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Or in the fane of the good goddess dress,
Where all the male kind are debarr'd access.
'Tis said that I (but 'tis a tale devis'd)
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A lady at her toilet once surpris'd,
Who starting, snatch'd in haste the tour she wore,
And in her hurry placed the hinder part before.
But on our foes fall ev'ry such disgrace,
Or barb'rous beauties of the Parthian race.
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Ungraceful 'tis to see without a horn
The lofty hart whom branches best adorn,
A leafless tree, or an unverdant mead,
And as ungraceful is a hairless head.
But think not these instructions are design'd
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For first-rate beauties of the finish'd kind;
Not to a Semele, or a Leda bright,Semele was daughter of Cadmus, and mother of Bacchus by Jupiter, whom having the curiosity to enjoy in all his celestial majesty, she was burnt by lightning. Leda was the daughter of Thestius and mother of Castor and Pollux, whom she had by Jupiter, who in the shape of a swan enjoyed her as she bathed in the river Eurotas.
Nor an Europa, these my rules I write;The Sidonian Europa, daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, whom Jupiter fell in love with, and ravished her in the shape of a bull.
Nor the fair HelenThe story of Paris and Helen, and the Trojan war, is so common that we shall say no more of it. do I teach, whose charms
Stirr'd up Atrides and all Greece to arms;
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Thee to regain well was that war begun,
And Paris well defended what he won:
