A Female Friend advis'd a Swain

Title:

The PHOENIX. A SONG.

Primary Texts:

No MS; 1713 Misc 266-7.

Secondary Eds:

Rpt of 1713: 1903 Reynolds, 135-6; rpts of 1903 Reynolds: 1930 Fausset, 65; 1979 Rogers AF, 94.

18C:

1724 Hive I, 40.

Comment:

An anacreontic in the manner of Finch's "Cupid, one day ask'd his mother". The female friend is Ardelia and the swain, Charles. Ardelia tells her husband's nephew to make love his pleasure, not his pain. He is not to take love too seriously; but alas, he takes his "hints" from Silvia's eyes, not Ardelia's tongue. Like "Cupid," Ardellia misses her "Aim," and to this swain each "slight Nymph [Silvia] a Phoenix is."

Date:

This is another poem of playful advice to Charles Finch. It was probably written after the Folger MS was completed, and, of course, before his death in 1712.
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