"His Love's the very Bird-lime of his Brain, / And pulls some Part away with every Strain."
— Gould, Robert (b. 1660?, d. in or before 1709)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Date
1682, 1683, 1709
Metaphor
"His Love's the very Bird-lime of his Brain, / And pulls some Part away with every Strain."
Metaphor in Context
As mad as this is he to Learning Bred,
That thinks to gain a Mistress by his Head;
When any Block-head sooner shall prevail
The Scorns that Aid, and Courts her with his Tail.
What need of using all the Liberal Arts,
So well receiv'd with our own Natural Parts?
The Fools in Verse enough themselves expose,
Yet are exceeded by this Fool in Prose.
His Love's the very Bird-lime of his Brain,
And pulls some Part away with every Strain.
Wou'd but my Lady's tawdry Woman show
The Billets sh' has receiv'd from Chaplain Beau;
(Who, with his fair Wig, and fine Cambrick Band,
Thinks all the Ladies are at his Command,)
Wou'd she, I say, but deign to let you see
This Rhetorician in his Gaiety,
In all his Tropes and Figures, and the rest
Of those hard Terms in which his Passion's drest;
You'd swear a Woman by such Courtship won,
Wou'd not deny th'Address of a Baboon,
Whose Chatt'ring she wou'd understand as soon.
Beyond her knowledge all her Stile does run,
And if he wins her he's beyond his own;
More dull the deeper in her Books he gets,
That study where the wisest lose their Wits.
That thinks to gain a Mistress by his Head;
When any Block-head sooner shall prevail
The Scorns that Aid, and Courts her with his Tail.
What need of using all the Liberal Arts,
So well receiv'd with our own Natural Parts?
The Fools in Verse enough themselves expose,
Yet are exceeded by this Fool in Prose.
His Love's the very Bird-lime of his Brain,
And pulls some Part away with every Strain.
Wou'd but my Lady's tawdry Woman show
The Billets sh' has receiv'd from Chaplain Beau;
(Who, with his fair Wig, and fine Cambrick Band,
Thinks all the Ladies are at his Command,)
Wou'd she, I say, but deign to let you see
This Rhetorician in his Gaiety,
In all his Tropes and Figures, and the rest
Of those hard Terms in which his Passion's drest;
You'd swear a Woman by such Courtship won,
Wou'd not deny th'Address of a Baboon,
Whose Chatt'ring she wou'd understand as soon.
Beyond her knowledge all her Stile does run,
And if he wins her he's beyond his own;
More dull the deeper in her Books he gets,
That study where the wisest lose their Wits.
Provenance
Searching "brain" and "bird" in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
At least 7 entries in ESTC (1682, 1683, 1685, 1686, 1690, 1709, 1710).
See Love Given O're: or, a Satyr Against the Pride, Lust, and Inconstancy, &c. of Woman. (London: Printed for Andrew Green, 1682). <Link to ESTC>
See also Love Given Over: Or, A Satyr Against the Pride, Lust, and Inconstancy, &c. of Woman (London: Printed for W. Lewis, 1709). <Link to Google>
Text from The Works of Mr. Robert Gould: In Two Volumes. Consisting of those Poems [and] Satyrs Which were formerly Printed, and Corrected since by the Author; As also of the many more which He Design'd for the Press. Publish'd from his Own Original Copies., 2 vols. (London: Printed for W. Lewis, 1709).
See Love Given O're: or, a Satyr Against the Pride, Lust, and Inconstancy, &c. of Woman. (London: Printed for Andrew Green, 1682). <Link to ESTC>
See also Love Given Over: Or, A Satyr Against the Pride, Lust, and Inconstancy, &c. of Woman (London: Printed for W. Lewis, 1709). <Link to Google>
Text from The Works of Mr. Robert Gould: In Two Volumes. Consisting of those Poems [and] Satyrs Which were formerly Printed, and Corrected since by the Author; As also of the many more which He Design'd for the Press. Publish'd from his Own Original Copies., 2 vols. (London: Printed for W. Lewis, 1709).
Date of Entry
06/27/2012
