IV.
“Ceres! my good wife’s relation!
“Prythee cease to weep and call so!
“I now grant your application—
“I have suffer’d greatly also!
“Comfort take! we’ll share your daughter’s
“Sweet society, and let her
“Have on earth six months her quarters
“Yearly, if you like it better.
“She, when men in summer swelter,
“Can assist your rural labours,
“‘Neath a straw hat taking shelter,
“Flow’r-bedizen’d, like her neighbours’.
“She can rant, when colours glowing
“Robe the evening sky in splendour,
“When beside the stream is blowing
“On his flute a bumpkin tender.
“She’ll rejoice with lads and lasses
“At the harvest-home’s gay dances,
“And amongst the sheep and asses
“Be a lioness, the chance is.
“I’ll recruit my spirits sinking
“Here in Orcus in a canter,
“Mingled punch and Lethe drinking,
“And forget my wife instanter!”