Erotica Romana

<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"></SPAN></p> <h2> IV </h2> <p>Ask whomever you will but you'll never find out where I'm lodging,<br/> <br/> High society's lords, ladies so groomed and refined.<br/> <br/> "Tell me, was Werther authentic? Did all of that happen in real life?"<br/> <br/> "Lotte, oh where did she live, Werther's only true love?"<br/> <br/> How many times have I cursed those frivolous pages that broadcast<br/> <br/> Out among all mankind passions I felt in my youth!<br/> <br/> Were he my brother, why then I 'd have murdered poor Werther.<br/> <br/> Yet his despondent ghost couldn't have sought worse revenge.<br/> <br/> That's the way "Marlborough," the ditty, follows the Englishman's travels<br/> <br/> Down to Livorno from France, thence from Livorno to Rome,<br/> <br/> All of the way into Naples and then, should he flee on to Madras,<br/> <br/> "Marlborough" will surely be there, "Marlborough" sung in the port.<br/> <br/> Happily now I've escaped, and my mistress knows Werther and Lotte<br/> <br/> Not a whit better than who might be this man in her bed:<br/> <br/> That he's a foreigner, footloose and lusty, is all she could tell you,<br/> <br/> Who beyond mountains and snow, dwelt in a house made of wood.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />