| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | The Libertine | | By Aphra Behn (1640–1689) |
| | | A THOUSAND 1 martyrs I have made, | |
| All sacrificed to my desire, | |
| A thousand beauties have betrayed | |
| That languish in resistless fire: | |
| The untamed heart to hand I brought, | 5 |
| And fix’d the wild and wandering thought. | |
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| I never vowed nor sighed in vain, | |
| But both, though false, were well received; | |
| The fair are pleased to give us pain, | |
| And what they wish is soon believed: | 10 |
| And though I talked of wounds and smart, | |
| Love’s pleasure only touched my heart. | |
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| Alone the glory and the spoil | |
| I always laughing bore away; | |
| The triumphs without pain or toil, | 15 |
| Without the hell the heaven of joy; | |
| And while I thus at random rove | |
| Despise the fools that whine for love. | |
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