"Believe me, virtuous maiden ! my defire
"Is chaste and pious as thy virgin thought;
"No flash of luft, 'tis no difhonest fire,

"Which goes as foon as it was quickly brought;
"But as thy beauty pure; which let not be
"Eclipfed by disdain and cruelty !"

"Oh! how fhall I reply?" fhe cry'd," thou 'st won "My foul, and therefore take thy victory : "Thy eyes and speeches have my heart o'ercome, "And if I fhould deny thee love, then I "Should be a tyrant to myself : that fire "Which is kept close burns with the greatest ire.

"Yet do not count my yielding lightness, now; "Impute it rather to my ardent love;

"Thy pleafing carriage won me long ago,

"And pleading beauty did my liking move; [might 66 Thy eyes, which draw like loadftones with their "The hardest hearts, won mine to leave me quite."

"Oh! I am rapt above the reach," said he,

[thee

"Of thought; my foul already feels the blifs "Of heaven: when, Sweet, my thoughts once tax but "With any crime, may I lofe all happiness

"Is with'd for: both your favour here, and dead, "May the just gods pour vengeance on my head!”

Whilft he was speaking this (behold their fate !)
Conftantia's father enter'd in the room,

When glad Philetus, ignorant of his state,
Kiffes her cheeks, more red than setting fun,

Or else the morn, blushing through clouds of water,
To fee afcending Sol congratulate her.

Juft as the guilty prifoner fearful stands,
Reading his fatal Theta in the brows

Of him who both his life and death commands,'
Ere from his mouth he the fad fentence knows :
Such was his ftate to fee her father come,

Nor wish'd-for, nor expected, in the room.

Th' enrag'd old man bids him no more to dare
Such bold intrufion in that house, nor be
At any time with his lov'd daughter there,
Till he had given him fuch authority:

But to depart, fince the her love did fhew him,
Was living death, with lingering torments to him.
This being known to kind Philocrates,
He chears his friend, bidding him banish fear,
And by fome letter his griev'd mind appease,
And fhew her that which to her friendly ear
Time gave no leave to tell and thus his quill
Declares to her the abfent lover's will.

THE

LETTER.

PHILETUS TO CONSTANTI A.

I TRUST, dear foul, my abfence cannot move
You to forget or doubt my ardent love;
For, were there any means to fee you, I
Would run through death, and all the misery
Fate could inflict; that fo the world might say,
In life and death I lov'd Conftantia.

Then

Then let not, dearest Sweet, our absence part

Our loves, but each breaft keep the other's heart;
Give warmth to one another, till there rife
From all our labours and our induftriés

The long-expected fruits: have patience, Sweet,
There's no man whom the fummer pleafures greet
Before he taste the winter; none can fay,
Ere night was gone, he faw the rising day.

So, when we once have wasted sorrow's night,
The fun of comfort then shall give us light.

PHILETUS.

This, when Conftantia read, she thought her state
Moft happy, by Philetus' conftancy

And perfect love : fhe thanks her flattéring fate,
Kiffes the paper, till with kiffing she

The welcome characters doth dull and ftain:
Then thus with ink and tears writes back again.

CONSTANTIA

TO

PHILETUS.

YOUR abfence, Sir, though it be long, yet I

Neither forget nor doubt your conftancy.

Nor need you fear that I fhould yield unto

Another, what to your true love is due.

My heart is yours; it is not in my claim,
Nor have I power to take it back again.

There's nought but death can part our fouls; no time,
Or angry friends, fhall make my love decline;

But for the harveft of our hopes I'll stay,

Unless death cut it, ere 'tis ripe, away.

CONSTANTIA.

Oh!

Oh! how this letter feem'd to raise his pride!
Prouder was he of this than Phaeton,

When he did Phoebus' flaming chariot guide,
Unknowing of the danger was to come :
Prouder than Jason, when from Colchos he
Returned with the fleece's victory.

But ere the autumn, which fair Ceres crown'd,
Had paid the sweating plowman's greedieft prayer:
And by the fall difrob'd the gaudy ground
Of all thofe ornaments it us'd to wear;

Them kind Philocrates t' each other brought, Where they this means t'enjoy their freedom wrought. "Sweet fair-one," faid Philetus, "fince the time "Favours our with, and does afford us leave "T' enjoy our loves; oh, let us not refign "This long'd-for favour, nor ourselves bereave "Of what we wish'd for, Opportunity,

"That may too soon the wings of love out-fly!
"For when your father, as his custom is,
"For pleasure doth pursue the timorous hare,
"If you'll refort but thither, I'll not mifs
"To be in those woods ready for you, where
"We may depart in safety, and no more
"With dreams of pleasure only, heal our fore."

To this the happy lovers foon agree;
But, ere they part, Philetus begs to hear,
From her inchanting voice's melody,
One fong, to fatisfy his longing ear:

She yields; and, finging added to defire,
The listening youth increas'd his amorous fire.

THE

THE SONG.

I.

TIME! fly with greater fpeed away,

Add feathers to thy wings,

Till thy hafte in flying brings

That wifht-for, and expected day..

II.

Comfort's fun we then fhall fee,

Though at first it darken'd be

With dangers; yet, those clouds but gone,

Qur day will put his luftre on.

III.

Then, though death's fad night appear,

And we in lonely filence reft;

Our ravish'd fouls no more shall fear,

But with lafting day be bleft.

IV.

And then no friends can part us more,
Nor no new death extend its power;
Thus there's nothing can diffever
Hearts which love hath join'd together.

FEAR of being feen, Philetüs homeward drove,
But ere they part fhe willingly doth give
(As faithful pledges of her constant love)
Many a soft kiss; then they each other leave,
Rapt up with fecret joy that they have found.
A way to heal the torment of their wound.