Eternitie For were 't as envious Fame reports her gone 'T were but a happy transmigration To Heav'n where stil she lives a Saint and we Do stil adore her living Deitie To a Painter limning a Curtezan LEave off fond Artist can't your wanton eie Glance on a pleasant face but presently You must go court her with your pencil and Thus spoil th' invention of a witty hand What need you paint her when the wicked Elfe Fearing no colours daily paints her self What mean those naked dresses silks and lawn When shee 's much fitter to be hang'd then drawn Wouldst thou expresse thy art and judgement say Wouldst thou be fam'd I 'l tel you thus you may Paint me to life a chast and virtuous Dame Whose spotless honour speaks her stil the same In whose smooth forehead let there be exprest What Virgin thoughts she harbours in her breast Set forth her severall Graces and her eie Make to betray a cheerful modestie Her sober looks and her aspect is free Let them both innocent and simple be Then in her cheeks express that blushing grace Which Vestal vows have printed in her face Then let thy Phansie through her purer skin Transparent make her chaster soul within When you have drawn this piece then Painter see You not expose it to each common eie That cannot judge to Lovers onely those And not to lustful eies this piece expose On the young and fair Mrs M. H. her hair being unfortunately burnt by chance in the candle as she was Combing her head at night UNluckie Traitour could thy greedy flame Feed on such fuel and not devoure the same How durst thy dul pale flames so high aspire And mix its lazie heat with Vestal fire Oh how I grieve this direful chance to see These fresh leaves falling from the blooming tree And that the spring which was but now begun Should thus o' th' sudden into Autumne run Ah cruel Atropos why so soon would you Thus rudely cut those threads of life in two Those neat dishevel'd locks whose every grace Scorning arts help set forth a neater face With what pale horrour do I wondring see This sight and fear what the event will be Methinks it now portends some overthrow Threatens some great mans ruine and doth show Like lightning 'fore the thunder bidding all Be arm'd against the stroak or now I call To mind fair Helen Troy did so admire Me thinks it represents that town on fire Had this but Lillie seen he would have said It was some blazing Comet and that head Which was thus crisped o'r with purest raies Was all a heav'nly Meteor that did blaze Her Virtues forth to the worlds open eie As Emblem of her rare divinitie Or had mistook thee in this borrow'd light For brightest Phoebe Mistresse of the night By those bright Star-like tapours of thine eies Oh may another lovely Phoenix rise From these sweet ashes whose sad fun'ral pile With fragrant odours thus perfumes our Isle But thou curst light that wroughtst this Tragedie In thy own flames maist thou a martyr die Writ on Clarastella's Busk MIght I o' nights in thy room lie 'Twixt Stella's warmer mounts of snow So neer her heart dissolving I No higher Paradise would know Such envi'd bliss would make me stray VVhither the Gods themselves would bow And leave heav'ns upper milkie way To breath in happier shades below Deploring Clarastella's Inconstancie FAir and yet cruel strange me thinks that art Should act amiss where Nature plai's her part Can you a gentle Saint a Tyrant prove Can your diviner soul forget to love Can Winter set in such a love-warm brest Which was with so much heat but now possest Are the flames dying and loves active fires Congeal'd to frosts and freez'd to cold desires And those fair Violet veins the verdant Spring Did so enliven now no heat can bring Can you that carried Summer in your lips Red as the Cherrie suffer an Eclipse That in the Apples of your cheeks did wear A fertile Autumn now no fruit can bear All heat extinguisht not one spark of fire Now left but to inkindle new desire Strange mixture this when I at once may view All the four seasons of the year in you Some health for pitty to my hopes restore Or love me not at all or love me more Under this Equinox my shadows are Quite round me whilst I live in black despair Frigid nor torrid zones can I endure They bred cold Agues these a Calenture Loves Haesitation To Clarastella WHy should I love that thing Can no affection bring Since reason doth from liking draw Reciproque friendship shall I thaw When her love freezeth tel me why When she disdaineth should not I Yet Loves Religion Bids me love though she frown By whose more sacred lawes Heav'n knowes We are enjoyn'd to love our foes Though she reject me then yet I Must love my Stella til I die Love I your pow'rs obey True love can ne'r decay And since that Virtue lives in you Which made me like and love you too At first I am oblieg'd and I Must love thee to Eternitie To Clarastella admiring her black Eies and Hair LEt others Court the Cyprian Queen Gilt tresses or the Amber skin Give me black eies and hair Presum'd the face be fair And a Seraphick soul within The Swan though black below above Is the white object of our love So is Juno's prouder bird For her black eies admir'd And 'cause they are so I yours approve Apelles limning a faire maid Let fall by chance his pen and said That though he meant it not Yet could not mend the blot It did expresse so rare a shade If shadowes best set forth a face Adorning it with beauties grace Then are you onely fair Whose form beyond compare Excels the birth of humane race In your bright eies decipher'd are The Ev'ning and same morning star Sole Glorie of the Night Deckt with such raies of light No day can boast so rich by far The Lovers Torch doth burn most bright Like Comets in the darkest night And the black Boy stil roves In sap and shadie groves And like you crowns Loves sweet delight To Clarastella complaining of my long kisses MAdam I vow I never knew One creature of your sex till you Find fault with what was long in men Oh do not geld my Phansie then Nor blame my pleasures extasie That when each sense is feasted I Thus tast each pure Ambrosiack kisse And by degrees melt down my blisse Oh those smooth soft and Rubie lips That fright the Sun to an Eclipse Whose Rosie and Virmilion hue Betray the blushing thoughts in you Whose fragrant Amoratick breath Wou'd revive dying Saints from death Whose Syren-like harmonious air Speaks musick and enchants the ear VVho would not hang and fixed there VVish he might know no other sphere Oh for a charm to make the Sun Drunk and forget his motion Oh that some palsie or lame gout Would cramp old times diseased foot Or that I
having got a great Cold WHat blasting dewes are these That on thy active spirits seize And tie that tongue did make Musick to all that heard it speak As by the fire Ice is Made by Antiperistasis So doth thy hearts flame within And th' warm ayr ambient 'bout thy skin And colder self congeal it To such a coldnesse you scarce feel it 'T is so the heat is more intense And glowes by th' numness of each sense But oh that vital part Kil not thou cruel frost her heart May th' Elemental fire That burns there purely through desire Scorch like our fires below More fiercely for the frost and snow The Invocation to Cupid OH do not look me dead fair eies Do not allure and then despise Be kind but as your picture that Will look and smile though you will not Ye Gods or women make lesse fair Or else lesse cruell then they are Or strike me Cupid blind like thee So I my torment shal not see To one blaming my high-minded Love TOo great wherein is it in wealth or bloud Or is she any way too good The sacred treasure that I bring is Love Angels enjoy nor wish no more 'T is Sovereign too and sans allay will prove As rich as both her Indies doubled o're Love makes equality nor wil admit Finites should bound an Infinite Who sets no value on himself shal ne'r By others much esteemed be Blind Cupid doth assist the bold while fear Unman's the heart and shuts the Lovers eie But she is high and wel-discended true My birth stiles me as freeborn too No peasant bloud doth stein or chil my veins And the proud Youth that warms them he Was of a Goddesse born and thus disdeins I should adore lesse than a Deitie My loves diviner flames do upwards flie By nature like their sparks on high Base heavy things do only downward tend To the dull center gave them birth But heavâ—n-deduced spirits there ascend Whilst low ignoble minds fix to their earth Mans sight erected looks to Heav'n that so His thoughts he there might level too She is the Empyraeum of my love Whose Glories though they blast mine eys Yet shall my Eagles singed feathers prove Bright Trophaees of a gallant enterprise On Clarastella's Picture drawn very like her FAir shadow of a fairer substance when Thy lively second self I see Nature doth blush that by Arts pow'rful pen Stella agen create should bee See where She all identifi'd appears Except that soul we cannot see Whilst this her eys forme shape and colour wears And ' cud it breath w'ud say 't were She Bright Image of my Saint to thee I 'd bow Were it not flat Idolatrie To think thou lt hear what scarce deaf she wil do In hope thy lips can answer I. Yet will I make this holy use of thee The looking oft on thee may mind Me of that more respectfull Deitie That to my prai'rs may be enclin'd On Mrs. E. H. having red haire on her head and on her left side a pure white lock growing TEll me no more of Helen fair Of Daphne or that famous pair Of lovely Dames whom Jove did court And tempted to his bed of sport Such a fair wonder I shal tel The Golden age cann't paralel Her hair the richest Metal yields Whilst she like Ceres gilds the fields And her smooth flesh with red and white So fitly mixt so purely bright While the choise flow'rs there smile so gay She 's fair as Flora fresh as May Lillie and Rose dwell in her face In ev'ry look and smile a Grace And in whom all is understood What we count either Fair or Good As is the Saints more precious head With gilded raies environed So 'bout this Comet you shal see The Embleme of her Deitie Such light surrounds that all may say 'T is she not Phoebus rules the day While those loose flames about her spread Irradiate not shade her head Let me adore this Saint-like Shrine Ther 's treasure in this golden mine It was not Jason no 't was She That got the Golden Fliece not he She whose sweet looks and glorious hair Dart like warm lightning through the air That in this golden show'r of love She seems like Danae fit for Jove And the gilt threads which twisted lie Wreathed with Arts Embroaderie About her Temples in her praise A Garland and a Crown do raise Why should fond Phansie then compare The sadder with the brighter haire Black tresses ' come the browner hue To set it off the better you Need no such foile your Angel face Wants neither beauty worth nor grace But here behold a silver beam Which from this Blazing-star doth stream And in such curling waves doth flow About her Ivory breast below White as the soul she wears within Doth speak her pure and free from sin Not the blancht snow or Pearly dew Of Morn affords a brighter hue Here is that Christal milky way Which leads like morning to the day To Heav'n oh thither let me come And climb to loves Elysium So fitly on her left side plac't And with such beauty it is grac'd That Nature sure when this she gave her Bid her there wear it as her favour As in our Heraldry we deem These colors of the best esteem With Sol and Luna blazing forth The nobler Arms of higher worth So Nature having drawn this piece Then which was never artifice So neatly pen'd and polisht o'r With skilful art and beauty more Resolv'd for its great worth and fame To put it in a Golden frame If in these outward parts we find Such worth what bears her richer mind May this fair grove then never fade Or be by blasting time decaid May age ne'r hoar that lovely hair Or leave that golden mountain bare May not thy envious kemb presume To pluck from thee one precious plume But if you shed a hair let 't prove A chain to lead thy captiv'd love Or let 't a holy Relique be Preserv'd to after ages free That the succeeding times may tell This from the Queen of Beauty fell Amoris Somnium To Clarastella LOve is a waking dream where both the mind And all the senses drownd in sleep we find Only the Phansie worketh that doth range And to a thousand strange Idaeas change For as in dreams we often turn and sigh And groan as if we were about to die Sometimes we startle as we were afraid Then breath distracted words and cry for aid So in a trance true Lovers restles are Fraught with disorder'd thoughts and ful of care So speechles too when they with grief opprest Speak somewhat and in sighs do vent the rest Stella when thus you see me wake me pray You know what ayles me though I nothing say On Clarastella singing YE that in love delight Approach this sacred Quire and feast your ears Whilst she the sweetest Syren sings Whose musick equals the harmonious spheres And perhaps richer pleasure brings The dying Swan or Philomel O' th' wood
not warble's half so wel Observe the cadence where each dying sound Creates new Eccho's to a sift rebound Here 's musick to the sight She looks and sings with such Majestick grace That when I Clarastella hear She more than woman seems her voice and face Taking at once both eie and eare That which of these two senses may Be most refresht is hard to say To glorifie her after death Shee 'l ne'r Need change She 's Angel now and Heav'n is here A Love Dialogue between Damon and Stella Dam. I Prithee Stella why so coy Be free as fair and wee 'l enjoy New pleasures to Eternitie Stel. O no I dare not I. Dam. Nature's Apostate wilt thou prove That cements all with love When all her creatures coupled are Will you be singular Stel. Though all were Male and Female made Yet none shal me in vade Dam. View but our mother earth whose fruit Ads all the glory to it Where all things generate with delight And feeling appetite Stel. I don't abjure societie 'T is fate commands Antipathie Dam. The Sun whose powr'full influence Actuates each soul with sence Inflames chast Turtles with desires And can you want such fires Stel. Yes and that bird shal imitate That lives without a mate Dam. Th' Arabian foul is chast alone Because it is but one For had wise Nature made them two They wu'd like Doves and Sparrows do Stel. Yet the chast Phaenix is admir'd And thought the rarest bird Dam. No she is Natures wonder 'cause She only breaks her laws For which a Martyr in desire She penance doth in fire Stel. But I shall die with cold Dam. How then Can you inflame us men Stel. Although mine eie may sparkle yet My heart is frozen quite Chorus With warm embraces hot desires And with loves soft yet active fires Let 's warme each other til we prove One flaming sacrifice to Love Clarastella playing sweetly on the Lute THat empty guts of beasts and hollow wood So rare a sound should make what mortal wu'd Believe did he not see what heav'nly hand Made the strings move and breath at whose command They died or Ecchoed from the sacred Quire Lays did our souls as wel as them inspire His lost Euridice when Orpheus won Alas his skil compar'd with thine was none He only taught the rocks to dance you move Each stony heart inflam'd by you to love Then with your powr'ful and enchaunting hand Turn us to stones agen and make us stand Like unmov'd Statues whilst amazed we Attend the voice of heav'ns blest harmonie How the Gods listen to her graceful ayrs Attentive as to Saints devouter pray'rs Wishing shee 'd in those dying sounds expire In swanlike extasie to fil their quire Hark how she whispers from that holy bow'r An Ep'taph for each wounded Auditour While from her sweeter hand the warbling lyre Borrows that sweetnes we so much admire Toucht by her quickning joints the active strings Leap to expresse their joys whilst the sound brings Such new delight I could but wish this blisse That hearing her I had no sense but this To Clarastella Loves enterteinment WHen Love was exild Heav'n and to and fro For want of friends did here a begging go To seek relief in this sad pilgrimage I entertein'd the Youth my maenial page And though he was of many held in scorn Yet knew I he was of a Goddesse born For whose fair sake I took him home and laid Him in the fairest lodging that I had I cloath'd the hungersterved wretch when he Was almost dead for cold and misery Daily I fed him with my sighs and in My tears he quencht his thirst and bath'd his skin Encourag'd thus the lad grew sawcie he Would from a servant now a Master be First he entic'd my thoughts and cuningly Wrought their consent to the Conspiracie Then he fast bound my senses by surprise That so he might at th' Porthole of mine eys Bring in 's Associate then set th' fort on fire Having betraid the breastworks to desire You are that Goddesse hatcht and sent this spie I therefore do forgive his treacherie Fair Empresse now y' have got it by a wile I 'l teach you how to keep it with a smile On Clarastella walking in the Snow that dissolved assoon as it came near her or the ground she trod on WHen Heav'ns Mercurial drops flew gently down As they would cloath not pierce the ground Yet they no sooner landed and faln near Her Glories but 'twixt grief and fear Lest by her candor their's should be outvyd In Envies tears dissolving di'd So have I seen bright falling Stars in show Quench in dark gellies here below When they false Meteors did descended spie A truer light in Stella's eie Thus not hearts only when her warmth is felt But Snow and fire it self do melt To Clarastella Loves Silence AY me when I Am blind with passion why Should my best reason speechlesse prove Doth joyes excesse Which words can nere expresse In silent Rhetorick speake my love If so each smother'd sigh wil vent my smart And say I love not with my tongue but heart But oh if She Blind boy should chance to be As deaf as my discourse is dumb I le never more Thy Deitie adore Or to thee ' ere for refuge come O when thou see'st me stand thus mute and blind For pitties sake my Stella then be kind Know that such love Like Heav'ns comes from above And is beyond expression large Language is weak And should I strive to speak Words would but lessen not discharge My Loves deep Sea 's as silent as profound Ful Caskes stand mute only the empty sound Clarastella distrusting YOu say you love me nay can swear it too But stay Sir t' wil not doe I know you keep your oathes Just as you wear your cloathes Whilst new and fresh in fashion But once grown old you lay them by Forgot like words you speak in passion I 'le not believe you I. To Clarastella affrighted at the sight of a Cats fiery eies in the dark which caused her to shreik THy shril voyce pierc'd each apprehensive ear Deep as thy heart could smitten be with fear That if I had not known the tongue I could Ha' wisht it out but since fate pleas'd I should Be thus o' th' sudden thunder-strucken why Saw I no lightning from thy troubled eie Forewarn'd thus had I been forearm'd and though Prevented not I had foreseen the blow Ne'r weeping Stag thus frighted cry'd so loud Though by his thirstie foes so close pursu'd As thou fair Stella at the sight of that Some Heathen worship as their God a Cat VVhose glaring eies did unexpected shine But with like wonder for to gaze on thine And as they at ful Moon encrease so now The fulness of your glory swell'd them too Since lightning flew from each amazed eie I mar'l not such a clap did follow I. On a Fleabite espied on her fair hand BEhold how like a lovely fragrant Rose
others ful content 'T is the Caress of every thing The Turtle-dove Both birds and beasts do offrings bring To mighty Love 'T is th' Angels joy the Gods delight Mans bliss 'T is all in all without love nothing is To Clarastella on St. Valentines day morning HArk how the Lyrick Choristers o' th' wood Warble their cheerful noats which understood Would make us think they woo'd and spake In pure Tibullus phrase when he did take His Lesbia to him how they sing And chirp it merrily To welcome in that verdant spring Which makes our blood run high Arise then heavy Muse now winter's done And the warm pleasant Summer is begun Arise and charge Aurora wake And weare her best array for this daies sake Salute her first whom I 'd injoy And then let all the nine To their sweet musick dance and sing That this daies Valentine Great Bishop whose more sacred memorie Crowns this blest day with due solemnitie Let me invoke thy holy Shrine To guide me to another Valentine Lend me thy urns fair light awhile With the Morns brighter eies To find that happy Shee and steal Upon her by surprise Assist me Jove in thy gilt showrs convey Me to the bed to my bright Danae Lest I be blasted or betrai'd By the quick eies of some crackt chambermaid Got up on purpose to be seen And though she stand i' th' way Blind me t'all but my Valentine Til I approach her day Or lend me Gyges old enchanted ring That I may walk invisible and bring Me thus lockt up in close disguise To the blest place where this fair beauty lies Thus undiscern'd I 'l pass the street Nor see nor yet be seen Of any until we two meet My dearest Valentine Some draw their Valentines by lotterie Whom they perhaps ne'r saw before but I Make a far wiser choice in mine Where Love elects discreetly by design Some on their hats in wafer scrowl Their names have charact'red I on my heart thy name enroul More easie to be read See the true windows of the perfum'd East Breathing such odours that each sense may feast To luxurie oh 't would suffice To live but one hour in this Paradise Then haste to kisse her balmie hand To kiss her shal I fear I 'l gently draw the curteins and Let the bright day appear Behold where Innocence her self doth lie Clad in her white array Fair Deitie I 'l onely print upon her dewy lip One loving kiss and so away will part Shee wakes and blushes on each cheek So red that I may say There on each side doth truly break The dawning of the day Startle not Fairest It is I am come Like th' Persian to adore the rising Sun I 'm come to view that sight wou'd make The good old man ev'n for thy onely sake Wish him alive agen to see Such a fair Saint of 's name Whose virtues propagate in thee To his eternal fame 'T is I am come who but a Friend before Am hap'ly now by fate adopted more A brother or what els you deem To be more neer or of more high esteem I 'm come to joyn in sacrifice To our dear Valentine Where I must offer to thine eies Knowing no other Shrine Large Hecatombs of kisses I wil lay On th' altar of thy lips that men may say By their continuance we are true And wil keep so this year nor change for new The birds instruct us to do so The season too invites When spring comes they a billing go As we to our delights Each am'rous Turtle now his Mare doth chuse Whom Nature for that year by pow'rful use Taught to be constant shal not wee Who love with reason be as firm and free Here then our league let us begin And from this minute count Thousands of kisses that within This year shal thus amount How sweet shee breaths the Zephyre wind that blows Fresh fragrant odours on the modest Rose Sends forth not half so pure a smel As that which on thy chaster lips doth dwel Here in this holy Temple I Could fix eternally And pay these vows until I die Pitied of none but thee Me thinks my arms now grasp a treasure more Worth than both Indies valued double o'r 'T is pitty we should ever part I should be poor if rob'd of thee my heart The t'other kiss and though I surfet on The sweetness of thy breath The blame shal lie me on alone who 'd not die such a death To Clarastella in a storme at Sea BE not afraid fair Venus of the Sea These waves but haste to view thy Majestie Glad to receive thee thus in shoals they croud With plaudities expressing joys aloud Neptune results and with his watry dip Gladly saluteth that more happy ship That bears so rich a treasure knowing that He a more precious gem did ne'r create Thus Triton and the Seagreen Gods do wear Their fresh and best array when you appear As Virgins welcom spring whereas before With sad stil blackness they stood clouded o'r Thus the proud billows come but to admire To raise thy worth and thus advance thee higher While they obsequiously about you throng To guard your person not to do you wrong Thus they approach with pure affection Offering their backs for you to ride upon Where if the waters troubled do appear 'T is 'cause they in your brow suspect a fear You great Commandress both by Sea and Land Why should you then fear ought at whose command Rough Boreas and the Ocean doth obey And to its Queen thus tribute strives to pay I am this Ship tost in the waves of fear You the Pole-star by which I only steer Love the unskilful Pilot cannot sail Homewards if you not blow a gentle gale From your sweet Zephire breath and send relief 'T wil suffer shipwrack in a Sea of grief In your smooth face let but a calm appear Both shal be happy and both free from fear To her the Storm ceasing HOw Neptune smiles to view this Deitie Which all the hoarie Gods amaz'd to see Are at a stand and cannot move When they behold this Queen of Love Thy brow not wrinkled now with fear the sea Resumes its smoothness by a Sympathie And whilst thou smil'st the rougher main Is levell'd to a verdant plain A happy Halcyon calmness sits upon The equal face of all the Ocean And not a wave his head dares show While thus in triumph you do go With such fair Wind and Weather oh let me Sail alwaies and I ne'r shal sea-sick be On Clarastella walking in her Garden SEe how Flora smiles to see This approaching Deitie Where each herb looks young and green In presence of their comming Queen Ceres with all her fragrant store Could never boast so sweet a flow'r VVhile thus in triumph she doth go The greater Goddess of the two Here the Violet bows to greet Her with homage to her feet There the Lilly pales with white Got by her reflexed light Here a Rose in Crimson