Corinna,[1] A Ballad

1711-12

This day (the year I dare not tell)
    Apollo play'd the midwife's part;
Into the world Corinna fell,
    And he endued her with his art.

But Cupid with a Satyr comes;
    Both softly to the cradle creep;
Both stroke her hands, and rub her gums,
    While the poor child lay fast asleep.

Then Cupid thus: "This little maid
    Of love shall always speak and write;"
"And I pronounce," the Satyr said,
    "The world shall feel her scratch and bite."

Her talent she display'd betimes;
    For in a few revolving moons,
She seem'd to laugh and squall in rhymes,
    And all her gestures were lampoons.

At six years old, the subtle jade
    Stole to the pantry-door, and found
The butler with my lady's maid:
    And you may swear the tale went round.

She made a song, how little miss
    Was kiss'd and slobber'd by a lad:
And how, when master went to p - ,
    Miss came, and peep'd at all he had.

At twelve, a wit and a coquette;
    Marries for love, half whore, half wife;
Cuckolds, elopes, and runs in debt;
    Turns authoress, and is Curll's for life.

Her common-place book all gallant is,
    Of scandal now a cornucopia;
She pours it out in Atalantis
    Or memoirs of the New Utopia.