The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 17/Sylvia

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The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 17
 (c. 1710–1730)
by Jonathan Swift, edited by Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, John Boyle, Patrick Delany, John Hawkesworth, Deane Swift, William Bowyer, John Birch, and George Faulkner
Sylvia
Artemisia
→

While this work is included within The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift and is not attributed to anyone other than Jonathan Swift, it may have been written by another member of the Scriblerus Club. The club, which was founded in 1714, included Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, John Gay, John Arbuthnot, Henry St John, and Thomas Parnell.

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SYLVIA[1],

A FRAGMENT.

SYLVIA my heart in wondrous wise alarm'd,
Aw'd without sense, and without beauty charm'd:
But some odd graces and some flights she had,
Was just not ugly, and was just not mad:
Her tongue still ran on credit from her eyes,
More pert than witty, more a wit than wise:
Goodnature, she declar'd it, was her scorn,
Tho' 'twas by that alone she could be born:
Affronting all, yet fond of a good name;
A fool to pleasure, yet a slave to fame:
Now coy, and studious in no point to fall,
Now all agog for D——y at a ball:
Now deep in Taylor, and the Book of Martyrs,
Now drinking citron with his grace and Chartres.
Men, some to business, some to pleasure take;
But ev'ry woman's in her soul a rake.
Frail, fev'rish sex! their fit now chills, now burns:
Atheism and superstition rule by turns;
And the mere heathen in her carnal part
Is still a sad good Christian in her heart.


  1. ↑ Printed in the Characters of Women.
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