From the Park, and the Play

Title:

A Song [for my Br. Les Finch: added]. Upon a Punch Bowl.

Primary Text:

MS Folger, 35* (follows "The Nymph in vain, bestows her pains" and "The Bargain," both songs on the effect of drunkenness on love).
From the Park, and the Play,
And Whitehall come away,
To the Punch-bowl, by far more inviting;
To the Fopps, and the Beauxs [sic],
Leave those dull empty shows,
And see here, what is truly delighting.

The half Globe 'tis in figure,
And wou'd itt were bigger;
Yett here's the whole Universe floating,
Here's Titles, and Places,
Rich lands, and fair faces,
And all that is worhty our doating.

'Twas a World, like to this,
The hott Gracian did misse.
Of whom History's keep such a pother,
To the bottom he sunk,
And when one he had drunk
Grew mauldin, and wept for another.

Secondary Ed:

1903 Reynolds prints Folger text, 36-7; rpts of 1903 Reynolds: 1928 Murray 67; 1930 Fausset, 19; 1979 Rogers AF, 44.

Comment:

Leslie Finch was Heneage's younger brother, born 1669, married at age 30 to Barbara Scroope; they had no children; this poem is another of Anne Finch's successes; it recalls Donne.

Date:

After 1701, perhaps in imitation or competition with the several poems upon punch bowls in 1701 Gilden, e.g., this delightful Miltonic:
"Verses on a Punch-Bowl"

Capacious goblet! stor'd with all delight,
Sweet to the Tast, and pleasing to the Sight;
Where Nutmegs, Lemons, and the Jolly Toast,
Scatter'd like wrecks o'th merry Ocean float:
Thy generous Juice makes all Men know,
The little worth of things below:
Can the Miser's heart unfold,
And set the Wretch above his Gold:
None knows the pleasure till he tries,
That in the silent bottom lies:
Let's seach the deep then where it is
Nor longer now delay our bliss;
Let's drown our Sorrow, drown our Grief,
And snatch an hour of real life.

There are several poems celebrating drinking in 1701 Gilden.


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