THI. (_reads_).
"A person of quality
Is my fair dame;
She has got beauty,
Fierce is my flame;
Yet I must blame
Her pride and cruelty."
VISC. I am lost after that.
COUN. The first line is excellent: "A person of quality."
JU. I think it is a little too long; but a liberty may be taken to
express a noble thought.
COUN. (_to_ MR. THIBAUDIER). Let us have the other.
THI. (_reads_).
"I know not if you doubt that my love be sincere,
Yet this I know, that my heart every moment
Longs to leave its sorry apartment
To visit yours, with fond respect and fear.
After all this, having my love in hand,
And my honour, of superfine brand,
You ought, in turn, I say,
Content to be a countess gay,
To cast that tigress' skin away,
Which hides your charms both night and day."
VISC. I am undone by Mr. Thibaudier.
COUN. Do not make fun of it; for the verses are good although they are
country verses.
VISC. I, Madam, make fun of it! Though he is my rival, I think his
verses admirable. I do not call them, like you, two strophes merely;
but two epigrams, as good as any of Martial's.
COUN. What! Does Martial make verses? I thought he only made gloves.
THI. It is not that Martial, Madam, but an author who lived thirty or
forty years ago.
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