He still draws after him his chain:[1]70
So tho' my ancle she has quitted,
My heart continues still committed;
And like a bail'd and mainpriz'd lover,[2]
Altho' at large I am bound over:
And when I shall appear in court75
To plead my cause, and answer for't,
Unless the judge do partial prove,
What will become of me and love?
For if in our account we vary,
Or but in circumstance miscarry:80
Or if she put me to strict proof,
And make me pull my doublet off,
To show, by evident record,
Writ on my skin, I've kept my word,
How can I e'er expect to have her,85
Having demurr'd unto her favour?
But faith, and love, and honour lost.
Shall be reduc'd t' a knight o' th' post:[3]
Beside, that stripping may prevent
What I'm to prove by argument,90
And justify I have a tail.
And that way, too, my proof may fail.
Oh! that I could enucleate,[4]
And solve the problems of my fate;
Or find, by necromantic art,[5]95
How far the dest'nies take my part;
For if I were not more than certain
To win and wear her, and her fortune,
- ↑ Persius applies this simile to the ease of a person who is well inclined, but cannot resolve to be uniformly virtuous. See Satire V. v. 157.
Alas! the struggling dog breaks loose in vain,
Whose neck still drags along a trailing length of chain.
And Petrarch has applied this simile to love. - ↑ Mainprized signifies one delivered by the judge into the custody of such as shall undertake to see him forthcoming at the day appointed. He had been set free from the stocks by the widow, and had bound himself to appear before her.
- ↑ See note at p.28.
- ↑ Explain, or open; literally, to take the kernel out of a nut.
- ↑ Necromancy, or the black art, is the discovery of future events by communicating with the dead. It is called the black art, from the fanciful resemblance of necromancy to nigromancy, and because it was presumed that evil spirits were concerned in effecting the communication with the dead.
