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Behn, Aphra

"The Rover"

Tho I admire you strangely for your
Beauty, Yet I contemn your Mind. -And yet I wou'd at any rate enjoy
you; At your own rate- but cannot- See here The only Sum I can command
on Earth; I know not where to eat when this is gone: Yet such a Slave
I am to Love and Beauty, This last reserve I'll sacrifice to enjoy
you. -Nay, do not frown, I know you are to be bought, And wou'd be
bought by me, by me, For a mean trifling Sum, if I could pay it down.
Which happy knowledge I will still repeat, And lay it to my Heart, it
has a Virtue in't, And soon will cure those Wounds your Eyes have
made. -And yet- there's something so divinely powerful there- Nay, I
will gaze- to let you see my Strength. [Holds her, looks on her, and
pauses and sighs. By Heaven, bright Creature- I would not for the
World Thy Fame were half so fair as is thy Face. [Turns her away from
him. Ang. His word go thro me to the very Soul. [Aside. -If you have
nothing else to say to me. Will. Yes, you shall hear how infamous you
are- For which I do not hate thee: But that secures my Heart, and all
the Flames it feels Are but so many Lusts, I know it by their sudden
bold intrusion. The Fire's impatient and betrays, 'tis false- For had
it been the purer Flame of Love, I should have pin'd and languish'd at
your Feet, E'er found the Impudence to have discover'd it.


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