T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Maid a Bathing
Anonymous(Merry Drollery Compleat, p. 148; music in Dancing Master, 1650–65) |
UPON a Summer’s day, | |
| ’Bout middle of the morn, | |
| I spy’d a Lass that lay | |
| Stark nak’d as she was born; | |
| ’Twas by a running Pool, | 5 |
| Within a meadow green, | |
| And there she lay to cool, | |
| Not thinking to be seen. | |
| Then did she by degrees | |
| Wash every part in rank, | 10 |
| Her Arms, her breasts, her thighs, | |
| Her Belly, and her Flank; | |
| Her legs she opened wide, | |
| My eyes I let down steal, | |
| Until that I espied | 15 |
| Dame nature’s privy Seal. | |
| I stripped me to the skin, | |
| And boldly stepped unto her, | |
| Thinking her love to win, | |
| I thus began to woo her: | 20 |
| Sweetheart be not so coy, | |
| Time’s sweet in pleasure spent, | |
| She frowned, and cried, away. | |
| Yet, smiling, gave consent. | |
| Then blushing, down she slid, | 25 |
| Seeming to be amazed, | |
| But heaving up her head, | |
| Again she on me gazed; | |
| I seeing that, lay down, | |
| And boldly ’gan to kiss, | 30 |
| And she did smile, and frown, | |
| And so fell to our bliss. | |
| Then lay she on the ground | |
| As though she had been sped, | |
| As women in a swoon, | 35 |
| Yield up, and yet not dead: | |
| So did this lively maid, | |
| When hot blood fill’d her vein, | |
| And coming to herself she said, | |
| I thank you for your pain. | 40 |