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. | |