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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO THE DUKE DE NOAILLES by MATTHEW PRIOR

First Line: VAIN THE CONCERN WHICH YOU EXPRESS
Last Line: BUT TO SECURE OUR REST?
Subject(s): ADVICE; GODDESSES & GODS; MYTHOLOGY;

VAIN the concern which you express,
That uncalled Alard will possess
Your house and coach, both day and night,
And that Macbeth was haunted less
By Banquo's restless sprite.

With fifteen thousand pounds a year,
Do you complain, you cannot bear
An ill, you may so soon retrieve?
Good Alard, faith, is modester
By much, than you believe.

Lend him but fifty louis-d'or,
And you shall never see him more:
Take the advice, probatum est.
Why do the gods indulge our store,
But to secure our rest?



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