& dick from dolly now for gifts did sue
Hed gen her ribbons & he deemd again
Some kind return as nothing but his due
& he told things as ploughmen rarely knew
Bout breaking hearts & pains—a mighty spell
Her sunday clo'hs might damage wi the dew
She quite forgot them while he talkd so well
She gave the contest up at last to what no words dare tell
(Village Minstrel LXIX, but with Clare's original ending)
The poem is the subject of a letter from Clare to Taylor dated Sunday, 17th February 1821, in which he says this, "I have got the verse from Stamford & alterd it I think just such as you can wish no better to be done -- at least indelicacy is lost or the delicate will be damd puzzld to attribut that to it"
It is clear that the text in VM was a compromise after 'negotiation' between Taylor and Clare. Clare went on to say in his letter, "I am pleasd with it by throwing such disguise over it to think how it will wrack the prudes to find fault there is somthing in it but theyll know not were to get at it -- tis quite delicate now" (!)
Rather like "To an early cowslip" -- also in Volume I of VM -- which Clare managed to slip past Taylor unaltered, who entirely missed the erotic nature of the subject.
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