Page:The Shepherd's Week - Gay (1728).djvu/21

Ah, well-a-day! I'm shent^[1] with baneful smart,
For with the ribbon he bestow'd his heart.
My plaint, ye lasses, with this burthen aid, 35
'Tis hard so true a damsel dies a maid.
Shall heavy Clumsilis with me compare!^[2]
View this, ye lovers, and like me despair.
Her blubber'd lip by smutty pipes is worn,
And in her breath tobacco whiffs are born; 40
The cleanly cheese-press she could never turn,
Her awkward fist did ne'er employ the churn;
If e'er she brew'd, the drink wou'd sirait go sour,
Before it ever felt the thunder's pow'r:
No houswifery the dowdy creature knew; 45
To sum up all, her tongue confess'd the shrew.
 My plaint, ye lasses, with this burthen aid,
'Tis hard so true a damsel dies a maid.
 I've often seen my visage in yon lake,^[3]
Nor are my features of the homeliest make. 50
Though Clumsilis may boast a whiter dye,
Yet the black sloe turns in my rolling eye;
And fairest blossoms drop with ev'ry blast,^[4]
But the brown beauty will like hollies last.
Her wan complexion's like the wither'd leek, 55
While Katharine pears adorn my ruddy cheek.
Yet she, alas! the witless lout hath won,
And by her gain, poor Sparabell's undone!

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1. Line 33 Shent, an old word, signifying hurt or harmed.
2. 37 Mopso Nisa datur, quid non speremus Amantes?
   Virg.
3. 49 Nec sum adeo informis, nuper me in Littore vidi.
   Virg.
4. 53 Alba ligustra cadunt, vaccinia nigra leguntur.
   Virg.

Let