Nympha Coventini quæ gloria sulferat Horti,
Cui vix vidisset Druria vestra parem,
Exul, inops, liquit proprios miseranda Penates,
Fortunæ extremas sustinuitque vices,
Nunc trahit infaustam tenebroso in carcere vitam,
Et levat insolito mollia membra toro.
Carlesis, ah! quantum, quantum mutaris ab illâ,
Carlese, quæ Veneris maxima cura fuit!
Æde tua risêre olim Charitesque Jocique,
Hic fuerant Paphiæ currus & arma Deæ;
Arsèrunt Cives, arsit Judæus Apella,
Et te Bellorum deperiêre chori.
Jam sordes, pallensque genas, & flaccida mammas,
Non oculi, quondam qui micuere, micant.
Heu! ubi formosæ referentes lilia malæ!
Labra ubi purpureis quæ rubuére rosis!
Te puer Idalius, te fastiditque juventus
Tam marcescentem, dissimilemque tui.
Siccine tam fidam curas Erycina ministram?
Hæccine militiæ praemia digna tuæ?
O Venus! ô nimium, nimiumque oblita tuarum!
Carlesis an meruit sortis acerba pati?
Quæ posthàc arisve tuis imponet honorem,
Ardebit posthàc vel tua castra sequi?
Omnigenas æquo circumspice lumine mœchas
Quas tua pellicibus Druria dives alit,
Quæ cellas habitant, vicos peditesve peragrant,
Aut quæ Wappinios incoluêre lares;
Invenienda fuit nusquam lascivior, artus
Mobilior, sacris vel magis apta tuis.
Carlesis ah nostris & flenda & fleta Camœnis!
Accedat vestris nulla medela malis?
Te vereor miseram fortuna tenaciter anget,
Nec veniet rebus mollior aura tuis.
Again in his Ode, "Ad Carolum B......."
-----------------relinquent
Carlesis quondam miseræ Penates
Douglasa & Johnson, duo pervicacis
Fulmina linguæ.
Again in a "Copy of Verses on Betty Close's coming to Town, &c."
Roberts will curse all whores—
From worn-out Careless to fair Kitty Walker.
Again in an Ode intituled "Meretrices Britannicæ."
Alma scortorum Druriæque custos
Orta Neptuno! tibi cura pulchræ;
Carlesis satis data, tu secundà
Carlesis regnes.
These lines will serve to enforce the moral of The Harlot's Progress, while they aim at the illustration of a single circumstance in Marriage à la Mode; where if this female is introduced at all, it seems to be in the character of an opulent procuress, either threatening the peer for having diseased her favourite girl, or preparing to revenge herself on the quack whose medicines had failed to eradicate his lordship's disorder. That heroine must have been notorious, who could at once engage the pencil of Hogarth and the pens of Loveling and Fielding, who in the sixth chapter of the first book of Amelia has the following story: "I happened in my youth to sit behind two ladies in a side-box at a play, where, in the balcony on the opposite side was placed the inimitable Betty Careless, in company with a young fellow of no very formal, or indeed sober, appearance. One of the ladies, I remember, said to the other—'Did you ever see any thing look so modest and so innocent as that girl over the way? What pity it is such a creature should be in the way of ruin, as I am afraid she is, by her being alone with that young fellow!' Now this lady was no bad physiognomist; for it was impossible to conceive a greater appearance of modesty, innocence, and simplicity, than what nature had displayed in the countenance of that girl; and yet, all appearances notwithstanding, I myself (remember, critic, it was in my youth) had a few mornings before seen that very identical picture of those engaging qualities in bed with a rake at a bagnio, smoaking tobacco, drinking punch, talking obscenity, and swearing and cursing with all the impudence and impiety of the lowest and most abandoned trull of a soldier." We may add, that one of the mad-men in the last plate of The Rake's Progress has likewise written "charming Betty Careless" on the rail of the stairs, and wears her portrait round his neck. Perhaps between the publication of The Rake's Progress and Marriage à la Mode, she sunk from a wanton into a bawd. Mrs. Heywood's Betsey Thoughtless was at first entitled Betsey Careless, but the name was afterwards changed for obvious reasons.
The London Daily Post, Nov. 28, 1735, contains the following advertisement from this notorious female:
"Mrs. Careless, from the Piazza in Covent-Garden, not being able to make an end of her affairs so soon as she expected, intends on Monday next to open a coffee-house in Prujean's-Court, in The Old Bailey, where she hopes her friends will favour her with their company, notwithstanding the ill situation of the place; since her misfortunes oblige her still to remain there.