Page:The Works of Alexander Pope (1717).djvu/294
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The WIFE of BATH.
"But see! I'm all your own—nay hold—for shame!
"What means my dear—indeed—you are to blame.
Thus with my first three Lords I past my life;
A very woman, and a very wife!
What sums from these old spouses I could raise,
Procur'd young husbands in my riper days.
Tho' past my bloom, not yet decay'd was I,
Wanton and wild, and chatter'd like a Pye.
In country dances still I bore the bell,
And sung as sweet as evening Philomel.
To clear my quail-pipe, and refresh my soul,
Full oft' I drain'd the spicy nut-brown bowl;
Rich luscious wines, that youthful blood improve,
And warm the swelling veins to feats of love.
For 'tis as sure, as cold ingenders hail,
A liqu'rish mouth must have a lech'rous tail;
Wine lets no lover unrewarded go,
As all true gamesters by experience know.
But oh good Gods! whene'er a thought I cast,
On all the joys of youth and beauty past,
"What means my dear—indeed—you are to blame.
Thus with my first three Lords I past my life;
A very woman, and a very wife!
What sums from these old spouses I could raise,
Procur'd young husbands in my riper days.
Tho' past my bloom, not yet decay'd was I,
Wanton and wild, and chatter'd like a Pye.
In country dances still I bore the bell,
And sung as sweet as evening Philomel.
To clear my quail-pipe, and refresh my soul,
Full oft' I drain'd the spicy nut-brown bowl;
Rich luscious wines, that youthful blood improve,
And warm the swelling veins to feats of love.
For 'tis as sure, as cold ingenders hail,
A liqu'rish mouth must have a lech'rous tail;
Wine lets no lover unrewarded go,
As all true gamesters by experience know.
But oh good Gods! whene'er a thought I cast,
On all the joys of youth and beauty past,
To