T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Song from “The Spanish Friar”
By John Dryden (1631–1700)| FAREWELL, ungrateful Traitor, | |
| Farewell, my perjur’d Swain; | |
| Let never injur’d Creature | |
| Believe a Man again. | |
| The Pleasure of possessing | 5 |
| Surpasses all expressing! | |
| But ’tis too short a Blessing, | |
| And Love too long a Pain. | |
| ’Tis easy to deceive us, | |
| In Pity of your Pain; | 10 |
| But when we love, you leave us, | |
| To rail at you in vain. | |
| Before we have descried it, | |
| There is no Bliss beside it, | |
| But she who once has try’d it, | 15 |
| Will never love again. | |
| The Passion you pretended, | |
| Was only to obtain; | |
| But now the Charm is ended, | |
| The Charmer you disdain. | 20 |
| Your Love by ours we measure, | |
| ’Till we have lost our Treasure; | |
| But dying is a Pleasure, | |
| When living is a Pain. | |