University of Virginia Library



Epig. XII. In Vertumnum.

Stay (my Vertumnus) whether dost thou goe,
To thy chast Mistris, whose true heart doth know.
No loue but thine? O foole to thinke that shee
Will keep from others; what she giues to thee,
Here could I tel thee of her strange desire,
Her trickes to set the coldest hearts on fire,
But least by laying open such foule crimes,
I rather seeme to teach, then checke the times.
Know this, the best, that is, or 'ere hath beene
Of common women is no better then
Such common things, at which (pho stop thy nose
Each french-sicke stalion may put downe his ---