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A Pastoral DIALOGUE between Two Shepherdesses.

Silvia.
1 PRetty Nymph! within this Shade,
2 Whilst the Flocks to rest are laid,
3 Whilst the World dissolves in Heat,
4 Take this cool, and flow'ry Seat
5 And with pleasing Talk a while
6 Let us two the Time beguile;
7 Tho' thou here no Shepherd see,
8 To encline his humble Knee,
9 Or with melancholy Lays
10 Sing thy dangerous Beauty's Praise.
Dorinda.
11 Nymph! with thee I here wou'd stay,
12 But have heard, that on this Day,
13 Near those Beeches, scarce in view,
14 All the Swains some Mirth pursue:
15 To whose meeting now I haste.
16 Solitude do's Life but waste.
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Silvia.
17 Prithee, but a Moment stay.
Dorinda.
18 No! my Chaplet wou'd decay;
19 Ev'ry drooping Flow'r wou'd mourn,
20 And wrong the Face, they shou'd adorn.
Silvia.
21 I can tell thee, tho' so Fair,
22 And dress'd with all that rural Care,
23 Most of the admiring Swains
24 Will be absent from the Plains.
25 Gay Sylvander in the Dance
26 Meeting with a shrew'd Mischance,
27 To his Cabin's now confin'd
28 By Mopsus, who the Strain did bind:
29 Damon through the Woods do's stray,
30 Where his Kids have lost their way:
31 Young Narcissus iv'ry Brow
32 Rac'd by a malicious Bough,
33 Keeps the girilish Boy from sight.
34 Till Time shall do his Beauty right.
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Dorinda.
35 Where's Alexis?
Silvia.
35 He, alas!
36 Lies extended on the Grass;
37 Tears his Garland, raves, despairs,
38 Mirth and Harmony forswears;
39 Since he was this Morning shown,
40 That Delia must not be his Own.
Dorinda.
41 Foolish Swain! such Love to place.
Silvia.
42 On any but Dorinda's Face.
Dorinda.
43 Hasty Nymph! I said not so.
Silvia.
44 No but I thy Meaning know.
45 Ev'ry Shepherd thou wou'd'st have
46 Not thy Lover, but thy Slave;
47 To encrease thy captive Train,
48 Never to be lov'd again.
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49 But, since all are now away,
50 Prithee, but a Moment stay.
Dorinda.
51 No; the Strangers, from the Vale,
52 Sure will not this Meeting fail;
53 Graceful one, the other Fair.
54 He too, with the pensive Air,
55 Told me, ere he came this way
56 He was wont to look more Gay.
Silvia.
57 See! how Pride thy Heart inclines
58 To think, for Thee that Shepherd pines;
59 When those Words, that reach'd thy Ear,
60 Chloe was design'd to hear;
61 Chloe, who did near thee stand,
62 And his more speaking Looks command.
Dorinda.
63 Now thy Envy makes me smile.
64 That indeed were worth his while:
65 Chloe next thyself decay'd,
66 And no more a courted Maid.
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Silvia.
67 Next myself! Young Nymph, forbear.
68 Still the Swains allow me Fair,
69 Tho' not what I was that Day,
70 When Colon bore the Prize away;
71 When
Dorinda.
71 Oh, hold! that Tale will last,
72 Till all the Evening Sports are past;
73 Till no Streak of Light is seen,
74 Nor Footstep prints the flow'ry Green.
75 What thou wert, I need not know,
76 What I am, must haste to show.
77 Only this I now discern
78 From the things, thou'd'st have me learn,
79 That Woman-kind's peculiar Joys
80 From past, or present Beauties rise.

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Title (in Source Edition): A Pastoral DIALOGUE between Two Shepherdesses.
Themes: entertainments; pastimes; sex; relations between the sexes; women; female character
Genres: dialogue; pastoral; satire
References: DMI 6968

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Winchilsea, Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of, 1661-1720. Miscellany poems, on several occasions: Written by the Right Honble Anne, Countess of Winchilsea. London: printed for J. B. and sold by Benj. Tooke, William Taylor, and James Round, 1713, pp. 179-183. [8],390p. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T94539; Foxon pp. 274-5; OTA K076314.000) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Buxton 100].)

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Other works by Anne Finch (née Kingsmill), countess of Winchilsea