[Page 47]
WRITTEN AT THE Request of a young Divine, TO BE SENT To his MISTRESS, with the Beggar's Opera.
1 In matters of important faith,
2 You rev'rence what the Parson saith;
3 With equal gravity peruse
4 The dictates of the Parson's Muse.
5 But, ere I tune my artless lays,
6 To sing your wit, and beauty's praise;
7 Let me in grateful notes renew
8 My thanks for obligations due.
9 And who indebted would not stand
10 For favours from so fair a hand?
11 Whose sprightly wit can always charm,
12 Whose beauty never fails to warm;
[Page 48]13 Virtue and innocence your guide,
14 Your sex's pattern, and their pride.
15 Adorn'd with all these charms, beware
16 How you exert your pow'r too far;
17 Mould into smiles each pretty feature,
18 And act the tyrant with good-nature.
19 For see! this Op'ra will reveal
20 How great a crime it is to steal!
21 What laws invented to keep under
22 People inclin'd to theft and plunder.
23 What pity 'tis we cannot boast
24 Of laws to regulate a Toast!
25 For if a wretch, who steals a horse,
26 Or civilly demands your purse,
27 Deserves poor Mackbeath's threaten'd fate;
28 And for example swings in state;
29 What shall we do with those, I pray,
30 Who steal poor people's Hearts away?
About this text
Title (in Source Edition): WRITTEN AT THE Request of a young Divine, TO BE SENT To his MISTRESS, with the Beggar's Opera.
Author: Mary Jones
Themes:
virtue; vice
Genres:
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Jones, Mary, d. 1778. Miscellanies in Prose and Verse. By Mary Jones. Oxford: Printed; and delivered by Mr. Dodsley in Pall-Mall, Mr. Clements in Oxford, and Mr. Frederick in Bath, MDCCL., 1750, pp. 47-48. vi,[1],xlv,[1],405p. (ESTC T115196) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Harding C 1723].)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by Mary Jones
- After the Small Pox. ()
- ANOTHER. ()
- ANSWER to a LETTER From the Hon. Miss LOVELACE. ()
- The Author's Silence excus'd. ()
- BIRTH-DAY To the same, on Richmond-Green, Soon after her being Maid of Honour to Queen CAROLINE. ()
- BIRTH-DAY. ()
- BIRTH-DAY. ()
- Consolatory Rhymes to Mrs. East, On the Death of her Canary Bird. ()
- ELEGY, On a favourite DOG, suppos'd to be poison'd. To Miss Molly Clayton. ()
- An EPISTLE to Lady BOWYER. ()
- EPISTLE, from Fern-Hill. To the same. ()
- EPITAPH On a Young NOBLEMAN, Kill'd in an ENGAGEMENT at SEA. ()
- EPITAPH On Brigadier General HILL. ()
- EXTEMPORE. ON A Drawing of the Countess of HERTFORD's, now Duchess of SOMERSET. ()
- The FALL. ()
- From New Lodge to Fern-Hill. In a very rainy Summer Season. ()
- [From the same Opera.] ()
- HEAVEN. To STELLA. ()
- The Heel-piece of her Shoe. (Stella requiring more rhymes, and the Author at a loss for a subject.) ()
- Her EPITAPH. (Which the Author hopes will live as long as she does.) ()
- HOLT WATERS. A Tale. Extracted from the Natural History of Berkshire. ()
- In Memory of the Right Hon. NEVIL Lord LOVELACE. ()
- In MEMORY of the Rt. Hon. Lord Aubrey Beauclerk, Who was slain at CARTHAGENA. ()
- The LASS of the HILL. Humbly inscribed to Her Grace the Dutchess of MARLBOROUGH. ()
- LIFE. (Occasion'd by some lines upon Death.) ()
- MATRIMONY. ()
- ODE To the Right Hon. Lady Henry Beauclerk. ()
- Of DESIRE. An Epistle to the Hon. Miss LOVELACE. ()
- On her Bed-Chamber's Chimney Being blown down at St. JAMES's. ()
- On her BIRTH-DAY, Being the 11th of December. ()
- On Her Birth-Day, December 11. ()
- On one of her Eyes. ()
- On the Reasonableness of Her coming to the Oxford Act. ()
- On the Right Honourable Lady Betty Bertie's Birth-Day. Inserted at the Request of Norris Bertie, Esq; ()
- PATIENCE. ()
- RHYMES to the Hon. Miss LOVELACE; now Lady HENRY BEAUCLERK. On her attending Miss CHARLOT CLAYTON In the SMALL-POX. ()
- Rhymes, to Miss Charlot Clayton. ()
- Soliloquy, on an empty Purse. ()
- [SONG from the Opera of ELPIDIA.] ()
- The SPIDER. ()
- The STORY of Jacob and Rachel attempted. To the same. ()
- SUBLIME STRAINS. On the Author's walking to visit Stella, in a windy morning, at Privy Garden. ()
- To Miss CLAYTON. Occasion'd by her breaking an appointment to visit the AUTHOR. ()
- To Mrs. CLAYTON, With a HARE. ()
- To the Prince of ORANGE, On his MARRIAGE. Written at the time of the OXFORD Verses. ()
- To the Same. On her desiring the Author to write a Satire upon her. ()
- To the same. On her parting with the first copy of Heaven, and sending for another. ()
- To the same. Written at Fern-Hill, while dinner was waiting for her. ()
- VERSES TO THE Memory of Miss CLAYTON. ()
- Written at her Apartment in Windsor-Castle. ()
- Written in an IVORY BOOK For the Honourable Miss HAMILTON; To be sent to her MAMMA. ()
- Written on some Ivory Leaves. ()