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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  Wert Thou but Half So Wise As Thou Art Fair

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

Wert Thou but Half So Wise As Thou Art Fair

Anonymous
 
(A Song from Westminster Drolleries, 1671–2)

WERT thou but half so wise as thou art fair,
  Thou would’st not need such courting,
’Twill prove a loss you’ll ne’er repair,
  Should you still defer your sporting.
This peevish shall I, shall I, you’ll repent,        5
  When your spring is over,
Beauties after-math—no kind friends hath
  To gratify a Lover!
 
Perhaps you may think ’tis a sin to deal,
  Till Hymen doth authorize you:        10
Though the Gods themselves sweet pleasure steal,
  That to coyness thus advise you.
Pox upon the Link-boy and his Taper,
  I’ll kiss, although not have you,
’Twas an Eunuch wrote all the Text that you quote,        15
  And the Ethics that enslave you.
 
I am sure you have heard of that sprightly Dame
  That with Mars so often traded,
Had the God but thought she had been to blame,
  She had surely been degraded.        20
Nor is blind Cupid less esteemed
  For the sly tricks on his Mother,
For men do adore that Son of a Whore,
  As much as any other.
 
’Tis plain antiquity doth lie        25
  Which made Lucretia squeamish;
For that which you call Chastity,
  Upon her left a blemish:
For when her Paramour grew weak,
  Her passion waxed stronger,        30
For the Lecherous Drab her self did stab
  ’Cause Tarquin staid no longer.
 
Then away with this Bugbear Vice,
  You are lost if that you fly me,
In Elysium (if you here are nice)        35
  You never shall come nigh me:
Hell for Vestals is a Cloister
  I don’t run doting thither,
For the pleasant shades are for her that trades:
  Let’s truck and go together.        40