"HE COMES TOO NEAR WHO COMES TO BE DENIED."
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.")
Sin,—Are you not mistaken in crediting in the "News of the Week" in your issue of December 23rd, 1911, the quotation "He comes too near who comes to be denied," to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu I am under the impression that the couplet. "Let this fair maxim be thy virtue's guide;
He comes too near who comes to be denied"—
was written by Pope.—I am, Sir, Ste. V. C. D.
[We find that the line quoted by us comes originally from Sir Thomas Overbury ("A 'Wife," stanza 86) :— " In part to blame is she, Which hath without consent bin only tride ; He comes too neere, that comes to be &nide."
These lines were imitated by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in "The Lady's Resolve," With an alteration for the worse in the last of them :— " In part she is to blame that has been fried: He comes too late that comes to be denied."
—En. Spectator.3
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