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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=431392" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Servant Girl Justified</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">BOCCACE alone is not my only source;<br>T'another shop I now shall have recourse;<br>Though, certainly, this famed Italian wit<br>Has many stories for my purpose fit.<br>But since of diff'rent dishes we should taste;<br>Upon an ancient work my hands I've placed;<br>Where full a hundred narratives are told,<br>And various characters we may behold;<br>From life, Navarre's fair queen the fact relates;<br>My story int'rest in her page creates;<br>Beyond dispute from her we always find,<br>Simplicity with striking art combin'd.<br>Yet, whether 'tis the queen who writes, or not;<br>I shall, as usual, here and there allot<br>Whate'er additions requisite appear;<br>Without such license I'd not persevere,<br>But quit, at once, narrations of the sort;<br>Some may be long, though others are too short.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LET us proceed, howe'er (our plan explained <br>A pretty servant-girl a man retain'd.<br>She pleas'd his eye, and presently he thought,<br>With ease she might to am'rous sports be brought;<br>He prov'd not wrong; the wench was blithe and gay,<br>A buxom lass, most able ev'ry way.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">AT dawn, one summer's morn, the spark was led<br>To rise, and leave his wife asleep in bed;<br>He sought at once the garden, where he found<br>The servant-girl collecting flow'rs around,<br>To make a nosegay for his better half,<br>Whose birth-day 'twas:--he soon began to laugh,<br>And while the ranging of the flow'rs he prais'd,<br>The servant's neckerchief he slyly rais'd.<br>Who, suddenly, on feeling of the hand,<br>Resistance feign'd, and seem'd to make a stand;<br>But since these liberties were nothing new,<br>They other fun and frolicks would pursue;<br>The nosegay at the fond gallant was thrown;<br>The flow'rs he kiss'd, and now more ardent grown<br>They romp'd and rattl'd, play'd and skipt around;<br>At length the fair one fell upon the ground;<br>Our am'rous spark advantage took of this,<br>And nothing with the couple seem'd amiss.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">UNLUCKILY, a neighbour's prying eyes<br>Beheld their playful pranks with great surprise,<br>She, from her window, could the scene o'erlook;<br>When this the fond gallant observ'd, he shook;<br>Said he, by heav'ns! our frolicking is seen,<br>By that old haggard, envious, prying quean;<br>But do not heed it; instantly he chose<br>To run and wake his wife, who quickly rose;--<br>So much the dame he fondl'd and caress'd,<br>The garden walk she took at his request,<br>To have a nosegay, where he play'd anew<br>Pranks just the same as those of recent view,<br>Which highly gratified our lady fair,<br>Who felt dispos'd, and would at eve repair,<br>To her good neighbour, whom she bursting found,<br>With what she'd seen that morn upon the ground.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE usual greetings o'er, our envious dame,<br>With scowling brow exclaim'd,--my dear, your fame,<br>I love too much not fully to detail,<br>What I have witnessed, and with truth bewail;<br>Will you continue, in your house to keep<br>A girl, whose conduct almost makes me weep?<br>Anon I'd kick her from your house, I say;<br>The strumpet should not stay another day.<br>The wife replied, you surely are deceiv'd;<br>An honest, virtuous creature she's believ'd.<br>Well, I can easily, my friend, suppose,<br>Rejoin'd the neighbour, whence this favour flows;<br>But look about, and be convinc'd, this morn<br>From my own window (true as you are born,)<br>Within the garden I your husband spi'd<br>And presently the servant girl I ey'd;<br>At one another various flow'rs they threw,<br>And then the minx a little graver grew.<br>I understand you, cried the list'ning fair;<br>You are deceiv'd:--myself alone was there.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> NEIGHBOUR</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But patience, if you please: attend I pray<br>You've no conception what I meant to say:<br>The playful fair was actively employ'd,<br>In plucking am'rous flow'rs--they kiss'd and toy'd.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> WIFE</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Twas clearly I, howe'er, for her you took.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> NEIGHBOUR</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The flow'rs for bosoms quickly they forsook;<br>Large handfuls frequently they seem'd to grasp,<br>And ev'ry beauty in its turn to clasp.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> WIFE</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But still, why think you, friend, it was not I?<br>Has not your spouse with you a right to try<br>What freaks he likes?</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> NEIGHBOUR</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But then, upon the ground<br>This girl was thrown, and never cried nor frown'd;<br>You laugh.--</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> WIFE</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Indeed I do, 'twas myself.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> NEIGHBOUR</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A flannel petticoat display'd the elf.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> WIFE</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> 'Twas mine:</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> NEIGHBOUR</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Be patient:--and inform me, pray,<br>If this were worn by you or her to-day?<br>There lies the point, for, if you'll me believe,<br>Your husband did--the most you can conceive.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> WIFE</div><div style="margin:10px 0">How hard of credence!--'twas myself I vow.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> NEIGHBOUR</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Oh! that's conclusive; I'll be silent now;<br>Though truly I am led to think, my eyes<br>Are pretty sharp, and much I feel surprise<br>At what you say; in fact, I would have sworn,<br>I saw them thus at romps this very morn;<br>Excuse the hint, and do not turn her off.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> WIFE</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Why, turn her off?--the very thought I scoff;<br>She serves me well.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"> NEIGHBOUR</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And so it seems is taught;<br>By all means keep her then, since thus she's thought.</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=431392" data-title="The Servant Girl Justified de La Fontaine" data-description="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;..."></div>
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