On land and on seas,
At noon of night are a-working.
The storm will arise,
And trouble the skies
This night; and, more for the wonder, The ghost from the tomb
Affrighted shall come,
Call’d out by the clap of the thunder.
*43*
THE MAD MAID’S SONG
Good morrow to the day so fair;
Good morning, sir, to you;
Good morrow to mine own torn hair,
Bedabbled with the dew.
Good morning to this primrose too;
Good morrow to each maid;
That will with flowers the tomb bestrew Wherein my Love is laid.
Ah! woe is me, woe, woe is me,
Alack and well-a-day!
For pity, sir, find out that bee,
Which bore my Love away.
I’ll seek him in your bonnet brave;
I’ll seek him in your eyes;
Nay, now I think they’ve made his grave I’ th’ bed of strawberries.
I’ll seek him there; I know, ere this, The cold, cold earth doth shake him;
But I will go, or send a kiss
By you, sir, to awake him.
Pray hurt him not; though he be dead, He knows well who do love him;
And who with green turfs rear his head, And who do rudely move him.
He’s soft and tender, pray take heed, With bands of cowslips bind him,
And bring him home;–but ’tis decreed That I shall never find him.
*44*
THE CHEAT OF CUPID; OR, THE UNGENTLE GUEST
One silent night of late,
When every creature rested,
Came one unto my gate,
And knocking, me molested.
Who’s that, said I, beats there,
And troubles thus the sleepy?
Cast off; said he, all fear,
And let not locks thus keep ye.
For I a boy am, who
By moonless nights have swerved;
And all with showers wet through,
And e’en with cold half starved.
I pitiful arose,
And soon a taper lighted;
And did myself disclose
Unto the lad benighted.
I saw he had a bow,
And wings too, which did shiver;
And looking down below,
I spied he had a quiver.
I to my chimney’s shine
Brought him, as Love professes,
And chafed his hands with mine,
And dried his dropping tresses.
But when he felt him warm’d,
Let’s try this bow of ours
And string, if they be harm’d,
Said he, with these late showers.
Forthwith his bow he bent,
And wedded string and arrow,
And struck me, that it went
Quite through my heart and marrow
Then laughing loud, he flew
Away, and thus said flying,
Adieu, mine host, adieu,
I’ll leave thy heart a-dying.
*45*
UPON CUPID
Love, like a gipsy, lately came,
And did me much importune
To see my hand, that by the same
He might foretell my fortune.
He saw my palm; and then, said he,
I tell thee, by this score here,
That thou, within few months, shalt be The youthful Prince D’Amour here.
I smiled, and bade him once more prove, And by some cross-line show it,
That I could ne’er be Prince of Love, Though here the Princely Poet.
*46*
TO BE MERRY
Let’s now take our time,
While we’re in our prime,
And old, old age is afar off;
For the evil, evil days
Will come on apace,
Before we can be aware of.
*47*
UPON HIS GRAY HAIRS
Fly me not, though I be gray,
Lady, this I know you’ll say;
Better look the roses red,
When with white commingled.
Black your hairs are; mine are white; This begets the more delight,
When things meet most opposite;
As in pictures we descry
Venus standing Vulcan by.
*48*
AN HYMN TO THE MUSES
Honour to you who sit
Near to the well of wit,
And drink your fill of it!
Glory and worship be
To you, sweet Maids, thrice three,
Who still inspire me;
And teach me how to sing
Unto the lyric string,
My measures ravishing!
Then, while I sing your praise,
My priest-hood crown with bays
Green to the end of days!
*49*
THE COMING OF GOOD LUCK
So Good-Luck came, and on my roof did light, Like noiseless snow, or as the dew of night; Not all at once, but gently,–as the trees Are by the sun-beams, tickled by degrees.
*50*
HIS CONTENT IN THE COUNTRY
HERE, Here I live with what my board
Can with the smallest cost afford;
Though ne’er so mean the viands be, They well content my Prue and me:
Or pea or bean, or wort or beet,
Whatever comes, Content makes sweet. Here we rejoice, because no rent
We pay for our poor tenement;
Wherein we rest, and never fear
The landlord or the usurer.
The quarter-day does ne’er affright Our peaceful slumbers in the night:
We eat our own, and batten more,
Because we feed on no man’s score;
But pity those whose flanks grow great, Swell’d with the lard of other’s meat.
We bless our fortunes, when we see
Our own beloved privacy;
And like our living, where we’re known To very few, or else to none.
*51*
HIS RETURN TO LONDON
From the dull confines of the drooping west, To see the day spring from the pregnant east, Ravish’d in spirit, I come, nay more, I fly To thee, blest place of my nativity!
Thus, thus with hallow’d foot I touch the ground, With thousand blessings by thy fortune crown’d. O fruitful Genius! that bestowest here
An everlasting plenty year by year; O place! O people! manners! framed to please All nations, customs, kindreds, languages! I am a free-born Roman; suffer then
That I amongst you live a citizen.
London my home is; though by hard fate sent Into a long and irksome banishment;
Yet since call’d back, henceforward let me be, O native country, repossess’d by thee!
For, rather than I’ll to the west return, I’ll beg of thee first here to have mine urn. Weak I am grown, and must in short time fall; Give thou my sacred reliques burial.
*52*
HIS DESIRE
Give me a man that is not dull,
When all the world with rifts is full; But unamazed dares clearly sing,
Whenas the roof’s a-tottering;
And though it falls, continues still Tickling the Cittern with his quill.
*53*
AN ODE FOR BEN JONSON
Ah Ben!
Say how or when
Shall we, thy guests,
Meet at those lyric feasts,
Made at the Sun,
The Dog, the Triple Tun;
Where we such clusters had,
As made us nobly wild, not mad?
And yet each verse of thine
Out-did the meat, out-did the frolic wine.
My Ben!
Or come again,
Or send to us
Thy wit’s great overplus;
But teach us yet
Wisely to husband it,
Lest we that talent spend;
And having once brought to an end
That precious stock,–the store
Of such a wit the world should have no more.
*54*
TO LIVE MERRILY,
AND TO TRUST TO GOOD VERSES
Now is the time for mirth;
Nor cheek or tongue be dumb;
For with [the] flowery earth
The golden pomp is come.
The golden pomp is come;
For now each tree does wear,
Made of her pap and gum,
Rich beads of amber here.
Now reigns the Rose, and now
Th’ Arabian dew besmears
My uncontrolled brow,
And my retorted hairs.
Homer, this health to thee!
In sack of such a kind,
That it would make thee see,
Though thou wert ne’er so blind
Next, Virgil I’ll call forth,
To pledge this second health
In wine, whose each cup’s worth
An Indian commonwealth.
A goblet next I’ll drink
To Ovid; and suppose
Made he the pledge, he’d think
The world had all one nose.
Then this immensive cup
Of aromatic wine,
Catullus! I quaff up
To that terse muse of thine.
Wild I am now with heat:
O Bacchus! cool thy rays;
Or frantic I shall eat
Thy Thyrse, and bite the Bays!
Round, round, the roof does run;
And being ravish’d thus,
Come, I will drink a tun
To my Propertius.
Now, to Tibullus next,
This flood I drink to thee;
–But stay, I see a text,
That this presents to me.
Behold! Tibullus lies
Here burnt, whose small return
Of ashes scarce suffice
To fill a little urn.
Trust to good verses then;
They only will aspire,
When pyramids, as men,
Are lost i’ th’ funeral fire.
And when all bodies meet
In Lethe to be drown’d;
Then only numbers sweet
With endless life are crown’d.
*55*
THE APPARITION OF HIS, MISTRESS,
CALLING HIM TO ELYSIUM
DESUNT NONNULLA–
Come then, and like two doves with silvery wings, Let our souls fly to th’ shades, wherever springs Sit smiling in the meads; where balm and oil, Roses and cassia, crown the untill’d soil; Where no disease reigns, or infection comes To blast the air, but amber-gris and gums. This, that, and ev’ry thicket doth transpire More sweet than storax from the hallow’d fire; Where ev’ry tree a wealthy issue bears
Of fragrant apples, blushing plums, or pears; And all the shrubs, with sparkling spangles, shew Like morning sun-shine, tinselling the dew. Here in green meadows sits eternal May,
Purfling the margents, while perpetual day So double-gilds the air, as that no night Can ever rust th’ enamel of the light:
Here naked younglings, handsome striplings, run Their goals for virgins’ kisses; which when done, Then unto dancing forth the learned round Commix’d they meet, with endless roses crown’d. And here we’ll sit on primrose-banks, and see Love’s chorus led by Cupid; and we’ll he Two loving followers too unto the grove, Where poets sing the stories of our love. There thou shalt hear divine Musaeus sing Of Hero and Leander; then I’ll bring
Thee to the stand, where honour’d Homer reads His Odyssees and his high Iliads;
About whose throne the crowd of poets throng To hear the incantation of his tongue:
To Linus, then to Pindar; and that done, I’ll bring thee, Herrick, to Anacreon,
Quaffing his full-crown’d bowls of burning wine, And in his raptures speaking lines of thine, Like to his subject; and as his frantic
Looks shew him truly Bacchanalian like, Besmear’d with grapes,–welcome he shall thee thither, Where both may rage, both drink and dance together. Then stately Virgil, witty Ovid, by
Whom fair Corinna sits, and doth comply With ivory wrists his laureat head, and steeps His eye in dew of kisses while he sleeps. Then soft Catullus, sharp-fang’d Martial, And towering Lucan, Horace, Juvenal,
And snaky Persius; these, and those whom rage, Dropt for the jars of heaven, fill’d, t’ engage All times unto their frenzies; thou shalt there Behold them in a spacious theatre:
Among which glories, crown’d with sacred bays And flatt’ring ivy, two recite their plays, Beaumont and Fletcher, swans, to whom all ears Listen, while they, like sirens in their spheres, Sing their Evadne; and still more for thee There yet remains to know than thou canst see By glimm’ring of a fancy; Do but come,
And there I’ll shew thee that capacious room In which thy father, Jonson, now is placed As in a globe of radiant fire, and graced To be in that orb crown’d, that doth include Those prophets of the former magnitude,
And he one chief. But hark! I hear the cock, The bell-man of the night, proclaim the clock Of late struck One; and now I see the prime Of day break from the pregnant east:–’tis time I vanish:–more I had to say,
But night determines here; Away!
*56*
THE INVITATION
To sup with thee thou didst me home invite, And mad’st a promise that mine appetite
Should meet and tire, on such lautitious meat, The like not Heliogabalus did eat:
And richer wine would’st give to me, thy guest, Than Roman Sylla pour’d out at his feast. I came, ’tis true, and look’d for fowl of price, The bastard Phoenix; bird of Paradise;
And for no less than aromatic wine
Of maidens-blush, commix’d with jessamine. Clean was the hearth, the mantle larded jet, Which, wanting Lar and smoke, hung weeping wet; At last i’ th’ noon of winter, did appear A ragg’d soused neats-foot, with sick vinegar; And in a burnish’d flagonet, stood by
Beer small as comfort, dead as charity. At which amazed, and pond’ring on the food, How cold it was, and how it chill’d my blood, I curst the master, and I damn’d the souce, And swore I’d got the ague of the house. –Well, when to eat thou dost me next desire, I’ll bring a fever, since thou keep’st no fire.
*57*
TO SIR CLIPSBY CREW
Since to the country first I came,
I have lost my former flame;
And, methinks, I not inherit,
As I did, my ravish’d spirit.
If I write a verse or two,
‘Tis with very much ado;
In regard I want that wine
Which should conjure up a line.
Yet, though now of Muse bereft,
I have still the manners left
For to thank you, noble sir,
For those gifts you do confer
Upon him, who only can
Be in prose a grateful man.
*58*
A COUNTRY LIFE:
TO HIS BROTHER, MR THOMAS HERRICK
Thrice, and above, blest, my soul’s half, art thou, In thy both last and better vow;
Could’st leave the city, for exchange, to see The country’s sweet simplicity;
And it to know and practise, with intent To grow the sooner innocent;
By studying to know virtue, and to aim More at her nature than her name;
The last is but the least; the first doth tell Ways less to live, than to live well:–
And both are known to thee, who now canst live Led by thy conscience, to give
Justice to soon-pleased nature, and to show Wisdom and she together go,
And keep one centre; This with that conspires To teach man to confine desires,
And know that riches have their proper stint In the contented mind, not mint;
And canst instruct that those who have the itch Of craving more, are never rich.
These things thou knows’t to th’ height, and dost prevent That plague, because thou art content
With that Heaven gave thee with a wary hand, (More blessed in thy brass than land)
To keep cheap Nature even and upright; To cool, not cocker appetite.
Thus thou canst tersely live to satisfy The belly chiefly, not the eye;
Keeping the barking stomach wisely quiet, Less with a neat than needful diet.
But that which most makes sweet thy country life, Is the fruition of a wife,
Whom, stars consenting with thy fate, thou hast Got not so beautiful as chaste;
By whose warm side thou dost securely sleep, While Love the sentinel doth keep,
With those deeds done by day, which ne’er affright Thy silken slumbers in the night:
Nor has the darkness power to usher in Fear to those sheets that know no sin.
The damask’d meadows and the pebbly streams Sweeten and make soft your dreams:
The purling springs, groves, birds, and well weaved bowers, With fields enamelled with flowers,
Present their shapes, while fantasy discloses Millions of Lilies mix’d with Roses.
Then dream, ye hear the lamb by many a bleat Woo’d to come suck the milky teat;
While Faunus in the vision comes, to keep From rav’ning wolves the fleecy sheep:
With thousand such enchanting dreams, that meet To make sleep not so sound as sweet;
Nor call these figures so thy rest endear, As not to rise when Chanticlere
Warns the last watch;–but with the dawn dost rise To work, but first to sacrifice;
Making thy peace with Heaven for some late fault, With holy-meal and spirting salt;
Which done, thy painful thumb this sentence tells us, ‘Jove for our labour all things sells us.’ Nor are thy daily and devout affairs
Attended with those desp’rate cares Th’ industrious merchant has, who for to find Gold, runneth to the Western Ind,
And back again, tortured with fears, doth fly, Untaught to suffer Poverty;–
But thou at home, blest with securest ease, Sitt’st, and believ’st that there be seas, And watery dangers; while thy whiter hap But sees these things within thy map;
And viewing them with a more safe survey, Mak’st easy fear unto thee say,
‘A heart thrice walled with oak and brass, that man Had, first durst plough the ocean.’
But thou at home, without or tide or gale, Canst in thy map securely sail;
Seeing those painted countries, and so guess By those fine shades, their substances;
And from thy compass taking small advice, Buy’st travel at the lowest price.
Nor are thine ears so deaf but thou canst hear, Far more with wonder than with fear,
Fame tell of states, of countries, courts, and kings, And believe there be such things;
When of these truths thy happier knowledge lies More in thine ears than in thine eyes.
And when thou hear’st by that too true report, Vice rules the most, or all, at court,
Thy pious wishes are, though thou not there, Virtue had, and moved her sphere.
But thou liv’st fearless; and thy face ne’er shows Fortune when she comes, or goes;
But with thy equal thoughts, prepared dost stand To take her by the either hand;
Nor car’st which comes the first, the foul or fair:– A wise man ev’ry way lies square;
And like a surly oak with storms perplex’d Grows still the stronger, strongly vex’d. Be so, bold Spirit; stand centre-like, unmoved; And be not only thought, but proved
To be what I report thee, and inure Thyself, if want comes, to endure;
And so thou dost; for thy desires are Confined to live with private Lar:
Nor curious whether appetite be fed Or with the first, or second bread.
Who keep’st no proud mouth for delicious cates; Hunger makes coarse meats, delicates.
Canst, and unurged, forsake that larded fare, Which art, not nature, makes so rare;
To taste boil’d nettles, coleworts, beets, and eat These, and sour herbs, as dainty meat:– While soft opinion makes thy Genius say, ‘Content makes all ambrosia;’
Nor is it that thou keep’st this stricter size So much for want, as exercise;
To numb the sense of dearth, which, should sin haste it, Thou might’st but only see’t, not taste it; Yet can thy humble roof maintain a quire Of singing crickets by thy fire;
And the brisk mouse may feast herself with crumbs, Till that the green-eyed kitling comes;
Then to her cabin, blest she can escape The sudden danger of a rape.
–And thus thy little well-kept stock doth prove, Wealth cannot make a life, but love.
Nor art thou so close-handed, but canst spend, (Counsel concurring with the end),
As well as spare; still conning o’er this theme, To shun the first and last extreme;
Ordaining that thy small stock find no breach, Or to exceed thy tether’s reach;
But to live round, and close, and wisely true To thine own self, and known to few.
Thus let thy rural sanctuary be
Elysium to thy wife and thee;
There to disport your selves with golden measure; For seldom use commends the pleasure.
Live, and live blest; thrice happy pair; let breath, But lost to one, be th’ other’s death:
And as there is one love, one faith, one troth, Be so one death, one grave to both;
Till when, in such assurance live, ye may Nor fear, or wish your dying day.
*59*
TO HIS PECULIAR FRIEND, MR JOHN WICKS
Since shed or cottage I have none,
I sing the more, that thou hast one; To whose glad threshold, and free door
I may a Poet come, though poor;
And eat with thee a savoury bit,
Paying but common thanks for it.
–Yet should I chance, my Wicks, to see An over-leaven look in thee,
To sour the bread, and turn the beer To an exalted vinegar;
Or should’st thou prize me as a dish Of thrice-boil’d worts, or third-day’s fish, I’d rather hungry go and come
Than to thy house be burdensome;
Yet, in my depth of grief, I’d be
One that should drop his beads for thee.
*60*
A PARANAETICALL, OR ADVISIVE VERSE
TO HIS FRIEND, MR JOHN WICKS
Is this a life, to break thy sleep,
To rise as soon as day doth peep?
To tire thy patient ox or ass
By noon, and let thy good days pass, Not knowing this, that Jove decrees
Some mirth, t’ adulce man’s miseries? –No; ’tis a life to have thine oil
Without extortion from thy soil;
Thy faithful fields to yield thee grain, Although with some, yet little pain;
To have thy mind, and nuptial bed,
With fears and cares uncumbered
A pleasing wife, that by thy side
Lies softly panting like a bride;
–This is to live, and to endear
Those minutes Time has lent us here. Then, while fates suffer, live thou free, As is that air that circles thee;
And crown thy temples too; and let
Thy servant, not thy own self, sweat, To strut thy barns with sheaves of wheat. –Time steals away like to a stream,
And we glide hence away with them:
No sound recalls the hours once fled, Or roses, being withered;
Nor us, my friend, when we are lost, Like to a dew, or melted frost.
–Then live we mirthful while we should, And turn the iron age to gold;
Let’s feast and frolic, sing and play, And thus less last, than live our day.
Whose life with care is overcast,
That man’s not said to live, but last; Nor is’t a life, seven years to tell,
But for to live that half seven well; And that we’ll do, as men who know,
Some few sands spent, we hence must go, Both to be blended in the urn,
From whence there’s never a return.
*61*
TO HIS HONOURED AND MOST INGENIOUS FRIEND MR CHARLES COTTON
For brave comportment, wit without offence, Words fully flowing, yet of influence,
Thou art that man of men, the man alone Worthy the public admiration;
Who with thine own eyes read’st what we do write, And giv’st our numbers euphony and weight; Tell’st when a verse springs high; how understood To be, or not, born of the royal blood
What state above, what symmetry below, Lines have, or should have, thou the best can show:– For which, my Charles, it is my pride to be, Not so much known, as to be loved of thee:– Long may I live so, and my wreath of bays Be less another’s laurel, than thy praise.
*62*
A NEW YEAR’S GIFT,
SENT TO SIR SIMEON STEWARD
No news of navies burnt at seas;
No noise of late spawn’d tittyries; No closet plot or open vent,
That frights men with a Parliament: No new device or late-found trick,
To read by th’ stars the kingdom’s sick; No gin to catch the State, or wring
The free-born nostril of the King,
We send to you; but here a jolly
Verse crown’d with ivy and with holly; That tells of winter’s tales and mirth
That milk-maids make about the hearth; Of Christmas sports, the wassail-bowl,
That toss’d up, after Fox-i’-th’-hole; Of Blind-man-buff, and of the care
That young men have to shoe the Mare; Of twelf-tide cakes, of pease and beans, Wherewith ye make those merry scenes,
Whenas ye chuse your king and queen, And cry out, ‘Hey for our town green!’– Of ash-heaps, in the which ye use
Husbands and wives by streaks to chuse; Of crackling laurel, which fore-sounds
A plenteous harvest to your grounds; Of these, and such like things, for shift, We send instead of New-year’s gift.
–Read then, and when your faces shine With buxom meat and cap’ring wine,
Remember us in cups full crown’d,
And let our city-health go round,
Quite through the young maids and the men, To the ninth number, if not ten;
Until the fired chestnuts leap
For joy to see the fruits ye reap,
From the plump chalice and the cup
That tempts till it be tossed up.– Then as ye sit about your embers,
Call not to mind those fled Decembers; But think on these, that are t’ appear,
As daughters to the instant year;
Sit crown’d with rose-buds, and carouse, Till LIBER PATER twirls the house
About your ears, and lay upon
The year, your cares, that’s fled and gone: And let the russet swains the plough
And harrow hang up resting now;
And to the bag-pipe all address,
Till sleep takes place of weariness. And thus throughout, with Christmas plays, Frolic the full twelve holy-days.
*63*
AN ODE TO SIR CLIPSBY CREW
Here we securely live, and eat
The cream of meat;
And keep eternal fires,
By which we sit, and do divine,
As wine
And rage inspires.
If full, we charm; then call upon
Anacreon
To grace the frantic Thyrse:
And having drunk, we raise a shout
Throughout,
To praise his verse.
Then cause we Horace to be read,
Which sung or said,
A goblet, to the brim,
Of lyric wine, both swell’d and crown’d, Around
We quaff to him.
Thus, thus we live, and spend the hours In wine and flowers;
And make the frolic year,
The month, the week, the instant day To stay
The longer here.
–Come then, brave Knight, and see the cell Wherein I dwell;
And my enchantments too;
Which love and noble freedom is:–
And this
Shall fetter you.
Take horse, and come; or be so kind
To send your mind,
Though but in numbers few:–
And I shall think I have the heart
Or part
Of Clipsby Crew.
*64*
A PANEGYRIC TO SIR LEWIS PEMBERTON
Till I shall come again, let this suffice, I send my salt, my sacrifice
To thee, thy lady, younglings, and as far As to thy Genius and thy Lar;
To the worn threshold, porch, hall, parlour, kitchen, The fat-fed smoking temple, which in
The wholesome savour of thy mighty chines, Invites to supper him who dines:
Where laden spits, warp’d with large ribs of beef, Not represent, but give relief
To the lank stranger and the sour swain, Where both may feed and come again;
For no black-bearded Vigil from thy door Beats with a button’d-staff the poor;
But from thy warm love-hatching gates, each may Take friendly morsels, and there stay
To sun his thin-clad members, if he likes; For thou no porter keep’st who strikes.
No comer to thy roof his guest-rite wants; Or, staying there, is scourged with taunts Of some rough groom, who, yirk’d with corns, says, ‘Sir, ‘You’ve dipp’d too long i’ th’ vinegar;
‘And with our broth and bread and bits, Sir friend, ‘You’ve fared well; pray make an end;
‘Two days you’ve larded here; a third, ye know, ‘Makes guests and fish smell strong; pray go ‘You to some other chimney, and there take ‘Essay of other giblets; make
‘Merry at another’s hearth; you’re here ‘Welcome as thunder to our beer;
‘Manners knows distance, and a man unrude ‘Would soon recoil, and not intrude
‘His stomach to a second meal.’–No, no, Thy house, well fed and taught, can show No such crabb’d vizard: Thou hast learnt thy train With heart and hand to entertain;
And by the arms-full, with a breast unhid, As the old race of mankind did,
When either’s heart, and either’s hand did strive To be the nearer relative;
Thou dost redeem those times: and what was lost Of ancient honesty, may boast
It keeps a growth in thee, and so will run A course in thy fame’s pledge, thy son.
Thus, like a Roman Tribune, thou thy gate Early sets ope to feast, and late;
Keeping no currish waiter to affright, With blasting eye, the appetite,
Which fain would waste upon thy cates, but that The trencher creature marketh what
Best and more suppling piece he cuts, and by Some private pinch tells dangers nigh,
A hand too desp’rate, or a knife that bites Skin-deep into the pork, or lights
Upon some part of kid, as if mistook, When checked by the butler’s look.
No, no, thy bread, thy wine, thy jocund beer Is not reserved for Trebius here,
But all who at thy table seated are, Find equal freedom, equal fare;
And thou, like to that hospitable god, Jove, joy’st when guests make their abode To eat thy bullocks thighs, thy veals, thy fat Wethers, and never grudged at.
The pheasant, partridge, gotwit, reeve, ruff, rail, The cock, the curlew, and the quail,
These, and thy choicest viands, do extend Their tastes unto the lower end
Of thy glad table; not a dish more known To thee, than unto any one:
But as thy meat, so thy immortal wine Makes the smirk face of each to shine,
And spring fresh rose-buds, while the salt, the wit, Flows from the wine, and graces it;
While Reverence, waiting at the bashful board, Honours my lady and my lord.
No scurril jest, no open scene is laid Here, for to make the face afraid;
But temp’rate mirth dealt forth, and so discreet- Ly, that it makes the meat more sweet,
And adds perfumes unto the wine, which thou Dost rather pour forth, than allow
By cruse and measure; thus devoting wine, As the Canary isles were thine;
But with that wisdom and that method, as No one that’s there his guilty glass
Drinks of distemper, or has cause to cry Repentance to his liberty.
No, thou know’st orders, ethics, and hast read All oeconomics, know’st to lead
A house-dance neatly, and canst truly show How far a figure ought to go,
Forward or backward, side-ward, and what pace Can give, and what retract a grace;
What gesture, courtship, comeliness agrees, With those thy primitive decrees,
To give subsistence to thy house, and proof What Genii support thy roof,
Goodness and greatness, not the oaken piles; For these, and marbles have their whiles To last, but not their ever; virtue’s hand It is which builds ‘gainst fate to stand. Such is thy house, whose firm foundations trust Is more in thee than in her dust,
Or depth; these last may yield, and yearly shrink, When what is strongly built, no chink
Or yawning rupture can the same devour, But fix’d it stands, by her own power
And well-laid bottom, on the iron and rock, Which tries, and counter-stands the shock And ram of time, and by vexation grows
The stronger. Virtue dies when foes Are wanting to her exercise, but, great
And large she spreads by dust and sweat. Safe stand thy walls, and thee, and so both will, Since neither’s height was raised by th’ill Of others; since no stud, no stone, no piece Was rear’d up by the poor-man’s fleece;
No widow’s tenement was rack’d to gild Or fret thy cieling, or to build
A sweating-closet, to anoint the silk- Soft skin, or bath[e] in asses’ milk;
No orphan’s pittance, left him, served to set The pillars up of lasting jet,
For which their cries might beat against thine ears, Or in the damp jet read their tears.
No plank from hallow’d altar does appeal To yond’ Star-chamber, or does seal
A curse to thee, or thine; but all things even Make for thy peace, and pace to heaven.
–Go on directly so, as just men may A thousand times more swear, than say
This is that princely Pemberton, who can Teach men to keep a God in man;
And when wise poets shall search out to see Good men, they find them all in thee.
*65*
ALL THINGS DECAY AND DIE
All things decay with time: The forest sees The growth and down-fall of her aged trees; That timber tall, which three-score lustres stood The proud dictator of the state-like wood, I mean the sovereign of all plants, the oak, Droops, dies, and falls without the cleaver’s stroke.
*66*
TO HIS DYING BROTHER, MASTER WILLIAM HERRICK
Life of my life, take not so soon thy flight, But stay the time till we have bade good-night. Thou hast both wind and tide with thee; thy way As soon dispatch’d is by the night as day. Let us not then so rudely henceforth go
Till we have wept, kiss’d, sigh’d, shook hands, or so. There’s pain in parting, and a kind of hell When once true lovers take their last farewell. What? shall we two our endless leaves take here Without a sad look, or a solemn tear?
He knows not love that hath not this truth proved, Love is most loth to leave the thing beloved. Pay we our vows and go; yet when we part, Then, even then, I will bequeath my heart Into thy loving hands; for I’ll keep none To warm my breast, when thou, my pulse, art gone, No, here I’ll last, and walk, a harmless shade, About this urn, wherein thy dust is laid, To guard it so, as nothing here shall be Heavy, to hurt those sacred seeds of thee.
*67*
HIS AGE:
DEDICATED TO HIS PECULIAR FRIEND,
MR JOHN WICKES, UNDER THE NAME OF
POSTUMUS
Ah, Posthumus! our years hence fly
And leave no sound: nor piety,
Or prayers, or vow
Can keep the wrinkle from the brow; But we must on,
As fate does lead or draw us; none, None, Posthumus, could e’er decline
The doom of cruel Proserpine.
The pleasing wife, the house, the ground Must all be left, no one plant found
To follow thee,
Save only the curst cypress-tree!
–A merry mind
Looks forward, scorns what’s left behind; Let’s live, my Wickes, then, while we may, And here enjoy our holiday.
We’ve seen the past best times, and these Will ne’er return; we see the seas,
And moons to wane,
But they fill up their ebbs again;
But vanish’d man,
Like to a lily lost, ne’er can,
Ne’er can repullulate, or bring
His days to see a second spring.
But on we must, and thither tend,
Where Ancus and rich Tullus blend
Their sacred seed;
Thus has infernal Jove decreed;
We must be made,
Ere long a song, ere long a shade.
Why then, since life to us is short, Let’s make it full up by our sport.
Crown we our heads with roses then,
And ‘noint with Tyrian balm; for when We two are dead,
The world with us is buried.
Then live we free
As is the air, and let us be
Our own fair wind, and mark each one Day with the white and lucky stone.
We are not poor, although we have
No roofs of cedar, nor our brave
Baiae, nor keep
Account of such a flock of sheep;
Nor bullocks fed
To lard the shambles; barbels bred
To kiss our hands; nor do we wish
For Pollio’s lampreys in our dish.
If we can meet, and so confer,
Both by a shining salt-cellar,
And have our roof,
Although not arch’d, yet weather-proof, And cieling free,
From that cheap candle-baudery;
We’ll eat our bean with that full mirth As we were lords of all the earth.
Well, then, on what seas we are tost, Our comfort is, we can’t be lost.
Let the winds drive
Our bark, yet she will keep alive
Amidst the deeps;
‘Tis constancy, my Wickes, which keeps The pinnace up; which, though she errs
I’ th’ seas, she saves her passengers.
Say, we must part; sweet mercy bless
Us both i’ th’ sea, camp, wilderness! Can we so far
Stray, to become less circular
Than we are now?
No, no, that self-same heart, that vow Which made us one, shall ne’er undo,
Or ravel so, to make us two.
Live in thy peace; as for myself,
When I am bruised on the shelf
Of time, and show
My locks behung with frost and snow; When with the rheum,
The cough, the pthisic, I consume
Unto an almost nothing; then,
The ages fled, I’ll call again,
And with a tear compare these last
Lame and bad times with those are past, While Baucis by,
My old lean wife, shall kiss it dry; And so we’ll sit
By th’ fire, foretelling snow and slit And weather by our aches, grown
Now old enough to be our own
True calendars, as puss’s ear
Wash’d o’er ‘s, to tell what change is near; Then to assuage
The gripings of the chine by age,
I’ll call my young
Iulus to sing such a song
I made upon my Julia’s breast,
And of her blush at such a feast.
Then shall he read that flower of mine Enclosed within a crystal shrine;
A primrose next;
A piece then of a higher text;
For to beget
In me a more transcendant heat,
Than that insinuating fire
Which crept into each aged sire
When the fair Helen from her eyes
Shot forth her loving sorceries;
At which I’ll rear
Mine aged limbs above my chair;
And hearing it,
Flutter and crow, as in a fit
Of fresh concupiscence, and cry,
‘No lust there’s like to Poetry.’
Thus frantic, crazy man, God wot,
I’ll call to mind things half-forgot; And oft between
Repeat the times that I have seen;
Thus ripe with tears,
And twisting my Iulus’ hairs,
Doting, I’ll weep and say, ‘In truth, Baucis, these were my sins of youth.’
Then next I’Il cause my hopeful lad,
If a wild apple can be had,
To crown the hearth;
Lar thus conspiring with our mirth; Then to infuse
Our browner ale into the cruse;
Which, sweetly spiced, we’ll first carouse Unto the Genius of the house.
Then the next health to friends of mine. Loving the brave Burgundian wine,
High sons of pith,
Whose fortunes I have frolick’d with; Such as could well
Bear up the magic bough and spell;
And dancing ’bout the mystic Thyrse, Give up the just applause to verse;
To those, and then again to thee,
We’ll drink, my Wickes, until we be Plump as the cherry,
Though not so fresh, yet full as merry As the cricket,
The untamed heifer, or the pricket, Until our tongues shall tell our ears,
We’re younger by a score of years.
Thus, till we see the fire less shine From th’ embers than the kitling’s eyne, We’ll still sit up,
Sphering about the wassail cup,
To all those times
Which gave me honour for my rhymes; The coal once spent, we’ll then to bed,
Far more than night bewearied.
*68*
THE BAD SEASON MAKES THE POET SAD
Dull to myself, and almost dead to these, My many fresh and fragrant mistresses;
Lost to all music now, since every thing Puts on the semblance here of sorrowing. Sick is the land to th’ heart; and doth endure More dangerous faintings by her desperate cure. But if that golden age would come again, And Charles here rule, as he before did reign; If smooth and unperplex’d the seasons were, As when the sweet Maria lived here;
I should delight to have my curls half drown’d In Tyrian dews, and head with roses crown’d: And once more yet, ere I am laid out dead, Knock at a star with my exalted head.
*69*
ON HIMSELF
A wearied pilgrim I have wander’d here, Twice five-and-twenty, bate me but one year; Long I have lasted in this world; ’tis true But yet those years that I have lived, but few. Who by his gray hairs doth his lustres tell, Lives not those years, but he that lives them well: One man has reach’d his sixty years, but he Of all those three-score has not lived half three: He lives who lives to virtue; men who cast Their ends for pleasure, do not live, but last.
*70*
HIS WINDING-SHEET
Come thou, who art the wine and wit
Of all I’ve writ;
The grace, the glory, and the best
Piece of the rest;
Thou art of what I did intend
The All, and End;
And what was made, was made to meet. Thee, thee my sheet.
Come then, and be to my chaste side Both bed and bride.
We two, as reliques left, will have One rest, one grave;
And, hugging close, we need not fear Lust entering here,
Where all desires are dead or cold, As is the mould;
And all affections are forgot,
Or trouble not.
Here, here the slaves and prisoners be From shackles free;
And weeping widows, long opprest,
Do here find rest.
The wronged client ends his laws
Here, and his cause;
Here those long suits of Chancery lie Quiet, or die;
And all Star-chamber bills do cease, Or hold their peace.
Here needs no court for our Request Where all are best;
All wise, all equal, and all just
Alike i’th’ dust.
Nor need we here to fear the frown
Of court or crown;
Where fortune bears no sway o’er things, There all are kings.
In this securer place we’ll keep,
As lull’d asleep;
Or for a little time we’ll lie,
As robes laid by,
To be another day re-worn,
Turn’d, but not torn;
Or like old testaments engrost,
Lock’d up, not lost;
And for a-while lie here conceal’d, To be reveal’d
Next, at that great Platonic year,
And then meet here.
*71*
ANACREONTIC
Born I was to be old,
And for to die here;
After that, in the mould
Long for to lie here.
But before that day comes,
Still I be bousing;
For I know, in the tombs
There’s no carousing.
*72*
TO LAURELS
A funeral stone
Or verse, I covet none;
But only crave
Of you that I may have
A sacred laurel springing from my grave: Which being seen
Blest with perpetual green,
May grow to be
Not so much call’d a tree,
As the eternal monument of me.
*73*
ON HIMSELF
Weep for the dead, for they have lost this light; And weep for me, lost in an endless night; Or mourn, or make a marble verse for me, Who writ for many. BENEDICTE.
*74*
ON HIMSELF
Lost to the world; lost to myself; alone Here now I rest under this marble stone, In depth of silence, heard and seen of none.
*75*
TO ROBIN RED-BREAST
Laid out for dead, let thy last kindness be With leaves and moss-work for to cover me; And while the wood-nymphs my cold corpse inter, Sing thou my dirge, sweet-warbling chorister! For epitaph, in foliage, next write this: HERE, HERE THE TOMB OF ROBIN HERRICK IS!
*76*
THE OLIVE BRANCH
Sadly I walk’d within the field,
To see what comfort it would yield; And as I went my private way,
An olive-branch before me lay;
And seeing it, I made a stay,
And took it up, and view’d it; then Kissing the omen, said Amen;
Be, be it so, and let this be
A divination unto me;
That in short time my woes shall cease, And love shall crown my end with peace.
*77*
THE PLAUDITE, OR END OF LIFE
If after rude and boisterous seas
My wearied pinnace here finds ease; If so it be I’ve gain’d the shore,
With safety of a faithful oar;
If having run my barque on ground,
Ye see the aged vessel crown’d;
What’s to be done? but on the sands Ye dance and sing, and now clap hands.
–The first act’s doubtful, but (we say) It is the last commends the Play.
*
AMORES
*78*
TO GROVES
Ye silent shades, whose each tree here Some relique of a saint doth wear;
Who for some sweet-heart’s sake, did prove The fire and martyrdom of Love:–
Here is the legend of those saints
That died for love, and their complaints; Their wounded hearts, and names we find
Encarved upon the leaves and rind.
Give way, give way to me, who come
Scorch’d with the self-same martyrdom! And have deserved as much, Love knows,
As to be canonized ‘mongst those
Whose deeds and deaths here written are Within your Greeny-kalendar.
–By all those virgins’ fillets hung Upon! your boughs, and requiems sung
For saints and souls departed hence, Here honour’d still with frankincense;
By all those tears that have been shed, As a drink-offering to the dead;
By all those true-love knots, that be With mottoes carved on every tree;
By sweet Saint Phillis! pity me;
By dear Saint Iphis! and the rest
Of all those other saints now blest, Me, me forsaken,–here admit
Among your myrtles to be writ;
That my poor name may have the glory To live remember’d in your story.
** AMORES **
*79*
MRS ELIZ: WHEELER, UNDER THE NAME OF THE LOST SHEPHERDESS
Among the myrtles as I walk’d
Love and my sighs thus intertalk’d: Tell me, said I, in deep distress,
Where I may find my Shepherdess?
–Thou fool, said Love, know’st thou not this? In every thing that’s sweet she is.
In yond’ carnation go and seek,
There thou shalt find her lip and cheek; In that enamell’d pansy by,
There thou shalt have her curious eye; In bloom of peach and rose’s bud,
There waves the streamer of her blood. –‘Tis true, said I; and thereupon
I went to pluck them one by one,
To make of parts an union;
But on a sudden all were gone.
At which I stopp’d; Said Love, these be The true resemblances of thee;
For as these flowers, thy joys must die; And in the turning of an eye;
And all thy hopes of her must wither, Like those short sweets here knit together.
*80*
A VOW TO VENUS
Happily I had a sight
Of my dearest dear last night;
Make her this day smile on me,
And I’ll roses give to thee!
*81*
UPON LOVE
A crystal vial Cupid brought,
Which had a juice in it:
Of which who drank, he said, no thought Of Love he should admit.
I, greedy of the prize, did drink,
And emptied soon the glass;
Which burnt me so, that I do think
The fire of hell it was.
Give me my earthen cups again,
The crystal I contemn,
Which, though enchased with pearls, contain A deadly draught in them.
And thou, O Cupid! come not to
My threshold,–since I see,
For all I have, or else can do,
Thou still wilt cozen me.
*82*
UPON JULIA’S CLOTHES
Whenas in silks my Julia goes,
Till, then, methinks, how sweetly flows That liquefaction of her clothes!
Next, when I cast mine eyes, and see That brave vibration each way free;
O how that glittering taketh me!
*83*
THE BRACELET TO JULIA
Why I tie about thy wrist,
Julia, this my silken twist?
For what other reason is’t,
But to shew thee how in part
Thou my pretty captive art?
But thy bond-slave is my heart;
‘Tis but silk that bindeth thee,
Knap the thread and thou art free;
But ’tis otherwise with me;
I am bound, and fast bound so,
That from thee I cannot go;
If I could, I would not so.
*84*
UPON JULIA’S RIBBON
As shews the air when with a rain-bow graced, So smiles that ribbon ’bout my Julia’s waist; Or like—-Nay, ’tis that Zonulet of love, Wherein all pleasures of the world are wove.
*85*
TO JULIA
How rich and pleasing thou, my Julia, art, In each thy dainty and peculiar part!
First, for thy Queen-ship on thy head is set Of flowers a sweet commingled coronet;
About thy neck a carkanet is bound, Made of the Ruby, Pearl, and Diamond;
A golden ring, that shines upon thy thumb; About thy wrist the rich Dardanium;
Between thy breasts, than down of swans more white, There plays the Sapphire with the Chrysolite. No part besides must of thyself be known, But by the Topaz, Opal, Calcedon.
*86*
ART ABOVE NATURE: TO JULIA
When I behold a forest spread
With silken trees upon thy head;
And when I see that other dress
Of flowers set in comeliness;
When I behold another grace
In the ascent of curious lace,
Which, like a pinnacle, doth shew
The top, and the top-gallant too;
Then, when I see thy tresses bound
Into an oval, square, or round,
And knit in knots far more than I.
Can tell by tongue, or True-love tie; Next, when those lawny films I see
Play with a wild civility;
And all those airy silks to flow,
Alluring me, and tempting so–
I must confess, mine eye and heart
Dotes less on nature than on art.
*87*
HER BED
See’st thou that cloud as silver clear, Plump, soft, and swelling every where?
‘Tis Julia’s bed, and she sleeps there.
*88*
THE ROCK OF RUBIES, AND THE QUARRY OF PEARLS
Some ask’d me where the Rubies grew:
And nothing I did say,
But with my finger pointed to
The lips of Julia.
Some ask’d how Pearls did grow, and where: Then spoke I to my girl,
To part her lips, and shew me there The quarrelets of Pearl.
*89*
THE PARLIAMENT OF ROSES TO JULIA
I dreamt the Roses one time went
To meet and sit in Parliament;
The place for these, and for the rest Of flowers, was thy spotless breast.
Over the which a state was drawn
Of tiffany, or cob-web lawn;
Then in that Parly all those powers Voted the Rose the Queen of flowers;
But so, as that herself should be
The Maid of Honour unto thee.
*90*
UPON JULIA’S RECOVERY
Droop, droop no more, or hang the head, Ye roses almost withered;
Now strength, and newer purple get, Each here declining violet.
O primroses! let this day be
A resurrection unto ye;
And to all flowers allied in blood, Or sworn to that sweet sisterhood.
For health on Julia’s cheek hath shed Claret and cream commingled;
And those, her lips, do now appear
As beams of coral, but more clear.
*91*
UPON JULIA’S HAIR FILLED WITH DEW
Dew sate on Julia’s hair,
And spangled too,
Like leaves that laden are
With trembling dew;
Or glitter’d to my sight,
As when the beams
Have their reflected light
Danced by the streams.
*92*
CHERRY RIPE
Cherry-ripe, ripe, ripe, I cry,
Full and fair ones; come, and buy:
If so be you ask me where
They do grow? I answer, there
Where my Julia’s lips do smile;–
There’s the land, or cherry-isle;
Whose plantations fully show
All the year where cherries grow.
*93*
THE CAPTIVE BEE; OR, THE LITTLE FILCHER
As Julia once a-slumb’ring lay,
It chanced a bee did fly that way,
After a dew, or dew-like shower,
To tipple freely in a flower;
For some rich flower, he took the lip Of Julia, and began to sip;
But when he felt he suck’d from thence Honey, and in the quintessence,
He drank so much he scarce could stir; So Julia took the pilferer.
And thus surprised, as filchers use, He thus began himself t’excuse:
‘Sweet lady-flower, I never brought Hither the least one thieving thought;
But taking those rare lips of yours For some fresh, fragrant, luscious flowers, I thought I might there take a taste,
Where so much sirup ran at waste.
Besides, know this, I never sting
The flower that gives me nourishing; But with a kiss, or thanks, do pay
For honey that I bear away.’
–This said, he laid his little scrip Of honey ‘fore her ladyship,
And told her, as some tears did fall, That, that he took, and that was all.
At which she smiled, and bade him go And take his bag; but thus much know,
When next he came a-pilfering so,
He should from her full lips derive Honey enough to fill his hive.
*94*
UPON ROSES
Under a lawn, than skies more clear,
Some ruffled Roses nestling were,
And snugging there, they seem’d to lie As in a flowery nunnery;
They blush’d, and look’d more fresh than flowers Quickened of late by pearly showers;
And all, because they were possest
But of the heat of Julia’s breast,
Which, as a warm and moisten’d spring, Gave them their ever-flourishing.
*95*
HOW HIS SOUL CAME ENSNARED
My soul would one day go and seek
For roses, and in Julia’s cheek
A richess of those sweets she found, As in another Rosamond;
But gathering roses as she was,
Not knowing what would come to pass, it chanced a ringlet of her hair
Caught my poor soul, as in a snare; Which ever since has been in thrall;
–Yet freedom she enjoys withal.
*96*
UPON JULIA’S VOICE
When I thy singing next shall hear,
I’ll wish I might turn all to ear,
To drink-in notes and numbers, such As blessed souls can’t hear too much
Then melted down, there let me lie
Entranced, and lost confusedly;
And by thy music strucken mute,
Die, and be turn’d into a Lute.
*97*
THE NIGHT PIECE: TO JULIA
Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee,
The shooting stars attend thee;
And the elves also,
Whose little eyes glow
Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee.
No Will-o’th’-Wisp mis-light thee,
Nor snake or slow-worm bite thee;
But on, on thy way,
Not making a stay,
Since ghost there’s none to affright thee.
Let not the dark thee cumber;
What though the moon does slumber?
The stars of the night
Will lend thee their light,
Like tapers clear, without number.
Then, Julia, let me woo thee,
Thus, thus to come unto me;
And when I shall meet
Thy silvery feet,
My soul I’ll pour into thee.
*98*
HIS COVENANT OR PROTESTATION TO JULIA
Why dost thou wound and break my heart, As if we should for ever part?
Hast thou not heard an oath from me, After a day, or two, or three,
I would come back and live with thee? Take, if thou dost distrust that vow,
This second protestation now:–
Upon thy cheek that spangled tear,
Which sits as dew of roses there,
That tear shall scarce be dried before I’ll kiss the threshold of thy door;
Then weep not, Sweet, but thus much know,– I’m half returned before I go.
*99*
HIS SAILING FROM JULIA
When that day comes, whose evening says I’m gone Unto that watery desolation;
Devoutly to thy Closet-gods then pray, That my wing’d ship may meet no Remora.
Those deities which circum-walk the seas, And look upon our dreadful passages,
Will from all dangers re-deliver me, For one drink-offering poured out by thee, Mercy and Truth live with thee! and forbear, In my short absence, to unsluice a tear; But yet for love’s-sake, let thy lips do this,– Give my dead picture one engendering kiss; Work that to life, and let me ever dwell In thy remembrance, Julia. So farewell.
*100*
HIS LAST REQUEST TO JULIA
I have been wanton, and too bold, I fear, To chafe o’er-much the virgin’s cheek or ear;– Beg for my pardon, Julia! he doth win
Grace with the gods who’s sorry for his sin. That done, my Julia, dearest Julia, come, And go with me to chuse my burial room:
My fates are ended; when thy Herrick dies, Clasp thou his book, then close thou up his eyes.
*101*
THE TRANSFIGURATION
Immortal clothing I put on
So soon as, Julia, I am gone
To mine eternal mansion.
Thou, thou art here, to human sight
Clothed all with incorrupted light; –But yet how more admir’dly bright
Wilt thou appear, when thou art set
In thy refulgent thronelet,
That shin’st thus in thy counterfeit!
*102*
LOVE DISLIKES NOTHING
Whatsoever thing I see,
Rich or poor although it be,
–‘Tis a mistress unto me.
Be my girl or fair or brown,
Does she smile, or does she frown;
Still I write a sweet-heart down.
Be she rough, or smooth of skin;
When I touch, I then begin
For to let affection in.
Be she bald, or does she wear
Locks incurl’d of other hair;
I shall find enchantment there.
Be she whole, or be she rent,
So my fancy be content,
She’s to me most excellent.
Be she fat, or be she lean;
Be she sluttish, be she clean;
I’m a man for every scene.
*103*
UPON LOVE
I held Love’s head while it did ache; But so it chanced to be,
The cruel pain did his forsake,
And forthwith came to me.
Ai me! how shall my grief be still’d? Or where else shall we find
One like to me, who must be kill’d
For being too-too-kind?
*104*
TO DIANEME
I could but see thee yesterday
Stung by a fretful bee;
And I the javelin suck’d away,
And heal’d the wound in thee.
A thousand thorns, and briars, and stings I have in my poor breast;
Yet ne’er can see that salve which brings My passions any rest.
As Love shall help me, I admire
How thou canst sit and smile
To see me bleed, and not desire
To staunch the blood the while.
If thou, composed of gentle mould,
Art so unkind to me;
What dismal stories will be told
Of those that cruel be!
*105*
TO PERENNA
When I thy parts run o’er, I can’t espy In any one, the least indecency;
But every line and limb diffused thence A fair and unfamiliar excellence;
So that the more I look, the more I prove There’s still more cause why I the more should love.
*106*
TO OENONE.
What conscience, say, is it in thee,
When I a heart had one, [won]
To take away that heart from me,
And to retain thy own?
For shame or pity, now incline
To play a loving part;
Either to send me kindly thine,
Or give me back my heart.
Covet not both; but if thou dost
Resolve to part with neither;
Why! yet to shew that thou art just, Take me and mine together.
*107*
TO ELECTRA
I dare not ask a kiss,
I dare not beg a smile;
Lest having that, or this,
I might grow proud the while.
No, no, the utmost share
Of my desire shall be,
Only to kiss that air
That lately kissed thee,
*108*
TO ANTHEA, WHO MAY COMMAND HIM ANY THING
Bid me to live, and I will live
Thy Protestant to be;
Or bid me love, and I will give
A loving heart to thee.
A heart as soft, a heart as kind,
A heart as sound and free
As in the whole world thou canst find, That heart I’ll give to thee.
Bid that heart stay, and it will stay To honour thy decree;
Or bid it languish quite away,
And’t shall do so for thee.
Bid me to weep, and I will weep,
While I have eyes to see;
And having none, yet I will keep
A heart to weep for thee.
Bid me despair, and I’ll despair,
Under that cypress tree;
Or bid me die, and I will dare
E’en death, to die for thee.
–Thou art my life, my love, my heart, The very eyes of me;
And hast command of every part,
To live and die for thee.
*109*
ANTHEA’S RETRACTATION
Anthea laugh’d, and, fearing lest excess Might stretch the cords of civil comeliness She with a dainty blush rebuked her face, And call’d each line back to his rule and space.
*110*
LOVE LIGHTLY PLEASED
Let fair or foul my mistress be,
Or low, or tall, she pleaseth me;
Or let her walk, or stand, or sit,
The posture her’s, I’m pleased with it; Or let her tongue be still, or stir
Graceful is every thing from her;
Or let her grant, or else deny,
My love will fit each history.
*111*
TO DIANEME
Give me one kiss,
And no more:
If so be, this
Makes you poor
To enrich you,
I’ll restore
For that one, two-
Thousand score.
*112*
UPON HER EYES