If love be folly, as the schools would prove, The man must lose his wits, who falls in love; Deny him love, you doom the wretch to death, And then it follows he must lose his breath. Good sooth! there is a young and dainty maid I dearly love, a minstrel she by trade; What then? must I defer to pedant rule, And own that love transforms me to a fool? Not I, so help me! By the gods I swear, The nymph I love is fairest of the fair; Wise, witty, dearer to her poet's sight Than piles of money on an author's night; Must I not love her then? Let the dull sot, Who made the law, obey it! I will not.—CUMBERLAND. * * * * * ARISTOPHON. (Book xiii. § 14, p. 901.) Love, the disturber of the peace of heaven, And grand fomenter of Olympian feuds, Was banish'd from the synods of the gods: They drove him down to earth at the expense Of us poor mortals, and curtail'd his wings To spoil his soaring and secure themselves From his annoyance—Selfish, hard decree! For ever since he roams th' unquiet world, The tyrant and despoiler of mankind.—CUMBERLAND. * * * * * ALEXIS. (Book xiii. § 14, p. 901.) The man who holds true pleasure to consist In pampering his vile body, and defies Love's great divinity, rashly maintains Weak impious war with an immortal god. The gravest master that the schools can boast Ne'er train'd his pupils to such discipline, As Love his votaries, unrivall'd power, The first great deity—and where is he, So stubborn and determinedly stiff, But shall at some time bend the knee to Love, And make obeisance to his mighty shrine?—CUMBERLAND. * * * * * IBYCUS. (Book xiii. § 17, p. 903.) Sweetest flower, Euryale! Whom the maids with tresses fair, Sister Graces, make their care— Thee Cythera nourish'd—thee Pitho, with the radiant brow; And 'mid bowers where roses blow Led thy laughing infancy.—BLAND. * * * * * ALEXIS. (Book xiii. § 18, p. 904.) Dost thou see any fellow poll'd and shaven, And askest me from whence the cause should come? He goes unto the wars to filch and raven, And play such pranks he cannot do at home. Such pranks become not those that beards do weare: And what harm is it if long beards we beare? For so it is apparent to be scene, That we are men, not women, by our chin.—MOLLE. * * * * * TIMOCLES. (Book xiii. § 22, p. 908.)