The Poetical Works of the Right Hon. George Granville, Lord Lansdowne/54

by George Granville

BELINDA.

Belinda’s pride ’s an arrant cheat,
A fooliſh artifice to blind;
Some honeſt glance, that ſcorns deceit,
Does ſtill reveal her native mind.

With look demure, and forc’d diſdain,5
She idly acts the ſaint;
We ſee thro’ this diſguiſe as plain
As we diſtinguiſh paint.

So have I ſeen grave fools deſign
With formal looks to paſs for wiſe;10
But Nature is a light will ſhine,
And break thro’ all diſguiſe.12