BEING TREATED; TO ELLINDA by RICHARD LOVELACE

FOR cherries plenty, and for corans
Enough for fifty, were there more on's;
For ells of beer, flutes of canary
That well did wash down pasties-mary;
For peason, chickens, sauces high,
Pig, and the widow ven'son-pie,
With certain promise, to your brother,
Of the virginity of another,
Where it is thought I too may peep in
With knuckles far as any deep in;
For glasses, heads, hands, bellies full
Of wine and loin right-worshipful;
Whether all of, or more behind-a:
Thanks, freest, freshest, fair Ellinda.
Thanks for my visit not disdaining,
Or, at the least, thanks for your feigning;
For if your mercy door were lock'd well,
I should be justly soundly knock'd well,
'Cause that in dogg'rel I did mutter
Not one rhyme to you from dam-Rotter

Next beg I to present my duty
To pregnant sister in prime beauty,
Whom well I deem, ere few months elder,
Will take out Hans from pretty kelder;
And to the sweetly fair Mabella,
A match that vies with Arabella;
In each respect but the misfortune,
Fortune, Fate, I thee importune.

Nor must I pass the lovely Alice,
Whose health I'd quaff in golden chalice;
But since that fate hath made me neuter,
I only can in beaker pewter.
But who'd forget, or yet left unsung,
The doughty acts of George the young son,
Who yesterday, to save his sister,
Had slain the snake, had he not miss'd her?
But I shall leave him till a nag on
He gets to prosecute the dragon;
And then with help of sun and taper,
Fill with his deeds twelve reams of paper,
That Amadis, Sir Guy and Topaz
With his fleet neigher shall keep no pace.
But now to close all I must switch hard,
Servant ever,
@3Lovelace Richard.@1

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