Volume Iv Part 37 (2/2)

Tender-handed stroke a nettle, And it stings you for your pains; Grasp it like a lad of mettle, And it soft as silk remains:

So it is with these fair creatures, Use them kindly, they rebel; But be rough as nutmeg graters, And the rogues obey you well.

Aaron Hill [1685-1750]

WOMEN'S LONGING From ”Women Pleased”

Tell me what is that only thing For which all women long; Yet, having what they most desire, To have it does them wrong?

'Tis not to be chaste, nor fair, (Such gifts malice may impair), Richly trimmed, to walk or ride, Or to wanton unespied, To preserve an honest name And so to give it up to fame-- These are toys. In good or ill They desire to have their will: Yet, when they have it, they abuse it, For they know not how to use it.

John Fletcher [1579-1625]

TRIOLET

All women born are so perverse No man need boast their love possessing.

If naught seem better, nothing's worse: All women born are so perverse.

From Adam's wife, that proved a curse, Though G.o.d had made her for a blessing, All women born are so perverse No man need boast their love possessing.

Robert Bridges [1844-1930]

THE FAIR CIRCa.s.sIAN

Forty Viziers saw I go Up to the Seraglio, Burning, each and every man, For the fair Circa.s.sian.

Ere the morn had disappeared, Every Vizier wore a beard; Ere the afternoon was born, Every Vizier came back shorn.

”Let the man that woos to win Woo with an unhairy chin;”

Thus she said, and as she bid Each devoted Vizier did.

From the beards a cord she made, Looped it to the bal.u.s.trade, Glided down and went away To her own Circa.s.sia.

When the Sultan heard, waxed he Somewhat wroth, and presently In the noose themselves did lend Every Vizier did suspend.

Sages all, this rhyme who read, Guard your beards with prudent heed, And beware the wily plans Of the fair Circa.s.sians.

Richard Garnett [1835-1906]

THE FEMALE PHAETON

<script>