[Page 86][Page 87]
MERCURY and CUPID.
1 In sullen Humour one Day Jove
2 Sent Hermes down to Ida's Grove,
3 Commanding Cupid to deliver
4 His Store of Darts, his total Quiver;
5 That Hermes shou'd the Weapons break,
6 Or throw 'em into Lethe's Lake.
7 Hermes, You know, must do his Errand:
8 He found his Man, produc'd his Warrant:
9 Cupid, your Darts — this very Hour —
10 There's no contending against Power.
11 How sullen Jupiter, just now
12 I think I said: and You'll allow,
13 That Cupid was as bad as He:
14 Hear but the Youngster's Repartée.
15 Come Kinsman (said the little God)
16 Put off your Wings; lay by your Rod;
17 Retire with Me to yonder Bower;
18 And rest your self for half an Hour:
19 'Tis far indeed from hence to Heav'n:
20 And You fly fast: and 'tis but Seven.
21 We'll take one cooling Cup of Nectar;
22 And drink to this Celestial Hector —
23 He break my Darts, or hurt my Pow'r!
24 He, Leda's Swan, and Danae's Show'r!
25 Go, bid him his Wife's Tongue restrain;
26 And mind his Thunder, and his Rain. —
27 My Darts? O certainly I'll give 'em:
28 From Cloe's Eyes He shall receive 'em.
29 There's One, the Best in all my Quiver,
30 Twang! thro' his very Heart and Liver.
31 He then shall Pine, and Sigh, and Rave:
32 Good Lord! what Bustle shall We have!
33 Neptune must straight be sent to Sea;
34 And Flora summon'd twice a-day:
35 One must find Shells, and t'other Flow'rs,
36 For cooling Grotts, and fragrant Bow'rs,
37 That Cloe may be serv'd in State:
38 The Hours must at Her Toilet wait:
39 Whilst all the reasoning Fools below,
40 Wonder their Watches go too slow.
41 Lybs must fly South, and Eurus East,
42 For Jewels for Her Hair and Breast:
43 No Matter tho' their cruel Haste
44 Sink Cities, and lay Forrests waste.
45 No Matter tho' This Fleet be lost;
46 Or That lie wind-bound on the Coast.
47 What whis'pring in my Mother's Ear!
48 What Care, that Juno shou'd not hear!
49 What Work among You Scholar Gods!
50 Phoebus must write Him am'rous Odes:
[Page 88]51 And Thou, poor Cousin, must compose
52 His Letters in submissive Prose:
53 Whilst haughty Cloe, to sustain
54 The Honour of My mystic Reign,
55 Shall all his Gifts and Vows disdain;
56 And laugh at your Old Bully's Pain.
57 Dear Couz, said Hermes in a Fright,
58 For Heav'n sake keep Your Darts: Good Night.
Source edition
Prior, Matthew, 1664-1721. Poems on Several Occasions [English poems only]. London: Printed for JACOB TONSON at Shakespear's-Head over against Katharine-Street in the Strand, and JOHN BARBER upon Lambeth-Hill. MDCCXVIII., 1718, pp. 86-88. [42],506,[6]p.: ill.; 2°. (ESTC T075639) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [H 6.8 Art.].)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. 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.
Other works by Matthew Prior
- ADRIANI MORIENTIS ad Animam Suam. IMITATED. ()
- ALMA: OR, THE PROGRESS OF THE MIND. In Three Cantos. ()
- Another Reasonable Affliction. ()
- ANOTHER [EPIGRAM]. ()
- ANOTHER [EPIGRAM]. ()
- ANOTHER [EPIGRAM]. ()
- ANOTHER [Reasonable Affliction]. ()
- ANOTHER [TRUE MAID]. ()
- Answer to CLOE Jealous, in the same Stile. The AUTHOR sick. ()
- A Better Answer. ()
- CANTATA. ()
- CARMEN SECULARE, For the Year 1700. TO THE KING. ()
- CELIA TO DAMON. ()
- THE CHAMELEON. ()
- CHARITY. A PARAPHRASE On the Thirteenth Chapter of the First Epistle TO THE CORINTHIANS. ()
- CLOE HUNTING. ()
- CLOE JEALOUS. ()
- A Critical Moment. ()
- CUPID and GANYMEDE. ()
- CUPID Mistaken. ()
- Democritus and Heraclitus. ()
- THE DESPAIRING SHEPHERD. ()
- The DOVE. ()
- A Dutch Proverb. ()
- An English BALLAD, On the Taking of NAMUR By the King of Great Britain, 1695. ()
- AN ENGLISH PADLOCK. ()
- Engraven on a COLUMN In the Church of Halstead in Essex, The spire of which, burnt down by Lightning, was rebuilt at the Expense of Mr. Samuel Fiske, 1717. ()
- EPIGRAM. ()
- An EPIGRAM. Written to the Duke de Noailles. ()
- EPILOGUE TO LUCIUS. ()
- EPILOGUE TO PHÆDRA. ()
- AN EPISTLE TO FLEETWOOD SHEPHARD, Esq ()
- An EPISTLE, Desiring the Queen's Picture. Written at Paris, 1714. But left unfinish'd by the sudden News of Her Majesty's Death. ()
- An EPITAPH. ()
- Erle ROBERT's MICE. In Chaucer's Stile. ()
- An Extempore Invitation TO THE EARL of OXFORD, Lord High Treasurer. 1712. ()
- THE FIRST HYMN OF CALLIMACHUS. TO JUPITER. ()
- The FLIES. ()
- A FLOWER, Painted by SIMON VARELST. ()
- For my own Tomb-stone. ()
- FOR THE NEW YEAR: TO THE SUN. Intended To be Sung before Their Majesties on New-Years Day. 1693/4. (); HYMN to the SUN. Set by Dr. PURCEL, And Sung before their Majesties On New-Years-Day, 1694. ()
- FOR The Plan of a Fountain, On which is The Effigies of the Queen on a Triumphal Arch, The Figure of the Duke of Marlborough, beneath, and The Chief Rivers of the World round the whole Work. ()
- Forma Bonum Fragile. ()
- From the Greek. ()
- The Garland. ()
- GUALTERUS DANISTONUS. Ad Amicos. IMITATED. ()
- HANS CARVEL. ()
- HENRY and EMMA, A POEM, Upon the Model of The Nut-brown Maid. To CLOE. ()
- Her Right Name. ()
- Horace Lib. I. Epist. IX. Septimius, Claudi, nimirum intelligit unus, Quanti me facias: &c. Imitated. To the Right Honorable Mr. HARLEY. ()
- IN IMITATION OF ANACREON. ()
- In the same [Chaucer's] Style. ()
- In the same [Chaucer's] Style. ()
- THE LADLE. ()
- The Lady who offers her Looking-Glass to Venus. ()
- THE LADY's LOOKING-GLASS. ()
- A LETTER TO Monsieur Boileau Despreaux; Occasion'd by the VICTORY at BLENHEIM, 1704. ()
- Lisetta's Reply. ()
- LOVE Disarm'd. ()
- A LOVER's ANGER. ()
- MERRY ANDREW. ()
- AN ODE, &c. ()
- AN ODE, Humbly Inscrib'd to the QUEEN. ON THE Glorious Success OF Her MAJESTY's Arms, 1706. Written in Imitation of Spencer's Style. ()
- An ODE. ()
- An ODE. ()
- An ODE. ()
- An ODE. Inscribed to the Memory of the Honble Col. George Villiers, Drowned in the River Piava, in the Country of Friuli. 1703. In Imitation of Horace, Ode 28. Lib. 1. ()
- On BEAUTY. A RIDDLE. ()
- On Exodus iii. 14. I am that I am. An ODE. Written in 1688, as an Exercise at St. John's College, Cambridge. ()
- On the Same Person. ()
- On the same Subject. ()
- On the Same. ()
- PALLAS and VENUS. AN EPIGRAM. ()
- A Passage in the MORIÆ ENCOMIUM of Erasmus Imitated. ()
- PAULO PURGANTI AND His WIFE: An Honest, but a Simple Pair. ()
- PHYLLIS's AGE. ()
- Picture of Seneca dying in a Bath. By Jordain. At the Right Honorable the Earl of Exeter's at Burleigh-House. ()
- A PINDARIQUE ON His Majesties Birth-Day. By Mr. PRIOR Sung before Their Majesties at WHITEHALL, The Fourth of November 1690. A Prophecy by APOLLO. ()
- PROLOGUE, SPOKEN AT COURT before the QUEEN, On Her Majesty's Birth-Day, 1704. ()
- Protogenes and Apelles. ()
- The Question, to Lisetta. ()
- Quid sit futurum Cras fuge quærere. ()
- A Reasonable Affliction. ()
- THE SECOND HYMN OF CALLIMACHUS. TO APOLLO. ()
- SEEING THE DUKE of ORMOND's PICTURE, AT Sir GODFREY KNELLER's. ()
- A SIMILE. ()
- SOLOMON ON THE VANITY OF THE WORLD. A POEM In THREE BOOKS. ()
- A SONG. ()
- A SONG. ()
- The THIEF AND THE CORDELIER, A BALLAD. ()
- To a LADY: She refusing to continue a Dispute with me, and leaving me in the Argument. An ODE. ()
- To a Person who wrote Ill, and spake Worse against Me. ()
- TO A Young Gentleman in Love. A TALE. ()
- To CLOE Weeping. ()
- TO Dr. SHERLOCK, ON HIS PRACTICAL DISCOURSE Concerning Death. ()
- To Mr. HARLEY. Wounded by Guiscard. 1711. ()
- TO Mr. HOWARD: An ODE. ()
- TO My LORD BUCKHURST, Very Young, Playing with a CAT. ()
- TO THE AUTHOR OF THE Foregoing PASTORAL. ()
- TO THE COUNTESS of DORSET. Written in her Milton. ()
- TO THE COUNTESS of EXETER, Playing on the Lute. ()
- To the Honorable CHARLES MONTAGUE, Esq ()
- TO THE KING, AN ODE, &c. (); An ODE. Presented to the KING, on his Majesty's Arrival in Holland, AFTER The QUEEN's Death. 1695. ()
- TO THE LADY DURSLEY On the same Subject. ()
- TO THE Lady Elizabeth Harley, Since Marchioness of Carmarthen, On a Column of Her Drawing. ()
- A TRUE MAID. ()
- VENUS Mistaken. ()
- VERSES Humbly presented to the KING At His Arrival in HOLLAND: After the DISCOVERY Of the late horrid CONSPIRACY Against His most Sacred Person. (); Presented to the KING, AT HIS ARRIVAL in HOLLAND, AFTER THE Discovery of the Conspiracy 1696. ()
- Written at Paris, 1700. In the Beginning of ROBE's GEOGRAPHY. ()
- Written in an OVID. ()
- Written in Montaigne's Essays, Given to the Duke of Shrewsbury in France, after the Peace, 1713. ()
- Written in the Beginning of MEZERAY's History of FRANCE. ()
- Written in the Nouveaux Interests des Princes de l'Europe. ()