First Line	Too well these lines that fatal truth declare,
Author	John Hervey
Date	1782
Description	Answer [Love; Death, afterlife] Transcribed from Dodsley, J. A collection of poems in six volumes. By several hands: With notes. 1782.Eighteenth Century Collections Online, https://name.umdl.umich.edu/004876767.0001.004.

Transcription

Too well these lines that fatal truth declare,

Which long I've known, yet now I blush to hear.

But say, what hopes thy fond ill-fated love,

What can it hope, though mutual it should prove?

This little form is fair in vain for you,

In vain for me thy honest heart is true;

For would'st thou fix dishonour on my name,

And give me up to penitence and shame?

Or gild my ruin with the name of wife,

And make me a poor virtuous wretch for life?

Could'st thou submit to wear the marriage chain,

(Too sure a cure for all thy present pain)

No saffron robe for us the godhead wears,

His torch inverted, and his face in tears.

Though every softer wish were amply crown'd,

Love soon would cease to smile where Fortune frown'd:

Then would thy soul my fond consent deplore,

And blame what it solicited before;

Thy own exhausted would reproach my truth,

And say I had undone thy blinded youth;

That I had damp'd Ambition's nobler flame,

Eclips'd thy talents, and obscur'd thy fame;

To madrigals and odes that wit confin'd,

That would in senates or in courts have shin'd,

Gloriously active in thy country's cause,

Asserting freedom, and enacting laws.

Or say, at best, that negatively kind

You only mourn'd, and silently repin'd;

The jealous daemons in my own fond breast

Would all these thoughts incessantly suggest,

And all that sense must feel, though pity had supprest.

Yet added grief my apprehension fills

(If there can be addition to those ills)

When they shall cry, whose harsh reproof I dread,

"'Twas thy own deed, thy folly on thy head!"

Age knows not to allow for thoughtless youth,

Nor pities tenderness, nor honours truth;

Holds it romantic to confess a heart,

And says those virgins act a wiser part,

Who hospitals and bedlams would explore

To find the rich, and only dread the poor;

Who legal prostitutes, for int'rest sake,

Clodios and Timons to their bosoms take,

And, if avenging heav'n permit increase,

People the world with folly and disease.

Those titles, deeds, and rent-rolls only wed,

Whilst the best bidder mounts the venal bed,

And the grave aunt and formal sire approve

This nuptual fale, this auction of their love.

But if regard to worth or sense be shown,

This poor degenerate child her friends disown,

Who dares to deviate by a virtuous choice

From her great name's hereditary vice.

These scenes my prudence ushers to my mind,

Of all the storms and quicksands I must find,

If I embark upon this summer sea,

Where Flatt'ry smooths, and Pleasure gilds the way.

Had our ill fate ne'er blown thy dang'rous flame

Beyond the limits of a friend's cold name,

I might upon that score thy heart receive,

And with that guiltless name my own deceive,

That commerce now in vain you recommend,

I dread the latent lover in the friend;

Of ignorance I want the poor excuse,

And know, I both must take, or both refuse.

Hear then the safe, the firm resolve I make,

Ne'er to encourage one I must forsake.

Whilst other maids a shameless path pursue,

Neither to int'rest, nor to honour true,

And, proud to swell the triumph of their eyes,

Exult in love from lovers they despise;

Their maxims all revers'd I mean to prove,

And though I like the lover, quit the love.

Beinecke Osborn c130

Title	Untitled
Period	1761-1790
Archive	Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

p. 83

Local title: An answer to the foregoing lines, 'O say thou dear possessor...'

Attributed author: n/a

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: n/a

Other: n/a

Clark MS 2008.023

Title	I: "Poems extracted from Several Authors. Wi [...]
Period	1761-1790
Archive	Clark Library

vol. 2 p. 84-88

Local title: Answer to the Foregoing Lines by the late Lord Hervey

Attributed author: Lord Hervey

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: n/a

Other: n/a

Leeds Brotherton Lt 119

Title	Untitled
Period	1731-1760
Archive	Brotherton Library

vol. 1 p. 50-54

Local title: The Answer - Wrote by Ld. H--y.

Attributed author: Lord H.

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: n/a

Other: n/a