Classic Poem

BETWEEN A LOVER AND HIS FRIEND .

[ Irregular Verses .]

FRIEND .

Value thyself, fond youth, no more,
On favours Mulus had before;
He had her first, her virgin flame,
You like a bold intruder came
To the cold relics of a feast,
When he at first had seiz'd the best.

LOVER .

When he, dull sot, had seiz'd the worse,
I came in at the second course:
'Tis chance that first makes people love;
Judgment their riper fancies move.
Mulus, you say, first charm'd her eyes:
First she lov'd babies, and dirt pies;
But she grew wiser, and in time
Found out the folly of those toys and him.

FRIEND .

If wisdom change in love begets,
Women, no doubt, are wond'rous wits:
But wisdom, that now makes her change to you,
In time will make her change to others too.

LOVER .

I grant you no man can foresee his doom:
But shall I grieve because an ill may come?
Yet I'll allow her change, when she can see
A man deserves her more than me,
As much as I deserve her more than he.

FRIEND .

Did they with our own eyes see our desert,
No woman e'er could from her lover part.
But, oh! they see not with their own:
All things to them are through false optics shewn.
Love at the first does all your charms increase,
When the tube's turn'd, hate represents them less.

LOVER .

Whate'er may come, I will not grieve
For dangers that I can't believe.
She'll ne'er cease loving me; or, if she do,
'Tis ten to one I cease to love her too.