e, heart of oak with iron barr'd,
Frost, flint or adamants, are not so hard."

I give, I bribe, I send presents, but they are refused. [5846]_Rusticus est
Coridon, nec munera curat Alexis_. I protest, I swear, I weep,

[5847] ------"odioque rependit amores,
Irrisu lachrymas"------

"She neglects me for all this, she derides me," contemns me, she hates me,
"Phillida flouts me:" _Caute, feris, quercu durior Eurydice_, stiff,
churlish, rocky still.

And 'tis most true, many gentlewomen are so nice, they scorn all suitors,
crucify their poor paramours, and think nobody good enough for them, as
dainty to please as Daphne herself.

[5848] "Multi illum petiere, illa aspernate petentes,
Nec quid Hymen, quid amor, quid sint connubia curat."

"Many did woo her, but she scorn'd them still,
And said she would not marry by her will."

One while they will not marry, as they say at least, (when as they intend
nothing less) another while not yet, when 'tis their only desire, they rave
upon it. She will marry at last, but not him: he is a proper man indeed,
and well qualified, but he wants means: another of her suitors hath good
means, but he wants wit; one is too old, another too young, too deformed,
she likes not his carriage: a third too loosely given, he is rich, but base
born: she will be a gentlewoman, a lady, as her sister is, as her mother
is: she is all out as fair, as well brought up, hath as good a portion, and
she looks for as good a match, as Matilda or Dorinda: if not, she is
resolved as yet to tarry, so apt are young maids to boggle at every object,
so soon won or lost with every toy, so quickly diverted, so hard to be
pleased. In the meantime, _quot torsit amantes_? one suitor pines away,
languisheth in love, _mori quot denique cogit!_ another sighs and grieves,
she cares not: and which [5849]Siroza objected to Ariadne,

"Nec magis Euryali gemitu, lacrymisque moveris,
Quam prece turbati flectitur ora sati.
Tu juvenem, quo non formosior alter in urbe,
Spernis, et insano cogis amore mori."

"Is no more mov'd with those sad sighs and tears,
Of her sweetheart, than raging sea with prayers:
Thou scorn'st the fairest youth in all our city,
And mak'st him almost mad for love to die:"

They take a pride to prank up themselves, to make young men. enamoured,--
[5850]_captare viros et spernere capias_, to dote on t