saw you enjoying a thousand wonders and in a moment I was sensible of a thousand torments of Love and being capable of nothing but Admiration methought that this Beauty was in the world for no other end but deserve and for me to be obedient to I see no reason Fairest that the belief which I have taken with the clearest judgement that I have of your Beauty should be swallow'd up by your misbelieving opinions Sir They say that contrariety doth animate persons the more and therefore I shall be silent that I may hinder these unjust Praises perhaps you will have pitty on my seeble resistance and will be weary of conquering so easily Madam 'T is rather my self that ought to keep silent being so lately in an astonishment but as for you Madam it would be a sin against your fair lips whose words are Oracles Then pray Sir why do you not believe that which I say for all Oracles are truth But why will you Madam by perswasion hinder the belief which I have taken with sight and judgment For I will believe your Beauty against all your unbelief and undervaluings and also continue the Service which I have sworn you against any thing that shall hinder it My Attempt also hath promis'd my Design that future Ages shall admire your Merit and my Servitude and record us as the most faithful Lovers in Cupid's Dominions I fear Sir that time will alter this opinion Madam Time can do nothing against that which Love hath ordain'd he is the master of Fortune and an enemy to change But wherefore this superfluity of speech It is better to believe by the force of Words then by the force of Perswasion and therefore at this time it is more necessary for me to demand of you Remedies for this remove the apprehension whereof makes me endure this present pain Sir It behooves you to forget your Design and you will avoid the Pain that will follow and also the Repentance No Madam I will keep the memory of my Design eternally and shall always see painted before me the glory of my Enterprize Adieu great Beauty you shall never cast your eyes downward but you shall perceive lying at your feet him that admires you nor ever elevate your Thoughts to your deserts but you shall remember your conquest Adieu Fairest for now I leave the Sun and go to seek out Night and Sorrows cell The Return I come Madam to receive as much content from your chearful Countenance as the loss of it hath yielded me sorrow I know the Good will now be as great as the Evil since they proceed both from the same cause Sir I do believe that you do receive the one as well as you have suffer'd the other but I beseech you Sir to tell me from whence that pain proceeds which you say you do endure for as to my self I do believe that the pleasure of Thinking is greater then that of Seeing Madam It is permitted me to think but experiment forbids me believe that opinion for I receive from my Imaginations only a good imagination on the contrary the sight cannot err But it is said Sir that the presence only contents the Eyes which are Mortal but that absence exercises the Soul which is Divine and therefore if that did any way afflict you you might easily avoid it It was some good Genius Madam that took me yesterday from your eyes that I might the better value the happiness of their lustre and avoid the extremity of that pain which the loss of them made me endure causing in me such an impatience to return to you that every hour I staid from you seem'd an age Sir That which is foreseen is easily avoided Now you perceive whence the evil that you speak of proceeds yet the little occasion that you had to fear it makes you find it out willingly therefore blame your own desires which have procur'd you this evil and do not complain on Destiny which is always just Madam My Will is not the cause for then I should fly my self and come back to you but Love to abuse me the more gave me the Desire and hinder'd the Effect Though I believe it to be one of his Destinies for it behooves a true passion to overcome the violence of all opposition by a diligent constancy Demand of Assurance Fairest It is now time that I should require from you some Assurances of your friendship because I cannot grant you that authority which you have over my Affections but by the service which I am willing to render to your power The proof whereof depends upon opportunity and the opportunity occasion upon your commands swear to me therefore by your fair Eyes that you love that which they have subdu'd that I may boast my ruine to be a mark as well of my glory as of your puissance Do you think Sir that that which is ruin'd by the Eyes can â—e belov'd by the Heart Dear Lady why should you not affect that love which you your self have created Would you cause it to be born and dye at the same instant that would be the action of an inconstant soul. It is you Sir that run the hazard of being call'd by that name for if love proceed from merit you will soon finde some one more worthy your Affection then my self Madam I shall never seck the means to find any more signal worth then that which you possess it is permitted to those who are less worthy to have such jealousies but not to you whose Beauty hath such a supereminence above all others in the world No Madam take counsel of your own worth and it will shew the fair Election which I have made how impossible it is to be changed the design coming from the judgement of our Soul which being Divine cannot erre But Sir they say that love is very subject to knowledge of which you being so well provided 't is to be fear'd that you may make use of those agreeable diversities that Love doth every day present to unfaithful Lovers Madam May he banish me from his Empire if I have any other Will then what is agreeable to his He sees that I am yours so his Power and my Will are agreed my Designs concur with his Commands Sir I believe that Love himself could not know how to force you to love He fear'd Madam lest he should be made himself a slave He hath no force able to resist your puissance unless it be your own therefore since you have this Glory entire to your self to have vanquish'd all the world there remains nothing now but that you should vanquish your self Sir I cannot do any thing else but vanquish having neither Will nor Thought which doth not render obedience to that duty which I have taken to be the perfect guide of my life Madam You oppose your Designs to my Prayers to the end this refusal may redouble my passion and cause me to persist more eagerly in the pursuit of your tempting
neat ornaments seeing that you are that very picture of ornament it self and doubtless your Trade must be very innocent for you deal all in white Sir Your good opinion doth much oblige me yet I entreat the favour of you to believe that there is as much deceit in our Trade as in any occupation about London Lady You may perceive by my behaviour and my garb that I am a person wholly made up of complements so that the greatest complement that I can give you is my self And as a testimony of this I should be glad to give you a treatment at the Sebastian over against Southampton-house not daring to doubt but that you are as fame speaketh most of your calling of a courteous and yielding nature Sir Your great estate would argue me of folly should I deny you any thing that may obtain your custome Between a Journeyman-Haberdasher of small Wares and a Ladies Chamber-maid Fair Creature For whose sake Cupid became a Weaver that he might twist into thee all his mothers graces grant me the favor to accost thy coral lip that I may shew thee how my Master kisses my Mistress Sir Though our Butler hath bin teaching me something of this nature already yet I shall be glad to take better example from your more exquisite accomplishments Lady I have here brought you four pair of blew Shoe-strings to signifie the knots wherewith you have tied my heart as also a Love-hood to remember you of the love I bear you and a pair of trimm'd Gloves that when your fingers are imprisoned in them you may think upon the captivity into which you have brought my soul. 'T is true I rather chose to steal then buy them partly having the advantage of my Masters Shop and partly knowing how much young people do delight in stoln contents Sir Though I that am a Chamber-maid an exact Trimmer of Gloves have deserved these and greater â—avors then these yet if you will bring me when you come hither next Sunday a set of Lemon colour and silver Knots I shall then think it my part to study the satisfaction of your desires but it must be upon good conditions Lady of my constant affections impose what conditions you please the strictest of them will not be too heavy for him that desires to bear the burthen of your love Briefly thus Sir You must let me have young Pease by latter end of March ripe Cherries by May-day in clothes none of my quality must go finer then I. 'T will be your gain for I shall sit in the Shop and invite custom Mistriss Prudentia You may think I lye now but let me never stir more if I do in reality I love you and as for these conditions if I do not follow them then cut my throat and throw me into the House of office what can a man say more Well Sir go to I 'le tell you more next Sunday but be sure you remember my Knots Between a Gentleman Usher and a Waiting Gentlewoman Bright pearl in Natures eye I have made a journey from my looking-glass hither that I may present you my exiguous devoires Sir Your exquisite knowledge in the service of Ladies emboldens me to desire a â—avour of your hands that you would be pleas'd the maids being all busie in washing to help me to comb my head Lady The softness of your Hair betrays the softness of your disposition and indeed how should it be otherwise it having been so long sleek'd with the smoothing-iron of a mild and gentle education Sir As one shoulder of mutton drives down another so the readiness wherewith you have done me one courtesie makes me to request another from you that when my Lady is engag'd abroad in company you would be pleas'd to carry a Complement from me to a Sweet-heart of mine a Barber in Fleet-street I can assure you that for my sake he will give you a cast of his Office for nothing at any time Lady You have ript up an old sore in my heart which hath been wounded long ago by your Beauty for it was now my intention to have ingrafted my self into your affection Oh Sir I dare not presume upon a man that goes before my Lady beside that your Periwig and the smallness of the Calf of your Leg would cause the Hickup in my Fancy should you urge your request any further and therefore I implore you to desist Between a Lawyers Clerk and his Masters Daughter Most celestial beam of Beauty I have receiv'd you into my heart which like a burning-glass contracting the heat of your rayes is now all on fire not to be quench'd but by the moistening julip of your affection Kind Robin I have long thought thee to be what now I find thee a Phenix among men which thou provest by going about to die in thy flames but heaven forbid I will first make water in a bason and give it thee wherein to bathe thy burning breast before I will be depriv'd of thy service How willingly Mrs. Mary should I receive such a stream into my bosom But Oh your Father he 's the shoe that wrings us both by the foot methinks I hear him saying already Out ye poor condition'd slut what marry your Fathers Clerk Come Robin Clerk me no Clerks I love thee and if my father do compel me to marry another yet Robin thou knowest there are private corners in London Mrs. Mary I bow with all reverence to your manifold favours But what do you think of a little horse-play in the time Robin I acknowledge thy civility and shall not refuse any occasion to gratifie thy reasonable request for I love tumbling dearly Between the Countrey Bumkin and his Mistriss going to a Fair. Well overtaken my dear Katie I no sooner heard that thou wert gone to the Fair but I came a swinging pace after thee for in troth Katie I love thee above all things as a man may say in the versal world Alas Katie thy love hath gor'd me to the very heart so that I shall be always as sick as a Horse till thou hast cur'd me with the plaister of thy love Nay Richard As bad as I love thee I do not love thee so Ill but that I 'le kiss my lips into a consumption to save thy life Ita say'st thou me so Kate God a mercy for that girle by the mass and that word shall cost me the best fairing in the Pedlers pack Come hold by my skirts and let 's make all the haste we can Kate. O Dear Richard how you sweat here take my handkercher to wipe your face But Richard must not I wear a gold Ring like my Dame when I am married I Kate and a posie in it too which shall be this Richard and Kate shall live without hate 'T was my own invention and judge you now Kate if I be not a brave blade to lead a Hen to water Truly Richard did I not take you for a very pretty fellow you should not
to have haunted Dancing Scools with more zeal then the old Women have that go to St. Aâ—â—liâ—s He ought diligently to have studied over Melchiâ— Swashbucklerus de holdendo haâ—â—um in hando and Cussius Candus of the Ornaments of Nations he ought to be a diligent Observer of Fashions and an espyer of faults in the garb and house keeping of other Ladies that he may be able to furnish his own Lady now and then with discourse Lastly he must have a good head of hair and handsom feet without corns How he must be fitted for Service Having been bespoken and received earnest he must desire a weeks time to fit himself for her Ladiships service The first two days he must walk in iron Boots and an iron Breast and Back-piece such as children wear that have the rickets to bring his body into an upright and perfect posture After that he must drink Scurvygrass-Ale to reform his complexion He must then furnish himself with all the Books of Complementing and be sure to get enough to enable him to shew his wit the first night before the Waiting Gentlewoman at the Stewards Table His motion must be with such a Clock-work formality as if he were only made to strike the Quarter-Bell upon Bow-Steeple This must be practised every morning in his Looking-glass and he must not suffer himself to eat until he find he hath profited something His Behaviour in the House He must be affable to his fellow-servants especially the Waiting-Gentlewoman and the Cook to the one for his breakfast to the other for a kiss or two now and then and that she may speak well of him to her Lady when he goes before his Lady he must walk as circumspectly as a Milk-maid with a pail upon her head crying ever and anon by your leave Gentlemen He ought in company to value himself according to the degree of his Lady wherein he must have a care not to lose the least atome of her dignity His pockets must not be greasie because he may have occasion to carry his Ladies Hoods and Scarfs in them He ought not to cast any affection upon his Masters daughter for the Butler having more wit then himself made sure of her before he could make his approaches His Dressings He must not be long in dressing himself because of walking the Rounds of his morning Visits The heels of his Shoes ought to be long and very slender that he may tread with the more grace and make the less noise His clothes ought to be put on with so much accurateness as if he were to dress himself every day for his life or if the world would perish were there a wrinkle in his Band white Gloves he must not want for they like white staves in other employments are the badges of his preferment In his Hair he must be as nice as the ancient Greeks and good reason that he should make much of it while he hath it it being uncertain how long a man in his place may keep it The Diseases incident to Gentlemen Ushers and their Cures The first is when his hair doth utterly abandon his head leaving his ears open to all reproaches finding the wages of their nourishment as small as the recompence of his service The Cure of this is by way of humble Petition to the Gentlewoman to afford him her Combings and some few spare Locks to hide the nakedness which she laid bare The other is the dwindling away of the calves of his legs This happens from his being overtoyl'd for being to divide himself between the Lady and her Woman they never leave sucking him till they have made him so transparent that you may see his very thoughts For the cure of this disease he must go to the Hosier instead of the Apothecary If the Gentlewoman will take the pains to nurse him his body may perhaps return again to his soul otherwise he dies like a Silk-worm having spun out himself to pleasure others To his Mistriss O Thou the dear inflamer of my eyes Life of my soul and hearts eternal prize How delectable is thy love how pure How apt to vanish able to allure A frozen soul and with thy sacred fires To affect dull spirits with extream desires How do thy joys though in their greatest dearth Transcend the proudest pleasures of the earth Thou art a perfect Symetry a rare Connexion Of many perfects to make one perfection Of Heavenly Musick where all parts do meet In one sweet strain to make one perfect sweet Glorious Extraction where each several feature Divine compriz'd to so Divine a Creature Give me thy heart and for that gift of thine Lest thou shouldst rent a heart I 'le give thee mine Song MIstake me not I am as cold as hot For though mine eyes betrays thy heart o're night Ere morn ere morn ere morning all is right Sometimes I burn And then do I return There 's nothing so unconstant as my mind I change I change I change even as the wind Perhaps in jest I said I lov'd thee best But 't was no more then what was long before I vow'd I vow'd I vow'd to twenty more Then prithee see I give no heart to thee For when I ne're could keep my own one day What hope what hope what hope hadst thou to stay Plurality in Love HE whose active thoughts disdain to be captive to one foe And would break his single chain or else more would undergo Let him learn the art of me By new bondage to be free What tyrannick Mistriss dare to one Beauty Love confine Who unbounded as the air all may court but none decline Why should we the Heart deny As many Objects as the Eye Wheresoe're I turn or move a new Passion doth detain me Those kind Beauties that do love or those proud ones that disdain me This frown melts and that frown burns me This to tears that to ashes turns me Soft fresh Virgins not full blown with their youthful sweetness take me Sober Matrons that have known long since what these prove awake me Here staid Coldness I admire There the lively active Fire She that doth by skill dispence every favour she bestows Or the harmless innocence which nor Court nor City knows Both alike my Soul enflame That wild Beauty and this tame She that wisely can adorn nature with the wealth of arts Or whose rural sweets do scorn borrow'd helps to take a heart The vain care of that 's my pleasure Poverty of this my treasure Both the Wanton and the Coy me with equal pleasures move She whom I by force enjoy Or who forceth me to love This because she 'l not confess That not hide her happiness She whose loosely flowing hair scatter'd like the beams o th' morn Playing with the sportive air hides the sweets it doth adorn Captive in that net restrains me In those golden-fetters chains me Nor doth she with powers less bright my divided heart invade Whose soft tresses spread like night
o're her shoulders a black shade For the star-light of her eyes Brighter shines through those dark skies Black or fair or tall or low I alike with all can sport The bold sprightly Thais woe or the frozen Vestal Court Every Beauty takes my mind Ty'd to all to none confin'd A description of his Mistriss SO looks the Virgin Rose which cherish'd by the genial truth Her crimson Beauties doth disclose as doth the ruby portals of her mouth Which when she doth unfold Two bright transparent rows Of pearl ye may behold From between which a breath of Amber flows A more then Tyrean purple doth o'respread Her lips which softer are Then the Swans down and smoother far The costly juice that dwells In Oriental shells To them looks pale they are so purely red Fair Cheeks that look like blushing roses plac't In purest Ivory Or Coral within snow enchas'd The Glories of the Spring Grow pale and languishing For envy so out-shin'd by them to be Sweetly triumphing Eyes That in two Crystal prisons do contain Death in affrown's disguise How gladly would I die to be by those eyes slain Delightful cruelty Of those all charming Eyes That have on one design'd to try With what a pleasing empire they can tyrannize The Melancholy Lover HIther I come delightful groves To spend my sighs and make my moan To whose still shades it best behoves To make my plaints and sorrows known And these gentle trees invite To pity my disconsolate plight 'T is rigorous love that doth torment This disturbed heart of mine But of a Creature so Divine That I ought not to repent To have loved though unlov'd again The sole author of my pain Is bright Sylvia gentle bowrs To your gloomy walks unknown Who loves to spend the harmless hours Among silent groves alone Hnd can with her presence bright To the darkest shades give light Sylvia hath about her charms Nations able to subdue And can conquer with those arms More then mightiest Kings can do But I that am her chiefest aim Am destin'd to the greatest flame I die Sylvia when I behold Those eyes that set on fire my heart Yet I for love is uncontroll'd Greedy and fond of my own smart And captive to my misery Love to behold those Stars and die To his Mistriss falsly accusing him WRong me no more In thy complaint Blam'd for inconstancy I vow'd to adore The fairest Saint Not chang'd while thou wer't she But if another thee out-shine Th' inconstancy is only thine To be by such Blind Fools admir'd Gives thee but small esteem By whom as much thou 'dst be desir'd Did'st thou less beautious seem Sure why they love they know not well Who why they should not cannot tell Women are by themselves betray'd And to their short joys cruel Who foolishly themselves perswade Flames can outlast their fuel None though Platonick their pretence With reason love unless by sense And he by whose command to thee I did my heart resign now bids me chuse a Deity Diviner far then thine No power from love can beauty sever I 'me still loves subject thine was never The fairest she whom none surpass To love hath only right and such to me thy beauty was till one I found more bright But were as impious to adore thee now as not t' have don 't before Nor is it just by Rules of Love Thou shouldst denv to quit a heart that must anothers prove even in thy right to it Must not thy subjects captives be To her who triumphs over thee Cease then in vain to blot my name With forg'd Apostacy thine is that stain who dar'st to claim what others ask of thee Of Lovers they are only true Who pay their hearts where they are due To his false Mistriss CElio remains disconsolate forsaken of his cruel Lover Who not asham'd to violate Her faith doth for her false heart discover Oft do I her hard heart bemoan Inveigh on her unconstant mind Oft blame my self for doting on a thing more fickle then the wind Sometimes unhappy men he deem'd her absence might have quench'd his flame But now more and fair then e're she seem'd his flames increase through her disdain Now nought is left me but dispair My adverse â—ate brought me to see Things distant most admired are enjoyment breeds satiety I go to see the fair unkind whom her new Lovers arms immure Me she vouchsas'd not once to mind in her inconstancy secure Was 't not enough Phillis said I that thy deceitful charming wiles Should cheat my â—ond credulity that thou seekst others to beguile If amidst these thy new delights Thou hapst no time to think on me Think how awakn'd conscience frights Think Phillis on thy perjury Longer to grieve I see 't is vain Longer my troubled thoughts to vex Phillis triumph in her disdain Phillis the falsest of her sex Resolution to Love I Wonder what the Grave and Wise Think of all us that love Whether our pretty fooleries Their mirth or anger move They understand not breath that words do want Our sighs to them are unsignificant One of them saw me t'other day Touch thy dear hand which I admire My soul was melting straight away And dropt before the fire This silly Wiseman who pretends to know Ask'd why I look'd so pale and trembled to Another from my Mistriss dore Saw me with watry eyes to come Nor could the hidden cause explore But thought some smoak was in the room Such ignorance from unwounded learning came He knew tears made by smoak but not by flame If learn'd in other things you be And have in Love no skill For God sake keep your arts from me For I 'le be ignorant still Study or actions others may embrace My Love 's my business and my Book 's her face These are but trifles I confess Which me weak mortal move Nor is your busie seriousness Less trifling then my love The wisest King who from his sacred brest Pronounc'd all vanity chose it for the best Tyranny in Love BLind Cupid lay thy Bow aside Thou dost know its use For Love thy Tyranny doth shew Thy kindness is abuse Thou who wer't call'd a Pretty Boy Art thought a Skeleton For thou like death dost still destroy When thou dost strike at one Each vulgar hand can do as much Then Heavenly skill we see When we behold two Arrows touch Two marks that distant be Love always looks for joy agen If e're thou woundst mans heart Pierce by the way his Rib and then He 'l kiss not curse thy dart Against Love NOw fie on love it ill befits Or Man or Woman know it Love was not meant for people in their wits And they that fondly shew it Betray their too much feather'd brains And shall have Bedlam only for their pains To Love is to distract my sleep And waking to wear fetters To Love is but to go to School to weep I 'le leave it for my betters If single love be such a curse To marrie is
to make it ten times worse The Maiden-head THou worst estate even of the sex that 's worst Therefore by nature made at first T' attend the weakness of our birth Slight outward Curtain to the nuptial Bed Thou cause to buildings not yet finished Who like the Center of the Earth Dost heaviest things attract to thee Though thou a point imaginary be A thing God thought for mankind so unfit That his first blessing mind it Cold frozen nurse of fiercest fires Who like the parched plains of Africk sand A sterel and a wild unlovely Land Art always scorâ—ht with hot desires Yet barren quite didst thou not bring Monsters and Serpents sorth thy self to sting Thou that bewitchest men while thou dost dwell Like a close Conjuâ—er in his Cell And fear'st the days discovering eye No wonder 't is at all that thou shouldst be Such tedious and unpleasant company Who liv'st so melancholily Thou thing of subtil slippery kind Which Women lose and yet no man can find Although I think thou never found wilt be Yet I 'me resolv'd to search for thee To search it self rewards the pains So though the Chymick his great secret miss For neither it in art nor nature is yet things well worth his toil he gans and doth his charge and labour pay With good unsought experiments by the way Say what thou wilt chastity is no more to thee then a Porter to the dore in vain to honour they pretend Who guard themselves with Ramparts and with Walls Them only â—ame the truly valiant calls who can an open breach defend of thy quick loss can be no doubt Within so hated and so lov'd without A Fond Design IN vain fair Câ—â—is you design To be cruel to be kind For we know with all yours arts You never hold but willing hearts Men are too wise grown to expire With broken staves and painted fire 2. And if among a thousand Swains Some one of Love or Fate complains And all the Stars in Heav'n defie With Clora's lips or Celia's eye 'T is not their Love the youth would chuse But the glory to refuse 3. Then wisely make your price of those Want wit or courage to oppose But tempt not me that can discover What will redeem the fondest Lover And fly the least lest it appear Your power is measur'd by our fear 4. So the rude wave securely shocks The yielding Bark but the stiff Rocks If it attempt how soon in vain Broke and dissolv'd it fills the main It foams and roars but we deride Alike its weakness and its pride On his Mistress Singing I Have been in Heav'n I think For I heard an Angel sing Notes my thirsty ears did drink Never any earthly thing Sung so true so sweet so clear I was then in Heav'n not here 2. But the blessed feel no change So I may mislike the place But mine eyes would think it strange Should it be no Angels face Powers above it seems design Me still mortal her Divine 3. Till I tread the Milky way And I lose my senses quite All I wish is that I may Hear that voice and see that sight Then in types and outward show I shall have a Heav'n below Parting But that I knew before we met the hour would come that we must part and so had fortify'd my heart I hardly could escape the net My passions for my reason set But why should reason hope to win a victory that 's so unkind and so unwelcome to my mind To yield is neither shame nor sin Besieg'd without betray'd within And though that night be ne're so long in it they either sleep or wake and either way enjoyments take In dreams or visions which belong Those to the old these to the young But friends ne're part to speak aright for whose but going is not gone Friends like the Sun must still move on And when they seem most out of sight Their absence makes at most but night I 'me old when going gone 't is night my parting then shall be a dream and last tell the auspicious beam Of our next meeting gives new light And the best vision that 's your sight Not to be Alter'd CAn so much beauty over a mind o'resway'd by Tyranny As new afflicting ways to find a doubtless faith to try And all examples to out-do To scorn and make me jealous too Alas she knows my fires are too too great and though she be stone-ice to me Her thaw to others cannot quench my heat 2. That Law that with such force o're ran the armies of my heart When not one thought I could out-man that durst once take my part For by assault she did invade No composition to be made Then since that all must yield as well as I to stand in aw of Victors Law There 's no prescribing in captivity 3. That love which loves for common ends is but self loving love But nobler conversation tends soul mysteries to prove And since love is a passive thing It multiplies by suffering Then though she throw life to the waining Moon On him her shine The dark part mine Yet I must love her still when all is done Loves Martyr HOw long shall I a Martyr be To love and Womans cruelty Or why doth sullen â—ate consine My heart to thee that is not mine Had I ev'r lov'd as others do But only for an hour or two Then there had store of reason been Why I should suffer for my sin But Love thou know'st with what a flame I have ador'd my Mistress name How I ne're offer'd other fires But such as rose from chaste desires Nor have I e're profan'd thy shine With an inconstant fickle mind Yet you combining with my â—ate Hast forc'd my Love and her to hate O Love if her supremacy Have not a greater power then thee For pitties sake then once be kind And throw a Dart to change her mind Thy Deity we shall suspect If our reward must be neglect Then make her love or let me be Inspir'd with scorn and well as she Protestation of Love DEar soul who hath encaptiv'd so my heart Vouchsafe to bear these lines which I impart I dare not bless my self to call thee mine Yet I if I am any thing am thine The Poles shall move to teach me e're I start And when I change my Love I le change my heart Nay if I wax but cold in my desire Think Heaven hath motion left and heat the fire Much more I could but many words have made That oft suspected which men would perswade Take therefore all in this I love so true That I will never love none else but you The Golden Age. WHen from each Thought a seed did spring And every Look a plant did bring And every Breath a flower The Earth unplough'd did yield her crop And honey from the Oak did drop The Fountains did run milk The Thistle did the Lilly bear And every Bramble Roses wear And every Worm made Silk The very Shrub did
the Heav'nly Spheres In thy soul winning voice appears Happy were I had I like Atlas grace So fair a Heav'n with mine arms to embrace The Queen of Fairies COme follow follow me You Fairy Elves that be Which Circle on the Green Come follow me your Queen Hand in hand let 's dance a round For this place is Fairy ground When Mortals are at rest And snorting in their nest Unheard and unespy'd Through Key-holes we do glide Over Tables Stools and Shelves We trip it with our Fairy Elves And if the House be foul Or Platter Dish or Bowl Up stairs we nimbly creep And find the sluts asleep There we pinch their arms and thighs None escapes nor none espies But if the house be swept And from uncleanness kept We praise the Houshold-maid And surely she is paid For we do use before we go To drop a Tester in her Shoe Upon a Mushrom's head Our table we do spread A Corn of Rie or Wheat Is Manchet which we eat Pearly drops of dew we drink In Acorn Cups fill'd to the brink The brains of Nightingales The unctious dew of Snailes Between two Nut-shels stew'd Is meat that 's easily chew'd And the beards of little Mice Do make a feast of wondrous price On tops of dewie grass So nimbly do we pass The young and tender stalk Ne're bends when we do walk Yet in the morning may be seen Where we the night before have been The Grashopper and Flie Serve for our minstrelsie Grace said we dance a while And so the time beguile And when the Moon doth hide her head The Gloe-worm lights us home to bed Cupid Contemn'd CUpid thou art a sluggish Boy and dost neglect thy calling Thy Bow and Arrows are a toy thy monarchy is falling Unless thou dost recall thy self and take thy tools about thee Thou wilt be scorn'd by every Elf and all the world will flout thee Rouze up thy spirit like a God and play the Archer finely Let none escape thy Shaft or Rod 'gainst thee have spoke unkindly So may'st thou chance to plague that heart That cruelly hath made me smart Bootless Complaint THough bootless I must needs complain my faults are so extream I loved and was belov'd again yet all was but a dream For as that love was quickly got so was it quickly gone I 'le love no more a flame so hot I 'le rather let 't alone The Departure WE must not love as others do With sighs and tears as we were two Though with this outward form we part We find each other in our heart What search hath found a being where I am not if that thou be there True love hath wings and will assoon Survey the World as Sun or Moon And every where our triumph keep Our absence which makes others weep Shews it thereby a power is given To love on Earth as they in Heaven To a Lady in Prison LOok out bright eyes and clear the air even in shadows you are fair Caged beauty is like fire that breakes out clearer still and higher Though the body be confin'd and soft Love a prisoner bound Yet the beauty of your mind neither check nor chain hath found Look out nobly then and dare Even the fetters that you wear To Sorrow Sorrow why dost thou seek to tempt my quiet soul to misery and wo My constant thoughts from thine assaults exempt Inur'd to fortunes crosses long ago Go seek out some who doth affect thy pain If none thou find'st return to me again When elder years witness my race as run and hoary locks my hollow temples fill When I shall sit and say the world is done sorrow return and satisfie thy will Till then go seek out some who affects thy pain If none thou find'st return to me again Constancy resolved COme constant hearts that so prevail That every passion puts in bail My innocence shall dare as far To bid the Tyrant open war If warm'd with pride he kindle fires We 'l drown them in our chaste desires If he assail with Dart and Bow We 'l hide them in the hills of snow So shall his heart plagu'd mourn and die While we smile at his memory And keep our hearts our eyes and ears Free from vain sighs sad groans and tears Lose no time LOse no time nor youth but be Kind to men as they to thee The fair Lillies that now grow In thy cheeks and purely show The Cherry and the Rose that blow If too long they hand and waste Winter comes that all will blast Thou art ripe full ripe for Men In thy sweets be gather'd then Song NOt Roses couch'd within a lilly bed are those commixtures that depaint thy face Nor yet the white that silver Hyems head mix'd with the dewy mornings purple grace but thou whose face my senses captive led Whom I erst fondly deem'd of heavâ—nly race Hast from my guiltless blood which thou hast shed And envious paleness got thy white and red Song REad in the Roses the sad story Of my hard fate and your own glory In the white you may discover The paleness of a fainting Lover In the red the flames still feeding On my heart with fresh wounds bleeding The white will tell you how I languish And the red express my anguish The frown that on your brows recided Have the Roses thus divided O let your smiles but clear the weather And then they both shall grow together Dying to Live YOung Thirsis laid in Phillis lap and gazing on her eye Tyought life too mean for such good hap and fain the Lad would die When Phillis who the force did prove of Love as well as he Cry'd to him Stay a while my Love and I will die with thee So did these happy Lovers die but with so little pain That both to life immediately return'd to die again Who his Mistress is WIll you know my Mistress face 't is a Garden full of Roses When the Spring in every place white and blushing red discloses 'T is a Paradise where all That attempt the fruit must fall Will you know her forehead fair 't is heavenly living Sphere Under which the veins like air all Celestial blew appear But those burning Suns her Eyes He that dares live under dies Will you know her body now 't is a tall ship under sail From the rudder to the prow nothing but Imperial But that foolish man that stears Fills his Compass by his fears Shall I now her mind declare 't is a body arm'd for war Marching in proportion fair till the Lover hopes too far Then her eyes give fire and all Within level helpless fall In praise of Fools FOols they are the only nation Worth mens envy or admiration Free from love and sorrow taking Themselves and others merry making O who would not be He He He. All they speak or do is sterling your Fool he is your great mans darling And your Ladies sport and pleasure tongue and babble are his treasure Even his face begetth
lie I must resemble some one Deity But Sweet Diana what strange fears have I That am confirm'd how men can swear and lie As with an ague I do shiver still Since to this paper first I set my quill What blots so e're thou seest my tears did make And yet these tears do weight of words partake If I do erre you know our sex is weak Fear proves a fault when Maids are forc'd to speak Could I my soul into thy brest convey It might like purity to thine display I should not then come short of any trick Which makes thee prettily appear love sick But all my thoughts are innocent and meek As the chaste blushes on my Virgin cheek For till this blush I never did espy The nakedness of an immodesty Disguise not love but give thy self to me I cannot write but I could die for thee A Letter from a Lady with Child WHen thou dost see my Letter dost thou know Whether 't is my right hands Character or no Why should I write I feel a present fear That I must write more then a Maid should dare Oh! should I make it to my mother known Needs must it make m'asham'd what thou hast done No outward symptome shews my grief yet I Wretched past help of any medecine lie Think but how weak I am when I scarce these Can write or turn me in my bed with ease How I do fear lest that my Nurse should spie One Letter interchangeing coloque Then hastily I leave my words half fram'd My Letter straight is in my bosome cramm'd The name of Marriage with shame abash't My pale wan cheeks with glowing blushes quash't Fond man what glory hast thou won Or praise a Virgin thus to have undone As once an Apple did Atlanta seize Th' art now become a new Hippomanes O be not angry quiver-bearing Maid That I 'me loves patiently by youth betray'd 'T is now too late let thy rage be exil'd And spare the Mother of but for the Child He had a face and years too fit for play A treacherous face that stole my heart away Who whil'st I sung for Love is all things mind Upon my amorous lips did kisses bind Both them and each part else did please him well But chiefly when to loves choice sports he fell But whither hath my Pen transported me Thus to discourse to th' Queen of chastity Sweet Sir You sware by these same brests of mine To me and by thrice three Maids Divine You 'd celebrate the Himeneal rites And in my arms spend all your youthful nights This was a Language you were us'd to say When we were acting our delicious play And when of me your last leave you had took You sware an oath upon my lips your book That you would back return with winged speed To save my name from scandal of the deed With patience Sir your coming I attend Until you come receive these Lines I send A Perswasive Letter to his Mistress SWeetest but read what silent Love hath writ With thy fair eyes tast but of Loves fine wit Be not self will'd for thou art much too fair For death to triumph o're without aâ— heir Thy unus'd beauty must be tomb'd with thee Which us'd lives thy Executour to be The Flowers distill'd though they with Winter meet Lose but their show their substance still is sweet Nature made thee her seal she meant thereby Thou shouldst Print more not let the Copie die What hast thou vow'd an aged Maid to die Be not a fool Lovers may swear and lie Forswear thy self thou wilt be far more wise To break an oath then lose a Paradise For in the midst of all Loves pure protesting All Faith all Oaths all Vows should be but jesting What is so fair that hath no little spot Come come thou mayest be false yet know'st it not I wish to you what hath been wish'd by others For some fair Maids by me would have been Mothers Pardon me not for I confess no error Cast not upon these Lines a look of terror Nor vainly Lady think your beauty sought For these instructions are by Loves self wrought Venus her self my Pen to this theam led And gives thee freely to my longing bed I saw thee in my thoughts fair beauteous Dame When I beheld the eyes of fame I lov'd thee ere I saw thee long ago Before my eyes did view that glorious Shew Imagin not your face doth now delight me Since seen that unseen did invite me Believe me for I speak but what 's most true Too sparingly the world hath spoke of you Fame that hath undertook your worth to blaze Plai'd but the envious Huswise in your praise 'T is I will raise thy name and set thee forth Enjoy thy riches glorifie thy worth Nor with vain scribling longer vex my head To fancy love but leap into thy bed Best Wishes from a Lady Most worthy SIR Unto your Noble blood 'T IS no adition to think you good For your demeanor bears that equal part Y' have won the love not envie of the Court Having observ'd the forms and laws of state Gaining mens emulation not their hate With such a noble temper you divide The difference 'twixt formality and pride Thus your indifferent actions are as far From being too common as too singular Whilst in your nature those two Suns arise The attributes of beautiful and wise Give me now leave to wish that you may be As clear from others envy as y' are free From the desert But here I must not cease May no rude chance invade your blessed peace To your chast thoughts I wish as chast a mate Blest in her dower in beauty fortunate May all the happiness Heaven can confer Be acted on your lives fair Theater And may I live to see you thus possest Of these good wishes that flow from the best Of your most entire Servant A Letter of Acceptance from his Mistress I am not angry wo can angry be With him that loves a Mistress Love is free But you have further aim and seek to do What Jove defend I should consent unto I know that too much trust hath damag'd such As have believed me in their love too much Leda when she ne're dreamt of God nor Man Jove did surprize her shaped like a Swan But you 'r a Wag I 'me certain by the signes You make at Table in the meats and wines How you can wanton when your eye advances It's brightness against mine darting sweet glances How you can sigh yet by and by can grace With an angelick smile your cunning face You are too manifest a Lover Tush At such known sleights I could not chuse but blush Yet am I not incenst couldst thou but be As loyal as th' art amorous to me In the loves just ways for if thou seekst to climb My wisht for bed at the appointed time When Saffron Hymen hath concluded quite Such covenants as belong to th'nuptial rite I shall inter pret kindly every sign And moralize
cruel Soul Alas you have no mercy on my captivity so that I am like the Spaniel that gnaws his chain but sooner spoils his teeth then procures liberty But as a Bladder is to a learning Swimmer so is Hope to me which makes me apt to believe that as there is no Iron but will be softned with the fire so there is no Heart how hard so ever that will not be soft-by continual prayers I confess my expression is but like a picture drawn with a coal wanting these lively colours which a more skilful Pen might give it However consider that the Sun disdains not to shine upon the smallest Worm Reconcile your self to the humblest of your Vassals and do not through your Marble-hearted-cruelty utterly overwhelm him with Sence-distracting grief like a Current that breaks the Dams and with a vigorous impetuousness drowns the Fields A Countrey Bumpkin to his Mistress Sweet honey Jone I Have here sent thee a thing such a one as the Gentlefolks call a Love Letter 't was indited by my self after I had drank two or three good draughts of Ale but 't was writ in a Roman joyning-hand by the School-master and Clerk of our Parish to whom I gave six pence for his pains Truly Jone my parents never brought me up to speak finely as my Landlords Son doth but this I can say in downright terms I love thee Marry Jone many time and oft have I fetcht home thy Cows when no body knew who did it Marry Jone thou know'st I always plaid a thy side at stool ball and when thou didst win the Garland in the Whitson-holidayes marry Jone I was sure to be drunk that night for joy Marry Jone cry I still but when wilt thou marrie Jone I know thou dost love Will. the Taylor who 't is true is a very quiver man and foots it most fetuously but I can tell thee Jone I think I shall be a better man then he shortly for I am learning of a Fidler to play o' the Kit so that if thou wilt not yield the sooner I will ravish thee ere long with my musick 'T is true I never yet gave thee a Token but I have here sent thee a peice of silver Ribband I bought it in the Exchange where all the folks houted at me but thought I hout and be hang'd and you will for I will buy a Knot for my love I assure thee Jone 't will make a better shew then a Gilt Bay-leaf and for this year be the finest sight in all our Church But what wilt thou give me for this Jone alas I ask nothing but thy self come Jone thou shalt give me thy self come prethe Jone give me thy self What a happy day would that be that to see us with our best Cloathes on at Church and the Parson saying 〈◊〉 Tom take thee Jone and by the mass I would take thee and hug thee and lug thee too and hey then away to the Alehouse and hey for the Musitioners and the Canaries and the Sillabubs and the Shoulder a Mutton and gravie with a hey down derry and a diddle diddle dee Thus having no more to say I rest in assurance of thy good will thine honestly truly and blewly FINIS Posies for RINGS THou wert not handsom wise but rich 'T was that which did my eyes bewitch What God hath joyn'd let no man put asunder Divinely knit by God are we Late one now two the pledge you see We strangely met and so do many But now as true as ever any As we began so let 's continue My Beloved is mine and I am his True blew will never stain No money shall buy my No horns good Wife Against thou goest I will provide another Let him never take a Wife That will not love her as his life In loving thee I love my self A heart content Cannot repent I do not repent That I gave my consent No gift can show The love I ow. What the eye saw the heart hath chosen More faithful then fortunate I 'le ring thy thumb Then clap thy bum Hab nab yet happy be lucky Love me little but love me long 'T is a good Mare that ne're trips Love him that gave thee this Ring of gold 'T is he must kiss thee when th' art old Now I know more Then I knew before I long'd to lose and now have lost I am contented farewel frost This Circle though but small about The Devil jealousie shall keep out If I think my Wife is fair What need other people care Now do I find Why men are kind 'T is in vain for to resist Women will do what they list This Ring as a token I give to thee That thou no tokens do change for me One begs enough ne're fear To a small closet door my Dear Sarah I do love thee so Cause thou didst not say me No. My dearest Betty Is good and pretty I did then commit no folly When I married my sweet Molly Dorothy this Ring is thine And now thy bouncing body's mine 'T is fit men should not be alone Which made Tom to marry Jone Peg if thou art a Peg for me Then I will have a Peg for thee Su is bonny blithe and brown This Ring hath made her now my own Katie I chose with hair so red For the fine tricks she plays abed Nan with her curl'd locks I spy'd And would never be deny'd Prances is a name that 's common But H. W. made me a woman Tabitha's a name that sounds not ill She was bid rise but I bid mine lie still Ursula her name sounds rough I warrant she 'l give thee enough Dorcas she made coats for Children But we 'l make Children to wear coats Like Phyllis there is none She truly loves her Choridon Leonora's fair well bred Yet I had her Maiden-head Ellen all men commend thy eyes Onely I commend thy thighes I have a John as true as steel I do believe because I feel Robert thou art a man of mettle Thy string is sweet yet doth it nettle My Henry is a rousing blade I lay not long by him a maid My William with his wisp He loves me well although I lisp I love James for Scotlands sake Where so many bellies ake I love the name that conquer'd France Which made me yield to Edwards Lance. Thomas is fit a Cuckold to be For he will not believe unless he see I love Abraham above any Because he was the father of many PROVERBS The Text. HE that hath a Woman by the waste hath a wet Eel by the tail Comment For Women hate delaies as much as they abominate debility Womens actions are like their wombs not to be fathomed And therefore he that deals with them ought to be a man of a deep reach Love though he be blind can smell This is the reason that a man that runs passionately after a woman is said to have his nose in her tail and is call'd a smell-smock Nothing venture nothing have Yet he
cloy Hope long desired doth bring the greatest Joy Without Injuries the world would languish and have enough to do discord in part makes harmony in the whole and some must laugh whilst others do condole Wrongs like great whirlewinds shake the highest battlements few for Heaven would care should they be ever happy they are half Gods who both in good dayes and good fortunes share Ingratitude is like a dog that flies at his master which it is just with us to strangle neither his kind nor use considered Shame of Infamy doth extinguish lust as oyl doth fire Where shame and Infamy are too much inforced on a delinquent they breed too often an audacious defence of sin but no sincere repentance so the rain slides to the root and nourishes where great storms make a noise wet but the skin of the earth and run away in a swift channel Our Industry is as our soul which is not put into the body to be idle it hath too many rare and curious pieces of Mathematical motions to stand still Incontinency is a vice sooner condemn'd then banisht easily spoke against but yet will fawn as smoothly on our flesh as Circe on the Grecian travellers when she detained them in the shapes of beasts Lust and Incontinency like the plummets hanging on clock lines will never have done till all our faculties are undone and ruined Oh with what vertue should lust be withstood Since 't is fire seldom quencht without blood Lustful Incontinency is like an overswoln river that breaks all bounds it is a devil bred in blood nurst in desire that like the Salamander lives in fire Lust is a gilded pill which sinful nature doth prescribe desire strokes the sense with pleasure but at last the shining out-side leaves a bitter taste Of such an Inconstancy as boyes gay bubbles blown in the air and broken The winde is more sixt then her Inconstancy the beaten Marriner with his shrill whistle calms the loud murmurs of the troubled main and sooner strikes it smooth again then her soul to have peace in love with any Our constitutions vary herbs and trees admit their frosts and summer and why then should our desires that are so nimble and more subtil then the spirits of our blood be such staid things within us and not share their mutual Inconstancy He wears his Faith like the fashion of his hat it changes with the next block Jealousie 's fits present a man like so many bubbles in a bason of water twenty several crabbed faces many times makes his own shadow his cuckold maker The Devil gives this Jealousie to man as nature doth a tail unto a lion which thinks in heat to beat away the flies when he doth only more inrage himself A Jealous fellow is like a cowardly Captain in a Garison Town fears every assault trembles at every battery and doubts most lest the gates should be opened and his enemy let him in at midnight Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves omision to do that is necessary seals a commission to a blank of dangers and danger like an Ague subtily taints even then when we sit idly in the sun Kings lives are fortunes misery like dainty sparks which when men dead do know to kindle for himself each man doth blow The lives of Kings should like to Dials move whose regular example is so strong they make the times by them go right or wrong Princes like lions never will be tamed a private man may yield and not care how but greater hearts will break before they 'l bow If a Kings Government be easie the many headed monster Multitudes like Aesops foolish Frogs they trample on him as a sensless block and if he prove a Stork they croak and rail against him as a Tyrant Knighthood is like Marriage now-adayes which though it honourable be with all men yet it is beggarly with a great many Law is as the worlds great Light a second Sun to this terrestrial Globe by which all things have life and being and without the which destruction and disorder soon would seize the general state of men Learning and Languages cannot set a nap upon a thred-bare gown Art is like common Fidlers draws down others meat with liquorish Tunes whilst they the scraps do eat Liberty and Publique good are like great Ollio's must have the upper end still of our Tables though they are but for show Life is the frost of cold Felicity and Death the thaw of all our vanity Life is but a walking shadow a poor Player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more Life is a tale told by an Ideot full of sound and fury signifying nothing Like to an Ass whose b ack with ingots bows we bear our heavy riches but journey and death unloads us Life is but a dark and stormy night of sensless dreams terrors and broken sleep a tyranny devising pains to plague and make men long in dying Love is a rasor cleansing if well used But fetcheth blood if that it be abused Love like to sin inveterate is and strong He prevents danger that destroys it yong Love can no more be dissembled then to bear hot burning coals in our bare palms or bosoms and less concealed and hidden then a flash of inflamed powder whose whole light doth lay it open to all discovery even of those who have but half an eye and less of nose Loves service is much like our honored Lord where Mignions carry more then servitors the bold and careless servants still obtains the modest and respective nothing gains Lovers are like Astronomers that when the vulgar eye discovers but a skie above studied with some few stars finde out besides strange fishes birds and beasts Lovers in favour are like Gamesters in good fortune the more you set them still the more they win Love is but a card play all is lost Unless you cog he that pricks best wins most At the games of Love we set all but the best is we cannot stake and there is no loss of credit in the breaking Love is like to wax the more it is rubbed it sticks the faster to or like a bird in bird-lime or a pit-fall the more one labors still he is the deeper in Love is an idle fantasie bred by desire nursed by delight an humor that begins his dominion in Leo the Lion the sign of the Heart and ends in Aries the â—am the sign of the Head his power is to stir the blood prick up the flesh and fill the body with libidinous heat A yong mans Love it is like Ivy it must have something to cleave to or it prospers not Love is like fasting dayes but the body is like flesh dayes and it is our English Gallants fashion to prefer a morsel of flesh before all the fasting days in the year This Love is a troublesome thing Jupiter bless us out of his fingers there is no estate can rest for him he runs
Gods delight in wait on you fairest Ans. Sir I should be ungrateful not to wish you a share in them By your leave Lady may my boldness prove pardonable Good morrow to you Sir to meet you was a happiness that I did not dream of But tell me how it is with you Well Sir at present and I hope always shall be so to do you service Save you Sir you are most fortunately met Lady The pleasure of this sweet morning attend you On her Face You are the beauty without parallel in your Face all the Graces and in your Mind all the Vertues are met he that looks upon your mild Aspect were it the most savage creature would derive a new Nature from your Beauty On her Eyes and Lips That Eye was Juno's those Lips were once the Queen of Loves that Virgin Blush was Diana's Thus Madam You have a Donative from every Deity On her Beauty Apollo hath given you his orient Brightness Venus her curious Shape Jupiter his high and stately Forehead the God of Eloquence his flowing Speech and all the Female Deities have show'd their Bounties and Beauties on your Face On her Hair Her Hair is like the Beams that adorn Apollo's head Her Locks Soft as new spun Silk curling with such a natural wantonness as if they strove to delight the Fancy of her that wears them Her Forehead Made a stately prospect and show'd like a fair Castle commanding some goodly Countrey Her Face So full of majesty that Aurora blushes to see a countenance brighter then her own Her Face is full of Sun-shine Her Looks Have more entertainment then all the vain pomp which the Persians ever taught the world Her Eyes Dart Lightning through the Air. The Stars borrow new light from your more radiant Eyes They are able to grace the Heavens and beautisie the Skie in the clearest night They are Natures richest Diamonds set in foils of polisht Ivory Her Smiles Are so graceful and full of comfort that with them she is able to revive a dying Lover Her Cheeks Shew like Lawn spread upon Roses Nature painted the colour thereof in the most glorious Tulips They are slips of Paradise not to be gather'd but wondred at Her Breath So sweet that the Arabian Odours seem to borrow their excellency from thence It expires more sweet Odours then issu'd from the palm-trees in Paradise Her Lips Are like the full ripe Cherry which when they open discover a treasury greater then that of the Indian Ivory Her Chin Shews llke a piece of pure and polisht Chrystal which the God of Love delights to uphold with his soft hand Her Tongue Is tipt with such a fire and powerful art as might tame the most rebellious spirit Her Brow Is Cupids Bow most sweetly bent to shoot his Darts against every heart Her Neck Of such a whiteness as exceeds the unsull'd Snow Her Words Invade the weakned senses and overcome the heart Her Voice So charming that it hath power to do more then ever Spirits or Orpheus did should the holy Church-men use it it would tie up the nightly without the addition of more exorcism Her Arms Are sit to embrace a King Her Hands Soft and smooth the violet Veins whereof run along like Mines of Turkoeses Her Breasts Are two mountains of pure Snow from the two Fountains whereof Cupid himself sucks Nectar Briefly in the Abstract of her Self She comprehends whatsoever can be imagin'd or wish'd for in the Idea of a Woman She is so heavenly a piece that when Nature had wrought her she lost her needle like one that never hop'd to work again any so fair and lively a creature An Address of Courtship to his Mistress Lady My vital breath runs coldly through my veins I am sick for your Love dearest Lady neither is there any thing but your own heart can heal me believe me also fairest of Women there is nothing beneath the Moon but your frown can grieve me Sir Methinks this is a strange fit Lady Count not my love light because 't is sudden for By Cupids Bow I swear I never knew true Love till now Sir I intreat you not to wrong your self and me your love is violent and soon will have a period for that is the most perfect love which loves for ever Such love is mine believe me divinest Beauty for although men use to lie yet do I speak truth and therefore Madam give me sentence either of life or of a speedy death can you affect so mean a person Truly Sir I should deny my thoughts to give you an absolute denial yet must I not turn disloyal to former Promises and therefore let this suffice I cannot wrong my friend Then here my love must end and in your presence thus for love I die Nay hold Sir these are soul killing passions I had rather wrong my friend then that you should wrong your self Love me dear soul or else my death is but delay'd my Vow is fixt in Heaven and no fear shall move me for my life is a death that tortures me unless you love me Give me then but a little respite and I will resolve you Alass Madam my heart denies it my blood is violent now or else never love me Love me and both Art and Nature at large shall strive to be profuse in ravishing thy sense I will entice Dalliance from thee with my smiles and I will steal away thy heart with my chaste kisses Well Sir I am yours then from all the world your wit and your person have entranc'd my soul. I kiss thee Dearest for that breath and know that thou hast now joyn'd thy self to one whose life rests onely in thy sight To discourse concerning the noise of a Match Sir I am very glad to meet with you were it for no other reason but to give you joy Sir Your company is always a thing most acceptable to me and your wishes cannot be other then very fortunate yet if you please pray let me understand why you wish me so much felicity there being nothing new that I know of in my condition Sir You dissemble that which is well known to many and which hath been told me some few days since Pray Sir do the favour to tell me what it is for I can neither think nor imagine Sir They say that you intend to marry in this Town Truly Sir 't is the first news that I have heard of any such thing I can assure you Sir those that told me believe that they know very well and they take upon them to report many particulars Pray Sir be pleas'd to tell me to whom and what are the good Conditions of this Marriage perchance the person and the advantages may be such that I may speedily advise with my self and as speedily resolve Why should you do so Sir Would you marry out of your Countrey far from your friends and distant from all conveniences obliging your self to quit the sweet presence of your kindred or else to bring
mean you Page Why I 'le teach you if you will vouchsafe to learn How prithee now Let me beg your Lip I cannot spare it by any means I warrant you scorn me now because I want hair upon my upper-lip yet I can tell you I have kist Ladies ere now and have been sent for to their Chambers That 's a good one you sent for Yes and have been trusted with their secrets too such pretty little things as we are can play at hoop all hid under a Fardingale prithee how long hast thou been a Waiting-woman Not above a month yet I thought so you are so ignorant I warrant you have your maiden-head still I do hope so Oh fie upon 't away with it for shame chaffer it with the Coach-man for the credit of your profession 't is finable among Lasses of your rank Good Mr. Page how long have you been skill'd in these affairs E're since I was in Breeches I vow you 'l find your honesty very troublesome How can that be Why when you have truckt away your maiden-head you have a lawful excuse to put off Gamesters by telling them you have not what they look for besides the benefit of being impudent as occasion serves 't is a thing very necessary for a Waiting-creature and we Pages can instruct you in it if you will be tractable Sure thou art wild So wild that if you will lead me the chase I 'le follow you Mock-Complements or Drolling-Complements A Complement between a Gentleman and a Gentlewoman before a Riband-Shop in the Exchange MAdam y' are welcom to this Paradise of Toys be pleas'd to chuse what you like and I shall sacrifice to your beauty upon the Altar of this Stall what gold you shall think fit to command from my pockets Sir You enrich me with your gifts I 'le assure you Sir I do as freely accept of your kindness as you do liberally bestow them for we Ladies of this Town seldom have any mercy upon a Country-gentlemans pocket when we meet with an opportunity to empty it Madam Your nimble eye wherewith you do espie the faults of garb and habit emboldens me to crave your judgment concerning the cut of my Breeches the choise of my Fancies and the fling of my Legs Sir For your clothes were not your Breeches a little too long they were Jeer-proof against all the Ladies either in Hide-Park or Spring-Garden You walk with such a Barbary prance and stately step that your feet are like load-stones drawing the eyes of all persons on you Madam I wish the Gods would transform me into this Fan that I am now about to give you that I might be always puffing into your mouth the breath of my affections or this piece of Ribband that I might always hang about you in two â—assels the one at your breast the other at your breech Sir I never fancied flesh-colour knots nor am I about to build Cities that you should proffeâ— me your hide to measure the compass of the walls If I were your favours Sir merit that I should like Dido use something else for that work rather chusing you for my Aeneas to help me to people it A Horse Courser courting a Parsons Widow Lady The great affections that I bear you and the great desire I have to be luckie in Horse-flesh spur me on to accost you with an humble request that I may be your Servant Sir Your proper person and eloquent language would accuse me of ingratitude should my obstinacy to your reasonable demands be any hindrance to your fortunate Markets An Apprentice and a young Lady at a Boarding-School Lady Seeing the painted cloth of your Vertues hang out at the window and Fame standing at the door with a trumpet in her hand I could not chuse out of a natural inclination which I have to Sights and Puppet-playes but step in to behold the monstrousness of our Beauties and now Madam having seen you I admire you more then the Hairy-Gentlewoman Sir Your kindness proceeds more from your goodness then my desert but you must give me leave to think you complement since you have compar'd me to a person whose incomparable qualities are as much above mine as Pauls is above St. Gregories Lady If you 'l be pleas'd to take a Cheesecake and a bottle of Beer as the earnest of my affection I shall think my self honour'd with waiting on you to the next Ale-house Sir I shall not refuse the proffer of your kindness for the short Commons our Mistriss allows us makes us very willing to embrace such invitations At the Cake-house Madam Let me beg a kiss from you that I may drink to you in that liquor which I most love the Nectar of your lips Your servant Sir now give me leave to pledge you in that liquor which I most love which is a cup of bottle Ale for I am very dry Madam These Cheesecakes were made to eat I would you could feed on them with that eagerness that I could feed on the perfections of your face there is in them sweetness tenderness and pleasantness the emblems of your qualifications Sir I know not how to recompence these favours so that I am troubled that I must be now more in your debt before I have gratifi'd your first kindnesses for I must desire you to give me leave to go â—orth to make water At Parting Empress of my soul God give you good night many thanks to you for your sweet company I must return the same acknowledgments to you again Sir who have this night both fill'd my heart with your Love and my belly with good Cheesecakes A Passado Complement between a Gentleman and a Lady meeting in two several Coaches in the High-way going to Hide-Park Your most humble servant Madam I bless the opportunity that now gives me leave to tell you how much I honour you since you are the only Lady that ride triumphant in the Coach-box of my heart Sir I do not know how I have merited so great a favour I wish it were a sufficient recompence to let you understand that you are the only person that hold the Reins of my affection Madam Be pleased to honor me with your commands and I shall diet my self like a Race-horse that I may be swift to obey them Sir My commands are only that you would accept of my love which I bestow upon you with the same freeness that you ever gave your Mistress bottle Wine and Tarts Oh Dear Madam your most humble servant drive on Coach-man Between a Gentlemam and a Sempstress Lady The neat cut of your Bands which I do now and then send for by my Foot-boy hath brought me to visit the maker of those comely ornaments of my neck Sir Were it not for speaing against my Trade and Profit I would say that your good face needs no band Then the Gentleman â—olling over the Counter thus proceds Truly Mistress I do not wonder that your pretty fingers do stitch up so many
do believe I could not live in the fortunate Islands and having till I embrace you no other way of traffick but by Letters I am extreamly angry with my self that you have prevented me in returning our old correspondence Though I must acknowledge there is some justice in it for since you were the first that broke it 't was fit you should be the first to reestablish it I write thus of the honour of your favour assuring you notwithstanding that I could no way deserve it Therefore Sir give me leave to beg your pardon for my neglect if I were guilty which I shall never be in any thing that concerns you and to make it more clear to you I never ceas'd to honour you but onely not to express it was like a secret fire not quench'd but cover'd which became the more violent when it had less liberty to appear Wherefore Sir be confident that I shall make you see upon all occasions for what is just that I will never be less then I am Your c. A Familar Return of Thanks SIR THis negligence of my stile be pleas'd to esteem one of the marks of friendship between us Gratitude is one of a poor mans vertues This is the best Rhetorick you could expect in so few Lines and so I would renounce the world and all its promises if a mortal could do so to express my self but truly thankful to you for your exquisite favours The expedition of this messenger would permit me no further at this time but onely to set my hand to this protestation that I love you exceedingly that I honour you and am as much as any man can be in the world Your c. To his Friend inviting him into the Country SIR I will not send you studied complements I know you are born in a Country of good words I am here among Thorns and Thistles among people that are naturally affected with dulness and dream in the best company such as can give no other reason for their silence but that they are entreated not to speak in so much that you may walk our Village and hear nothing but whistling and which is a miracle our Coridons are here arrived to such a height of wilful ignorance as if they held their Lands by no other Tenure but that of never speaking to the purpose I should be quite out of heart if I had not your promise to relie on that you will suddenly give me a visit to witness what I am like to suffer this long vacation except I enjoy your company I wait for you as for a blessing and if you come not hither next week I proclaim to you that I am no longer Your c. To his sick Friend SIR The news of your sickness hath so alter'd my health that I may count my self a sharer in your misfortunes Really it hath so much griev'd me that the sorrow which I sustain is more then the fever which you endure Do you therefore take courage if you will that I should be in good health You know how much I am interested in your concernments In a word I assure you that if you do not quit your bed I shall be forc'd to betake my self to mine These are the absolute protests of Sir Your c. A Letter of Resolution WHY thus in Cynthia's sports do you delight And take from Loves all their due and right Yield brightest and his sweetest pleasures try Whose fires in funeral flames can onely die May I not live if all things plead not sin I wonder what strange sear doth keep thee in Though with Diana thou dost seem to vie Trust me thy face doth give thy words the lie More sit for Venus thou then her wilt prove There 's no Religion sweet but that of Love Were the Gods kinde and to my love agreed With eyes unwilling thou these Lines should read When shall I thee embrace intranc't and lie Languishing wrapt in Loves sweet extasie If Arts will not avail then Arms I le move And so my longing besome force thy love Yet us Loves warfare better will become Soft breathings best please love not the sierce Drum If that thou wilt I can more gentle be Lay shame aside and yield thy self to me Either thy self into my arms resign Or I must fall for I have vow'd thee mine To his Mistress desiring Enjoyment TEll me cruel fair one why When I ask you still deny You thereby unkind do prove Both to Nature and to Love Nature when she gave that eye That hand that lip that majesty Surely then she did not mean Here riches should be onely seen And not enjoy'd were not each sense A Sharer of your excellence Shee 'd wrong her self and so destroy Mankind by making you so coy Oh then yield and let me find That y' are thankful if not kind Cupid in your bosomes snow Losing his Shaft unbent his Bow And woo'd his Mother since he shot So long and wounded not Your eyes henceforth might be his Darts With which he slew so many hearts She did but with all gave you skill To heal again as well as kill She gave your eyes power to enflame A breath with all to cool the same You are just to use that breath To be a Sentencer of death Nay you are impious if you are Less merciful then you are fair And by denying needs must grant That you are proud or ignorant Where Women truly know their price 'T is pride not vertue makes them nice Let us Lucinda henceforth twine With close embraces Let us joyn Lip unto lip and reap the pleasure Of true Lovers without measure Till our Loves are by wonder grown From two bodies into one Yield Lucinda thy consent That from our true and just content Others may a perfect rule obtain How they should love how be belov'd again Thus she striveth to indite That can love but cannot write In every Line here may'st thou understand That Love hath sign'd and sealed with his hand These cannot blush although thou dost refuse them Nor will reply however you shall use them O modesty dist thou not me restrain How would I chide thee in this angry vain Pardon me dear if I offend in this With such delays my love impatient is I needs must write till time my saith approve And then I le cease but never cease to love Tears thou know'st well my heart cannot abide How I am angry when I least do chide Too well thou know'st what my creation made me And nature too well taught thee to invade me Thou know'st too well how what and when and where To write to speak to sue and to forbear By signes by sighs by motions and by tears When vowes should serve when oaths when smiles when prayers If any natural blemish blot my face Thou dost protest it gives my beauty grace And that attire I 'me used most to wear That 's the most excellent of all you swear Or if I wake or sleep or stand or
I intreat thee to accept of the good will for the deed and to take in good part the endeavours of thy most faithful Servant Postscript As I was going to seal my Father came in taken suddenly and desperately ill The Physicians were sent for and by their whispering assure me that he cannot live assoon as he is dead I shall not fail to visit thee and make sure work between us A Sea-man to his delight in Wapping Kind if not unkind Susan HAving read in a Ballad how that a Woman is compared to a Ship it made me to conceive no small reason for a Sea-mutual love between us Since it is most certain that a Sea-man cannot be without a Ship nor a Ship without a Sea-man do not therefore shipwrack my good intentions in their first Voyage to thee Alas for thou hast no reason to despise me because my Cloathes are besmear'd with Pitch and Tar knowing that I shall stick the faster to thee I must confess I have cast Anchor in the Harbour of thy Love do not cut the Cable of my Affections lest I am adrist into a Sea of misery and where the Waves of desâ—air encreas'd by the North-wind of thy disdain shall dash out my brains against the Rocks of Misfortune â—lâ—â—nce I am in already neither is it in my tower to help my self O Susan Susan Susan receive my floating soul into the Cock-boat of thy heart that thy poor Richard may not die but live to recompence thee the Preserver of his life A Hector to his Mistress Most Illustrious Queen of Beauty BY the heard of Achilles my affections groan for you Your perfections have trapand me For when I had the honour to smell your odoriferous breath me thought it pleas'd me better then the sent of the best Spanish Tobacco And when I kiss'd your vermillion lips I suck'd Canary from them Now Lady your Sack and Tobacco are the two strings to the bowe of a mans life Oh thou that art the third string to the bowe of my life bind thy self about my waste that I may be thy Oak and thou my Ivy or else that I may bear thee up and down the Town like the Fellow that carries his Brother in his belly Destroy not him that both can and will destroy millions for thy sake But be my Aqua Coelestis my Castle of strong water to defend from the Batteries of misfortune the drooping spirits of thy dejected Slave A Lawyer to his Young Mistress Madam THis Indenture made the thirteenth day of April in the year One thousand six hundred fifty six Witnesseth that I John a Stiles of Long Acre in the County of Bedford Gent. am a person of credit and reputation Hoping therefore that you are in good health as I am at the writing hereof These are to certifie you that I am sick at the very heart for love of you The Judge thinks me mad for when I should plead I fall 〈◊〉 courting of him telling him he is the Star of my affections and that unless he will marry me I shall be undone My Clients also leave me for while I peruse their papers they hearing me sigh so cruelly begin to despair of their Cause and go away in discontent without giving their fees But all this my pretty Darling may be help'd by thee Deigne therefore to bargain sell and to farm let that fair Tenement of Beauty which is thy self unto him that cares not what he gives for the purchase together with the hands legs arms fingers toes hair eyes head thighs belly water courses eas 〈…〉 ents commodities and appurtenances whatsoever to the foresaid Tenement belonging That I may have hold occupy and enjoy them for the term of years wherein thou shalt live at the expiring thereof fully to be compleat and ended And I on the other part do promise and grant to and with thee my foresaid pretty Darling to be thy old Fool thy doting Fool and to give thee all that I have for a Joynture And further that thou shalt live in the Countrey and cuckold me all' the Term-time and come up every year after Easter to buy thee Pins Gloves and Ribbands and a new Gown In witness whereof I have hereunto set my Hand and Seal the Day and Year first above-written A Passionate Love Letter LOve having taken your Beauties for Arms had long since laid siege to my Liberty which was retreated within the Fort of my Reason when without putting himself to the trouble of a Scalado he is fled into my Eyes and is by that way entred into my Heart as a Robber breaks into a house through the windows The sufferings I am in through his means are very violent but being at length appeased he hath sworn to me that the remedy lay in your power and that all I had to do was to write to you of it But seeing me a Secretary very ill furnish'd with the necessaries of my profession he took a Quill out of his own wing and made me a pen with the point of his dart he hath given me paper made of his old Headbands by a celestial paper-maker he took the coals of my heart which was half burnt and having beaten them to powder he mingled them with my tears and thereof hath furnished me with ink with which I have written to you and for to dry the writing he cast the ashes of those coals upon it He gave me waxout of his torch to seal it and cut off a little peice of the string of his bowe for me to binde withall And now fair Lady consider if having assisted me thus far so favourably he may not with as little difficulty furnish me with all his arrows for to wound you and make you sick of the same disease as he is who terms himself Your Slave The Mountebank's Letter to the Chyrurgeons Gentlemen HAving had continual and daily experience in several parts for many years together in the cure of the French Disease with as good success as mine own heart could wish and now at length desiring to shew my self a profitable member of this Commonwealth and City wherein I abide I could not chuse but write to you by way of advice seeing so many errors among you tending all to the destruction of the Patient In the first place I counsel thee O man or woman who ere thou arâ— that dost profess the cure of Venereal Distempers to avoid that common fault among all the Professors thereof which is Coveteousness For if a young man or a young woman hath by chance got a Clap and is willing to give all he hath rather then to endure the disease long wilt thou be so base and sordid to make his or her earnest desire to be the cause of thy exaction Assure thy self that money got by such exaction will be a worm to consume that part of thy Estate which thou hast honestly got In the next place be not too inquisitive of any Patient who he is and where
maker writes truest this year A. He that tells fewest lies Q. What game do men love best A. My Ladies-hole Q. What sport doth women like best A. Push pin Q. If a man calls his wife Whore what follows by consequence A. That he is a Cuckold Q. Why are women most jealous A. Because they love with less discretion then men Q. Why do some ladies breasts leap and as it were daunce when they talk with their lovers A. From the neighborhood of the heart from whence all the vital spirits proceed which on such joyful occasions retire to the breasts Q. Why do lovers so kiss the eyes of their mistresses A. Because they would if they could through those windows discern what is in the heart or else in gratitude as the eyes were the first beginners of their love Q. What said the Tyler to his man when he fell through the rafters of the house A. He liked a fellow that went through with his work Q. What said the captain when his leg was shot off and they cryed for a Chyrurgion A. No Chyrurgion says he a Carpenter a Carpenter Q. What said one that perceived a fellow in Bedlam more distracted then the rest Sir were you ever married A. Married quoth he looking stedfasty upon him I was never yet so mad Q. Why is a prisoner the best fencer A. Because he alwayes lies at a close ward Q. Why doth marriage free a man from all cares A. Because the woman takes all upon her Q. VVhy did Nailor stand in the Pillory A. For being Antichrist Q. How is an Hypocrite defined A. He is one that for the most part is full of oral subtilty and mental impiety Q. VVhat is that which produceth tears without sorrow takes his journey to heaven but dies by the way is begot by another yet that other is not begot without it Sol. Smoak Q. VVhat two dissillables are those that divide the world A. Meum et tuum Q. VVhat is the wisest of all other things A. Time which findeth out and altereth all other things Q. Why is Ben. Johnsons Chair at Robert Wilsons Tipling-house in the Strand A. To signifie that Poets in these hard times though they should invoke the nine Muses may still want nine pence to purchase a pint of Canary Q. what is the profitablest sign that one that hath a handsome wife can hang at his door A. A pair of Horns for then he shall be sure never to want custom Q. Why are there so few of the sect of the Adamites A. Because people are ashamed to show all Q. What replied the Vintner to the Gentleman after he had drawn him good wine and he said it had a whiff with it A. So had his Q. what is an Hoast A. He is one that is none of his own for he neither eats drinks nor thinks but at other mens charges Q. What is a Tinker A. He is a moveable for he hath no certain abiding Q. Whither doth S. A. go when he dies A. Alas he doth not know himself Q. What said the fellow that had lost one of his ears for his former fact and was for another crime condemned to lose the other A. What a pox said he am I bound to find ears for every Sessions Q. What answer did the Taylors boy give to him that when he presented him with his masters Bill said that he was not running away A. That though he were not running away his master was Q. What part is last formed in the womb A. The eye the interpretation of the minde which as it is last formed so it is the first which loseth its motion in death Q. Why do men become bald A. Because with their declining with age their natural humidity consumes in them although they may otherwise abound with corrupt excrements Q. Why have gelded men shrill voices A. The abundance of their humidity fills up the artery and makes it strait so that the breath proceeding from a narrow passage causeth the voice to be sharp Q. Why do the Anabapâ—ists hate churches A. Because they are used to preach in tubs Q. What said Pope Urban the eighth to an English Gentleman that kist his toe A. Sir I hope you have not travelled thus far to report when you return to your own countrey that you have seen Antichrist alas Sir I must deal plainly with you I am no other then what you see me a frail old man ready to drop into my grave Q. What if the bed should speak what it knows A. It would put some persons strangely to the blush Qu. why may an Hypocritical Puritan be said to be a bastard A. Because he will not allow of Our Father Q. what is the nick-name of Mistress M. T A. Mistress Moll Cutpurse Q. VVhat become of the Turk that daunced on the ropes and stood on his head with his heels upright on an exceeding high pole A. He was so near to Paradise that Mahomet onely put out his hand took hold of his great toe and pulled him in Q. VVhat kind of thing is a New England brother A. He is one that fled thither for conscience sake and left his wife and children behind him for the Parish to keep Q. VVhen policy trips up a mans heels what is it called A. Dexterity Q. VVhy is it probable that Eve studied Astronomy A. Because her sex have ever since been used to lie on their backs Q. what may an importunate Dun be compared unto A. A mans shadow Q. What answer was given to him that disswaded one from marrying of a wife because she was no wiser A. I desire said he my wife should have no more wit then to be able to distinguish my bed from another mans Q. VVhat trick did a scholler that was a lewd rogue use after he had often sent to his father and could get no money from him A. He sent a letter to his father to certifie him that he was dead and desired him to send him up money to defray the charges of his funeral Q. VVhy do not whores conceive A. They have been ploughed so much that they can of necessity yield no crop Q. VVhy do we sleep better on the right side then on the left A. Because the lungs do then lie more remote and cover the heart which is on that side under the pap qu. Which is the seat of the memory A. The hindermost part of the brain qu. Why are women said to be the weaker vessels A. Because there are so many of them crakt qu. Why do Lawyers wear such short gowns A. Because the vacations are so long qu. what was that in the Exchange that the Millener sent the Lady word that she had left behind her and she sent him word back that he might take it for his trouble of sending after her A. A qu. Wherefore is it that the Eccho reports more clearly to our hearing the last syllable than the first A. Because the first are broken by the last or