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The PRETTY CHAMBERMAID: In Imitation of Ne sit Ancillae tibi amor pudori, &c. of Horace.

ODE VI.

I.
1 COLIN, oh! cease thy friend to blame,
2 Who entertains a servile flame.
3 Chide not — believe me, 'tis no more
4 Than great Achilles did before,
5 Who nobler, prouder far than he is,
6 Ador'd his chambermaid Briseis.
II.
7 The thund'ring Ajax Venus lays
8 In love's inextricable maze.
9 His slave Temessa makes him yield,
10 Now mistress of the sevenfold shield.
11 Atrides with his captive play'd,
12 Who always shar'd the bed she made.
III.
13 'Twas at the ten years siege, when all
14 The Trojans fell in Hector's fall,
15 When Helen rul'd the day and night,
16 And made them love, and made them fight:
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17 Each hero kiss'd his maid, and why,
18 Tho' I'm no hero, may not I?
IV.
19 Who knows? Perhaps Polly may be
20 A piece of ruin'd royalty.
21 She has (I cannot doubt it) been
22 The daughter of some mighty queen;
23 But fate's irremeable doom
24 Has chang'd her sceptre for a broom.
V.
25 Ah! cease to think it — how can she,
26 So generous, charming, fond, and free,
27 So lib'ral of her little store,
28 So heedless of amassing more,
29 Have one drop of plebeian blood,
30 In all the circulating flood?
VI.
31 But you, by carping at my fire,
32 Do but betray your own desire —
33 Howe'er proceed — made tame by years,
34 You'll raise in me no jealous fears.
35 You've not one spark of love alive,
36 For, thanks to heav'n, you're forty-five.

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Title (in Source Edition): The PRETTY CHAMBERMAID: In Imitation of Ne sit Ancillae tibi amor pudori, &c. of Horace. ODE VI.
Author: Christopher Smart
Themes: relations between the sexes
Genres: ode

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Smart, Christopher, 1722-1771. Poems on several occasions: By Christopher Smart, A. M. Fellow of Pembroke-Hall, Cambridge. London: printed for the author, by W. Strahan; and sold by J. Newbery, at the Bible and Sun, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, MDCCLII., 1752, pp. 17-18. [16],230p.,plates; 4⁰. (ESTC T42626; OTA K041581.000) (Page images digitized from microfilm of a copy in the Bodleian Library [2799 d 134].)

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

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