Vainly thou talk'ft of loving me alone :
Each man is man; and all our sex is one.
Falfe are our words, and fickle is our mind:
Nor in Loves ritual can we ever find
Vows made to last, or promises to bind.
By nature prompted, and for empire made, Alike by strength or cunning we invade : When, arm'd with rage, we march against the foe, We lift the battel-ax, and draw the bow: When, fir'd with paffion, we attack the fair, 555 Delufive fighs and brittle vows we bear: Our falfhood and our arms have equal use; As they our conqueft, or delight produce.
The foolish heart thou gav'ft, again receive,
The only boon departing love can give.
To be lefs wretched, be no longer true;
What strives to fly thee, why should'st thou pursue ?
Forget thy present flame, indulge a new.
Single the lovelieft of the am'rous youth;
Ask for his vow; but hope not for his truth. 565
The next man (and the next thou shalt believe)
Will pawn his gods, intending to deceive;
Will kneel, implore, persist, o'ercome, and leave.
Hence let thy Cupid aim his arrows right;
Be wife and false, fhun trouble, seek delight;
Change thou the firft, nor wait thy lovers flight.
Why should'st thou weep? let Nature judge our
I faw thee young and fair; purfu'd the chase
Of youth and beauty: I another faw
Fairer and younger : yielding to the law
Of our all-ruling mother, I purfu'd
More youth, more beauty: bleft viciffitude!
My active heart ftill keeps its pristine flame;
The object alter'd, the defire the fame.
This younger fairer pleads her rightful charms; With present power compels me to her arms. And much I fear, from my fubjected mind (If beauty's force to conftant love can bind), That years may roll, ere in her turn the maid Shall weep the fury of my love decay'd; And weeping follow me, as thou dost now, With idle clamours of a broken vow.
Nor can the wildness of thy wishes err So wide, to hope that thou may'ft live with her. Love, well thou know'ft, no partnership allows: Cupid averfe rejects divided vows:
Then from thy foolish heart, vain maid, remove
An useless forrow, and an ill-ftarr'd love;
And leave me, with the fair, at large in woods
Are we in life through one great error led? Is each man perjur'd, and each nymph betray'd?
Of the fuperior fex art thou the worst?
Am I of mine the most compleatly curft?
Yet let me go with thee; and going prove,
From what I will endure, how much I love. 600
This potent beauty, this triumphant fair,
This happy object of our diff'rent care,
Her let me follow; her let me attend,
A fervant: (fhe may scorn the name of friend.)
What the demands, inceffant I'll prepare : 605
I'll weave her garlands; and I'll pleat her hair:
My bufie diligence shall deck her board;
(For there at least I may approach my lord);
And, when her Henry's fofter hours advise
His fervants abfence, with dejected eyes
Far I'll recede, and fighs forbid to rise.
Yet, when increasing grief brings flow disease;
And ebbing life, on terms fevere as these,
Will have its little lamp no longer fed;
When Henry's mistress shows him Emma dead;
Rescue my poor remains from vile neglect: 616
With virgin honours let my hearse be deckt,
And decent emblem; and at least persuade
This happy nymph, that Emma may be laid
Where thou, dear author of my death, where fhe,
With frequent eye my fepulchre may fee.
The nymph amidst her joys may haply breath
One pious figh, reflecting on my death,
And the fad fate which she may one day prove,
Who hopes from Henry's vows eternal love. 625
And thou forfworn, thou cruel, as thou art,
If Emma's image ever touch'd thy heart;
Thou fure must give one thought, and drop one tear,
To her, whom love abandon'd to despair;
To her, who, dying, on the wounded stone
Bid it in lasting characters be known,
That, of mankind, she lov'd but thee alone.
Hear, folemn Jove; and conscious Venus, hear; And thou, bright maid, believe me, whilft I swear;
No time, no change, no future flame, shall move
The well-plac'd basis of my lasting love.
O powerful virtue! O victorious fair!
At least excuse a tryal too severe :
Receive the triumph, and forget the war.
No banish'd man, condemn'd in woods to rove, Intreats thy pardon, and implores thy love
No perjur'd knight defires to quit thy arms,
Fairest collection of thy fexes charms,
Crown of my love, and honour of my youth:
Henry, thy Henry, with eternal truth,
645
As thou may'st wish, shall all his life imploy,
And found his glory in his Emma's joy.
In me behold the potent Edgar's heir,
Illustrious earl: him terrible in war
Let Loyre confefs; for fhe has felt his fword, 650 And trembling fled before the British lord.
Him great in peace and wealth fair Deva knows ;
For fhe amidst his fpacious meadows flows;
Inclines her urn upon his fatten❜d lands;
And fees his numʼrous herd imprint her sands.
And thou, my fair, my dove, fhalt raife thy thought
To greatness next to empire; shalt be brought
With folemn pomp to my paternal feat;
Where peace and plenty on thy word shall wait.
Mufic and fong fhall wake the marriage-day :
And, whilft the priests accuse the bride's delay,
Myrtles and roses shall obftruct her way.
Friendship shall ftill thy evening feafts adorn;
And blooming peace shall ever bless thy morn.
Succeeding years their happy race shall run; 665
And Age unheeded by delight come on;
While yet fuperior Love shall mock his pow'r;
And when old Time fhall turn the fated hour,
Which only can our well-ty'd knot unfold;
What refts of both, one fepulchre fhall hold. 670
Hence then for ever from my Emma's breast (That heav'n of softness, and that seat of reft) Ye doubts and fears, and all that know to move Tormenting grief, and all that trouble love, Scatter'd by winds recede, and wild in forefts
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