rise a Palace erected by the Illustrious Duke of Buckingham Who will leave this wondrous Piece of Architecture to inform the future World of the Greatness and Delicacy of his Mind it being for its Situation its Prospects and its marvellous Contrivances one of the finest Villa's of the World at least were it finished as begun and wou'd sufficiently declare the Magnifick Soul of the Hero that caus'd it to be built and contriv'd all its Fineness And this makes up not the least Part of the beautiful Prospect from the Palace-Royal while on the other side lies spread a fruitful and delightful Park and Forest well stor'd with Deer and all that make the Prospect charming fine Walks Groves distant Vallies Downs and Hills and all that Nature cou'd invent to furnish out a quiet soft Retreat for the most Fair and most Charming of Queens and the most Heroick Good and Just of Kings And these Groves alone are fit and worthy to divert such Earthly Gods Nor can Heaven Nature or Humane Art contrive an Addition to this Earthly Paradise unless those great Inventors of the Age Sir Samuel Morland or Sir Robert Gorden cou'd by the power of Engines convey the Water so into the Park and Castle as to furnish it with delightful Fountains both useful and beautiful These are only wanting to render the Place All Perfection without Exception This Damon is a long Digression from the Business of my Heart but you know I am so in Love with that charming Court that when you gave me an Occasion by your being there now but to name the Place I cou'd not forbear transgressing a little in favour of its wond'rous Beauty and the rather because I wou'd in recounting it give you to understand how many fine Objects there are besides the Ladies that adorn it to employ your vacant Moments in and hope you will without my Instructions pass a great part of your idle Time in surveying these Prospects and give that Admiration you shou'd pay to living Beauty to those more venerable Monuments of everlasting Fame Neither need I Damon assign you your waiting Times your Honour Duty Love and Obedience will instruct you when to be near the Person of the King and I believe you will omit no part of that Devoir You ought to establish your Fortune and your Glory For I am not of the Mind of those Critical Lovers who believe it a very hard Matter to reconcile Love and Interest to adore a Mistress and serve a Master at the same time And I have heard those who on this Subject say Let a Man be never so careful in these double Duties 't is Ten to One but he loses his Fortune or his Mistress These are Errors that I condemn And I know that Love and Ambition are not incompatible but that a brave Man may preserve all his Duties to his Soveraign and his Passion and his Respect for his Mistress And this is my Notion of it Love and Ambition The Noble Lover who wou'd prove Vncommon in Address Let him Ambition joyn with Love With Glory Tenderness But let the Vertues so be mixt That when to Love he goes Ambition may not come betwixt Nor Love his Power oppose The vacant Hours from softer Sport Let him give up to Int'rest and the Court. 'T is Honour shall his Bus'ness be And Love his noblest Play Those two shou'd never disagree For both make either Gay Love without Honour were too mean For any gallant Heart And Honour singly but a Dream Where Love must have no Part. A Flame like this you cannot fear Where Glory claims an equal Share Such a Passion Damon can never make you quit any Part of your Duty to your Prince And the Monarch you serve is so gallant a Master that the Inclination you have to his Person obliges you to serve him as much as your Duty for Damon's Loyal Soul loves the Man and adores the Monarch for he is certainly all that compels both by a charming Force and Goodness from all Mankind The King Darling of Bellona's Care The second Deity of War Delight of Heaven and Joy of Earth Born for great and wonderous Things Destin'd at his Auspicious Birth T'out-do the num'rous Race of long-past Kings Best Representative of Heaven To whom its chiefest Attributes are given Great Pious Stedfast Just and Brave To Vengeance slow but swift to save Dispencing Mercy all abroad Soft and Forgiving as a God! Thou Saving Angel who preserv'st the Land From the Just Rage of the Avenging Hand Stopt the dire Plague that o'er the Earth was hurl'd And sheathing thy Almighty Sword Calm'd the wild Fears of a distracted World As Heaven first made it with a Sacred Word But I will stop the low Flight of my humble Muse who when she is upon the Wing on this Glorious Subject knows no Bounds And all the World has agreed to say so much of the Vertues and Wonders of this great Monarch that they have left me nothing new to say though indeed he every day gives us new Theams of his growing Greatness and we see nothing that equals him in our Age. Oh! How happy are we to obey his Laws for he is the greatest of Kings and the best of Men You will be very unjust Damon if you do not confess I have acquitted my self like a Maid of Honour of all the Obligations I owe you upon the Account of the Discretion I lost to you If it be not valuable enough I am generous enough to make it good And since I am so willing to be just you ought to esteem me and to make it your chiefest Care to preserve me yours for I believe I shall deserve it and wish you shou'd believe so too Remember me write to me and observe punctually all the Motions of my Watch The more you regard it the better you will like it and whatever you think of it at first sight 't is no ill Present The Invention is soft and gallant and Germany so celebrated for rare Watches can produce nothing to equal this Damon my Watch is just and new And all a Lover ought to do My Cupid faithfully will shew And every Hour he renders there Except L'heure du Bergere The End of the Watch. THE CASE FOR THE WATCH Damon to Iris. EXpect not O charming Iris that I shou'd chuse Words to thank you in Words that least Part of Love and least the Business of the Lover but will say all and every thing that a tender Heart can dictate to make an Acknowledgment for so dear and precious a Present as this of your charming Watch while all I can say will but too dully express my Sense of Gratitude my Joy and the Pleasure I receive in the mighty Favour I consess the Present too rich too gay and too magnificent for my Expectation and though my Love and Faith deserve it yet my humbler Hope never durst carry me to a Wish of so great a Bliss so great an Acknowledgment from the
had said too kind and too obliging before But where-ever you find that stop that Check in my Carriere of Love you will be sure to find something that follows it to favour you and deny that unwilling Imposition upon my Heart which lest you should mistake Love shews himself in Smiles again and flatters more agreeably disdaining the Tyranny of Honour and Rigid Custom that Imposition on our Sex and will in spight of me let you see he Reigns absolutely in my Soul The Reading my Billet-doux may detain you an Hour I have had Goodness enough to write you enough to entertain you so long at least and sometimes reproach my self for it but contrary to all my Scruples I find my self dispos'd to give you those frequent Marks of my Tenderness If yours be so great as you express it you ought to kiss my Letters a Thousand times you ought to read them with Attention and weigh every Word and value every Line A Lover may receive a Thousand indearing Words from a Mistress more easily than a Billet One says a great many kind Things of Course to a Lover which one is not willing to write or to give testify'd under one's Hand Sign'd and Seal'd But when once a Lover has brought his Mistress to that degree of Love he ought to assure himself she loves not at the common Rate Love's Witness Slight unpremeditated Words are born By every common Wind into the Air Carelesly utter'd dye as soon as born And in one Instant give both Hope and Fear Breathing all Contraries with the same Wind According to the Caprice of the Mind But Billets-doux are constant Witnesses Substantial Records to Eternity Just Evidences who the Truth confess On which the Lover safely may rely They 're serious Thoughts digested and resolv'd And last when Words are into Clouds devolv'd I will not doubt but you give Credit to all that is Kind in my Letters and I will believe you find a Satisfaction in the Entertainment they give you and that the Hour of Reading 'em is not dis-agreeable to you I cou'd wish your Pleasure might be Extream even to the Degree of suffering the Thought of my Absence not to diminish any Part of it And I cou'd wish too at the End of your Reading you wou'd sigh with Pleasure and say to your self The Transport O Iris While you thus can charm While at this Distance you can wound and warm My absent Torments I will bless and bear That give me such dear Proofs how kind you are Present the valu'd Store was only seen Now I am rifling the bright Mass within Every dear past and happy Day When Languishing at Iris Feet I lay When all my Prayers and all my Tears cou'd move No more than her Permission I should love Vain with my Glorious Destiny I thought beyond scarce any Heaven cou'd be But Charming Maid now I am taught That Absence has a thousand Joys to give On which the Lover present never thought That recompence the Hours we grieve Rather by Absence let me be undone Than forfeit all the Pleasures that has won With this little Rapture I wish you wou'd finish the Reading my Letters shut your Scrutore and quit your Cabinet for my Love leads to Eleven A-Clock 11 A-Clock The Hour to Write in IF my Watch did not inform you 't is now time to Write I believe Damon your Heart wou'd and tell you also that I should take it kindly if you wou'd employ a whole Hour that way and that you shou'd never lose an Occasion of Writing to me since you are assur'd of the Welcome I give your Letters Perhaps you will say an Hour is too much and that 't is not the Mode to write long Letters I grant you Damon when we write those indifferent ones of Gallantry in Course or necessary Compliment the handsom Comprising of which in the fewest Words renders 'em the most agreeable But in Love we have a Thousand foolish things to say that of themselves bear no great Sound but have a mighty Sense in Love for there is a peculiar Eloquence natural alone to a Lover and to be understood by no other Creature To those Words have a thousand Graces and Sweetnesses which to the Unconcerned appears Meanness and Easie Sense at the best But Damon you and I are none of those ill Judges of the Beauties of Love we can penetrate beyond the Vulgar and perceive the fine Soul in every Line through all the humble Dress of Phrase when possibly they who think they discern it best in Florid Language do not see it at all Love was not born or bred in Courts but Cottages and nurs'd in Groves and Shades smiles on the Plains and wantons in the Streams all Unador'd and Harmless Therefore Damon do not consult your Wit in this Affair but Love alone and speak all that He and Nature taught you and let the fine Things you learn in Schools alone Make use of those Flowers you have gather'd there when you converse with States-men and the Gown Let Iris possess your Heart in all its simple Innocence that 's the best Eloquence to her that loves and this is my Instruction to a Lover that would succeed in his Amours for I have a Heart very difficult to please and this is the nearest Way to it Advice to Lovers Lovers if you would gain a Heart Of Damon learn to win the Prize He 'll shew you all its tend ' rest Part And where its greatest Danger lies The Magazin of its Disdain Where Honour feebly guarded does remain If Present do but little say Enough the silent Lover speaks But wait and sigh and gaze all day Such Rhet'rick more than Language takes For Words the dullest way do move And utter'd more to shew your Wit than Love Let your Eyes tell her of your Heart Its Story is for Words too delicate Souls thus exchange and thus impart And all their Secrets can relate A Tear a broken Sigh She 'll understand Or the soft trembling Pressings of the Hand Or if your Pain must be in Words exprest Let 'em fall gently unassur'd and slow And where they fail your Looks may tell the rest Thus Damon spoke and I was conquer'd so The witty Talker has mistook his Art The modest Lover only charms the Heart Thus while all day you gazing sit And fear to speak and fear your Fate Tou more Advantages by Silence get Than the gay forward Touth with all his Prate Let him be silent here but when away Whatever Love can dictate let him say There let the Bashful Soul unvail And give a Loose to Love and Truth Let him improve the Amorous Tale With all the Force of Words and Fire of Touth There all and any thing let him express Too long he cannot write too much confess O Damon How well have you made me understand this soft Pleasure You know my Tenderness too well not to be sensible how I am charmed with your agreeable long Letters
am 3 A-Clock Visits to Friends DAmon my Watch is juster than you imagine it would not have you live Retired and Solitary but permits you to go and make Visits I am not one of those that believe Love and Friendship cannot find a Place in one and the same Heart And that Man wou'd be very unhappy who as soon as he had a Mistress shou'd be oblig'd to renounce the Society of his Friends I must confess I wou'd not that you shou'd have so much Concern for them as you have for me for I have heard a sort of a Proverb that says He cannot be very fervent in Love who is not a little cold in Friendship You are not ignorant that when Love establishes himself in a Heart he Reigns a Tyrant there and will not suffer even Friendship if it pretend to share his Empire there Cupid Love is a God whose charming Sway Both Heaven and Earth and Seas obey A Pow'r that will not mingled be With any dull Equality Since first from Heav'n which gave him Birth He rul'd the Empire of the Earth Jealous of Sov'raign Power he rules And will be Absolute in Souls I shou'd be very angry if you had any of those Friendships which one ought to desire in a Mistress only for many times it happens that you have Sentiments a little too tender for those Amiable Persons and many times Love and Friendship are so confounded together that one cannot easily discern one from t'other I have seen a Man flatter himself with an Opinion that he had but an Esteem for a Woman when by some Turn of Fortune in her Life as Marrying or Receiving the Addresses of Men he has found by Spight and Jealousies within that that was Love which he before took for Complaisance or Friendship Therefore have a Care for such Amities are dangerous Not but that a Lover may have Fair and Generous Female Friends whom he ought to visit and perhaps I shou'd esteem you less if I did not believe you were valued by such if I were perfectly assured they were Friends and not Lovers But have a care you hide not a Mistress under this Veil or that you gain not a Lover by this Pretence for you may begin with Friendship and end with Love and I shou'd be equally afflicted shou'd you give it or receive it And though you charge our Sex with all the Vanity yet I often find Nature to have given you as large a Portion of that common Crime which you wou'd shuffle off as asham'd to own and are as fond and vain of the Imagination of a Conquest as any Coquet of us all though at the same time you despise the Victim you think it adds a Trophy to your Fame And I have seen a Man dress and trick and adjust his Looks and Meen to make a Visit to a Woman he lov'd not nor ever cou'd love as for those he made to his Mistress and only for the Vanity of making a Conquest upon a Heart even unworthy of the little Pains he has taken about it And what is this but buying Vanity at the Expence of Sense and Ease and with Fatigue purchase the Name of a Conceited Fop besides that of a dishonest Man For he who takes pains to make himself Belov'd only to please his curious Humour though he should say nothing that tends to it more than by his Looks his Sighs and now and then breaking into Praises and Commendations of the Object by the Care he takes to appear well drest before her and in good Order he lies in his Looks he deceives with his Meen and Fashion and cheats with every Motion and every Grace he puts on He cozens when he sings or dances he dissembles when he sighs and every thing he does that wilfully gains upon her is Malice propense Baseness and Art below a Man of Sense or Vertue And yet these Arts these Coz'nages are the common Practices of the Town What 's this but that Damnable Vice of which they so reproach our Sex that of Jilting for Hearts And 't is in vain that my Lover after such foul Play shall think to appease me with saying He did it to try how easily he cou'd conquer and of how great Force his Charms were And why shou'd I be angry if all the Town lov'd him since he lov'd none but Iris Oh Foolish Pleasure How little Sense goes to the making of such a Happiness And how little Love must he have for one particular Person who wou'd wish to inspire it into all the World and yet himself pretend to be insensible But this Damon is rather what is but too much practised by your Sex than any Guilt I charge on you though Vanity be an Ingredient that Nature very seldom omits in the Composition of either Sex and you may be allow'd a Tincture of it at least And perhaps I am not wholly exempt from this Leaven in my Nature but accuse my self sometimes of finding a secret Joy of being Ador'd though I even hate my Worshipper But if any such Pleasure touch my Heart I find it at the same time blushing in my Cheeks with a guilty Shame which soon checks the petty Triumph and I have a Vertue at soberer Thoughts that I find surmounts my Weakness and Indiscretion and I hope Damon finds the same for should he have any of those Attachments I should have no Pity for him The Example Damon if you wou'd have me True Be you my President and Guide Example sooner we pursue Than the dull Dictates of our Pride Precepts of Vertue are too weak an Aim 'T is Demonstration that can best reclaim Shew me the Path you 'd have me go With such a Guide I cannot stray What you approve what e'er you do It is but just I bend that Way If true my Honour favours your Design If false Revenge is the Result of mine A Lover True a Maid Sincere Are to be priz'd as Things Divine 'T is Justice makes the Blessing dear Justice of Love without Design And She that Reigns not in a Heart alone Is never Safe or Easie on her Throne 4 A-Clock General Conversation IN this Visiting Hour many People will happen to meet at one and the same time together in a Place And as you make not Visits to Friends to be silent you ought to enter into Conversation with 'em but those Conversations ought to be General and of General Things for there is no necessity of making your Friend the Confident of your Amours 'T would infinitely displease me to hear you have reveal'd to them all that I have repos'd in you Though Secrets never so trivial yet since utter'd between Lovers they deserve to be priz'd at a higher Rate For what can shew a Heart more indifferent and indiscreet than to declare in any Fashion or with Mirth or Joy the Tender Things a Mistress says to a Lover and which possibly related at Second Hand bear not the same Sense because they have not the
for the Substance and that makes use of all the little Artifices of Subtilty and florid Talking to make the Out-side of the Argument appear fine and leave the In-side wholly mis-understood Who runs away with Words and never thinks of Sense But you O lovely Maid never make use of these affected Arts but without being too brisk or too severe too silent or too talkative you inspire in all your Hearers a Joy and a Respect Your Soul is an Enemy to that usual Vice of your Sex of using little Arguments against the Fair or by a Word or Jest make your self and Hearers pleasant at the Expence of the Fame of others Your Heart is an Enemy to all Passions but that of Love And this is one of your noble Maxims That every One ought to love in some Part of his Life And that in a Heart truly brave Love is without Folly That Wisdom is a Friend to Love and Love to perfect Wisdom Since these Maxims are your own do not O charming Iris resist that noble Passion And since Damon is the most tender of all your Lovers answer his Passion with a noble Ardour Your Prudence never falls in the Choice of your Friends and in chusing so well your Lover you will stand an eternal President to all unreasonable fair Ones O thou that dost excel in Wit and Youth Be still a President for Love and Truth Let the dull World say what it will A noble Flame 's unblameable Where a fine Sent'ment and soft Passion rules They scorn the Censure of the Fools Yield Iris then Oh yield to Love Redeem your dying Slave from Pain The World your Conduct must approve Your Prudence never acts in vain The Goodness and Complaisance of Iris. WHo but your Lovers fair Iris doubts but you are the most complaisant Person in the World And that with so much Sweetness you oblige all that you command in Yielding and as you gain the Heart of both Sexes with the Affability of your noble Temper so all are proud and vain of obliging you And Iris you may live assur'd that your Empire is eternally establisht by your Beauty and your Goodness Your Power is confirm'd and you grow in Strength every Minute Your Goodness gets you Friends and your Beauty Lovers This Goodness is not one of those whose Folly renders it easie to every Desirer but a pure Effect of the Generosity of your Soul such as Prudence alone manages according to the Merit of the Person to whom it is extended and those whom you esteem receive the sweet Marks of it and only your Lovers complain Yet even then you charm And though sometimes you can be a little disturb'd yet through your Anger your Goodness shines and you are but too much afraid that that may bear a false Interpretation For oftentimes Scandal makes that pass for an Effect of Love which is purely that of Complaisance Never had any Body more Tenderness sor their Friends than Iris Their Presence gives her Joy their Absence Trouble and when she cannot see 'em she finds no Pleasure like Speaking of 'em obligingly Friendship reigns in your Heart and Sincerity on your Tongue Your Friendship is so strong so constant and so tender that it charms pleases and satisfies All that are not your Adorers 'T is therefore Damon is excusable if he be not contented with your Noble Friendship alone for he is the most tender of that Number No! Give me all th'impatient Lover cries Without your Soul I cannot live Dull Friendship cannot mine suffice That dyes for all you have to give The Smiles the Vows the Heart must all be mine I cannot spare one Thought or Wish of thine I sigh I languish all the Day Each Minute ushers in my Groans To e'ery God in vain I pray In e'ery Grove repeat my Moans Still Iris Charms are all my Sorrows Theams They pain me Waking and they wrack in Dreams Return fair Iris Oh return Lest Sighing long your Slave destroys I wish I rave I faint I burn Restore me quickly all my Joys Your Mercy else will come too late Distance in Love more cruel is than Hate The Wit of Iris. YOu are deceiv'd in me fair Iris if you take me for one of those ordinary Glasses that represent the Beauty only of the Body I remark to you also the Beauties of the Soul And all about you declares yours the finest that ever was formed that you have a Wit that surprises and is always new 'T is none of those that loses its Lustre when one considers it the more we examine yours the more adorable we find it You say nothing that is not at once agreeable and solid 't is always quick and ready without Impertinence that little Vanity of the Fair who when they know they have Wit rarely manage it so as not to abound in Talking and think that all they say must please because luckily they sometimes chance to do so But Iris never speaks but 't is of use and gives a Pleasure to all that hears her She has the perfect Art of Penetrating even the most secret Thoughts How often have you known without being told all that has past in Damon's Heart For all great Wits are Prophets too Tell me Oh tell me Charming Prophetess For you alone can tell my Love's Success The Lines in my dejected Face I fear will lead you to no kind Result It is your own that you must trace Those of your Heart you must consult 'T is there my Fortune I must learn And all that Damon does concern I tell you that I love a Maid As bright as Heav'n of Angel-hue The softest Nature ever made Whom I with Sighs and Vows pursue Oh tell me charming Prophetess Shall I this lovely Maid possess A Thousand Rivals do obstruct my Way A Thousand Fears they do create They throng about her all the Day Whilst I at awful Distance wait Say Will the lovely Maid so fickle prove To give my Rivals Hope as well as Love She has a Thousand Charms of Wit With all the Beauty Heav'n e'er gave Oh! Let her not make use of it To flatter me into the Slave Oh! Tell me Truth to ease my Pain Say rather I shall dye by her Disdain The Modesty of Iris. I Perceive fair Iris you have a Mind to tell me I have entertain'd you too long with a Discourse on your self I know your Modesty makes this Declaration an Offence and you suffer me with Pain to unvail those Treasures you wou'd hide Your Modesty that so commendable a Vertue in the Fair and so peculiar to you is here a little too severe Did I flatter you you shou'd blush Did I seek by praising you to shew an Art of Speaking finely you might chide But O Iris I say nothing but such plain Truths as all the World can witness are so And so far I am from Flattery that I seek no Ornament of Words Why do you take such Care to conceal your Vertues They have too much Lustre not to be seen in spight of all your Modesty Your Wit your Youth and Reason oppose themselves against this dull Obstructer of our Happiness Abate O Iris a little of this Vertue since you have so many other to defend your self against the Attacks of your Adorers You your self have the least Opinion of your own Charms And being the only Person in the World that is not in love with 'em you hate to pass whole Hours before your Looking-glass and to pass your Time like most of the idle Fair in dressing and setting off those Beauties which need so little Art You more wise disdain to give those Hours to the Fatigue of Dressing which you know so well how to employ a Thousand Ways The Muses have blest you above your Sex and you know how to gain a Conquest with your Pen more absolutely than all the industrious Fair who trust to Dress and Equipage I have a Thousand things to tell you more but willingly resign my Place to Damon that faithful Lover he will speak more ardently than I For let a Glass use all its Force yet when it speaks its Best it speaks but coldly If my Glass O charming Iris have the good Fortune which I cou'd never entirely boast to be believ'd 't will serve at least to convince you I have not been so guilty of Flattery as I have a Thousand times been charg'd Since then my Passion is equal to your Beauty without Comparison or End believe O lovely Maid how I sigh in your Absence And be perswaded to lessen my Pain and restore me to my Joys for there is no Torment so great as the Absence of a Lover from his Mistress of which this is the Idea The Effects of Absence from what we love Thou one continu'd Sigh all over Pain Eternal Wish but Wish alas in vain Thou languishing impatient Hoper on A busie Toyler and yet still undone A breaking Glimpse of distant Day Inticing on and leading more astray Thou Joy in Prospect future Bliss extream But ne'er to be possest but in a Dream Thou fab'lous Goddess which the ravisht Boy In happy Slumbers proudly did enjoy But waking found an Airy Cloud he prest His Arms came empty to his panting Breast Thou Shade that only haunts the Soul by Night And when thou shou'dst inform thou fly'st the Sight Thou false Idea of the Thinking Brain That labours for the charming Form in vain Which if by Chance it catch thou' rt lost again FINIS