2.
Since your _beautiful_ maid, Your flame has repaid, No more I your folly regret; She"s now most divine, And I bow at the shrine, Of this quickly reformed coquette.
3.
Yet still, I must own, [i]
I should never have known, From _your verses_, what else she deserv"d; Your pain seem"d so great, I pitied your fate, As your fair was so dev"lish reserv"d.
4.
Since the balm-breathing kiss [ii]
Of this magical Miss, Can such wonderful transports produce; [iii]
Since the _"world you forget, When your lips once have met,"_ My counsel will get but abuse.
5.
You say, "When I rove,"
"I know nothing of love;"
Tis true, I am given to range; If I rightly remember, _I"ve lov"d_ a good number; [iv]
Yet there"s pleasure, at least, in a change.
6.
I will not advance, [v]
By the rules of romance, To humour a whimsical fair; Though a smile may delight, Yet a _frown_ will _affright,_ [vi]
Or drive me to dreadful despair.
7.
While my blood is thus warm, I ne"er shall reform, To mix in the Platonists" school; Of this I am sure, Was my Pa.s.sion so pure, Thy _Mistress_ would think me a fool. [vii]
8 [viii]
And if I should shun, Every _woman_ for _one,_ Whose _image_ must fill my whole breast; Whom I must _prefer,_ And _sigh_ but for _her,_ What an _insult_ "twould be to the _rest!_
9.
Now Strephon, good-bye; I cannot deny, Your _pa.s.sion_ appears most _absurd;_ Such _love_ as you plead, Is _pure_ love, indeed, For it _only_ consists in the _word_.
[Footnote 1: The letters "J. M. B. P." are added, in a lady"s hand, in the annotated copy of "P. on V. Occasions", p. 17 (British Museum).]
[Footnote i: "But still". [4to]]
[Footnote ii: "But since the chaste kiss." [4to]]
[Footnote iii: "Such wonderful." [4to]]
[Footnote iv:
"I"ve kiss"d a good number.
But-----"
[4to]]
[Footnote v:
"I ne"er will advance."
[4to]]
[Footnote vi:
"Yet a frown won"t affright."
[4to. "P. on V. Occasions."]]
[Footnote vii:
"My mistress must think me."
[4to. "P. on V. Occasions."]]
[Footnote viii:
"Though the kisses are sweet, Which voluptuously meet, Of kissing I ne"er was so fond, As to make me forget, Though our lips oft have met, That still there was something beyond."
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