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.