[132] See, in Pope's Miscellanies, the sprightly stanzas, beginning "Yes, I beheld th' Athenian Queen." They are addressed to Lady Fanny, who had presented the poet with a standish, and two pens, one of steel and one of gold. She was the fourth daughter of Earl Ferrers. After numbering more adorers in her train than any beauty of her time, she died unmarried, in 1778.--_Collins' Peerage, by Brydges._ [133] In beauty and wit, No mortal as yet, To question your empire has dared; But men of discerning Have thought that, in learning, To yield to a lady was hard. [134] "I have often wondered," says the gentle-spirited Cowper, "that the same poet who wrote the Dunciad should have written these lines,-- That mercy I to others show, That mercy show to me! Alas! for Pope, if the mercy he showed to others, was the measure of the mercy he received!"--_Cowper's Letters_, vol. iii. p. 195. [135] Mr. Bowles. [136] Erinna: her real name is not known. But she was a friend of Lady Suffolk, who wrote bad verses, and submitted them to Pope for correction. CHAPTER XVII. POETICAL OLD BACHELORS. There is a certain class of poets, not a very numerous one, whom I would call poetical old bachelors. They are such as enjoy a certain degree of fame and popularity themselves, without sharing their celebrity with any fair piece of excellence; but walk each on his solitary path to glory, wearing their lonely honours with more dignity than grace: for instance, Corneille, Racine, Boileau, the classical names of French poetry, were all poetical old bachelors. Racine--_le tendre Racine_--as he is called _par excellence_, is said never to have been in love in his life; nor has he left us a single verse in which any of his personal feelings can be traced. He was, however, the kind and faithful husband of a cold, bigoted woman, who was persuaded, and at length persuaded _him_, that he would be _grille_ in the other world, for writing heathen tragedies in this; and made it her boast that she had never read a single line of her husband's works! Peace be with her! And O, let her by whom the muse was scorn'd, Alive nor dead, be of the muse adorn'd!