T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Chaste Florimel
By Matthew Prior (16641721)(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. | |