For thy sake Woman shall be now to me
Less welcome than at midnight ghosts shall be:
I'll hate so perfectly, that it shall be

Treason to love that man that loves a she;
Nay, I will hate the very good, I swear,
That's in thy sex, because it does lie there;
Their very virtue, grace, discourse, and wit,

And all for thee. What! wilt thou love me yet?

Charles Cotton translated the following from the Italian of Guarini:

Fair and false, I burn 'tis true,
But by love am no ways moved;
Since your falsehood renders you
So unfit to be beloved;

Tigress, then, that you no more,
May triumph it in my smart,
It is fit you know before

That I now have cured my heart.

Henceforth then if I do mourn,
And that still I live in pain,
With another flame I burn;

Not with love; but with disdain.

These poets, perhaps, excused the change in their sentiments upon the principle laid down in the following epigram by Lord Nugent (Dodsley's "Collection of Poems," 1782, II. 243):

I lov'd thee beautiful and kind,
And plighted an eternal vow;
So alter'd are thy face and mind,
"Twere perjury to love thee now.

But in Suckling's epigram, the hatred was probably assumed to try the strength of the maiden's affection-who loved notwithstanding. It recalls Moore's epigram, entitled "The Surprise":

Chloris, I swear by all I ever swore,

That from this hour I shall not love thee more.—
"What! love no more? Oh! why this alter'd vow?"
Because I cannot love thee more-than now!

SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE.

Born 1628. Died 1700.

WRITTEN WHEN IN LOVE, ON A WINDOW OPPOSITE A STATUE OF LEDA.

("Gentleman's Magazine," New Series, VII. 9.)

Tell me, Leda, which is best,
Ne'er to move, or ne'er to rest?
Speak, that I may know thereby,
Who is happier, you or I?

To which Leda is supposed to have answered:

Mr. Temple, hear me tell :
Both to move and rest are well.
Who is happier, you or I?
To that question I reply-
If you'll stand here, and let me go,

Very shortly you will know.

On the strength of the answer obtained by Sir William Temple, a statue in Hampton Court Gardens was questioned, with an equally favourable result:

Q. Prithee, statue, tell me how

I can be as fair as thou?

A. The means I speedily will name,

I got whitewashed-do the same.

Some license must be allowed to those who, like Sir William Temple, are in love, but the practice of scratching upon windows, especially a man's own name, is severely and sensibly reprobated in the following lines "Written in pencil on the Sash of a Window of the Roadside Inn by Lodore" ("Notes and Queries," 4th S. VIII. 85):

When I see a man's name
Scratched upon the glass,

I know he owns a diamond

And his father owns an ass.

SIR CHARLES SEDLEY,

A dramatic writer, a wit, and a courtier, was born about 1639. As a critic he was an oracle amongst the poets of the day. His own poetry was generally licentious, but some of his shorter pieces are elegant and lively. He died in 1701. The following epigrams are taken from the edition of his Works printed in 1707.

CONSTANCY.

Fear not, my dear, a flame can never die,
That is once kindled by so bright an eye;
View but thyself, and measure thence my love,
Think what a passion such a form must move;
For though thy beauty first allur'd my sight,
Now I consider it but as the light

That led me to the treas'ry of thy mind,
Whose inward virtue in that feature shin'd.
That knot, be confident, will ever last,
Which fancy tied and reason has made fast;
So fast, that time, altho' it may disarm
Thy lovely face, my faith can never harm;
And age, deluded, when it comes, will find
My love remov'd, and to thy soul assign'd.

With the third line, compare an epigram "To a Mirror," from the Spanish of Boscan, a poet born about the end of the fifteenth century, ("Poetical Register," for 1802, 213):

Since still my passion-pleading strains

Have fail'd her heart to move,
Show, mirror! to that lovely maid,
The charms that make me love.

Reflect on her the thrilling beam
Of magic from her eye,

So, like Narcissus, she shall gaze,
And, self-enamour'd, die.

On the general subject, compare a stanza by Sir George Etherege, who was contemporary with Sedley:

Fear not, though love and beauty fail,
My reason shall my heart direct:
Your kindness now shall then prevail,
And passion turn into respect.
Celia, at worst, you'll in the end

But change a lover for a friend.

Madame la Mareschale de Mirepoix, when in the winter of her days, sent to her old admirer the Duc de Nivernois, a lock of her grey hair, accompanied by some elegant verses. The Duke's reply, thus translated from the French by Bland, is, says he, "one of the sweetest specimens of gaiety and tenderness that I ever remember to have met with":

Talk not of snowy locks-have done
Time runs the same, and let him run;

To us what bodes the tyrant's rage?
He knows not tender hearts to sever,
The little Loves are infants ever,
The Graces are of every age.
To thee, Themira, when I bow,
For ever in my spring 1 glow,

And more in age approve thee.
Could I to gay eighteen return,
With longer ardour I might burn,
But dearer could not love thee.

DISINTERESTED LOVE.

Phillis, men say that all my vows
Are to thy fortune paid;
Alas, my heart he little knows,
Who thinks my love a trade.

Were I, of all these woods the lord,
One berry from thy hand
More real pleasure would afford
Than all my large command.

My humble love has learnt to live
On what the nicest maid,
Without a conscious blush, may give
Beneath the myrtle shade.

A stanza in Tennyson's "Lady Clare," may be compared:

"He does not love me for my birth,
Nor for my lands so broad and fair;
He loves me for my own true worth,
And that is well," said Lady Clare.

Martial has an amusing epigram on a man who courted wealth (Book I. xi). The translation in the "Westminster Review," of April, 1853, is more amusing than strictly accurate :

Strephon most fierce besieges Cloe,

A nymph not over young nor showy.
What then can Strephon's love provoke ?—
A charming paralytic stroke.

JOHN LEWIS

Was born in 1675. He was Minister of Margate, and Vicar of Minster, in Thanet. He resided at the former place from 1705 until his death¦ in January, 1746-7. He published many theological books and tracts. * but is chiefly known now as the author of “The History and Antiquities of the Isle of Thanet."

EPIGRAM SENT TO THE DUCHESS OF DORSET.

("Notes and Queries," 4th S. VI. 270.)

In a MS. volume in the handwriting of Jeremy Bentham, in the possession of Mr. Bowring, the following occurs: "The Rev. Mr. Lewis, Archdeacon of Kent and Minister of Margate, having received from the Duchess of Dorset a card of compliments with an invitation to dinner, it happened to be the ten of hearts, upon which Mr. Lewis returned her Grace by way of answer the following verse":

Your compliments, lady, I pray you forbear,

Our old English service is much more sincere :
You sent me Ten Hearts, the tithe's only mine;
So give me one heart, and burn t'other nine.

This is a stock epigram in the Collections of the last century, but the name of the author is not given, nor that of the lady to whom the lines were sent.

HANS DE VEIL.

Of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1724, and afterwards entered into holy orders. He was a son of Sir Thomas de Veil, an active Middlesex magistrate, of whom Graves, in lines entitled "Liberty in Danger. On the Act against Swearing, 1747,” writes:

The loss of money, sure, if not of soul,

Must strike vice dumb, and blasphemy controul.
Sailors themselves henceforth shall grow more civil,
And dread De Veil at least, if not the devil.

ON MOLLY FOWLE, A CAMBRIDGE BEAUTY.
("Gentleman's Magazine," LIV. 317.)

Is Molly Fowle immortal? No.
Yes, but she is-I'll prove her so:
She's fifteen now, and was, I know,
Fifteen full fifteen years ago.