Whenday arrived the monarch was surprised,
To
see each muleteer alike disguised;
No
hair in front of either now was seen;
Why,
how is this? said he: What can it mean?
Fifteen
or more, if I believe my sight,
My
wife has satisfied this very night.
Well!
well! he’ll now escape if mum he prove;
But
there again I trust he ne’er shall move.
The servant girl justified
Boccace alone is not my only source;
T’another shop I now shall have recourse;
Though, certainly, this famed Italian wit
Has many stories for my purpose fit.
But since of diff’rent dishes we should taste;
Upon an ancient work my hands I’ve placed;
Where full a hundred narratives are told,
And various characters we may behold;
From life, Navarre’s fair queen the fact relates;
My story int’rest in her page creates;
Beyond dispute from her we always find,
Simplicity with striking art combin’d.
Yet, whether ’tis the queen who writes, or not;
I shall, as usual, here and there allot
Whate’er additions requisite appear;
Without such license I’d not persevere,
But quit, at once, narrations of the sort;
Some may be long, though others are too short.
Letus proceed, howe’er (our plan explained:)
A
pretty servant-girl a man retain’d.
She
pleas’d his eye, and presently he thought,
With
ease she might to am’rous sports be brought;
He
prov’d not wrong; the wench was blithe and gay,
A
buxom lass, most able ev’ry way.
Atdawn, one summer’s morn, the spark was led
To
rise, and leave his wife asleep in bed;
He
sought at once the garden, where he found
The
servant-girl collecting flow’rs around,
To
make a nosegay for his better half,
Whose
birth-day ’twas:—he soon began to
laugh,
And
while the ranging of the flow’rs he prais’d,
The
servant’s neckerchief he slyly rais’d.
Who,
suddenly, on feeling of the hand,
Resistance
feign’d, and seem’d to make a stand;
But
since these liberties were nothing new,
They
other fun and frolicks would pursue;
The
nosegay at the fond gallant was thrown;
The
flow’rs he kiss’d, and now more ardent
grown
They
romp’d and rattl’d, play’d and skipt
around;
At
length the fair one fell upon the ground;
Our
am’rous spark advantage took of this,
And
nothing with the couple seem’d amiss.