Friendship between Ephelia and Ardelia

By Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea 1661–1720 Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea

Eph. What Friendship is, Ardelia show.

Ard. ’Tis to love, as I love you.

Eph. This account, so short (tho’ kind)

Suits not my inquiring mind.

Therefore farther now repeat:

What is Friendship when complete?

Ard. ’Tis to share all joy and grief;

’Tis to lend all due relief

From the tongue, the heart, the hand;

’Tis to mortgage house and land;

For a friend be sold a slave;

’Tis to die upon a grave,

If a friend therein do lie.

Eph. This indeed, tho’ carried high,

This, tho’ more than e’er was done

Underneath the rolling sun,

This has all been said before.

Can Ardelia say no more?

Ard. Words indeed no more can show:

But ’tis to love, as I love you.

Biography

Although she has always enjoyed some fame as a poet, Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, has only recently received greater praise and renewed attention. Her diverse and considerable body of work records her private thoughts and personal struggles but also illustrates her awareness of the social and political climate of her era. Not only do Finch’s poems reveal a sensitive mind and a religious soul, but they exhibit great . . .

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