My Love was fickle once and changing,
     Nor e’er would settle in my Heart;
  From Beauty still to Beauty ranging,
     In ev’ry Face I found a Dart.

  ’Twas first a charming Shape enslav’d me,
     An Eye then gave the fatal Stroke;
  ’Till by her Wit_ Corinna sav’d me,
     And all my former Fetters broke.

  But now a long and lasting Anguish
     For_ Belvidera I endure;
  Hourly I Sigh and hourly Languish,
     Nor hope to find the wonted Cure.

  For here the false unconstant Lover,
     After a thousand Beauties shown,
  Does new surprizing Charms discover,
     And finds Variety in One.

Various Readings.

Stanza the First, Verse the First.  And changing.] The and in some Manuscripts is written thus, _&_, but that in the Cotton Library writes it in three distinct Letters.

Verse the Second, Nor e’er would.] Aldus reads it ever would; but as this would hurt the Metre, we have restored it to its genuine Reading, by observing that Synaeresis which had been neglected by ignorant Transcribers.

Ibid.  In my Heart.] Scaliger, and others, on my Heart.

Verse the Fourth, I found a Dart.] The Vatican Manuscript for I reads it, but this must have been the Hallucination of the Transcriber, who probably mistook the Dash of the I for a T.

Stanza the Second, Verse the Second.  The fatal Stroke.] Scioppius, Salmasius and many others, for the read a, but I have stuck to the usual Reading.

Verse the Third, Till by her Wit.] Some Manuscripts have it his Wit, others your, others their Wit.  But as I find Corinna to be the Name of a Woman in other Authors, I cannot doubt but it should be her.

Stanza the third, Verse the First.  A long and lasting Anguish.] The German Manuscript reads a lasting Passion, but the Rhyme will not admit it.

Verse the Second.  For Belvidera I endure.] Did not all the Manuscripts reclaim, I should change Belvidera into Pelvidera; Pelvis being used by several of the Ancient Comick Writers for a Looking-glass, by which means the Etymology of the Word is very visible, and Pelvidera will signifie a Lady who often looks in her Glass; as indeed she had very good reason, if she had all those Beauties which our Poet here ascribes to her.

Verse the Third.  Hourly I sigh and hourly languish.] Some for the Word hourly read daily, and others nightly; the last has great Authorities of its side.

Verse the Fourth.  The wonted Cure.] The Elder Stevens reads wanted Cure.

Stanza the Fourth, Verse the Second.  After a thousand Beauties] In several Copies we meet with a Hundred Beauties by the usual Errour of the Transcribers, who probably omitted a Cypher, and had not Taste enough to know that the Word Thousand was ten Times a greater Compliment to the Poet’s Mistress than an Hundred.