But took a wise and shorter course
To win the ladies, downright force;
And justly made 'em prisoners then,
As they have, often since, us men,
With acting plays, and dancing jigs,
The luckiest of all Love's intrigues;
And when they had them at their pleasure,
They talk'd of love and flames at leisure;
For after matrimony 's over,
He that holds out but half a lover,
Deserves for every minute more
Than half a year of love before;
Of that best way of application,
For which the dames, in contemplation
Prov'd nobler wives than e'er were known,
By suit, or treaty, to be won;
And such as all posterity
Could never equal, nor come nigh.
For women first were made for men,
Not men for them. — It follows, then,
That men have right to ev'ry one,
And they no freedom of their own;
And therefore men have pow'r to choose,
But they no charter to refuse.
Hence 'tis apparent that, what course
Soe'er we take to your amours,
Though by the indirectest way,
'Tis no injustice nor foul play;
And that you ought to take that course,
As we take you, for better or worse,
And gratefully submit to those
Who you, before another, choose.
For why should ev'ry savage beast
Exceed his great Lord's interest?
Have freer pow'r than he, in Grace
And Nature, o'er the creature has?
Because the laws he since has made
Have cut off all the pow'r he had;
Retrench'd the absolute dominion
That Nature gave him over women ;
When all his pow'r will not extend
And not, like sots, permit their wives
T" encroach on their prerogatives;
For which sin they deserve to be
Kept, as they are, in slavery:
And this some precious Gifted Teachers,
Unrev'rently reputed Leachers,
V. 305, 306. Sir Roger L'Estrange ('Key to Hudibras ') mentions Mr. Case as one; and Mr. Butler, in his Posthumous works,* mentions Dr. Burgess and Hugh Peters; and the writer of a Letter to the Earl of Pembroke, 1647, p. 9, ob
* It may be proper to observe here, once for all, that Butler left no genuine poems besides those in the possession of Mr. Longueville, and published by Mr. Thyer in 1759, which form the subsequent part of this volume.
And disobey'd in making love,
Have vow'd to all the world to prove,
And make you suffer, as you ought,
For that uncharitable fault:
But I forget myself, and rove
Beyond th' instructions of my love.
Forgive me, Fair, and only blame
Th' extravagancy of my flame,
Since 'tis too much at once to shew
Excess of love and temper too;
All I have said that 's bad and true,
Was never meant to aim at you,
Who have so sov'reign a control
O'er that poor slave of yours, my soul,
That, rather than to forfeit you,
Has ventur❜d loss of heaven too;
Both with an equal pow'r possest,
To render all that serve you blest;
But none like him, who 's destin'd either
To have or lose you both together;
And if you 'll but this fault release
(For so it must be, since you please),
I'll pay down all that vow and more,
serves of Peters, "That it was offered to be publicly proved that he got both mother and daughter with child." I am glad (says an anonymous person, Thurloe's 'State Papers,' vol. iv. p. 734) to hear that Mr. Peters shews his head again; it was reported here (Amsterdam, May 5, 1655) that he was found with a whore a-bed, and he grew mad, and said nothing but O blood, O blood, that troubles me."
Which you commanded, and I swore,
And expiate, upon my skin,
Th' arrears in full of all my sin;
For 'tis but just that I should pay
Th' accruing penance for delay,
Which shall be done, until it move
Your equal pity and your love.
The Knight, perusing this Epistle,
Believ'd he 'ad brought her to his whistle,
And read it, like a jocund lover,
With great applause t' himself twice over;
Subscrib'd his name, but at a fit
And humble distance, to his wit,
And dated it with wondrous art,
Giv'n from the bottom of his heart;
Then seal'd it with his coat of love,
A smoking faggot and above,
Upon a scroll - I burn and weep,
And near it - For her Ladyship,
Of all her sex most excellent,
These to her gentle hands present ;
Then gave it to his faithful Squire,
With lessons how t' observe and eye her.
She first consider'd which was better, To send it back, or burn the letter : But guessing that it might import, Though nothing else, at least her sport, She open'd it, and read it out,
With many a smile and leering flout;
Resolv'd to answer it in kind,
And thus perform'd what she design'd.
THE LADY'S ANSWER TO THE KNIGHT.
THAT you 're a beast, and turn'd to grass,
Is no strange news, nor ever was,
At least to me, who once, you know,
Did from the pound replevin you,
When both your sword and spurs were won
In combat by an Amazon ;
That sword that did, like Fate, determine
Th' inevitable death of vermin,
And never dealt its furious blows,
But cut the throats of pigs and cows,
By Trulla was, in single fight,
Disarm'd and wrested from its Knight,
Your heels degraded of
your spurs, And in the stocks close prisoners,
Where still they 'ad lain, in base restraint,
If I, in pity' of your complaint,
Had not, on honourable conditions,
Releas'd 'em from the worst of prisons;
And what return that favour met
You cannot (though you would) forget;
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