"Must I, against all right and law,
Like polecat vile be treated?
I, who so long with tooth and claw
Have kept domestic mice in awe,
And foreign foes defeated!
"Your golden pippins, and your pies,
How oft have I defended!
'Tis true, the pinner, which you prize,
I tore in frolic; to your eyes
I never harm intended.
"I am a cat of honour."-" Stay!"
Quoth she," no longer parley;
Whate'er you did in battle slay,
By law of arms, became your prey:
I hope you won it fairly.
"Of this we'll grant you stand acquit,
But not of your outrages:
Tell me, perfidious! was it fit
To make my cream a perquisite,
And steal, to mend your wages?
"So flagrant is thy insolence,
So vile thy breach of trust is, That longer with thee to dispense, Were want of power, or want of sense
Here, Towzer!-do him justice."
SET TO MUSIC BY THE MOST EMINENT
READING ends in melancholy;
Wine breeds vices and diseases; Wealth is but care, and love but folly; Only friendship truly pleases.
My wealth, my books, my flask, my Molly; Farewell all, if friendship ceases.
WHITHER Would my passion run?
Shall I fly her, or pursue her?
Losing her, I am undone ;
Yet would not gain her, to undo her.
Ye tyrants of the human breast,
Love and reason! cease your war,
And order death to give me rest;
So each will equal triumph share.
STREPHONETTA, why d'ye fly me,
With such rigour in your eyes?
Oh! 'tis cruel to deny me,
Since your charms I so much prize.
But I plainly see the reason,
Why in vain I you pursu'd;
Her to gain 'twas out of season,
Who before the chaplain woo'd.
COME, weep no more, for 'tis in vain;
Torment not thus your pretty heart:
Think, Flavia, we may meet again,
As well as, that we now must part.
You sigh and weep: the gods neglect
That precious dew your eyes let fall:
Our joy and grief with like respect
They mind; and that is, not at all.
We pray, in hopes they will be kind,
As if they did regard our state :
They hear; and the return we find
Is, that no prayers can alter fate.
Then clear your brow, and look more gay, Do not yourself to grief resign;
Who knows but that those powers may
The pair, they now have parted, join?
But, since they have thus cruel been,
And could such constant lovers sever;
I dare not trust, lest now they're in,
They should divide us two for ever.
Then, Flavia, come, and let us grieve,
Remembering though upon what score;
This our last parting look believe,
Believe we must embrace no more.
Yet, should our sun shine out at last;
And fortune, without more deceit,
Throw but one reconciling cast,
To make two wandering lovers meet;
How great then would our pleasure be,
To find Heaven kinder than believ'd ;
And we, who had no hopes to see
Each other, to be thus deceiv'd!
But say, should Heaven bring no relief,
Suppose our sun should never rise:
Why then what's due to such a grief,
We've paid already with our eyes.
LET perjur'd fair Amynta know,
What for her sake I undergo;
Tell her, for her how I sustain
A lingering fever's wasting pain;
Tell her, the torments I endure,
Which only, only she can cure.
But, oh! she scorns to hear, or see,
The wretch that lies so low as me;
Her sudden greatness turns her brain,
And Strephon hopes, alas! in vain:
For ne'er 'twas found (though often tried)
That pity ever dwelt with pride.
PHILLIS, since we have both been kind,
And of each other had our fill;
Tell me what pleasure you can find,
In forcing nature 'gainst her will.
'Tis true, you may with art and pain
Keep in some glowings of desire;
But still those glowings which remain
Are only ashes of the fire.
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