A Maxim for the Ladys Translated from the French of Monsieur de Bussy [from "Translated" on previous title erased and present descriptive phrase substituted in Heneage's hand]: "Love, but lett this, concern you most", MS: F-H 283, p. 90; Folger, p. 21 (text differs, by: 1) two introductory lines: From the best witt of France, receive/A maxim," and 2) lines themselves smoothed out, clarified). See Annotated Chronology No. 80. See also An Annotated Bibliography: Primary and Secondary Sources for all Finch's translations (paraphrases), imitations and adaptations.

Première Partie.

De l'amour qui espère.

De quelle manière il faut qui les dames se conduisent pour ne se pas perdre de réputation en aimant.

Beau sexe oú tant de grâce abonde,
Qui charmez la moitié du monde,
Aimez, mais d'un amour couvert,
Qui ne soit jamais sans mystère.
Ce n'est pas l'amour qui vous perd,
C'est la manière de le faire.

From Bussy-Rabutin, Roger Comte de, The Maximes d'Amour par le Comte de Bussy, reprinted in 1868 as a coda to two volumes containing Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules, suivie de La France Galante, nouvelle edition, containing also Maximes d'Amour and La Carte Georraphique de la Cour, introd. Sainte-Beuve, 2 vols (Paris Garnier, 1868), I, 183-4.

Comment: Anne's poem comes from slightly salacious verse; she wrote it for some occasion or gathering at Eastwell in mid-1690's. Her audience would have known her source.