“Fair Iris I love and hourly I dye,” from Amphitryon

FAIR Iris I love and hourly I dye,

But not for a Lip nor a languishing Eye:

She’s fickle and false, and there I agree;

For I am as false and as fickle as she:

We neither believe what either can say;

And, neither believing, we neither betray.

’Tis civil to swear and say Things of course;

We mean not the taking for better or worse.

When present we love, when absent agree;

I think not of Iris, nor Iris of me:

The Legend of Love no Couple can find

So easie to part, or so equally join’d.