Of all the men respected and admir'd,
Of all the dames, except herself, defir'd:
Why not of her? preferr'd above the rest
By him with knightly deeds, and open love profess'd?
So had another been, where he his vows address'd.
This quell'd her pride, yet other doubts remain'd,

12}

That once difdaining, she might be disdain'd.
The fear was just, but greater fear prevail'd,
Fear of her life by hellish hounds affail'd:
He took a low'ring leave; but who can tell,
What outward hate might inward love conceal?
Her sex's arts she knew, and why not, then,
Might deep dissembling have a place in men?
Here hope began to dawn; refolv'd to try,
She fix'd on this her utmost remedy;
Death was behind, but hard it was to die.
'Twas time enough at last on death to call,
The precipice in sight: a shrub was all,
That kindly stood betwixt to break the fatal fall.
One maid she had belov'd above the rest:

Secure of her, the secret she confess'd;

And now the chearful light her fears dispell'd,
She with no winding turns the truth conceal'd,
But put the woman off, and stood reveal'd:
With faults confefs'd commission'd her to go,
If pity yet had place, and reconcile her foe;
The welcome message made, was foon receiv'd;
'Twas to be wish'd, and hop'd, but scarce believ'd;
Fate seem'd a fair occasion to present,
He knew the sex, and fear'd she might repent,
Should he delay the moment of confent.
There yet remain'd to gain her friends (a care
The modesty of maidens well might spare ;)
But she with such a zeal the cause embrac'd,
(As women, where they will, are all in haste)

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}

}

The

The father, mother, and the kin beside,
Were overborne by fury of the tide;
With full consent of all she chang'd her state;
Resistless in her love, as in her hate.
By her example warn'd, the rest beware;
More easy, less imperious, were the fair;
And that one hunting, which the devil design'd
For one fair female, lost him half the kind.

Poeta loquitur.

LD as I'am, for ladies love unfit,
The pow'r of beauty I remember yet,
Which once inflam'd my soul, and still inspires my wit.
If love be folly, the severe divine

Has felt that folly, tho' he cenfures mine;
Pollutes the pleasures of a chafte embrace,
Acts what I write, and propagates in grace,
With riotous excess, a priestly race.
Suppose him free, and that I forge th' offence,
He thew'd the way, perverting first my sense:
In malice witty, and with venom fraught,
He makes me speak the things I never thought.
Compute the gains of his ungovern'd zeal;
Ill sutes his cloth the praise of railing well.
The world will think that what we loosely write,
Tho' now arraign'd, he read with some delight;
Because he seems to chew the cud again,
When his broad comment makes the text too plain;
And teaches more in one explaining page,
Than all the double meanings of the stage.

What needs he paraphrafe on what we mean?
We were at worst but wanton; he's obscene.
I, not my fellows, nor myself excuse;
But love's the subject of the comic muse:
Nor can we write without it, nor would you
A tale of only dry instruction view;
Nor love is always of a vicious kind,
But oft to virtuous acts inflames the mind,
Awakes the fleepy vigour of the foul,
And brushing o'er adds motion to the pool.

}

}

Love, studious how to please, improves our parts
With polish'd manners, and adorns with arts.
Love first invented verse, and form'd the rhime,
The motion measur'd, harmoniz'd the chime;
To lib'ral acts enlarg'd the narrow foul'd,
Soften'd the fierce, and made the coward bold :
The world, when waste, he peopled with increase,
And warring nations reconcil'd in peace.
Ormond, the first, and all the fair may find,
In this one legend, to their fame design'd,
When beauty fires the blood, how love exalts the mind.

I

N that sweet ifle where Venus keeps her court,
And ev'ry grace, and all the loves, refort;

Where either sex is form'd of fofter earth,
And takes the bent of pleasure from their birth;
There liv'd a Cyprian lord above the rest
Wife, wealthy, with a num'rous issue bless'd.
But as no gift of fortune is fincere,
Was only wanting in a worthy heir:
His eldest born, a goodly youth to view,
Excell'd the rest in shape and outward shew,
Fair, tall, his limbs with due proportion join'd,
But of a heavy, dull, degenerate mind.
His foul bely'd the features of his face;

Beauty was there, but beauty in disgrace.
A clownish mein, a voice with ruftic found,
And stupid eyes that ever lov'd the ground.
He look'd like nature's error, as the mind
And body were not of a piece design'd,
But made for two, and by mistake in one were join'd.

}

The ruling rod, the father's forming care,

Were exercis'd in vain on wit's despair;
The more inform'd, the less he underflood,
And deeper funk by flound'ring in the mud,

Now scorn'd of all, and grown the public shame,
The people from Galesus chang'd his name,
And Cymon call'd, which signifies a brute;
So well his name did with his nature fute.

His father, when he found his labour lost,
And care employ'd, that answer'd not the cost,
Chose an ungrateful object to remove,
And loath'd to see what nature made him love;
So to his country farm the fool confin'd;
Rude work well suited with a rustic mind,
Thus to the wilds the sturdy Cymon went,
A squire among the swains, and pleas'd with banishment,
His corn and cattle were his only care,
And his fupreme delight, a country fair,

It happen'd on a summer's holiday, That to the green-wood shade he took his way; For Cymon shunn'd the church, and us'd not much

to pray.

His quarter-staff, which he could ne'er forsake
Hung half before, and half behind his back.
He trudg'd along, unknowing what he fought,
And whistled as he went, for want of thought.
By chance conducted, or by thirst conftrain'd,
The deep recesses of the grove he gain'd;
Where in a plain defended by the wood,
Crept thro' the matted grass a crystal flood,
By which an alabaster fountain stood:
And on the margin of the fount was laid
(Attended by her slaves) a sleeping maid.
Like Dian and her nymphs, when tir'd with sport,
To rest by cool Eurotas they resort:

The dame herself the goddess well express'd,
Not more diftinguish'd by her purple vest,
Than by the charming features of her face,
And ev'n in slumber a fuperior grace:

3

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Her