Note 257 — Part I.—The Roisterers
Henri Van Laun translation
"We love to get our mistresses, and purr over them, as cats do over mice, and let them get a little way; and all the pleasure is to pat them back again.—Mock Astrologer," II. 1.
Wildblood says to his mistress: "I am none of those unreasonable lovers that propose to themselves the loving to eternity. A month is commonly my stint." And Jacintha replies: "Or would not a fortnight serve our turn?"—Ibid.
Frequently one would think Dryden was translating Hobbes, by the harshness of his jests.