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

To Bassa

By Sir Charles Sedley (1639–1701)


(Works, 1722) THAT I ne’er saw thee in a coach with man,
Nor thy chaste name in wanton satyr met;
That from thy sex thy liking never ran,
So as to suffer a male-servant yet.
I thought thee, the Lucretia of our time:	5
But, Bassa, thou the while a Tribas wert,
And clashing ——, with a prodigious crime,
Didst act of man the inimitable part.
What Œdipus this riddle can untie?
Without a male, there was adultery.	10