T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Maiden’s Delight
Anonymous(From Merry Drollery, 1661) A YOUNG man of late, that lacked a mate, | |
| And courting came unto her, | |
| With Cap, and Kiss, and sweet Mistress, | |
| But little could he do her; | |
| Quoth she, my friend, let kissing end, | 5 |
| Wherewith you do me smother, | |
| And run at Ring with t’other thing; | |
| A little o’ th’one with t’other. | |
| Too much of ought is good for nought, | |
| Then leave this idle kissing; | 10 |
| Your barren suit will yield no fruit | |
| If the other thing be missing: | |
| As much as this a man may kiss | |
| His sister or his mother; | |
| He that will speed must give with need | 15 |
| A little o’ th’one with t’other. | |
| Who bids a Guest unto a feast, | |
| To sit by divers dishes, | |
| They please their mind until they find | |
| Change, please each creature wishes; | 20 |
| With beak and bill I have my fill, | |
| With measure running over; | |
| The Lover’s dish I now do wish, | |
| A little o’ th’ t’one with t’other. | |
| To gull me thus, like Tantalus, | 25 |
| To make me pine with plenty, | |
| With shadows store, and nothing more, | |
| Your substance is so dainty; | |
| A fruitless tree is like to thee, | |
| Being but a kissing lover, | 30 |
| With leaves join fruit, or else be mute; | |
| A little o’ th’ t’one with t’other. | |
| Sharp join’d with flat, no mirth to that; | |
| A low note and a higher, | |
| Where Mean and Base keeps time and place, | 35 |
| Such music maids desire: | |
| All of one string doth loathing bring, | |
| Change, is true Music’s Mother, | |
| Then leave my face, and sound the base, | |
| A little o’ th’ t’one with t’other. | 40 |
| The golden mine lies just between | |
| The high way and the lower; | |
| He that wants wit that way to hit | |
| Alas! hath little power; | |
| You’ll miss the clout if that you shoot | 45 |
| Much higher, or much lower: | |
| Shoot just between, your arrows keen, | |
| A little o’ th’ t’one with t’other. | |
| No smoke desire without a fire, | |
| No wax without a Writing: | 50 |
| If right you deal give Deeds to Seal, | |
| And straight fall to inditing; | |
| Thus do I take these lines I make, | |
| As to a faithful Lover, | |
| In order he’ll first write, then seal, | 55 |
| A little o’ th’ t’one with t’other. | |
| Thus while she stayed the young man played | |
| Not high, but low defending; | |
| Each stroke he strook so well she took, | |
| She swore it was past mending; | 60 |
| Let swaggering boys that think by toys | |
| Their Lovers to fetch over, | |
| Lip-labour save for the maids must have | |
| A little o’ th’ t’one with t’other. | |