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(1677)
I HOW far they are deceiv’d, who hope in vain | |
| A lasting Lease of Joys from Love t’obtain? | |
| All the dear Sweets we’re promised or expect, | |
| After Enjoyment turns to cold Neglect. | |
| Could Love a constant Happiness have known, | 5 |
| That mighty Wonder had in me been shown; | |
| Our Passions were so favoured by Fate, | |
| As if she meant ’em an eternal Date; | |
| So kind he looked, such tender Words he spoke, | |
| ’Twas past Belief such Vows should e’er be broke: | 10 |
| Fixt on my Eyes, how often would he say, | |
| He could with Pleasure gaze an Age away. | |
| When Thoughts too great for Words had made him mute, | |
| In Kisses he would tell my Hand his Suit: | |
| So strong his Passion was, so far above | 15 |
| The common Gallantries that pass for Love: | |
| At worst, I thought, if he unkind should prove, | |
| His ebbing Passion would be kinder far | |
| Than the first Transports of all others are: | |
| Nor was my Love or Fondness less than his; | 20 |
| In him I centred all my Hopes of Bliss; | |
| For him my Duty to my Friends forgot, | |
| For him I lost, alas! what lost I not? | |
| Fame, all the valuable Things of Life, | |
| To meet his Love by a less Name than Wife: | 25 |
| How happy was I then, how dearly blest, | |
| When this great Man lay panting on my Breast, | |
| Looking such Things as ne’er could be expressed? | |
| Thousand fresh Looks he gave me ev’ry Hour, | |
| Whilst greedily I did his Looks devour; | 30 |
| ’Till quite o’ercome with Charms, I trembling lay, | |
| At ev’ry Look he gave, melting away, | |
| I was so highly happy in his Love, | |
| Methought I pity’d them that dwelt Above. | |
| Think then, thou greatest, loveliest, falsest Man. | 35 |
| How you have vowed, how you have loved, and then, | |
| My faithless Dear, be cruel if you can. | |
| How I have loved, I cannot, need not tell; | |
| No, ev’ry Act has shown I loved too well. | |
| Since first I saw you, I ne’er had a Thought | 40 |
| Was not entirely yours; to you I brought | |
| My Virgin Innocence, and freely made | |
| My Love an Off’ring to your noble Bed: | |
| Since then you’ve been the Star by which I steered, | |
| And nothing else but you, I loved or feared; | 45 |
| Your Smiles I only live by, and I must, | |
| Whene’er you frown, be shattered into Dust. | |
| O! can the Coldness that you shew me now, | |
| Suit with the gen’rous Heat you once did show? | |
| I cannot live on Pity or Respect, | 50 |
| A Thought so mean would my whole Love infect; | |
| Less than your Love I scorn, Sir, to expect. | |
| Let me not live in dull Indiff’rency, | |
| But give me Rage enough to make me die; | |
| For if from you I needs must meet my Fate, | 55 |
| Before your Pity, I would choose your Hate. | |
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II
A Very Heroical Epistle, in Answer to Ephelia
MADAM,
IF you’re deceiv’d, it is not by my Cheat, | |
| For all Disguises are below the Great. | |
| What Man or Woman upon Earth can say | |
| I ever used ’em well above a Day? | 60 |
| How is it then that I inconstant am? | |
| He changes not, who always is the same. | |
| In my dear Self I center every Thing, | |
| My Servants, Friends, my Mistress, and my King, | |
| Nay, Heav’n and Earth to that one Point I bring. | 65 |
| Well mannered, honest, generous, and stout, | |
| Names by dull Fools to plague Mankind found out, | |
| Should I regard, I must myself constrain, | |
| And ’tis my Maxim to avoid all Pain. | |
| You fondly look for what none e’er could find; | 70 |
| Deceive yourself, and then call me unkind; | |
| And, by false Reason, would my Falsehood prove, | |
| For ’tis as natural to Change, as Love. | |
| You may as justly at the Sun repine, | |
| Because alike it does not always shine. | 75 |
| No glorious Thing was ever made to stay; | |
| My Blazing-Star but visits, and away: | |
| As fatal too it shines, as those i’th’ Skies; | |
| ’Tis never seen, but some great Lady dies: | |
| The boasted Favour you so precious hold, | 80 |
| To me’s no more than changing of my Gold, | |
| Whate’er you gave, I paid you back in Bliss; | |
| Then where’s the Obligation, pray, of this? | |
| If heretofore you found Grace in my Eyes, | |
| Be thankful for it, and let that suffice; | 85 |
| But Women, Beggars like, still haunt the Door, | |
| Where they’ve received a Charity before. | |
| O! happy Sultan! whom we barb’rous call, | |
| How much art thou refined above us all? | |
| Who envies not the Joys of thy Seraglio? | 90 |
| Thee, like some God, the trembling crowd adore, | |
| Each Man’s thy Slave, and Woman-kind thy Whore. | |
| Methinks I see thee underneath the Shade | |
| Of golden Canopy supinely laid; | |
| Thy crowding Slaves all silent as the Night, | 95 |
| But at thy Nod, all active as the Light; | |
| Secure in solid Sloth, thou there dost reign, | |
| And feel’st the Joys of Love without the Pain. | |
| Each Female courts thee with a wishing Eye, | |
| While thou with awful Pride walk’st careless by, | 100 |
| ’Till thy kind Pledge at last marks out the Dame | |
| Thou fanciest most, to quench thy present Flame: | |
| Then from thy Bed submissive she retires, | |
| And, thankful for the Grace, no more requires. | |
| No loud Reproach, nor fond unwelcome Sound | 105 |
| Of Women’s Tongues thy sacred Ears does wound; | |
| If any do, a nimble Mute straight ties | |
| The True-love Knot, and stops her foolish Cries. | |
| Thou fear’st no injur’d Kinsman’s threat’ning Blade, | |
| Nor Midnight Ambushes by Rivals laid; | 110 |
| While here, with aching Hearts our Joys we taste, | |
| Disturbed by Swords, like Democles’s Feast. | |
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