The LOVER: A Ballad. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont) Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T131163 K104099.001 Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. I. London printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley 1763 [1st ed. 1758] pp. 105-107. 6v.: music; 8⁰.

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The LOVER : A Ballad . To Mr. C— . By the Same . I. AT length , by much importunity press'd , Take , C— , at once the inside of my breast . This stupid indiff'rence so often you blame , Is not owing to nature , to fear , or to shame . I am not as cold as a virgin in lead , Nor is Sunday's sermon so strong in my head : I know but too well how time flies along , That we live but few years , and yet fewer are young . II . But I hate to be cheated , and never will buy Long years of repentance for moments of joy . Oh ! was there a man ( but where shall I find Good sense and good-nature so equally join'd ? ) Would value his pleasure , contribute to mine ; Not meanly would boast , nor lewdly design , Not over severe , yet not stupidly vain , For I would have the power , tho' not give the pain . III . No pedant , yet learned ; nor rake-helly gay , Or laughing because he has nothing to say ; To all my whole sex , obliging and free , Yet never be fond of any but me ; In public preserve the decorum that's just , And shew in his eyes he is true to his trust ; Then rarely approach , and respectfully bow , But not fulsomely pert , nor fopishly low . IV . But when the long hours of publick are past , And we meet with champagne and a chicken at last , May ev'ry fond pleasure that moment endear ; Be banish'd afar both discretion and fear ! Forgetting or scorning the airs of the crowd , He may cease to be formal , and I to be proud , Till lost in the joy , we confess that we live , And he may be rude , and yet I may forgive . V. And that my delight may be solidly fix'd , Let the friend and the lover be handsomely mix'd , In whose tender bosom my soul may confide , Whose kindness can sooth me , whose counsel can guide . From such a dear lover , as here I describe , No danger should fright me , no millions should bribe ; But till this astonishing creature I know , As I long have liv'd chaste , I will keep myself so . VI . I never will share with the wanton coquet , Or be caught by a vain affectation of wit . The toasters and songsters may try all their art , But never shall enter the pass of my heart . I loath the lewd rake , the dress'd fopling despise : Before such pursuers the nice virgin flies : And as OVID has sweetly in parables told , We harden like trees , and like rivers grow cold .