THE COQUET

(from "The Unfortunate Lovers," 1643)

by: Sir William Davenant (1606-1668)

'IS, in good truth, a most wonderful thing

(I am even ashamed to relate it)

That love so many vexations should bring,

And yet few have the wit to hate it.

 

Love's weather in maids should seldom hold fair:

Like April's mine shall quickly alter;

I'll give him to-night a lock of my hear,

To whom next day I'll send a halter.

 

I cannot abide these malapert males,

Pirates of love, who know no duty;

Yet love with a storm can take down their sales,

And they must strike to Admiral Beauty.

 

Farewell to that maid who will be undone,

Who in markets of men (where plenty

Is cried up and down) will die for even one;

I will live to make fools of twenty.

• William Davenant - A biography of the English poet and dramatist, sometimes rumored to be the illegitimate son of William Shakespeare.
• Shakespeare and Mrs. Davenant - An account of Shakespeare's affair with the wife of an innkeeper and the illegitimate son this affair may have produced.
• Purchase books by William Davenant