Answer to the foregoing Lines. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont) Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
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Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T131163 K104099.004 Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. IV. London printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley 1763 [1st ed. 1758] pp. 75-78. 6v.: music; 8⁰.

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Answer to the foregoing Lines . By the late Lord HERVEY . TOO well these lines that fatal truth declare , Which long I've known , yet now I blush to hear . But say , what hopes thy fond ill-fated love , What can it hope , tho' mutual it shou'd prove ? This little form is fair in vain for you , In vain for me thy honest heart is true ; For wou'd'st thou fix dishonour on my name , And give me up to penitence and shame ; Or gild my ruin with the name of wife , And make me a poor virtuous wretch for life : Cou'd'st thou submit to wear the marriage chain , ( Too sure a cure for all thy present pain ) No saffron robe for us the godhead wears , His torch inverted , and his face in tears . Tho' ev'ry softer wish were amply crown'd , Love soon wou'd cease to smile where Fortune frown'd ; Then wou'd thy soul my fond consent deplore , And blame what it sollicited before ; Thy own exhausted would reproach my truth , And say I had undone thy blinded youth ; That I had damp'd Ambition's nobler flame , Eclips'd thy talents , and obscur'd thy fame ; To madrigals and odes that wit confin'd , That wou'd in senates or in courts have shin'd . Gloriously active in thy country's cause , Asserting freedom , and enacting laws . Or say , at best , that negatively kind You only mourn'd , and silently repin'd ; The jealous daemons in my own fond breast Wou'd all these thoughts incessantly suggest , And all that sense must feel , tho' pity had supprest . Yet added grief my apprehension fills ( If there can be addition to those ills ) When they shall cry , whose harsh reproof I dread , " 'Twas thy own deed , thy folly on thy head ! " Age knows not to allow for thoughtless youth , Nor pities tenderness , nor honours truth ; Holds it romantic to confess a heart , And say those virgins act a wiser a wiser part Who hospitals and bedlams wou'd explore To find the rich , and only dread the poor ; Who legal prostitutes , for int'rest sake , Clodios and Timons to their bosoms take , And , if avenging heav'n permit increase , People the world with folly and disease . Those , titles , deeds , and rent-rolls only wed , Whilst the best bidder mounts the venal bed , And the grave aunt and formal sire approve This nuptial sale , this auction of their love . But if regard to worth or sense be shown , That poor degenerate child her friends disown , Who dares to deviate by a virtuous choice From her great name's hereditary vice . These scenes my prudence ushers to my mind , Of all the storms and quicksands I must find , If I embark upon this summer sea , Where Flatt'ry smooths , and Pleasure gilds the way . Had our ill fate ne'er blown thy dang'rous flame Beyond the limits of a friend's cold name , I might upon that score thy heart receive , And with that guiltless name my own deceive ; That commerce now in vain you recommend , I dread the latent lover in the friend ; Of ignorance I want the poor excuse , And know , I both must take , or both refuse . Hear then the safe , the firm resolve I make , Ne'er to encourage one I must forsake . Whilst other maids a shameless path pursue , Neither to int'rest , nor to honour true , And proud to swell the triumph of their eyes , Exult in love from lovers they despise ; Their maxims all revers'd I mean to prove , And tho' I like the lover , quit the love .