The Works of Richard Owen Cambridge Including several pieces never before published: with an account of his life and character, by his son, George Owen Cambridge |
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 | The Works of Richard Owen Cambridge |  |
312
EPILOGUE SPOKEN AT DRURY-LANE THEATRE,
BY MISS POPE, IN THE Character of Miss Notable, in the Lady's Last Stake: 1760.
YES—I'm resolv'd—I'll live and die a Maid.Expos'd! and jeer'd! abandon'd and betray'd!
Such usage!—monstrous—bear it those who can,
Here—I renounce that faithless creature—Man.
Sooner in cells and nunneries I'll hide
The just resentment of my injur'd pride,
Than tame and quiet stay another minute
In this vile world—and not—make mischief in it.
For ever leave the world!—That's not the worst—
To be a nun—one must be papist first.
To change religion and beyond sea roam—
But—one may be a methodist at home.
Hold! to be qualify'd for that, they say,
The hopeful convert first must—go astray.
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But then—I loathe the odious preparation.
What! can one then devise no kind of plan,
Without this necessary evil, Man!
Can woman singly find herself no station?
Sinner or saint must be by his creation!
Why, faith, without him—nothing can be done:
One can—I think—be nothing—but a Nun.
Whatever woman's vanity may boast,
He makes the peeress—and He makes the toast.
Her last best title—she from him derives—
For—to be widows—we must first be wives.
To this hard fate is every maiden born:
We can not have the rose without the thorn.
—Then—I give up the world and all its folly,
For solitude and musing melancholy.
Oh! how I long to quit this empty dream,
And fix some sober plan, some lasting scheme!—
'Twill soon be settled when I've once begun it.—
I'll go to Ranelagh—and think upon it.
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