- LADIES IN ARMS
- (from "The Siege
of Rhodes," 1656)
by: Sir William Davenant
(1606-1668)
- ET us live, live! for, being dead,
- The pretty spots,
- Ribbons and knots,
- And the fine French dress for the head,
- No lady wears upon her
- In the cold, cold bed of honour.
- Beat down our grottos, and hew down our bowers,
- Dig up our arbours, and root up our flowers;
- Our gardens are bulwarks and bastions become;
- Then hang up our lute, we must sing to the drum.
-
- Our patches and our curls,
- So exact in each station,
- Our powders and our purls,
- Are now out of fashion.
- Hence with our needles, and give us your spades;
- We, that were ladies, grow coarse as our maids.
- Our coaches have driven us to balls at the court,
- We now must drive barrows to earth up the fort.
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