A Woman's Honor: A Song
By John Wilmot
Love bade me hope, and I obeyed;
Phyllis continued still unkind:
Then you may een despair, he said,
In vain I strive to change her mind.
Honors got in, and keeps her heart,
Durst he but venture once abroad,
In my own right Id take your part,
And show myself the mightier God.
This huffing Honor domineers
In breasts alone where he has place:
But if true generous Love apppears,
The hector dares not show his face.
Let me still languish and complain,
Be most unhumanly denied:
I have some pleasure in my pain,
She can have none with all her pride.
I fall a sacrifice to Love,
She lives a wretch for Honors sake;
Whose tyrant does most cruel prove,
The difference is not hard to make.
Consider real Honor then,
Youll find hers cannot be the same;
Tis noble confidence in men,
In women, mean, mistrustful shame.