Where love and truth may be obtained?
Let me and my beloved spouse,
With mutual ardour, strive to quit
False, earthly, interested vows,
And Heaven into our hearts admit.
There let th’ endearing hope take place,
Though parted here to meet above
In a perpetual chaste embrace,
United, Jesu! in thy love!”
It was during the time of these visits to London that the wordy war arose between the admirers of Handel and his great Italian rival Bononcini, which Byrom ridiculed in a witty epigram that will remain famous for all time:—