| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | The Bashful Lover | | By Lewis Theobald (1688–1744) |
| | (From The Lady’s Triumph, c. 1729)
ON a Bank of Flowers in a Summer’s Day, | |
| Inviting and undressed, | |
| In her Bloom of Years bright Celia lay, | |
| With Love and Sleep oppress’d; | |
| When a youthful Swain with admiring Eyes | 5 |
| Wish’d he durst the fair Maid surprise, | |
| With a Fa, la, la, &c. | |
| But feared approaching Spies. | |
| |
| As he gazed, a gentle Breeze arose, | |
| That fanned her Robes aside; | 10 |
| And the sleeping Nymph did the Charms disclose, | |
| Which, waking, She would hide, | |
| Then his Breath grew short, and his Pulse beat high, | |
| He longed to touch what he chanced to spy; | |
| With a Fa, la, la, &c. | 15 |
| |
| All amazed he stood, with her Beauties fired | |
| And blessed the courteous Wind; | |
| Then in Whispers sighed, and the Gods desir’d, | |
| That Celia might be kind, | |
| Then with Hope grown bold, he advanced again; | 20 |
| But she laughed loud in a Dream, and, again, | |
| With a Fa, la, la, &c. | |
| Repell’d the tim’rous Swain. | |
| |
| Yet when once Desire has inflamed the Soul, | |
| All modest Doubts withdraw; | 25 |
| And the God of Love does each Fear control, | |
| That would the Lover awe. | |
| Shall a Prize like this, says the vent’rous Boy, | |
| ’Scape, and I not the Means employ, | |
| With a Fa, la, la, &c. | 30 |
| To seize the proffer’d Toy? | |
| |
| Here the glowing Youth, to relieve his Pain, | |
| The slumb’ring Maid caressed; | |
| And with trembling Hands (O the simple Swain!) | |
| Her glowing Bosom pressed: | 35 |
| When the Virgin waked, and affrighted flew, | |
| Yet looked, as wishing he would pursue, | |
| With a Fa, la, la, &c. | |
| But Damon miss’d his Cue. | |
| |
| Now, repenting that he had let her fly, | 40 |
| Himself he thus accused; | |
| What a dull and stupid Thing was I | |
| That such a chance abused? | |
| To my Shame ’twill now on the Plains be said, | |
| Damon a Virgin asleep betrayed, | 45 |
| With a Fa, la, la, &c. | |
| Yet let her go a Maid. | | | | |
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