[Page 36]

To Orabella, Marry'd to an old Man.

1 Tell me fair Nymph who justly had design'd,
2 A charming Youth to suit your equal Mind;
3 What did seduce you thus to match with one,
4 Whom if by Nature made she'll scarcely own?
5 For form'd so many Centuries ago,
6 She has forgot if he's her Work or no;
7 I think the way to do his Reverence right,
8 Is to suppose him a Pre-Adamite:
9 Your blooming Youth his Age beyond decay,
10 Will teach censorious Malice what to say,
11 Who spite of Virtue will your Fame betray.
12 What strong Persuasions made you thus to wed,
13 With such a Carcass scandalize your Bed?
14 Sure 't was no earthly Gain that charm'd you to't,
15 Nothing but hopes of Heaven should make me do't:
[Page 37]
16 But since there's other ways to gain that Bliss,
17 Dispatching Martyrdom I wou'd not miss;
18 To be secur'd, could I but 'scape from this.
19 The monster Twin whose Brother grew from's Side,
20 With all the stench he suffer'd when he dy'd,
21 Is a just Emblem of so yok'd a Bride.
22 But Ptisick, Gout and Palsie have their Charms,
23 And did intice you to his trembling Arms:
24 Kind amorous Glances from his hollow Eyes,
25 Did your gay Breast with rapturous Joys surprize
26 Ah! who can blame to see a yielding Maid,
27 By all these blooming Charms to Love betray'd.
28 Oh! for a vestal's Coldness to resist
29 The tempting Softness in such Beauties drest.
30 The bright Idea soon dissolves in Air,
31 And in it's room the Picture of Despair.
32 A moving Skeleton he seems to be,
33 Nature's antientest Anatomy.
34 Worth Observation, hang him up therefore
35 In Gresham College, and I'll ask no more.

Text

  • TEI/XML [chunk] (XML - 79K / ZIP - 9.1K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
  • Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 1.5K / ZIP - 1.0K)

Facsimile (Source Edition)

(Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [280 e.4058].)

Images

PDF

All Images (PDF - 3.1M)

About this text

Title (in Source Edition): To Orabella, Marry'd to an old Man.
Themes: marriage
Genres: heroic couplet; address; satire

Text view / Document view

Source edition

Egerton, Sarah Fyge, 1668-1723. Poems on Several Occasions, Together with a Pastoral. By Mrs. S. F. [poems only] London: printed, and are to be sold by J. Nutt, near Stationers-Hall, 1703, pp. 36-37. [20],117,[3],15,[1]p.; 8⁰. (ESTC T125148) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [280 e.4058].)

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 Sarah Fyge Egerton