John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. Song. "Leave this gaudy guilded stage"

Song.
by Earl of Rochester

Leave this gaudy guilded stage,
    From custom more than use frequented,
Where fools of either sex and age
    Crowd to see themselves presented.
To Love's theatre, the bed,
    Youth and beauty fly together,
And act so well it may be said
    The laurel there was due to either.
Twixt strifes of love and war, the difference lies in this:
When neither overcomes, love's triumph greater is.

Complete Poems of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. David M. Vieth, ed.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. 85-86.