Then bravely, fair dame,
Resume the old claim,
Which to your whole sex does belong;
And let men receive
From a second bright Eve
The knowledge of right and of wrong.

V

But if the first Eve
Hard doom did receive,
When only one apple had she,
What a punishment new
Shall be found out for you,
Who tasting, have robb'd the whole tree!

The acquaintance with Pope began shortly after Lady Mary came to town in
the autumn of 1714. It soon developed into friendship. "Lady Mary
Wortley," Jervas wrote to the poet, probably in 1715 or early in the
following year, "ordered me by express this morning, _cedente Gayo et
ridente Fortescuvio_, to send you a letter, or some other proper notice,
to come to her on Thursday about five, which I suppose she meant in the
evening."

There appeared in March, 1716, a volume bearing the title _Court Poems_,
the authorship being attributed to "A Lady of Quality," who, it soon
became known, was Lady Mary. The book was issued by Roberts, who had
received the three sets of verses contained in it from the notorious
piratical publisher, Edmund Curll. How the manuscript "fell" into the
hands of Curll it is not easy to imagine. Curll's account is that they
were found in a pocket-book taken up in Westminster Hall on the last day
of the trial of the Jacobite Lord Winton. Anyhow, however it came about,
the volume was published in 1716, when it was found to contain "The
Basset Table," "The Drawing Room," and "The Toilet."

Curll was an excellent publicity agent for his wares. He wrote, or
caused to be written, a most intriguing "advertisement" about the
authorship of the poems:

"Upon reading them over at St. James' Coffee House, they were attributed
by the general voice to be the productions of a lady of quality. When I
produced them at Button's, the poetical jury there brought in a
different verdict; and the foreman strenuously insisted upon it that Mr.
Gay was the man. Not content with these two decisions, I was resolved to
call in an umpire, and accordingly chose a gentleman of distinguished
merit, who lives not far from Chelsea. I sent him the papers, which he
returned next day, with this answer: "Sir, depend upon it these lines
could come from no other hand than the judicious translator of Homer."
Thus, having impartially given the sentiments of the Town, I hope I may
deserve thanks for the pains I have taken in endeavouring to find out
the a