ABSTRACT
In these gay Thoughts the Loves and Graces shine, And all the Writer lives in ev'ry Line; His easie Art may happy Nature seem, Trifles themselves are Elegant in rum. Sure to charm all was his peculiar Fate, 5 Who without Flatt'ry pleas'd the Fair and Great; Still with Esteem no less convers'd than read; With Wit well-natur'd, and with Books well-bred; His Heart, his Mistress and his Friend did share; His Time, the Muse, the Witty, and the Fair. 10 Thus wisely careless, innocently gay, Chearful, he play'd the Trifle, Life, away, 'Til Fate scarce felt his gentle Breath supprest, As smiling Infants sport themselves to Rest: Ev'n Rival Wits did Voiture's Death deplore, 15 And the Gay mourn'd who never mourn'd before; The truest Hearts for Voiture heav'd with Sighs; Voiture was \vept by all the brightest Eyes; The Smiles and Loves had dy'd in Voiture's Death, But that for ever in his Lines they breath. 20
Let the strict Life of graver Mortals be A long, exact, and serious Comedy, In ev'ry Scene some l\1.orallet it teach, And, if it can, at once both Please and Preach: Let mine, an innocent gay Farce appear, 25 And more Diverting still than Regular, Have Humour, Wit, a native Ease and Grace; Tho' not too strictly bound to Time and Place: Criticks in Wit, or Life, are hard to please, Few write to those, and none can live to these. 30
Too much your Sex is by their Forms confin'd, Severe to all, but most to Womankind; Custom, grown blind with Age, must be your Guide Your Pleasure is a Vice, but not your Pride;
Title: Voiture] Vincent de Voiture (1598-1648), French poet and letter-writer.
