| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | On a Certain Lady at Court | | By Alexander Pope (1688–1744) |
| | | I KNOW a thing that’s most uncommon; | |
| (Envy, be silent, and attend) | |
| I know a reasonable woman, | |
| Handsome and witty, yet a friend. | |
| |
| Not warp’d by passion, awed by rumour; | 5 |
| Not grave through pride, nor gay through folly; | |
| An equal mixture of good-humour | |
| And sensible soft melancholy. | |
| |
| ‘Has she no faults then (Envy says), Sir?’ | |
| Yes, she has one, I must aver: | 10 |
| When all the world conspires to praise her, | |
| The woman’s deaf, and does not hear. | | | | |
|
|
