WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1728.

"Burning with Love, tormented with Despair,
Unable to forget or ease his Care;
In vain each practis'd art _Alexis_ tries;
In vain to Books, to Wine or Women flies;
Each brings _Euthalia's_ Image to his Eyes.
In _Lock's_ or _Newton's_ Page her Learning glows;
_Dryden_ the Sweetness of her Numbers shews;
In all their various Excellence I find
The various Beauties of her perfect Mind.
How vain in Wine a short Relief I boast!
Each sparkling Glass recalls my charming Toast.
To Women then successless I repair,
Engage the Young, the Witty, and the Fair.
When _Sappho's_ Wit each envious Breast alarms,
And _Rosalinda_ looks ten thousand Charms;
In vain to them my restless Thoughts would run;
Like fairest Stars, they show the absent Sun."

_Love in Several Masks_ was produced, as we have seen, in February, 1728;
and it is a little surprising to find the young dramatist suddenly
appearing, four weeks later, as a University student. He was entered at
the University of Leyden, as "Litt. Stud," on the 16th of March 1728. The
reason of this sudden change from the green-room of Drury Lane to the
ancient Dutch university must be purely matter of conjecture, as is the
nature of Fielding's undergraduate studies, Murphy having lately been
proved to be notably erroneous as to this episode. [4] His name occurs as
staying, on his entry at Leyden, at the "Casteel von Antwerpen"; and