She, whose trick brought the babe into the world,

She it was, when the babe was grown a girl,

Judged a new trick should reinforce the old,

Send vigor to the lie now somewhat spent

By twelve years' service; lest Eve's rule decline

Over this Adam of hers, whose cabbage-plot

Throve dubiously since turned fools'-paradise,

Spite of a nightingale on every stump.

Pietro's estate was dwindling day by day,

While he, rapt far above such mundane care,