Click in the field, then press CTRL+C to copy the HTML code
<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=431378" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Mandrake</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">FLORENTINE we now design to show;--<br>A greater blockhead ne'er appeared below;<br>It seems a prudent woman he had wed,<br>With beauty that might grace a monarch's bed;<br>Young, brisk, good-humoured, with engaging mien;<br>None in the town, or round, the like was seen:<br>Her praises every voice inclined to sing,<br>And judged her worthy of a mighty king;<br>At least a better husband she deserved:<br>An arrant fool he looked, and quite unnerved.<br>This Nicia Calfucci (for such his name)<br>Was fully bent to have a father's fame,<br>And thought his country honour he could do,<br>Could he contrive his lineage to pursue.<br>No holy saint in Paradise was blessed,<br>But what this husband fervently addressed;<br>From day to day, so oft he teazed for grace,<br>They scarcely knew his off'rings where to place.<br>No matron, quack, nor conjurer around,<br>But what he tried their qualities profound;<br>Yet all in vain: in spite of charm or book,<br>No father he, whatever pains he took.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">TO Florence then returned a youth from France;<br>Where he had studied,--more than complaisance:<br>Well trained as any from that polished court;<br>To Fortune's favours anxious to resort;<br>Gallant and seeking ev'ry FAIR to please;<br>Each house, road, alley, soon he knew at ease;<br>The husbands, good or bad, their whims and years,<br>With ev'ry thing that moved their hopes or fears;<br>What sort of fuel best their females charmed;<br>What spies were kept by those who felt alarmed;<br>The if's, for's, to's, and ev'ry artful wile,<br>That might in love a confidant beguile,<br>Or nurse, or father-confessor, or dog;<br>When passion prompts, few obstacles can clog.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE snares were spread, each stratagem was laid;<br>And every thing arranged to furnish aid,<br>When our gay spark determined to invest<br>Old Nicia with the cuckold's branching crest.<br>The plan no doubt was well conceived and bold;<br>The lady to her friends appeared not cold;<br>Within her husband's house she seemed polite;<br>But ne'er familiarly was seen invite,<br>No further could a lover dare proceed;<br>Not one had hope the belle his flame would heed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">OUR youth, Calimachus, no sooner came,<br>But he howe'er appeared to please the dame;<br>His camp he pitched and entered on the siege<br>Of fair Lucretia, faithful to her liege,<br>Who presently the haughty tigress played,<br>And sent him, like the rest, away dismayed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">HE, scarcely knew what saint he could invoke;<br>When Nicia's folly served him for a cloak;<br>However strange, no stratagem nor snare,<br>But what the fool would willingly prepare<br>With all his heart, and nothing fancy wrong;<br>That might to others possibly belong.<br>The lover and himself, as learned men,<br>Had conversations ev'ry now and then;<br>For Nicia was a doctor in the law:<br>Degree, to him, not worth a single straw;<br>Far better had he common prudence traced;<br>And not his confidence so badly placed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">ONE day he to Calimachus complained,<br>Of want of heirs, and wished they could be gained:<br>Where lay the fault? He was a gay gallant;<br>Lucretia young with features to enchant.<br>When I at Paris was, replied our wight,<br>There passed a clever man, a curious sight,<br>His company with anxious care I sought,<br>And was at length a hundred secrets taught;<br>'Mong others how, at will, to get an heir:--<br>A certain thing, he often would declare;<br>The great Mogul had tried it on his queen,<br>just two years since, the heir might then be seen;<br>And many other princesses of fame,<br>Had added by it to their husband's name.<br>'Twas very true; I've seen it fully proved:<br>The remedy all obstacles removed;<br>'Tis from the root of certain tree expressed;<br>A juice most potent ev'ry where confessed,<br>And Mandrake called, which taken by a wife;<br>More pow'r evinces o'er organick life,<br>Than from conventual grace was e'er derived,<br>Though in the cloister youthful friars hived.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">TEN months from hence I'll you a father make;<br>No longer time than that I ask to take;<br>This period o'er, the child to church we'll bring,--<br>If true, said Nicia, what a glorious thing!<br>You'll do me services I can't express.--<br>Don't doubt it, cried the spark of smart address:<br>Must I the fact so oft to you repeat?<br>I've seen it with my eyes; 'tis most complete;<br>You mean to jest, assuredly my friend;<br>Would you by doubts the great Mogul offend?<br>So handsomely this traveller he paid,<br>No sign of discontent he e'er betrayed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'TIS excellent, the Florentine replied;<br>Lucretia must be pleased to have it tried;<br>What satisfaction! in her arms to view<br>An infant that my lineage will renew.<br>Now, worthy friend, you god-father shall stand;<br>This very day pray take the thing in hand.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">NOT quite so fast, rejoined our smart gallant,<br>First know the plan, before consent you grant;<br>There is an ill attends the whole affair;<br>But what below, alas! is free from care;<br>This juice, possessing virtues so divine,<br>Has also pow'rs that prove the most malign:<br>Whoe'er receives the patient's first embrace;<br>Too fatally the dire effects will trace;<br>Death oft succeeds the momentary joy;<br>We scarcely good can find without alloy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">YOUR servant; sir, said Nicia with surprise;<br>No more of this: the name will me suffice;<br>Lucretia we will let remain at ease:<br>What you propose can never truly please;<br>If I must die by getting of a son,<br>'Tis better far the benefit to shun;<br>Go find some other for your wondrous art;<br>In fact I'm not inclined with life to part.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">HOW strange your conduct, cried the sprightly youth:<br>Extremes you seek, and overleap the truth;<br>Just now the fond desire to have a boy<br>Chased ev'ry care and filled your heart with joy;<br>At present quite the contrary appears<br>A moment changed your fondest hopes to fears;<br>Come, hear the rest; no longer waste your breath:<br>Kind Nature all can cure, excepting death.<br>What's necessary pray, that things succeed?<br>Some youthful clod for once should take the lead,<br>And clear the way of ev'ry venom round<br>Then you with safety may commence to sound;<br>No time you'll lose, but instantly begin<br>And you'll most certainly your object win.<br>This step is necessary to the end;<br>Some lad of little worth I recommend;<br>But not ill made, nor savagely robust,<br>To give your lady terror nor disgust.<br>We know that, used to Nicia's soft caress,<br>Lucretia would disrelish rude address;<br>Indeed 'tis possible in such event,<br>Her tender heart would never give consent;<br>This led me to propose a man that's young;<br>Besides, the more he proves for action strong,<br>The less of venom will behind remain,<br>And I'll engage that ev'ry drop he'll drain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">AT first the husband disapproved the plan,<br>The infamy, and danger which they ran<br>Perhaps the magistrate might have him sought,<br>And he, of murder, guilty might be thought;<br>The sudden death would mightily perplex;<br>A fellow's creature's loss would sorely vex;<br>Lucretia, who'd withstood each tempter's charms,<br>Was now to be disgraced in rustick arms!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">CALIMACHUS, with eagerness replied;<br>I would a man of consequence provide,<br>Or one, at all events, whose anxious aim<br>Would be, aloud the myst'ry, to proclaim!<br>But fear and folly would contain the clown,<br>Or money at the worst would stop renown,<br>Your better half apparently resigned;<br>The clod without intention of the kind;<br>In short whate'er arrived, 'tis clear your case<br>Could not with Cuckoldom be well in place.<br>Besides 'tis no way certain but our blade,<br>By strength of nerves the poison may evade;<br>And that's a double reason for the choice,<br>Since with more certainty we shall rejoice:<br>The venom may evaporate in fume,<br>And Mandrake pleasing pow'rs at once assume;<br>For when I spoke of death, I did not mean,<br>That nothing from it would the person screen;<br>To-morrow we the rustick lad must name;<br>To-night the potion given your charming dame;<br>I've some already with me, all prepared;<br>Let nothing of your project be declared:<br>You should not seem to know what we've designed;<br>Ligurio you'll permit this clod to find;<br>You can most thoroughly in him confide:<br>Discretion, secrecy, with him reside.<br>One thing, however, nearly I'd forgot;<br>A bandage for the eyes we should allot;<br>And when well bound he nothing e'er can trace<br>Of whom, or what, the lady, or the place.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE whole arrangement Nicia much approved;<br>But now 'twas time the lady should be moved.<br>At first she thought it jest, then angry grew,<br>And vowed the plan she never would pursue;<br>Her life she'd rather forfeit than her name:<br>Once known, for ever lost would be her fame<br>Besides the heinous sin and vile offence,<br>God knew she rather would with all dispense;<br>Mere complaisance had led her to comply;<br>Would she admit a wretch with blearing eye,<br>To incommode, and banish tranquil ease?<br>Who could conceive her formed a clod to please?<br>Can I, said she, the paths of honour quit,<br>And in my bed a loathsome brute permit?<br>Or e'er regard the plan but with disdain?<br>No, by saint John, I ever will maintain,<br>Nor beau, nor clown, nor king, nor lord, nor 'squire,<br>Save Nicia, with me freely shall retire.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE fair Lucretia seemed so firmly bent,<br>To father Timothy at length they went,<br>Who preached the lady such a fine discourse,<br>She ceded more through penitence than force.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">MOREOVER she was promised that the lad<br>Should be nor clownish, nor in person bad;<br>Nor such as any way might give disgust,<br>But one to whom she perfectly might trust.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE wondrous draught was taken by the fair;<br>Next day our Wight prepared his wily snare:<br>Himself bepowdered like a miller's man,<br>With beard and whiskers to complete his plan;<br>A better metamorphose ne'er was seen;<br>Ligurio, who had in the secret been,<br>So thoroughly disguised the lover thought,<br>At midnight him to Nicia freely brought,<br>With bandage o'er the eyes and hair disdained,<br>Not once the husband of deceit complained.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">BESIDE the dame in silence slid our spark;<br>In silence she attended in the dark,<br>Perfumed and nicely ev'ry way bedecked;<br>For what? you ask, or whom did she expect;<br>Were all these pains a miller to receive?--<br>Too much they cannot take, the sex believe;<br>And whether kings or millers be their aim,<br>The wish to please is ever found the same.<br>'Tis double honour in a woman thought,<br>When by her charms a torpid heart is caught;<br>She, who in icy bosoms flame can raise,<br>Deserving doubtless is of treble praise.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE spark disguised, his place no sooner took,<br>But awkwardness he presently forsook;<br>No more the miller, but the smart gallant:<br>The lady found him kind and complaisant;<br>Such moments we'll suppose were well employed;<br>Though trembling fears not perfectly destroyed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">SHE, to herself, remarked, 'tis very strange,<br>This lad's demeanour should so quickly change;<br>He's quite another character, 'tis clear;<br>What pity that his end should be so near;<br>Alas! he merits not so hard a fate;<br>I feel regret the lot should him await;<br>And while soft pleasure seems his heart's delight;<br>His soul is doomed from hence to take its flight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE husband who so fully gave consent,<br>Was led his partner's suff'rings to lament<br>The spirit of a queen in truth she showed,<br>When cuckoldom was on her spouse bestowed;<br>In decoration, forced to acquiesce,<br>She would not condescend to join caress.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LUCRETIA howsoe'er the lad approved;<br>His winning manners much her favour moved.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">WHEN he the subtle venom had subdued,<br>He took her hand, and having fondly sued,<br>Said he, your pardon lady now I ask;<br>Be not displeased when I remove the mask;<br>Your rage restrain; a trick on you's been played;<br>Calimachus am I; be not dismayed;<br>Approve my sacrifice; the secret's known;<br>Your rigour would be useless now if shown;<br>Should I be doomed howe'er to breathe my last,<br>I die content, rememb'ring what has passed;<br>You have the means my life at will to take;<br>More havock with me soft delight could make,<br>Than any poison that the draught possessed;<br>Mere folly, imposition, all the rest.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">TILL then Lucretia had resistance made;<br>To seem submissive she was still afraid;<br>The lover was not hated by the belle,<br>But bashfulness she could not well dispel,<br>Which, joined to simple manners mixed with fear,<br>Ungrateful made her, spite of self, appear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">IN silence wrapt, and scarcely drawing breath,<br>By passion moved, and yet ashamed to death,<br>Not knowing how to act, so great her grief,<br>From tears, her throbbing bosom sought relief.<br>Look, could she e'er her lover in the face?<br>Will he not think me covered with disgrace?<br>Said she, within herself;--what else believe?<br>My wits were lost to let him thus deceive.<br>O'ercome by sorrow, then she turned her head,<br>And tried to hide herself within the bed,<br>At furthest end, but vain alas her aim,<br>The lover thither in a moment came:<br>Her only ground, remaining unsubdued,<br>Surrendered when the vanquisher pursued,<br>Who every thing submitted to his will,<br>And tears no more her eyes were found to fill;<br>Shame took to flight, and scruples spread the wing;<br>How happy those whom duping GAIN can bring!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">TOO soon Aurora for our spark appeared;<br>Too soon for her so thoroughly revered;<br>Said he, the poison, that can life devour,<br>Requires repeated acts to crush its pow'r.<br>The foll'wing days our youthful am'rous pair<br>Found opportunities for pleasing fare.<br>The husband scarcely could himself contain,<br>So anxiously he wished his aim to gain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE lover from the belle at length arose,<br>And hastened to his house to seek repose;<br>But scarcely had he placed himself in bed,<br>When our good husband's footsteps thither led;<br>He, to the spark, related with delight,<br>How mandrake-juice succeeded in the night.<br>Said he, at first beside the bed I crept,<br>And listened if the miller near her kept,<br>Or whether he to converse was inclined,<br>And ev'ry way to act as was designed.<br>I then my wife was anxious to address,<br>And whispered that she should the youth caress;<br>Nor dread too much the spoiling of her charms:<br>Indeed 'twas all embarrassing alarms.<br>Don't think, said I, that either can deceive;<br>I ev'ry thing shall hear, you may believe;<br>Know, Nicia is a man, who well may say,<br>He's trusted without measure ev'ry day.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">PRAY recollect my very life 's at stake,<br>And do not many difficulties make.<br>Convince thereby how much your spouse you love;<br>'Twill pleasure doubtless give the pow'rs above.<br>But should the blockhead any how prove shy<br>Send instantly to me; I shall be nigh;<br>I'm going now to rest; by no means fail;<br>We'll soon contrive and ev'ry way prevail.<br>But there was no necessity for this;<br>'Tis pretty clear that nothing went amiss.<br>In fact the rustick liked the business well,<br>And seemed unwilling to resign the belle,<br>I pity him, and much lament his lot;<br>But--he must die and soon will be forgot:<br>A fig for those who used to crack their jest;<br>In nine months' time a child will be the test.</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>
<img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share">
<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=431378" data-title="The Mandrake de La Fontaine" data-description="FLORENTINE we now design to show;--
A greater blockhead ne'er appeared below;
It seems a prudent woman he had wed,
With beauty that might grace a monarch's bed;
Young, brisk, good-humoured, with engaging mien;
None in the town, or round, the like ..."></div>
</div>
</div>