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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  A Song from “Westminster Drolleries”

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

A Song from “Westminster Drolleries”

By Aphra Behn (1640–1689)
 
(1671)

THAT beauty I ador’d before,
  I now as much despise:
’Tis money only makes the whore:
  She that for love with her Crony lies,
Is chaste: But that’s the whore that kisses for prize.        5
 
Let Jove with gold his Danae woo,
  It shall be no rule for me:
Nay, ’t may be I may do so too,
  When I’m as old as he.
Till then I’ll never hire the thing that’s free.        10
 
If coin must your affection imp,
  Pray get some other friend:
My pocket ne’er shall be my pimp,
  I never that intend,
Yet can be noble too, if I see they mend.        15
 
Since loving was a liberal art,
  How canst thou trade for gain?
’Tis pleasure is on your part,
  ’Tis we men take the pain:
And being so, must Women have the gain?        20
 
No, no, I’ll never farm your bed,
  Nor your Smock-tenant be:
I hate to rent your white and red,
  You shall not let your love to me:
I court a Mistris, not a Landlady.        25
 
A Pox take him that first set up,
  The Excise of flesh and skin:
And since it will no better be,
  Let’s both to kiss begin;
To kiss freely: if not, you may go spin.        30