[Page 88]
On BEAUTY.
A RIDDLE.
1 Resolve Me, Cloe, what is This:
2 Or forfeit me One precious Kiss.
3 'Tis the first Off-spring of the Graces;
4 Bears diff'rent Forms in diff'rent Places;
5 Acknowledg'd fine, where-e'er beheld;
6 Yet fancy'd finer, when conceal'd.
7 'Twas Flora's Wealth, and Circe's Charm;
8 Pandora's Box of Good and Harm:
9 'Twas Mars's Wish, Endymion's Dream;
10 Apelles' Draught, and Ovid's Theme.
11 This guided Theseus thro' the Maze;
12 And sent Him home with Life and Praise.
13 But This undid the Phrygian Boy;
14 And blew the Flames that ruin'd Troy.
[Page 89]15 This shew'd great Kindness to old Greece,
16 And help'd rich Jason to the Fleece.
17 This thro' the East just Vengeance hurl'd,
18 And lost poor Anthony the World.
19 Injur'd, tho' Lucrece found her Doom;
20 This banish'd Tyranny from Rome.
21 Appeas'd, tho' Lais gain'd her Hire;
22 This set Persepolis on Fire.
23 For This Alcides learn'd to Spin;
24 His Club laid down, and Lion's Skin.
25 For This Apollo deign'd to keep,
26 With servile Care, a Mortal's Sheep.
27 For This the Father of the Gods,
28 Content to leave His high Abodes,
29 In borrow'd Figures loosely ran,
30 Europa's Bull, and Leda's Swan.
31 For This He reassumes the Nod;
32 (While Semele commands the God)
33 Launces the Bolt, and shakes the Poles;
34 Tho' Momus laughs, and Juno scolds.
35 Here list'ning Cloe smil'd, and said;
36 Your Riddle is not hard to read:
37 I Guess it — Fair one, if You do;
38 Need I, alas! the Theme pursue?
39 For This, Thou see'st, for This I leave,
40 Whate'er the World thinks Wise or Grave,
41 Ambition, Business, Friendship, News,
42 My useful Books, and serious Muse.
[Page 90]43 For This I willingly decline
44 The Mirth of Feasts, and Joys of Wine;
45 And chuse to sit and talk with Thee,
46 (As Thy great Orders may decree)
47 Of Cocks and Bulls, of Flutes and Fiddles,
48 Of Idle Tales, and foolish Riddles.
Source edition
Prior, Matthew, 1664-1721. Poems on Several Occasions [English poems only]. London: Printed for JACOB TONSON at Shakespear's-Head over against Katharine-Street in the Strand, and JOHN BARBER upon Lambeth-Hill. MDCCXVIII., 1718, pp. 88-90. [42],506,[6]p.: ill.; 2°. (ESTC T075639) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [H 6.8 Art.].)
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 Matthew Prior
- ADRIANI MORIENTIS ad Animam Suam. IMITATED. ()
- ALMA: OR, THE PROGRESS OF THE MIND. In Three Cantos. ()
- Another Reasonable Affliction. ()
- ANOTHER [EPIGRAM]. ()
- ANOTHER [EPIGRAM]. ()
- ANOTHER [EPIGRAM]. ()
- ANOTHER [Reasonable Affliction]. ()
- ANOTHER [TRUE MAID]. ()
- Answer to CLOE Jealous, in the same Stile. The AUTHOR sick. ()
- A Better Answer. ()
- CANTATA. ()
- CARMEN SECULARE, For the Year 1700. TO THE KING. ()
- CELIA TO DAMON. ()
- THE CHAMELEON. ()
- CHARITY. A PARAPHRASE On the Thirteenth Chapter of the First Epistle TO THE CORINTHIANS. ()
- CLOE HUNTING. ()
- CLOE JEALOUS. ()
- A Critical Moment. ()
- CUPID and GANYMEDE. ()
- CUPID Mistaken. ()
- Democritus and Heraclitus. ()
- THE DESPAIRING SHEPHERD. ()
- The DOVE. ()
- A Dutch Proverb. ()
- An English BALLAD, On the Taking of NAMUR By the King of Great Britain, 1695. ()
- AN ENGLISH PADLOCK. ()
- Engraven on a COLUMN In the Church of Halstead in Essex, The spire of which, burnt down by Lightning, was rebuilt at the Expense of Mr. Samuel Fiske, 1717. ()
- EPIGRAM. ()
- An EPIGRAM. Written to the Duke de Noailles. ()
- EPILOGUE TO LUCIUS. ()
- EPILOGUE TO PHÆDRA. ()
- AN EPISTLE TO FLEETWOOD SHEPHARD, Esq ()
- An EPISTLE, Desiring the Queen's Picture. Written at Paris, 1714. But left unfinish'd by the sudden News of Her Majesty's Death. ()
- An EPITAPH. ()
- Erle ROBERT's MICE. In Chaucer's Stile. ()
- An Extempore Invitation TO THE EARL of OXFORD, Lord High Treasurer. 1712. ()
- THE FIRST HYMN OF CALLIMACHUS. TO JUPITER. ()
- The FLIES. ()
- A FLOWER, Painted by SIMON VARELST. ()
- For my own Tomb-stone. ()
- FOR THE NEW YEAR: TO THE SUN. Intended To be Sung before Their Majesties on New-Years Day. 1693/4. (); HYMN to the SUN. Set by Dr. PURCEL, And Sung before their Majesties On New-Years-Day, 1694. ()
- FOR The Plan of a Fountain, On which is The Effigies of the Queen on a Triumphal Arch, The Figure of the Duke of Marlborough, beneath, and The Chief Rivers of the World round the whole Work. ()
- Forma Bonum Fragile. ()
- From the Greek. ()
- The Garland. ()
- GUALTERUS DANISTONUS. Ad Amicos. IMITATED. ()
- HANS CARVEL. ()
- HENRY and EMMA, A POEM, Upon the Model of The Nut-brown Maid. To CLOE. ()
- Her Right Name. ()
- Horace Lib. I. Epist. IX. Septimius, Claudi, nimirum intelligit unus, Quanti me facias: &c. Imitated. To the Right Honorable Mr. HARLEY. ()
- IN IMITATION OF ANACREON. ()
- In the same [Chaucer's] Style. ()
- In the same [Chaucer's] Style. ()
- THE LADLE. ()
- The Lady who offers her Looking-Glass to Venus. ()
- THE LADY's LOOKING-GLASS. ()
- A LETTER TO Monsieur Boileau Despreaux; Occasion'd by the VICTORY at BLENHEIM, 1704. ()
- Lisetta's Reply. ()
- LOVE Disarm'd. ()
- A LOVER's ANGER. ()
- MERCURY and CUPID. ()
- MERRY ANDREW. ()
- AN ODE, &c. ()
- AN ODE, Humbly Inscrib'd to the QUEEN. ON THE Glorious Success OF Her MAJESTY's Arms, 1706. Written in Imitation of Spencer's Style. ()
- An ODE. ()
- An ODE. ()
- An ODE. ()
- An ODE. Inscribed to the Memory of the Honble Col. George Villiers, Drowned in the River Piava, in the Country of Friuli. 1703. In Imitation of Horace, Ode 28. Lib. 1. ()
- On Exodus iii. 14. I am that I am. An ODE. Written in 1688, as an Exercise at St. John's College, Cambridge. ()
- On the Same Person. ()
- On the same Subject. ()
- On the Same. ()
- PALLAS and VENUS. AN EPIGRAM. ()
- A Passage in the MORIÆ ENCOMIUM of Erasmus Imitated. ()
- PAULO PURGANTI AND His WIFE: An Honest, but a Simple Pair. ()
- PHYLLIS's AGE. ()
- Picture of Seneca dying in a Bath. By Jordain. At the Right Honorable the Earl of Exeter's at Burleigh-House. ()
- A PINDARIQUE ON His Majesties Birth-Day. By Mr. PRIOR Sung before Their Majesties at WHITEHALL, The Fourth of November 1690. A Prophecy by APOLLO. ()
- PROLOGUE, SPOKEN AT COURT before the QUEEN, On Her Majesty's Birth-Day, 1704. ()
- Protogenes and Apelles. ()
- The Question, to Lisetta. ()
- Quid sit futurum Cras fuge quærere. ()
- A Reasonable Affliction. ()
- THE SECOND HYMN OF CALLIMACHUS. TO APOLLO. ()
- SEEING THE DUKE of ORMOND's PICTURE, AT Sir GODFREY KNELLER's. ()
- A SIMILE. ()
- SOLOMON ON THE VANITY OF THE WORLD. A POEM In THREE BOOKS. ()
- A SONG. ()
- A SONG. ()
- The THIEF AND THE CORDELIER, A BALLAD. ()
- To a LADY: She refusing to continue a Dispute with me, and leaving me in the Argument. An ODE. ()
- To a Person who wrote Ill, and spake Worse against Me. ()
- TO A Young Gentleman in Love. A TALE. ()
- To CLOE Weeping. ()
- TO Dr. SHERLOCK, ON HIS PRACTICAL DISCOURSE Concerning Death. ()
- To Mr. HARLEY. Wounded by Guiscard. 1711. ()
- TO Mr. HOWARD: An ODE. ()
- TO My LORD BUCKHURST, Very Young, Playing with a CAT. ()
- TO THE AUTHOR OF THE Foregoing PASTORAL. ()
- TO THE COUNTESS of DORSET. Written in her Milton. ()
- TO THE COUNTESS of EXETER, Playing on the Lute. ()
- To the Honorable CHARLES MONTAGUE, Esq ()
- TO THE KING, AN ODE, &c. (); An ODE. Presented to the KING, on his Majesty's Arrival in Holland, AFTER The QUEEN's Death. 1695. ()
- TO THE LADY DURSLEY On the same Subject. ()
- TO THE Lady Elizabeth Harley, Since Marchioness of Carmarthen, On a Column of Her Drawing. ()
- A TRUE MAID. ()
- VENUS Mistaken. ()
- VERSES Humbly presented to the KING At His Arrival in HOLLAND: After the DISCOVERY Of the late horrid CONSPIRACY Against His most Sacred Person. (); Presented to the KING, AT HIS ARRIVAL in HOLLAND, AFTER THE Discovery of the Conspiracy 1696. ()
- Written at Paris, 1700. In the Beginning of ROBE's GEOGRAPHY. ()
- Written in an OVID. ()
- Written in Montaigne's Essays, Given to the Duke of Shrewsbury in France, after the Peace, 1713. ()
- Written in the Beginning of MEZERAY's History of FRANCE. ()
- Written in the Nouveaux Interests des Princes de l'Europe. ()