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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=431337" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Belphegor Addressed To Miss De Chammelay</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">YOUR name with ev'ry pleasure here I place,<br>The last effusions of my muse to grace.<br>O charming Phillis! may the same extend<br>Through time's dark night: our praise together blend;<br>To this we surely may pretend to aim<br>Your acting and my rhymes attention claim.<br>Long, long in mem'ry's page your fame shall live;<br>You, who such ecstacy so often give;<br>O'er minds, o'er hearts triumphantly you reign:<br>In Berenice, in Phaedra, and Chimene,<br>Your tears and plaintive accents all engage:<br>Beyond compare in proud Camilla's rage;<br>Your voice and manner auditors delight;<br>Who strong emotions can so well excite?<br>No fine eulogium from my pen expect:<br>With you each air and grace appear correct<br>My first of Phillis's you ought to be;<br>My sole affection had been placed on thee;<br>Long since, had I presumed the truth to tell;<br>But he who loves would fain be loved as well.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">NO hope of gaining such a charming fair,<br>Too soon, perhaps, I ceded to despair;<br>Your friend, was all I ventured to be thought,<br>Though in your net I more than half was caught.<br>Most willingly your lover I'd have been;<br>But time it is our story should be seen.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">ONE, day, old Satan, sov'reign dread of hell;<br>Reviewed his subjects, as our hist'ries tell;<br>The diff'rent ranks, confounded as they stood,<br>Kings, nobles, females, and plebeian blood,<br>Such grief expressed, and made such horrid cries,<br>As almost stunned, and filled him with surprise.<br>The monarch, as he passed, desired to know<br>The cause that sent each shade to realms below.<br>Some said--my HUSBAND; others WIFE replied;<br>The same was echoed loud from ev'ry side.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">His majesty on this was heard to say:<br>If truth these shadows to my ears convey,<br>With ease our glory we may now augment:<br>I'm fully bent to try th' experiment.<br>With this design we must some demon send,<br>Who wily art with prudence well can blend;<br>And, not content with watching Hymen's flock,<br>Must add his own experience to the stock.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE sable senate instantly approved<br>The proposition that the monarch moved;<br>Belphegor was to execute the work;<br>The proper talent in him seemed to lurk:<br>All ears and eyes, a prying knave in grain<br>In short, the very thing they wished to gain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THAT he might all expense and cost defray,<br>They gave him num'rous bills without delay,<br>And credit too, in ev'ry place of note,<br>With various things that might their plan promote.<br>He was, besides, the human lot to fill,<br>Of pleasure and of pain:--of good and ill;<br>In fact, whate'er for mortals was designed,<br>With his legation was to be combined.<br>He might by industry and wily art,<br>His own afflictions dissipate in part;<br>But die he could not, nor his country see,<br>Till he ten years complete on earth should be.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">BEHOLD him trav'lling o'er th' extensive space;<br>Between the realms of darkness and our race.<br>To pass it, scarcely he a moment took;<br>On Florence instantly he cast a look;--<br>Delighted with the beauty of the spot,<br>He there resolved to fix his earthly lot,<br>Regarding it as proper for his wiles,<br>A city famed for wanton freaks and guiles.<br>Belphegor soon a noble mansion hired,<br>And furnished it with ev'ry thing desired;<br>As signor Roderick he designed to pass;<br>His equipage was large of ev'ry class;<br>Expense anticipating day by day,<br>What, in ten years, he had to throw away.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">HIS noble entertainments raised surprise;<br>Magnificence alone would not suffice;<br>Delightful pleasures he dispensed around,<br>And flattery abundantly was found,<br>An art in which a demon should excel:<br>No devil surely e'er was liked so well.<br>His heart was soon the object of the FAIR;<br>To please Belphegor was their constant care.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">WHO lib'rally with presents smoothes the road,<br>Will meet no obstacles to LOVE'S abode.<br>In ev'ry situation they are sweet,<br>I've often said, and now the same repeat:<br>The primum mobile of human kind,<br>Are gold and silver, through the world we find.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">OUR envoy kept two books, in which he wrote<br>The names of all the married pairs of note;<br>But that assigned to couples satisfied,<br>He scarcely for it could a name provide,<br>Which made the demon almost blush to see,<br>How few, alas! in wedlock's chains agree;<br>While presently the other, which contained<br>Th' unhappy--not a leaf in blank remained.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">No other choice Belphegor now had got,<br>Than--try himself the hymeneal knot.<br>In Florence he beheld a certain fair,<br>With charming face and smart engaging air;<br>Of noble birth, but puffed with empty pride;<br>Some marks of virtue, though not much beside.<br>For Roderick was asked this lofty dame;<br>The father said Honesta (such her name)<br>Had many eligible offers found;<br>But, 'mong the num'rous band that hovered round,<br>Perhaps his daughter, Rod'rick's suit might take,<br>Though he should wish for time the choice to make.<br>This approbation met, and Rod'rick 'gan<br>To use his arts and execute his plan.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE entertainments, balls, and serenades,<br>Plays, concerts, presents, feasts, and masquerades,<br>Much lessened what the demon with him brought;<br>He nothing grudged:--whate'er was wished he bought.<br>The dame believed high honour she bestowed,<br>When she attention to his offer showed;<br>And, after prayers, entreaties, and the rest,<br>To be his wife she full assent expressed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">BUT first a pettifogger to him came,<br>Of whom (aside) Belphegor made a game;<br>What! said the demon, is a lady gained<br>just like a house?--these scoundrels have obtained<br>Such pow'r and sway, without them nothing's done;<br>But hell will get them when their course is run.<br>He reasoned properly; when faith's no more,<br>True honesty is forced to leave the door;<br>When men with confidence no longer view<br>Their fellow-mortals,--happiness adieu!<br>The very means we use t' escape the snare,<br>Oft deeper plunge us in the gulph of care;<br>Avoid attorneys, if you comfort crave<br>Who knows a PETTIFOGGER, knows a KNAVE;<br>Their contracts, filled with IFS and FORS, appear<br>The gate through which STRIFE found admittance here.<br>In vain we hope again the earth 'twill leave<br>Still STRIFE remains, and we ourselves deceive:<br>In spite of solemn forms and laws we see,<br>That LOVE and HYMEN often disagree.<br>The heart alone can tranquilize the mind;<br>In mutual passion ev'ry bliss we find.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">HOW diff'rent things in other states appear!<br>With friends--'tis who can be the most sincere;<br>With lovers--all is sweetness, balm of life;<br>While all is IRKSOMENESS with man and wife.<br>We daily see from DUTY springs disgust,<br>And PLEASURE likes true LIBERTY to trust.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">ARE happy marriages for ever flown?<br>On full consideration I will own,<br>That when each other's follies couples bear;<br>They then deserve the name of HAPPY PAIR.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">ENOUGH of this:--no sooner had our wight<br>The belle possessed, and passed the month's delight;<br>But he perceived what marriage must be here,<br>With such a demon in our nether sphere.<br>For ever jars and discords rang around;<br>Of follies, ev'ry class our couple found;<br>Honesta often times such noise would make,<br>Her screams and cries the neighbours kept awake,<br>Who, running thither, by the wife were told:--<br>Some paltry tradesman's daughter, coarse and bold,<br>He should have had:--not one of rank like me;<br>To treat me thus, what villain he must be!<br>A wife so virtuous, could he e'er deserve!<br>My scruples are too great, or I should swerve;<br>Indeed, without dispute, 'twould serve him right:--<br>We are not sure she nothing did in spite;<br>These prudes can make us credit what they please:<br>Few ponder long when they can dupe with ease.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THIS wife and husband, as our hist'ries say,<br>Each moment squabbled through the passing day;<br>Their disagreements often would arise<br>About a petticoat, cards, tables, pies,<br>Gowns, chairs, dice, summer-houses, in a word,<br>Things most ridiculous and quite absurd.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">WELL might this spouse regret his Hell profound,<br>When he considered what he'd met on ground.<br>To make our demon's wretchedness complete,<br>Honesta's relatives, from ev'ry street,<br>He seemed to marry, since he daily fed<br>The father, mother, sister (fit to wed,)<br>And little brother, whom he sent to school;<br>While MISS he portioned to a wealthy fool.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">His utter ruin, howsoe'er, arose<br>From his attorney-steward that he chose.<br>What's that? you ask--a wily sneaking knave,<br>Who, while his master spends, contrives to save;<br>Till, in the end, grown rich, the lands he buys,<br>Which his good lord is forced to sacrifice.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">IF, in the course of time, the master take<br>The place of steward, and his fortune make,<br>'Twould only to their proper rank restore,<br>Those who become just what they were before.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">POOR Rod'rick now no other hope had got,<br>Than what the chance of traffick might allot;<br>Illusion vain, or doubtful at the best:--<br>Though some grow rich, yet all are not so blessed.<br>'Twas said our husband never would succeed;<br>And truly, such it seemed to be decreed.<br>His agents (similar to those we see<br>In modern days) were with his treasure free;<br>His ships were wrecked; his commerce came to naught;<br>Deceived by knaves, of whom he well had thought;<br>Obliged to borrow money, which to pay,<br>He was unable at th' appointed day,<br>He fled, and with a farmer shelter took,<br>Where he might hope the bailiffs would not look.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">HE told to Matthew, (such the farmer's name,)<br>His situation, character, and fame:<br>By duns assailed, and harassed by a wife,<br>Who proved the very torment of his life,<br>He knew no place of safety to obtain,<br>Like ent'ring other bodies, where 'twas plain,<br>He might escape the catchpole's prowling eye,<br>Honesta's wrath, and all her rage defy.<br>From these he promised he would thrice retire;<br>Whenever Matthew should the same desire:<br>Thrice, but no more, t'oblige this worthy man,<br>Who shelter gave when from the fiends he ran.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE AMBASSADOR commenced his form to change:--<br>From human frame to frame he 'gan to range;<br>But what became his own fantastick state,<br>Our books are silent, nor the facts relate.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">AN only daughter was the first he seized,<br>Whose charms corporeal much our demon pleased;<br>But Matthew, for a handsome sum of gold,<br>Obliged him, at a word, to quit his hold.<br>This passed at Naples--next to Rome he came,<br>Where, with another fair, he did the same;<br>But still the farmer banished him again,<br>So well he could the devil's will restrain;<br>Another weighty purse to him was paid<br>Thrice Matthew drove him out from belle and maid.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE king of Naples had a daughter fair,<br>Admired, adored:--her parents' darling care;<br>In wedlock oft by many princes sought;<br>Within her form, the wily demon thought<br>He might be sheltered from Honesta's rage;<br>And none to drive him thence would dare engage.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">NAUGHT else was talked of, in or out of town,<br>But devils driven by the cunning clown;<br>Large sums were offered, if, by any art,<br>He'd make the demon from the fair depart.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">AFFLICTED much was Matthew, now to lose<br>The gold thus tendered, but he could not choose,<br>For since Belphegor had obliged him thrice,<br>He durst not hope the demon to entice;<br>Poor man was he, a sinner, who, by chance,<br>(He knew not how, it surely was romance,)<br>Had some few devils, truly, driven out:<br>Most worthy of contempt without a doubt.<br>But all in vain:--the man they took by force;<br>Proceed he must, or hanged he'd be of course.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE demon was before our farmer placed;<br>The sight was by the prince in person graced;<br>The wond'rous contest numbers ran to see,<br>And all the world spectators fain would be.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">IF vanquished by the devil:--he must swing;<br>If vanquisher:--'twould thousands to him bring:<br>The gallows was, no doubt, a horrid view;<br>Yet, at the purse, his glances often flew;<br>The evil spirit laughed within his sleeve,<br>To see the farmer tremble, fret, and grieve.<br>He pleaded that the wight he'd thrice obeyed;<br>The demon was by Matthew often prayed;<br>But all in vain,--the more he terror showed,<br>The more Belphegor ridicule bestowed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">AT length the clown was driven to declare,<br>The fiend he was unable to ensnare;<br>Away they Matthew to the gallows led;<br>But as he went, it entered in his head,<br>And, in a sort of whisper he averred<br>(As was in fact the case) a drum he heard.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE demon, with surprise, to Matthew cried;<br>What noise is that? Honesta, he replied,<br>Who you demands, and every where pursues,<br>The spouse who treats her with such vile abuse.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THESE words were thunder to Belphegor's ears,<br>Who instantly took flight, so great his fears;<br>To hell's abyss he fled without delay,<br>To tell adventures through the realms of day.<br>Sire, said the demon, it is clearly true,<br>Damnation does the marriage knot pursue.<br>Your highness often hither sees arrive,<br>Not squads, but regiments, who, when alive,<br>By Hymen were indissolubly tied:--<br>In person I the fact have fully tried.<br>Th' institution, perhaps, most just could be:<br>Past ages far more happiness might see;<br>But ev'ry thing, with time, corruption shows;<br>No jewel in your crown more lustre throws.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">BELPHEGOR'S tale by Satan was believed;<br>Reward he got: the term, which-sorely grieved,<br>Was now reduced; indeed, what had he done,<br>That should prevent it?--If away he'd run,<br>Who would not do the same who weds a shrew?<br>Sure worse below the devil never knew!<br>A brawling woman's tongue, what saint can bear?<br>E'en Job, Honesta would have taught despair.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">WHAT is the inference? you ask:--I'll tell;--<br>Live single, if you know you are well;<br>But if old Hymen o'er your senses reign,<br>Beware Honestas, or you'll rue the chain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=La+Fontaine">La Fontaine</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=431337" data-title="Belphegor Addressed To Miss De Chammelay de La Fontaine" data-description="YOUR name with ev'ry pleasure here I place,
The last effusions of my muse to grace.
O charming Phillis! may the same extend
Through time's dark night: our praise together blend;
To this we surely may pretend to aim
Your acting and my rhymes attent..."></div>
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