University of Virginia Library

The Queen's Ball.

Reform, Great Queen, the Errors of your Youth,
And hear a thing you never heard, call'd Truth.
Poor private Balls content the Fairy Queen;
You must dance, and dance damnably to be seen.
Ill-natur'd little Goblin, and design'd
For nothing but to dance and vex Mankind.
What wiser thing could our great Monarch do,
Than root Ambition out by shewing you?
You can the most aspiring Thoughts pull down:
For who would have his Wife to have his Crown?
With a white Vizor you may cheat our Eyes;
You know a black one would be no Disguise.
See in her Mouth a sparkling Diamond shine,
The first good thing that e'er came from that Mine.
Heav'n some great Curse upon that Hand dispense,
That for th'Increase of Nonsense takes it thence.
How gracefully she moves, and strives to lug
A weight of Riches that may sink the Pug!
Such Fruit ne'er loaded so deform'd a Tree;
Her Jewels may be match'd, but never she.
If bold Acteon in the Waves had seen
In fair Diana's room our Puppet Queen,
He would have fled; and in his full career,
For greater haste, have wish'd himself a Deer;
Prefer'd the Bellies of his Dogs to hers,
And thought them the more cleanly Sepulchres.
What stupid Madman would not chuse to have
The settled Rest and Silence of a Grave,
Rather than such a Hell, which always burns,
And from whom Nature forbids all Returns?
Orm---d looks paler now than when he rid;
Your Visit frights him more than Tyburn did.
Fear of your Coming does not only make
Wor---r's wise Marquis, but his House too shake.
What will be next, unless you please to go
And dance among your Fellow-Fiends below?
There as upon the Stygian Lake you float,
You may o'erset and sink the laden Boat;
While we the Fun'ral Rites devoutly pay,
And dance for Joy that you are danc'd away.