night, you thong to witness the debut, Of embryo actors to the drama new; Here then, our almost unfledg’d wings we try, Clip not our pinions, ere the birds can fly; Failing in this our first attempt to soar, Drooping, alas, we fall to rise no more.  Not one poor trembler only, fear betrays, Who hopes, yet almost dreads to meet your praise; But all our Dramatis Personae wait, In fond suspense, this crisis of their fate; No venal views our progress can retard, Your generous plaudits are our sole reward; For them each Hero all his power displays, Each timid Heroine shrinks before your gaze:  Surely these last will some protection find, None to the softer sex can prove unkind; Whilst youth and beauty form the female shield, The sternest critic to the fair must yield.  But should our feeble efforts nought avail, Should, after all, our best endeavours fail; Still let some mercy in your bosoms live, And if you can’t applaud, at least forgive.

* * * * *

TO MISS E.P.

1.

  Eliza! what fools are the Mussulman sect,
    Who to woman deny the soul’s future existence,
  Could they see thee, Eliza! they’d own their defect,
    And this doctrine would meet with a general resistance.

2.

  Had their Prophet possess’d but an atom of sense,
    He ne’er would have woman from Paradise driven,
  But instead of his Houris a flimsy pretence,
    With woman alone, he had peopled his Heaven.

3.

  But still to increase your calamities more,
    Not content with depriving your bodies of spirit,
  He allots but one husband to share amongst four,
    With souls you’d dispense—­but this last who could bear it.

4.

  His religion to please neither party is made,
    On husbands ’tis hard, to the wives most uncivil;
  But I can’t contradict what so oft has been said,
    “Though women are angels, yet wedlock’s the devil.”

5.

  This terrible truth, even Scripture has told,
    Ye Benedicks! hear me, and listen with rapture;
  If a glimpse of redemption you wish to behold,
    Of St. MATT.—­read the second and twentieth chapter.

6.

  ’Tis surely enough upon earth to be vex’d,
    With wives who eternal confusion are spreading;
  “But in Heaven” (so runs the Evangelist’s Text,)
    “We neither have giving in marriage, or wedding.”

7.

  From this we suppose, (as indeed well we may,)
    That should Saints after death, with their spouses put up more,
  And wives, as in life, aim at absolute sway,
    All Heaven would ring with the conjugal uproar.

8.

  Distraction and discord would follow in course,
    Nor MATTHEW, nor MARK, nor St. PAUL, can deny it,
  The only expedient is general divorce,
    To prevent universal disturbance and riot.