A. L.
"Come, pretty birds, present your lays,
And learn to chaunt a goddess praise;
Ye wood-nymphs, let your voices be
Employ'd to serve her deity:
And warble forth, ye virgins nine,
Some music to my Valentine.
"Her bosom is love's paradise,
There is no heav'n but in her eyes;
She's chaster than the turtle-dove,
And fairer than the queen of love:
Yet all perfections do combine
To beautifie my Valentine.
"She's Nature's choicest cabinet,
Where honour, beauty, worth and wit
Are all united in her breast.
The graces claim an interest:
All virtues that are most divine
Shine clearest in my Valentine."
<53.2> Nights--Editor's MS.
<53.3> Where--Ibid.
<53.4> Do--Ibid.
<53.5> There is here either an interpolation in the printed copy,
or an HIATUS in the MS. The latter reads:--
"Yet may I 'mbrace, sigh, kisse, the rest," &c.,
thus leaving out a line and a half or upward of the poem,
as it is printed in LUCASTA.
<53.6> MS. reads:--"Youre phansie, madam," omitting "that's to
have."
<53.7> Original and MS. have REACH.
<53.8> This must refer, I suppose, to the ballad of Queen Dido,
which the woman sings as she works. The signification of LOVE-BANG
is not easily determined. BANG, in Suffolk, is a term applied
to a particular kind of cheese; but I suspect that "love-bang Kate"
merely signifies "noisy Kate" here.
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