World Easie Idle and at Liberty This Village is like a Desart and all the Inhabitants live within themselves there is only one Gate by which we enter into it from the Isle of Love. This place is called Indifference and takes its Name from a Princess inhabiting there a Person very fair and well made but has a Grace and Meen of so little Wit and seems so inutile and so silly that it renders her even ridiculous As soon as I arrived there I called to my remembrance all those affronts and cheats of Love that Silvia had put upon me and which now served for my diversion and were agreeable thoughts to me so that I called myself Ten thousand Sots and Fools for resenting 'em and that I did not heartily despise 'em laugh at 'em and make my Pleasure with the false One as well as the rest for she dissembled well and for ought I knew 't was but dissembled Love she paid my Rivals But I forsooth was too nice a Coxcomb I cou'd not feed as others did and be contented with such Pleasures as she cou'd afford but I must ingross all and unreasonably believe a Woman of Youth and Wit had not a longer Race of Love to run than to my Arms alone Well 't is now confest I was a Fool nor could I hinder myself from saying a thousand times a day That Coxcomb can ne're be at ease While Beauty inslaves his Soul. 'T is Liberty only can please And he that 's Fetter'd is an Owl I found it very convenient and happy to disingage from Love and I have wondred a thousand times at the Follies that God has made me commit And though I somtimes thought on Silvia I thought her less charming and fair than she was before her fall and the Humour I now was in represented her no more meriting that Passion I once had for her and I fancied she had lost all those Graces for which once I lov'd her In fine I was so wholly recovered of my disease of Love for Silvia that I began to be uneasie for want of imploying my Addresses and a change from so violent a Passion to such a degree of coldness became insupportable to one of my Youth and natural Gayety insomuch that I was seized with a Dulness or Languishment and so great a sit of Melancholy as I had never felt the like and my Heart that was so accustomed to Love was so out of Humour that it had no Object or Business for thought that it lost all its Harmony and Wit it having nothing to excite it to Life and Motion passing from so vast a degree of tenderness to an unconcern equally extream I thought it rude ill-bred and idle to live so indifferent and insignificant a Life And walking perpetually by myself or with those of my own Sex that could not make my diversion I sung all day this following Song to a Hum-drum Tune to myself Not to sigh and to be tender Not to talk and prattle Love Is a Life no good can render And insipidly does move Unconcern do's Life destroy Which without Love can know no Joy. Life without adoring Beauty Will be useless all the day Love's a part of Human Duty And 't is Pleasure to obey In vain the Gods did Life bestow Where kinder Love has nought to do What is Life but soft desires And that Soul that is not made To entertain what Love inspires Oh thou dull immortal Shade thou 'dst better part with Flesh and Blood Than be where Life 's not understood These were my notions of Life and I found myself altogether useless in the World without Love methought I had nothing to animate me to Gallant things without Love or Women I had no use of Wit or Youth without the fair and yet I did not wish wholly to ingage myself neither a second time having been so ill-treated before by Love But I found there were ways to entertain one's self agreeably enough without dying or venturing the breaking of a heart for the matter That there were Beauties to be obtained without the hazard of hanging or drowning one's self I never had tryed but I found it natural enough to my Humour and Constitution to flatter and dissemble swear and lye I viewed my self in my Glass and found myself very well recovered from the Ruins my first Amour had made and believed myself as fit for Conquest as any Sir Fopling or Sir Courtly Nice of 'em all To this sine Person and good Meen and Shape as I thought I added handsom Dressing the thing that takes the Heart infinitely above all your other Parts and thus set out a snare for vain Beauty I every day went out of the City of Indifference to see what new Adventures I could meet withal One day I incountred a Woman who at first sight appeared very agreeable she had an Air easie free and Galliard such as fails not to take at first view This was Coquettre who the very first time she saw me Addrest herself to me with very great Complisance and good Humour and invited me to her Apartment where she assured me I should not fail to be entertained very agreeably and at the same time pulling out of her Pocket a Paper she shewed me these Words written Let Love no more your Heart inspire Thô Beauty every hour you see Pass no farther than desire If you 'll truly happy be Every day fresh Objects view And for all have Complisance Search all places still for new And to all make some Advance For where Wit and Youth agree There 's no Life like Gallantry Laura's Heart you may receive And to morrow Iulia's prise Take what young Diana gives Pity Lucia when she dies Portia's Face you must admire And to Clorin's Shape submit Phillis Dancing gives you Fire Celia's Softness Clara's Wit. Thus all at once you may persue 'T is too little to Love two The powerful smiling God of Hearts So much tenderness imparts You must upon his Altars lay A thousand Offerings every day And so soft is kind desire Oh! so Charming is the Fire That if nice Adraste scorns Gentler Ariadne burns Still Another keep in play If One refuse to give you Joy. Cease therefore to disturb your Hours For having two desires A Heart can manage two Amours And burn with several Fires The day has hours enough in store To visit two or half a score I gave her thanks for her good Counsel and found I needed not much persuasion to follow Coquettre to a City that bears her Name and I saw over the Gate of the City at my Entrance these Verses writ in Gold Letters The God of Love beholding every day Slaves from his Empire to depart away For Hearts that have been once with Love fatigu'd A second time are ne'r again intrigu'd No second Beauty e'r can move The Soul to that degree of Love. This City built that we might still obey Thô we refus'd his Arbitrary Sway 'T is here we find a
was not hated by her and that she had not a heart wholly insensible so that I never quitted her till I had gain'd so much upon her to accompany me to Permission where for some time we pass our days very pleasantly and having so good fortune with Bellinda I had now a great desire to try my power over Bellimante and where indeed contrary to my expectation I was not so happy But she went from me to Denial and I was for that hour oblig'd to return again to Bellinda it was some time I searcht her in vain but at last found her at a little Village extreamly agreeable There are very few Inhabitants but those that are live in perpetual union yet do not talk much for they understand one another with half words A sign of the Hand the Head or the Eye a glance or smile is sufficient to declare a great part of the Inclination It is here where the Lover takes all freedoms without controul and says and dos all that soft Love can permit And every day they take and give a secret Entertainment speaking a particular Language which every body does not understand and none but Lovers can reply too in effect there are as many Languages as persons The Governess of this Village is very charming to those that are acquainted with her and as disagreeable to those that are not she is a person of a great deal of Wit and knows all things She has a thousand ways to make herself understood and comprehends all in a moment that you wou'd or can say to her In this place to divert we make a thousand pretty sorts of Entertainments and we have abundance of Artifices which signify nothing and yet they serve to make life Agreeable and Pleasant 'T was thus I liv'd at Intelligence when I understood that Bellimante was retir'd to Cruelty This news afflicted me extreamly but I was not now of a humour to swell the Floods with my tears or increase the rude winds with my ruder sighs to tear my hair and beat my Innocent breast as I us'd in my first Amount to do However I was so far concern'd that I made it my business not to lose this insensible fair one but making her a visit in spight of her retreat I reproacht her with cruelty Why fair Maid are you uneasy When a slave designs to please you When he at your feet is lying Sighing languishing and dying Why do you preserve your charms Only for offensive Armes What the Lover wou'd possess You maintain but to oppress Cease fair Maid your cruel sway And let your Lover dy a nobler way Who the Devil wou'd not believe me as much in love now as I ever was with Silvia My heart had learn'd then all the soft Language of Love which now it cou'd prattle as naturally as its Mother Tongue and sighing and dying was as ready for my mouth as when it came from my very heart and cost me nothing to speak Love being as cheaply made now by me as a barter for a Horse or a Coach and with as little concern almost It pleas'd me while I was speaking and while I believ'd I was gaining the vanity and pleasure of a conquest over an unvanquisht heart However I cou'd yet perceive no Grist come to my Mill no heart to my Lure young as it was it had a cunning that was harder to deceive than all Bellinda's Wit And seeing her persist still in her Resolution I left her with a heart whose pride more than Passion resented the obduratness of this Maid I went as well compos'd however as I cou'd to Intelligence and found even some pleasure in the cruelty and charming resistance of Bellimante since I propos'd to myself an infinite happyness in softning a heart so averse to Love and which I knew I shou'd compel to yeild some time or other with very little pains and force Oh! what Pleasure 't is to find A coy heart melt by slow degrees When to yeilding t is inclin'd Yet her fear a ruin sees When her tears do kindly flow And her sighs do come and goe Oh! how charming tis to meet Soft resistance from the fair When her pride and wishes meet And by turns increase her care Oh! how charming 'tis to know She wou'd yeild but can't tell how Oh! how pretty is her scorn When confus'd 'twixt Love and Shame Still refusing though she burn The soft pressures of my Flame Her Pride in her denyal lies And mine is in my Victories I feigned nevertheless abundance of Grief to find her-still persist in her rigorous Cruelty and I made her believe that all my absent hours I abandoned myself to sorrows and despairs though Love knows I parted with all those things in Silia's Arms. But whatever I pretend to appear at Cruelty and before Bellimante at Intelligence I was all Galliard and never in better Humour in my Life than when I went to visit Bellinda I put on the Gravity of a Lover and beheld her with a Solemn Languishing Look In fine I accustomed myself to counterfeit my Humour whenever I found it convenient for my Advantage Tears Vows and Sighs cost me nothing and I knew all the Arts to jilt for Love and could act the dying Lover whenever it made for my Satisfaction He that wou'd precious time improve And husband well his hours Let him complain and dye for Love And spare no Sighs or Showers To second which let Vows and Oaths Be ready at your will And fittest times and seasons chuse To shew your cozening skill In fine after I had sufficiently acted the Languishing Lover for the accomplishment of all my Wishes I thought it time to change the Scene and without having recourse to Pity I followed all the Counsels of my Cupid who told me that in stead of dying and whining at her Feet and damning myself to obtain her Grace I should affect a Coldness and an Unconcern for Lycidus assure yourself said he there is nothing a Woman will not do rather than lose her Lover either from Vanity or Inclination I thanked Love for his kind Advice and to persue it the next day I drest myself in all the Gayety imaginable My Eyes my Air my Language were all changed and thus fortified with all the put-on indifference in the World I made Bellimante a Visit and after a thousand things all cold and unconcerned far from Love or my former Softness I cried laughing to her Cease cease that vain and useless scorn Or save it for the Slaves that dye I in your Flames no longer burn No more the whining Fool you fly But all your Cruelty desie My Heart your Empire now disdains And Frown or Smile all 's one to me The Slave has broke his Servial Chains And spight of all your Pride is free From the Tyrannick Slavery Be kind or cruel every day Your Eyes may wear what dress they please 'T will not affect me either way How my fond Heart has found its Peace
thousand Beauties Attractions Graces and Agreements all which endeavor'd a new but in vain to engage me I past by 'em all without any regard only sight as I beheld 'em with the remembrance how once the meanest of those Beauties wou'd have charmd me I lookt back on all those happy shades who had been conscious of my softest pleasures and a thousand times I sighing bid 'em farwel the Rivers Springs and Fountains had my wishes that they might still be true and favor Lovers as they had a thousand times done me These dear rememberance you may believe stay'd some time with me yet I wou'd not for an Empire have return'd to 'em again nor have liv'd that life over a new I had so long and with so much pleasure persu'd After this I took a Vessel and put off from that shore where thô I had met with many Misfortunes I had also receiv'd a thousand joys While it was in view I found myself toucht with some regret but being fail'd out of sight of it I sigh'd no more but bid adieu to fond Love for ever All you Beauties and Attractions That make so many hearts submit Soft inspirers of affection Mistresses of dear bought wit. To whose Empire we resigning Prove our homage justly due After all our sighs and whining Dear delight we bid adieu After all your fond Caprices All your Arts to seem Divine Painting Patching and your Dresses Easy votaryes to incline After all your couzening Billets Sighs and tears but all untrue To your Gilting tricks and quillets I for ever bid adieu A Miscellany OF POEMS To a Fair Lady sent with a Miscellany of Poems FAir Charmer see how various Poets meet To lay their several Labours at your Feet Whose different Fancies different Passions move The grinning Satyr and the smiling Love And sure there 's somthing that you may approve The Volume like a Landskip will appear Some parts less Beautiful some Bright and Clear But where Defects i' th Picture you shall spy Be pleas'd their want of Lustre to supply And gild it with a Beam from your bright Eye To Urania in Mourning SEE where she sits in mourning Robes aray'd Like Night's bright Goddess shining thro' a shade What Charms has this fair Mourner that can make The sable dress of Grief such Beauty take Dull Custom has prescrib'd this sad Attire When Sorrow reigns and Beauty wou'd retire But Sorrows self when by Vrania worn Looks fair and charming as the rising Morn Thus when descending Angels would disguise Their bright celestial Form from human Eyes Their Splendor thro' the borrow'd shape will shine And we perceive an Excellence Divine But while this lovely mourning Nymph we view We sigh weep languish and turn Mourners too Yet with this difference that while others weep For Friends expir'd and lodg'd in Death's calm Sleep A restless waking Passion makes our Grief That ne're can dye nor ever hope Relief Yet would Vrania from her Sorrows spare To my Distress one balmy pitying Tear That Charity wou'd make me bless my Pain And never wish to be at Ease again SONG AS wretched vain and indiscreet Those Matches I deplore Whose Bartering Friends in Counsel meet To huddle in a Wedding Sheet Some miserable Pair that never met before Poor Love of no account must be Tho' ne're so fixt and true No Merit but in Gold they see So Portion and Estate agree No matter what the Bride and Bridegroom do curst may all covetous Husbands be That Wed with such Design And Curst they are For while they ply Their Wealth some Lover by the By Reaps the true Bliss and digs the richer Mine On Beauty A PINDARIC SAY all ye Judging wise Who into Nature's Secrets dive And can her unknown Reasons give From whence great Beauties wond'rous power do's rise Whose Universal Tyranny Subdues the Tributary Would and brings In equal Fetters Slaves and Kings To languish in a soft Captivity It triumphs o're the Strong and Proud It calms the Stormy and the Loud The stubborn and the frozen Cold dissolves Perverts the wise Mans best Resolves The Genius of the Wits and Braves imploys In the important Subject of its Praise The Fool and Coward too inspires This with prevailing Wit that with Heroick Fires Iudah's wise King when he Had studied Nature o're and o're Surveying all her hidden Store Even from the Reed to the triumphant Tree Thro' all the spacious Universal round Soft Beauty was the only good he found Worth setting his select Affections on 'T was there he bounded his Delights His chearful Days and charming Nights On that most perfect Bliss beneath the Sun. Beauty alone inspir'd him with the Theme Of the bright Virgins of Hierusalem From that alone his Divine Raptures sprung Beauty his Business was and Love was all his Song When Alexander had his Conquest hurl'd O're all the yielding Tributary World And found no more that could afford New Business for his Glory and his Sword 'T is said He wept but when the Persian Maid With greater Charms the Hero had survey'd He found the toil of Conquering her much more Than all his worthless Worlds before He sigh'd and bow'd lookt pale and red by turns To serve her was his whole delight Thinks it as brave while thus he burns Under soft Venus as rough Mars to fight And Sieges lays of Sighs and Tears And tells soft Stories of his Heart Of restless Nights and Days of Cares Of Pains and Flames and wild Despairs Of bleeding Wounds and Smart And found that no Fatigues of War Were half so great as vanquishing the Fair But oh no Victory cou'd so Charming prove As that of the dear Maids confessing Love David whose harmonious String Cou'd Saul's infernal Tempest calm And by the Musicks strange mysterious Balm Appeas'd the Frenzies of a raging King Yet stranger Charms in the fair Hittite found Which kindled to a softer Fire His cold and languishing Desire And strugling Virtue in strong Fetters bound That pow'rful Aid was useless now When yet more pow'rful Beauty was in view He found no Musick cou'd appease The troubled Spirits her fair Eyes did raise The Musick of her Voice did but inspire A more tormenting Fire So great a Sympathy There is between soft Love and Harmony In the wild darkness of Idolatry Did Clodovaeus see 'T was more than vulgar Light That made the fair Clotilda look so bright When from her conquering Eyes Surpriz'd he saw such sparkling Flames arise And therefore wisht to know The Spring from whence such streams of Light did flow Why then shou'd I Ye learned Stoicks tell me why Think it unworthy of my Name To own a Generous and a Noble Flame Since Love's Almighty Pow'r To whom the Young the Great and Brave The Wise the Politick and Grave Have bow'd to as their Conqueror What reasonable Man desires to pass For one more great and good than David was Or who for Wisdom ever hop'd Renown Like wise like sacred Solomon Or who in glorious
her guilty scorn Too long her falsness my fond love has born My freedom and my Wit at length I claim Be gon base Passion dy unworthy flame My life 's sole torment and my honours stain Quit this tir'd heart and end my lingring pain I have resolv'd to be myself once more Long banisht reason to her rights restore And throw off Loves Tyrannick sway that still incroching powr My growing shame I see at last thô late And my past follies both despise and hate Hold out my heart nor let her Beauti 's move Be constant in thy Anger as thy Love. Thy present pains shall give thee future ease As bitter Potions cure thô they displease 'T is for this end for freedom more assur'd I have so long such shameful pains endur'd Like a scorn'd slave before her door I lay And proud repulses suffer'd every day Without complayning banisht from her sight On the cold ground I spent the tedious night While some glad Rival in her Arms did lye Glutted with Love and surfeited with Joy. Thence have I seen the tir'd Adulterer come Dragging a weak exhausted Carkass home And yet this curse a blessing I esteem Compar'd to that of being seen by him By him descry'd attending in the street May my Foes onely such disgraces meet What toyl and time has this false Woman cost How much of unreturning Youth has for her sake bin lost How long did I where fancy led or fate Unthank'd unminded on her Rambles waite Her steps her looks were still by mine persu'd And watch'd by me she charm'd the gazing crowd My diligent Love and over-fond desire Has bin the means to kindle Others fire What need I mention every little wrong Or curse the softness of her soothing Tongue The private love-signs that in publick pass Between her and some common staring Ass The Coqutes Arts her faithless heart allows Or tax her with a thousand broken vowes I hear she 's sick and with wild haste I run Officious haste and visit Importune Entring my Rival on her bed I see The Politique sickness onely was to me With this and more oft has my Love been try'd Some other Coxcomb let her now provide To bear her jilting and maintayn her pride My batter'd Bark has reach'd the Port at last Nor fears again the billows it has past Cease your soft Oaths and that still ready showre Those once dear words have lost their wonted Power In vain you flatter I am now no more That easy fool you found me heretofore Anger and Love a doubtful fight maintain Each strive by turns my staggering heart to gain But what can long against Loves Power contend My Love I fear will Conquer in the end I 'll do what e're I can to hate you still And if I Love know 't is against my will. So the Bull hates the Plowmans Yoke to wear Yet what he hates his stubborn neck must bear Her Manners oft my indignation raise But streight her Beauty the short storm always Her Life I loath her Person I adore Much I condemn her but I Love her more Both with her and without her I 'm in pain And rage to lose what I shou'd blush to gain Uncertain yet at what my wishes aim Loth to abandon Love or part with Fame That Angel-Form ill suits a Soul all sin Ah! be less fair without or more within When those soft smiles my yeilding powers invade In vain I call her Vices to my Ayd Thô now disdaining the disguise of Art In my esteem her conduct claims no part Her Face a natural right has to my heart No crimes so black are to deform her Eyes Those Clouds must scatter when these Suns shall rise Enough fair Conquerour the day 's your own See at your feet Lov 's Uanquish'd Rebel thrown By those dear Joys Joys dear thô they are past When in the kindest links of Love we held each other fast By the injur'd Gods your false Oaths did profane By all those Beauties that inspire disdain By that Lov'd face from the whole sex elect To which I all my Vows and Pray'rs direct And equal with a Power divine respect By every feature of a form so fine And by those Eyes that charm and dazle mine Spare from new triumph cherish without Art This ever faithful this too tender heart A heart that was respectful while it strove But yeilding is all blind impetuous Love. Live as you please torment me as you will Still are you fair and I must Love you still Think only if with just and clement Reign A willing subject you wou'd chuse to gain Or drag a Conquer'd Vassal in a chain But to what ever conduct you incline Do suffer be what my worst fears divine You are you ought you must you shall be Mine Reason for ever the vain strife give o're Thy cruel wisdom I can bear no more Let me indulge this one soft Passions rule Curb vexing Sence and be a happy fool With ful-spread Sayls the tempting gale obey That down Loves-current drives me fast away On the Death of Melantha WEep all you Virgins meet o're this sad Hearse And you great Goddess of Immortal Verse Come here a while and Mourn Weave not with Rosy Crowns your hair Let tears be all the Gems you wear And shed them plentifully on this Urne For 't is Melantha 't is that lovely fair That lys beneath this weeping Mâ—ble here But wou'd you know why she has took her flight Into the Bosom of eternal night Before her Beauties scarce had shew'd their light Hark and lament her fate As the young God of Love one day Sate on a Rock at play And wantonly let fly his darts Among the Nymphs and Shepherds hearts Melantha by unhappy chance came by Love jesting cry'd I 'le make her prove The Godhead she contemn'd of Love. In scorn she bad him strike and did his shaft defy While the boy slightly threw a dart To wound but not destroy her Heart But greedy Death fond of this Beauteous prey Caught the swift Arrow as it flew And added to 't his own strength too Whch made so deep a wound that as she lay In silent sighs she breath'd her Soul away Then all the little Gods begun to weep Oh let your sighs with theirs due measure keep For fair Melantha she is dead Her Beauteous Soul to Deaths dark Empire 's fled Flora the Bounteous Goddess of the Plains Who in fresh Groves and sweetest Meadows raigns Hearing the fair Melantha dead Brought all her Odorous wealth to spread Over the grave where she was laid Then straight the Infant Spring began to fade And all the Fields where she did keep And fold he bleating Flocks of Sheep Their influence lost with her fair Eyes decayed For fair Melantha by whose cruel pride So many sad despairing Swains had dy'd Felt Love at last but death she rather chose Than own she Lov'd or the hid flame disclose Speak Muses for you hold immortal state With Gods and know
their loss soon found their Good supream An Airy notion and a pleasing Dream For happiness is no where to be found But flys the searcher like enchanted ground Are we then masters or the slaves of things Poor wretched vassalls or terrestial Kings Left to our reason and by that betray'd We lose a present bliss to catch a shade Unstasify'd with Beauteous natures store The universal Monarch Man is only poor To Alexis in Answer to his Poem against Fruition ODE by Mrs. B. AH hapless sex who bear no charms But what like lightning flash and are no more False fires sent down for baneful harms Fires which the fleeting Lover feebly warms And given like past Beboches o're Like Songs that please thô bad when new But learn'd by heart neglected grew In vain did Heav'n adorn the shape and face With Beautyes which by Angels forms it drew In vain the mind with brighter Glories Grace While all our joys are stinted to the space Of one betraying enterview With one surrender to the eager will We 're short-liv'd nothing or a real ill Since Man with that inconstancy was born To love the absent and the present scorn Why do we deck why do we dress For such a short-liv'd happiness Why do we put Attraction on Since either way t is we must be undon They fly if Honour take our part Our Virtue drives 'em o're the field We lose 'em by too much desert And Oh! they fly us if we yeild Ye Gods is there no charm in all the fair To fix this wild this faithless wanderer Man our great business and our aim For whom we spread our fruitless snares No sooner kindles the designing flame But to the next bright object bears The Trophies of his conquest and our shame Inconstancy's the good supream The rest is airy Notion empty Dream Then heedless Nymph be rul'd by me If e're your Swain the blise desire Think like Alexis he may be Whose wisht Possession damps his fire The roving youth in every shade Has left some sighing and abandon'd Maid For t is a fatal lesson he has learn'd After fruition ne're to be concern'd To Alexis On his saying I lov'd a Man that talk'd much by Mrs. B. ALexis since you 'l have it so I grant I am impertinent And till this moment did not know Thrô all my life what 't was I ment Your kind opinion was th' unflattering Glass In which my mind sound how deform'd it was In your clear sense which knows no art I saw the error of my Soul And all the feebless of my heart With one reflection you controul Kind as a God and gently you chastise By what you hate you teach me to be wise Impertinence my sexes shame Which has so long my life persu'd You with such modesty reclaim As all the Woman has subdu'd To so divine a power what must I owe That renders me so like the perfect you That conversable thing I hate Already with a just disdain Who Prid 's himself upon his prate And is of word that Nonsense vain When in your few appears such excellence They have reproacht and charm'd me into sense For ever may I listning sit Thô but each hour a word be born I wou'd attend the coming wit And bless what can so well inform Let the dull World henceforth to words be damn'd I 'm into nobler sense than talking sham'd A PASTORAL Pindarick On the Marriage of the Right Honourable the Earle of Dorset and Midlesex to the Lady Mary Compton A DIALOGUE Between Damon and Aminta By Mrs. Behn Aminta WHither young Damon whither in such hast Swift as the Winds you sweep the Grove The Amorous God of Day scarce hy'd so fast After his flying Love Damon Aminta view my Face and thence survey My very Soul and all its mighty joy A joy too great to be conceal'd And without speaking is reveal'd For this eternal Holyday A Day to place i' th' Shepherds Kalendar To stand the glory of the circling year Let it's blest date on every Bark be set And every Echo its dear name repeat Let 'em tell all the neighbouring Woods and Plains That Lysidus the Beauty of the Swains Our darling youth our wonder and our Pride Is blest with fair Clemena for a Bride Oh happy Pair Let all the Groves rejoyce And gladness fill each heart and every voyce Aminta Clemena that bright maid for whom our Shepherds pine For whom so many weeping Eyes decline For whom the Echos all complain For whom with sigh and falling tears The Lover in his soft despairs Disturbs the Peaceful Rivers gliding stream The bright Clemena who has been so long The destinie of hearts and yet so young She that has robb'd so many of content Yet is herself so Sweet so Innocent She that as many hearts invade◠As charming Lysidus has conquer'd maids Oh tell me Damon is the lovely fair Become the dear reward of all the Shepherds care Has Lysidus that prize of Glory won For whom so many sighing Swains must be undon Damon Yes it was destin'd from Eternity They only shou'd each other's be Hail lovely pair whom every God design'd In your first great Creation shou'd be joyn'd Aminta Oh Damon this is vain Philosophie 'T is chance and not Divinity That guides Loves Partial Darts And we in vain the Boy implore To make them Love whom we Adore And all the other powers take little care of hearts The very Soule 's by intr'est sway'd And nobler passion now by fortune is betray'd By sad experience this I know And sigh Alas in vain because t is true Damon Too often and too fatally we find Portion and Joynture charm the mind Large Flocks and Herds and spacious Plains Becoms the merit of the Swains But here thô both did equally abound 'T was youth 't was wit was Beauty gave the equal wound Their Soules were one before they mortal being found Iove when he layd his awful Thunder by And all his softest Attributes put on When Heav'n was Gay and the vast Glittering Sky With Deities all wondering and attentive shone The God his Luckyest heat to try Form'd their great Soules of one Immortal Ray He thought and form'd as first he did the World But with this difference That from Chaos came These from a beam which from his God-head hurl'd Kindl'd into an everlasting flame He smiling saw the mighty work was good While all the lesser Gods around him gazing stood He saw the shining Model bright and Great But oh they were not yet compleat For not one God but did the flames inspire With sparks of their Divinest fire Diana took the lovely Female Soul And did its fiercer Atoms cool Softn'd the flame and plac'd a Chrystal Ice About the sacred Paradise Bath'd it all or'e in Virgin Tears Mixt with the fragrant Dew the Rose receives Into the bosom of her untoucht leaves And dry'd it with the breath of Vestal Prayers Iuno did great Majestick thought inspire And Pallas toucht it
Lysanders Eyes Yes yes tormenter I have found thee now And found to whom thou dost thy being owe 'T is thou the blushes dost impart For thee this languishment I wear 'T is thou that tremblest in my heart When the dear Shepherd do's appear I faint I dye with pleasing pain My words intruding sighing break When e're I touch the charming swain When e're I gaze when e're I speak Thy conscious fire is mingl'd with my love As in the sanctify'd abodes Misguided worshippers approve The mixing Idol with their Gods. In vain alas in vain I strive With errors which my soul do please and vex For superstition will survive Purer Religion to perplex Oh! tell me you Philosophers in love That can its burning feaverish fits controul By what strange Arts you cure the soul And the fierce Calenture remove Tell me yee fair ones that exchange desire How t is you hid the kindling fire Oh! wou'd you but confess the truth It is not real virtue makes you nice But when you do resist the pressing youth 'T is want of dear desire to thaw the Virgin Ico And while your young adorers lye All languishing and hopeless at your feet Raising new Trophies to your chastity Oh tell me how you do remain discreet How you suppress the rising sighs And the soft yeilding soul that wishes in your Eyes While to th' admiring crow'd you nice are found Some dear some secret youth that gives the wound Informs you all your virtu's but a cheat And Honour but a false disguise Your modesty a necessary bait To gain the dull repute of being wise Deceive the foolish World deceive it on And veil your passions in your pride But now I 've found your feebles by my own From me the needful fraud you cannot hide Thô t is a mighty power must move The soul to this degree of love And thô with virtue I the World perplex Lysander finds the weekness of my sex So Helen while from Theseus arms she fled To charming Paris yeilds her heart and Bed. SONG By a person of Quality AH cruel Beauty cou'd you prove More tender or less fair You neither wou'd provoke my Love Nor cause me to despair But your dissembling charming Eyes My easy hope beguiles And thô a Rock beneath'em lys The tempting surface smiles To what your sex on ours impose My humble Love comply'd And when my secret I disclos'd Thought modesty deny'd Yes sure said I her yeilding heart Pertakes of my desire But nicer Honour feigns this part To hide the rising fire Against your mind my sute I told And slighted vows renew'd Yet you insensibly were cold And I but vainly woo'd Then for return a scorn prepare Or lay that frown aside Affected coyness I can bear But hate insulting Pride SONG By a person of Quality UNder the Beams of Celia's Eyes See the fair Shepherd panting lys For whom all other Beauty dys Him thô she burn with equal fire She suffers at her feet t' expire Preferring glory to desire Dye then oh dye unhappy swain And leave her to lament in vain The cruel sports of her disdain You fall a Publique sacrifice Since she will weep away those Eyes By whose each look a lover dyes SONG I. by the same hand WHen sable night had conquer'd day And Beauteous Cynthia rose As I in tears reflecting lay On Cloe's faithless vows The God of Love appear'd to me To heal my wounded heart The Influencing Deity With pleasure arm'd each Dart. Fond man said he here end thy wo Till she my power and Iustice know The foolish sex shall all do so 2. And for thy ease believe no bliss Is perfect without pain The fairest Summer hurtful is Without some showrs of Rain The Ioys of Heaven who wou'd prise If men too cheaply bought the dearest part of mortal Ioys Most charming is when sought And thô with dross true Love they pay Those that know finest metals say No Gold will coyn without allay 3. But that the generous Lover may Not always sigh in vain The cruel Nymph that kills to day To morrow shall be slain The little God no sooner spoke But from my sight he flew And I that groan'd with Cloe's yoak Found Loves revenge was true Her proud hard heart too late did turn With fiercer flames than mine did burn While I as much began to scorn A Pastoral Song on the late King. WHy Phillis in this mournful dress Ah! why so full of Tears These sighs my dearest Shepherdess Suit not thy tender years Thy sheep lye panting on the plain Not one of them will feed Thy Lambs in peircing crys complain Whence whence does this proceed Ah Strephon we are all undone With trembling voyce she said The best of Men to Heaven is gone The great Amintor's dead What will become of thou and I Of these dear Flocks that moan They will be Stole and we shall dye Now wise Amintor's gone Best blessings rest upon his Soul The Loyal Swain reply'd Yet let this thought thy greif controul Pan does for us provide And thô the brave Amintor's gone Alexis does remain Since he is left we 're not undone Nor ought we to complain In him our loss is made amends He 'll us in safty keep From whigish Swains he 'll us defend From the French Fox our Sheep Then cheer thy Flocks and weep no more But stop that pious tide With Voice and Pipe lets Pan adore For sending such a guide The Departure by Damon Nouem 78. I Never knew what 't was to mourn Ere the too hasty glass had run Which measur'd every thought of mine Still as I offer'd at Loves shrine My heart a bleeding Sacrifice The conquest of Aminta's Eyes Those shining objects of my Love How did the searching passion rove O're all my soul its quickning fire Melted my heart with soft desire While my Aminta blest this plain I never felt another pain Than Love which always do's belong To the gentle Amorous throng But now Oh! wonder not great God of Love If the strong passion cease to move Within my soul Aminta's gone And left me here to sigh alone How vain do's the vast Globe appear No sweetning pleasures can live here While bright Aminta is not neer No warbling notes which fill the Wood Nor murmurs which the streams afford Can raise in me that harmony Which ravisht with such extasie When the fair she approacht each charm Guarded my humble soul from harm Nothing can now transport or cheer A tortur'd soul that 's fill'd with fear Since lov'd Aminta quits the place Which she with Innocence did Grace Then will I wander to some Grove Where I 'le lament my absent Love And with cold Winter still complain Till the lost spring return again To Amintas Upon reading the Lives of some of the Romans by Mrs. B. HAd'st thou Amintas liv'd in that great age When hardly Beauty was to nature known What numbers to thy side might'st thou engage And conquer'd Kingdoms by thy looks alone That
smiling sing softly in my Ear this Song for she is very Galliard Cease to defend your Amorous Heart Against a double flame Where two may claim an equal Part Without reproach or shame 'T is Love that makes Life's happiness And he that best wou'd live By Love alone must Life caress And all his Darts receive Coquettre is a Person that endeavours to please and humour every Body but of all those who every day fill her Train she caresses none with that Address and Assiduity as she did me for I was a new Face to whom she is ever most obliging and entertaining However notwithstanding the Advice of Coquettre I fancied this young Charmer had ingaged all my Soul and while I gazed on her Beauty I thought on Bellinda no more but believed I should wholly devote myself to Bellimante whose Eyes alone seemed capable to inflame me I took my leave with Sighs and went home extream well pleas'd with this days Adventure All this Night I slept as well as if no tenderness had toucht my Heart and though I Lov'd infinitely it gave me no disturbance the next morning a thousand pleasant things Bellinda had said to me came into my mind and gave me a new inclination to entertain myself with that witty Beauty and dressing myself in haste with the desire I had to be with her I went again the morning being very inviting to the Garden where before I had seen her and was so lucky to encounter her I found her blush at my approach which I counted a good Omen of my future happiness she received me with all the Gayety and Joy good liking and Wit could inspire Nor was I backward on my part but addrest myself to her with all imaginable respect and as much Love in my Eyes as I was able to put on which I found she saw with Pleasure she had not entertained me half an hour but I was so absolutely charmed that I forgot there was a Bellaminte in the World. Thus for several days I lived every day visiting both these attracting Beauties and at Night when I was retired was not able to inform myself which I liked best Both were equally beloved and it was now that methought I began to tast of true Joy I found myself in Love without any sort of inquietude when I was Melancholy I went to visit Bellinda and she with her Gayety and Wit would inspire me with good Humour If I were over-prest with good Company and too much Conversation and Noise I would visit Bellimante who by a certain softness in her discourse and a natural Languishment in her Eyes and Manners charmed and calmed me to a reposed tranquillity so that to make me fortunate in Love I could not have fixed my desires better I had too little Love to be wretched and enough to make my happiness and Pleasure After I had past my time a while thus in Coquettre this little Love who was my Guide carried me to Declaration I thought then upon the time of my first Arrival on the Isle of Love and how Respect that awful hinderer of our Pleasure prevented me from going to this Place I urg'd this very argument Respect then made me to my Coquet Love now who for answer return'd me nothing but loud Laughter and when I ask this reason he replyd that Respect did not forbid any to go to Declaration but those only who knew not how to behave themselves well there and who were not so well fashion'd and bred as they ought to be who go thither And that it was a mere cheat in Respect to conduct people to Love by Discretion that being much the farthest way about and under favor to Monsieur Respect he is but a troublesome companion to a Lover who designs to cure those wounds the fair has given him and if he have no better counsellor he may languish all his life without revealing the secret of his soul to the object belov'd and so never find redress But this Sir Formal Respect says Love is a very great favorite of the Lady's who is always in fee with them as a Jilt with a Justice who manages their Fools just as they wou'd have 'em for it is the most agreeable thing in the World to them and what the most feeds their vanity to see at their feet a thousand Lovers sigh burn and languish the fair are never angry to find themselves belov'd nor ever weary of being Ador'd I was extreamly pleas'd at this frank Humour of my little Love who told me this and without much scruple or consideration to Respect I follow'd him towards Declaration and in my way he gave me this Advice When you Love or speak of it Make no serious matter on 't 'T will make but subject for her wit And gain her scorn in lieu of Grant. Sneeking whinning dull Grimasses Pale the Appetite they 'd move Only Boys and formal Asses Thus are Ridicul'd by Love. While you make a Mystery Of your Love and awful flame Young and tender Hearts will fly Frighted at the very name Always brisk and gayly court Make Love your pleasure not your pain 'T is by wanton play and sport Heedless Virgins you will gain By this time we were arriv'd to Declaration which is a very little Village since it is only for Passengers to pass thrô and none live there the Country is very Perilous and those that make a false step run a great risque of falling from some Precipice Round about rises a very great mist and people have much ado to know each other of these mists there are two sorts The one on the side of Denial the other on that of Permission the first is very disagreeable and draws a very ill consequence with it the other directs you to a place of intire divertisment but I had so good a guide that the entrance gave me no trouble at all When I came to the Village I found Bellimante and Bellinda to whom by turns I told all my heart and discover'd all its passion or its tenderness which was to me much better When to the charming Bellinda I came With my heart full of Love and desire To gain my wisht end I talkt of a flame Of sighing and dying and sire I swore to her charms that my soul did submit And the slave was undone by the force of her Wit. To fair Bellimante the same tale I told And I vow'd and I swore her fair Eyes No Heart-Ravisht mortal cou'd ever behold But he panting and languishing Dys And while I was vowing the ardor of youth Made myself even believe what I swore was all truth I confess to you my dear Lysander that it was a great while before I cou'd make myself be believ'd by Bellinda or gain any credit upon her heart she had a great deal of Wit and cou'd see farther into the designs of her Lovers than those who had not so much or had had so many vows pay'd them I perceiv'd well enough I
taught me I cou'd with ease manage abundance of intregues at one and the same time But as I said this did not suffice nor cou'd the fires that some more willing Beauties allay'd hinder me from wishing and burning and persuing those two fair persons with an Ardor that had no appearance of decay from any others goodness to me but in my daily visits to 'em I eternally solicited them to suffer me to accompany them to that charming place call'd Favors which is a very Beautiful Castle rais'd in a Vally I confest to you that my Coquet Cupid advis'd me not to go for fear of attaching myself too much to a place so extreamly agreeable the Mountains that inviron this Castle are very high and full of hollow Rocks which made the scituation very sullen The Castle itself was delicately built and surrounded with tall Trees so thick that one cou'd hardly see the Edifice nor cou'd the Sun-bearns dart throw the gloomy shade and eternal Night seem'd to sit there in awful state and pleasure For the more obscure this place is and secret from all Eyes the better and more acceptable it is to all that enter there and thô this Vally have many inhabitants it appears to have none at all because they love solitude and banishing all Publick society content themselves only to be but two in company together if there be more they are receiv'd with a very ill welcome for a third Person in this place wou'd destroy the Pleasure and the harmony The Inhabitants of this Castle never shew themselves but to those that are very importune and then not every day the Ladies that command there are many Sisters all of the name of the Castle and all very fair and still one more fair than the other and when you visit'em you see 'em not all at once but by degrees and the last you behold is the fairest and by the pleasure you have in seeing one you desire to see 'em all For there are no limits to be given to desire and as they are never seen by any body altogether it happens very often that you see but one and you must have address and great assiduity abstinence and good fortune to obtain one of these Favors but the last will cost you much more trouble than all the rest put together so very fair so very nice and coy she is But when once obtain'd she brings you to the Palace of intire Pleasure which is neighbouring to the Castle of Favors but I who wou'd very fain at once have brought to this delicate place both Bellinda and Bellimante found myself extream uneasy because as I said only two can be well entertain'd at a time I found it against my humour and against the advice of Love to abandon all and retire with one only for in decency and good manners those who go to this Castle of Favors are oblig'd to continue there some time and I found I shou'd be extreamly shagrin after a little while with one alone but both were obstinate and wou'd not suffer a third and having been so very importune with both I was asham'd to repent and recant all those things I had said to persuade them to go thô in my heart I was very ill satisfi'd I had not persu'd the counsel Love had given me not to go to Favors at all he soreseeing an inconveniencie in such a retreat which I with all my young desires about me and fond of novelty câ—u'd not so well as he diseern however I had propos'd it with some ardency and wou'd not go back but resov'd to make the best advantage of my voyage and wou'd not declare my regreet till I cou'd no longer hinder it So that Bellimante yeilding to my Implorings consented next day to go with me to this retreat of Favors Accordingly the next morning we set out for this amiable place where we arrived and finding myself all alone without interruption or fear with this very fair Creature I advanced to a thousand Freedoms which she with some resistance permitted me to take I was all Joy and Transport at every advance and still the nearer I approached to the last Favour the more blest I imagined myself I grew more resolved and she more feeble and at last I was the Victor and Bellimante the Victim I remained some days with her and one would have imagined I should have been intirely happy in this place with one so young and fair But behold the fickleness of Youth and Man's nature Thô my Heart were full of Passion And I found the yeilding Maid Give a loose to inclination While her Love her Flame betray'd Yet thô all she did impart Pain and Anguish prest my Heart Thô I found her all o'r Charming Fond and sighing in my Arms Yet my Heart a-new was warming For Bellinda's unknown Charms Thought if Beauty pleas'd me so What must Wit and Beauty too And though next day I found myself an hundred times more in Love with Bellimante than before yet unless I could possess Bellinda too I thought myself miserable Yet every time she charmed me a-new I was upon the point of renouncing eternally Bellinda and sacrificing her to my Passion for Bellimante But I did not remain long in that Humour but every day grew more and more unresolved in that point and as Bellimante grew more fond I grew more cold not but I had learnt to say so many kind and soft things in the time of my real Passion with Silvia that I found it easie to speak every day such endearing Words as gave her no doubt of my Heart nor was willing she should see to the bottom of it where she would most certainly have found Bellinda yet with such a mixture of Passion for herself that it would have been hard to have distinguished which had had the ascendant there only my desire at present was the most considerable for the fair Object I had not yet possest and whom I long'd to Vanquish perhaps as much for the Glory as the Pleasure though my Heart did not at this moment think so After some time that I had lived here with Bellimante I made some pretext to leave her for a little while she who was extreamly charmed with that Solitude resolved to wait there my return so that I had some pain in contriving how I should bring Bellinda to the same Castle as I wished to do but it had in it many Mansions and Apartments and as I said so retired from one another that it was difficult to come at any time together or to meet This consideration made me resolved and very pressing with Bellinda to go to this place assuring her of such Diversion as she never met with in any other part of the World She loved and was not long in persuading and I had the Glory to conduct her in spight of all her Wit and Gayety to this retreat of Solitude with me where unperceived I obliged her to render me all that Love
deceive I found thee willing to believe And with the treacherous shade conspire To let into thyself a dangerous fire Ah foolish wanderer say what woudst thou do If thou shou'dst find at second view That all thou fanciest now were true If thou shou'dst find by day those charms Which thus observ'd threaten undoing harms If thou shou'dst find that awful meen Not the effects of first Address Nor of my conversation disesteem But noble native fullenness If thou shouldst find that soft good natur'd voyce Unused to insolence and noise Still thus adorn'd with modesty And his minds virtues with his wit agree Tell me thou forward lavish fool What reason cou'd thy fate controul Or save the ruin of thy Soul Cease then to languish for the coming day That may direct his wandering steps that way When I again shall the loud form survey DIALOGVE Thirsis and Clarona Thirsts HAil Clarona clear as Morning In its brightest gay attire Love and Beauties cheif adorning Mistress of all soft desire Hail Clarona Joy of Swains Charmer of the Fields and Plaines Clarona Thirsis often have you crown'd me In the Shady Cyprus Grove And your flowing sighs did wound me When you wept and talk't of Love. And when for kisses you have strove Thô I cha'ft and thô I cry'd With much ado you were deny'd But Thirsis if you will be true I can Love as well as you Thô once I said I wou'd deceive ye Yet my Thirsis dont believe me Thirsis Oh Clarona Joy attend thee All the Gods and powers defend thee Sweeter are thy words than Song Melting Musick 's in thy Tongue Chorus Now we 'll chant we 'll live and love And welcome in the Spring Our Pleasures we will still improve In every Thicket Shade and Grove With Love and Musicks trembling string SONG BEneath a cool shade where some here have been Convenient for Lovers most pleasant and green Alexis and Cloris lay pressing soft Flowers With Kissing and Loving they past the dull hours She close in his Arms with her head on his brest And fainting with pleasure you guess at the rest She blusht and she sigh'd with a Ioy beyond measure All ravisht with Billing and dying with Pleasure But while thus in Transports extended they lay A Hansom young Shepherd was passing that way She saw him and cry'd oh Alexis betray'd Oh what have you done you have ruin'd a Maid But the Shepherd being modest discreetly past by And fest 'em again at their leisure to dy And often they Languish'd with Ioy beyond measure All Ravisht with Billing and dying with Pleasure Strephon to his three Mistresses SEE fair Astrea what your charms can do To make a Lover and a Poet two Where yours and Gloriana's Powerful Beams With Beautiful Eliza are the Theams The heaviest fancy to a Height must soar So easie 't is to write when we adore Each like a Planet singly and apart Can thro' the Soul your piercing fancy's dart How strangely then must you affect the mind When thus in Glorious constellation joyn'd Ah! too like Planets each her powr employs Bright while she wounds and shines while she destroys Each is the dazling object of desire But oh alike creates a hopeless fire Astrea alwaies Airy Witty Gay As Nymphs that by Diana's fountain play Against th' assaults of Love her heart maintains And ne're regards the sighs of dying Swains In vain I gaze on Gloriana's Eyes Already made another Shepherds prize One truely happy Swain injoys intire Those precious charms for which the rest Expire And thô Eliza's free I 'm wretched still For what availes the powr without the will. How strange a fate ha's Love for me decreed For one I burn and for other Bleed Dy for the third and yet with none succeed To the Fam'd Antonia on her Dwelling THou Glory of the Age best of thy kind An Angels fabrick and an Angels mind Thou whose Heroick vertues may atone For all the vice thy frailer sex have shewn To more than common greatness thou wer 't born No scanty Glories did thy fame adorn Thy Soul all Man soft Woman all thy Form. At once his Arms possess who thee embrace A Heroin Venus and a Love-sick Mars All that thy sex cou'd ever render fair All that fond man thinks worthy of his care In thy bright Mind and Body center'd are Some power Divine still dwells upon thy Tongue And all thou speak'st is one Immortal Song Angels and Gods of Love do listning sit Charm'd with the Musick of thy voyce and wit. A wit uncircumscrib'd by femal rules That nice that dull excuse for silent Fooles You never speak but like the sacred Word It does a blessing to mankind afford Use and instruction t is that never fails A Rhetorick that in spight of force prevailes Generous as nature when first Spring she bred And o're the new-born World her Bounties shed Like Heaven dispensing goodness all a round And thy large Soul like that admits no bound Oh hadst thou liv'd in those Illustrious days When Rome did Statues to vast Merits raise Thine in their Temples had Triumphant stood And found an equal worship with some God. Fondly they now adore their Portia's name Who for one single wound atchiev'd such fame When 't was but female cunning at the best To buy the secret from her Husbands breast 'T was Lust of curiosity alone Thy undesigning valor 's all thy own Born in thy mighty Soul and lives and Reigns Scorning returns of mercenary gains Had'st thou bin Portia thou had'st farther gone And not content the great design t' have known Had'st help't the Generous youth the deed to do And 'mongst the number fixt thy Dagger two She but th' indulgent Wife exprest alone But thou much more the Wife and Friend had'st shewn And with a just disdain of Tyrannie Assisted in the noble Victory On thy firm faith great Brutus might rely Who seeing him conquer'd cou'd as bravely dy Let Rome adore recorded Portia's fame While Britain boast's alone thy mightier na SONG ALL Ioy to mortals Ioy anol mirth on occasion Eternal Io's sing The Gods of Love descend to Earth Their Darts have lost the sting The Youth shall now complain no more On Silvias needless scorn But she shall Love if he Adore And melt when he shall Burn. The Nymph no longer shall be shy But leave the gilting Road And Daphne now no more shall fly The wounded panting God! But all shall be serene and fair No sad complaints of Love Shall fill the gentle whispering Air No Ecchoing sighs the Grove Beneath the shade's young Strephon lies Of all his wish possest Gazing on Silvia's charming Eyes Whose Soul is there confest All soft and sweet the Maid appears With looks that know no Art And tho' she yield with trembling fears She yeilds with all her Heart On an ungrateful and undeserving Mistress whom he cou'd not help Loving Being a Paraphrastical Translation of Ovid's 10 th Elegie Lib. 3. Amorum I Have too long endur'd
bow Yet still so gracefully he treads the stage He makes th' admiring World in love with age Long may he cause their wonder and delight Long be his day and far remote his night The night when he to us shall disappear Call'd hence to gild some other Hemisphear Excellent Prince in whom the World do's see A Species of untainted Loyalty May Heav'n indulge our wishes long in thee But if the fates deny this bliss to give The Phaenix will in Celladon revive To him our Homage we must then transfer As much thy virtues as thy fortunes Heir Dam. See Swain the Sun exalts his shining head Brisk as a Bridegroom from Aurora's Bed While like a blushing Bride the dawning morn Do's in her Gay attire herself adorn 'T is time the lovely pair like them shou'd rise And we their presence want to bless our Eyes The expecting World ' its patience has outstay'd Le ts hast and wake 'em with a ferinade A Song by Robert Wolseley Esq A Blame me not if no despair A passion you inspire can end Nor think it strange too charming fair If Love like other flames ascend If to approach a Saint with Prayer Vnworthy votarys pretend Above all merit Heaven and you To the Sincere are only due Long did respect awe my proud aim And fear t' offend my madness cover Like you it still reprov'd my flame And in the friend wou'd hide the Lover But by things that want a name I the too bold truth discover My words in vain are in my powr My looks betray me every hour A PASTORAL On the Death of His late Majesty written by Mr. Otway WHat horrors this that dwells upon the Plain And thus disturbs the Shepherds peaceful Reign A dismal sound breaks thro' the yeilding air Forewarning us some dreadful storm is neer The bleating flocks in wild confusion stray The early Larks forsake their wandring way And cease to welcome in the new-born day Each Nymph possest with a distracted fear Disorder'd hangs her loose dishevell'd hair Diseases with her strong convulsions reign And deities not known before to pain Are now with Apoplectick seizures slain Hence flow our sorrows hence increase our fears Each humble plant do's drop her silver tears Ye tender Lambs stray not so fast away To weep and mourn let us together stay O're all the universe let it be spread That now the Shepherd of the flock is dead The Royal Pan that shepherd of the sheep He who to leave his flock did dying weep Is gone ah gone ne're to return from deaths Eternal sleep Begin Damela let thy numbers fly Aloft where the safe milkey way does ly Mop'sus who Daphnis to the Stars did sing Shall joyn with you and hither waft our King. Play gently on your Reeds a mournful strain And tell in notes thro' all th' Arcadian Plain The Royal Pan the Shepherd of the sheep He who to leave his Flock did dying weep Is gone is gone ne're to return from death's eternal sleep SONG NO more will I my Passion hide Tho' too presuming it appear When long despair a heart has try'd What other torment can it fear Vnlov'd of her I would not live Nor dy till she the sentence give Why shou'd the fair offended be If vertue charm in Beauty's dress If where so much divine I see My open vows the Saint confess Awak'd by wonders in her Eyes My former Idols I despise Strephons complaint banisht from Sacarisa HOW long shall I thus live condemn'd to mourn In vain my Sacarisa's cruel scorn For ever let these Eyes be shut to light Since the bright Nymph has robb'd me of her sight All other objects dull and useless grow No more their wonted form of colour shew In glooming shades may I for ever live Sad as my sorrows silent as my grave Since Sacarisa's Eyes withdraw their light Darkness to me is Day the Morning Night No more the Sun the Worlds majestick Eye Shall dart his golden Beams thrô th' Azure Sky Let sullen darkness on the Earth display His sable wings t' eclips the hated day As when in Chaos uncreated night Sat Brooding on the seeds of Infant-light And no kind Beams did on the surface play Till the Sun rose and made a perfect day So till my Nymph brings back her sparkling light Darkness to me is Day the Morning Night An Elegie written by Mr. W. O. Damon and Thirsis Dam. WElcome dear Thirsis far above The sweetest Emphasis of Love. More welcome than the fairest Dame That ever crost this awful Plain With all her tender Virgin Train Thirs I thank thee Shepherd for thy Love But how canst thou so soon remove The Passion which inrag'd thy brest And kept thy better part from rest Dam. Believe me Thirsis for t is true They that Love long are very few I pip'd I sung I liv'd in pain In hope the Shepherdess to gain Now vain my sute in vain I cry I sigh in vain unhappy me Condemn'd to such a Destinie Only to see the once lov'd Deitie Thirs Tell me Damon prithee do Who 's this Nymph that grieves thee so By great Pan's all sacred name The wildest heart for thee I 'le tame Dam. Oh my friend she 's gone too far Thou can'st not reach the charming fair She 's fled into the wisht for place Where Love is acted o're in every grace Thirs What 's her name I can't contain My blood runs swift in every veine I 'le ravage all the Woods and Groves Th' intreguing Court for billing Lov 's No pains nor toyle for thee I 'le spare Come let me know the cruel fair Dams Phillis the Glory of our Isle Who charm'd my Soul with every smile Ah shee the lovely torturing maid H 'as now my heart my all betray'd And my adoring Love with scorn repaid Unhappy swain dejected and forlorn Ah me how sadly am I left alone To envy those Transporting charms She yeilds up to my happy Rivals Armes Thirs I le go Dam. Stay Shepherd t is in vain to try To disappoint the Nuptial tye No no she s gone to make my Rival blest And left her Image only in my brest Hence forth in Lovers tales let it be said That thy poor friend thy Damon dy'd a maid While no one part of me remains with her But constant wishes and this humble Pray'r Fairest of Nymphs May all your Glorys like the youthful Sun Beame forth and in their purest lustre Burn. May all your days be as a day of bliss And all your sorrows close still with a kiss Happy the God that succor'd your desire And set the Hymenean Lamp on fire May he in whole blest Armes you slumbringly Be sensible of the vast envyed joy While I who lost you lay me down and dy A PINDARICK To Mrs. Behn on her Poem on the Coronation Written by a Lady HAil thou sole Empress of the Land of wit To whom all conquer'd Authors must submit And at thy feet their sading Laurels lay The utmost tribute
you have heard my Account of the Voyage I made to the same place with my more lucky one back again for I since I saw you have been an Adventurer you will by my Example become of my Opinion notwithstanding your dismal Tales of Death and the eternal Shades which is that if there be nothing that will lay me in my Tomb till Love brings me thither I shall live to Eternity I must confess 't is a great Inducement to Love and a happy Advance to an Amour to be handsom finely shap'd and to have a great deal of Wit these are Charms that subdue the Hearts of all the Fair And one sees but very few Ladies that can resist these good Qualities especially in an Age so gallant as ours yet all this is nothing if Fortune do not smile And I have seen a Man handsom well shap'd and of a great deal of Wit with the advantage of a thousand happy Adventures yet finds himself in the end fitter for an Hospital than the Elevation of Fortune And the Women are not contented we should give them as much Love as they give us which is but reasonable but they would compel us all to Present and Treat 'em lavishly till a Man hath consumed both Estate and Body in their Service How many do we see that are wretched Examples of this Truth and who have nothing of all they enjoyed remaining with 'em but a poor Idaea of past Pleasures when rather the Injury the Jilt has done 'em ought to be eternally present with ' em Heaven keep me from being a Woman's Property There are Cullies enough besides you or I Lysander One would think now That I who can talk thus Learnedly and Gravely had never been any of the number of those wretched whining sighing dying Fops I speak of never been jilted and cozen'd of both my Heart and Reason but let me tell those that think so they are mistaken and that all this Wisdom and Discretion I now seem replenish'd with I have as dearly bought as any keeping Fool of 'em all I was ly'd and flattered into Wit jilted and cozen'd into Prudence and by ten thousand broken Vows and perjured Oaths reduced to Sense again and can laugh at all my past Follies now After I have told you this you may guess at a great part of my Story which in short is this I would needs make a Voyage as you did to this fortunate Isle and accompanyed with abundance of young Heirs Cadets Coxcombs Wits Blockheads and Politicians with a whole Cargo of Cullies all nameless and numberless we Landed on the Inchanted Ground the first I saw and lik'd was charming Silvia you believe I thought her fair as Angels young as the Spring and sweet as all the Flowers the blooming Fields produce that when she blush'd the Ruddy Morning open'd the Rose-buds blew and all the Pinks and Dazies spread that when she sigh'd or breath'd Arabia's Spices driven by gentle Winds perfum'd all around that when she look'd on me all Heaven was open'd in her Azure Eyes from whence Love shot a thousand pointed Darts and wounded me all over that when she spoke the Musick of the Spheres all that was ravishing in Harmony blest the Adoring Listener that when she walk'd Venus in the Mirtle Grove when she advanc'd to meet her lov'd Adonis assuming all the Grace young Loves cou'd give had not so much of Majesty as Silvia In fine she did deserve and I compared her to all the Fopperies the Suns the Stars the Coral and the Pearl the Roses and Lillies Angels Spheres and Goddesses fond Lovers dress their Idols in For she was all fancy and fine imagination could adorn her with at least the gazing Puppy thought so 'T was such I saw and lov'd but knowing I did Adore I made my humble Court and she by all my trembling sighings pantings the going and returning of my Blood found all my Weakness and her own Power and using all the Arts of her Sex both to ingage and secure me play'd all the Woman over She wou'd be scornful and kind by turns as she saw convenient This to check my Presumption and too easy hope That to preserve me from the brink of despair Thus was I tost in the Blanket of Love somtimes up and somtimes down as her Wit and Humor was in or out of tune all which I watch'd and waited like a Dog that still the oftner kick'd wou'd fawn the more Oh 't is an excellent Art this managing of a Coxcomb the Serpent first taught it our Grandam Eve and Adam was the first Cully E're since they have kept their Empire over Men and we have e're since been Slaves But I the most submissive of the whole Creation was long in gaining Grace she used me as she meant to keep me Fool enough for her Purpose She saw me young enough to do her Service handsom enough to do her Credit and Fortune enough to please her Vanity and Interest She therefore suffer'd me to Love and Bow among the Crowd and fill her Train She gave me hope enough to secure me 100 but gave me nothing else till she saw me languish to that degree she feared to lose the Glory of my Services by my death only this Pleasure kept me alive to see her treat all my Rivals with the greatest Rigour imaginable and to me all sweetness exposing their feblesses and having taken Notice of my Languishment she suffered me Freedoms that wholely Ravish'd me and gave me hopes I shou'd not be long a dying for all she cou'd give But since I have a great deal to say of my Adventures in passing out of this Island of Love I will be as brief as I can in what arrived to me on the Place and tell you That after Ten thousand Vows of eternal Love on both sides I had the Joy not only to be believ'd and lov'd but to have her put herself into my Possession far from all my Rivals Where for some time I lived with this charming Maid in all the Raptures of Pleasure Youth Beauty and Love could create Eternally we loved and lived together no day nor night separated us no Frowns interrupted our Smiles no Clouds our Sun-shine the Island was all perpetual Spring still flowery and green in Bowers in Shades by purling Springs and Fountains we past our hours unwearied and uninterrupted I cannot express to you the happy Life I led during this blessed Tranquility of Love while Silvia still was pleased and still was gay We walked all day together in the Groves and entertained ourselves with a thousand Stories of Love we laught at the foolish World who could not make their Felicity with out Crowds and Noise We pittied Kings in Courts in this Retirement so well we liked our Solitude till on a day blest be that joyful day though then 't was most a-curst I say upon that day I know not by what accident I was parted from my Charmer and left her all alone but in
my absence there incountred her a Woman extremely ugly and who was however very nice and peevish inconstant in her temper and no one place could continue her The finest things in the World were troublesom to her and she was Shagreen at every thing her Name is Indifference she is a Person of very great Power in this Island though possibly you never incountred her there and those that follow her depart from the Isle of Love without any great pains She brought Silvia to the Lake of Disgust whether in persuing her at my return I found her ready to take Boat to have past quite away and where there are but too many to transport those Passengers who follow Indifference over the Lake of Disgust I saw this disagreeable Creature too but she appeared too ugly for me to approach her but forcing Silvia back I returned again to the Palace of True Pleasure where some days after there arrived to me a Misfortune of which I believed I should never have seen an end I found Silvia inviron'd round with new Lovers still adoring and pleasing her a thousand ways and though none of 'em were so rich so young or so handsom as I she nevertheless failed not to treat 'em with all the Smiles and Caresses 't was possible to imagin when I complain'd of this she would satisfy my fears with so many Vows and Imprecations that I would believe her and think myself unreasonable but when she would be absent whole days in an hundred places she would find such probable Excuse and lye with such a Grace no mortal cou'd have accused her so that all the whole Island took notice that I was a bassled Cuckold before I could believe she would deceive me so heartily she damn'd herself Through all the Groves I was the pointed Coxcomb laught at aloud and knew not where the jest lay but thought myself as secure in the Innocence of my deceiving fair One as the first hour I charmed her and like a keeping Cully lavish'd out my Fortune my plenteous Fortune to make her fine to Cuckold me ' Sdeath how I scorn the Follies of my Dotage and am resolv'd to persue Love for the future in such a manner as it shall never cost me a Sigh This shall be my method A Constancy in Love I 'll prise And be to Beauty true And doat on all the lovely Eyes That are but fair and new On Cloris Charms to day I 'll feed To morrow Daphne move For bright Lucinda next I 'll bleed And still be true to Love. But Glory only and Renown My serious hours shall charm My Nobler Minutes those shall Crown My looser hours my Flame All the Fatigues of Love I 'll hate And Phillis's new Charms That hopeless Fire shall dissipate My Heart for Cloe warms The easie Nymph I once enjoy'd Neglected now shall pass Possession that has Love destroy'd Shall make me pitiless In vain she now attracts and mourns Her moving Power is gone Too late when once enjoy'd she burns And yeilding is undone My Friend the little charming Boy Conforms to my desires And 't is but to augment my Joy He pains me with his Fires All that 's in happy Love I 'll tast And rifle all his store And for one Joy that will not last He brings a thousand more Perhaps my Friend at this Account of my Humor you may smile but with a reasonable consideration you will commend it at least though you are not so wise as to persue my Dictates Yet I know you will be diverted with my Adventures though there be no love in 'em that can resemble 'em to yours Take then the History of my Heart which I assure you boasts itself of the Conquests it has made A thousand Martyrs I have made All sacrific'd to my desire A thousand Beauties have betray'd That languish in resistless Fire The untam'd Heart to hand I brought And fixt the wild and wandring Thought I never vow'd nor sigh'd in vain But both thô false were well receiv'd The Fair are pleas'd to give us pain And what they wish is soon believ'd And thô I talk'd of Wounds and Smart Loves Pleasures only toucht my Heart Alone the Glory and the Spoil I always Laughing bore away The Triumphs without Pain or Toil Without the Hell the Heav'n of Joy. And while I thus at random rove Despise the Fools that whine for Love. I was a great while like you before I forgot the remembrance of my first Languishments and I almost thought by an excess of Melancholy that the end of my Misfortunes were with my Life at hand Yet still like a fond Slave willing to drag my Fetters on I hop'd she would find Arguments to convince me she was not false and in that Humor fear'd only I should not be handsomly and neatly jilted Could she but have dissembled well I had been still her Cully Could she have play'd her Game with discretion but vain of her Conquest she boasted it to all the World and I alone was the kind keeping Blockhead to whom 't was unperceived so well she swore me into belief of her Truth to me Till one day lying under a solitary Shade with my sad Thoughts fixt on my declining Happiness and almost drown'd in Tears I saw a Woman drest in glorious Garments all loose and flowing with the wind scouring the Fields and Groves with such a pace as Venus when she heard her lov'd Youth was slain hasted to behold her ruin She past me as I lay with an unexpressable swiftness and spoke as she run with a loud Voice At her first approach I felt a strange trembling at my Heart without knowing the reason and found at last this Woman was Fame Yet I was not able to tell from whence proceeded my Inquietude When her Words made me but too well understand the Cause The fatal Subject of what she cry'd in passing by me were these Poor Lycidus for sharne arise And wipe Loves Errors from thy Eyes Shake off the God that holds thy Heart Since Silvia for another burns And all thy past Indurement scorns While thou the Cully art I believed as she spoke that I had ill understood her but she repeated it so often that I no longer doubted my wretchedness I leave you who so well can guess to imagin what Complaints I made filling the Grove where I was laid with my pitious Cries somtimes I rose and raved and rail'd on Love and reproached the fair Fugitive But the tender God was still pleading in my Heart and made me ever end my noisy Griefs in Sighs and silent Tears A thousand Thoughts of revenge I entertained against this happy Rival and the charming ingrate But those Thoughts like my Rage would also end in soft reproaching murmurs and regret only And I would somtimes argue with Love in this manner Ah cruel Love when will thy Torments cease And when shall I have leave to dye in Peace And why too charming and too cruel Maid Cou'd'st thou
not yet thy fleeting Heart have stay'd And by degrees thy fickle Humor shewn By turns the Enemy and Friend put on Have us'd my Heart a little to thy scorn The loss at least might have been easier born With feigned Vows that poor Expence of Breath Alas thou might'st have sooth'd me to my death Thy Coldness and thy visible decays In time had put a period to my days And lay'd me quietly into my Tomb Before thy proof of Perjuries had come You might have waited yet a little space And sav'd mine and thy Honour this disgrace Alas I languish'd and declin'd apace I lov'd my Life too eagerly away To have disturb'd thee with too long a stay Ah! cou'd you not my dying Heart have fed With some small Cordial Food till I was dead Then uncontroul'd and unreproach'd your Charms Might have been render'd to my Rival's Arms. Then all my right to him you might impart And Triumph'd o're a true and broken Heart Though I complained thus for a good while â— was not without some secret hope that what I had heard was not true nor would I be persuaded to undeceive myself of that hope which was so dear and precious to me I was not willing to be convinced I was intirely miserable out of too great a fear to find it true and there were some Moments in which I believed Fame might falsly accuse Silvia and it did not seem reasonable to me that after all the Vows and Oaths she had made she should so easily betray 'em and forgetting my Services receive those of another less capable of rendring them to her advantage Somtimes I would excuse her ungratitude with a thousand things that seem'd reasonable but still that was but to make me more sensible of my disgrace and then I would accuse myself of a thousand weaknesses below the Character of a Man I would even despise and loath my own easiness and resolve to be no longer a Mark-out-fool for all the Rhiming Wits of the Island to aim their Dogrel at And grown as I imagined brave at this thought I resolved first to be fully convinced of the persidy of my Mistress and then to rent my Heart from the attachment that held it You know that from the Desart of Remembrance one does with great facility look over all the Island of Love. I was resolved to go thither one day and where indeed I could survey all things that past in the Groves the Bowers by Rivers or Fountains or whatever other place remote or obscure 't was from thence that one day I saw the faithless Silvia in the Palace of True Pleasure in the very Bower of Bliss with one of my Rivals but most intimate Friend 'T was there I saw my Rival take Pleasures he knew how to make There he took and there was given All the Joys that Rival Heaven Kneeling at her Feet he lay And in transports dy'd away Where the faithless suffer'd too All the amorous Youth cou'd do The Ardour of his fierce desire Set his Face and Eyes on fire All their Language was the Blisses Of Ten thousand eager Kisses While his ravish'd Neck she twin'd And to his Kisses Kisses join'd Till both inflam'd she yeilded so She suffer'd all the Youth cou'd do In fine 't was there I saw that I must lose the day And I saw in this Lover Ten thousand Charms of Youth and Beauty on which the ingrate with greedy languishing Eyes eternally gazed with the same Joy she used to behold me when she made me most happy I confess this Object was so far from pleasing me as I believed a confirmation would that the change inspired me with a rage which nothing else could do and made me say things unbecoming the Dignity of my Sex who ought to disdain those faithless Slaves which Heaven first made to obey the Lords of the Creation A thousand times I was about to have rush'd upon 'em and have ended the Lives of the loose betrayers of my repose but Love stepp'd in and stay'd my hand preventing me from an Outrage that would have cost me that rest of Honour I yet had left But when my rage was abated I fell to a more insupportable Torment that of extream Grief to find another possest of what I had been so long and with so much Toil in gaining 'T was thus I retir'd and after a little while brought myself to make calm Reflections upon this Adventure which reduced me to some reason When one day as I was walking in an unfrequented Shade whither my Melancholy had conducted me I incountred a Man of a hauty look and meen his Apparel rich and glorious his Eyes awful and his Stature tall the very sight of him inspired me with coldness which render'd me almost insensible of the infidelity of Silvia This Person was Pride who looking on me as he past with a fierce and disdainful Smile over his Shoulder and regarding me with scorn said Why shou'd that faithless wanton give Thy Heart so mortal pain Whose Sighs were only to deceive Her Oaths all false and vain Despise those Tears thou shedd'st for her Disdain to sigh her Name To Love thy Liberty prefer To faithless Silvia Fame I knew by his words he was Pride or Disdain and would have embraced him but he put me off seeing Love still by me who had not yet abandoned me and turned himself from me with a regardless scorn but I who was resolved not to forsake so discreet a Counsellor rather chose to take my leave of little Love who had ever accompanyed me in this Voyage But oh this adieu was not taken so easily and soon as I imagined Love was not to be quitted without abundance of Sighs and Tears at parting he had been a Witness to all my Adventures my Confident in this Amour and not to be deserted without a great deal of pain I stayed so long in bidding the dear Boy adieu that I had almost forgot Disdain at last though my Heart were breaking to part with the dear fondling I was resolved and said Farewel my little charming Boy Farewel my fond delight My dear Instructer all the day My soft repose at night Thou whom my Soul has so carest And my poor Heart has held so fast Thou never left me in my pain Nor in my happier hours Thou eas'd me when I did complain And dry'd my falling showrs When Silvia frown'd still thou woud'st smile And all my Cares and Griefs beguile But Silvia's gone and I have torn Her Witchcrafts from my Heart And nobly fortify'd by scorn Her Empire will subvert Thy Laws establish'd there destroy And bid adieu to the dear charming Boy In quitting Love I was a great while before I could find Disdain but I at last overtook him He accompanyed me to a Village where I received a Joy I had not known since my Arrival to the Isle of Love and which Repose seemed the sweeter because it was new When I came to this place I saw all the
And all my Tears and Sighings cease I must confess you 're wondrous fair And know to conquer such a Heart Is worth an Age of sad despair If Lovers Merits were Desert But you 're unjust as well as fair And Love subsists not with despair No more than Lovers by the Air. I 've spar'd no Sighs nor Floods of Tears Nor any thing to move your Mind With sacred Vows I sed your Cares But found your rebel Heart unkind And Vanity had made you blind No more my Knees shall bow before Those unconcern'd and haughty Eyes Nor be so sensless to adore That Saint that all my Prayers despise No I contemn your Cruelty Since in a Humor not to dye Having said all this with an Air of Disdain I smiling took my leave with much less Civility and Respect than I used to do and hasting to Intelligence I past my time very well with Bellinda to whom I paid all my Visits and omitted nothing that might make Bellimante know I had forgot her But at the end of some days by a very happy change she finding more inclination to Love than to Cruelty banishing all Obstacles in Favour of a Lover she came to Intelligence where at first sight she made me some little Reproaches and that in so soft a manner that I did not doubt but I had toucht her Heart I swore a thousand times that all I had done was only put on to see if it were possible she could resent it and force from her Heart some little concern for my supposed loss At this time I had abundance of Intreagues upon my hands for it was not with Bellinda and Bellimante with whom I lived in this manner and indeed it is impossible to remain at Intelligence and to make a Court but to two Persons only where there are so many of the Fair and the Young. I writ every day several Billets and received every day as many I had every day two or three Rendezvous and one ought to manage matters very discreetly that neither Party might come to the knowledge of the others concern and one ought to be a Man of great Address and Subtilty to love more than one securely and though this gave me some pain it was nevertheless an Ambaras very agreeable and in which I could have lived a great while if Envy which cannot suffer any Body to be happy in Intelligence had not arrived there and told a great many things which discovered my Intreagues so that Bellinda with whom I had lived there with great Tranquillity a long time and Bellimante with whom I was but just beginning to be happy were both obliged to quit this delightful place where we enjoyed so many happy hours and they retired till the noise was a little over and with them all those who had afforded me any hope If any one of these had stayed I had been contented well enough and one might have consol'd me for the loss of the other but in one day to lose all that made my happiness put me into such a Melancholy I knew not for the present what to do for myself but Coquet Love conducted me to a Village that gave a me new Pleasure The scituation of it is marvellous the Fields and the Groves all about it the most pleasant in the World the Meadows enamel'd with Rivulets which run winding here and there and lose themselves in the Thickets and the Woods In going Love said to me In absence it is in vain to abandon yourself to sorrow Alas What signifies it to sigh night and day the Absent does not hear us nor can the most tender Affliction or Complaint render a Lover happy unless the Fair One were present to hear all his Moans then perhaps they might avail There was reason in what he said and I was pleas'd and calm'd and we arrived at the same time at this Village All the Houses were fine and pleasant we saw all the Graces there by Fountains and by Flowery Springs and all the Objects that could be imagined agreeable and the least amiable ones we saw gave us a Joy All the World that inhabit there contribute to Diversion and this place is called Amusement Amusement is a young Boy who stops and gazes at every thing that meets his Eyes and he makes his Pleasure with every Novelty As soon as I arrived at this Village I thought to divert myself as others did and to hinder my Thoughts from fixing on the loss of my two Mistresses and to banish from my mind the Shagrins their Absence gave me withdrawn from the fair Eyes of Bellimante and the Charming Wit of Bellinda and to give my sighing Heart a little case upon a thousand Objects I formed my desires and took a thousand Pleasures to divert my Melancholy And all the time I lived at this dear place I passed my time without any inquietude for every day afforded me new Objects to give me new Wishes And I now expected without much impatience the return of Bellinda and Bellimante nor did I tire myself with writing to 'em every day and when I did write to save the expence of thought the same Billet served both a thousand little tender things I said of course to both And somtimes especially while I was writing I thought I had rather have seen them than have lived at Amusemcnt but since it was necessary they should be absent I bore it with all the Patience I could somtimes we were in a fit of writing very regularly to one another but on a sudden I received no Letters at all the reason of this was they both understood I lived at Amusement and had retired themselves to the Palace of Spight I no sooner received this News but I rendered myself there also it is a place where there is alwaies abundance of Tumult Outrage Quarrels and Noise And Spight is a Person who eternally gives occasion of Discontent and Broil causing People often to fall out with those they love most and to caress those they hate But the Quarrels she occasions us with those we love last but a very short season and Love reconciles those differences that Spight obliges us to make Thô 't is somtime pleasant enough to see those we Love extreamly and violently fall into the highest rage and say a thousand things injurious and unreasonable and to swear all the Oaths that angry Love and Fury can inspire never to see or converse with one another again and in a moment after to grow calm weep and reunite to be perjured on both sides and become more fond than ever they were A Lovers Rage and Jealousie One short moment do's confess How can they long angry be Whose Hearts are full of tenderness In this Place there wou'd be eternal War but for a person who inhabits there and is always the Mediator for Peace t is he that assists to accommodate and bring the Lovers together This is a very honest person call'd Right Vnderstanding he brought me to
Bellinda whom I found accompany'd with a Man that made her a thousand caresses at my approach she made as if she knew me not which I took in such disdain that I apply'd myself to Spight with a design to be reveng'd on this Haughty scorner In this humour I made a visit to Bellimante but found her as Implacable as Bellinda whom no excuses no reason cou'd reduce to the temper I had once seen her in a rage ten times more than I was before fill'd with disdain and revenge I complain'd of this treatment to my little Love who immediately led me into a Grove where the Beauties and the Graces us'd to walk to consult upon what return to make for my affront from one place to another we past on till we came to a little Thicket on the other side of which by a little Rivulet we cou'd hear but not see two persons discoursing they were women and one seemed in a violent Rage against her Lover who had newly offended her whilst the other strove in vain to reconcile her but she went on vowing to revenge herself with the next object she shou'd Incounter that had but Wit Youth and fortune enough to Justifie her Love and make her conquest glorious her resolution agreeing so with mine and her manner of speaking gave me new hope and pleasure and a great curiosity to see her face I found by her Resentment she was young and of Quality and that alone was enough to make me resolve upon Addressing myself to her and the other person had no sooner left her but I advanced towards her with as good a grace as I cou'd put on she was a little surprised and blushing at first but I soon reconcil'd her to my conversation I found her handsom enough to ingage me and she was as well pleased with me as I was with her both having the same design which was that of revenge and you may Imagin our business being the same our entertainment was not at first extraordinary but as my cause of Anger was more reasonable than hers I began to find myself to soften into liking of this new fair one who was called Cemena and who to spight her former Lover endeavor'd to be seen with me in all the publick places she cou'd which gave him Infinite torments of Jealousie One day as I was walking with this Cemena in a place where the young and the fair frequent Bellinda and Bellimante often passed by us and saw us both well pleas'd and in good humour I cou'd perceive their colour goe and come and that they were as uneasy at this object as my heart cou'd wish and by their quitting of the place immediatly after I was assured of all my hope and believed I had gained my Point at the end of two or three days one Morning walking alone in the same place I incountered Bellimante who hapned to be attended with her Woman onely she chang'd colour at my approach and wou'd have passed me by but I stay'd her by the Robe and said a thousand things to her that angry Love inspir'd me with while she on her side did the same till we had talk'd ourselves by degrees into reason and good understanding I found her Resentment to be only the excess of Love and all those faults are easily forgiven I immediatly threw myself at her Feet and made her a thousand protestations of my fidelity and she in her turn excused herself with all the tenderness imaginable she made me a thousand new vowes and caresses and forgot nothing that might persuade me that all she did was by the Counsel of Spight Oh! how soft it is to see The fair one we believe untrue Eagar and impatient be To be reconcil'd a new When their little cheats of Love Shall with reasons be excus'd Oh! how soft it is to prove With what ease we are abus'd When we come to understand How unjust are all our fears And to feel the lovely hand Wiping from our Eyes the tears And a thousand Favors pay For every drop they kiss away Oh! how soft it is to yeild To the maid just reconcil'd I found this accommodement extreamly agreeable and it was in these transports the Lovely Bellimante detain'd me for some days without quiting her but I found too much Joy in a new reconciliation not to endeavor to make one also with Bellinda as soon then as Bellimante grew a little off my heart by so long a conversation with one and the same Woman I on pretence of some affairs left her extreamly charm'd and satisfi'd and hasted to Bellinda who methought was now a new Beauty at least I found her too considerable to lose the Glory of ingaging her intirely t is possible that both these Ladys being agitated with as little faith as myself deceiv'd me with the same design I did them to make their pleasure only and thô this very often came into my thoughts yet it gave me no great inquietude they dissembl'd well and I cou'd not see it I had the satisfaction and the vanity of 'em that was as much as I desir'd from any of the fair since Silvia toucht my heart they both swore they lov'd and both fear'd to displease if they were unfaithful they had a thousand stratagems to hide their infidelity and took a great deal of care to keep me which shew'd a value in me above all the rest of my Rivals and I beheld myself with some Pride and esteem for having so much power when ever they offended me they had all the Arts to mollify me and who wou'd be so critically in love as not to be willing to be so well abus'd For my part I will not be so nice as to penetrat into their thoughts to find what wou'd but displease me if found but content myself with all I see and find that looks like Love at least and good humour Nay even in their worst I find a thousand pleasures those of their quarrels which somtimes happen twenty times a day when every reconciliation is like a new Mistress so well they strive to please and be reconcil'd But all these pleasures did not satisfy me there were greater yet behind which I had not arriv'd to with these fair charmers and however I liv'd at Amusement making a thousand Amours with a hundred of the most Beautiful still I had a desire to subdue intirely to my pleasure these two the most hard to gain but now I was pretty well secur'd of both their hearts and yet neither knew they were each others Rivals in mine They knew one another converst and play'd and walkt together yet so discreet I was in this Amour that neither was jealous of the other nor suspected I lov'd both with an equal Ardor when I hapned to be with 'em both I carried myself so equally Gallant that both commended my conduct and imagin'd I did it to hide the secret passion I had for herself and so many little Arts my Coquet love had
the Mysteries of fate You all what ever 's past or present see And read the unwritten Pages o're Of times great Chronicle before Events and time had writ what fate resolv'd shou'd be Tell me what Beauty is whose force controuls Reason and Power and over mankind rules Kings stoop to Beauty and the Crowns they wear Shine not with so much lustre as the fair Beauty a larger Empire do's command Than the great Monarch of the Seas and Land. She can the coldest Anchorits inflame Cool Tyrants rage and stroke their passions tame She can call youth to her forsaken seat In wither'd Veines and give new life and heat She can subdue the fierce the proud and strong Give courage to the weak the fearful and the young Beauty the only Deity we know With fear and aw we to her Altars go And there our purest zeal of Prayers and vows bestow Sure then it onely seems to dy And when it leaves us mounts above To the Eternal roof of Jove To be a Constellation and inrich the Sky But shou'd I search the spangled sphear For Metamorphets Beauty there Nothing of Helen now is seen Nor the fair Egyptian Queen Or thou whose Eyes were constellations here Oh then thy fate we can't enough deplore With thee thy Beauty dy'd and 't is no more Then let us give Melantha's fate ' its due Strew Cyprus on her Hearse and wreaths of Yew For fair Melantha poore Melantha's dead Her sighing Soul to deaths eternal Empire 's fled To the NIGHTINGAL coming in the Spring To invite Cloe From the Tumults of the Town to the innocent retreat in the Country Written by a Person of Quality in 1680. LIttle Songster who do'st bring Ioy and Musick to the Spring Welcome to our grateful Swains And the Nymphs that grace the Plains How the Youths thy absence mourn What their Joy at thy return For their mirth and sports are done All the year that thou art gone But at thy approach their joys Take new date from thy dear voyce Every Shepherd chuses then Some fair Nymph for Valentine While the Maid with equal Love Do's the happy choyce approve Underneath some shade he sits Where soft silence Love begets And in Artless sighs he beares Untaught passion to her Eares No deceit is in his Tongue Nor she fears nor suffors wrong But each others faith believe And each hour their Loves revive Often have I wisht to be Happy Damon blest as thee Not that I for Silvia pine Silvia who is onely thine But that Cloe cannot be Kind as Silvia is to thee Thou dear Bird whose voice may find Charms perhaps to make her kind Bear a message to her Breast And make me happy as the rest London in the Plot-time In the Place where Tumult dwells Treasons Lurk Ambition swells Pride erects her monstrous head And Perjury swears the guiltless dead Powr oppresses envy pines Friends betray and fraud designs Fears and Jealousie surprise Rest and slumber from our Eyes And where vice all Ill contains And in gloomy glory reigns Where the Loyal Brave aud Just Are victims to Phanatick Lust Where the noble Staffords blood Calls from Heaven Revenge aloud In this place there lives a Maid Bright as nature ever made Fair beyond dull Beauties name Can express her lovely frame In her charming Eyes reside Love disdain desire and pride Such we know not which to call But has the excellence of all The first blushes of the Day Or the new-blown Rose in May Or the Rich Sidonian dy Wrought for Eastern Majesty Is not gayer than the Red Nature on her cheeks has spread Her soft Lips still feed new wish Of a thousand fancy'd kisses Gently swelling plump and round With young smiles and graces crown'd Her round Breasts are whiter far Than the backs of Ermins are Or the wanton Breast of Iove When a Swan for Leda's Love. Eyes that charm when e're they Dart And never miss the destin'd heart Woud'st thou have me tell thee more And describe her Beauties o're I perhaps might make a Rape On my Ideas naked shape Therefore fly you 'l quickly see By this Picture which is Shee Tell her the loud winds are Dumb Winter's past and Spring is come The delightful Spring that reigns Sweets and plenty o're the Plains And with shady Garlands crown'd All the Woods and Groves around If she see the wing'd Quire Chuse this season to retire To the shelter of the Grove 'T is by Instinct say of Love. If she see the Herds and Flocks Wanton round the Meads and Rocks Thus their wishing Males to move 'T is the Instinct say of Love. If she see the Bull among Crowds of Femâ—ls sleek and young Fight His Rival of the Drove 'T is by Instinct say of Love. If she see the blooming vines In their season fold their twines Round the Oake that neer her grows Say 't is nature mixt their boughs Then if Instinct these do move We by reason ought to Love. Tell the fair one every day Youth and Beauty steale away And within a little space Will destroy her charming face Every grace and smile that lyes Languishing in Lips and Eyes First he 'l make his prey and then Leave to Death what do's remain Who old Time do's only send To begin what he must end If she ask what hour and place Where and when Time wounds the face Say it is not in the Night Nor when Day renews her light In the Morning or at noon Or at Evening when alone Or when entertained at home Or abroad this hour will come But swift time is always by First to perfect then destroy And in vain you seek a cure Since his wounds are every hour Bid her view Aurelia's brow Naked of her Glories now Yet she once cou'd charm the throng Conquering with her Eyes and tongue Now only's left this weak relief To support her years and grief When she cou'd she us'd her prime And enjoy'd the fruitis of time And where ever she profest Love or hate she kill'd or blest While the neighbouring Plains were fill'd With their names she Lov'd and kill'd Oh when youth and Beautie 's past That poor pleasure that do's last Is to think they were admir'd And by every youth desir'd While the Dotage of each Swain She return'd with scorn again Oh then let my Cloe know When her youth is faded so And a race of Nymphs appears Gay and sprightly in their years Proud and wanton in their Loves While the Shepherds of the Groves Strive with Presents who shall share Most the favors of the fair And herself she do's behold Like Aurelia now grown old Sighing to herself she 'l say I was once ador'd as they Yet with Pleasure think that she Lov'd and was belov'd by me Therefore bid her haste and prove While she may the joys of Love. I will lead her to a soyle Where perpetual Summers smile Without Autumn which bereaves Fairest Cedars of their leaves Where she shall behold the Meads Ever