setled resolution which is to be Yours wholly and onely A Gentleman to his Mistress having won her consent to affection THe thoughts of those many great favours I have received from you especially your grant of affection drive me to so high a rapture of joy that I am neither able to contain my self in any bounds nor yet to express the ardencie of my affection What shall I say I am so full of love that there is no room in my heart for any thought but of thee Happie I who am blessed with the love of so heavenly so vertuous a companion Now shall cuhearts seed on pleasures and our eyes behold the bliss of each other in the full comfort of all content we will sleep in love and wake and walk in all sulness of joy enjoying in our hearts more delights then either Nature affords or Art can express among which this shall be chief That thou art mine and that I am Thine c A Gentleman crossed in his affection thus writes to his Mistress THere is no creature in this spacious fabrick of the whole world so wide either of Sense or Reason which being diseased or afflicted but doth finde by meer instinct of nature some present remedy to help his infirmity Man onely excepted who can finde no medicine by whose secret vertues he may allay his grief This now I know by proof and therefore speak by experience But it is not to complain of you that I now take pen in hand but onely to lament my unfortunate birth that has brought me into so unhappie a predicament as to be contemned of you And I protest I have called my soul to an account for all her actions but cannot accuse any one of them Go then my Paper and in your Masters name first humbly kiss her hands then tell her she can never heal the wound she hath made in her Faith and my Love which I am resolved to carry with me to my grave hoping that the heavens moved at last will through my patient suffering make me as dear to you as you are now cruel to me However no earthly thing shall hinder me from serving you for I will rather die then be inconstant in my love and will flee with the hazard of my life the reproach of disloyalty A Gentleman going into the Country after this manner writes his Adieu to his Mistress TO tell you of my constancie I think is unnecessary since you finde it and to declare in what a continued course of perseverance my faithful affection has gone from its very beginning to this present would make my Letter swell to a Volume Besides so perfect a thing as my love to your divine self as it will suffer no question so it seems to receive injury by addition of any words unto it I could not but write to you not knowing whether you would be pleased to grant me the favour to see you or make me happie in the fruition of your company before my departure And when I am abroad my actions shall testifie that you are always in my heart And if I can be so happie to keep a room in your thoughts and memory it will be my greatest comfort in my loneliness and my chief joy in my recess c. A Letter protesting love WIth how great pleasure do I now whilst I sit alone recount my happiness in my love which in my greatest me lancholy is my chiefest and most most pleasing comfort If you knew but the delight that I take in the remembring your dear self you would wonder at my felicity I cannot tell how to express my affection I love I love you yea you alone with an everlasting and most vertuous affection But this is too short since then words sail services and actions shall take their place whose real performance shall prove a perfect demonstration of the never-altering never-dying affection of My Dear Yours devoted to eternily A Gentleman in the Country writes to his Mistress in London IT is not length of time distance of place or absence from you can any whit lessen my love or put the remembrance of your most dear self either out of my minde or heart And seriously were it not for the want of your dear company I could be content always to be here but you are the Star on whom both my good fortune and welfare depends you are the Loadstone whose vertue attracts keeps possesses my heart and thoughts where-ever my person is This very thing makes this place tedious to me in that I am debarred of your society but if the place were sweetned with your presence I should account every tree a Paradise and every tree would seem an Elizium c. A Gentleman writes to his displeased Mistress IF ever any man could on a sudden be thrown down from the highest pinacle of Joy to the lowest gulf of infinite unsupportable miseries certainly I am he for your causless anger hath filled me with such a confusion of thoughts that I know not which way to turn my self But now at last I have got my pen to paper which does in all humility crave pardon of you if in any thing I have offended or were guilty of what you mislike and withal promises such an amendment for the future as shall never incur the danger of your dislike And if ever my thoughts did receive so much as a fainting in their affections if they have not continually with more and more ardor from time to time pursued the possession of your favour then let heavens most horrible plagues fall upon me Do not then use him so hardly who would for your sake hazard himself and all his future hopes Nay though you should be cruelly severe to me yet let me say thus much There is no one in the world that does or shall more cordially affect your person or more really wish your good then my dejected self and Your despised servant A Letter requesting love SEeing the many vertues that so resplendently shine in you and that heavenly beauty wherewith Nature in an extraordinary measure hath eariched you unless I were blotted with a stupid senslesness I cannot but acknowledge you divine and able to command Cupid to let flie a shaft where you please Hoping therefore your ingenuity will admit my unpolished lines without a superficial complemental gloss or the rich accent of a ceremonial eloquence which could I use I would not yet censure me not to be altogether void of Oratory when my style is bound to be friendly and the best lines are drawn from the centre of a strong affection Know I love nay start not Madam at that word since you can so easily prescribe a remedy for my love-inflamed heart Love is all I crave which with modesty may be granted to Madam Yours to eternity A Letter from a Gentleman in the Country to his sweet-heart in the City OF all earthly things there is nothing wherein I take so much pleasure or whence I receive so
old Rodorigo had I a hundred â—earts I should want room to entertain his love â—nd the others hate Eug. I could say as much were 't not sin to slanâ—er the dead Miserable wenches how have we â—ffended our fathers that they should make us the â—rice of their dotage the medicines of their griefs â—hat have more need of Physick our selves I thank â—â—y dead mother that left me a womans will in her â—ast Testament that 's all the weapons we poor Gyrles can use and with that will I fight against â—ather friends and kindred and either injoy Foâ—o â—osco or die in the field in 's quarrel Flav. You are happy that can withstand your â—ortune with so merry a resolution Eug. Why should I twine my armes to cables â—â—t up all night like a watching Candle and distill â—â—y brains through my eye-lids Your brother loves me and I love your brother and where these two consent I would fain see a third could hinder us Fla. Alas our sex is most wretched no sooner born â—ut nurs'd up from our Infancy in continual slaveâ—â—y no sooner able to pray for our selves but they braile and hud us so with sowre awe of parents that we dare not offer to bate our desires and whereas it becomes men to vent their amorous passions at their pleasure we poor souls must rake up our affections in the ashes of a burnt heart not daring to sigh without excuse of the spleen or fit of the mother Eug. I will plainly profess my love 't is honest chaste and staines not modesty Shall I be married by my fathers compulsion to an old mandrake who is able to beget nothing but groanes a hunting-golding a faln pack-horse No no I 'll see him freeze to crystal first In other things good Father I am your most obedient daughter but in this a pure woman And in troth the temper of my blood tells me I was never born to so cold a misfortune my Genius whispers me in the car and sweares We shall injoy our Loves fear it not wench and so farewell good Elavia farewel farewel Fla. Farewel merry-hearted Eugenia Corvino a rustisk clowne complements with Beancha a Kitchin-maid Corv. HE that saies I am not in love he lies de cap a pe for I am Idle choicely neat in my cloathes valiant and exream witty my meditations are loaded with Metaphors Songs and Sonnets flow from me as fluently as Heigh gee not one shakes his tail but I â—igh out a passion thus do I to my mistress but â—las I kiss the dog and she kicks me I never see a wanton Filly but I say There goes Beancha nor a lusty strong Al 's but I remember my self and sit down to consider what a goodly race of Mules would inherit if she were willing onely I want atterance and that 's a main mark of love too Bean. Corvino What price bear Wheat and Saffron that your Band 's so stiff and yellow why Corvino not a word Prethee what business in Town how do all at Totnam Grown mute what do you bring from the Country Corv. There 't is now are my floud-gates drawn and I 'll surround her What have I brought sweet bit of beauty a hundred thousand salutations o' the elder house to your most Illustrious honour and worship Bean. To me these Titles is your basket full of nothing else Corv. Full of the fruits of love most resplendent Lady a present to your worthiness from your worships poor vassal Corvino Bean. My life on 't he scrap'd these Complements from his Cart the last load he carried to the City But what have you read Corvino that makes you grow thus eloquent why you talk nothing but warbling Rhapsodies Corv. Sweet Madam I read nothing but the lines of your Ladiships countenance and desire onely to kiss the skirts of your Garments if you vouchsafe me not the happiness of your white hands Bean. Come give me your basket and take it Cor. O sweet now will I never wash my mouth after nor breath but at my Nostrils lest I lose the taste of her fingers Beancha I must tell you a secret if you 'l make much on 't Bean. As it deserves what is' t Corv. I love you dear morsel of modesty I love and so truly that I 'll make you mistress of my thoughts Lady of my revenues and commit all my moveables into your hands that is I give you an arnest kiss in the high way of Matrimony Bean. This the end of all the business Corv. Is this the end of all this business most beautiful and most worthy to be most beautiful Lady Bean. Hence fool hence farewel Coâ—idon Corv. Why now she knowes my business she put up the fruit in her lap and threw away the basket 't is a plain signe she abhors the words and embraces the meaning O lips no lips but leaves besmear'd with Mildew O dew no dew but drops of Honey-combs 'T is a rare morsel of dripping O how happy shall I be to recreate my chine with her I 'll follow her were I sure to be basted with Salt and Vinegar A Citizens wife in love with a Suburb-Gentleman confers with a Curtizan how to obtain his love and yet not purchase her husbands discontent Their names suppose to be ARMELINA and DECOY Arme. FAin would I meet the Gentleman Dec. Pish Faine would you meet him why do you not take the course Arme. The means is easily resolv'd what thinkst thou Dec. Thus meet him at Mr. Strouds house the Phenix there 's a Gossips feast to morrow-night Arme. O but my husbands Jealous Eyes Dec. When husbands in their rank'st suspitions dwell Then 't is our best art to dissemble Well Put but these notes in use that I 'll direct you He 'll curse himself that ere he did suspect you Perhaps he will sollicite you as in tryal To visite such and such still give denial Let no Perswasions sway you they are but fetches Set to betray you Jealousies slignts and reaches Seem in his sight to endure the sight of no man Put by all kisses till you kiss in common Neglect all entertainment if he bring in Strangers keep you your Chamber be not seen If he chance steal upon you let him find Some book lie open ' gainst an unchast mind Manage these principles but with art and life Welcome all Nations thou' rt an honest wife Arme. Here Lady convey my heart unto him in this Jewel against you see me next you shall perceive I have profited in the mean season tell him I am a Prisoner yet on the Masters side my husbands Jealousie that masters him as he doth master me and as a Keeper that locks Prisoners up is himself prison'd under in his owne key Even so my husband in restraining me With the same ward bais his own liberty Dec. I 'll tell him how you wisht it and I 'll weare My wits to nothing but these clouds shall cleare A young Citizen Courting his Neighbours daughter Their
sawciness I must tell you Sir that you have proclaimed your owne unworthiness with your owne tongue by this wayward way of wooing Do you think Sir to ingratiate your self into my favour by your daring Impudence He that prescribes himself the way to gain a good opinion from me must win it by his obsequious care not by his abrupt arrogancie Man Fair Widow let me implore remission for this first fault my future carriage towards you shall be but one contiuned series commixt of love and service When I first hearkned to the breath of Fame too thrifty in divulging your rare feature I felt the flames of true affection hovering about my heart but this inch of time that my eyes have been so blest to gaze on your bright beauty Cupid hath cast all Aeina in my bosome and without you be pleas'd to afford me love I shall expire in flames and be converted to an heap of Cinders Wid. You have the art for to paint out a passion but were it granted Cupid thus hath caught you count you me Sir so levious as to returne a grant of what perhaps is not in me to give unto a man meerly a stranger unto me before this interview an acquaintance of half an hours growth Sir I must know your breeding and your worth your substance and the temper of your mind ere I assent unto a second marriage but if heaven keep me sixt to my resolves were there no better feeders of Pedigrees then I am like to prove Nature will have no cause for to complain of her too numerous breed Man Dear Widow you shall have a full testimony of me my birth 's not mean my education hath been vertuous nor is my estate yet sunk beneath the degree of fear But do not say nor for both the Indies think you 'l end your daies in solitude and like the melancholy Phenix ingender with your self twill-give the babling vulgar cause to think that your dead husband was no compleat man or that your self by some default in nature takes no felicity in amorous acts O slie this single life Venus hath two Doves to draw her Chariot Daphne was metamorphos'd to a tree curel Anaxeret to a marble statue but flexible Ariadne converted to a glorious Star her browes ingirt with a bright wreathe of Saphires Nor was there any kind and gentle semale propitious to her lover or her wedded mate but the all-powerful Ports have divulg'd them for eminent constellations pleasant flowers and mates for Goddesses Wid. This is vain Poetry But Sir because I will not seem too rigid or christen my self cruel hereafter when I know you better have learnt what you have been and what you are you may expect as much as may be thought from her who hugs her not proudly obstinate must think him truly man whom she can honour hates not the poor yet loves not beggery and would in all things be a compleat woman Man May I then have the promise of such happiness as in the mean time til your doubts are solv'd to have access unto you By all things vertuous no unbeseeming errand unbecoming gesture or distasteful act shall give you cause to hate or me to fear onely debar me not sometimes to see you Wid. You have your wish Sir as you are a Gentleman I dare not to deny you such a favour yet let not your visits be too frequent too early in the morning or too late at night Sir this large dispensation had not been were I not confident of your noble thoughts and what you seemingly sincerely promise Man You bless me above measure A friend meeting an acquaintance of his accidentally at the Tavern The fir MR. E.D. Bacchus hath much befriended me to guide my feet to such an happiness as to imbrace you here whose company I have ever called my chiefe solace The sec Sir you are pleased to take notice of him who is altogether unworthy your acquaintance and whose utmost ambition is to be listed amongst the number of your humblest servants The first O friend you strive to be acute in your responsions and would fain oblige me your creature by your voluntary submissiveness With leave of your self and this your worthy friend let this room hold all three But why dear friend have you so long absented your self from my dwelling The sec Sir I hope you have not been in prison or have commenc'd a suit in Law or been visited with sickness that swist time in your opinion seems to flag his wings or to have sprain'd his feet It is but six daies since accompani'd with our loving mate Mr. I.R. I supt with you and your fair wife at your own mansion The first You have resolv'd my querie Six daies said you why to me who love you by computation it appeares six months Pilades and Orestes slept beneath one roof Damon and Pithius never took two waies our friendship hath been long let it be lasting Do you not know my self all my Demesticks whatever I call mine my wife excepted are at your command The se Sir I have ever been beholding to you and do confess your many bountious favours are far beyond the hope of my requital I love not Sir to heap upon the tally The first Now you wrong your judgement and desert your first faire principles this language doth imply you dare not trust my goodness this dear friend deserves severe amercement I will prescribe your penance you shall for one whole fortnight rest beneath my roof nor eat nor drink but in my company this to begin from the first minute that we leave this place and as a tye unto this stipulation pledge me this bowl of sack The second You may command your creature I 'll pledge you with a hearty zeal although I fear you by this solemn contract have but found out a way to charge your self The first No more of that dear friend A young man who hath formerly sollicited and received a repulse thus renews the onset and prevailes Young man SWeetest I hope your late refusal of my love is alter'd now by your more gentle pity My constancy carries more strength about it then to be blasted with your first repulse Forc'd forward by the cause of my affection I must again be advocate and hope my suit will be effected Maid Sir I beseech you make me not thus the subject of your mirth or complement your soul is too secure however you are pleas'd to talk in its owne manly vertues from surprize of weak affection Young man Your bright eyes like heavens blest light when from a mist of clouds he peeps and gilds the earth with brightness can quicken and fire even marble hearts with love thaw souls of Ice A malefactor's fears are more upon him ere he do come to his tryal then when he hears the Judge pronounce the sentence of his death 't is so with me and I should be more blest to hear that voice of yours with a severe refusal strike
art gone A double Poesie This hath no end My sweetest friend Our loves be so No ending know Poesies upon Bracelets AS love gives life to every part So this gives life unto my heart This chastly lies and lives with me Oh that I might do so with thee Another How might I triumph in my bliss If love were where my Bracelet is For then should love do no such harm To wring my heart but wreath my arm A wish Eies hide my love and do not show To any but to her my notes Who onely doth that cypher know Wherewith we pass our secret thoughts Belye your looks in others sight And wrong your selves to do her right Songs and Sonnets Song 1. TAke O take those lips away That so sweetly were forsworth And those eyes like break of day Lights that do mislead the morn But my kisses bring again Seals of love though seal'd in vain 2. Hide O hide those hills of snow Which thy frozen blossoms beares On whose tops the pinks that grow Are of those that April weares But first set my poor heart free bound in those joy-chaines by thee Song 2. O for a Bow I of rich Canary Fat Aristippus sparkling Sherry Some Nectar else from June's dairy O these draughts would make us merry O for a wench I deal in faces And in other daintier things Tickled am I with her imbraces Fine dancing in such fairy rings O for a plump fat leg of Mutton Veal Lamb Capon Pig and Coney None is happy but a Glutton None an Ass but who wants money Wines indeed and Girles are good But brave victuals seast the blood For wenches wine and lusty cheere Jove would come down to surfeit here Song 3. Tell me Jove should she disdain Whether it were greater pain Silent in thy flames to dye Or say I love and she deny Flames supprest do higher grow Should she scorn when she does know Thy affection thou shalt prove A glorious martyrdom for love Better to loves mercy bow She may burn as well as thou Oh then tim'rous heart proceed For wounds are death that inward bleed Song 4. Charm O charm thou God of sleep Her fair eyes that waking mourn Frightful visions from her keep Such as are by sorrowes born But let all the sweets that may Wait on rest her thoughts obey Fly O fly thou God of love To that brest thy dart did wound Draw thy shaft the smart remove Let her wonted joyes be found Raise up pleasure to a flood Never ebbing new joyes bud Song 5. When that I poor soul was borne I was born unfortunate Presently the Fates had sworne To foretel my hapless state Titan his fair beams did hide Phaebe clipt her Silver light In my birth my mother dide Young and fair in heavy plight And the nurse that gave me suck Hapless was in all her life And I never had good luck Being maid or married wife I lov'd well and was belov'd And forgetting was forgot This a hapless marriage mov'd Greiving that it kills me not With the earth would I were wed Then in such a grave of woes Daily to be buried Which no end nor number knows Song 6. The Fisher-mans Ditty THough the weather jangles With our hooks and angles Our nets be shaken and no fish taken Though fresh Cod and Whiting Are not this day biting Gurnet nor Cunger to satisfie hunger Yet look to our draught Hale the main bowling The Seas have left their rowling The waves their huffing the winds their puffing Up to the top-mast Boy And bring us news of joy Here 's no demurring no fishes stirring Yet something we have caught Song 7. What motions times and changes What waies what uncouth ranges What slights what delusions What gladness in conclusions Have risen of such sorrows One faith yet all these borrowes And one good love assureth And all misfortune cureth And since from griefe they vary Good Fortune come and tarry Song 8. My heart in flames do fry Of thy beauty While I Dye Fie And why Shoulst thou deny Me thy sweet company My braines to teares do flow While all below Doth glow Foe If so How canst thou go About to say me no Song 9. 1. THis Lady ripe and calm and fresh As Eastern Summers are Must now forsake both time and flesh T' add light to some small star 2. Whil'st that alive each star decay'd She may relieve with light But death sends beauty to a shade More cold more dark then night 3. The sawcy faith of man doth blind His pride till it conduce To destine all his abject-kind For some eternall use 4. But ask not bodies doom'd to die To what abode they go Since knowledge is but sorrows Spy It is not safe to know Song 10. The constant Lover TImes change and shall as we do see And life shall have an end But yet my faith shall ever be Whereon mine eyes depend The days and moments and their scope The hours with their changes wrought Are cruel enemies to hope And friends unto a loving thought Thoughts still remain as we do see And hope shall have an end But yet my Faith sha'n't wanting be My hope for to defend Sonnet I. Cupids craft I Play'd with Love Love play'd with me again I mock'd at him but he mock'd me indeed He would not let my heart his art exceed For though a boy yet mocks he doth disdain A friend he is to those that do not fain My jests it seems do true affection breed And now if Love is not reveng'd with speed My heart can witness it with earnest pain That one may love and jest it out again Song II. Being a Pastoral Ditty 1. IN this green mead Mine eyes what do you see The Bagpipe of my Nymph so passing fair Unless my senses dream so should it be For sure this is the Oak where with despair She lean'd unto and here the grass yet lies And field which she did water with her eyes 2. Jove I thee pray if this I do but fear And if my dream do fall out sure or no By all the love to Nympths that thou didst bear Open mine eyes the truth that I may know Help me to pray him green and flow'ry Mead Help me to pray him Oak with branched head 3. This Bagpipe of my Nymph I will devise To hang it here fair Oak to honour thee A worthy Trophee though before mine eyes Lying disgrac'd For tears they cannot see If it be sure or if I dream in vain Spoil'd in this mead with parching sun and rain 4. That gracious Nymph who gave my heart the stroak In this green Mead I saw a heav'nly Prize And if I dream not leaning to that Oak Nay sure I did behold her with mine eyes O that she had but seen me then again Or that I had but seen and dream'd in vain Sonnet II. CVpid was angry with my merry face Because I ever laughed him to scorn And all his followers hapless and forlorn I mockt in publike
be told Mel. Yet I have heard thee heretofore Thy joys in open songs report Erg. I said I had of joy some store But not how much or in what sort Mel. Yet when a joy is in excess It self it will unfold Erg. Thus then my joies I do express I clip my Arnageld Sonnet VII SHe that denies me I would have Who craves me I despise Venus hath power to rule my heart But not to please my eyes Temptations offer'd still I scorn Deny'd I wish them still I 'll neither glut my appetite Nor seek to starve my will Diana double cloath'd offends So Venus naked quite The last begers a surfet and The other not delight That crafty girl shall please me best That No for Yea can say And ev'ry wanton willing kiss Can season with a Nay Song 17. 1. WHen to her Lute Althea sings Her voice revives the leaden strings And doth in highest notes appear As any chaleng'd eccho clear But when she doth of mourning speak Ev'n then her sighs the strings do break 2. And as her Lute doth live or die Led by her passions so must I For when of pleasure she doth sing My thoughts enjoy a sudden spring But if she do of sorrow speak Ev'n fresh my heart the strangs do break Sonnet VIII 1. LIke the Violet which alone Prospers in some happie shade My dear Mistress lives unknown To no looser eye betray'd For she 's to her self untrue Who delights i' th' publike view 2. Such her beauty as no arts Hath enrich'd with borrow'd grace Her high birth no pride imparts For she blushes in her place Folly boasts a noble blood She is noblest being good 3. She 's cautious and ne'er knew yet What a wanton courtship meant Nor speaks loud to boast her wit In her silence eloquent Of her self survey she takes But 'tween men no diff'rence makes Song 18. A Country-Courtship written during my abode at S.r. E. D's house in Wilishire 1. CHloris my onely Goddess and my good Whiter then is th' untrodden snowie way And redder then the rose but late a bud Half blown and pluckt with dew by break of day To view more comely then the Plane-tree's shape And sweeter then the ripe and swelling grape More pleasant then the shade in summer-time Or the sun-beams in winters coldest prime 2. More fresh then any cool and trembling winde Morenoble then the fruit that Orchards yeeld More jocund then the tender Kid by kind When full it skips and traverseth the fields More flowry then the rich and pleasant mead With painted flowers in midst of May bespread More sost then spotless down on Cygnets brest Or the sweet milk and cheese-curds yet unprest 3. Clusters of Grapes do beautify my Vines Some golden purple-red all fair and full Of part whereof I make most dainty wines And part of them I keep for thee to pull And with thy hands most delicate and fair Gather thou may'st ripe Plums by goodly pairs Under the shadow of thy boughes to ease thee 4. Here I have Damsens Nuts and colour'd Peares With Peaches fine that would each eye invite And every tree and fruit this Island bears All for thy service pleasure and delight And as my heart to please thee I have bowed So have all these the self-same office vowed In Autumn if thy husband I might be Chesnuts and Medlers I would keep for thee Sonnet IX The Lover imbracing his Mistress A Bout the husband-Oak the Vine Thus wreaths to kiss his leavy face Their streams thus Rivers joyn And lose themselves in the mbrace But Trees want sense when they infold And waters when they meet are cold Thus Turtles bill and groan Their loves into each others eare Two flames thus burn in one When their curl'd heads to heaven they reare But Birds want soul though not desire And flames material soon expire Song 19. Sung by three Beggers IRUS BRUNELLO FURBO IRUS BRight shines the Sun play Beggers play Here 's seraps enough to serve to day What noise of Vials is so sweet As when our merry clappers ring What mirth doth want where Beggers meet A Beggers life is for a King Eat drink and play sleep when we list Go where we will so stocks be mist Bright shines the Sun play Beggers play Here 's scraps enough to serve to day BRUNELLO The world is ours and ours alone For we alone have world at will We purchase not all is our own Both fields and streets we Beggers fill Nor care to get nor fear to keep Did ever break a Beggers sleep Bright shines the Sun c. FURBO A hundred head of black and white Upon our downes securely feed If any dare his Master bite He dies therefore as sure as creed Thus Beggers lord it as they please And none but Beggers live at ease Bright shines the Sun c. Sonnet X. DIsdain that so doth fill me Hath surely sworn to kill me And I must die Desire that still doth burn me To life again will turn me And live must I. O kill me then Disdain That I may live again 2. Thy looks are life unto me And yet those looks undo me O death and life Thy smile some rest doth shew me Thy frown doth soon o'erthrow me O peace and strife Nor life nor death is either Then give me both or neither 3. Life onely cannot please me Death onely cannot case me Change is delight I live that death may kill me And die that life may fill me Both day and night If once Desire decay Despair will wear away Song 20. Sung by a Shepherd and a Shepherdess AMYNTAS AMARILLIS Amynt THe cause why that thou dost deny To look on me sweet Fo impart Amar. Because that doth not please the eye Which doth offend and grieve the heart Amynt What woman is or ever was That when she looketh was not mov'd Amar. She that resolves her life to pass Neither to love nor to be lov'd Amynt There is no heart so fierce or hard That can so much torment a soul Amar. Nor Shepherd of so small regard That Reason will so much controul Amynt How falls it out love doth not kill Thy Cruelty with some remorse Amar. Because that Love is but a Will And Free-will doth admit no force Amynt Behold what reason now thou hast To remedy my loving smart Amar. The very same bindes me as fast To keep such danger from my heart Amynt Why dost thou thus torment my minde And to what end thy beauty keep Amar. Because thou call'st me still unkinde And pitiless when thou dost meet Amynt Is it because thy cruelty In killing me doth never end Amar. No but because I mean thereby My heart from sorrow to defend Sonnet XI 1. Amphion O thou holy shade Bring Orpheus with thee That wonder may you both invade To hear my melody You who are soul not rudely made Up with material ears Are fit to hear the musick of these spheares 2. Hark when my Mistress Orbes do move By my
at least to beg which is most sutable one salve from those Srar-shining eyes which have shot forth their conquering darts at my love-sick heart making me acknowledge the conquest yours my self happy in your being victorious O heavenly Adrastina govern and direct me for I am wholly given over unto thee Adra. Sir Were I but ascertained of the truth and reality of your affection I might perhaps meet your love with an equal burning but Fortu. Pardon sweet soul my interrupting you If my love be not real let me be an object of all mens scorn and let the heavens as a just guerdon of my dissembling showre down upon me their most horrible plagues but if it be love chaste and real love let our souls meet in a reciprocal affection and be imparadized into fruition of each other Adrast As far as a Virgins modesty will permit her hereafter I shall be ever ready to accomplish your desires and obey your commands and in the mean time be confident that I am entirely yours But time calls me away All happiness attend you Fortu. And as in you all vertues shine so upon you may all the blessings both of heaven and earth wait A Letter to a Gentlewoman requesting Love COnsidering with my self most divine Lady the many vertues wherewith nature hath in a superabundant measure adorned you and then weighing the insufficiency of any service I can do you my trembling hand is scarce able to hold the pen and my stammering tongue dare hardly express that which my afflicted heart desireth to manifest unto you yet love which holds in his dominion my enflamed heart forceth me to lay open to your sweetest self the secrets of my love-tormented brest Excuse then I humbly beseech you these humble lines that invisibly present to your sair hands an humbler suit then can be expressed I beseech you to extend a gratious hand to stay a fainting soul from sinking that without you is as nothing whose worth and remembrance gives me being for I desire not to be where your being is not It is that only that betters my joy and makes me sensible of content there being no content equal to the enjoying a companion of so great worth To conclude I shall expect the sentence of my life or death in your answer and remain so perfectly yours that I can say nothing neer it when I say I am Madam your most faithful most obedient and most affectionate servant Another to a Gentlewoman desiring his forbearance to visit her c WIth what words sufficiently to set forth my affection and with what expressions high enough to manifest the constancy of my love because I cannot tell I shall appeal to your self whether the sincerity of my actions and the integrity of my words be not able to justify me And I dare appeal to heaven whether or no my words have in the least manner tended to dissimulation swerving from professed truth or my actions digressed from nature but since your rigor pleases to command I shall withdraw my person yet in lieu of return will leave my heart with you and maugre fate subscribe my self Mistress ever thine in an unalterable affection A Gentleman debarred the society of his Mistress thus writes to her SInce my misfortunes are so great that those most happy opportunities we formerly enjoyed by a mutual intercourse and converse are at present vanished I cannot but by these manifest the constancy of my affection which shall remain even to my latest gaspe I hope nay am confident that you will not now after the heaping on me so many and so great favours estrange your self and for my part I am and even will be wholly thine And since my endeavours have been so happy to win your favour they will double in length and redouble in goodness the remainder of my daies All my right in all things is yours and your demand my content you are my joy and my greatest height of happiness is to enjoy you Your person is the food of my thoughts the relief of my wishes and the repast of my desires Your love to me is a continual hunger after which I daily earnestly more and more long your absence my extreme famine which makes me pine away with grief And if any poor endeavours of mine may be but pleasing to your most vertuous self I shall esteem my self most happie when most serviceable to you And in the mean while shall rest assured of your love as you may of having his heart who is Yours inseparably A Gentleman having made his suit by speech thus seconds it by writing THat I should begin my Letter with the declaration of my love seems to me altogether preposterous and unnecessary sith I manifested it to you so long since But I may well bemoan my ill fortune that cannot yet gain your good opinion of me to credit your words but that you still think me one of those who are altogether faithless Is it my lot for Love to reap Disdain Let me but know wherein I have offended and my life shall answer my misdemeanour All I desire is love your love because nothing can satisfie love but love I could enlarge but lest I be too troublesome I will say no more but that I am Your affectionate servant Her Answer Sir I Received a Paper from you which I here answer to clear my self of that accusation of being scornful which you cast upon me That I do not forget you witness this but yet I am so far from being pleased with your Letters that I can hardly bear the reading them especially since they proceed from a deceitful heart as I believe yours is If then you love me as you profess shew it in this That you trouble me no more with your Letters in hopes whereof I remain Sir Your c. His Reply My Dearest THat you do not forget me is my onely my chief happiness but that to think of me should move you to impatience is my greatest misery What greater torment then to love and not to be loved again Heaven and earth are not able to parallel so great cruelty But your words that you cannot believe my seigned vows carry with them a killing accent O heavens bear ye witness of my reality and sincere affection I love you as I profess but by obeying your command a breach might be made into the love of Yours while he lives and even in death Another ACcording to my duty and the obligements that lic upon me for the manifestation of my loyal constancie I do hereby humbly kiss your hands protesting that my love increases and renews with the day more and more The Sun in its greatest splendor hath been over-pow'red with clouds and darkned with mists and sometimes even the most constant affection has been scandalized with disloyalty Let Envie then pine it self to death and let Malice burst it self with rage yet will I remain constant yet will I be unremoveable never to be altered from my
great content as in the fulfilling your commands which are so repleat with vertue that I cannot but admire nay adore the person in whom so much good resides What then are all my services even not worthy to be taken notice of by so great vertuous deserts Should I not adore should I not serve should I not with a most constant affection love your dear self I might well be branded with the base stain of stupidity I protest were the place of my being a Paradise and were my company all Saints yet without you should I receive little pleasure in the one and less comfort in the society of the other You are always present in my heart and thoughts and as I walk alone in the fields heaven can bear me witness how often it has heard me record your name and with what joy I was wrapt when the solitary woods with a pleasing eccho reiterated the same c. A Letter suing for Love Dear Madam I Cannot but in all humble reverence by these as much as they can manifest that affection which my stammering tongue knows not how to express nor my unable pen to delineate Oh that my heart were transparent there would you see a Seat ordained for your vertuous and sweetest self a Palace of Love where affection daily waits to do you service a Castle altogether impregnable till 't was over-pow'red by darts of love shot from your eyes by the string of vertue How then to express a gratitude sufficient to answer your goodness is a thing altogether impossible your vertue being as unlimitable as my affection but such as I can I willingly offer my self my love yea my whole fortunes I humbly present you withal You have taken me out of my self and my thoughts are not so often in mine own brest as where you are You are the Loadstar of my thoughts and the life of my desires with whom alone I desire to pass my life No marvel if all love if all desire if all affect you for worth and desert cannot lie unregarded I resigne my self as your prisoner and as a Trophee of your victories to remain Yours in life and even in death A Letter of complement from one friend to another Sir I Doubt not nay I am confident that you will wonder that after the ungrate silence of so many by-past yeers I should now begin to make an apologie but I hope my negligence acknowledged will obtain a parden Desiring therefore that you will think of me with favour and impute my fault not to a willing ingratitude but to a too great distance But why speak I of distance it was not that could make me hold back my due respects but an incertainty nay I may truely say an impossibility to send was my chief nay my onely reason yet I hope a good occasion will now ere long bring us together and afford us that opportunity of renewing friendship which I have long wished and shall in no mean measure rejoyce at last to enjoy then shall be a time of more real and full expressions of my respects towards you then can finde compass within this narrow page then shall be a time when by a return of courtesies for received obliging favours I shall endeavour to repay that friendship which I well understand I owe unto you And till I can be happie in the fruition of this time know that I study gratitude and shall ever seriously endeavour to seem as I am and be as I seem SIR Your most obliged servant A Gentleman thus writes to his dispeased uncle SUch and so great has been my former unhappiness that those which should have been the tenderers of my service and respects could have no intercourse but seeing that it hath pleased God that the mutual love which should before have proceeded from one to another to the comfort of both hath again received a new birth I hope that all injuries and by-past discontents laid aside you will look upon me with a favourable eye You know worthy Sir that I have a long time sayled in a deep Sea of affliction and sorrow which still has increased and flowed in upon me and will continue unless your love and favour extend it self not onely to the pacifying the impetuousness of its waves but also to the bringing it to so lowe an ebbe as I may safely come to the solong-look'd for shore c. To a friend for a received courtesie THere hath no one experiment or occurrence happened in my time which hath more commended and confirmed my judgement and skill of inspection into a man then this performance of yours for I must ingenuously confess at the first acquaintance I had with you I read that same reality and civility in you which now I see lively acted by you so that I know not whether I should applause my judgement more or congratulate my happiness in your acquaintance from whom I have received a courtesie of that nature as cannot be expressed without a due consideration of and reflexion on the high consequence and concernment of it together with a ready thankfulness to you the author thereof of whom I may justly say that it hath not been so truely occasioned by some that Forgetfulness commonly waits upon Absence but that you will have it falsified of your self which not onely augments but heightens the courtesie beyond the attempt of requital And if you have any occasions wherein I may serve you command me freely as Your friend and servant Another I Have hourly before me so many Monitors and Remembrancers of my engagement to you as is sufficient to convert Ingratitude in which respect how am I troubled to discharge this debt which is so great that you must not expect an entire payment but to take it out in several acknowledgements as opportunity shall favour me And since the best way to cross out the score of your merit is to begin early to make payment I cannot omit to give you hearty thanks for your favours which have perpetually engaged Your very friend A Letter of Complement Sir MY unwilling errour of not answering your Letter I am confident your sweet indulgence will readily pardon I could wish you were truely sensible how happie I conceived my self in this fortunate opportunity as literally to present you with these best of wishes I have oft with no small ambition sought personally to neliver That the choicest of all joy and happiness may be showred down upon you And for that I yet remain in your remembrance is my singular happiness and your meer goodness for from my own worthlesness and the strong conceit I had of your change I could not but collect a total eclipse of your favourable aspect And that you will be pleased to bear with this my conceited prolixity is the earnest desire of Sir Your very humble servant A Letter to his Mistress GO happie Paper by command Take liberty to kiss a hand More white then any part of thee Although with
spots thou graced be The morning-air perfum'd in May The glory of the clearest day The first-born Rose of all the Spring The Down beneath the Turtles wing A Lute just reaching to the ear Whatere is soft or sweet or fair Are but her shreds who fills the place And sum of every single grace As in a childe the Nurse descries The mothers lips the fathers eyes The uncles nose and doth apply An owner unto every part so I In her could analyze the store Of all the choice ere Nature bore Each private piece to minde may call Some worth but none may match it all Poor emblems they can but express One element of Comeliness None are so rich to shew in one All simples of perfection Nor can the Pencil represent More then the outward lineament Then who can limn the Portraicture Of Beauties live behaviour Or what can figure ev'ry kinde Of Jewels that adorn her minde Thought cannot draw her picture sull Even thought to her is gross and dull A Song 1. KEep on your Mask and hide your eye For with beholding you I die Your fatal beauty Gorgon-like Dead with astonishment will strike Your piercing eyes if them I see Are worse then Basilisks to me 2. Shut from mine eyes those hills of snow Their melting valley do not show Those Azure paths lead to despair O vex me not forbear forbear For while I thus in torments dwell The sight of heav'n is worse then hell 3. Your dainty voice and warbling breath Sounds like a sentence pass'd for death Your dangling tresses are become Like Instruments of final doom Oh if an Angel torture so When life is done where shall I go A Poet to his Mistress THat I do love it comes to me by kinde That I love much it much delights my minde That I love you it is my choice of heart That I love you alone 't is your desert I love yea much yea you yea you alone By kinde minde heart desert and all in one Another HEr Face her Tongue her Wit So fair so sweet so sharp First drew then bent last knit Mine eye mine ear my heart On his Mistress IF any do desire to know Where the flow'rs of Vertue grow Where content delight or mirth Doth inhabit upon earth Let them resort to me and I The place thereof will soon descry Where 's Piety without deceit Where Love without Strife or debate Where Beauty 's mixt with comely grace Vertue resideth in that place And in my Love all these do meet No marvel then if she be sweet The Question 1. I Ask thee whence those ashes were Which shrine themselves in plaits of hair Unknown to me Sure each morn dies A Phoenix for a Sacrifice 2. I ask thee whence those ruddy blooms Perch'd on her cheek in scarlet gowns Unknown to me Sure that which flies From fading Roses her cheek dyes 3. I ask thee whence those Airs which flie From birds in sweetest harmony Unknown to me But sure the choice Of accents ecchoes from her voice 4. I ask thee of the Lily whence It gain'd the type of innocence Unknown to me Sure Nature's deck Was ravisht from her snowie neck 5. I ask thee whence those active fires Take light which glide through burnisht air Unknown to me unless there flies A flash of lightning from her eyes The Answer explicatory 1. O No heav'n saw mens fancy stray To idolize but dust and clay That embleme gave that they might see Your beauties date but dust should be 2. O no that Rose when June is past Looks pale as with a poyson'd blast And such your beauty whenas time Like winter shall o'rtake your prime 5. No Philomel when Summer 's gone Hasts to the woods her rape to mone Unwilling hers asham'd to see Your unlike hers unchastity 4. O no the Phoenix shuns that place And fears the lustful sires embrace Of your hot brest and barren womb As death or some perpetual Tomb. 5. O no those stars that flie but the sight Of what you act in dead of night Asham'd themselves should Panders prove To your insatiate beastly love The affirmative Answer 1. ASk me no more whither do stray The golden atomes of the day For in pure love heav'n did prepare Those powders to enrich your hair 2. Ask me no more whither doth haste The Nightingal when Summer's past For in your sweet dividing throte She winters and keeps warm her note 3. Ask me no more where those storms light Which downward stoop in dead of night For in your eyes they set and there Fixed become as in their Sphere 4. Ask me no more where Jove bestows When June is past the fading Rose For in your beauties orient deep All flow'rs as in their beds do sleep 5. Nor ask me more if East or West The Phoenix builds her spiced nest For unto you at last she flies And in your fragrant bosome dies The Moderatrix 1. I 'Ll tell you where 's another Sun That sets as rising it begun It is my self who keep one sphere And were the same if men so were 2. What need I tell that life and death May pass in sentence from one breath So issue from mine equal heart Both love and scorn on mens desert 3. I 'll tell you in what heav'nly hell An angel and a fiend do dwell It is mine eye whose glassie book Sends back the gazers divers look 4. I 'll tell you in a divers scale One weight can up and downward hale You call me Thistle you a Rose I neither am yet both of those 5. I 'll tell you where both frost and fire In peace of common seat conspire My frozen brest the flint is like Yet yeelds a spark if well you strike Conclusion Then you that love and you that loath With one respect I answer both For round about me glows a fire Can melt and harden cross desire A Dialogue between a Maid and a young Youth Maid STay lovely boy why flee'st thou me That languish in these flames for thee I 'm black 't is true and so is Night And Love doth in dark shades delight The whole world do but close thine eye Will seem to thee as black as I Or ope't and view what a dark shade Is by thine own fair body made That follows thee where-ere thou go Ah who allow'd would not do so Let me for ever dwell so nigh And thou shalt need no other shade but I. Boy Black maid complain not that I flie Since Fate commands antipathie Prodigious will that union prove Where night and day together move And the conjunction of our lips Not kisses make but an eclips In which the mixed black and white Portend more terrour then delight Yet if my shadow thou wilt be Enjoy thy dearest wish but see Thou take my shadows property Which hastes away when I come nigh Else stay while death hath blinded me And then I will bequeathe my self to thee Epigram in Amorem LOve is all eyes admits of no delay
The CARD OF Courtship OR The LANGUAGE OF LOVE Fitted to the Humours of all Degrees Sexes and Conditions Made up of all sorts of Curious and ingenious DIALOGUES Pithy and pleasant DISCOURSES Eloquent and winning LETTERS Delicious SONGS and SONNETS Fine FANCIES Harmonious ODES Sweet RHAPSODIES LONDON Printed by J. C. for Humphrey Moseley and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Prince's Arms in S. Paul's Church-yard 1653. To the longing Virgins amorous Batchelors blithe Widows kinde Wives and flexible Husbands of what Honour Title Calling or Conversation soever within the REALM of GREAT BRITAIN Soluble Souls THey say that Bacchus and Cupid as they were one day going on hunting took Minerva in a net giving us to understand that none so seemingly austere but one time or other hath an itching desire to sport himself in Adonis Grove I confess it comes neer to a Syllogisme in these times when Mars and Bellona sit as Rectors o're all hearts to set Venus and her Son in opposition against them as it were to thwart the current of the times but I hope you Gentlemen and Ladies Citizens and Lasses are not so far in love with the bellowing of the Drum or the clangor of the Trumpet that the sweet and harmonious tunes of Love shall prove unacceptable unto you for if so my self who have been forced through whole Forests of bryars by the malice of the times of all men living have the least reason to whisper these soft numbers in your eares I dare not so much injure the ensuing work as to crave pardon of the severest Stoick or austerest Cynick for my wantonness since not a loose line is scatter'd throughout this Volume as also because I know in private the curstest carper of them all will hug me for their pleasure if not for their profit For those nice Ignoramusses who slight all Courship as lascivious al Complements as trivial and enormous I shall onely say this unto them that love I mean not such as that of Semiramis or Messalina is the Author of all perfection The greatest Doctors are but Dunces till love hath refined them and they know what his power is they after that becoming witty and courtly Inditers for necessity findeth out the art the lovers ardent affection compelling him to finde out all waies for the attaining his Mistress love discoursing unto her his loyal affections in smooth or pleasing termes or else touching them sweetly or daintily in writing curiously and with a courtlike phrase which art because I here undertake to teach I have named my work The CARD of COURTSHIP wherein are included such variety of conceited Courtships that I dare boldly affirm it you cannot wish for that favour which you may not there gather I beseech you crop them with a courteous hand which shall for ever oblige me to importune for you at Loves footstool beseeching him to use you according to your several constitutions granting you the full fruition of your desires in all afety and tranquillity So wishes Your devoted servant Musophilus The Card of COURTSHIP OR The language of LOVE To the Reader Here Cupid in a quaint disguise Cover'd with leaves in slumber lies Yet doth he not himself so hide But all thy spirits will be tride If this Volume thou turn over And he awake wanting his cover Here many hearts as victims stand Here read how beauâ—y to command Though rugged like the Panthers skin Here thou maist learne to love and win Or if so happy 's thy condition Thou of thy love hast the fruition Here such pleasures thou mayst find So sweet and of so various kind That rockt into a pleasing dream Thou 'lt wish I 'd had an ampler theam The Arabian winde that gently blows Blushes to the bashful Rose Yeilds not an odour of more price Then flowers set in this Paradise Read I am sure thou 'lt not repent thee And I am happy to content thee Complemental Dialogues A Virgin licensed by her Father to make choice of whom she likes best for her husband Imagine you hear one who dearly affects her courting her after this manner their names suppose to be AMANDUS and JULIETTA Aman. NOw Lady your Fathers goodness hath left you to your owne dispose and I the admirer of your vertues have free leave to present my best affections Then save that creature whose life depends on you whose every power ownes not himself but you you are that Deity to whom my heart presents its first devotion and in a holy flame remaines a Sacrifice till you please to accept it Juliet I should prove to my self unjust in the neglect of one that nobly loves me therefore what affection I may bestow and yet retain my freedome I mean that freedom by which I may on just occasion withdraw my heart I were ingrateful should I not present it Aman. May I become the scorne of time and all mens hate pursue me when I prove so foul to give occasion you call back your love Juliet Cease these hasty protestations I assure my self the pureness of your soul is without spot or blemish and while you so continue I shall boast me happy i' th' glory of such a choice Aman. O let me fly into your bosome on your lip confirm my happiness there study some new way of number to multiply my bliss The treasuries of grace and nature were quite exhausted to accomplish your perfections Juliet Fie fie leave for shame Aman. What dearest Juliet This superfluous Language I am none of those Ladies that are enamoured on Poetick raptures hugging the Verse but spitting at the Author none of those that are taken with flattering Acrosticks and to have their names so disjoynted in an Anagram that 't would puzzle ten Magicians to put them together againe I esteem not Golden Language and I 'll tell you why because 't was seldome bestowed on man but to gild over a Copper Soul within him Aman. Can you be so cruel to deem my Language feign'd Juliet Nor am I. I grant you Love and Poesie are divine commonly infus'd together yet ordinarily 't is ty'd to rules of flattery Aman. Far be it from me to speak a Language should displease your ear Juliet Well more Oratory would but bring the rest into suspicion whether it be real let it suffice I love you and if all occurrents sute my expectation it sha'n't be long ere Hymen seal the contract Farewell Aman. Farewell excellent Mistress Eugenia and Flavia two neer neighbouring Damosels discourse of their loves resolving not to marry old men for money Eug. FLavia I kiss your hands Flav. Eugenia I pray you pardon me I saw you not Eug. I saith you have fixt thoughts draw your â—ys inward that you see not your friends before you Flav. True and I think the same that trouble you Eug. Then 't is the love of a young Gentleman â—nd bitter hatred of an old dotard Elav. 'T is so witness your brother Francisco and â—â—e rotten carcass of
names ANTONIO and BEATRICE Ant. GOod morrow sweet Beatrice in exchange of this kiss see what I have brought thee from thee from the Exchange Beal What mean you Sir by this Ant. Ghess that by the circumstance here 's a Ring wear 't for my sake twenty Angels pocket them you fool Come come I know thou art a Maid say nay and take them Bea. Sir I beseech you fasten no more upon mee then I may at ease shake off Your gift I reverence yet refuse and I pray tell me Why do do you make so many errands hither send me so many Letters fasten on me so many Favours what 's your meaning in 't Anto. Hark in thy car I 'll tell thee Is' t possible so soft a body should have so hard a soul Nay now I know my penance you will be angry and school me for tempting your modesty A fig for this modesty it hinders many a good man from many a good turne and that 's all the good it doth but if thou but knewest Beatrice how I love thee thou wouldst be far more tractable Nay I bar chiding when thou speakst I 'll stop thy lips if thou dost but offer an angry word by this hand I 'll do 't and with this hand too Bea. Sir if you love me as you say you do show me the fruits thereof Ant. The stock I can thou mayst see the fruits heare after Bea. Can I believe you love me when you seek the shipwrack of my honour Anto. Honour there 's another word to flap in a mans mouth Honour why shouldest thou and I stand upon our honour that were neither of us yet right worshipful Bea. I am sorry Sir I have lent so large an ear to such a bad discourse and I protest after this hour never to do the like I must confess of all the Gentlemen that ever courted me you have possess'd the best part in my thoughts but this course language exiles you quite from thence Sir had you come instead of changing this my honest name into a Strumpet's to have honour'd me with the chaste title of an honest wife I had reserv'd an ear for all your suits but since I see your rudeness finds no limit I 'll leave you to your lust Ant. You shall not Beatrice Bea. Then keep your tongue within more moderate bounds Ant. I will as I am vertous I will I told you the second word would be a mariage it makes a man forfeit his freedome and walk up and down ever after with a chaine at his heels Marriage is like Daedalus his Labyrinth and being once in there 's no finding the way out Well I love this little property most intolerably and I must set her on the last though it cost me all the shooes in my shop Well Beatrice thou seest my Stomach is come down thou hast my heart already there 's my hand Beat. But in what way Ant. Nay I know not the way yet but I hope to finde it hereafter by your good direction Bea. I mean in what manner in what way Ant. In the way of Marriage in the way of honesty I hope thou art a maid Beatrice Bea. Yes Sir and I accept it in exchange of this you shall receive my heart Ant. A bargain and there 's earnest on thy lips A courtship eloquently carried on both sides between a youth and his formerly-sollicited fair one Their names suppose to be RADOLPHUS and TOMASO Rad. WElcome fair one I hope my pardon 's seal'd for this presum'ng on what you might call rudeness Toma. You have shap'd an Apology altogether needless to excuse a guilt when none appeares I owe much to your vertue it doth command my thoughts Rad. Which are so glorious I must admire the actions that express them I hope your judgement doth not call it ill that my intemperate anger being grounded on vertuous suspicion last time I saw you did transport me beyond a moderate passion I am satisfied your innocence hath clear'd my jealousie Toma. Sir 't is a noble resolution pure love 's a vertue Nature onely teacheth and born with generous spirits that distinguish the object truely slighting those respects that work on groster minds Rad. Fairest I shall use no other circumstance or paint a passion my reasons eye allowes though my first sense convey'd the knowledge of your outward form and full perfections which must needs contain a richer inside Vertue seldome dwells but in a glorious frame I love your goodness which outvies your beauty in my new-born wishes I have determin'd you the partner of all that 's mine my estate 's not very mean if it were Zeal should supply I 'd strive to merit the free gift of your self and in exchange returne my self Toma. Sir I could answer you in your own words for I presume your thoughts are noble like your self unmixt with flattery courtships insection and the poisonous breath that makes pure love suspected whether it be sound or plaister'd to deceive our credulous weakness till it hath possest us with some foul leprosie Your handmaid yeelds to what agrees with honour if the meanness of her condition may presume to call her honest credit so Rad. How do you bless me as suddenly as my desires could shape a means to work it instantly the Church shall seal the bargain Tom. Would you not deliberate Those acts are lasting and concern the being of all your after-life Rad. 'T is heavens providence that hath dispos'd it thus I seal my vowes The Lover having an hope now to attain his Mistress grant presents her a Ring with this Eulogy WHile this involves your heart and Master-vein Imagine you are lost to your disdain This mystically whispers in your ear With your strange coyness I my doubts cashiere Sweet let it be so do as I intend And like to this our love shall have no end The Persians who adore the rising Sun Will have each morn a Flamin for to run Six times about a circle to content Great Jove upon his Temples battlement Thereby mythologizing sure that he Will love his creatures to Eternity This typifies we ought to love for ever And that no harsh fate ought our loves to sever But Rings are nothing if true love we want Our hearts must be hem'd round with Adamant Impregnable against assault and Batt'rie Not to be ta'en by fear or won by Flatt'rie This seems to say what songs heav'ns quire shal sing Whenas my arms shall be thy bodies Ring A pleaing Dialogue between a witty Lady and a silly Gentleman Their supposed names CRISPINO and PAMELA CRISPINO I Sent you a Letter Madam Pam. I received it Sir to my great happiness Crip. How did you rellish it Lady Pam. Excellent well Sir you write most elegantly Oh that I had your Genius Crisp I have twenty as good as these lying by me they shall be all at your service Pam. You are too much a Courtier I must chide you I did never deserve those Epithets your Paper throwes
do testifie the least unto me and that by reason of my affection but I chuse rather to be little obedient to them to be the more faithful to you Live you then in this assurance if you will not that I die and become assured likewise that my life shall sooner be extinct then that fair flame that dayly does consume it Divine Mistress your humble creature happy to serve you A. S. A Maid or Widow having afforded her Suiter a final answer perhaps contemned and affronted him may upon change of thoughts seek toregain his love thus Worthy Sir IF there be no greater Cor'sive unto the mind of one then that which forceth us despight of our selves to seek to those whom we have before and that without just cause notoriously offended then certainly am I the most wretched creature living for as now there is no means left for me to escape from ruine but onely by thy help sweet friend alone who hast more reason to wish my overthrow then my good fortune or health any way at all in that thou hast found such extream and barbarous discourtefie in me Nevertheless if thygenerous and gentle mind cannot feel this injury done unto thee by a silly Maid then I beseech thee think no more upon my offence but burying it deep under thy feet do that for my sake which the bearer hereof shall make thee privy to and then shalt thou quickly perceive what great satisfaction I will make thee for my fault committed granting unto thee that which thou shalt most desire Give credit unto this Messenger assuring thy self that I am Thine most obliged M. L. A Captain Colonel or common Souldier falling in love with some gentlewoman thus manifests his passions Fair gentlewoman IF it be an irrevocable doom that men be they never so valiant or couragious shall be subject unto a braver and more livelier force then their owne I hope you will not marvel overmuch that I humbly yeild to your divine graces and as a captive your to beauty prostrate my self a prisoner at your feet But as mortal men deserve no countenance from the heavens until they have by many proofs testified their faithful and dutious service towards them so I will not presume to importune you to affect me at all much less to yeild me any guerdon for my paines until that by my dutious service I show my self in some part worthy your gratious smiles Mine onely request to you is that it would please you to have me in your lively remembrance and not to entertaine another as your loyal Servant before you shall have just occasion to discard and give me over for as no doubt it will be little pleasing unto you hereafter to repent you that you have made a worse choice then of my self so it will be far more bitter unto me then a most desperate death to be discharged from serving her whom I love more then my owne heart and cherish more then my owne life yea then my owne soul which is now wholly yours seeing that he that is the owner of the same is the inviolable slave to your incomparable self A. R. LETTERS in Verse With other curious Conceits and fine Fancies To the Reader Behold Apollo doth invite thee Yet a third time to delight thee A pleasant Tempe planted well With Flowers of odoriferous smell In the midst whereof do chill Aganippe waters drill The Muses whose sweet melody Drawes Jove down from the arched Sky Charm Pluto's self and all the Fiends To heaven climbes to hell descends Hand in hand now in a Ring Invite thee for to hear them sing Enter and take thy free delight And ' cause perhaps thy Appetite Cannot with one dish sated be I give thee here Varietie The Lover being forced from his Mistress presence Mistress BAnisht from you I charg'd the nimble wind My unseen messenger to speak my mind In am'rous whispers to you but my Muse Lest the unruly spirit should abuse The trust repos'd in him said it was due To her alone to sing my love to you Hear her then speak bright Lady from whose eye Shot lightning to his heart who joys to dye A Martyr in your flames O let your love Be great and firm as his then nought shall move Your setled faiths that both may grow together Or if by Fate divided both may wither Be constant as y' are faire for I foresee A glorious Triumph waits o' th' victorie Your love will purchase shewing us to prize A true content there onely love hath eyes Divine Lady yours more then his owne c. The Lover being anxious of his Mistress constancy Faire SWeet if you like and love me still And yeild me love for my good will And do not from your promise start When your fair hand gave me your heart If dear to you I be As you are dear to me Then your I am and will be ever Nor time nor place my love shall sever But faithful still I will persever Like the constant marble-stone Loving but you alone But if you favour more then me Who loves thee still and none but thee If others do the harvest gaine That 's due to me for all my paine If that you love to range And often for to change Then get you some new-fangled mate My doating love shall turne to hate Esteeming you though too too late Not worth a pebble-stone Loving not me alone The Lover being transported in his fancy complements in an high stile with his Mistress FOrsake with me the earth my fair And travel nimbly through the aire Till we have reacht th' admiring skies Then lend sight to those heav'nly eyes Which blind themselves make creatures see And taking view of all When we Shall find a pure and glorious sphere We 'll fix like stars for ever there Nor will we still each other view We 'll gaze on lesser stars then you See how by their weak influence they The strongest of mens actions sway In an inferiour orbe below We 'll see Calipso loosely throw Her hair abroad as she did weare The self-same beauty in a Beare As when she a cold Virgin stood And yet inflam'd Joves lustful blood Then look on Leda whose faire beams By their reflection gild those streams Where first unhappy she began To play the wanton with a Swan If each of these loose beauties are Transform'd to a more beautious star By the adulterous lust of Jove Why should not we by purer love Life of my life a devoted servant to your excellent perfections c. Dearest Let one griefe harme us Let one joy fill us Let one love warme us Let one death kill us A Maid or widow returnes this merry answer to her hot Lover whom she affect not I See thee gentle Franke most merry Though firm thy faith and sound as berry Love gave me joy and fortune gave it As my desire could wish to have it What didst thou wish tell me sweet lover Whereby thou mightst such joy recover
now ' Gainst thy guilt doth set her brow And beauty calls you must appeare At loves bar and answer there Empta poenitentia I Ack to his Jug in feeling passion swore He would approve her a polluted Whose tempting outward look borrowed locks And inward filthiness gave him the Thou ly'st quoth Jug 't was what thy mony bought How dear soere thou paid'st I gave thee nought Experto credentum HOw durst Capritius call his wedlock whore But that he speaks it plusquam per narratum Nam ipso teste what require you more Unless you 'ld have it magis approbatum Nequicquam verba WIll woes his wench with words of eloquence Wishing he might her corps Enthalamize And of his love impart that influence Which with her liking best may sympathize Shee who regardless at his speech doth spurn Saith 't is not words of art must serve her turn An invective against my old she-enemy my most audacious Aunt now very desirous to marry Sweet Aunt MOre rich then wise and yet more wise then fair years add gray Trophies to inrich thy haire Rather then live to love dye with dispaire Whenas sad comets in the skies appear Some strange disaster then approacheth near Which in our doubtful souls begots a fear Thy nose is that disaster for in thee No less then thousand comets we may see As symptomes to ensuing misery Below thy nose an hill we may desery Darkning the light appearing from thine eye Within that hollow concave where they lye Eye Nose and Chin since you in darkness be Premeditate before you visit me And raise young cinders to your venery And in night-shade meet with your shadow where Some Incubus by chance may get an heire Making the world accurst with such a paire Or if thy wither'd hand begot by time Should with thine eye nose chin and face combine Without discordant to make some man thine Know gumless wooer that diseases thirst To seize thy hand where th' Apoplexy must Bring thee ere long unto thy neighbours dust Or if thy wither'd thigh desires to know The sweet content that in young men doth flow Convert a tear into a flood below So may some cripple wanting Almes supply Thy almost-desperate necessity And please both nose gums chin thigh hands eye A Lovers passion wanting the society of his Mistress 1 DEare heart remember the sad hour When we were fore'd to part How on thy cheeks I wept a showr With sad and heavy heart About thy wast my arms did twist Oh then I sigh'd and then I kiss'd 2 Ten thousand fears and joyes in one Did such distraction frame As if the liveless world would run To Chaos back again Whilst my poor heart amid these feares Lay bathed in my milk-warm tears 3 When I thought and thinking wept How friends and fate did lowre On thee Leander how they kept Thee from thy Heroes Tower While thunder groan'd and heaven did weep To rock thy sense in silent sleep 4 The will of Fate must unresisted stand O who can it oppose Necessitie's a Tyrant and No mean in mischiefe knowes Else might my fairer love and I Unsever'd live till one did die 5 Just so the hungry infant from His mothers duggs is ta'en When his weak arms yet spread along More dulcid milk to gain And nothing brings the Babe to rest Until he sleep upon her brest 6 Thus being banisht from my love And forc'd to leave her sight No thought but those of her can move In me the least delight But like true steel my heart doth pant To touch the loug'd-for adamant 7 Oh let no storme of discontent Be clouded in your browes Dear friend that have my being sent Give being to my vowes You 'll much engage my heart if when I say she 's mine you 'll say amen Such kindness to our true-love showne Shall binde us doubly then your owne Loves inconveniencies LOve is a sickness full of woes All remedy refusing A plant that with most cutting growes Most barren with best using Why so More we enjoy it more it dies If not enjoy'd it sighing cries Heigh ho Love is a torment of the mind A tempest everlasting And Jove hath made it of a kind Not well nor full nor fasting Why so More we enjoy it more it dies If not enjoy'd it sighing cries Heigh ho A Diologue between a Shepherd and a Dam'sel Shep. BOnny wight whatere you be Luck be in your companie Are you Diana say to me Dam. None such good Shepherd Shep. Dest and trim one mickle glee Be ye what you please to bee Some disaster's neer to yee Dam. Never never more Shep. Welladay now by my creed And my merry oaten reed Sike another rousing sigh Would well split me gay and blith Let a clowtish clown partake Why this sobbing dole you make Dam. Ah me unfortunate Shep. Wonderment of wo relate If simpleness you might not scorn How you hapt to be forlorne Dam. The story would too tedious bee Shepherd to relate to thee Shep. Be not all too keen bright star If my pertness went-too far Mercy is the doom I sue Good things never meant more true Then the silly Shepherd did Late when he your sorrow bid Discourse the means Merry Pan And the sagest Gods do scan Wherefore was it Well a neare Yon foul mucky cloud I feare Will besprint us Phebus waine If so list you but to daign A poor Shepherd's entertaine Welcome should you be my bliss Nothing uncomely is I wis Though not courtly Answer make Will you my small feasting take Dam. I 'll go for wheresoere I rest Sorrow must be my onely feast Shep. Welcome Welcome Welcome still Never with a freer will Was welcome spoken by the sky Welcome welcome heartily Alack alack the rotten South 'Gins to ope his dewy mouth Time to hide you maiden meek Enter my cave I you beseek O thou white one bonny gyrle Welcomer then heaps of pearl The Lovers alarm to his Mistress RIse Lady Mistress rise The night hath tedious bin No sleep hath faln into my eyes Nor slumber made me sin Is not she a Saint then say Thought of whom keeps sin away Rise Mistress rise and give me light Whom darkness still will cover And ignorance darker then night Till thou smile on thy lover All want day till thy beauty rise For the gray morne breaks from thy eyes A Supplantor FAirest wilt thou still be true To a man so false to thee Did he lend a husband due Thou didst owe him loyalty But will curses wants and blowes Breed no change in thy white soul Be not fool to thy first vowes Since his first breach doth Fate controul No beauty else could be so chaste Think not thou honour'st women then Since by thy conscience all disgrac'd Are rob'd of the dear loves of men Then grant me my desire that vow to prove A real husband his adult'rate love The Shepherds complaint NEighbour Swaines and Swainlins hear me It is Strephon bids you hear Leave
your pastures and come neer me Come away you need not fear By my soul as I affect you I have nought that can infect you O then come Hear a tongue That in discord keeps a part With a wo-surcharged heart Ne'r was Swain on plain more loved Or could do more feats then I Yet one griefe hath now removed All my whilome Jollity All my layes be quite forgotten Sheep-hook broken pipe bag rotten O then come Hear a tongue That with flatt'ring speech doth call To take long farewel of all I am not as once I was When my Chloris first did suite me Nor when that same red-hair'd Lass Fair Bellina did invite me To a garden there to play Cull kiss clip and toy all day O then come Hear a tongue That in wooing termes was flowing But through wo hath spoyl'd his wooing All I can or will desire you When my breath of life is spent That in love you would inter me For it will my soul content Near unto my Father herse And bestow some comely verse On my Tombe Then my tongue Shall throb out this last adieu Ne'r were truer Swain then you A Dialogue between two Lovers Question WEre ever chaste and honest hearts Expos'd unto so great distresses Answer Yes they that have the worthiest parts Most commonly have worst successes Great fortunes follow not the best It 's Vertue that is most distrest Then Fortune why do we admire The glory of thy great excesses Since by thee what men acquire Thy works and not their worths expresses Nor dost thou raise them for their good But t' have their ills more understood The Authors suit to Cupid I Will not love I love to rest Cupid is an ungentle guest Except without his weapon's he Will lodge in my tyr'd Phantasie Better stand the shock of thunder Which cleaves hardest Rocks in sunder Then oppose the sturdy blow When the blind Boy bends his Bow Prethee Cupid cease to smile 'T is a courtship base and vile To laugh and stab unto the heart I will praise thee and thy dart While at others thou dost throw it I love to hear on 't not to know it A Salyrical Description of Love LOve is of man the fatal rock On which his ship of ease doth knock And splits him with the sturdy shock He never yet felt any pain That hath not known the lovers vain Whose greatest griefe is greatest gain No Ill so nigh the heart doth sit As doth this fierce tormenting fit Death is more pleasing far then it Our souls with hope it doth torment Whilst nought but massacres are sent To dye is better far content Love then most cruel void of grace Ought to be curst in every place No God but Devil in this case The Changes Or all think not of love alike Worthi's hee the bright of day Who doth loyal love obey CVpid onely I do love Him I worship still above Happi's he that by the same Wisdome to himself doth gain Worthi's he the bright of day Who doth loyal love obey O how sweet is that warm fire Which our hearts heats with desire To our souls no sweetness is Halfe so dulcet as is this Worthi's he c. Blessed love without all crime Two souls pleaseth at one time Then doth love his lover right When his love he doth requite Worthi's he c. Of two souls he makes but one In two bodies all alone Love more happy cannot bee Then when we loving couples see Worthi's he c. Pleasure none upon the ground Like to love is to be found Pleasures pass as transitory Love doth still remain in glory Worthi's he c. The answer being a contradiction of the former assertion Worthy is he of dark night That in Cupid doth delight NOthing in this world can be Sweeter then our libertie Which love often takes away And then all our joyes decay Worthy is he of dark night That in Cupid doth delight Love doth never sorrow miss Who grieves male-contented is But love thus doth Lovers sting Doth not love then sorrow bring Worthi's he c. Who that soul hath ere seen eas'd Upon whom fierce love hath ceaz'd The Mistress and the Servant both Oft through love their lives do loath Worthi's he c. Gods from heaven have chas'd and sent This vile Boy us to torment Nor are we him to indure That such plagues doth us procure Worthi's he c. Then most wretched him I deem That of this blind Boy doth esteem Worser plague there 's not of Ills That consumes still yet ne'er kills Worthy is he of dark night That in Cupid takes delight A Farewel to Love To my most courteous Friend Mr. John Phillipson Love fare thee well live will I now Quiet amongst the green-wood bow ILl betide him that love seeks He shall live but with lean cheeks He that fondly falls in love A slave still to griefe shall prove Love fare thee well live will I now Quiet amongst the green-wood bow What an Ass and fool is he That may and yet will not go free I can love her that is fair But so as if I grasp'd the aire Love fare thee well c. I like not these Dames so smooth As would have men court and love For as constant I them find As the Sea is or the wind Love fare thee well c. Once I lov'd one that was kind But she did what pleas'd her mind Better 't is ne'r to be born Then live as anothers scorn Love fare thee well c. To lovers what good doth the Sun If by his beams they be undon Love 's as bitter as is Rue Blest are those that ne'er it knew Love fare thee well c. A fond Lover doth not merit Name or fame of man t' inherit Since he is foe to his own health And huggs diseases as his wealth Love fare thee well live will I now Quiet amongst the green-wood bow A Rhapsody Now must the Gods above And all the heavens that move Of my Mistress praises sing Such as through the earth may ring Now must we frame chaplets fine And with the Lawrel green combine The fruitful Olive that our haire May yeild a persume through the aire My Love maist thou alwaies flourish Although my self do die and perish To the same If nothing faire I see but what 's thy face If thy bright look is loadstone to my eyes If thy rare parts as blessings I embrace Have I not reason then in dutious wise Thy gracious self for to implore Since thee a Goddess I adore He that finds salve to cure him of his griefe By a fair hand of that shall he not make Account when he thereby may get reliefe Whereby his sickness from him he may shake The wounded Deer to herbs doth go Love wounds us love must cure our wo. So then in this my worse then captive state These lines I offer to thy deity Not doubting but though hapless be my fate I from my self shall find some remedy Of
thee I beg some help to have In thee it lies to kill or save The dying Lover NOw that Boreas with his cold Doth this County round infold And his Isicles displaies Whilst the verdure green he slayes I must end my life ere long With a sad and mournsul song Now that more then cruel pain Makes my hopes to be but vain And that love makes me distil Salt tears signes of my kind will Needs now must my lives term end Unto the heavens to ascend Now that such is my sad care That I 'm droven to dispaire That cross Fates me strive to greive Why shòuld I desire to live Better 't is to dye then still Follow us what works more ill Now that sighs and sobs and teares The subject of my verses bears And whilst this plague usurps my heart I 'll try if I can make it smart By a death that one day may Make me victor every way Now that skies with lightning blast Force my pleasures not to last And that the sun no more doth shine I must yeild to tempest Time Loyally I lay me down And go willing to my Tomb. Now that cold and chilly fear Still doth dog me everywhere Seek I must by cruelty For to end my misery For an end to every thing Gentle death none else doth bring Now that burning fire o'r-bright Hath my sense consumed quite Leaving nought with me but groanes Thus I do rid all at once The Lover to his Mistress LUckloss and lucky both at once am I With fear and hope I tremble as a reed Luckless by beauty thine by destiny Lucky because I am thy slave indeed For then thy face there 's nothing is more faire Then thy sweet eyes nought more divine or rare One while I hope another while I fear Nor can there any thing my fancy please It grieves me to see the heavens though clear So much I doubt thy favour to displease Then thy fair face there 's nothing is more fair Then thy sweet eyes nought more divine or rare The united Lovers WHo ever saw so faire a sight Love and Vertue met aright And that wonder Constancy Like a comet to the eye Sound aloud so rare a thing That all the Hills and Vales may ring Look lovers look with passion see If that any such there be As there cannot but be such Who do feel this noble touch Sound aloud so rare a thing That all the hills and vales do ring The Lover to his Mistress upon her apparelling her self in black SInce that thou hast victory Ore my dearest liberty Why with black that form of thine Dost thou cloath so rich and fine If thou wear'st it for to witness As a friend my sad distress Happy I since for my sake Thou the colour sad dost take Sweet my life content be thou That this black weed I bear now Hapless was my life and so Sad my life i' th' end should show To me these sad cloaths alone Appertain as signes of mone Nature in one body ne'r Black and white at once doth bear From my black all hate be wide With which I my crosses hide He that in despair doth rest Black doth bear for colour best Cruel this not colour 's thine Since thine eyes bright and divine Sacred as the hallowed day Chase the gloomy night away My heart wounded thou dost make The habit of a conquerour take And let me alone with this Since my fitting colour ' t is Live thou in eternal glory While I dye as desp'rate sory Whilst this dye thou put'st on thee Thou depriv'st of comfort me Change then this same weed of dole Fit for a departing soul Give to me the colour black With it the flitting Ghosts to track The forsaken Lovers complaint 1 UNto the soundless vaults of hell below I 'll with my greifes remediless amaine Whilst frighted Ghosts as pitiful shall show And flinty rocks remorse take of my paine Yea death it self my bitter paines shall know To witness that my life in hell hath lame For Lovers true can never dye indeed Whose loyal hearts a heavenly fire doth feed 2 My body laid along within my grave Shall show its tears its torment and its love And for my mind did never change nor wave Far brighter then the sun the same shall prove By me my Ladies picture I will have Which though being dead afresh will make me love Like to the fire in ashes covered Which though it show no flame yet is not dead 3 Love is not tam'd by death but still doth live Although that life doth flit and pass away Then Lady think not though by death thou grieve My body that thou love canst make decay As long as fancy doth by beauty drive Into my soul no this will ' bide for aye Within my heart the beauty printed is Love in my Tombe to harbour will not miss 4 Thinkst thou I 'll leave to love thee being dead When thy faire portraicture revives my sight Voices from Tombs they say have some men lead Restoring them unto their senses right Then how much more ought love be honoured Whom then the greatest Gods is more of might Then think not when my corps bury'd you see That from thy love as thou wouldst I am free 5 List to my monument and thou shalt hear How I will sigh for without soul thy fire Shall hold me up whilst living I appear Being dead as 'fore my death I did desire Nor deadly pangs thereof will I once fear Nor part from thee as thou wouldst fain require For in thy life so cruel th' hast not been But in my death as loyal I 'll be seen 6 Yet is my fortune better far then thine For without breach of saith as thou hast done I shall have leave to plaine those Ills of mine Thou thinkst in killing me a martyrdome More tedious then before me to assigne But th' art deceiv'd a wrong race hast thou run For whilst I liv'd thy rigour was my bane But being dead I am freed from my pain The despairing Lover ELsewhere declare Thy wosul care And leave the skies Thy wosul plaints Thy heart that taints They do despise See they look red With rage o'respread And horror too 'T is they in griefe Without reliefe That us undoo He is a sot That thinketh not That from that place Through destiny Most wretchedly Comes our disgrace Then better 't is For death to wish And end our daies Then still in strife Lead such a life So plagu'd alwaies For death 's our friend When he doth end Our bitter smart And through the same Doth rid our paine With his keen dart A Knell GOme list and hark The bell doth toul For some but new Departing soul And was not that Some ominous fowle The Bat the Night Crow or Skreech-owle To these I hear The wild wolfe howle In this black night That seems to scowle All these my black Book shall inrowle For hark still still The bell doth towl For some but now
and in private place Wherefore he arm'd himself to my disgrace When time a fit occasion did suborn But I despis'd his flames his power did scorn Nor did I any of his hests embrace Who seeing that he built upon the sand Since by a face he could me not devour He shew'd me then a fine and dainty hand Which once beheld it lay not in my power For to remaine unconquer'd no nor would I be deliver'd now although I could Song 12. An invitation to love PLeasures beauty youth attend ye Whiles the spring of nature lafteth Love and melting thoughts befriend ye Use the time ere Winter hasteth Active blood and free delight Place and privacie invite Do do be kind as fair Loose not opportunity for air She is cruel that denies it Bounty best appears in granting Stealth of sport as soon supplies it Whiles the dues of love are wanting Here 's the sweet exchange of bliss When each whisper proves a kiss In the game are felt no paines For in all the loser gaines Sonnet III. THey say love sware he never would be friend If mortal jealousie were not in a place And beauty never be in any face Unless that pride did on her thoughts attend These are two hags which hideous hell doth send Our sweet content to troube and disgrace The one the joy of love to pain doth chase The other pity from the heart defend Beauty and love were both forsworne by me And thee my making my unsure estate In joy and happiness so fortunate Because since first thy figure I did see Being so faire yet prouder wast thou never Nor I in love that could be jealous ever Song 13. LOve if a God thou art Then evermore thou must Be mercifull and just If thou be just O wherefore doth thy dart Wound mine alone and not my Mistress heart If merciful then why Am I to pain reserv'd Who have thee truely serv'd While she that for thy power cares not a flie Laughs thee to scorn and lives in liberty Then if a God thou woulst accounted be Heal me like her or else wound her like me Sonnet IIII. THe Bat that lurketh in a stony wall Flies here and there assured of her sight When that the signes of darksome night she sees Approaching on contented therewithall But when she spies Apollo's beames so bright Her fault she doth acknowledge and recal So now of late it did to me befal And with my wandring mind it well agrees For I did think there was no other light Nor beauty but in her who did invite My senses first to love but to my thrall When I beheld my Mirabel bedight With beauties and such grace angelical Then by and by I knew that heretofore I plainly err'd but never could do more Song 14. ARe women fair yes wond'rous fair to see too Are women sweet yea passing sweet they be too Most fair and sweet to them that inly love them Chaste discreet to all save those that prove them Are women wise not wise but they be witty Are women witty yea the more the pitty They are so witty and in wit so wily That be you ne'er so wise they will beguile ye Are women fools not fools but fondlings many Can women fond be faithful unto any When snow-white Swans do turn to colour sable Then women fond will be both firm and stable Are women Saints no Saints nor yet no Devils Are women good not good but needful evils So Angel-like that Devils I do'n't doubt them So needful Ills that few can live without them Are women proud I passing proud praise them Are women kinde I wond'rous kind please them Or so imperious no man can endure them Or so kind-hearted any may procure them Sonnet V. AS many stars as heav'n containeth strive To frame my harm and luckless hap to show And in the earth no grass nor green doth grow That to my grief the least of comfort gives Love unto fear subjected ever drives A soul to coldest ice O bitter wo That he whom Fortune contradicteth so Continually with Jealousie must live The fault dear Mistress I must lay on thee And all my grief on thee I do complain O cruel soul that pity dost disdain For if thou hadst but taken part with me I would not care though ' gainst me did conspire Heav'n Earth and Love and Fortune in their ire Song 15. All woman are not evil 1. THey meet but with unwholesome Spring And Summers which infectious are They hear but when the Mer-maid sings And onely see the falling star Whoever dare Affirm no woman chaste and fair 2. Go cure your Fevers and you 'll say The Dog-days scorch not all the yeer In Copper-mynes no longer stay But travel to the West and there The right ones see And grant all Gold 's not Alchymie 3. What mad-man canse the glo-worm's flame Is cold swears there 's no warmth in fire ' Cause some make forseit of their name And slave themselves to mans desire Shall the sex free From guilt damn'd to the bondage be Sonnet 6. Written to the Authors first Love IS' t that my pocl-hol'd face doth beauty lack No. Your sweet sex sweet beauty praiseth Ours wit and valour chiefly raiseth Is' t that my muskless cloaths are plain and black No. What wise Ladies love fine noddies With poor-clad mindes and rich-clad bodies Is' t that no costly gifts mine Agents are No. My free heart which I present you Should more then Gold or Peal content you Is' t that my Verses want invention rare No. I was never skilful Poet I truly love and plainly show it Is' t that I vaunt or am effiminate O scornful Vices I abhor you Dwell still in Court the place fit for you Is' t that you fear my love soon turns to hate No. Though disdain'd I can hate never But lov'd where once I love love ever Song 16. A Pastoral Dialogue Penned at the command of my noble freind M. Theodorus Loe Esquire on the attaining his Mistress love MELIBEUS ERGASTUS Mel. SHepherd why dost thou hold thy peace Sing and thy joy to us report Erg. My joy good Shepherd would be less If it were told in any sort Mel. Though such great savours thou dost win Yet deigne thereof to tell some part Erg. The hardest thing is to begin In enter prises of such art Mel. It is not just we should consent That thou should'st not thy joys recite Erg. The soul that felt the punishment Can onely feel this great delight Mel. That joy is small and doth not shine That is not told abroad to many Erg. If it be such a joy as mine It cann't be pensill'd out by any Mel. How can that heart of thine contain A joy that is of so great force Erg. I have it where I did retain My passions of so great remorse Mel. So great and rare a joy as this No man is able to withhold Erg. But that the greatest pleasure is That in low language cann't