| |
(A Song, 1720)
I. AT the close of the day, | |
| When the bean-flower and hay | |
| Breathed odours in every wind: | |
| Love enliven’d the veins | |
| Of the damsels and swains; | 5 |
| Each glance and each action was kind. | |
| |
II. Molly, wanton and free, | |
| Kissed and sat on each knee, | |
| Fond ecstasy swam in her eyes. | |
| See, thy mother is near, | 10 |
| Hark! she calls thee to hear | |
| What age and experience advise. | |
| |
III. Hast thou seen the blithe dove | |
| Stretch her neck to her love, | |
| All glossy with purple and gold? | 15 |
| If a kiss he obtain, | |
| She returns it again: | |
| What follows you need not be told. | |
| |
IV. Look ye, mother, she cried, | |
| You instruct me in pride, | 20 |
| And men by good-manners are won. | |
| She who trifles with all | |
| Is less likely to fall | |
| Than she who but trifles with one. | |
| |
V. Prithee, Molly, be wise, | 25 |
| Lest by sudden surprise | |
| Love should tingle in ev’ry vein: | |
| Take a shepherd for life, | |
| And when once you’re a wife. | |
| You safely may trifle again. | 30 |
| |
VI. Molly, smiling, replied, | |
| Then I’ll soon be a bride; | |
| Old Roger had gold in his chest. | |
| But I thought all you wives | |
| Chose a man for your lives, | 35 |
| And trifled no more with the rest. | |
| |
