No — I’ll endure ten thousand deaths
Ere any further I’ll comply:
Oh! Sir, no man on earth that breathes
Had ever yet his hand so high.
Oh! take your sword and pierce my heart,
Undaunted see me meet the wound
Oh! will you act a Tarquin’s part?
A second Lucrece you have found.
Thus to the pressing Corydon
Poor Florimel, unhappy maid,
Fearing by love to be undone,
In broken dying accents said;
Delia who held the conscious door,
Inspired by truth and brandy, smiled,
Knowing that sixteen months before
Our Lucrece had her second child.
And hark ye, Madam, cried the bawd,
None of your flights, your high-rope dodging;
Be civil here, or march abroad;
Oblige the ‘squire, or quit the lodging.
Oh! have I, Florimel went on,
Lord what is lost my Delia’s aid?
Where shall forsaken virtue run
If by her friend she is betray’d?
Oh! curse on empty friendship’s name:
Lord what is all our future view?
Then, dear destroyer of my fame,
Let my last succour be to you.
From Delia’s rage and Fortune’s frown
A wretched lovesick maid deliver;
Oh! tip me but another crown,
Dear Sir, and make me yours for ever.
(Matthew Prior)
More Poetry from Matthew Prior:
Matthew Prior Poems based on Topics: Name, Cry, Fame, Duty- Carmen Seculare. For the Year 1700. To The King (Matthew Prior Poems)
- Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind. In Three Cantos. - Canto III. (Matthew Prior Poems)
- Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind. In Three Cantos. - Canto II. (Matthew Prior Poems)
- Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind. In Three Cantos. - Canto I. (Matthew Prior Poems)
- The Turtle And Sparrow. An Elegiac Tale (Matthew Prior Poems)
- An Ode - Humbly Inscribed To The Queen, On the Glorious Success of Her Majesty's Arms (Matthew Prior Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Name Poems, Cry Poems, Fame Poems, Duty PoemsBased on Keywords: bawd, lovesick, corydon, tarquin, lucrece, florimel
- Belphegor Addressed To Miss De Chammelay (Jean de La Fontaine Poems)
- The Pastoral, Or Lyric Muse Of Scotland. Canto Second (Hector MacNeill Poems)
- An Oriental Apologue (James Russell Lowell Poems)
- 'Look at The Clock!' : Patty Morgan The Milkmaid's Story (Richard Harris Barham Poems)
- Rachel (John Lawson Stoddard Poems)