe der even her beauty, ftill more beauti- repaired to court, and fhone with -The agreeable qualities which af- fplendor in the fphere of gaiety and forded us confiderable pleafure, before feftivity. Hiftorians reprefent her ex he entered into the nuptial ftate, are tremely beautiful, remarkably chear doubly pleafing in the tender mother, ful, and of moft uncommon generofiand the faithful wife. She who takes ty. The king, they further tell us, 30 care to increase the natural graces was not lefs captivated with her tem of her perfon, by any excellent qua- per than her perfon, as he never fications, may be allowed to amufe fpoke ill of, or endeavoured to preas a picture, but not to triumph as judice him against any body. She a beauty; often, indeed, importuned him, but always in behalf of the unfortunate. She fearned to be rewarded for he good offices; her riches, therefore, were trifling, when he fell into mis, fortunes, By all the accounts we have of this lady, the had as many excufes for female frailty, as ever came to any woman's hare. Her mind was formed for magnificence, as her heart was for virtue; both of them could not be gratified, and vir tue funk in the unequal conteft; yet with fo much modeity did the employ the afcendancy the Lad over Edward, that even the pride of the queen, the moft fenfible fufferer, was never offended at their intimacy. The friend hip he had gained by her munifi cence, her benevolence, and her af fability, had made her confiderable, even in the beginning of this reign, When Adam is introduced by Milton, deferibing Eve, in Paradife, and relating to the angel the impreffions he felt upon feeing her at her first creation, he does not reprefent her like a Grecian Venus, by her fhape or features, but by the luftre of her mind, which fhone in them, and gave them their power of charming, Grace was in all her steps, Heav'n in her eye. tures are animation. In the following fhort epitaph, by Ben Johnson, there is a fpirit which othing could have infpired but an Vol. IX. F |