29 MARCH 1879, Page 14

POPE'S "NARCISSA."

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")

SIR,—In the review of my "History of Our Own Times," the critic asks who was "poor Narcissa." She was the lady men- tioned by Pope in the closing lines of the first of his moral essays :—

" Odious ! in woollen! %would a saint provoke !' Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke : 'No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace Wrap my cold limbs and shade my lifeless face : One would not, sure, be frightful when one's dead : And—Betty--give this cheek a little red!"

—I am, Sir, &c., 48 Gower Street, W.C. JUSTIN MCCARTHY.