Page:The Maid's Tragedy Altered - Waller (1690).djvu/18

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The Maids Tragedy Alter'd.
And can th'effects of Love appear so strange,That into Beasts our greatest Gods could change?
Mel. The deathless Gods, when they commit a Rape,Disguis'd a while, again resume their Shape:But Princes once turn'd into Beasts, remainFor ever so; and should, like Beasts be slain.
Luc. Tho more in years, you have a Mistress still;And for that fault would you your Soveraign kill?Love is the frailty of Heroic minds;And where great Vertues are, our pardon finds.Brutes may be Chast; Pidgeons, Swans and Doves,Are more confin'd, than we are, in their Loves.Justice and Bounty, in a Prince, are thingsThat Subjects make as happy as their Kings.Will you contract the guilt of Royal Blood?And rob your Country of her chiefest good?
Mel. Of one, whose Lust his Family has stain'd,By whose good Conduct he securely reign'd.

Luc.

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