Liebe sei vor allen Dingen,
Unser Thema, wenn wir singen.
(Gœthe.)
[170]: Voyez son épître sur le caractère des femmes, si dure. À son avis, ce caractère se compose d'amour du plaisir et d'amour du pouvoir.
Or stain her honour or her new brocade,
Forget her pray'rs or miss a masquerade,
Or lose her heart or necklace at a ball.
To love an altar built
Of twelve vast French romances, neatly gilt;
There lay three garters, half a pair of gloves,
And all the trophies of his former loves.
With tender billet doux he lights the pyre,
And breathes three am'rous sighs to rise the fire.
Here sighs a jar, and there a goose-pye talks;
Men prove with child, as pow'rful fancy works,
And maids turn'd bottles call aloud for corks.