inquisitive and judicious Reader then much matter and conceit compendiously digested with sufficiency of perspicuity To conclude lines of a farre fetcht and labour'd fancy with allusions and curiosity and in similes of little more fruit or consequence then to ravish the Reader into the writers fine Chamaeleon colours and feed him with aire I approve not so much as heighth and force of spirit sententiously and weightily exhibited wit needs not rack it self where matter flowes embroderies become not a rich stuffe and art is best exprest where it least appeares A strong wing is to be preferred before a painted and good â—ense and matter elegantly delivered before extravagancy of fancy and conceit such unnaturall impertinency serves rather to shadow then illustrate to overwhelme then set forth the subject as well apposite as accurate writing is the Authorsglory Postscript upon occasion of the then young Princes pretended desire to have sight of the following Poems ANd here under pardon to conclude with this further defence of Love the subject of this little work but taking it more large and high I find love to be the most worthy object of the best and most generous dispositions and none but maligne natures that addresse not their thoughts towards it for what good and worthy mind hath its being that is not bent as upon its felicity either to the love of women the most naturall of men the most noble or above all of God the most happy and rewardfull Whither else tend all our studies of comlinesse of glory and noble actions of charity and good deeds Wherein can man so well resemble his great Creator as by worth and goodnesse to win love what more noble end can any man have to study vertue and perfection then thereby to win affection and praise the reward and food of vertue and tribute of God Nay love the essence of God the good spirit and wings of the soule the Mother Child and finall cause of Beauty the begetter and maintainer of the world the life of life by love the Sunne shines and the earth brings forth by love is society and commerce maintained by love the soule dwels with the body and God with the soule by love nature ever works for our preservation when the body and almost the soule are laid in sleep Admirable love without thee life is hatefull man but a wolfe to man the world a second Chaos For thy sake alone who affectest not a decaying Mansion I apprehend losse by growing old yet thus againe am I comforted by thy most divine power that thou never abandonest the dwelling of goodnesse and art successively fruitfull over all the good works of nature to the worlds period so that to the vertuous where the love of women failes the love of men begins and where that by the withering imperfections of age grows cold as the aire to a setting Sunne there for our supreame and infinite comfort begin to shine most clearly the beames of that divinest love which before were too much intercepted by the sensualities and passions of our younger yeares to make us therein eternally happy by that operation of love and contemplation of beauty which at the last must be our soules immortall food and joy Advertisement upon the first Verses I am not ignorant that who keepes the common road falls not into the incumbrances incurred by them who search or by or nearer wayes Writing is a by-path of life I am yet ingaged to it but hope shortly to get out and by the way I give you this Antidote and Rapsody of praecaution and true information concerning the following pieces The reason why I retaine and expose them with others is not so much that I esteem them worthy of view or life as that they were many yeares since Copyed and spread abroad beyond my knowledge then and are now beyond my power to recall they are more Chaffe then Corn fitter to bee ventilated blown away and play in the aire then vented in any Market and commerce of wit and censure they are incorrect if not incorrigible yet I consent to leave them and many other my pieces such as they are to represent unto me the difference 'twixt then and now To attempt to perfect them were to dispersonate their youth and hasty nature and fall into the much frequented stage Error of putting stronger lines and more conceited and elaborate elegancy into weake mouths and strong passions then well comporteth with them let their youth and genuine conception plead their pardon You shall mistake them if you often conceive them not rather the off-spring of fancy then passion But take them at the worst they have something of reason and serious in them and the errours of love are not so foule as the love of errour nor is it impertinent to perswade love in them who have constrained it in you and love may bee such as to become no lesse justifiable then naturall Love is in truth of divers kinds ever an Ebullition of the liver sometimes it is made and forced upon us sometimes wee weave and foole our selves into it sometimes it proceeds from gratitude and good nature of gratification It is generally the child of weaknesse as well as of idlenesse witnesse my selfe in my childish youth and Melancholy humour A vigorous gayety of the heart and mind taken up and busie in other affections and entertainments hardly admits it It is a sad confinement a disease like womens longing where the violent appetite of one object no better then the rest gives relish to that alone whilst a right and undistasted apprehension of every thing in the true kind is the much better and sounder constitution and as in longing after such or such a morsell the consideration is carried by the fancy and tast which have no rule but themselves or as at Table the hearty approbation of some one dish is a provocation to others appetites so in love And as most Dogs will often strive to get away anothers bone though otherwise little desired or when a morsell is offered to bee snatched from them grow greedy of that which before they neglected so in affections I leave the application Sometimes as love hath been tearmed a warfare so is brave Conquest made ambition too many make it their felicity and effeminately bend all their affections towards it Sometimes it is taken up for a fashion and to be in fashion is in idle times of no small importance to idle and gallant persons Sometimes like Coqualuchios and Epidemicall diseases it may much proceed from the disposition of the Ayre as in other kind wee may observe of quarrells that they seldome go alone Our poore volatile ayery affections are strongly wrought upon as well from outward as inward incentives winds and Aspects The first accesse of love is not ever by the eyes it hath often a strong foundation and preocupation begotten at the eare when a noble heart takes impression of a well lodged reputation eminent in fame vertue
levell'd me where God makes strong impression Like silly impatient birds we struggle may But not evade the humour of adustion Possest dispenseth not to disobey Most happy humour how art thou deprav'd And made the bath of spirits most maligne Thou art Faiths sealing-wax and we are sav'd Holding by Faith and mounting by thy wing Take brutish vain delights who will for mee More solid pleasure Lord I finde in thee SWeet Lord above compare thy mercies are More sweet then pleasure I thy grace doe finde Quiet and safety harbour in thy care Thy love alone cures all disease of minde Nor mighty frownes nor flattering applause Nor threats of death nor worldly misery Can least amazement or distemper cause To such as make thee their felicity That is the only necessary thing Which where it dwels all troubles drives away Whilst cares distracting other soules doe wring They in thy peacefull Regions soare and play Arts Sophistry which Natures peace hath kil'd With intricate intanglings which to solve Reason stands lost and our best spirits spil'd Can never now to happinesse resolve But Lord in thee there doe I finde with gain More then I lost ne're to be lost again T Is probable that who discovered first America's rich Coast made losse his gain Nor ere had found it had he not been lost T' enrich himself and feed ambitious Spain Nor had I ever found the promis'd Land Had I not first been wildred sav'd and lost Above my reason by Gods mighty hand Happily ship-wrack'd on that fragrant Coast Coast subject to crosse tydes rocks storms and shelves Its channell narrow turning off and on Where we can ne're arrive left to our selves But only by that Pilot God and mâ—n Wonder works Faith Faith wonders sin is bold Yet fearfull rich yet poore but Lord thy grace Gives full wealth peace joy courage uncontrol'd And makes sin beare what doth it self efface Strangely but ne're was man so hap'ly crost I had been lost Lord had I not been lost VNtill Oh Lord I fonud and turn'd to thee How I was still to seek uuquiet still I shifted place delights and company But till my self was chang'd retain'd my ill Thy shafts stuck in my sides and hunted me T was not a Court a Mistresse game or play Princes sweet presence and society Could chase disease and clouds of cares away I thought the bounty of a bounteous Prince Would never faile to recompence desert But sad experience hath taught me since Saints must be prayed and Courting is an Art Masters and Mistresses too oft are won By flattery more then duty and true love To speed with thee requires but well to run In thy Court merit needs no Saint to move Thy self our Advocate and merit art None happy are but whom thou dost convert WRiting of holy love infused grace And births stupendious of conspiring fate Which make me a self-wonder and disgrace Ses Monument subsisting to relate The matchlesse story of a stormy life And weather-beaten Soule built faire and strong For gazers Comets and to suffer strife Such ground-works oft to Christian Faith belong Gorgons and Harpies Porpoises might here Challenge appearing with mysterious spell Of Chymistry of Caball and such geare More then my story I my Scene might swell My Starres in native posture I present Affecting truth more then fond skill to show Nor fill I with strange shapes my firmament But rather wish my Verse may gently flow In sweet returnes of gratitude for grace Lord till I sing thy praises face to face X Why the letter thou should'st be to spell Christs Character except by mystery Of thy Crosse-figure well I cannot tell But crosses Lord doe best resemble thee Thou wert a man of sorrows and who will Thy souldier be must thy Crusado take And beare thy Crosse fighting thy battailes still Against the world and nature for thy sake T is a hard task but such is Vertues food Fight Victory and Conquest gives a Crown Warfare is none of pleasures Carpet brood Nor sleeps brave honour on a bed of Down They who can raise their thoughts no higher then Soft sensuality beasts let them bee Grazing on short delights unlike to men That either glory doe affect or thee Thy Starres Oh Lord my glory are base pleasures I leave to such as dote on this worlds treasures YOuth thou debauched boyler in thy blood Thou unconsidering domicile of Lust Thou self Idolater senselesse to good Ape of the times proud of thy glasse of dust Unbridled colt subject to all impression But that of grace thy state I doe lament To bring thee on thy knees for sins confession Thou who art stranger to the word repent I grant that if Gods truth such course did urge And policy could Homogeneall prove With true Religion thou needst such a purge Thy Plethorique Luxuriance to reprove Miracles are not ceas'd if we can quit Ourselves for God such change his work must be I have had good affections for a fit But to persist Oh Lord must come from thee I have been young some good I would have done Which now is all to prayer and paper come ZEale of thy Faith my God hath wasted me My errors and thy truth have kept me low Were thy truths errors I would erre to thee Rather then in all earthly pleasures flow Thou gavest me strength of body and of minde But inexperience led me to abuse them The last I over-fed the other pin'd Lord what are gifts except thou teach to use them The strongest mindes their strengths to ruine turn Goodnesse of Nature oft it self o're-throws Feavers to ashes best complexions burn Nature is blinde and knows not where it goes Lord help and pardon our infirmity And let thy Justice upon malice seize Malice is surely thy Antipathy Be reconcil'd to them that seek to please And rather set a period to my fate Then that I ere become thy reprobate Corollary IN dentures are term'd Deeds I seale and signe My part Oh Lord to thee poore fruitlesse part The leading deed originall is thine Deedlesse without thee is my Counterpart Thy seale and hand must give validity Or all our acts will vaine and counter prove Thou only canst give perpetuity To our intentions to our faith and love Thou that hast hardned me to break or dye Rather then bend to basenesse in self-love And honour maugre all other love shall I Lesse constant in thy zeale and service prove No thou Omega as well as Alpha art And all thy works wilt to perfection bring As well as thou hast taught my simple heart In this my Alphabet thy Praise to sing Hosanna and Hallelujahs unto thee Shall fill my Soule and my conclusion bee Madam THE Verses which I read to your Ladiship the other day at your then open Casement were occasioned by some disorder of the preceding week and some distemper I had at that instant upon me which made me unfit for such a placing and caused a farther cold which I have since suffered
to sing Then the high Trophees of the Swedish King The reason of a Gentlewomans wearing small blacke patches Of another Author I Know your heart cannot so guilty bee That you should weare those â—pots for vanitie Or as your beauties Trophies put one on For every murther which your eyes have done No they are your mourning weeds for hearts forlorne Which though you must not love you could not scorne To whom since cruell honour doth deny Those joyes could onely their misery Yet you this noble way to grace them found When thus your griefe their martyrdome hath crown'd Of which take heed you prove not prodigall For if to every common funerall Of your eyes Martyrs such grace bee allow'd Your face will weare no patches but a clowd Occasioned partly by the Verses above partly by a faire Ladies keeping on her Mask in the house on a hot day I Ne're till now thought patches ornaments Gentile and happy was your Authors muse As gently cruell are her faire intents Who kills and mournes but why doe you refuse Their names who so much wit and fairenesse owne I met that very day you shew'd those lines A beautie such as if it would have shone Would have out pierc'd the parching'st Sun that shines But chamber maskt shee was close mourner to The funerall solemnitie shee wore Innocent guilty sweetly sad as who Resolv'd to intombe her selfe to kill no more It may be also shee did apprehend Another scorching Summer would undoe us And so her selfe o'reclouded to befriend Mortalitie 't was double favour to us But Sun-like beautie know great mischiefes flow From great Eclipses well as blazing Stars Wee die as well except your selfe you show As by your beames or our intestine wars Shine then and triumph still better some die Then this Sphere want its second quickning eye Epigram VVEE cannot scape by masking of your face Wee finde our selves still taken by your grace By your I know not what meere carelesnesse Charmes more in you then others curious dresse Each step and motion of your frame or mind Consists of a composure most refin'd Cheape vertue is confin'd to face yours lies As well in your high spirit as your eyes A Dunghill Cock untry'd will looke as brave So will a Curre a Buzzard Jade or knave As the most vertuous in their severall kind Value consists in temper of the mind In judgement right and resolution strong Ends brave and good thinking nor doing wrong Consulting truth and goodnesse more then will Knowing and daring all but base and ill Diamonds in show are little more then glasse Triviall appearances make men to passe But thorough tryall proves an Asse an Asse Difference in women is no lesse Their goodnesse makes their pretiousnesse True Love and Honour THough you are gracefull brave and faire Beyond your Sexes rate though wit Enoble you as well as blood This nor your fine exalted ayre And prospect knowing all that 's fit Nor that you are rich great but good Subdues mee these to cement well Is that wherein you all excell And if to these you take in love The India's cannot equall prove For me I must not so aspire My part is onely to admire Your vertue vertue to the world supplyes The Sun none ought thinke to monopolize Onely I 'le strive to bee as good as you And so part of your love will prove my due And mine you being good and good to mee Must or be yours or vertuous cease to bee An Elegie upon the Death of the most faire and vertuous Lady Rich which most unhappily happened upon the 24. of August 1638. HAd I least hope complaints could reach our losse Could I the Stars or Sea sand number I would embarque her vertues sea to crosse And to my griefes heighth raise your wonder Could or the world or words such truth receive As to her story doth belong Could any but her self her vertues weave Or sorrow find an equall Tongue Such Ship so fraught such wrack I 'de represent As would the Soveraigne neere surpasse And make you in a Sea of teares lament Shee is not now that Nymph shee was Within without so glorious was her trym Such awe of Odinance shee carried Had shee not by dysaster taken been Neptune alone shee must have married But though her vertues circles just content And her squares just diagonall Numbers can ne're exactly represent Yet by our course Mechanicall Somewhat wee 'l say in lame and short account Our due oblations to discharge Which shall alone all other worth surmount Faithfully drawne though not at large Free from all pride though none but shee had cause Neglecting beautie huswiâ—'ry to minde Wholly resign'd to Gods and marriage Lawes Judicious farre beyond her yeares and kinde Outside and vanitie though most in fashion Wrought not on her strong fram'd and solid soul Shee liv'd by reason as others by their passion And by her goodnesse did all wrongs controul Her presence was a chastisement to sinne Ill time could not corrupt her spotlesse mind Had her pure body of like resistance beene Against the Ayre and season too unkind Wee her sad losse had not so deadly griev'd And shee to our soules joy might still have liv'd Epitaph IN title Rich in vertue all excelling Rare Daughter Mother Sister Friend and Wife Piety seldome had so faire a dwelling Unparallel'd as well in death as life Here now she lies glory of woman kinde Physitians shame the wonder of her time In body faire but fairer in her minde Fitted for heaven and taken in her prime Few rightly knew to value such a Jewell Had death had eyes he had not been so cruell On the same FOule Grief and Death this yeere have play'd their parts And Syrian-like conspire against the best Ayming at one stroke to break all our hearts Their cruell spite ne're met with such a feast They threw and bore the fairest Phoenix born As singular as unique to her friends They never twin'd so strong a Cord to mourn Nor strook so home at ours and their own ends My wound smarts double on the by what where She suff'red how exceeding all repaire How heavy to her friends and mine to beare This multiplies my grief with much despaire My treasure rest well-being all my joy Except what duty and piety require Perisht in her fate can no more destroy Henceforth but love of good and good desire The good is gone which if I cease to grieve Beyond my own death let me cease to live Such life such death so constant Christian brave Never became the triumph of the Grave I erre Triumph was only hers may I Contemplate her both whilst I live and die Her birth-day was her death-day and her death The birth to my discomfort and sad breath A Requiem at the Enterment WHo e're you are Patron subordinate Unto this house of prayer and doe extend Your eare and care to what we pray and lend May this place stand for ever consecrate And may this
but by a happy constitution and cleernesse of body maintained by daily exercise I thank God I fear not any violent or long continuance Nay I rather reckon it as an excellent medicinall Physick unto me cold ferments into a heat and heat digests and purifies stormes clear the aire agitation refines and subtilizeth the water and fire and stirring advantageth the earth Evills are said not to goe alone and distempers purge away more then their causes But it is good as well in state as soule and bodies to maintain themselves in such a freedome from over-abounding in evill humors that misaccidents when they come and there can be no security against them may not endanger the whole frame Thus much of cold but what shall we say in surprises of heat and fire wee have lately seen many misfortunes thereby shall we therefore not build or not make fire to warm our selves such resolution were to defraud our selves of the naturall commodities of our reason and discourse which teacheth us rather to confine and moderate the use of things then utterly to decline them It is the property of wilde beasts to feare and fly from fire and of men to use it And now to revert something to our other nights discourse of Love which certainly hath some Divinity in it or otherwise it could never as it doth become a fresh and infinite Theam of our best spirits Love and anger are the fires of the Soule if inordinate as well dangerous as vitious shall we therefore shun them as a Plague whose best antidote is to fly quickly farre and return slowly is love as incompatible with reason as is pretended and may not Religion though supernaturall admit of a naturall and free vertuous affection betwixt the two Sexes Religion saith Be angry but sin not and is rather a rule to rectifie then extinguish affections they are the wings of the Soule without an object they are nothing and without the use of them we fall flat to the ground like disfeathered birds The Lady and Nation of Ladies which your Ladiship mentioned are not reasonlesse not to bee without a servant especially such as are or have been beautifull for it is a commanding Character certainely instituted for a delightfull entertainment and admiration It is an unnaturall stupidity not to be affected therewith and a kinde of injury to its Authour not to exercise such affection I ever mean without abuse but this concludes for women not for men our affections have more fire in them matter more combustible and women are commonly as well in effect as in title too much our Mistresses Children and fooles are not allowed to play with fire it had need be a strong well-prepared and well-habituated Soule that entertaines it we are no Salamanders to thrive and be safe in the flames What now ought a man that would be wise to doe affecting to give as well his nature as Religion their right Platonique Love is exploded Love is corporeall and entreth at the eyes Lust cannot be excluded for an ingredient which yet admitted it follows not that it must be predominant as I discoursed unto you some other over-ruling affection may contain and represse it either in a Religious civill or other self-interessed consideration nay even in a divers prevailing respect towards the very subject of our love I can be affected with the objects of my palat and eye and yet forbeare them burn with a surprizing desire of mortall revenge and yet refrain Fear and awe will prevaile even with dogs and beasts and why not in Love but how farre this is to be allowed in discretion I submit with a good morrow to your Ladiships more refined discourse and judgement I send you the Verses humbly kissing your hands and end with my Paper Your Ladiships c. A promiscuous peece of three houres work in a morning to cleare from further writing Madam IF I deceive not my self there is somewhat of power from above urging my addresse unto you I have now by Gods grace finished that my designe of Verses which I had propounded to my self they are upon presumption of your Ladiships favour to goodnesse and your humble servant their Author at your command expect not the strong Master-pieces and quintessentiall lines which these curious times and the refined ambitious Spirits of our age produce in defiance of Critiques my births are naturall easie and hasty sometimes foure peeces to my breakfast in the beginning of a morning I am as impatient as any woman of a long and painfull labour I haste to my journeys end and can as little hope or goe about to remould any of my first births as your Ladiships your children once brought to light I love not Verses of the ragged staffe but wish them fluent and gentle which was wont to be a commendation If my walls want strength to support themselves in their naturall stuffe and scope they shall rather miscarry then borrow the supports of inwrought strange conceits and butteresses of Art if I would undergoe any affectation it should be to deliver over ingenious notions and materiall instructive rationall conceptions with an ingenuous and genuine elegance and some depth of prospective in my termes and expressions according to the capacity and perspicacity of my Reader But I am now too old and serious for Verses and have wholly given them over only these my late peeces I conceived my self to owe to my Maker and I am sorry they were not my first fruite which are more properly his due Autumnall fruits are neither the most pleasant nor wholesome I have in great retirednesse and confusion employed my time of late in the dissection of my self and fortune our observations in the Anatomy of the body grow from the opening of others but of the minde from our selves as the Starres of heaven and Globe of earth they are as yet in great uncertainty and undiscovered some rules we have attained and Eclipses we can foretell but for sound and infallible knowledge and judgement we daily finde our selves as erroneous as our common Almanack-makers whose prognostiques are as ridiculous as false And now finding my selfe in motion betwixt heaven and earth give me leave to impart a contemplation of Characterizing such a perfection as yours in relation to them in comelinesse and beauty like the Heavens in motion regulate in order faire powerfull in influence A well ordered minde resembles the clearenesse serenity peaceablenesse and harmony of the upper Spheres and Crystalline Heaven a faire built body the beautifull variety of the earth delightfull fruitfull well drest and correspondent to the Heavenly motions in season order and constancy yet such little worlds there are which seem to enjoy in some exemptions a priviledge above the lower heavens and the earth for they are free from storms scorchings of heat nippings of frost inundations and other disorders such Comets are sent sometimes to be admired and to awake the dying vertue and reputation of your sex Phidias an