T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Fond Love
Anonymous(From Merry Drollery, 1691) COME my delicate bonny sweet Betty, | |
| Let’s dally a while in the shade, | |
| Where the Sun by degrees shines through the trees, | |
| And the wind blows through the Glade; | |
| Where Telons her Lover is graced, | 5 |
| And richly adorned with green, | |
| And the amorous boy with her mother did toy, | |
| And the Uncan never was seen; | |
| There we may enjoy modest pleasure, | |
| As kissing and merry discourse, | 10 |
| And never control a modest sweet soul, | |
| For love is a thing of great force. | |
| The green grass shall be thy Pillow | |
| To comfort thy spherical head, | |
| And my arms shall enjoin my love so divine, | 15 |
| And the earth shall be thy bed; | |
| Thy mantle of fairest flowers, | |
| My coat shall thy coverlet be, | |
| And the whistling wind shall sing to our mind, | |
| O dainty sweet Lullaby. | 20 |
| Old Eolus shall be thy Rocker, | |
| With his gentle murmuring noise, | |
| And loves myrtle tree shall thy Canopy be; | |
| And the birds harmonious voice | |
| Shall bring us into a sweet slumber, | 25 |
| While I in thy bosom do rest, | |
| And give thee such bliss by that, and by —— | |
| At by poetry can’t be exprest. | |
| While thy cherry cheek pleaseth in touching, | |
| And in smelling her odorous breath; | 30 |
| Her beauty in my sight, and her voice my delight, | |
| Oh, my sweets are cast beneath; | |
| Thus ravished with the contentment | |
| In more than a lover exprest, | |
| And think when I am here, I am in a sphere, | 35 |
| And more than immortally blest. | |
| And thus with my mutual coying | |
| My love doth me sweetly embrace; | |
| With my hands in her hair, and her fingers so rare, | |
| And her playing with my face, | 40 |
| We reaped the most happy contentment | |
| That ever two Lovers did find; | |
| What women did see but my Love and me, | |
| Would say, that we use to be kind. | |