The Poetical Works of the Right Hon. George Granville, Lord Lansdowne/10

by George Granville

LADY HYDE
SITTING AT
SIR GODFREY KNELLER’S
FOR HER PICTURE.

While Kneller, with inimitable art,
Attempts that face whoſe print ’s on ev’ry heart,
The poet, with a pencil leſs confin’d,
Shall paint her virtues, and deſcribe her mind,

Unlock the ſhrine, and to the ſight unfold5
The ſecret gems and all the inward gold.
Two only patterns do the Muſes name
Of perfect beauty, but of guilty fame:
A Venus and a Helen have been ſeen
Both perjur’d wives, the goddeſs and the queen;10
In this, the third, are reconcil’d at laſt
Thoſe jarring attributes of fair and chaſte;
With graces that attract, but not enſnare;
Divinely good, as ſhe ’s divinely fair;
With beauty not affected, vain, nor proud;15
With greatneſs eaſy, affable, and good.
Others, by guilty artifice, and arts
Of promis’d kindneſs, practiſe on our hearts,
With expectation blow the paſſion up;
She fans the fire without one gale of hope:20
Like the chaſte moon ſhe ſhines to all mankind,
But to Endymion is her love confin’d.
What cruel deſtiny on beauty waits,
When on one face depend ſo many fates!
Oblig’d by honour to relieve but one,
Unhappy men by thouſands are undone.26