Averted half your parents' simple prayer;
And gave you beauty, but denied the pelf
That buys your sex a tyrant o'er itself.
The generous God who wit and gold refines,
And ripens spirits as he ripens mines,
Kept dross for duchesses, the world shall know it,
To you gave sense, good-humour, and a poet.
[142] A reference to Addison's tragedy of Cato.
[143] Young lawyers resident in the temple. See Spenser's Prothalamion.
[144] Martha Blount, a dear friend of the poet's.
[145] The fashionable promenade in Hyde Park.
[146] The "pool" in the game of ombre.