<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=431384" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Picture</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">SOLICITED I've been to give a tale,<br>In which (though true, decorum must prevail),<br>The subject from a picture shall arise,<br>That by a curtain's kept from vulgar eyes.<br>My brain must furnish various features new:<br>What's delicate and smart produce to view;<br>By this expressed, and not by t'other said:<br>And all so clear, most easy to be read,<br>By ev'ry fool, without the aid of notes,<br>That idiot's bad indeed who never quotes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">CATULLUS tells us, ev'ry matron sage<br>Will peep most willingly (whate'er her age),<br>At that gigantick gift, which Juno made,<br>To Venus' fruit, in gardens oft displayed.<br>If any belle recede, and shun the sight,<br>Dissimulation she supposes right.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THIS principle allowed, why scruples make?<br>Why, less than eyes, should ears a license take?<br>But since 'tis so resolved I'll do my best,<br>And naught in open terms shall be expressed:<br>A veil shall over ev'ry charm be cast,<br>Of gauze indeed, and this from first to last,<br>So nicely done, that howsoever tost,<br>To none I trust will any thing be lost.<br>Who nicely thinks, and speaks with graceful ease;<br>Can current make just whatsoe'er he please;<br>For all will pass, as I have often known:<br>The word well chosen, pardon soon is shown,<br>The sex o'erlook the thing no more the same,<br>The thought remains, but 'tis without a name;<br>No blush is raised; no difficulty found;<br>Yet ev'ry body understands around.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">AT present, much I need this useful art:<br>Why? you will ask; because, when I impart<br>Such wondrous circumstances, ev'ry belle,<br>Without reserve, will con them over well.<br>To this I answer: female ears are chaste,<br>Though roguish are their eyes, as well as taste.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">BE that as 'twill, I certainly should like,<br>With freedom to explain, by terms oblique,<br>To belles, how this was broken:--that was down:<br>Assist me pray, ye NINE of high renown;<br>But you are maids, and strangers, we agree,<br>To LOVE'S soft scenes, not knowing A from B.<br>Remain then, Muses, never stir an inch,<br>But beg the god of verse, when at a pinch,<br>To help me out and kind assistance lend,<br>To choose expressions which will not offend,<br>Lest I some silly things should chance to say,<br>That might displeasure raise, and spoil my lay.<br>Enough, howe'er, we've on the subject said:<br>'Tis time we t'wards the painting should be led,<br>Which an adventure you will find contains,<br>That happened once in Cupid's famed domains.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">IN former days, just by Cythera town<br>A monastery was, of some renown,<br>With nuns the queens of beauty filled the place,<br>And gay gallants you easily might trace.<br>The courtier, citizen, and parson too,<br>The doctor and the bachelor you'd view,<br>With eager steps:--all visits thither made;<br>And 'mong the latter, one (a pleasing blade)<br>Had free access: was thought a prudent friend,<br>Who might to sisters many comforts lend;<br>Was always closely shaved and nicely dressed;<br>And ev'ry thing he said was well expressed;<br>The breath of scandal, howsoever pat,<br>Ne'er lighted on his neat cravat nor hat.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">TWO nuns alternatively, from the youth;<br>Experienced many services, in truth;<br>The one had recently a novice been;<br>Few months had passed since she complete was seen;<br>The other still the dress of novice wore;<br>The youngest's age was seventeen years, not more<br>Time doubtless very proper (to be plain)<br>Love's wily thesis fully to sustain:<br>The bachelor so well the fair had taught,<br>And they so earnestly the science sought,<br>That by experience both the art had learned,<br>And ev'ry thing most perfectly discerned.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THESE sisters eagerly had made one day<br>An assignation with the lover gay;<br>To have the entertainment quite complete,<br>They'd Bacchus, Ceres too, who Venus greet:<br>With perfect neatness all the meats were served,<br>And naught from grace and elegancy swerved;<br>The wines, the custards, jellies, creams, and ice:<br>The decorations, ev'ry thing was nice;<br>What pleasing objects and delights were viewed!<br>The room with sweetest flow'rs fair Flora strewed;<br>A sort of garden o'er the linen traced<br>Here lakes of love:--there names entwined were placed;<br>Magnificence like this the nuns admired,<br>And such amusements ardently desired.<br>Their beauty too incited to be free;<br>A thousand matters filled their souls with glee;<br>In height the belles were pretty much the same<br>Like alabaster fair; of perfect frame;<br>In num'rous corners Cupid nestling lay:<br>Beneath a stomacher he'd slyly play,<br>A veil or scapulary, this or that,<br>Where least the eye of day perceived he sat,<br>Unless a lover called to mystick bow'rs,<br>Where he might hearts entwine with chains of flow'rs;<br>A thousand times a day the urchin flew,<br>With open arms the sisters to pursue;<br>Their charms were such in ev'ry air and look,<br>Both (one by one) he for his mother took.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">WITH anxious looks, the ladies thus prepared,<br>Expected him who all their kindness shared;<br>Now they bestowed abuse; next fondly praised:<br>Then of his conduct dark suspicions raised,<br>Conceived, a new amour him kept away:<br>What can it be, said one, that makes him stay?<br>Of honour an affair.--love--sickness--what?<br>Said t'other whether it be this or that,<br>If here again his face he ever show,<br>A pretty trick in turn we'll let him know.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">WHILE thus the couple sought their plot to frame,<br>A convent porter with a burden came,<br>For her who kept the stores of ev'ry kind,<br>Depositary of the whole designed.<br>'Twas merely a pretence, as I am told:<br>The things were not required for young or old;<br>But she much appetite had got in truth,<br>Which made her have recourse to such a youth,<br>Who was regarded, in repasts like these,<br>A first rate cook that all prepared at ease.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THIS awkward, heavy lout mistook the cell;<br>By chance upon our ladies' room he fell,<br>And knocked with weighty hands: they ope'd the door.<br>And gave abuse, but soon their anger o'er,<br>The nuns conceived a treasure they had found,<br>And, laughing heartily, no longer frowned,<br>But both exclaimed at once: let's take this fool;<br>Of him we easily can make a tool;<br>As well as t'other, don't you think he'll do?<br>The eldest added:--let's our whim pursue;<br>'Tis well determined;--What were we to get,<br>That here we waited, and are waiting yet?<br>Fine words and phrases; nothing of the kind;<br>This wight 's as good, for what we have a mind,<br>As any bachelor or doctor wise<br>At all events, for present, he'll suffice.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">SHE rightly judged; his height, form, simple air,<br>And ev'ry act, so clearly void of care,<br>Raised expectation; this was AEsop's man,<br>He never thought: 'twas all without a plan;<br>Both ate and drank, and, had he been at will,<br>Would matters far have pushed, though void of skill.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">FAMILIAR grown, the fellow ready seemed,<br>To execute whate'er was proper deemed;<br>To serve the convent he was porter made,<br>And in their wishes nuns of course obeyed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'TIS here begins the subject we've in view,<br>The scene that faithfully our painter drew;<br>Apollo, give me aid, assistance lend,<br>Enable me, I pray, to comprehend,<br>Why this mean stupid rustick sat at ease,<br>And left the sisters (Claudia, formed to please,<br>And lovely fair Theresa) all the care?<br>Had he not better done to give a chair?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I THINK I hear the god of verse reply:<br>Not quite so fast my friend, you may rely,<br>These matters never can the probe endure;<br>I understand you; Cupid, to be sure,<br>Is doubtless found a very roguish boy,<br>Who, though he please at times, will oft annoy;<br>I'm wrong a wicked whelp like this to take,<br>And, master of the ceremonies make.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">NO sooner in a house the urchin gets,<br>But rules and laws he at defiance sets;<br>The place of reason whim at once assumes,<br>Breaks ev'ry obstacle, frets, rages, fumes.<br>With scenes like these will Cupid oft surprise,<br>And frantick passion sparkle in his eyes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">SOON on the floor was seen this boorish wight;<br>For, whether that the chair was rather slight,<br>Or that the composition of the clown<br>Was not, like that of geese, of softest down,<br>Or that Theresa, by her gay discourse,<br>Had penetrated to the mystick source,<br>The am'rous pulpit suddenly gave way,<br>And on the ground the rustick quickly lay.<br>The first attempt had clearly bad success,<br>And fair Theresa suffered you may guess.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">YE censors keep from hence your eyes prophane;<br>See, honest hearts, how Claudia tried amain,<br>To take advantage of the dire mishap,<br>And all she could, with eagerness entrap;<br>For in the fall Theresa lost her hold;<br>The other pushed her:--further off she rolled;<br>And then, what she had quitted Claudia seized;<br>Theresa, like a demon quite displeased,<br>Endeavoured to recover what she'd lost:--<br>Again to take her seat, but she was crossed.<br>The sister in possession ne'er inclined<br>To cede a post so pleasant to her mind;<br>Theresa raised her hand to give a stroke;<br>And what of that?--if any thing provoke<br>When thus engaged, unheeded it remains<br>Small ills are soon forgot where pleasure reigns.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">IN spite of rage apparent in the face;<br>Of her who in the scuffle lost her place,<br>The other followed up the road she took;<br>His course the rustick also ne'er forsook.<br>Theresa scolded; anger marked her eyes;<br>In Venus' games contentions oft arise;<br>Their violence no parallel has seen:--<br>In proof, remember Menelaus' queen.<br>Though here to take a part Bellona 's found,<br>Of cuirasses I see but few around;<br>When Venus closes with the god of Thrace,<br>Her armour then appears with ev'ry grace.<br>The FAIR will understand: enough is said;<br>When beauty's goddess is to combat led,<br>Her body-cuirass shows superior charms;<br>The Cyclops rarely forge such pleasing arms.<br>Had Vulcan graven on Achilles' shield<br>The picture we've described, more praise 'twould yield.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE nun's adventure I in verse have told,<br>But not in colours, like the action, bold;<br>And as the story in the picture fails,<br>The latter seems to lose in my details.<br>The pen and brush express not quite the same;<br>Eyes are not ears, however we may aim.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">ENTANGLED in the net, I long have left<br>The fair Theresa, of her throne bereft;<br>Howe'er, this sister had her turn we find,<br>So much to please, the porter was inclined,<br>That both were satisfied, and felt content;<br>Here ends our tale, and truly I lament,<br>That not a word about the feast is said,<br>Though I've no doubt, they freely drank and fed;<br>And this for reasons easily conceived:<br>The interlude gave rest that much relieved.<br>In fine, 'twas well throughout, except, in truth,<br>The hour of meeting settled with the youth,<br>Which much embarrasses I will avow,<br>For if he never came and made his bow,<br>The sisters had the means, when they might please,<br>Completely to console themselves at ease;<br>And if the spark appeared, the belles could hide<br>Both clown and chair, or any thing beside<br>The lover what he wanted soon possessed,<br>And was as usual treated with the best.</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=431384" data-title="The Picture de La Fontaine" data-description="SOLICITED I've been to give a tale, In which (though true, decorum must prevail), The subject from a picture shall arise, That by a curtain's kept from vulgar eyes. My brain must furnish various features new: What's delicate and smart produce to v..."></div> </div> </div>

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