PHYLLIS'S AGE
By
Matthew Prior
1718
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How old may Phyllis be, You ask,
Whose Beauty thus all Hearts engages?
To Answer is no easie Task;
For She has really two Ages.
Stiff in Brocard, and pinch'd in Stays,
Her Patches, Paint, and Jewels on;
All Day let Envy view her Face;
And Phyllis is but Twenty-one.
Paint, Patches, Jewels laid aside,
As Night Astronomers agree,
The Evening has the Day bely'd;
And Phyllis is some Forty-three.
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