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Anne Kingsmill Finch - A Pastoral Dialogue Between Two Shepherdesse
Work rating: Low

[Silvia] Pretty Nymph! within this Shade, 
Whilst the Flocks to rest are laid,
Whilst the World dissolves in Heat,
Take this cool, and flow`ry Seat: 
And with pleasing Talk awhile
Let us two the Time beguile; 
Tho` thou here no Shepherd see, 
To encline his humble Knee, 
Or with melancholy Lays 
Sing thy dangerous Beauty`s Praise. 


[Dorinda] Nymph! with thee I here wou`d stay, 
But have heard, that on this Day, 
Near those Beeches, scarce in view, 
All the Swains some Mirth pursue: 
To whose meeting now I haste. 
Solitude do`s Life but waste. 

[Silvia] Prithee, but a Moment stay. 


[Dorinda] No! my Chaplet wou`d decay; 
Ev`ry drooping Flow`r wou`d mourn, 
And wrong the Face, they shou`d adorn. 


[Silvia] I can tell thee, tho` so Fair, 
And dress`d with all that rural Care, 
Most of the admiring Swains 
Will be absent from the Plains. 
Gay Sylvander in the Dance 
Meeting with a shrew`d Mischance, 
To his Cabin`s now confin`d 
By Mopsus, who the Strain did bind: 
Damon through the Woods do`s stray, 
Where his Kids have lost their way: 
Young Narcissus iv`ry Brow 
Rac`d by a malicious Bough, 
Keeps the girlish Boy from sight, 
Till Time shall do his Beauty right. 

[Dorinda] Where`s Alexis? 


[Silvia]      –He, alas! 
Lies extended on the Grass; 
Tears his Garland, raves, despairs, 
Mirth and Harmony forswears; 
Since he was this Morning shown, 
That Delia must not be his Own. 


[Dorinda] Foolish Swain! such Love to place. 


[Silvia] On any but Dorinda`s Face. 


[Dorinda] Hasty Nymph! I said not so. 


[Silvia] No–but I thy Meaning know. 
Ev`ry Shepherd thou wou`d`st have 
Not thy Lover, but thy Slave; 
To encrease thy captive Train, 
Never to be lov`d again. 
But, since all are now away, 
Prithee, but a Moment stay. 


[Dorinda] No; the Strangers, from the Vale, 
Sure will not this Meeting fail; 
Graceful one, the other Fair. 
He too, with the pensive Air, 
Told me, ere he came this way 
He was wont to look more Gay. 


[Silvia] See! how Pride thy Heart inclines 
To think, for Thee that Shepherd pines; 
When those Words, that reach`d thy Ear, 
Chloe was design`d to hear; 
Chloe, who did near thee stand, 
And his more speaking Looks command. 


[Dorinda] Now thy Envy makes me smile. 
That indeed were worth his while: 
Chloe next thyself decay`d, 
And no more a courted Maid. 

[Silvia] Next myself! Young Nymph, forbear. 
Still the Swains allow me Fair, 
Tho` not what I was that Day, 
When Colon bore the Prize away; 
When– 

[Dorinda] –Oh, hold! that Tale will last, 
Till all the Evening Sports are past; 
Till no Streak of Light is seen, 
Nor Footstep prints the flow`ry Green. 
What thou wert, I need not know, 
What I am, must haste to show. 
Only this I now discern 
From the things, thou`d`st have me learn, 
That Woman-kind`s peculiar Joys 
From past, or present Beauties rise.
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