Who acted the parts of Isabel, in The Old Debauchees, and of Kissinda, in this Tragedy.
In various lights this night you've seen me drest,
A virtuous lady, and a miss confest;
Pray tell me, Sirs, in which you like me best?
Neither averse to love's soft joys you find;
'Tis hard to say which is the best inclin❜d.
The priest makes all the diff'rence in the case :
Kissinda's always ready to embrace.
And Isabel stays only to say grace.
For several prices ready both to treat,
This takes a guinea, that your whole estate.
Gallants, believe our passions are the same,
And virtuous women, though they dread the shame,
Let 'em but play secure, all love the game.
For though some prude her lover long may vex,
Her coyness
is put on-she loves your sex.
At you the pretty things their airs display;
For you we dance, we sing, we smile, we pray;
On you we dream all night, we think all day.
For you the Mall and Ring with beauties swarm;
You teach soft Senesino's airs to charm:
For thin would be th' assembly of the fair
At operas were none but eunuchs there.
In short, you are the business of our lives,
To be a mistress kept the strumpet strives,
And all the modest virgins to be wives.
For prudes may cant of virtues and of vices,
But faith, we only differ in our prices.