UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA EPISTLES PANEGYRICAL AND GALLANT. EPISTLE I. THE FEMINE AD. FEMALE GENIUS, ADDRESSED TO MR. RICHARDSON, AUTHOR OF PAMELA, CLARISSA, AND GRANDISON, BY JOHN DUNCOMBE, M. A. WRITTEN IN THE YEAR M DCC LI. SHALL lordly man, the theme of every lay, In kingly state on Pindus' summit sit, By Sallic law the female right deny, And view their genius with regardless eye? To sing the glories of a sister-choir! Rise, rise, bold swain, and to the listening grove Tell how adorn'd with every charm, they shine, In mind and person equally divine, Till man, no more to female merit blind, To these weak strains, O thou! the sex's friend And constant patron, Richardson! attend! Thou, who so oft with pleas'd, but anxious care, Hast watch'd the dawning genius of the fair, With wonted smiles wilt hear thy friend display The various graces of the female lay; Studious from folly's yoke their minds to free, And aid the generous cause espous'd by thee. Long o'er the world did Prejudice maintain, The great, the wise, the witty, and the brave; Be thine, to move majestic in the dance, To roll the eye, and aim the tender glance, Or touch the strings, and breathe the melting song; Content to emulate that airy throng, Who to the sun their painted plumes display, And gaily glitter on the hawthorn spray, Or wildly warble in the beechen grove, Careless of aught but music, joy, and love." Heavens! could such artful, slavish sounds beguile In loathsome pomp, where eastern tyrants reign; Our British nymphs with happier omens rove, Here, like the stars' mix'd radiance, they unite So when, in blended tints, with sweet surprise, Or spring, great Kneller! from a hand like thine, And, lost in wonder, know not which to praise; But singly view'd, each nymph delights us more, Disclosing graces unperceiv'd before. First let the muse with generous ardor try To chase the mist from dark Opinion's eye: Nor mean we here to blame that father's care, Who guards from learned wives his booby heir, Since oft that heir with prudence has been known, To dread a genius that transcends his own: The wise themselves should with discretion choose, Since letter'd nymphs their knowledge may abuse, And husbands oft experience, to their cost, The prudent housewife in the scholar lost: But those incur deserv'd contempt, who prize Their own high talents, and their sex despise, With haughty men each social bliss defeat, And sully all their learning with conceit : Of such the parent justly warns his son, And such the muse herself will bid him shun. |