For what does make it ravishment 325
But b'ing against the mind's consent?
A rape that is the more inhuman,
For being acted by a woman.
Why are you fair, but to entice us
To love you, that you may despise us? 330
But though you cannot love, you say,
Out of your own fantastic way,[1]
Why should you not, at least, allow
Those that love you, to do so too:
For as you fly me, and pursue 335
Love more averse, so I do you:
And am, by your own doctrine, taught
To practise what you call a fault.
Quoth she, If what you say be true,
You must fly me, as I do you; 340
But 'tis not what we do, but say,[2]
In love, and preaching, that must sway.
Quoth he. To bid me not to love,
Is to forbid my pulse to move.
My beard to grow, my ears to prick up, 345
Or, when I'm in a fit, to hickup:
Command me to piss out the moon,
And 'twill as easily be done.
Love's power's too great to be withstood
By feeble human flesh and blood. 350
'Twas he that brought upon his knees
The hect'ring kill-cow Hercules;[3]
Reduc'd his leaguer-lion's skin[4]
T' a petticoat, and make him spin:
- ↑ This is Grey's emendation for "fanatick," which Butler's editions have, and it certainly agrees with what the widow says afterwards in lines 545, 546. But "fanatic" signifies "fantastic in the highest degree," and thus irrational, or absurd.
- ↑ "Do as I say, not as I do;" is said to have been the very rational recommendation of a preacher whose teaching was more correct than his practice.
- ↑ It is of the essence of burlesque poetry to turn into ridicule such legends as the labours of Hercules; and the common epithet "kill-cow" was exactly adapted to the character of these exploits.
- ↑ Leaguer was a camp; and "leaguer-lion's skin" is no more than the costume of Hercules the warrior, as contrasted with Omphale's petticoat, the costume of Hercules the lover. (See Skinner, sub voce Leaguer.)
