T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Forsaken Mistress
By Sir George Etherege (1635?–1691)A Dialogue between Phyllis and Strephon |
Phyllis TELL me, gentle Strephon, why | |
| You from my embraces fly? | |
| Does my love thy love destroy? | |
| Tell me, I will yet be coy. | |
| Stay, oh, stay! and I will feign | 5 |
| (Though I break my heart) disdain; | |
| But, lest I too unkind appear, | |
| For every frown I’ll shed a tear. | |
| And if in vain I court thy love, | |
| Let mine at least thy pity move: | 10 |
| Ah! while I scorn vouchsafe to woo; | |
| Methinks you may dissemble too. | |
Strephon Ah, Phyllis! that you would contrive | |
| A way to keep my love alive! | |
| But all your other charms must fail, | 15 |
| When kindness ceases to prevail. | |
| Alas! no less than you I grieve, | |
| My dying flame has no reprieve; | |
| For I can never hope to find, | |
| Should all the nymphs I court be kind, | 20 |
| One beauty able to renew | |
| Those pleasures I enjoy’d in you, | |
| When love and youth did both conspire | |
| To fill our breasts and veins with fire. | |
| ’Tis true some other nymph may gain | 25 |
| That heart which merits your disdain; | |
| But second love has still allay, | |
| The joys grow aged and decay. | |
| Then blame me not for losing more | |
| Than love and beauty can restore; | 30 |
| And let this truth thy comfort prove, | |
| I would, but can no longer love. | |