Two long had lov'd and now the Nymph desir'd

Title:

There's no To-morrow. A Fable. From L'Estrange.

Primary Text:

MS Folger, 284*.

[I've taken the following from the 1713 Miscellany:

Two long had Lov'd, and now the Nymph desir'd,
The Cloak of Wedlock, as the Case requir'd;
Urg'd that, the Day he wrought her to this Sorrow,
He Vow'd, that he wou'd marry her To-Morrow.
Agen he Swears, to shun the present Storm,
That he, To-Morrow, will that Vow perform.
The Morrows in their due Successions came;
Impatient still on Each, the pregnant Dame
Urg'd him to keep his Word, and still he swore the same.
When tir'd at length, and meaning no Redress,
But yet the Lye not caring to confess,
He for his Oath this Salvo chose to borrow,
That he was Free, since there was no To-Morrow;
For when it comes in Place to be employ'd,
'Tis then To-Day; To-Morrow's ne'er enjoy'd.

[Page 33]

The Tale's a Jest, the Moral is a Truth;
To-Morrow and To-Morrow, cheat our Youth:
In riper Age,
To-Morrow still we cry,
Not thinking, that the present Day we Dye;
Unpractis'd all the Good we had Design'd;
There's No
To-Morrow to a Willing Mind.

Secondary Ed:

1713 Misc, 32-3; rpt of 1713: 1903 Reynolds, 164-5; rpts of 1903 Reynolds: 1930 Fausset, 74-5; 1979 Rogers AF, 109; 1987 Thompson, 66-7.

Source:

L'Estrange, "There's No Tomorrow", Pt 1, No. 495.

18C:

Rpt of 1713: 1757 Colman, 243.

Comment:

Turns coarse, masculine joke in deliberately low style prose into deft verse paragraph; narrative has epigrammatic feel of her "La Passion Vaincue". I've a hunch these two may have originally been written as a pair, but since no Folger text of "La Passion Vaincue" survives have followed the chronologies of the manuscripts and printed edtions.
Home
Contact Ellen Moody.
Pagemaster: Jim Moody.
Page Last Updated 8 January 2003