Waves o'er Shining Pebbles curl'd Or when young Zephirs fan'd the Gentle Breez Gath'ring fresh Sweets from Balmy Flow'rs and Trees Then bore 'em on their Wings to perfume all the Air While to their soft and tender Play The Gray-Plum'd Natives of the Shades Unwearied sing till Love invades Then Bill then sing agen while Love and Musick makes the Day III. The stubborn Plough had then Made no rude Rapes upon the Virgin Earth Who yeilded of her own accord her plentious Birth Without the Aids of men As if within her Teeming Womb All Nature and all Sexes lay Whence new Creations every day Into the happy World did come The Roses fill'd with Morning Dew Bent down their loaded heads T' Adorn the careless Shepherds Grassy Beds While still young opening Buds each moment grew And as those withered drest his shaded Couch a new Beneath who 's boughs the Snakes securely dwelt Not doing harm nor harm from others felt With whom the Nymphs did Innocently play No spightful Venom in the wantons lay But to the touch were Soft and to the sight were Gay IV. Then no rough sound of Wars Alarms Had taught the World the needless use of Arms Monarchs were uncreated then Those Arbitrary Rulers over men Kings that made Laws first broke 'em and the Gods By teaching us Religion first first set the World at Odds Till then Ambition was not known That Poyson to Content Bane to Repose Each Swain was Lord o'er his own will alone His Innocence Religion was and Laws Nor needed any troublesome defence Against his Neighbours Insolence Flocks Herds and every necessary good Which bounteous Nature had design'd for Food Whose kind increase o'er-spread the Meads and Plaines Was then a common Sacrifice to all th' agreeing Swaines V. Right and Property were words since made When Power taught Mankind to invade When Pride and Avarice became a Trade Carri'd on by discord noise and wars For which they barter'd wounds and scarrs And to Inhaunce the Merchandize miscall'd it ' Fame ' And Rapes Invasions Tyrannies Was gaining of a Glorious Name Stiling their salvage slaughters Victories Honour the Error and the Cheat Of the Ill-natur'd Bus'ey Great Nonsence invented by the Proud Fond Idol of the slavish Crowd Thou wert not known in those blest days Thy Poyson was not mixt with our unbounded Joyes Then it was glory to pursue delight And that was lawful all that Pleasure did invite Then 't was the Amorous world injoy'd its Reign And Tyrant Honour strove t' usurp in Vain VI. The flowry Meads the Rivers and the Groves Were fill'd with little Gay-wing'd Loves That ever smil'd and danc'd and Play'd And now the woods and now the streames invade And where they came all things were gay and glad When in the Myrtle Groves the Lovers sat Opprest with a too fervent heat A Thousand Cupids fann'd their wings a-loft And through the Boughs the yielded Ayre would waft Whose parting Leaves discovered all below And every God his own soft power admir'd And smil'd and fann'd and sometimes bent his Bow Where e'er he saw a Shepherd uninspir'd The Nymphs were free no nice no coy disdain Deny'd their Joyes or gave the Lover pain The yielding Maid but kind Resistance makes Trembling and blushing are not marks of shame But the Effect of kindling Flame Which from the sighing burning Swain she takes VVhile she with tears all soft and down-cast-eyes Permits the Charming Conqueror to win the prize VII The Lovers thus thus uncontroul'd did meet Thus all their Joyes and Vows of Love repeat Joyes which were everlasting ever new And every Vow inviolably true Not kept in fear of Gods no fond Religious cause Nor in Obedience to the duller Laws Those Fopperies of the Gown were then not known Those vain those Politick Curbs to keep man in VVhoby a fond mistake Created that a Sin VVhich freeborn we by right of Nature claim our own Who but the Learned and dull moral Fool Could gravely have forseen man ought to live by Rule VIII Oh cursed Honour thou who first didst damn A VVoman to the Sin of shame Honour that rob'st us of our Gust Honour that hindred mankind first At Loves Eternal Spring to squench his amorous thirst Honour who first taught lovely Eyes the art To wound and not to cure the heart VVith Love to invite but to forbid with Awe And to themselves prescribe a Cruel Law To Veil 'em from the Lookers on When they are sure the slave 's undone And all the Charmingst part of Beauty hid Soft Looks consenting Wishes all deny'd It gathers up the flowing Hair That loosely plaid with wanton Air. The Envious Net and stinted order hold The lovely Curls of Jet and shining Gold No more neglected on the Shoulders hurl'd Now drest to Tempt not gratify the VVorld Thou Miser Honour hord'st the sacred store And starv'st thy self to keep thy Votaries poor IX Honour that put'st our words that should be free Into a set Formality Thou base Debaucher of the generous heart That teachest all our Looks and Actions Art What Love design'd a sacred Gift What Nature made to be possest Mistaken Honour made a Theft For Glorious Love should be confest For when confin'd all the poor Lover gains Is broken Sighs pale Looks Complaints Pains Thou Foe to Pleasure Nature's worst Disease Thou Tyrant over mighty Kings What mak'st thou here in Shepheards Cottages Why troublest thou the quiet Shades Springs Be gone and make thy Fam'd resort To Princes Pallaces Go Deal and Chaffer in the Trading Court That busie Market for Phantastick Things Be gone and interrupt the short Retreat Of the Illustrious and the Great Go break the Polititians sle ep Disturb the Gay Ambitious Fool That longs for Scepters Crowns and Rule Which not his Title nor his Wit can keep But let the humble honest Swain go on In the blest Paths of the first rate of man That nearest were to Gods Alli'd And form'd for love alone disdain'd all other Pride X. Be gone and let the Golden age again Assume its Glorious Reign Let the young wishing Maid confess What all your Arts would keep conceal'd The Mystery will be reveal'd And she in vain denies whilst we can guess She only shows the Jilt to teach man how To turn the false Artillery on the Cunning Foe Thou empty Vision hence be gone And let the peaceful Swain love on The swift pac'd hours of life soon steal away Stint not yee Gods his short liv'd Joy The Spring decays but when the Winter 's gone The Trees and Flowers a new comes on The Sun may set but when the night is fled And gloomy darkness does retire He rises from his Watry Bed All Glorious Gay all drest in Amorous Fire But Sylvia when your Beauties fade VVhen the fresh Roses on your Cheeks shall die Like Flowers that wither in the Shade Eternally they will forgotten lye And no kindSpring their sweetness will supply VVhen Snow shall on those lovely Tresses lye And
POEMS UPON Several Occasions WITH A VOYAGE TO THE Island of LOVE ALSO The Lover in Fashion being an Account from LYCIDUS to LYSANDER of his Voyage from the Island of Love By Mrs A. BEHN To which is added a Miscellany of New Poems and Songs by several Hands The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Francis Saunders in the Lower-Walk of the New-Exchange 1697. Mrs Behn pa 204 Vo 11 TO The Right Honourable JAMES EARL of SALISBURY VISCOUNT CRAMBORN AND BARON of ISLINGTON MY LORD WHO should one celibrate with Verse and Song but the Great the Noble and the Brave where dedicate an Isle of Love but to the Gay the Soft and Young and who amongst Men can lay a better claim to these than Your Lordship who like the Sun new risen with the early Day looks round the World and sees nothing it cannot claim an interest in for what cannot Wit Beauty Wealth and Honour claim The violent storms of Sedition and Rebellion are hush'd and calm'd black Treason is retir'd to its old abode the dark Abyss of Hell the mysterious Riddles of Politick Knaves and Fools which so long amused and troubled the World's repose are luckily unfolded and Your Lordship is saluted at Your first coming forth Your first setting out for the glorious and happy Race of Life by a Nation all glad gay and smiling and you have nothing before you but a ravishing prospect of eternal Joys and everlasting inviting Pleasures and all that Love and Fortune can bestow on their darling Youth attend You in the noble persuit and nothing can prevent Your being the most happy of her Favourites but a too eager flight a two swift speed o'er the charming flowry Meads and Plains that lie in view between Your setting out and the end of Your glorious Chase. A long and illustrious race of Nobility has attended Your great Name but none I believe ever came into the World with Your Lordship's advantages amongst which my Lord 't is not the least that You have the glory to be truly Loyal and to be adorn'd with those excellent Principles which render Nobility so absolutely worth the Veneration which is paid 'em 't is those my Lord and not the Title that make it truly great Grandeur in any other serves but to point 'em out more particularly to the World and shew their Faults with the greater magnitude and render 'em more liable to contempt and that Reward which justly persues Ingratitude nor is it my Lord the many unhappy Examples this Age has produc'd that has deter'd you from herding with the busie Unfortunates and bringing Your powerfull aid to their detestable cause but a noble Honesty in Your Nature a Generosity in Your Soul That even part of Your Education had the good fortune not to be able to corrupt no Opinion cou'd byass You no Precedent debauch You though all the fansied Glories of Power were promis'd You though all the Contempt thrown on good and brave Men all the subtile Arguments of the old Serpent were us'd against the best of Kings and his illustrious Successour still You were unmov'd Your young stout Heart with a Gallantry and Force unusual resisted and desied the gilded Bait laugh'd at the industrious Politicks of the busie Wise and stubbornly Loyal contemn'd the Counsels of the Grave Go on my Lord advance in Noble resolution grow up in strength of Loyalty settle it about Your Soul root it there like the first Principles of Religion which nothing ever throughly defaces and which in spight of even Reason the Soul retains whatever little Debaucheries the Tongue may commit You that are great are born the Bulwarks of sacred Majesty its defence against all the storms of Fate the Safety of the People in the Supporters of the Throne and sure none that ever obey'd the Laws of God and the Dictates of Honour ever paid those Duties to a Sovereign that more truly merited the Defence and Adorations of his People than this of ours and t is a blessing since we are oblig'd to render it to the worst of Tyrant Kings that we have one who so well justifies that intire Love and Submisson we ought to pay him You my Lord are one whom Thousands of good Men look up to with wondrous Veneration and Joy when 't is said Your Lordship amongst Your other Vertues is Loyal too a true Tory a word of Honour now the Royal Cause has sanctified it and though Your Lordship needs no encouragement to a good that rewards it self yet I am confident You are not onely rank'd in the esteem of the best of Monarchs but we shall behold you as one of our Preservers and all England as one of its great Patrons when Ages that shall come shall find Your noble Name inroll'd amongst the Friends to Monarchy in an Age of so villainous Corruption Yes my Lord they will find it there and bless You. 'T is this my Lord with every other Grace and Noble Vertue that adorns You and gives the World such promises of Wonders in You that makes me ambitious to be the first in the Croud of Your Admirers that shall have the honour to celibrate Your great Name Be pleased then my Lord to accept this Little Piece which lazy Minutes begot and hard Fate has oblig'd me to bring forth into the censuring World to which if any thing can reconcile it 't will be the glory it has to bear Your Noble Name in the front and to be Patronized by so great and good a Man Permit but my Zeal for Your Lordship to attone for the rest of my Faults and Your Lordship will extremely oblige My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble and most Obedient Servant A. Behn TO Mrs. BEHN ON THE PUBLISHING HER POEMS Madam LOng has Wit 's injur'd Empire been opprest By Rhiming Fools this Nations common Jest And sunk beneath the weight of heavy stafes In Tory Ballads and Whig Epitaphs The Ogs and Doegs reign'd nay Baxter's zeal Has not been wanting too in writing Ill Yet still in spight of what the dull can doe 'T is here asserted and adorn'd by you This Book come forth their credit must decay Ill Spirits vanish at th'approach of day And justly we before your envy'd feet There where our Hearts are due our Pens submit Ne'er to resume the baffled things again Unless in Songs of Triumph to thy Name Which are outdone by every Verse of thine Where thy own Fame does with more lustre shine Than all that we can give who in thy Praises join Fair as the face of Heaven when no thick Cloud Or darkning Storm the glorious prospect shroud In all its beauteous parts shines thy bright style And beyond Humane Wit commedns thy skill With all the thought and vigour of our Sex The moving softness of your own you mix The Queen of Beauty and the God of Wars Imbracing lie in thy due temper'd Verse Venus her sweetness and the force of Mars Thus thy luxuriant Muse her pleasure takes As God
My humble Muse to bring its Tribute too Inspir'd by thy vast flight of Verse Methinks I should some wondrous thing rehearse Worthy Divine Lucretius and Diviner Thou But I of Feebler Seeds design'd Whilst the slow moving Atomes strove With careless heed to form my Mind Compos'd it all of Softer Love In gentle Numbers all my Songs are Drest And when I would thy Glories sing What in strong manly Verse I would express Turns all to Womannish Tenderness within Whilst that which Admiration does inspire In other Souls kindles in mine a Fire Let them admire thee on Whilst I this newer way Pay thee yet more than they For more I owe since thou hast taught me more Then all the mighty Bards that went before Others long since have Pal'd the vast delight In duller Greek and Latin satisfy'd the Appetite But I unlearn'd in Schools disdain that mine Should treated be at any Feast but thine Till now I curst my Birth my Education And more the scanted Customes of the Nation Permitting not the Female Sex to tread The Mighty Paths of Learned Heroes dead The God-like Virgil and great Homers Verse Like Divine Mysteries are conceal'd from us We are forbid all grateful Theams No ravishing thoughts approach our Ear The Fulsom Gingle of the times Is all we are allow'd to understand or hear But as of old when men unthinking lay Ere Gods were worshipt or ere Laws were fram'd The wiser Bard that taught 'em first t' obey Was next to what he taught ador'd and fam'd Gentler they grew their words and manners chang'd And salvage now no more the Woods they rang'd So thou by this Translation dost advance Our Knowledg from the State of Ignorance And equals us to Man Ah how can we Enough Adore or Sacrifice enough to thee The Mystick Terms of Rough Philosophy Thou dost so plain and easily express Yet Deck'st them in so soft and gay a Dress So intelligent to each Capacity That they at once Instruct and Charm the Sense VVith heights of Fancy heights of Eloquence And Reason over all Unfetter'd plays VVanton and undisturb'd as Summers Breeze That gliding murmurs o're the Trees And no hard Notion meets or stops its way It Pierces Conquers and Compels Beyond poor Feeble Faith 's dull Oracles Faith the despairing Souls content Faith the Last Shift of Routed Argument Hail Sacred Wadham whom the Muses Grace And from the Rest of all the Reverend Pile Of Noble Pallaces design'd thy Space VVhere they in soft retreat might dwell They blest thy Fabrick and said Do thou Our Darling Sons contain We thee our Sacred Nursery Ordain They said and blest and it was so And if of old the Fanes of Silvian Gods VVere worshipt as Divine Aboads If Courts are held as Sacred Things For being the Awful Seats of Kings VVhat Veneration should be paid To thee that hast such wondrous Poets made To Gods for fear Devotion was design'd And Safety made us bow to Majesty Poets by Nature Aw and Charm the Mind Are born not made by dull Religion or Necessity The Learned Thirsis did to thee belong Who Athens Plague has so divinely Sung Thirsis to wit as sacred friendship true Paid Mighty Cowley's Memory its due Thirsis who whilst a greater Plague did reign Then that which Athens did Depopulate Scattering Rebellious Fury o're the Plain That threatn'd Ruine to the Church and State Unmov'd he stood and fear'd no Threats of Fate That Loyal Champion for the Church Crown That Noble Ornament of the Sacred Gown Still did his Soveraign's Cause Espouse And was above the Thanks of the mad Senate-house Strephon the Great whom last you sent abroad Who VVrit and Lov'd Lookt like any God For whom the Muses mourn the Love-sick Maids Are Languishing in Melancholly Shades The Cupids flag their Wings their Bows untie And useless Quivers hang neglected by And scatter'd Arrows all around 'em lye By murmuring Brooks the careless Deities are laid Weeping their rifled power now Noble Strephon's Dead Ah Sacred Wadham should'st thou never own But this delight of all Mankind and thine For Ages past of Dulness this alone This Charming Hero would Attone And make thee Glorious to succeeding time But thou like Natures self disdain'st to be Stinted to Singularity Even as fast as she thou dost produce And over all the Sacred Mystery infuse No sooner was fam'd Strephon's Glory set Strephon the Soft the Lovely and the Great But Daphnis rises like the Morning-Star That guides the VVandring Traveller from afar Daphnis whom every Grace and Muse inspires Scarce Strephons Ravishing Poetick Fires So kindly warm or so divinely Cheer Advance Young Daphnis as thou hast begun So let thy Mighty Race be run Thou in thy large Poetick Chace Begin'st where others end the Race If now thy Grateful Numbers are so strong If they so early can such Graces show Like Beauty so surprizing when so Young VVhat Daphnis will thy Riper Judgment do When thy Unbounded Verse in their own Streams shall flow What Wonder will they not produce When thy Immortal Fancy's loose Unfetter'd Unconfin'd by any other Muse Advance Young Daphnis then and mayst thou prove Still Sacred in thy Poetry and Love May all the Groves with Daphnis Songs be blest Whilst every Bark is with thy Disticks drest May Timerous Maids learn how to Love from thence And the Glad Shepherd Arts of Eloquence And when to Solitude thou woud'st Retreat May their tun'd Pipes thy Welcome celebrate And all the Nymphs strow Garlands at thy Feet May all the Purling Streams that murmuring pass The Shady Groves and Banks of Flowers The kind reposing Beds of Grass Contribute to their Softer Hours Mayst thou thy Muse and Mistress there Caress And may one heighten to ' ther 's Happiness And whilst thou so divinely dost Converse We are content to know and to admire thee in thy Sacred Verse To Mrs. W. On her Excellent Verses Writ in Praise of some I had made on the Earl of Rochester Written in a Fit of Sickness ENough kind Heaven to purpose I have liv'd And all my Sighs Languishments surviv'd My Stars in vain their sullen influence have shed Round my till now Unlucky Head I pardon all the Silent Hours I 've griev'd My Weary Nights and Melancholy Days When no Kind Power my Pain Reliev'd I lose you all you sad Remembrancers I lose you all in New-born Joys Joys that will dissipate my Falling Tears The Mighty Soul of Rochester's reviv'd Enough Kind Heaven to purpose I have liv'd I saw the Lovely Phantom no Disguise Veil'd the blest Vision from my Eyes 'T was all o're Rochester that pleas'd and did sur'prize Sad as the Grave I sat by Glimmering Light Such as attends Departing Souls by Night Pensive as absent Lovers left alone Or my poor Dove when his Fond Mate was gone Silent as Groves when only Whispering Gales Sigh through the Rushing Leaves As softly as a Bashful Shepherd Breaths To his Lov'd Nymph his Amorous Tales So dull