my breath XXXIX To Regina Collier on her Cruelty to Philaster TRiumphant Queen of scorn how ill doth sit In all that Sweetness such injurious Wit Unjust and Cruel what can be your prize To make one heart a double Sacrifice Where such ingenuous Rigour you do shew To break his Heart you break his Image too And by a Tyranny that 's strange and new You Murther him because he Worships you No Pride can raise you or can make him start Since Love and Honour do enrich his heart Be Wise and Good lest when Fate will be just She should o'rethrow those glories in the dust Rifle your Beauties and you thus forlorn Make a cheap Victim to another's scorn And in those Fetters which you do upbraid Your self a wretched Captive may be made Redeem the poyson'd Age let it be seen There 's no such freedom as to serve a Queen But you I see are lately Round-head grown And whom you vanquish you insult upon XL. To Philaster on his Metancholy for Regina GIve over now thy tears thou vain And double Murtherer For every minute of thy pain Wounds both thy self-and her Then leave this dulness for 't is our belief Thy Queen must cure or not deserve thy Grief XLI Philoclea's parting Feb. 25. 1650. KInder then a condemned Man's Reprieve Was your dear Company that bad me live When by Rosannia's silence I had been The wretchedst Martyr any Age hath seen But as when Traytors faint upon the Rack Tormentors strive to call their Spirits back Not out of kindness to preserve their breath But to increase the Torments of their Death So was I raised to this glorious height To make my fall the more unfortunate But this I know none ever dy'd before Upon a sadder or a nobler score XLII To Rosannia now Mrs. Mountague being with her Septemb. 25. 1652. 1. AS men that are with Visions grac'd Must have all other thoughts displac'd And buy those short descents of Light With loss of Sense or Spirit 's flight 2. So since thou wert my happiness I could not hope the rate was less And thus the Vision which I gain Is short t' enjoy and hard t' attain 3. Ah then what a poor trifle's all That thing which here we Pleasure call Since what our very Souls hath cost Is hardly got and quickly lost 4. Yet is there Justice in the fate For should we dwell in blest estate Our Joyes thereby would so inflame We should forget from whence we came 5. If this so sad a doom can quit Me for the follies I commit Let no estrangement on thy part Adde a new ruine to my heart 6. When on my self I do reflect I can no smile from thee expect But if thy Kindness hath no plea Some freedom grant for Charity 7. Else the just World must needs deny Our Friendship an Eternity This Love will ne're that title hold For thine 's too hot and mine 's too cold 8. Divided Rivers lose their name And so our too-unequal flame Parted will Passion be in me And an Indifference in thee 9. Thy Absence I could easier find Provided thou wert well and kind Then such a Presence as is this Made up of snatches of my bliss 10. So when the Earth long gasps for rain If she at last some few drops gain She is more parched then at first That small recruit increas'd the thirst XLIII To my Lucasia LEt dull Philosophers inquire no more In Nature's womb or Causes strivet ' explore By what strange harmony and course of things Each body to the whole a tribute brings What secret unions secret Neighbourings make And of each other how they do partake These are but low Experiments but he That Nature's harmony intire would see Must search agreeing Souls sit down and view How sweet the mixture is how full how true By what soft touches Spirits greet and kiss And in each other can complete their bliss A wonder so sublime it will admit No rude Spectator to contemplate it The Object will refine and he that can Friendship revere must be a Noble man How much above the common rate of things Must they then be from whom this Union springs But what 's all this to me who live to be Disprover of my own Morality And he that knew my unimproved Soul Would say I meant all Friendship to controul But Bodies move in time and so must Minds And though th' attempt no easie progress finds Yet quit me not lest I should desp'rate grow And to such Friendship adde some Patience now O may good Heav'n but so much Vertue lend To make me fit to be Lucasia's Friend But I 'le forsake my self and seek a new Self in her breast that 's far more rich and true Thus the poor Bee unmark'd doth humme and fly And droan'd with age would unregarded dy Unless some curious Artist thither come Will bless the Insect with an Amber-tomb Then glorious in its funeral the Bee Gets Eminence and gets Eternity XLIV On Controversies in Religion REligion which true Policy befriends Design'd by God to serve Man's noblest ends Is by that old Deceiver's subtile play Made the chief party in its own decay And meets that Eagle's destiny whose breast Felt the same shaft which his own feathers drest For that great Enemy of Souls perceiv'd The notion of a Deity was weav'd So closely in Man's Soul to ruine that He must at once the World depopulate But as those Tyrants who their Wills pursue If they expound old Laws need make no new So he advantage takes of Nature's light And raises that to a bare useless height Or while we seek for Truth he in the Quest Mixes a Passion or an Interest To make us lose it that I know not how 'T is not our Practice but our Quarrel now And as in th' Moon 's Eclipse some Pagans thought Their barbarous Clamours her deliverance wrought So we suppose that Truth oppressed lies And needs a Rescue from our Enmities But 't is Injustice and the Mind's Disease To think of gaining Truth by losing Peace Knowledge and Love if true do still unite God's Love and Knowledge are both Infinite And though indeed Truth does delight to lie At some Remoteness from a Common Eye Yet 't is not in a Thunder or a Noise But in soft Whispers and the stiller Voice Why should we then Knowledge so rudely treat Making our weapon what was meant our meat 'T is Ignorance that makes us quarrel so The Soul that 's dark will be contracted too Chimaera's make a noise swelling and vain And soon resolve to their own smoak again But a true Light the spirit doth dilate And robs it of its proud and sullen state Makes Love admir'd because 't is understood And makes us Wise because it makes us Good 'T is to a right Prospect of things that we Owe our Uprightness and our Charity For who resists a beam when shining bright Is not a Sinner of a common height That state 's a forfeiture
Imprimatur Nov. 25. 1663. Roger L'Estrange POEMS By the Incomparable Mrs. K. P. LONDON Printed by J. G. for Rich. Marriott at his Shop under S. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1664. To the most excellently accomplish'd Mrs. K. P. upon her Poems 1. WE allow'd your Beauty and we did submit To all the tyrannies of it Ah cruel Sex will you depose us too in Wit Orinda does in that too reign Does Man behind her in proud triumph draw And cancel great Apollo's Salick Law We our old Title plead in vain Man may be Head but Woman 's now our Brain Worse then Love's fire-arms heretofore In Beauty's camp it was not known Too many arms besides the Conquerour bore 'T was the great Cannon we brought down T assault the stubborn Town Orinda first did a bold sally make Our strongest quarter take And so successful prov'd that she Turn'd upon Love himself his own Artillery 2. Women as if the Body were the whole Did that and not the Soul Transmit to their posterity If in it something they conceiv'd Th' abortive Issue never liv'd 'T were shame and pity Orinda if in thee A Sp'rit so rich so noble and so high Should unmanur'd or barren lie But thou industriously hast sow'd and till'd The fair and fruitful Field And 't is a strange increase that it doth yield As when the happy Gods above Meet all together at a F east A secret joy unspeakably does move In their great Mother Semele's contented breast With no less pleasure thou methinks shouldst see Thus thy no less immortal Progeny And in their Birth thou no one touch do st find Of th' ancient C urse to Woman-kind Thou bring ' st not forth with pain It neither travel is nor labour of thy Brain So easily they from thee come And there is so much room I' th' unexhausted and unfathom'd womb That like the Holland Countess thou might ' st bear A Child for ev'ry day of all the fertile year 3. Thou dost my wonder would ' st my envy raise If to be prais'd I lov'd more then to praise Where-e're I see an excellence I must admire to see thy well-knit Sense Thy Numbers gentle and thy Passions high These as thy Forehead smooth those sparkling as thy Eye 'T is solid and 't is manly all Or rather 't is Angelical For as in Angels we Do in thy Verses see Both improv'd Sexes eminently meet They are then Man more strong and more then Woman sweet 4. They talk of Nine I know not who Female Chimaera's that o're Poets reign I ne're could find that Fancy true But have invok'd them oft I 'me sure in vain They talk of Sappho but alas the shame I' th' manners soil the lustre of her fame Orinda's inward Vertue is so bright That like a Lantern's fair enclosed light It through the Paper shines where she doth write Honour and Friendship and the gen'rous scorn Of things for which we were not born Things which of custom by a fond disease Like that of Girles our vicious stomachs please Are the instructive subjects of her Pen. And as the Roman Victory Taught our rude Land arts and civility At once she takes enslaves and governs Men. 5. But Rome with all her arts could ne're inspire A Female Breast with such a fire The warlike Amazonian Train Which in Elysium now do peaceful reign And Wit 's wild Empire before Arms prefer Find ' twill be settled in their Sex by her Merlin the Prophet and sure he 'l not lie In such an awful Company Does Prophecies of learn'd Orinda show What he had darkly spoke so long ago Even Boadicla's's angry Ghost Forgets her own misfortune and disgrace And to her injur'd Daughters now does boast That Rome's o'recome at last by a Woman of her race Abraham Cowley To the Incomparable Mrs. K. P. Author of these Poems Madam THe Beauty of your Lines is 't not so clear You need no Foil to make 't the more appear She that 's Superlative although alone Consider'd gains not by Comparison And yet whate're hath hitherto been writ By others tends to magnifie your Wit What 's said of Origen When he did well Interpret Texts no man did him excell When ill no man did e're go so awry We may t' your Sex though not to you apply For now we 've seen from a Feminine Quill Poetry good as e're was and as ill H. A. THE TABLE Poem 1 UPon the double Murther of K. Charles I. in answer to a libellous copy of Rimes made by Vavasor Powell Page 1 2 On the numerous access of the English to wait upon the King in Flanders 3 3 Arion to a Dolphin on His Majesty's passage into England 5 4 On the fair weather just at Coronation 9 5 To the Queen's Majesty on her arrival at Portsmouth May 14. 1662. 10 6 To the Queen-mother's Majesty Jan. 1. 1660 1. 13 7 Upon the Princess Royal her return into England 16 8 On the death of the illustrious Duke of Gloucester 18 9 To her Royal Highness the Duchess of York on her commanding me to send her some things that I had written 22 10 On the death of the Queen of Bohemia 24 11 On the 3 of September 1651. 27 12 To the noble Palaemon on his incomparable discourse of Friendship 29 13 To the right Honourable Alice Countess of Carbury on her enriching Wales with her presence 31 14 To Sir Edw. Deering the noble Silvander on his Dream and Navy personating Orinda's preferring Rosania before Solomon's traffick to Ophir 34 15 To the truly-noble Mr. Henry Lawes 37 16 A Sea-voyage from Tenby to Bristoll begun Sept. 5 1652. sent from Bristoll to Lucasia Sept. 8. 1652. 39 17 Friendship 's Mystery to my dearest Lucasia Set by Mr. Henry Lawes 43 18 Content to my dearest Lucasia 45 19 A Dialogue of Absence 'twixt Lucasia and Orinda Set by Mr. Henry Lawes 50 20 To my dear Sister Mrs. C. P. on her Nuptial 52 21 To Mr. Henry Vaughan Silurist on his Poems 54 22 A retir'd Friendship to Ardelia 56 23 To Mrs. Mary Carne when Philaster courted her 59 24 To Mr. J. B. the noble Cratander upon a Composition of his which he was not willing to own publickly 62 25 Lucasia 64 26 Wiston Vault 68 27 Friendship in Embleme or the Seal To my dearest Lucasia 70 28 In memory of T. P. who died at Action May 24. 1660. at 12. and ½ of age 75 29 In memory of that excellent person Mrs. Mary Lloyd of Bodidrist in Denbigh-shire who died Nov. 13. 1656. after she came thither from Pembroke-shire 81 30 To the truly-competent judge of Honour Lucasia upon a scandalous Libel made by J. Jones 87 31 To Antenor on a Paper of mine which J. Jones threatens to publish to prejudice him 91 32 To the truly-noble Mrs. Anne Owen on my first approches 93 33 Rosania shadowed whilest Mrs. Mary Awbrey 94 34 To the Queen of Inconstancy Regina Collier in Antwerp 100 35 To the excellent
Having her Heart to be my Monument Though ne're Stone to me 't wil Stone for me prove By the peculiar miracles of Love There I 'le Inscription have which no Tomb gives Not Here Orinda lies but Here she lives XXVII Friendship in Embleme or the Seal To my dearest Lucasia 1. THe Hearts thus intermixed speak A Love that no bold shock can break For joyn'd and growing both in one Neither can be disturb'd alone 2. That means a mutual Knowledge too For what is 't either Heart can doe Which by its panting Centinel It does not to the other tell 3. That Friendship Hearts so much refines It nothing but it self designs The Hearts are free from lower ends For each point to the other tends 4. They flame 't is true and several wayes But still those Flames do so much raise That while to either they incline They yet are noble and divine 5. From smoke or hurt those Flames are free From grosness or mortality The Heart like Moses Bush presumed Warm'd and enlightned not consumed 6. The Compasses that stand above Express this great immortal Love For Friends like them can prove this true They are and yet they are not two 7. And in their posture is exprest Friendship 's exalted Interest Each follows where the other leans And what each does each other means 8. And as when one foot does stand fast And t'other circles seeks to cast The steddy part does regulate And make the Wandrer's motion straight 9. So Friends are onely two in this T'reclaim each other when they miss For whosoe're will grosly fall Can never be a Friend at all 10. And as that useful Instrument For Even lines was ever meant So Friendship from good Angels springs To teach the world Heroick things 11. As these are found out in design To rule and measure every Line So Friendship governs actions best Prescribing unto all the rest 12. And as in Nature nothing's set So just as Lines in Number met So Compasses for these b'ing made Do Friendship 's harmony persuade 13. And like to them so Friends may own Extension not Division Their Points like Bodies separate But Head like Souls knows no such fate 14. And as each part so well is knit That their Embraces ever fit So Friends are such by destiny And no third can the place supply 15. There needs no Motto to the Seal But that we may the mind reveal To the dull Eye it was thought fit That Friendship onely should be writ 16. But as there are Degrees of bliss So there 's no Friendship meant by this But such as will transmit to Fame Lucasia and Orinda's name XXVIII In Memory of T. P. who died at Action the 24. May 1660. at 12. and ½ of Age. IF I could ever write a lasting Verse It should be laid dear heart upon thy Herse But Sorrow is no Muse and does confess That it least can what it would most express Yet that I may some bounds to Grief allow I 'le try if I can weep in Numbers now Ah beauteous Blossom too untimely dead Whither ah whither is thy sweetness fled Where are the charms that alwayes did arise From the prevailing language of thy Eyes Where is thy lovely air and lovely meene And all the wonders that in thee were seen Alas in vain in vain on thee I rave There is no pity in the stupid Grave But so the Bankrupt sitting on the brim Of those fierce Billows which had ruin'd him Begs for his lost Estate and does complain To the inexorable Flouds in vain As well we may enquire when Roses die To what retirement their sweet Odours flie Whither their Virtues and their Blushes haste When the short triumph of their life is past Or call their perishing Beauties back with tears As adde one moment to thy finish'd years No thou art gone and thy presaging Mind So thriftily thy early hours design'd That hasty Death was baffled in his Pride Since nothing of thee but thy Body dy'd Thy Soul was up betimes and so concern'd To grasp all Excellence that could be learn'd That finding nothing fill her thirsting here To the Spring-head she went to quench it there And so prepar'd that being freed from sin She quickly might become a Cherubin Thou wert all Soul and through thy Eyes it shin'd Asham'd and angry to be so confin'd It long'd to be uncag'd and thither flown Where it might know as clearly as 't was known In these vast hopes we might thy change have found But that Heav'n blinds whom it decrees to wound For Parts so soon at so sublime a pitch A Judgment so mature Fancy so rich Never appear unto unthankful Men But as a Vision to be hid again So glorious Scenes in Masques Spectators view With the short pleasure of an hour or two But that once past the Ornaments are gone The Lights extinguish'd and the Curtains drawn Yet all these Gifts were thy less noble part Nor was thy Head so worthy as thy Heart Where the Divine Impression shin'd so clear As snatch'd thee hence and yet endear'd thee here For what in thee did most command our love Was both the cause and sign of thy remove Such fools are we so fatally we choose For what we most would keep we soonest loose The humble greatness of thy Pious thought Sweetness unforc'd and Bashfulness untaught The native Candour of thine open breast And all the Beams wherein thy Worth was drest Thy Wit so bright so piercing and immense Adorn'd with wise and lovely Innocence Might have foretold thou wert not so complete But that our joy might be as short as great 'T is so and all our cares and hopes of thee Fled like a vanish'd Dream or wither'd Tree So the poor Swain beholds his ripened Corn By some rough Wind without a Sickle torn Never ah never let sad Parents guess At once remove of future happiness But reckon Children 'mong those passing joys Which one hour gives and the next hour destroys Alas we were secure of our content But find too late that it was onely lent To be a Mirrour wherein we may see How frail we are how spotless we should be But if to thy blest Soul my grief appears Forgive and pity these injurious tears Impute them to Affection 's sad excess Which will not yield to Nature's tenderness Since 't was through dearest ties and highest trust Continued from thy Cradle to thy Dust And so rewarded and confirm'd by thine That wo is me I thought thee too much mine But I 'le resign and follow thee as fast As my unhappy Minutes will make hast Till when the fresh remembrances of thee Shall be my Emblems of Mortality For such a loss as this bright Soul is not Ever to be repaired or forgot XXIX In memory of that excellent person Mrs. Mary Lloyd of Bodiscist in Denbigh-shire who died Nov. 13. 1656. after she came thither from Pembroke-shire I Cannot hold for though to write were rude Yet to be silent were Ingratitude
a thing That makes each Woman Man each Man a King Doth so much lose and from its height so fall That some contend to have no Soul at all 'T is either not observ'd or at the best By Passion fought withall by Sin deprest Freedom of Will God's Image is forgot And if we know it we improve it not Our Thoughts though nothing can be more our own Are still unguided very seldom known Time 'scapes our hands as Water in a Sieve We come to die e're we begin to live Truth the most sutable and noble prize Food of our Spirits yet neglected lies Errour and Shadows are our choice and we Owe our perdition to our own decree If we search Truth we make it more obscure And when it shines we can't the light endure For most men now who plod and eat and drink Have nothing less their bus'ness then to think And those few that enquire how small a share Of Truth they find how dark their Notions are That serious Evenness that calms the Breast And in a Tempest can bestow a Rest We either not attempt or else decline By ev'ry trifle snatch'd from our design Others he must in his deceits involve Who is not true unto his own Resolve We govern not our selves but loose the Reins Courting our Bondage to a thousand chains And with as many Slaveries content As there are Tyrants ready to torment We live upon a Rack extended still To one Extreme or both but always ill For since our Fortune is not understood We suffer less from bad then from the good The Sting is better drest and longer lasts As Surfeits are more dangerous then Fasts And to complete the misery to us We see Extremes are still contiguous And as we run so fast from what we hate Like Squibs on Ropes to know no middle state So outward storms strengthned by us we find Our Fortune as disordered as our Mind But that 's excus'd by this it doth its part A trech'rous World befits a trech'rous Heart All ill 's our own the outward storms we lothe Receive from us their Birth their Sting or both And that our Vanity be past a doubt 'T is one new Vanity to find it out Happy are they to whom God gives a Grave And from themselves as from his wrath doth save 'T is good not to be born but if we must The next good is soon to return to dust When th' uncag'd Soul fled to Eternity Shall rest and live and sing and love and see Here we but crawl and grapple play and cry Are first our own then others enemy But there shall be defac'd both stain and score For Time and Death and Sin shall be no more LXXI The Soul 1. HOw vain a thing is Man whose noblest part That Soul w th through the World doth come Traverses Heav'n finds out the depths of Art Yet is so ignorant at home 2. In every Brook our Mirrour we can find Reflections of our face to be But a true Optick to present our Mind We hardly get and darkly see 3. Yet in the search after our selves we run Actions and Causes we survey And when the weary Chase is almost done Then from our Quest we slip away 4. 'T is strange and sad that since we do believe We have a Soul must never die There are so few that can a Reason give How it obtains that Life or why 5. I wonder not to find those that know most Profess so much their Ignorance Since in their own Souls greatest Wits are lost And of themselves have scarce a glance 6. But somewhat sure doth here obscurely lie That above Dross would fain advance And pants and catches at Eternity As 't were its own Inheritance 7. A Soul self-mov'd which can dilate contract Pierces and judges things unseen But this gross heap of Matter cannot act Unless impulsed from within 8. Distance and Quantity to Bodies due The state of Souls cannot admit And all the Contraries which Nature knew Meet there nor hurt themselves nor it 9. God never made a Body so bright and clean Which Good and Evil could discern What these words Honesty and Honour mean The Soul alone knows how to learn 10. Aud though 't is true she is imprison'd here Yet hath she Notions of her own Which Sense doth onely jog awake and clear But cannot at the first make known 11. The Soul her own felicity hath laid And independent on the Sense Sees the weak terrours which the World invade With pity or with negligence 12. So unconcern'd she lives so much above The Rubbish of a clotty Jail That nothing doth her Energy improve So much as when those structures fail 13. She 's then a substance subtile strong and pure So immaterial and refin'd As speaks her from the Body's fate secure As wholly of a diff'rent kind 14. Religion for reward in vain would look Vertue were doom'd to misery All actions were like bubbles in a brook Were it not for Mortality 15. And as that Conquerour who Millions spent Thought it too mean to give a Mite So the World's Judge can never be content To bestow less then Infinite 16. Treason against Eternal Majesty Must have eternal Justice too And since unbounded Love did satisfie He will unbounded Mercy shew 17. It is our narrow thoughts shorten these things By their companion Flesh inclin'd Which feeling its own weakness gladly brings The same opinion to the Mind 18. We stifle our own Sun and live in Shade But where its beams do once appear They make that person of himself afraid And to his own acts most severe 19. For ways to sin close and our breasts disguise From outward search we soon may find But who can his own Soul bribe or surprise Or sin without a sting behind 20. He that commands himself is more a Prince Then he who Nations keeps in aw And those who yield to what their Souls convince Shall never need another Law LXXII Happiness NAture courts Happiness although it be Unknown as the Athenian Deity It dwells not in Man's Sense yet he supplies That want by growing fond of its disguise The false appearances of Joy deceive And seeking her unto her like we cleave For sinning Man hath scarce sense left to know Whether the Plank he grasps will hold or no. While all the business of the World is this To seek that Good which by mistake they miss And all the several Passions men express Are but for Pleasure in a diff'rent dress They hope for Happiness in being Great Or Rich or Lov'd then hug their own conceit And those which promise what they never had I' th' midst of Laughter leave the spirit sad But the Good man can find this treasure out For which in vain others do dig and doubt And hath such secret full Content within Though all abroad be storms yet he can sing His peace is made all 's quiet in that place Where Nature 's cur'd and exercis'd by Grace This inward Calm
mankind wish for in vain But yet his Pleasure 's follow'd with a Groan For man was never born to be alone 8. Content her-self best comprehends Borwixt-two souls and they two friends Whose either joyes in both are fixed And multiply'd by being mixed Whose minds and interests are still the same Their Griefs when once imparted lose their name 10. These far remov'd from all bold noise And what is worse all hollow joyes Who never had a mean design Whose flame is serious and divine And calm and even must contented be For they 've both Union and Society 11. Then my Lucasia we have Whatever Love can give or crave With scorn or pity can survey The Trifles which the most betray With innocence and perfect friendship fired By Vertue joyn'd and by our Choice retired 12. Whose Mirrours are the crystal Brooks Or else each others Hearts and Looks Who cannot wish for other things Then Privacy and Friendship brings Whose thoughts and persons chang'd and mixt are one Enjoy Content or else the World hath none XIX A Dialogue of Absence 'twixt Lucasia and Orinda Set by Mr. Hen. Lawes Luc. SAy my Orinda why so sad Orin Absence frō thee doth tear my heart Which since with thine it union had Each parting splits Luc. And can we part Orin Our Bodies must Luc. But never we Our Souls without the help of Sense By wayes more noble and more free Can meet and hold intelligence Orin And yet those Souls when first they met Lookt out at windows through the Eyes Luc. But soon did such acquaintance get Not Fate nor Time can them surprize Orin Absence will rob us of that bliss To which this Friendship title brings Love's fruits and joyes are made by this Useless as Crowns to captiv'd Kings Luc. Friendship 's a Science and we know There Contemplation's most employ'd Orin Religion's so but practick too And both by niceties destroy'd Luc. But who ne're parts can never meet And so that happiness were lost Orin Thus Pain and Death are sadly sweet Since Health and Heav'n such price must cost Chorus But we shall come where no rude hand shall sever And there wee 'l meet and part no more for ever XX. To my dear Sister Mrs. C. P. on her Nuptial WE will not like those men our offerings pay Who crown the cup then think they crown the day We make no garlands nor an altar build Which help not Joy but Ostentation yield Where mirth is justly grounded these wild toyes ********** 2. But these shall be my great Solemnities Orinda's wishes for Cassandra's bliss May her Content be as unmix'd and pure As my Affection and like that endure And that strong Happiness may she still find Not owing to her Fortune but her Mind 3. May her Content and Duty be the same And may she know no Grief but in the name May his and her Pleasure and Love be so Involv'd and growing that we may not know Who most Affection or most Peace engrost Whose Love is strongest or whose Bliss is most 4. May nothing accidental e're appear But what shall with new bonds their Souls endear And may they count the hours as they pass By their own Joys and not by Sun or Glass While every day like this may sacred prove To Friendship Gratitude and strictest Love XXI To Mr. Henry Vaughan Silurist on his Poems HAd I ador'd the multitude and thence Got an antipathy to Wit and Sense And hugg'd that fate in hope the World would grant 'T was good affection to be ignorant Yet the least Ray of thy bright fancy seen I had converted or excuseless been For each Birth of thy Muse to after-times Shall expiate for all this Age's crimes First shines thy Amoret twice crown'd by thee Once by thy Love next by thy Poetry Where thou the best of Unions dost dispence Truth cloth'd in Wit and Love in Innocence So that the muddiest Lovers may learn here No Fountains can be sweet that are not clear There Juvenal reviv'd by thee declares How flat man's Joys are and how mean his Cares And generally upbraids the World that they Should such a value for their Ruine pay But when thy sacred Muse diverts her Quill The Landskip to design of Leon's hill As nothing else was worthy her or thee So we admire almost t' Idolatry What Savage breast would not be rap'd to find Such Jewels in such Cabinets enshrin'd Thou fill'd with Joys too great to see or count Descend'st from thence like Moses from the Mount And with a candid yet unquestion daw Restor'st the Golden Age when Verse was Law Instructing us thou who secur'st thy fame That nothing can disturb it but my name Nay I have hopes that standing so near thine 'T will lose its dress and by degrees refine Live till the disabused World consent All Truths of Use or Strength or Ornament Are with such Harmony by thee display'd As the whole World was first by Number made And from the charming Rigour thy Muse brings Learn there 's no pleasure but in serious things XXII A retir'd Friendship to Ardelia COme my Ardelia to this Bower Where kindly mingling Souls awhile Let 's innocently spend an hour And at all ferious follies smile 2. Here is no quarrelling for Crowns Nor fear of changes in our Fate No trembling at the great ones frowns Nor any slavery of State 3. Here 's no disguise nor treachery Nor any deep conceal'd design From Bloud and Plots this place is free And calm as are those looks of thine 4. Here let us sit and bless our Stars Who did such happy qulet give As that remov'd from noise of Wars In one anothers hearts we live 5. Why should we entertain a fear Love cares not how the World is turn'd If crouds of dangers should appear Yet Friendship can be unconcern'd 6. We wear about us such a charm No horrour can be our offence For mischief's self can doe no harm To Friendship or to Innocence 7. Let 's mark how soon Apollo's beams Command the flocks to quit their meat And not entreat the neighbouring Springs To quench their thirst but cool their heat 8. In such a scorching Age as this Who would not ever seek a shade Deserve their Happiness to miss As having their own peace betray'd 9. But we of one anothers mind Assur'd the boisterous World disdain With quiet Souls and unconfin'd Enjoy what Princes wish in vain XXIII To Mrs. Mary Carne when Philaster courted her Madam AS some great Conqueror who knows no bounds But hunting Honour in a thousand wounds Pursues his rage and thinks that Triumph cheap That 's but attended with the common heap Till his more happy fortune doth afford Some Royal Captive that deserv'd his sword And onely now is of his Laurel proud Thinking his dang'rous valour well bestow'd But then retreats and spending hate no more Thinks Mercy now what Courage was before As Cowardise in fight so equally He doth abhor a bloudy Victory So Madam though your Beauty were
pursued A Wit so strong that who would it define Will need one ten times more acute then mine Yet rul'd so that its Vigour manag'd thus Becomes at once graceful and generous Whose Honour has so delicate a Sense Who alwayes pardon never give offence Who needing nothing yet to all are kind Who have so large a Heart so rich a Mind Whose Friendship still 's of the obliging side And yet so free from tyranny and Pride Who do in love like Jonathan descend And strip your self to cloath your happy friend Whose kindness and whose modesty is such T' expect so little and deserve so much Who have such candid worth such dear concern Where we so much may love and so much learn Whose very wonder though it fills and shines It never to an ill excess declines But all are found so sweetly opposite As are in Titian's Pieces Shade and Light That he that would your great Description try Though he write well would be as lost as I Who of injurious Zele convicted stand To draw you with so bold and bad a hand But that like other Glories I presume You will enlighten where you might consume XLVI Parting with Lucasia Jan. 13. 1657. A Song 1. WEll we will doe that rigid thing Which makes Spectators think we part Though Absence hath for none a sting But those who keep each others heart 2. And when our Sense is dispossest Our labouring Souls will heave and pant And grasp for one anothers breast Since they their Conveyances want 3. Nay we have felt the tedious smart Of absent Friendship and do know That when we die we can but part And who knows what we shall doe now 4. Yet I must go we will submit And so our own Disposers be For while we noblier suffer it We triumph o're Necessity 5. By this we shall be truly great If having other things o'recome To make our victory complete We can be Conquerors at home 6. Nay then to meet we may conclude And all Obstructions overthrow Since we our Passion have subdu'd Which is the strongest thing I know XLVII Against Pleasure Set by Dr. Coleman 1. THere 's no such thing as Pleasure 'T is all a perfect Cheat Which does but shine and disappear Whose Charm is but Deceit The empty bribe of yielding Souls Which first betrays and then controuls 2. 'T is true it looks at distance fair But if we do approch The fruit of Sodom will impair And perish at a touch It being then in phancy less And we expect more then possess 3. For by our Pleasures we are cloy'd And so Desire is done Or else like Rivers they make wide The Channel where they run And either way true bliss destroys Making Us narrow or our Joys 4. We covet Pleasure easily But it not so possess For many things must make it be But one way makes it less Nay were our state as we could chuse it 'T would be consum'd for fear to lose it 5. What art thou then thou winged Air More swift then winged Fame Whos 's next successour is Despair And its attendant Shame Th' Experience-Prince then reason had Who said of Pleasure It is mad XLVIII Out of Mr. More 's Cop. Conf. THrice happy he whose Name is writ above Who doeth good though gaining infamy Requiteth evil turns with hearty love And cares not what befalls him outwardly Whose worth is in himself and onely bliss In his pure Conscience which doth nought amiss Who placeth pleasure in his purged Soul And Vertuous Life his treasure does esteem Who can his Passions master and controul And that true Lordly Manliness doth deem Who from this World himself hath dearly quit Counts nought his own but what lives in his sp'rit So when his Spirit from this vain World shall flit It bears all with it whatsoe're was dear Unto it self passing an easie Fit As kindly Corn ripened comes out of th' Ear. Careless of what all idle men will say He takes his own and calmly goes his way Eternal Reason Glorious Majesty Compar'd to whom what can be said to be Whose Attributes are Thee who art alone Cause of all various things and yet but One Whose Essence can no more be search'd by Man Then Heav'n thy Throne be grasped with a Span. Yet if this great Creation was design'd To several ends fitted for every kind Sure Man the World's Epitome must be Form'd to the best that is to study thee And as our Dignity 't is Duty too Which is summ'd up in this to know and doo These comely rowes of Creatures spell thy Name Whereby we grope to find from whence they came By thy own Change of Causes brought to think There must be one then find that highest Link Thus all created Excellence we see Is a resemblance saint and dark of thee Such shadows are produc'd by the Moon-beams Of Trees or Houses in the running streams Yet by Impressions born with us we find How good great just thou art how unconfin'd Here we are swallow'd up and daily dwell Safely adoring what we cannot tell All we know is thou art supremely good And dost delight to be so understood A spicy Mountain on the Universe On which thy richest Odours do disperse But as the Sea to fill a Vessel heaves More greedily then any Cask receives Besieging round to find some gap in it Which will a new Infusion admit So dost thou covet that thou mayst dispence Upon the empty World thy Influence Lov'st to disburse thy self in kindness Thus The King of Kings waits to be gracious On this account O God enlarge my heart To entertain what thou wouldst fain impart Nor let that Soul by several titles thine And most capacious form'd for things Divine So nobly meant that when it most doth miss 'T is in mistaken pantings after Bliss Degrade it self in sordid things delight Or by prophaner mixtures lose its right Oh! that with fixt unbroken thoughts it may Admire the light which does obscure the day And since 't is Angels work it hath to doe May its composure be like Angels too When shall these clogs of Sense and Fancy break That I may hear the God within me speak When with a silent and retired art Shall I with all this empty hurry part To the Still Voice above my Soul advance My light and joy 's plac'd in his Countenance By whose dispence my Soul to such frame brought Maytame each trech'rous fix each scat'ringthought With such distinctions all things here behold And so to separate each dross from gold That nothing my free Soul may satisfie But t' imitate enjoy and study thee XLIX To Mrs. M. A. upon Absence Set by Mr. Hen. Lawes 1. T Is now since I began to die Four Moneths and more yet gasping live Wrapp'd up in sorrow do I lie Hoping yet doubting a Reptieve Adam from Paradise expell'd Just such a wretched being held 2. 'T is not thy Love I fear to lose That will in spight of absence hold But 't is the benefit
Flame Fate dares not move And courting Death to be our friend Our Lives together too shall end 10. A Dew shall dwell upon our Tomb Of such a quality That fighting Armies thither come Shall reconciled be We 'l ask no Epitaph but say ORINDA and ROSANNIA LIV. To my dearest Antenor on his Parting THough it be just to grieve when I must part With him that is the Guardian of my Heart Yet by an happy change the loss of mine Is with advantage paid in having thine And I by that dear Guest instructed find Absence can doe no hurt to Souls combin'd As we were born to love brought to agree By the impressions of Divine Decree So when united nearer we became It did not weaken but increase our Flame Unlike to those who distant joys admire But slight them when possest of their desire Each of our Souls did in its temper fit And in the other's Mould so fashion'd it That now our Inclinations both are grown Like to our Interests and Persons one And Souls whom such an Union fortifies Passion can ne're destroy nor Fate surprize Now as in Watches though we do not know When the Hand moves we find it still doth go So I by secret Sympathy inclin'd Will absent meet and underst and thy mind And thou at thy return shalt find thy Heart Still safe with all the love thou didst impart For though that treasure I have ne're deserv'd It shall with strong Religion be preserv'd And besides this thou shalt in me survey Thy self reflected while thou art away For what some forward Arts do undertake The Images of absent Friends to make And represent their actions in a Glass Friendship it self can onely bring to pass That Magick which both Fate and Time beguiles And in a moment runs a thousand miles So in my Breast thy Picture drawn shall be My Guide Life Object Friend and Destiny And none shal know though they imploy their wit Which is the right Antenor thou or it LV. Engraven on Mr. Collier's Tomb-stone at Bedlington HEre what remains of him doth lie Who was the World's Epitome Religion's Darling Merchants Glory Mens true Delight and Vertue 's Story Who though a Prisoner to the Grave A glorious Freedom once shall have Till when no Monument is fit But what 's beyond our love and wit LVI On the little Regina Collier on the same Tomb-stone VErtue 's Blossom Beautie 's Bud The Pride of all that 's fair and good By Death's fierce hand was snatched hence In her state of Innocence Who by it this advantage gains Her wages got without her pains LVII Friendship LEt the dull brutish World that know not Love Continue Hereticks and disapprove That noble Flame but the refined know 'T is all the Heaven we have here below Nature subsists by Love and they do tie Things to their Causes but by Sympathy Love chains the different Elements in one Great Harmony link'd to the Heav'nly Throne And as on Earth so the blest Quire above Of Saints and Angels are maintain'd by Love That is their Business and Felicity And will be so to all Eternity That is the Ocean our Affections here Are but streams borrow'd from the Fountain there And 't is the noblest Argument to prove A Beauteous mind that it knows how to Love Those kind Impressions which Fate can't controul Are Heaven's mintage on a worthy Soul For Love is all the Arts Epitome And is the Sum of all Divinity He 's worse then Beast that cannot Love and yet It is not bought for Money Pains or Wit For no change or design can Spirits move But the Eternal destiny of Love And when two Souls are chang'd and mixed so It is what they and none but they can doe This this is Friendship that abstracted flame Which groveling Mortals know not how to name All Love is sacred and the Marriage-tie Hath much of Honour and Divinity But Lust Design or some unworthy ends May mingle there which are despis'd by Friends Passion hath violent extreams and thus All oppositions are contiguous So when the end is serv'd their Love will bate If Friendship make it not more fortunate Friendship that Love's Elixir that pure fire Which burns the clearer 'cause it burns the higher For Love like earthly fires which will decay If the material fuel be away Is with offensive smoke accompanied And by resistance only is supplied But Friendship like the fiery Element With its own Heat and Nourishment content Where neither hurt nor smoke nor noise is made Scorns the assistance of a forein aid Friendship like Heraldry is hereby known Richest when plainest bravest when alone Calm as a Virgin and more Innocent Then sleeping Doves are and as much content As Saints in Visions quiet as the Night But clear and open as the Summer's light United more then Spirits Faculties Higher in thoughts then are the Eagle's eyes Free as first Agents are true Friends and kind As but their selves selves I can no likeness find LVIII The Enquiry 1. IF we no old Historian's name Authentick will admit But think all said of Friendship 's fame But Poetry or Wit Yet what 's rever'd by Minds so pure Must be a bright Idea sure 2. But as our Immortality By inward sense we find Judging that if it could not be It would not be design'd So here how could such Copies fall If there were no Original 3. But if Truth be in ancient Song Or Story we believe If the inspir'd and greater Throng Have scorned to deceive There have been Hearts whose Friendship gave Them thoughts at once both soft and grave 4. Among that consecrated Crew Some more Seraphick shade Lend me a favourable Clew Now mists my eyes invade Why having fill'd the World with fame Left you so little of your flame 5. Why is 't so difficult to see Two Bodies and one Mind And why are those who else agree So difficulty kind Hath Nature such fantastick art That she can vary every Heart 6. Why are the bands of Friendship tied With so remiss a knot That by the most it is defied And by the most forgot Why do we step with so light sense From Friendship to Indifference 7. If Friendship Sympathy impart Why this ill-shuffled game That Heart can never meet with Heart Or Flame encounter Flame What does this Cruelty create Is 't the Intrigue of Love or Fate 8. Had Friendship ne're been known to Men The Ghost at last confest The World had then a stranger been To all that Heav'n possest But could it all be here acquir'd Not Heav'n it self would be desir'd LIX To my Lucasia in defence of declared Friendship 1. O My Lucasia let us speak our Love And think not that impertinent can be Which to us both doth such assurance prove And whence we find how justly we agree 2. Before we knew the treasures of our Love Our noble aims our joys did entertain And shall enjoyment nothing then improve 'T were best for us then to begin again
prevents his Enemies For he can neither envy nor despise But in the beauty of his ordered Mind Doth still a new rich satisfaction find Innocent Epicure whose single breast Can furnish him with a continual feast A Prince at home and Sceptres can refuse Valuing onely what he cannot lose He studies to doe good a man may be Harmless for want of Opportunity But he 's industrious kindness to dispence And therein onely covets eminence Others do court applause and fame but he Thinks all that giddy noise but Vanity He takes no pains to be observ'd or seen While all his acts are echoed from within He 's still himself when Company are gone Too well employ'd ever to be alone For studying God in all his volumes he Begins the business of Eternity And unconcern'd without retains a power To suck like Bees a sweet from ev'ry flower And as the Manna of the Israelites Had several tastes to please all Appetites So his Contentment is that catholick food That makes all states seem fit as well as good He dares not wish nor his own fate propound But if God sends reads Love in every wound And would not lose for all the joys of Sense The glorious pleasures of Obedience His better part can neither change nor lose And all God's will can bear can doe can chuse LXXIII Death 1. HOw weak a Star doth rule Mankind Which owes its ruine to the same Causes which Nature had design'd To cherish and preserve the frame 2. As Commonwealths may be secure And no remote Invasion dread Yet may a sadder fall endure From Traitors in their bosom bred 3. So while we feel no violence And on our active Health do trust A secret hand doth snatch us hence And tumbles us into the dust 4. Yet carelesly we run our race As if we could Death's summons wave And think not on the narrow space Between a Table and a Grave 5. But since we cannot Death reprieve Our Souls and Fame we ought to mind For they our Bodies will survive That goes beyond this stayes behind 6. If I be sure my Soul is safe And that my Actions will provide My Tomb a nobler Epitaph Then that I onely liv'd and dy'd 7. So that in various accidents I Conscience may and Honour keep I with that ease and innocence Shall die as Infants go to sleep LXXIV To the Queen's Majesty on her late Sickness and Recovery THe publick Gladness that 's to us restor'd For your escape from what we so deplor'd Will want as well resemblance as belief Unless our Joy be measur'd by our Grief When in your Fever we with terrour saw At once our Hopes and Happiness withdraw And every crisis did with jealous fear Enquire the News we scarce durst stay to hear Some dying Princes have their Servants slain That after death they might not want a Train Such cruelty were here a needless sin For had our fatal Fears prophetick been Sorrow alone that service would have done And you by Nations had been waited on Your danger was in ev'ry Visage seen And onely yours was quiet and serene But all our zealous Grief had been in vain Had not Great Charles's call'd you back again Who did your suff'rings with such pain discern He lost three Kingdoms once with less concern Lab'ring your safety he neglected his Nor fear'd he Death in any shape but this His Genius did the bold Distemper tame And his rich Tears quench'd the rebellious Flame At once the Thracian Hero lov'd and griev'd Till he his lost Felicity retriev'd And with the moving accents of his wo His Spouse recover'd from the shades below So the King's grief your threatned loss withstood Who mourn'd with the same fortune that he woo'd And to his happy Passion we have been Now twice oblig'd for so ador'd a Queen But how severe a Choice had you to make When you must Heav'n delay or Him forsake Yet since those joys you made such haste to find Had scarce been full if he were left behind How well did Fate decide your inward strife By making him a Present of your Life Which rescu'd Blessing we must long enjoy Since our Offences could it not destroy For none but Death durst rival him in you And Death himself was baffled in it too FINIS Errata For Rosannia read Rosania throughout Pag. 81. for Bodiscist read Bodidrist LXXV Upon Mr. Abraham Cowley's Retirement ODE I. NO no unfaithful World thou hast Too long my easie Heart betray'd And me too long thy Foot-ball made But I am wiser grown at last And will improve by all that I have past I know'twas just I should be practis'd on For I was told before And told in sober and instructive lore How little all that trusted thee have won And yet I would make haste to be undone Now by my suff'ring I am better taught And shall no more commit that stupid fault Go get some other Fool Whom thou mayst next cajole On me thy frowns thou dost in vain bestow For I know how To be as coy and as reserv'd as thou 2. In my remote and humble seat Now I 'm again possest Of that late fugitive my Breast From all thy tumults and from all thy heat I le find a quiet and a cool retreat And on the Fetters I have worn Look with experienc'd and revengeful scorn In this my sov'raign Privacy 'T is true I cannot govern thee But yet my self I may subdue And that 's the nobler Empire of the two If ev'ry Passion had got leave Its satisfaction to receive Yet I would it a higher pleasure call To conquer one then to indulge them all 3. For thy inconstant Sea no more I 'le leave that safe and solid Shore No though to prosper in the cheat Thou shouldst my Destiny defeat And make me be Belov'd or Rich or Great Nor from my self shouldst me reclaim With all the noise and all the pomp of Fame Judiciously I 'le thee despise Too small the Bargain and too great the Price For them to cozen twice At length this secret I have learn'd Who will be happy will be unconcern'd Must all their Comfort in their Bosom wear And seek their treasure and their power there 4. No other Wealth will I aspire But of Nature to admire Nor envy on a Laurel will bestow Whil'st I have any in my Garden grow And when I would be Great 'T is but ascending to a Seat Which Nature in a lofty Rock hath built A Throne as free from trouble as from guilt Where when my Soul her wings does raise Above what Worldlings fear or praise With innocence and quiet pride I 'le sit And see the humble Waves pay tribute to my feet O Life Divine when free from joys diseas'd Not always merry but 't is always pleas'd 5. A Heart which is too great a thing To be a Present for a Persian King Which God himself would have to be his Court Where Angels would officiously resort From its own height should much decline If this Converse it should resign Ill-natur'd World for thine Thy unwise rigour hath thy Empire lost It hath not onely set me free But it hath made me see They onely can of thy possession boast Who do enjoy thee least and understand thee most For lo the Man whom all Mankind admir'd By ev'ry Grace adorn'd and ev'ry Muse inspir'd Is now triumphantly retir'd The mighty Cowley this hath done And over thee a Parthian Conquest won Which future Ages shall adore And which in this subdues thee more Then either Greek or Roman ever could before FINIS