[Page 258]

MIRA to OCTAVIA.

1 FAIR One, to you this Monitor I send;
2 Octavia, pardon your officious Friend:
3 You think your Conduct merits only Praise,
4 But out-law'd Poets censure whom they please:
5 Thus we begin — your Servant has been told,
6 That you, (despising Settlements and Gold)
7 Determine Florio witty, young and gay,
8 To have and hold for ever and for ay;
9 And view that Person as your mortal Foe,
10 Who dares object against your charming Beau;
11 But now to furnish Metre for my Song,
12 Let us suppose Octavia may be wrong:
13 'Tis true, you're lovely; yet the learn'd aver,
14 That even Beauties like the rest may err.
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15 I know, to shun, you hold it as a Rule,
16 The arrant Coxcomb and the stupid Fool:
17 No such is Florio, he has Wit — 'tis true,
18 Enough, Octavia, to impose on you:
19 Yet such a Wit you'll, by Experience, find
20 Worse than a Fool that's complaisant and kind:
21 It only serves to gild his Vices o'er,
22 And teach his Malice how to wound the more.
23 I need not tell you, most ingenious Fair,
24 That hungry Mortals are not fed with Air,
25 But solid Food: And this voracious Clay
26 Asks Drink and Victuals more than once a Day:
27 Now cou'd your Florio by his Wit inspire
28 The chilly Hearth, to blaze with lasting Fire:
29 Or when his Children round the Table throng,
30 By an Allusion or a sprightly Song,
31 Adorn the Board, i'th' twinkling of an Eye,
32 With a hot Pasty or a Warden Pye,
33 There might be Reason on Octavia's Side,
34 And not a Sage cou'd blame the prudent Bride.
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35 Yet (or some Authors often deal in Lies)
36 Lovers may live on Nuts and Blackberries;
37 For roving Knights bewilder'd in their way,
38 Who in black Forests half a Season stray;
39 Unless they find Provision on the Trees,
40 Must sup on Grass and breakfast on the Breeze.
41 But as you've long been us'd to nicer Fare,
42 Your Constitution wou'd but hardly bear
43 Such Food as this: And therefore I advise
44 That you'd consider (for you're mighty wise)
45 If sober Dusterandus wou'd not make
46 A better Husband than your darling Rake,
47 Grave Dusterandus: He whose stedfast Mind
48 Is yet untainted, tho' not much refin'd;
49 Whose Soul ne'er roves beyond his native Fields;
50 Nor asks for Joys but what his Pasture yields;
51 On Life's dull Cares with Patience can attend,
52 A gentle Master and a constant Friend;
53 Who in soft Quiet spends the guiltless Days,
54 His Servants blessing and his Neighbours praise:
55 Say, would you, in his happy Mansion, reign,
56 Toast of the Village and the rural Plain?
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57 With honest Friends your chearful Days beguile,
58 While Peace and Plenty on your Table smile:
59 Or cold and hungry writhe your tired Jaws,
60 And dine with Florio upon Hips and Haws,
61 In troth I think there's little room to pause.
62 In spite of all romantick Poets sing;
63 This Gold, my Dearest, is an useful thing:
64 Not that I'd have you hoard the precious Store,
65 For not a Wretch is like the Miser poor:
66 Enjoy your Fortune with a chearful Mind,
67 And let the Blessing spread amongst the Kind:
68 But if there's none but Florio that will do,
69 Write Ballads both, and you may thrive — Adieu.

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Title (in Source Edition): MIRA to OCTAVIA.
Author: Mary Leapor
Themes:
Genres: heroic couplet

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Leapor, Mrs. (Mary), 1722-1746. Poems upon several occasions: By Mrs. Leapor of Brackley in Northamptonshire. London: printed: and sold by J. Roberts, 1748, pp. 258-261. 15,[5],282p. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T127827; Foxon p. 413; OTA K101776.000) (Page images digitized from a copy at University of California Libraries.)

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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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