Dorinda since you must decay
Title:
Timely Advice to Dorinda Primary Text:
MS Folger, 257.
The last stanza from the Folger text:
Be then advis'd and now remove
All farther thoughts about itt
Since Youth we find's too short for Love
Though Life's too long without itt
Secondary Eds:
1903 Reynolds prints Folger text, 135; rpt of 1903 Reynolds: 1930 Fausset, 64-5. Comment:
Dorinda is warned that now that Charles has given away an "Empire . . . He saw would soon decline," as Dorinda herself will soon grow old; it would be better to let go (of Charles) now then hold on uselessly. Ardelia flatters her nephew Charles with the punning reference to Charles V. Anne may have a real woman in mind. This is also the fourth in a series of melancholy reflections upon life and women's vulnerability and powerlessness. It follows "The Unequal Fetters" which follows "The Equipage" which follows "Life's Progress."
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