279 ON A CERTAIN LADY AT COURT
［Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk］
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 warped by passion, awed by rumour,
Not grave through pride, or 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:
When all the world conspires to praise her
The woman's deaf, and does not hear!