Cheer up, mine ensnarer! Be Calais fairer
Than stars, be you blustery and base,
I'll love you, adore you; in brief, I am for you
All over the place.
II
HORACE
What time I was your one best bet
And no one passed the wire before me,
Dear Lyddy, I cannot forget
How you would—yes, you would—adore me.
To others you would tie the can;
You thought of me with no aversion.
In those days I was happier than
A Persian.
LYDIA
Correct. As long as you were not
So nuts about this Chloe person,
Your flame for me burned pretty hot—
Mine was the door you pinned your verse on.
Your favourite name began with L,
While I thought you surpassed by no man—
Gladder than Ilia, the well-
Known Roman.
HORACE
On Chloe? Yes, I've got a case;
Her voice is such a sweet soprano;
Her people come from Northern Thrace;
You ought to hear her play piano.
If she would like my suicide—
If she'd want me a dead and dumb thing,
Me for a glass of cyanide,
Or something.
LYDIA
Now Calais, the handsome son
Of old Ornitus, has me going;
He says I am his honey bun,
He's mine, however winds are blowing;
I think that he is awful nice,
And, if the gods the signal gave him,
I'd just as lieve die once or twice
To save him.