I love the bold and brave,
I hate the fawning slave,

Who quakes and cries,
And sighs and lies,
Yet wants the skill

With sense to tell

What 'tis he longs to have.

SIR JOHN VANBRUGH.

1666-1726.

THE RELAPSE; OR, VIRTUE IN DANGER.

I

BEWARE OF LOVE.

SMILE at Love and all its arts,
The charming Cynthia cried;

Take heed, for Love has piercing darts,
A wounded swain replied;

Once free and blessed as you are now,

I trifled with his charms,

I pointed at his little bow,

And sported with his arms:

Till urged too far, Revenge! he cries,
A fatal shaft he drew,

It took its passage through your eyes,
And to my heart it flew.

To tear it thence I tried in vain,
To strive I quickly found
Was only to increase the pain,
And to enlarge the wound.

know

Ah! much too well, I fear you
What pain I'm to endure,
Since what your eyes alone could do
Your heart alone can cure.

may mistake!)

And that (grant Heaven I
I doubt is doomed to bear
A burthen for another's sake,
Who ill rewards its care.

THE PROVOKED WIFE.

LOVELESS BEAUTY.

FLY, fly, you happy shepherds, fly!

Avoid Philira's charms;

The rigor of her heart denies

The heaven that's in her arms.
Ne'er hope to gaze, and then retire,
Nor yielding, to be blessed:
Nature, who formed her eyes of fire,
Of ice composed her breast.

Yet, lovely maid, this once believe
A slave whose zeal you move;
The gods, alas, your youth deceive,
Their heaven consists in love.
In spite of all the thanks you owe,
You may reproach 'em this,
That where they did their form bestow,
They have denied their bliss.

ESOP.

LEARNED WOMEN.

NCE on a time, a nightingale

ONCE

To changes prone;

Unconstant, fickle, whimsical,
(A female one)

Who sung like others of her kind,
Hearing a well-taught linnet's airs,
Had other matters in her mind,
To imitate him she prepares.

THE DRAMATISTS.

17

Her fancy straight was on the wing:

'I fly,' quoth she,
'As well as he;

I don't know why

I should not try

As well as he to sing.'

From that day forth she changed her note,
She spoiled her voice, she strained her throat:
She did, as learned women do,

Till everthing

That heard her sing,

Would run away from her-as I from you.

WILLIAM CONGREVE.

1672-1728.

LOVE FOR LOVE.

THE ORACLE.

ANYMPH and a swain to Apollo once prayed,

The swain had been jilted, the nymph been betrayed:

Their intent was to try if his oracle knew

E'er a nymph that was chaste, or a swain that was true.
Apollo was mute, and was like t' have been posed,
But sagely at length he this secret disclosed:

'He alone won't betray in whom none will confide: And the nymph may be chaste that has never been tried.'

LOVE'S INFIDELITIES.

TELL thee, Charmion, could I time retrieve,
And could again begin to love and live,
To you I should my earliest offering give;
I know my eyes would lead my heart to you,
And I should all my vows and oaths renew;
But, to be plain, I never would be true.

For by our weak and weary truth I find,
Love hates to centre in a point assigned:
But runs with joy the circle of the mind:
Then never let us chain what should be free,
But for relief of either sex agree:

Since women love to change, and so do we.

THE WAY OF THE WORLD.

LOVE'S AMBITION.

LOVE'S but the frailty of the mind,
When 'tis not with ambition joined;
A sickly flame, which, if not fed, expires,
And feeding, wastes in self-consuming fires.
"Tis not to wound a wanton boy,

Or amorous youth, that gives the joy;
But 'tis the glory to have pierced a swain,
For whom inferior beauties sighed in vain.
Then I alone the conquest prize,
When I insult a rival's eyes:

If there's delight in love, 'tis when I see
That heart, which others bleed for, bleed for me.

DRINKING SONG.

PRITHEE fill

me

the glass,

Till it laugh in my face,

With ale that is potent and mellow;

He that whines for a lass,

Is an ignorant ass,

For a bumper has not its fellow.

We'll drink and we'll never ha' done, boys,

Put the glass then around with the sun, boys,

Let Apollo's example invite us;

For he's drunk every night,

And that makes him so bright,

That he's able next morning to light us.

To drink is a Christian diversion,
Unknown to the Turk or the Persian :
Let Mahometan fools

Live by heathenish rules,

And be damned over tea-cups and coffee;
But let British lads sing,

Crown a health to the king,
And a fig for your sultan and sophy!

GEORGE FARQUHAR.

1678-1707.

LOVE AND A BOTTLE.

HOW

FALSE LOVE ONLY IS BLIND.

OW blessed are lovers in disguise!
Like gods, they see,

As I do thee,

Unseen by human eyes.
Exposed to view,

I'm hid from you,

I'm altered, yet the same:
The dark conceals me,

Love reveals me;

Love, which lights me by its flame.

Were you not false, you me would know; For though your eyes

Could not devise,

Your heart had told you so.

Your heart would beat

With eager heat,

And me by sympathy would find:

True love might see

One changed like me,

False love is only blind.