| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | Songs from Plays | | By Susanna Centlivre (1667?–1723) |
| | (1761)
THE DEVIL a bit care I for a wife, | |
| So I have but wine and a fire; | |
| A wench when I please my passion to ease, | |
| The devil a wife I desire. * * * * * | |
| To gain all women there’s a certain rule: | 5 |
| If wit should fail to please, then act the fool; | |
| And where you find simplicity not take, | |
| Throw off disguises, and profess the rake; | |
| Observe which way their strongest humours run, | |
| They’re by their own lov’d cant the surest way undone. * * * * * | 10 |
| Each trifling toy would tempt in times of old, | |
| Now nothing melts a woman’s heart like gold. | |
| Some bargains drive, others more nice than they, | |
| Who’d have you think they scorn to kiss for pay; | |
| To purchase them you must lose deep at play. | 15 |
| With several women, several ways prevail; | |
| But gold’s a certain way that cannot fail. | | | | |
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