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Home  »  Complete Poetical Works by Alexander Pope  »  Answer to the Following Question of Mrs. Howe


Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alexander Pope (1688–1744). Complete Poetical Works. 1903.

Poems: 1718–27

Answer to the Following Question of Mrs. Howe

  • Mary Howe was appointed Maid of Honour to Queen Caroline, in 1720. ‘Lepell’ was another Maid of Honour, referred to in The Challenge.


    • WHAT is Prudery?

    ’T is a beldam,

    Seen with Wit and Beauty seldom.

    ’T is a fear that starts at shadows;

    ’T is (no, ’t is n’t) like Miss Meadows.

    ’T is a virgin hard of feature,

    Old, and void of all good-nature;

    Lean and fretful; would seem wise,

    Yet plays the fool before she dies.

    ’T is an ugly envious shrew,

    That rails at dear Lepell and you.


    Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD