maid

And old impertinence expel by new.

What tender maid but must a victim fall 95

To one man's treat, but for another's ball?

The godly dame, who fleshly failings damns,

Scolds with her maid, or with her chaplain crams.

Would you enjoy soft nights and solid dinners?

And thou, bless'd maid! attendant on his doom,

Pensive hast follow'd to the silent tomb,

The gardens enter'd, and the fruit survey'd;

And, 'Happy you!' he thus address'd the maid,

'Whose charms as far all other nymphs outshine,

(From the proud epic,[19] down to those that shade 35

The gentler brow of the soft Lesbian maid)

Go to the good and just, an awful train,[20]

One sings the fair; but songs no longer move;

No rat is rhymed to death, nor maid to love:

In love's, in nature's spite, the siege they hold,

By laurels shielded from the piercing day:

Where Daphne, now a tree, as once a maid,

Still from Apollo vindicates her shade,

And old impertinence expel by new.

What tender maid but must a victim fall

To one man's treat, but for another's ball?