T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Chaste Florimel
By Matthew Prior (1664–1721)(1765) NO—I’ll endure ten thousand deaths, | |
| Ere any farther I’ll comply; | |
| Oh! sir, no man on earth that breathes | |
| Had ever yet his hand so high! | |
| Oh! take your sword, and pierce my heart, | 5 |
| Undaunted see me meet the wound, | |
| Oh! will you act a Tarquin’s part? | |
| A second Lucrece you have found. | |
| Thus to the pressing Corydon, | |
| Poor Florimel, unhappy maid! | 10 |
| Fearing by love to be undone, | |
| In broken dying accents said. | |
| Delia, who held the conscious door, | |
| Inspir’d by truth and brandy, smil’d, | |
| Knowing that, sixteen months before, | 15 |
| Our Lucrece had her second child. | |
| And, hark ye! madam, cried the bawd, | |
| None of your flights, your high-rope dodging; | |
| Be civil here, or march abroad; | |
| Oblige the squire, or quit the lodging. | 20 |
| Oh! have I—Florimel went on— | |
| Have I then lost my Delia’s aid? | |
| Where shall forsaken virtue run, | |
| If by her friends she is betray’d? | |
| Oh! curse on empty friendship’s name! | 25 |
| Lord, what is all our future view! | |
| Then, dear destroyer of my fame, | |
| Let my last succour be to you! | |
| From Delia’s rage, and fortune’s frown, | |
| A wretched love-sick maid deliver! | 30 |
| Oh! tip me but another crown, | |
| Dear sir, and make me yours for ever. | |